Peapod on Purpose

After ten days in Rome and a short trip to Prague, we journeyed to Wittenberg, Germany to immerse ourselves in one of the pivotal locations of the Protestant Reformation. Last year in school we learned a lot about Martin Luther as we studied the Renaissance. We learned about the invention of the printing press, and how the ability to read the Bible individually brought the church out of the dark ages and back toward its roots. We were all excited to see the church where the legend himself nailed the 95 Theses to the door, the former monastery Luther called home and learn more about what led him to speak out against the practices of the Catholic Church at the time. Through this process, we also learned about the shortcomings of the Reformation (spoiler alert: not a lot of Holy Spirit) and Luther himself. He was just a man, after all. 

The town of Wittenberg was quaint and precious and practically empty (as it tends to be in winter, according to the locals). We loved the pedestrian streets (which the locals ignored and drove down anyways), the cozy yarn shops and the warm cafes. We loved the green spaces and the gurgling creek and the beautifully preserved buildings. 

We only spent three days in this small, out-of-the-way village and one of them was spent traveling to nearby Leipzig to experience the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Don’t hate me for saying this, but my main takeaway from that experience is that… organ music is the absolute worst. No wonder it fell out of fashion. There. I said it. I’m a terrible homeschool mom. 

How did I come to this realization, you ask? Well, we started our day by spending a few hours in an absolutely delightful museum, learning all about the historical instruments of the orchestra during the Baroque period. The museum had several hands-on exhibits and none of us were ready to leave when the time came to cross the square to attend the free weekly concert in Bach’s church. But we stepped out to join the queue, because how could we miss the opportunity to hear music written by Bach himself, in the actual church for which the music was written?

We joined scores of 60+ tour groupies to filter into the huge church and claimed a spot on the second floor with a view of the organ and the choir. The kids were tired of being quiet and containing their energy after 2 days of non-stop education. We had already attended an organ concert just a few days before in a church in Prague, so we knew what we were in for. After 45 minutes of squirming on uncomfortable pews while we craned our necks to see, a pastor dove into a very long and unexpected sermon. In German. Over a loudspeaker. While I appreciate the idea, this was our cue to leave. Let me tell you, none of the elderly Bach enthusiasts around us were sad to see us go. Try sitting next to a group of 11, 9 and 6 year old siblings after 2 days of non-stop museums and you’ll know what I mean.

We decided to head to the train station early, just in time to catch the next train home. Trains to Wittenberg were scheduled every hour, and leaving the concert 15 minutes early meant we could catch an earlier train home and get warm (churches built in the late 1400s didn’t have central heating, go figure). We arrived at the station with a few minutes to spare, only slightly sad that we’d missed the last song. 

The announcement came that our train was pulling in…but it never arrived. Another couple of trains passed by, and ours popped up on the screen again. But never appeared. The app wasn’t updating, and we had no idea what was happening.  After 15-20 minutes, people started leaving the station. But of course we don’t speak German and aren’t familiar with the train system, so we had no idea what was going on. This wasn’t a main station and there was no actual information booth or humans on site to answer questions, but there was one family with small kids who was just a few feet away, who had been waiting for the same train we had. We’d had our eyes on them, and knew that if they still waited, there was hope. According to the ticketing app, there didn’t seem to be another option to reach Wittenberg without purchasing a new (few hundred dollar) ticket with a different train operator. 

Thankfully that family we’d been taking our queues from noticed our plight and offered to help us. They tracked down a conductor, made a plan, and literally escorted us on a new (much longer) route through the countryside right to the very street we were staying on. Boy were we thankful for their help. Especially when the new route had many delays and changes that were announced in German only. 

We got to learn about their culture and lives (mama was just about to finish her second year of maternity leave!!) and are grateful they helped turn a hard situation into a blessing. This was the second German family with young children I’d had the pleasure of spending time chatting with in the past year, and I love their approach to the young childhood years. They thought the idea of spending the first years of their childrens’ life caring for them was the most natural thing, and sending a baby to daycare at 3 months was absolutely absurd. Hear hear.

After Wittenberg we traveled to Augsburg, Germany where we would stay for 10 days over the Thanksgiving holiday. The town is about 45 minutes outside of Munich by train, and ended up being a wonderful stay for us. The apartment was beautiful (the front floor was an old pharmacists office), we were close to the train station, and the old town had a delightful pedestrian zone and Christmas Market. A couple of days in we discovered that we were just a block over from a beautiful river with walking trails along both sides, and less than 10 minutes walk from one of Germany’s exceptional playgrounds. You can probably guess where we spent many of our days. 

Originally, we were planning to roast a chicken for Thanksgiving. That’s the benefit of celebrating without family, there’s no one around to make you stick to old traditions just for the sake of it! I jest. Kind of. When we arrived at the store to do our shopping, they literally only had turkey. So much for that idea…We brined the 5 pound bird, smothered it with butter and enjoyed the heck out of it. We were able to purchase all the fixings we needed for a traditional dinner, and had a quiet meal at home with just us. Pretty much how we eat all our meals these days. 

We also visited some beautiful Bavarian towns in the area, took a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, had a blast in the Deutsches Museum and spent a Sunday morning with Hillsong Munich. The town of Ulm was a highlight for us, with beautiful architecture and a stunning Christmas market at the base of a gothic church. We ate way too much cheese and sugar (a theme for the month), did a little Christmas shopping (Mom – your earrings came from a local woman here!), and walked a whole lot.

Visiting Neuschwanstein was like a fairy tale. The “mad king” Ludwig spent his life building beautiful palaces and in beautiful places rather than politicking or going to war. People thought him insane, but maybe he just saw that beauty was better than fighting? Either way, his creativity made for some beautiful castles. We didn’t go inside the palace because there were no tickets available, but the hike (in below freezing temperatures) to see the outside was good enough for us. The landscape was gorgeous and we were able to take a tour inside a nearby castle to see the traditional architecture and furnishings.  

After lots of castles and historical experiences, we decided to let the kids choose the agenda for a day out in Munich. We showed them some options, and they unanimously chose the Deutsches Museum. We were planning to just spend the morning and leave after lunch, but those plans went quickly out the window when we got sidetracked in the aviation and robotics rooms for hours. We got to learn all about the mechanics of old and new planes from a retired German Army pilot who flew in some of the most dangerous planes ever made. By lunchtime we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what we wanted to see, so we kept telling ourselves “just one more hour” until we finally left in time to catch the train home many, many hours later than we planned. This experience gets two thumbs up from all Pinaults! 

Hillsong Munich was another cool experience. The church meets in a concert venue, and still smelled like the party from the night before. It was in an industrial area of town, and when we walked up to what looked like a massive corrugated pipe a group of people were singing Feliz Navidad. The first “American” – ha – song we’d heard so far. It was our first time listening to simultaneous translation via headphones during a church service, and we quickly learned that we much prefer it when the pastor takes turns with the translator. The worship was amazing, as you’d expect from Hillsong, alternating between songs in English and German. At this point the kids have gotten used to attending random churches where they are thankful if someone there will tell them in English what’s going on. They’re mostly just happy to get away from us and use some scissors. One of the leaders kind of told them what was going on, and we found them lingering at the craft table after service not wanting to leave. 

While in Augsburg, we also made some changes with how we’re schooling the kids while we’re traveling. For the past couple of months, we’d been doing a lot of reading/writing, tons of cultural experiences and some online learning through Khan Academy for the two big kids. Penny had been continuing on with her program from home, but we hadn’t wanted to lug books around for everyone. 

For many reasons we didn’t like how it was working, and we all craved the normalcy of our old school routines. So in Augsburg we had a quarter’s worth of lessons printed, and it turned out to be the best choice. We’re all so happy to be back with the curriculum that we love. And it’s so good for the kids to have to work hard and challenge themselves in the midst of a lot of fun and rest. 

We loved our time in Germany; the people were genuine and kind, the landscape was beautiful, and the transportation was efficient. The country was so kid-friendly, with tons of green space and playgrounds, and children were welcomed everywhere we went. The food was good, but we were all pretty tired of sausages and potatoes by the time we left, and won’t be craving pretzels anytime soon. Would definitely recommend a visit with your family! In summer tho, cause who wants to freeze all the time?