Trips to Remember

For the past year, Steve and I have been debating where to settle and move our family. We explored moving to:

• Other areas in Illinois

• California (both the Bay and Santa Barbara)

• Munich, Germany

• Ann Arbor, Michigan

• Vermont

• The Berkshires in Massachusetts

• Upstate New York

I made pro/con list after pro/con list. I researched schools, grocery stores, hospitals, and airports nearby. I inquired about rental homes and calculated expenses and savings for every option. We dreamed about hiking in the Alps, learning to snowboard, going to UMich football games, enrolling Bub in a Waldorf school surrounded by forest. We took every idea and ran with it to see how far we could take it.

In the meantime, Bub went from being a toddler to becoming a kid with his own opinions, desires, and needs. He solidified his relationships with his grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. He saw himself part of a community…a community I was so desperate to get away from.

Being in Illinois reminds me of a traumatic childhood, of my social anxieties in high school, of my awkwardness. It reminds me of my unfulfilled dreams of becoming a journalist in a big city, of living abroad, of meeting people who would broaden my horizons about the world. There’s so much more I want to do in life and yet, becoming a mom has put almost all of it on hold or moving at a snail’s pace.

Last week, I woke up with an epiphany. Creating distance between Bub and his current community might hinder him more than sending him to a school that uses pesticides, doesn’t serve organic meals, and isn’t in the mountains. I didn’t want him to resent me for moving him across the country to keep him “safe”.

Sure, I’d love to live somewhere with mountains in the backdrop. Yes, I’d love to hike through the forest every day and find a community of moms who prioritized the same things as me. Of course, I wish I was raised elsewhere and my family lived in ritzy New York or tropical Hawaii instead of in-the-middle-of-the-cornfields Illinois.

But, these are the cards I was dealt and I need to make the best of it. And most importantly, I need to do what’s best for my kids.

Steve and our families were ecstatic about my ultimate decision. Steve breathed a sigh of relief and said, “This makes the most sense financially.” My aunt told me, “I knew you’d come around.” My parents responded with, “I told you so.” I was happy our support system was pleased, I guess. We’ll need their help in August when Baby #2 arrives. I mean, what was I going to do in a new state and town when she arrives and we need someone to watch Bub? Do I deliver on my own while Steve watches Bub? Does Bub hang out in the delivery room with us? Do we pray the delivery is short and during Bub’s school hours? Asking a relative to fly to our new home at the drop of a hat seemed like a tall order.

The one thing I hadn’t figured out was what to do with my feelings of settling. Soon after I made my decision, I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic and feeling restless. I needed to get out of Illinois, out of this house, out of the routine of being a mom, even for just a day. I needed to be reminded of how nice home is. I needed to miss it. Steve encouraged me to book a trip somewhere and he encouraged me to do it whenever I was feeling this way. It could be as small as a staycation by myself or as big as a trip to New Zealand. By allowing them/us to stay in Illinois with a support system, I could leave as often as I’d like and go wherever my heart desired (budget depending). This was our compromise, our solution to settling. Go on trips to remember how good I have it at home.

Neuschwanstein Castle

On our third day in Germany, we set our alarms for 6 am to get to Neuschwanstein Castle bright and early (well, rainy and early in our case). It's only a 90 minute drive from Munich, but we read that tickets to tour the inside of the castle were only available at the ticket booth the day of. The ticket booth opened at 8 am and when we arrived at 8:30, there was already an hour-long line to purchase tickets.

We ended up buying tickets to see both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles since they were only a 15 minute walk from each other.

Lessons Learned

We learned that the walk up the hill to Neuschwanstein Castle is actually pretty steep. I was only slightly embarrassed by the older women walking up the hill faster than me. I clearly need to do more cardio.

Sometimes the scenery outside the castle is more interesting than what's inside. It was neat walking through the different rooms of both castles and learning about King Ludwig II (that dude was crazy but also very much ahead of his time). But, the tours were each only 30 minutes long and we saw just a fraction of the castles. We spent more time waiting in line for the tickets and tours than actually being on the tours themselves. Instead, one of my favorite memories was walking across Marienbrucke (Queen Mary's Bridge). The wooden footbridge crosses a gorge behind Neuschwanstein Castle, and the view of the castle from the bridge was even better than the view closeup. It looked straight out of a fairytale book.

I remember nervously stepping onto the wooden planks of the bridge. It was drizzling and I didn't want to slip and fall to a grisly death. Some of the planks would teeter slightly as I stepped on them. As I slowly inched my way across the bridge, I called out to Steve, who was way ahead of me. A German man turned to me and said, "Don't worry. This is German engineering. The best in the world." We all had a good laugh, and his words helped me pick up my pace.

I did ask our guide one question while touring Hohenschwangau Castle. I asked if the castles were greatly damaged during WWII. He said no because Germany didn't really get attacked until the end of WWII. I so badly wanted to ask him a million more questions about Germany's history and his perspective on the world wars, but I politely refrained.

Hotel Müller had a killer breakfast buffet while we waited for the Neuschwanstein tour to start. And, the bathrooms were super nice (equally important).

Taj Mahal

After standing in the rain all day, we got back to Munich and craved something warm and comforting to eat. We had walked by the Taj Mahal a couple of times already since it was near our Airbnb, but I kept telling Steve that we didn't travel all this way to eat Indian food we could get in Chicago. Boy, was I wrong. I'm so glad Steve convinced me to try this place.

Because we were famished, we naturally ordered the special menu, which was essentially a sample of everything. We ended up eating ALL of it. Thank goodness calories on vacation don't count. 

Nuremberg

It's amazing how 12 hours of sleep can make you feel like a brand new person. After not getting any sleep the night before we arrived in Munich, 12 hours was much needed. No more cranky Linda (much to the delight of Steve, I'm sure).

Because we slept in, we were too late to make a trip to Salzburg or Neuschwanstein, so we decided to visit Nuremberg. It was only a 90 minute drive from Munich. A word of advice, Nuremberg can show up on the GPS in many ways: Nuremberg, Nürnberg, Nueremberg, and Nüremberg).

We had zero expectations about what Nuremberg would be like. I think because of that we found the city much more enjoyable than Munich (the 12 hours of sleep probably helped too).

Before visiting, I only knew of Nuremberg from learning about the Nuremberg trials that took place there between 1945 and 1946. Nuremberg itself is a beautiful, quaint city that really displays the best of Bavarian culture, something I didn't see too much of in Munich. The vibe was super chill, a nice change from the crowds and commercial stores in bigger cities.

The city center was fun to explore. It was bustling with tourists. There was a little market and a music stage. Hovering over all this was St. Lorenz Church, which was originally built in 1477. Fun fact: constructing the church first began in 1270 and took over 200 years to complete. We just don't have history like this in the US!

restauration kopernikus

We loved this Polish restaurant so much that we ate there for lunch and dinner. We ordered the bigos (cabbage stew with sausage), the piroggen (pierogi), the fränkischer schweinebraten (baked pork and a side of dumpling), and the pfannenschnitzel (schnitzel). The portion sizes were on point.

Munich

Munich is only a 2.5 hour flight from Dublin, but we made the mistake of taking an early morning flight. This meant we only caught a few hours of sleep in our Dublin hotel before dragging ourselves to the airport.

I was a grumpy cat for the rest of the day. Steve can attest to this. After an afternoon of being very cranky and wandering around Munich, I ended up giving in to my exhaustion and taking a long nap on a bench in Englischer Garten.

Note to self: when tired and traveling, always make time for a nap. It'll make the rest of the day much more pleasant.

THE NICEST CAR WE'LL EVER DRIVE

Steve made it a goal to tell as many people on our trip as possible that we were on our honeymoon. And I must say, it often worked in our favor.

"You're on your honeymoon?" said the gentleman at the front desk of the car rental service at the Munich airport. "You can't drive a Volkswagen on your honeymoon. I'm giving you a brand new Mercedes, fresh off the factory floor. It only has 13 km on it."

Stuff like this never happens to us. We're not the types who win lotteries, run into celebrities, or get upgrades. But, maybe we are now...

the Architecture

We should have enjoyed our first day in Munich more because little did we know that it would rain for the rest of our visit. In the sun, the colors of the city popped unlike any city I've been in. Red flowers on the windowsill, the golden walls of the Theatine Church, the bright green trees in the gardens. Every scene could have been straight from a painting.

The architecture in the city was simply stunning. Everywhere I turned, there were monstrous, gothic-style buildings and some that reminded me of the baroque style of Versailles. We learned that the city was heavily bombed during WWII. Up to 80% of the historic buildings were destroyed and much of what we saw was rebuilt after the war.

The food

Beer, bread, schnitzels, and strudels.

One of the neat things about Munich is that most restaurants have a beer garden or outdoor seating of some sort. We had lunch at the Park Cafe, where Steve ordered a delicious plate of pork schnitzel - lightly breaded and thinly sliced. It came with a side of lingonberry sauce and creamy dill potatoes. 

I once read in a magazine that the average German consumes over 3,500 calories a day. This doesn't surprise me considering the amount of bread and dairy and sugar I consumed during my stay. No regrets though. Everything I ate was delicious.

One last thing...

My favorite photo of Steve.