I had heard rumors of a cool park in a village not far from ours, but I could never find it. A friend invited us to go one day and I still had trouble finding it from the parking lot. It is on a trail off of one of our favorite restaurants. It really is a cool park, but unfortunately, it will no longer be a ten minute drive for us starting tomorrow because of one word...
In the summer in Germany, this word has come to be the bane of my existence. I loathe it. It means "detour," which seems harmless enough to an American. In Germany, there are no easy or short detours. The roads are few and winding. A detour means anywhere from 5-20 minutes added on to your drive. If you unfortunate enough to live near a big Umleitung, then it means you know it's coming usually, but all of your drives then have been upped by some extra amount of time because there are usually only one way to get out of your village to the rest of the world. If you are unfortunate enough to be in uncharted territory and following Google Maps when an Umleitung pops up, you are now between 5 and 20 minutes late. That is best case scenario, if you can follow all the signs that guide you way around the Umleitung. So, basically you are unfortunate if you drive in Germany in the summer because they are everywhere! the weather is too cold to do most of the major road work in the winter, so it is between May and October that the bulk of it gets going.
So a big Umleitung is shutting down the road right at the intersection where we decide if we are going one way towards Sunday Mass, the doctor, basketball practice, the commissary, homechool gym, the German grocery store that we go to, the car shop, Brian's lab or the other way towards the library, the parks, several friends' houses, daily Mass, our co-op etc. Closed, for real. Nothing getting passed. You have to go all the way through four other villages to get around it in either direction. I haven't driven it yet, but it's going to be quite the increase in time and gas for our van. The only thing that we can get to without detouring starting tomorrow (minimum, for the next three months!!!!) is the kindergarten and one friend's house. After the intersection is fixed, they plan to fix sections of the road and keep one lane open with a traffic light for the next two years. That's when we are scheduled to move, folks. I am not happy about this, but I am going to do my best to enjoy the beautiful scenery on my extra long drive and try to look on the bright side; hopefully, setting a good example for my glass half empty preteen.
Back to the park, poor Isaac didn't get to enjoy it as much because he isn't supposed to run or have any kind of boy fun right now. Plus, there is a shallow pond (with lily pads) and a splash pad area too, and he can't get his cast wet. There's even a zip line which all four of my oldest my kids love. There's sand and climbing walls, and even exercise machines for the parents. I so wish I'd found this sooner.
Notice all my pictures are of the littlest guys. That is due to the fact that I can't keep up with the bigger ones while watching the littles. Isaac went off wandering in the paths around the park. Genna was wading in the pond. I did get a video of Drew zip lining though.
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