Ritter Sport and More

Wednesday we had reservations for the kids to attend a Schoko Werkstatt and make a couple more custom Ritter Sport bars. We drove up to Waldenbuch to their quadratisch, practisch museum.

Joss and Rob and I shopped and walked around the grounds while the other three did their thing:

There they are in their lab coats learning the secrets.

"So this is where the magic happens," Rob said. "I'm going to snap a picture of the Oompa Loompas coming in off their smoking break."

At the end we got some pictures of them creating their own wrappers.

They did some funky stuff with dark, white and milk chocolate and then got whatever mix-ins they wanted. Maddie loved the plastic sealing machine.

Then Rob and I got a glimpse of the town as we were driving out and we stole 10 minutes of date time to go check it out.

This is the equivalent of the bishop's storehouse where all of the tithed goods would have been kept.

"Fremdenzimmer" is an old way of saying 'rooms for rent' and that is part of the hunting schloss and church behind.

Right on the market square

Then we went home for lunch in the backyard and Joss' nap. The kids got a chance to go play in the Steinlach again.

Will liked riding over the waterfall

Even Joss got in 20 minutes of play time

It had been a few days since we'd had good weather and calm water.

Then we were off to pick up Daniela for dinner. She was taking us someplace typically Tübingen, but we parked a ways back. A long, long way. We walked from town through most of a suburb and then off into the hinterlands and the boys were dragging (Sebi) and complaining (Will) and getting a ride on our shoulders (Fluff). Joss' latest thing is to pull out our hairs or even bite our hair while he's sitting up there. Lovely.

But it was lovely once we reached our destination. Weather and temperature were absolutely perfect. View was awesome.

I gave Daniela the quilt I'd made for her. I got the binding done while we were in Berlin and it has made it through the whole trip in a garbage sack waiting for this moment. She was overwhelmed. I was relieved. Now we have room to take home the chocolate we bought!

Schaufele (?) a typically Swabian dish.

A maultasche -- big ole' sausage & spinach ravioli like thing served in broth here. They also slice them up and scramble them with eggs. Sounds weird but it was really good.

It was gorgeous and everyone stuffed themselves.

There were geese on the farm and I had just finished Goose Chase that day. The kids had a good time visiting them. And a family of peacocks.

The view at sunset, and also the road we usually end up taking on our trips.

Thank you Daniela for such a memorable meal!