I’ve had a love affair with all things Bavarian since I was a little girl and we used to go their on family holidays all the time. There is a beautiful place called St Wolfgang which I think might be one of the most lovely places in the world. Only Greece beats it in terms of beauty for me. So obviously a day trip to Germany was important for us and for a change I didn’t have to google anything because I knew exactly how I wanted the day to look!
Breakfast
It was all about the ham and cheese! Plus some fruit so we didn’t get scurvy. If I had been more authentic I would have found some rye bread for but for the sake of small children I stuck to brown!
Neither child liked the smoked cheese but both were obsessed with the ham. Lidl and Aldi were absolutely ace for Germany day and we got some really yummy chocolate biscuits for snacks. In fact there were so many options available to us that we barely scratched the surface. It’s definitely one of the most fun days to shop for.
We watched
Look… I know The Sound of Music is Austrian. (I know because when I was in my 20’s I went to Salzburg – where it was filmed – with my friend and toured the film sites and went to a show where they played all the music.) I know but I don’t care and there are (some) Germans in it! Another option, I guess, would be Rapunzel and then there are about a billion movies for grownups… Although I’m not sure all of them are embracing German Culture.
Lunch
We went to the Bierkeller in Liverpool https://thebierkeller.com/on the bus (which was very un-Germanly late and got caught in roadworks). The kids love a bus ride and actually it takes the same time as getting the train and leaves from right outside our door. Despite it’s lateness it was fun.
It was only as we got on the bus in our matching German style knitwear that I realised we looked a little odd. The bus literally went silent and the bus driver looked quite concerned. At best we looked home-schooled, at worst we looked like actual right wing nutters. I explained to the bus what we were doing and I’m reasonably sure there was a collective sigh of relief… Or they still thought we were nutters.
The restaurant had a pretty decent German meat platter for the Kiwi and I. Penny had Schnitzel which she loved and Freddie ate a very large sausage. Four thumbs way up for the food and they even had sauerkraut.
The Bierkeller is a restaurant by day but a party bar at night – I think if you were taking the round the world business very seriously they have some German themed entertainment at times. The decor was rather disappointingly bland but the beer was very nice and there was lots of room to dance for the small people.
The Adventure
It’s rather tough to find a mountain near us as we live on the very very flat Lancashire plains. Wales was an option, but our nearest ‘mountain’ with a view was Parbold Hill. So to Parbold we went in our matching knitwear (a little upset my mum had failed to knit jumpers for the boys) and listened to the Sound of Music sound track as we spun on the mountain.
It was genuinely very refreshing to dance on a mountain. I know all the words to doe a dear – of course I do. Next time I want the Kiwi to bring his guitar and treat us all to a rendition of Edleweiss (I might have a little thing for Captain Von-Trapp). There is also an ice-cream van on the hill as it was a sunny day and there is also a really brilliant Miller and Carter restaurant there if you were feeling like (another) meaty treat.
Dinner
More sausage and ham and cheese! This time we had hot-dogs using frankfurters (of course) – makes me wonder what vegetarian Germans eat.
Next time
I would like to make puppets for a lonely goat herd style puppet show. Wooden puppets are obviously the most German, and you would use wooden clothes pegs to make them nice and easy to create with little people.
I would also like to make (and eat) Kaiserschmarrn
The Kiwi is very good at making this and its delicious. I’ve just noticed though as I googled the recipe that it is also from Austria. Obviously I don’t know Germany as well as I thought… maybe we should go to Austria next time!