The Events of Friday, July 15, 2011     

                The peaceful tweeting of the birds came through my car window. Sighing contentedly, I looked across the Ammersee, or Ammer Lake. I saw gulls flying high above in the bright blue sky and ducks waddling around a couple of German kids feeding them pretzels. We were waiting for Ben and Dad to come back from investigating a boat rental shop. Soon they came back, and we all climbed out of the car to embark on a very interesting adventure.

                The cheery German man renting us our boat smiled a nice big smile when he saw the whole family there. He loaded us on a large rowboat, bid us a “Gute Fahrt!” and pushed us away. In German, “gute” means good, and “fahrt” means journey. So he wished us a good journey, not bidding us a good fart. Still kids at heart though, we laughed about this saying once we were out on the rocking lake. Ben and Dad started rowing, but soon it came time for the first rotation. I had never rowed before, so getting started was a bit of trouble, especially when Lindsey, who also had never rowed before, joined me. We were halfway through our rental time, and basically still in the same spot Lindsey and I started rowing. Nevertheless, it was great to be out on the lake, with the mountains all around, dodging sailboats and chasing ducks. During our time we rotated frequently and tried a variety of rowing pairs. Only Mommy declined to have a turn. There was a nice breeze that made the lake pretty choppy, and we had a couple of freaky moments. One time a wave hit us sideways and we swayed for a moment, all of the passengers hanging on to the side, while the rowers frantically tried to turn the boat towards the wave, and then we all laughed at our silliness. Heading back, Ben and I soon got the hang of rowing, and we arrived too early, so we took another spin. This time Dad and Lindsey rowed. They took us around the sailboats and then back to our boat dock.

                Once we returned our boat, half of us grabbed the lunch from the car, while the rest of us claimed some benches overlooking the lake. Halfway through lunch, a bunch of ducks joined us, feeding on bits of pretzels and pieces of apple core Lindsey and I tossed them. For dessert, we finished a bag of cookies with lots of crumbs on the bottom of the bag. Dad dumped the crumbs on the plate and put it on the ground and the ducks soon started to eat off the plates!

                We headed back to the car and drove to Herrsching, on the shores of Stamberger See, or Stamberger Lake. Basically, today was the day for lakes. This lake is where they had found the bodies of “Mad” King Ludwig II and the doctor that declared him mad. They both died under mysterious circumstances. We weren’t going to boat on this lake though; we were here to swim – just like Mad King Ludwig! The weird thing was that Lindsey and I hadn’t swum in forever, so it took a little getting used to. It wasn’t that warm out, nor was the water like a spa. Ben swam for a little bit, but then climbed out and skipped rocks, while Mom napped back in the car. Caitlin dipped her toes in because she was too cold to do anything else. Daddy watched us and enjoyed the nature. But soon Lindsey and I got so cold that we climbed out and then we drove home.

                Once home, we sent Dad and Ben shopping while the rest of us started packing for our drive tomorrow. Lindsey and I both took really warm showers and then each drank two cups of tea to warm us up. Soon the shoppers were home again, with two XXL wiener schnitzels and chicken. The problem was that the chicken was frozen and would take an hour to cook, and it was already pretty late. So we cooked the chicken to use another night and cooked up the wiener schnitzels for tonight. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of schnitzel, yam, fresh buns, and kartoffelsalat (potato salad). I love kartoffelsalat! After dinner, we packed some more and then went to bed.