Vacation Part 1: Weekend with the Meier Family

After a warm early afternoon drive of high speeds and traffic jams on the autobahn, we arrived safely to the Meier home. Inge and Werner,  Eric's mother's cousins, and their family, Carsten, Christiane, and Jonas, were happy we could spend time with them again during our stay here in Germany. They loved seeing how big Adeline has gotten and meeting Emmie. The kids immediately connected and started playing with one another.


On Friday, our families ventured to Minden. The town created a water bridge canal and a set of locks to keep the boats continuing on their route, respectively. The water bridge is at an intersection of two major river routes and is an actual bridge filled with water going over the the river, allowing the boats going each way to not collide.  Click here to see pictures of the waterstreet (it is only in German) Click here to see pictures of the locks Our  plan was take an afternoon boat ride through a set of locks and along the water bridge canal after our picnic lunch.

After our lunch and anxiously waiting at the boat terminal for our 3pm tour, we were notified at 2:20pm by the captain, a train carrying oil had gotten into an accident and was leaking oil on the tracks which was then flowing into the water. Therefore, the locks would be temporarily closed for safety reasons. At 3pm, another crew member informed us they did not know how long the locks would be closed, so the cruise was canceled.

To make up for no boat cruise, we took the kids to Salz und Zuckerland. We visited here before to watch them make their own candy when Adeline was just starting to understand the taste of lollipops. Eric and the girls had fun picking out their own hard candy and lollipops which had been made in the little candy shop. There were many flavors to choose from, including Black Forest, which tasted just like the cake. With the kids enjoying their candy, we enjoyed some afternoon beverages in the biergarten before heading back to their house for a barbecue.