Shopping, Hiking, and Festivals
We left Paris and our little five-flight walk-up apartment to catch the ICE to our German destination. Traffic defied my expectations of a 45 minute commute to the train station. We arrived in front of Paris Ost about 15 minutes before departure, removing any chance of last-minute espressos or postcards. We stumbled through the turnstile with several minutes to spare and quickly found our reserved seating (necessary for international ICE trips). The trip went smoothly with the kids enjoying the ICE Kinderfahrkarten, where they received a toy, magazine, and game of Mau Mau (Uno) during the trip.
Once in Karlsruhe, we discovered the trains had stopped due to work on the power lines. So stumbling among the busses, we found the one to Pforzheim. We arrived at the Hauptbahnhof (ZOZ), and schlepped our suitcases and carseats up the road to our apartment. The apartment opened to high ceilings, much natural light, and three bedrooms with an oversized master, but we struggled a bit with six people contesting for a single bathroom. We worked it out, but we definitely became closer as a family.
We also managed to get a library card! The kids were over the moon when the librarian handed it over. We had to work out an exception given we didn’t have any identification with a local address. I chose A5 as the name on the card, only later to find this was a mistake as there are laws regulating the ages to check out certain materials, limiting our video game options.
During our first week, we explored near our place, shopped for some needed items and clothing, ventured into the Black Forest to hike some ruins, played at many playgrounds, and visited Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart (a competitor to Octoberfest).
We found Autumn and Halloween festivities in full swing. We enjoyed giveaways, kid activities, music, and the Acrobot at the Karlsruhe City Festival. Locally, we explored the annual Antique Market, where we were expecting to only see antiques. Instead, we also found pumpkin carving and hay stacks. We also visited the largest collection of pumpkin sculptures at the Kürbisausstellung at the Ludwigsburg Residential Palace, where we stumbled into the Fairy-Tale Garden.
Our next week was spent ice skating and walking locally, enjoying visitors, and exploring with a rental car. Cici visited us first with a trip to Treetop Walk (and slide) and Adventure Forest in the Black Forest. K and Cici then went out for a city music festival that lasted until 2am; when K woke up she was already 7k steps into her next day’s goal. The highlight of her night was dancing to the YMCA. On Sunday we visited the Stuttgart Zoo with a dinner at Busch Pilot, where the younger two and me went back to Pforzheim while the older two, Mom, and Cici enjoyed a spa evening at the hotel near the airport.
Kiki visited next, with a whirlwind tour of Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, and Schloss Hohenzollern. We rode three different funiculars between Bad Wildbald, Baden-Baden, and Heidelberg (Baden-Baden was our favorite with the views and the self-service button). We loved walking the streets of Heidelberg and the views from the Philosopher’s walk, despite the rain. Baden-Baden turned out to be one of the prettiest towns we’ve randomly stumbled upon, with a beautiful creek and park down the center and roman ruins.
Even after our visitors, we continued to explore what we could before ending our time in Germany. We ate in a brasserie, rode a small street train, and toured a majestic yet lopsided cathedral in Strasbourg, FR. We explored the streets, jumped over Bächle, and explored a cathedral in Freiburg im Breisgau. We hiked around the Geroldsau Wasserfall, a beautiful circuit around a waterfall, across a confluence of creeks, and then through autumn leaves. We saw strange oreo goats and learned about the wine column at the Maulbronn Monastery. We returned to the Pforzheim Wildpark where J and the older two went to the climbing park, a self-guided gargantuan rope course with scattered challenges and multiple belays and zip lines. Meanwhile, K fed more animals with the younger two and got to witness a baby goat be bottle fed.
The end of our trip was focused on Halloween. We scoured the town for the perfect, yet travel-friendly or disposable costumes. Over a few days we found the perfect costume for each kid, but continued to struggle with what to do for trick-or-treating. During this time we also visited the Charles Knie Circus where we watched human feats that shouldn’t be possible, competing with Cirque du Soleil. On Halloween, we returned to Karlsruhe to do some Halloween-related activities and ride the spooky park train in the palace gardens. During this ride we discovered a playground out of a child’s dream that we had to visit. Once home, we went to the streets and began following and asking folks who were clearly out for treats how it worked among the apartment buildings. We found you randomly ring apartments and if someone lets you in, then you progress to each door to say “Süsses oder Saueres”. It wasn’t our largest Halloween haul, but it was certainly fun and an experience.
We had a few days after Halloween to close everything out. We enjoyed a alpaca walk through the Black Forest with Buckenberg Farm Alpacas. We were pleasantly surprised to also spend time with bunnies. We explored the Mercedes Benz Museum, where the kids also created lanterns that we carried through a dark rainy night home. And we finally enjoyed the Amazonia exhibit at the local Gasometer.
Importantly, we celebrated one kid’s birthday. She enjoyed some special time with mom and birthday gifts. We all enjoyed an outing to Mauritius Restaurant Pforzheim (a foreboding for a future stop) and some ice cream cake from REWE.
We spent our last day transiting to the Stuttgart airport. Our trip to the airport was smooth despite needing a transfer in Stuttgart HBF (usually a nightmare). We were really excited for all the fun to be had at the Stuttgart airport only to find all the fun for kids was closed or outside security. Our kids really struggled with the lack of lounge access but were overall champs with the long day. As we passed through the secondary passport checks, we got ready for our next stop: Istanbul.
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