Graduation Day!

I don't like an elaborate graduation ceremony for little kids.  Not only is it really honestly pointless, but the little kids suffer from boredom.  But William's preschool did a graduation for the kids and not only was it short and sweet, but since I didn't have a younger child to keep in check, it was enjoyable!!  There's a lot of sad things about the last kid and then there's a lot of great things too!

The Pledge of Allegiance

He was in the seats facing the sun so he was pretty squinty but so cute in the cap and gown!!  They even had little tassels that said 2017 that they got to keep.  William asked me what we do with that?  I told him I don't know.

Receiving his "diploma".  But his teachers are smart -- it's just a rolled up piece of paper.  They gave us the actual "official" certificate later so it wouldn't get destroyed by sword fighting and hitting each other.

 They sang a little song about being ready for kindergarten and that was it!  Then it was time for pictures and back to the playground for playing and lunch to celebrate!

William and his fabulous teachers Ms. Rebecca and Mr. Will.  Ms. Rebecca has been there all year but they had another teacher who moved back to the states around Thanksgiving and they got Mr. Will.  This man has been awesome for William!  I think he's been a great influence and help in his behavior and helping him to love preschool.  

 

I think there's a picture of he and I together somewhere but maybe it's on my mom's phone.  I was there I promise!  Chopper wasn't though -- still in Miami.

At our American/Bavarian celebration!

We've had a lot of ups and downs with preschool.  It's been really good for him but he hasn't really wanted to go every day and has a hard time transitioning a lot.  The past few months I've stayed through the first few minutes of doing his name writing to help him transition.  But I'm happy to say that now he has friends and even after our two week hiatus while the family was here he was happy to go back to school and has done well.  He still throws a crying fit when he doesn't get what he wants but he mostly has good days.  Also, speech therapy has done really good for him as well.  Big improvement: he's finally saying his C's!  Cookie is no longer hookie and car is no longer har!  I think that having the routine and activity every day regularly has done a lot towards preparing him for kindergarten.  Today I told him when we left that it was his last day and now he would be going to kindergarten you could see the pull on his face between being excited about riding the bus and going to Abby and Megan's school and not being back at preschool.  We'll see what the fall brings but he's done with preschool and ready to be the class of 2030!!

Flossenburg

After Salzburg we had about a week where Chopper was gone to Miami for training.  Mom and I decided to stay close for the most part and so we went shopping in Amberg and crystal shopping at the Nachmann outlet not far from here (pretty stuff!!!).  There were also things going on with the school year winding down that needed to be taken care of.  But Thursday we took a day and drove to Flossenburg.  Flossenburg is about an hour from us right on the Czech border.  It's a town where there was a concentration camp during WWII and that camp - or what remains of it - is now a memorial.

You start at the building that was the camp headquarters.  That and several other buildings are still standing.  The town itself now has houses on former camp grounds.  After the war, many of the buildings were demolished and housing and businesses were built on the spot.  In later years it was decided that there should be a memorial there and so the businesses were all torn down and there was an excavation of sorts for the roll call grounds and some other areas.  The buildings that are originals now house exhibitions on various things related to the camp including who was imprisoned (about 100,000 people overall -- most were not Jews), what they did (mainly it was a work camp of forced labor for the granite quarries and then armaments production), what life was like of course and then really interesting exhibits on guards, etc. and what happened to them and how the memorial came to be in the aftermath of the war.

The site of the camp gates with roll call grounds behind, camp laundry and sanitation on the right and kitchen on the left -- both original buildings.

These two maps were horrible.  The first shows Flossenburg and the subcamps that were developed.  I'm not entirely sure how a camp was a subcamp for another although prisoners would be shifted between them to a certain degree.  What gets me is the number of camps that there are.  

This one shows all the camps in Germany and surrounding countries that were taken over - Czech and Poland most notably.  Again, the dots are color-coded to major camps (Dachau, Auswitch, etc.) and their subcamps.  Again the number of camps is staggeringly terrible.  

Behind the roll call grounds and buildings there was a paved path that led to more of the camp that included the crematorium (in this case used just for cremation of the dead), interrogation rooms, and memorials by the countries that had prisoners who died here.  Also, the mound in the center is a mixture of ashes and dirt (for stability I'm sure).

Looking down the hill at the crematorium.

This plaque was on the wall of the interrogation section.  Dietrich Bonhofer was a pastor at the time who stood up for right and condemned what was happening.  He was executed at Flossenburg.  My mom read a book about him that she really liked and I think I need to pick it up now.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I have mixed feelings about this.  My mom and I had to take William with us and he didn't absorb anything.  The displays were not gory or even graphic and they did have portions with video accounts of survivors and audio accounts as well but he didn't pay attention to those.  Despite that, I don't think that Megan and Abby would be ready for something like this.  We plan to take them either here or another camp before we leave Europe because I think it's a valuable experience.  I thoroughly enjoy history but I tend to avoid things that are controversial or depressing.  The people I interact with everyday are kind and helpful and funny and good.  I have no doubt that so many people during the war were as well but it is also disturbing how many people were involved in the perpetuation of these camps and subcamps, who utilized the labor, or who simply looked the other way.  The thing is that there is no way to know a person's heart.  Did they keep their head down to survive?  Were they indoctrinated by the rhetoric of the time?  Why did this happen and how?  I am grateful that I am not in any way, shape, or form responsible for deciding.  And I think as a nation that things have come a long way.  I think it's important to keep remembrances of these things alive but that's difficult to do as the last of those who were alive at the time are dying.  And unfortunately I see so much hate in the world around us and it scares me what hate and power can do.  This is an example of that.

Chopper likes WWII history a lot more than I do and I know that we plan to visit other sites while we're here.  I love seeing history first-hand.  I hate the way it makes me feel sometimes.  

The Hills Are Alive!

I wonder how many people use that as a blog post title after they go to Salzburg for The Sound of Music?  Probably a lot.  Oh well.

Also, I realized that since I'm blogging late, I should probably be dating my entries because it doesn't quite match up.

Ok so after Dad and Jeff left, we took a break.  And we needed it!  The kids are still in school and the laundry needed to be washed and the house to be cleaned.  Everyday life does NOT take a vacation!  When my dad was here, we did things that he hadn't seen before.  He served his mission in Germany 40 years ago and even though I'm sure it's changed by now I can understand wanting to explore new and different places.  But my mom has never been to Europe before and there were a few places she wanted to go to.  One of those was Salzburg.  Now I may have nudged the idea along when a friend told me about the Sound of Music bike tour that they took in Salzburg!  But mom didn't protest!  The problem was that I hadn't been there before and it's a big enough city that I didn't want to go alone with her.  And 3 kids who don't ride bikes is a lot to haul so I talked Chopper into it as well.  

Friday, June 2 when he got home from work we got in the car and drove the 3.5 hours there.  We stayed in a hotel in Berchtesgaden that had the most beautiful setting!  I picked up a lot of information about the area there as well and it's somewhere that we definitely need to go back to at a future date.  One day just doesn't do it justice - but it was an absolutely beautiful day!

It was rainy the night we came in but we walked down to see the river but not quite to the lake.  Then we all crossed our fingers and said a prayer that it wouldn't rain on us on the bike tour the next day!

Hooray!  Our day dawned sunny!!  (Honestly, by the end of the bike tour I would have welcomed a little rain!)  We drove into Salzburg and parked.  The bike tour meets at Mirabell gardens and we had reserved a bike with a tag-along trailer and one with a regular trailer.  We reserved 2 tag-alongs but they decided to put William and Abby in the trailer together and there were tears shed over that.  We made Megan and Abby switch for a bit but Megan is honestly too big for a trailer and so she rode with me most of the way and loved it.  I really want to get bikes for our family because our area has so many safe trails to ride and it would be good for us!

I'm really proud of Chopper.  A bike tour was not his first choice but I thought it looked better than a bus tour and would be more fun for the kids.  And I had read online that it was ok if you aren't in good shape.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  Ok it's ok if you're not in good shape but if you're not in good shape and you're pulling an extra 150 lbs?  Not fun.  Chopper didn't complain and he had the hardest job of any of us.  Also, the bikes are beach cruiser types - heavy and awkward.  I had a hard time getting going with Megan and we nearly crashed once.  Plus cobblestones.  Oh man biking can be rough on cobblestones!  I'm not giving it a very good review am I?  It was awesome, we just should have been better prepared physically I think.  Or had kids who could ride on their own!

Our first view as we crossed the Salzach river.  That's the Hohensalzburg Fortress on the right.  One of the churches on the left.  Salzburg has 49!

Our first stop was this horse and carriage bath -- you drive through to clean the wheels of the carriage and it's built into the side of the cliff like many things are.

We sang a little bit here.  Most people on the tour were not as enthusiastic as we were!

Then we went into a courtyard where the building is that the Von Trapp family sings their final songs for the Austrain festival. We couldn't go in to see the concert hall but on the outside is this cool stone organ.  It doesn't work but it's neat to look at.  But while we were there learning about SoM, multiple church bells started pealing.  It was beautiful!!  Turns out that the Saturday we were there was a holiday.  Our guide didn't know what the holiday was but we were able to see some amazing things because of it.

We then rode out to the Residenzplatz where the horse fountain is that Maria splashes in on her way to the Von Trapp's.  This square has some great buildings that we didn't look inside but while we were there a parade went through!  It was all Austrians in traditional dress with a band and these guys on horses that did this whip cracking thing that was so loud!  I thought at first they were guns.

My splash in the fountain was not very successful.  It's too tall and I had to kind've jump and splash at the same time!  Turns out Julie Andrews stood on a box to reach in and splash!

The procession

I can't find my videos of the whip cracking!  I posted them to Facebook though and I won't be able to print them in the book so I guess I won't stress about it!

There was going to be dancing but we had to continue with the tour

I didn't hear what this is with all the noise of the procession except that they have a confection that is special to Salzburg that is a ball that I think this is modeled after although apparently you want the ones in blue and silver paper, not gold.

 Back on the bikes we went up a steep hill (we walked) but were rewarded with fantastic city views.

At the top was the convent or nunnery!  This is where the real Maria was going to take her vows and also where she was married to Captain Von Trapp.  It's the only wedding that has ever happened here.  It's not where the wedding scene was filmed though - that church (despite there being 49 in Salzburg) is about 40 minutes away.

This is the gate that the children come to to ask for Maria to come back.  And the door that she comes out of.  As in -- they really filmed here!  In fact, in order to get some of the shots, they had to cut out a bar on the gate and then sodder it back in later.

It was an absolutely beautiful building and still is a working nunnery.  Most of the nuns are cloistered - they don't go out in public - but have a few that do.  But the church and surrounding garden/cemetery are open to the public.

 Abby is posing here.

Isn't this a magnificent building?

Then it was down the hill (that was really fun!) and out into the countryside where it was nice and flat!

Two houses were used in the filming of the outside of the Von Trapp home.  This one is the back of the home where the kids fall in the lake as they're coming home.

This one is the front where Maria arrives at the Von Trapp house.  It's student housing for music students now.

Our guide singing "I Have Confidence" -- he was a good guide but he kind've messed up on some of the words.  (Insert eyeroll here)

 Then back through the countryside to a park where they have the gazebo.

This is sort've the gazebo.  It's the one they originally built but they had to build a second because this one was too small for the dance scenes between Liesl and Rolf.

Then it was back to the Mirabell gardens!  There's a lot of fun history here but yes, it's also where the singing through the covered archway and the steps scene is.

And that was it!!!  After our 3.5 hour tour we desperately needed food and drink so that was next.

Then we went back to Mirabell gardens to explore more.  These gardens were laid out for an arch-bishop and his mistress (well lover I guess since he couldn't marry) and have a lot of interesting statues including this one of a bird woman that Megan was fascinated with.

The best we could do!

We walked back along the river where a crafter's market was going on and bought a few things and let the kids play at a park for being so good.  Then we had to leave so we could get home at a decent house and Chopper could fly to Miami the next day!

One last view over the river!

Hmmm I guess I don't have pictures but Salzburg had one last musical surprise for us before we left.  We stopped in at a church where we were parked because we heard organ music.  There wasn't anything going on, just someone playing the organ.  We sat and listened to that glorious music for about 15 minutes until the player was done and then got on our way.  Salzburg is known to be a musical city (oh yeah it's also the home of Mozart!) and it was particularly good to us in the short time we had.

We drove by this on our way out!  Nothing like mixing old and new!

I would totally do all of that over again.  Although when I read my tour guide about Salzburg I realize how much we missed!!  It's on my list of places that I would really REALLY like to go back to.  Sometimes though we have to weigh that list against things that we haven't seen yet!  What a wonderful problem to have!!!!