Shenanigans Crossing Borders

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  • Tschuss et Bonjour! (03/02/26-04/02/26)

    Tschuss et Bonjour! (03/02/26-04/02/26)

    We’re leaving Germany!

    Weird to say that, but alas, even JPs efforts to secure a visa are basically over. He finally got hold of someone in the local office who said they only grant resident permits inside the country. And to do that, we’d need to provide the children’s birth certificates, translated, and an apostille to verify it, as well as the marriage certificate, and other things. Honestly, this was much harder and more complicated than the visa the consulate in Chicago said to get.

    Alas, plan B and/or C…

    We packed the car for our first big journey!

    Driving to Lyon, France. We thought we’d take the scenic route, skip the toll roads, and see the countrysides. But all that we got for avoiding the toll road was a 2 hour delay on our arrival time, and smellier bathrooms.

    Crossing into France was probably the most anti-climactic event.

    We crossed a river

    That’s it.

    Now signs are in a romance language JP can finally grok (mostly).

    The stores are all the same, the speeds are still the same, and the euro is still in effect.

    Essentially, new country, same patterns.

    It was a long day, and we needed to get in early enough to work and do school.

    The home we booked for a few days is actually outside of Lyon, in a cute, mountainous, foothills farming region. We stayed at the top of a curvy, goat-path hill, in the town of Courzieu, just west of Lyon by car about 40 minutes. Nothing like arriving while it’s raining, dark, and the car has to make hairpin 170 degree turns, uphill, on unlit roads.

    Thankfully we got in, unloaded quickly, and got situated.

    Only, the internet was down. The promised high-speed was out, and the owner apologized and offered to reimburse for us purchasing something to use while here.

    JP quickly bought an eSim, and we had school and work for a day.

    The next morning was absolutely brilliant and sunny and kinda warm. JP got up early enough to take the dogs for an extended walk, and ended up getting off the beaten path, up a high hill, through the forest, to discover a roman aqueduct!

    Amazing!

    Hidden, it looked like just a hole in the ground, but on closer inspection, you can see the amazing masonry that’s lasted over 2,000 years! Darth was impressed, Inqueue probably was licking a tree

    Back to the house, and into town, we grabbed a train to Lyon.

    Probably the most unprepared we’ve ever had in a day, we kinda forgot the spare battery, extra water, etc.

    But we made it to Lyon.

    What a gorgeous, beautiful, fresh, and open city.

    The walking was very easy here, with a riverside walkway, we traversed the westside of the city, saw the Thomas Jefferson plaque (who knows, Elyce wanted to take a picture), and then we needed food.

    There’s a lot of kosher here, so we got an excellent lunch, and discussing shabbat with the rabbi, he offered us to rent the apartment above the restaurant for shabbat. However we’d have to do something with the dogs, and we weren’t prepared to do that to them.

    But it did spark a sense that we should stay in Lyon for shabbat (originally we planned to be in Barcelona). Later that night JP will postpone our Barcelona arrival, and will book a shabbat apartment on the other side of Lyon, near all the synagogues.

    The rabbi also recommended getting a phone at a store nearby, so we walked through one of the main pedestrian malls, and it was beautiful to see so many people strolling about, chatting, having fun, eating, running, etc.

    JP even stopped a random guy who was riding his own invention, a remote controlled battery operated roller skate!

    How neat!

    Back on the train, we rushed to make it back for meetings and class work before batteries died.

    The following day, before leaving, we loaded the car with snacks the ole fashioned way, tossing clementines down a flight!

    We also stopped in town at the bakery to get some sweets for later

    Today was kind of open-ended, so we let the children play navigator. We found a dump, a river, a town that made Elyce super nervous about the steep hill we had to climb (yet somehow a tour bus made it through), and then we got into the other towns nearby.

    JP wanted to pick up a tool for the car, something called and OBD2. It’s a little doo-hickey (yes, that’s the technical term) that you attach to the car, and can read out any issues, reports, or monitors it may say are wrong. So instead of seeing “Red Engine Light” and reading, “Engine Failure”, JP can now determine that the particulate matter filter is having a dandy day 🙁

    View Post(opens in a new tab)

    Just a block away from the shop we stopped at is a Ferrari dealership. We tried to get in, but it was lunch time, and it seems some folks in Lyon like to have a siesta of their own.

    Or, they saw the minivan, and locked the doors….

    We returned to Courzieu, did some more grocery shopping (real exciting, we know), and back to work, face masks, and bed!

    Tomorrow we head to Lyon for the sabbath, so this is our last night on the top of the mountains!

    Another adventure, mon ami!

  • License and registration, please (28/01/26-02/02/26)

    License and registration, please (28/01/26-02/02/26)

    The rest of the week was pretty low key, but interesting. Elyce managed to participate in a couple of life events (birth of our friends son), and death of friend’s mother. Even from here we have the circle of life, with food in between!

    And don’t forget the happy little garbage can that could:

    We got some gelato, did some last-minute things in Kitzingen, and had our last Shabbat in Nuremberg. 

    Wait?

    What?

    Finally?

    Our last???

    Well, motzei shabbat (after the sabbath ended), JP contacted the car dealership, and after weeks of haggling, pleading, waiting, and frustration, the car was finally repaired, painted, and approved by the German authorities!

    We have a car!

    JP and Vered got on a train back to Nuremberg, and JP’s amazing new friend, Mr David Kuperman (you really should come visit him, bring a bottle of whiskey, and protect your ears from him biting).

    David picked them up form the train station, and drove them 35 minutes into the wilderness of Germany, and basically left them at the dealership, with the car. The dealership had left the keys in the lockbox, and the car was across the street, basically sitting in a field, waiting for us!

    After hugs, kisses, and goodbyes, JP and Vered sat in the car for about 30 minutes trying to figure everything out.

    Finally, after not figuring out much, they started driving back to Kitzingen!

    As mentioned earlier, in order to own a car in Germany, sure, you could just buy it, but to register it legally and get insurance, you can:

    1. Be a citizen with a property and register it to your property (we don’t meet these qualifications)
    2. Have a friend who could be #1 for you (we don’t meet these qualifications)
    3. Start a company in Germany, follow all the regulatory rules, don’t hire any employees, but purchase assets, namely a car, and register it (we don’t meet these qualifications, either)
    4. Use a company called CarTurf, who registers the car, and purchases the insurance, making your life a helluva lot easier (for this we qualify)

    The only catch, the paperwork is in the car, and CarTurf is near Köln.

    ROADTRIP!!!

    We packed for 1 night, and drove to a town south of Köln, to stay on a veritable goat farm!

    This place is adorable, out of the way, cheap, lovely host, modern, and absolutely astonishingly perfect.

    The host herself studied animal farming, and is running her friend’s parents farm, rehabiilitating it from nothing back into a goat producing powerhouse. They also have some cows and pigs, but the 2 male cows are useless, and the female is “crazy”, so no milk from her.

    The goats were also having babies, so we got to see baby goats.

    Like, 4 hour old baby goats!!!

    So new, they had the umbilical cord still attached!

    Whoa!

    Undeterred from the long drive, we decided at 9p to drive into the suburbs of Köln and get some dinner at a high-ranked vegan place. What an excellent choice. Food, bathrooms, drinks, everything was spectacular.

    The next day we met up with CarTurf, JP gave them the papers, and they took our van and lent us their car, so we went to get breakfast and food at a nearby cafe.

    Back at CarTurf, we spent some time going over paperwork, drinking coffee and hot chocolate, and getting ready for the rest of our adventures!

    BTW – CarTurf is great to work with (find them here: https://carturf.com/)

    Back to the goat farm to get our stuff, we also made a deal with the host, that after we get the registration dealt with, we’d come back to the farm, and they would change and store our winter tires (an amazing deal, considering shops around Germany charge 100-150/year for this)

    Done!

    Now let’s get back to Kitzengen because we’re gonna blow this popsicle stand!!!

    Beep beep!

  • Bütthard or Nothing (27/01/26)

    Bütthard or Nothing (27/01/26)

    Today’s adventure, a big loop, with the rental. 

    Elyce listed several towns within a specific radius, and JP figured out how to make the whole map work. Armed with a sticky note and google maps, we made a route that would get us out of town for the day, and see the “burbs” (the joke is, most of the towns in Germany are the burbs, haha [awkward, personal laugh in silence])

    Leaving Kitzingen, we hit chicken town Buchbrunn, home to a wine maker that we thought about touring, but skipped out on. 

    Just a hop, skip and a jump to Biebelried, where there was a hotel. That was it…and a fountain, but we didn’t even see that.

    Now, for a bit longer of a drive, we made our way to Bad Merghenteim. 

    One of JP’s favorite parts about driving these country roads, is the sense of adventure, getting lost, finding weird things (like a massive wall of hay, spongebob power box). 

    We even detoured through the town of Bütthard!

    Yes, JP made a full u-turn to make sure we checked out this town.

    There isn’t much to the town itself, but, you know…

    </childish_giggling>

    Now, Bad Merghenteim is a cute town. Bigger than Kitzingen, it still felt small, but there appears to be a university here, as well as a large center square. We arrived right when some folks were having a lovely a capella right in the square. 

    We got some candied mango and fresh wasabi nuts (sadly the candied mango was too sweet, and the nuts were soft and weren’t spicy at all (sad face)

    Walking around, we enjoyed seeing sights in the old city, saw a building Beethoven lived and worked in, then after exploring lunch options (for some reason, the girls turned down fresh tuna sandwiches, though, granted, the tuna still had eyes in it). 

    No sense of adventure, I tell ya!

    Next stop: Martkbreit – the home of the doc who discovered Alzheimers, Doctor Alzheimer. Cue JP’s sad humor, where he said something like, “I forgot where the house is” right as we pulled away from it.

    With that visit behind us, we made a quick stop in Iphofen to take a photo, and then to our title town Großlangheim, which Elyce thought was devoid of anything. Turns out, the town looks really lovely and might’ve been fun to visit. But alas, we were now in a time crunch. So JP dropped everyone off, re-gassed the car, and returned it just in the nick of time, and back for work. 

    The girls built a sled ramp off our back deck, and it was a heck of a circular day!

  • Pet Passport Libido (22/01/26 – 26/01/26)

    Pet Passport Libido (22/01/26 – 26/01/26)

    One of the joys of travelling throughout the world, and dragging your 4 legged friends with you, is not just getting paperwork done back home, but also getting them a pet passport in the EU.

    Honestly, the USDA approved vet has to approve your pet, get the paperwork done, and returned to you before you leave. And no more than 10 days before you leave, bu no less than 10 days before. you. leave…

    Well, getting out of the USA with the dogs was ok, and now in Germany we want to travel around Europe, the UK, and other parts of the world, the dogs need passports as well.

    Honestly, Europe does a pretty decent job about making sure animals are relatively well cared for.

    And now the dogs will get passports (before JP has one)! Their passports come with a lot of benefits, like ease of transportation across all of Europe, several north African countries, and even some middle eastern locales. 

    JP only remembered that it’s really important to get this done, like, before we leave Kitzingen.

    Oops

    The only vet in town is a 4KM walk, and JP managed to get an appointment for both pooches, so they were seen, given new rabies shots (even though they just got them), and the vet gave JP great advice about deworming the dogs before we go to the UK.

    If we hadn’t mentioned it before, one of the benefits of not having a car is all the walking we get to do. And some of the painted garages JP takes photos of!

    And we found a car!

    Well, we didn’t just find it.

    JP’s been doing a lot of research in his spare, spare, spare time, and found a few vehicles. One, our inspector drove to, reviewed it and gave it high marks.

    The good news is we can make a deposit, and if all goes well with the official inspections, we could pick it up next wekk.

    The bad news is it is a bunch of money to move around, so fingers crossed things happen quickly.

    We had not planned to stay in Germany this long. Don’t get us wrong, the places we’ve seen, explored, and eaten in, are all amazing,

    But we’re done with winter.

    So, now to wait and finish up getting paperwork done

    We had a relatively peaceful shabbat, played some Settler’s of Catan, other board games, walked, took another visit back to Chabad of Nuremberg, and a chill day.

    By Sunday, JP thinks Elyce was at a stressed out point, so he marched all the jawas out of the house, and got them all the way down to the river (actually, Vered even put her hand into the river), and across the river they played in the playground, burning off a lot of steam!

    En route, we found Kitzingen’s water level marker.

    I’m not sure what happened, but the vet didn’t warn us about the impact the shots may (but didn’t) have on Inqueue’s libido.

    Darth, distracted by a new chew toy, is getting mounted by Inqueue?

    Monday was a bountiful snowday!

    All the females took a sloshingly lovely walk over to the grocery while JP meandered his way to back to the car rental. En route he found a bunch of dressed up snow folk, some with sandals, others doing shopping, and some even ready to jump off a bridge. 

    Turns out, Kitzingen also has a piano manufacturer in town. But they don’t really have a showroom, don’t let folks just come play their pianos, and seem to be closed for the winter 🙁

    Finally, JP got the car, came to the store and picked up the ladies, and home before school and work!

  • May the Schwartz be With You (21/01/26)

    May the Schwartz be With You (21/01/26)

    Tuesday was a working day, and originally Mayrav was supposed to be on a flight back to Israel and then back home. But that got all kinds of messed up, so JP figured out logistics to send our daughter home, and rented a car at the last minute. It was cheaper, and faster, to rent a car and drive Mayrav to the airport than it would be to take the trains.

    The fine folks at Shwartz car rental were amazing.

    Somehow JP managed to book a car and schedule it for pickup, approximately 15 minutes after the place closes? Arriving as planned, the counter people had to unlock and let him in, questioned everything in a confused manner, then realized that their system messed up. Technically they did not really have a car at that moment, however they would not leave JP hanging.

    40 minutes and some homemade cake later, another car was returned, and et voila, JP now had a rental to drive Mayrav back to Frankfurt in the morning!

    Early morning departure, Elyce stared out the window as JP took Mayrav to Frankfurt.

    Dropping Mayrav off with time to spare, JP got back home before everyone else even woke up!

    After breakfast, for some crazy reason, JP and Elyce telepathically agreed to use the rest of the miles and day to drive the car to Rothenburg ob derTauber.

    Arriving in this little town, we climbed the stairs up the walls and rounded a good quarter of the city from the perimeter defense system. We also found an old amphitheater, saw breathtaking views of the countryside,

    The tastiest part of the trip was some shneeballs (literally “snow balls”). Shneeballs are kinda like a wafflecone wrapped in on itself into a shape, then dipped into some kind of chocolate coating. Our neighbor told us about this town and that every year, when he goes back to visit his family, they come to this town.

    The history, the intactness, the richness, this is old-school!

    In an anticlimactic adventure, we found the building that might house the oldest mikvah in the region, but it was just a building, and nothing to denote our discovery. 

    We also grabbed a gift from the medieval shop in town. JP felt like there was some context missing, but the locals weren’t talking.

    On the way out of town, JP (surprise, surprise) dragged some of us into the local music shop. This time there weren’t any pianos, but there were lots of everything else.

    Now we race through old towns and country roads so JP can drop us off, refill the tank, and return the car with 8 minutes to spare (phew!)

    And JP absolutely left them the best review on Maps Check it out (link here in case you find yourself in Kitzingen)!

    Back home and working again, this has been an adventurous week.

    Tchüss!

  • 290KPH? P’shaw! (17/01/26-19/01/26)

    290KPH? P’shaw! (17/01/26-19/01/26)

    Friday was a quiet shabbat filled with a real, 6 person round of Settler’s of Catan! Fights, yelling, bartering, and some drinks made this feel like a family shabbos!

    For Shabbat we again visited Nuremberg, we davened, JP’s buddy David showed us around kiddush, we ate, we drank, we said our goodbyes, and got home. 

    After shabbos we took Mayrav to the best Italian restaurant in Kitzingen, and had another lovely experience with our friends there! 1 gut-busting meal later, we rolled home, and stopped at the Alte Schul (old synagogue), and they were hosting a live music event, so we talked to the manager and her daughter (who was tending bar), and then made our way home.

    Early the next morning, somehow JP woke Mayrav up, and they walked all the way to Buchbrunn (about 3KM away), where they choked a chicken, met some dogs, found some crazy walking paths, got back, took the family on a long walk of Kitzengen, and JP saw the worlds smallest car…this thing is so adorable, he just keeps saying, “pit stop”

    Monday was a day off from school and work. We decided, let’s take a long train ride to München (Munich for y’all back home). The dogs also were coming because it was going to be a 15 hour day before we were done, and most of Europe is actually pretty chill with your dogs doing stuff with you. The normal 1-hour ride to Nuremberg, then the ICE (the only acceptable use of that acronym these days, which stands for the inter-city express) to München!

    Walking around, we found a playground, a large courthouse, one of the demigorgons, a brass fish to shove your head into, and the largest Lush in Germany (this place is multiple floors and has its own coffee shop and some weird exhibit that if you touch the soaps, music plays).

    Funnily enough, JP actually ditched everyone to find a bathroom (rare, but it happened that he needed to go more than everyone else), and he found a little bar where he promised to buy a beer if they let him use the bathroom. Of course, he got a beer, had a lovely conversation, and found us at Lush. Meanwhile, we (all the ladies) found that Lush had its own bathroom.

    Ha!

    Leaving Lush we toured a large gothic place, bought olives stuffed with various things, saw amazing statues and carvings, played with some monkeys, watched folks drink water straight from the fountain,visited the ViktualMarkt to buy some olives, and sat at a table with a real zen garden in the table!

    After lunch we walked past, but forewent the opportunity to climb, the oldest and tallest church in town, St Peter’s!. We did walk almost straight into the the gothic remnants of Marianplatz, and JP raced Avital up 4 flights of glorious spiral stairs, straight into a government building.

    That’s ok, just play it cool, nobody will ask why we were wandering the halls.

    Here JP also captured several bas-reliefs of dragons.

    A LOT OF DRAGONS.

    Holy wow, walking is exhausting, but there’s so much to see!

    At the Opera House, a massive statue our girls insisted on posing for, and then into Residenz Museum (well, at least the courtyard). 

    We found a Mercedes coffee shop with a trippy bathroom. Seriously, mirrors everywhere, and neon lights changing colors. In the corner there was a sticker: like and subscribe…,

    Outside the coffee shop was the clock store, and around the corner we found. another. piano. store.

    A Steinway piano store.

    You guessed it, JP HAD to play another one.

    And then the holocaust memorial site.



    This took some time to process, and we decided to visit the mall next door for a little levity. Sadly, nothing in there was of much interest, and we decided to make our way to an infamous vegan Bavarian restaurant, Bodhi!

    Wow! Just Wow!

    First, they let dogs into restaurants here. Really. Very. Unique.

    Second, we ate up a storm!

    So much amazing, authentic, Bavarian food!

    Several drinks, fights/arguments/namecallings/dispute resolutions, and main courses later, we were ready to hike back to the train and head home!

    Oh, and the train hit 294KPH! Dat’s fast. Very fast!

    Seriously the longest day yet! And for once, JP doesn’t have to walk the dogs when we get home, because they walked us the whole way home!

    Can you guess which child is which?

  • Röntgen Goggles (14/01/26 – 15/01/26)

    Knock, knock. 

    Who’s there?

    Water.

    Water who?

    Water you asking so many questions for, just open up!

    Since Israel isn’t too far away (just a 4 hour flight), and since our daughter had, literally, nothing to do, we asked her to join us, and she said, “Sure!”

    Elyce left early and met Mayrav at the Frankfurt airport, and when back home, JP was surrounded by SO MUCH ESTROGEN. This is also his modus operandi.

    With all the ladies, we got excited to head out and explore. 

    Sadly, someone’s tummy wasn’t well, and we left meatball at home (with Elyce, of course)

    JP & Co. went to Würzburg and saw the X-ray museum. TIL in Germany, X-ray is referred to by the inventor’s name, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, aka der Röntgenstrahl or Röntgenaufnahme.

    We did some quick shopping (don’t mind the middle finger monkeys),

    ate a drippy pistachio thingy (it was super sweet, but looked like the drooling mouth of a saint bernard staring at a cinnamon roll after drinking booze all night), rode a narrow trolley – seriously these things are skinny, stared at fountains, and, well, gawked at a door entrance ramp made out of Legos….

    Ever wonder what happens when your kids piercing gets stuck on a ring? 

    Nope, me neither

    But it happened, so here we are

    And now we do a double take while we enter the grounds of a big yellow German castle! Welcome to the Gartenführer Veitshöchheim (garden tour) of a castle! This property is huge, with manicured gardens, a fountain, large building that’s yellow, stables, and lots of land. Oh, and a lot of large fish

    Right behind the castle is a train station that was converted into a library. How quaint! Sadly they wouldn’t let JP play the piano that was sitting there. Something about it technically belonging to someonone else and they can’t let just anyone play it. Ba humbug!

    Thursday morning, we got up early-ish and dashed off to Nuremberg again, this time, in search of the infamous Toy museum!

    En route we saw the lifeboat of death, and a few other fascinating statues and cathedrals and clocks (JP is obsessed with clocks, he thinks Dan Brown may have been on to something)

    We found the Spielzeug Museum, and, well just 1 TLA:

    OMG!!!

    This place is the bomb-diggity. It would make Richard Pryor so damn happy, Mr Bates!

    So many toys, the history of toys, the companies in Germany that made toys (and board games), and so many other amazing things. All hands on, and a lot of fun! JP made lots of friends with the mannequins, the kids played games, everyone enjoyed learning about the history of toys and games, and, well, it was another amazing adventure (Elyce and JP even posed with the weird long-haired trench-coated goatee mannequin)!

    En route to the Kat temple, we stopped at the memorial for Jews. A somber moment filled with children whining, and a river flowing in the background. After a little bit of reflection, we walked to the Kat Temple (See, I told you we’d come back, and you were worried we’d leave you hanging there!)

    Incredible vegan food, kitty time, and a relaxed pace, wins all around!

    Elyce needed to get some more tea, and JP really wanted to play the Bechstein’s again, so we split up, and JP played until they told him to stop. Legit, they actually asked him to stop, but only because they had a real customer and JP has no intention of spending a year’s salary on a salacious 9’ concert grand piano. And not even that, but where would he put it? Such a question!

    Reuniting with the family, we rode the train home!

    Lovely adventures abound!

  • Trippin for some wheels (8/1/26-12/1/26)

    Ever since we arrived, JP has been pretty insistent on us buying a car. To him, it signifies freedom of movement, investment in a fixed asset with depreciation, and an expense that should recoup something in the future. Elyce has a different opinion in that the money we used could’ve been put towards actual travel, and we could get moving sooner instead of later (and not be in Germany for 6 weeks). Both of us have our pros and cons. Some of our pros sound like sesame street characters, and some of our cons sound like a Robert DeNiro movie. 

    Through a colleague’s connection, JP has been working with a group whose primary business is purchasing cars in Germany, and exporting them to other countries. Through this service, you look for the car you want, they go onsite and inspect, and can even help with the purchase.

    Today was a day that JP took 4+ hours of train rides to meet one of them and inspect a car. And he learned a lot, and via the inspection, realized that it’s a good thing to inspect these vehicles.

    Though disappointed, JP will hopefully find something soon. Back at home and working!

    Shabbat was another lovely affair in Nuremberg, and we are really enjoying getting to know the community. The girls have begun playing with the rabbis’ children, and JP has a new friend, David, who was born in the former USSR, to a father in the military, and without any semblance of Jewish education. Moving to Germany, he began learning and, with his wife, determined to have a Jewish household for their children! It’s quite beautiful, because, as the rabbi explained to JP, most young people and couples who want to be more involved and observant in the community, (un)fortunately end up leaving, going to Israel or other places with larger communities. It is somewhat alienating as well as eye-opening.

    Back home, after the sabbath, we watched 2 movies, back-2-back: Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2! JP even has a colleague in one of these movies! Unrelated to that fact, our brains now hurt!

    Sunday we visited the most amazing museum, Kitzingen’s own Carnival museum. 

    This isn’t like Brazil

    It’s the history of jesters, jokesters, clowns, dressing up, and having both fun and warding off evil spirits. Costumes, masks, hats, puns, festivals, casts, it’s like purim on a whole nother level! Everyone may have tried swapping a new head, wearing bells, or just giving a new dance routine a try.

    We decided to try out Wurzburg for dinner…it was fun to tour the town and it not being the sabbath. We looked around, got some food, and enjoyed just getting out and about.

    And, lastly, it happened, JP got a tattoo (courtesy of the 13-year-old). Not bad for the kid.

  • Jumbo Fries – Extra Dick (1/1/26-7/1/26)

    New Year, same old!

    1/1/26 (in German that’s read as 1 of January, 2026), we had a quiet day, cleaning the house, taking a small hike around town, and then back home.

    On 2/1/26, we had new snow!

    Meet sir fatsalot! A snowball-turned-into-large-representation-of-a-cartoon-character. The girls spent a fair amount of time outside making this “creature” and we were happy with the results.

    We also decided today was the day to visit the library. Turns out, they have an English section, and so we scored some books to read, a “learn German in 30 days” for JP. For 5 euro, we get unlimited access for three months to their online books, and can even take books home. Completely worth it!

    3/1/26 was quite an experience in Wurzburg, and JP had a bit of an epiphany about Jewry in Germany. The community is super tiny here, even though there’s over 300k people that live here. The synagogue is part of a museum that was rebuilt to help people learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust, as well as provide a communal space for the Jews of the region. On shabbat and holidays, there’s a small minyan, led by a mostly Russian and Hebrew speaking rabbi. We were lucky to meet a wonderful person, Alex, who is fluent is 5-7 languages, and translated between Russian, Hebrew, German, and English. We enjoyed a lovely kiddush, and they even had freshly made sausage and salami! I think Romanian could take some notes

    As for JP’s epiphany, essentially, his experiences in Germany have felt somewhat like we’re visiting a museum, looking inside, but the synagogues and communities we visit aren’t like some historical relic in a museum. For example, in Wurzburg the building is relatively new. The actual room where the service is held feels old, and may be a reconstruction of what existed 80 years ago. What was also fascinating to JP is that most German Jews were quite assimilated to German life by the time the Holocaust occurred. They were similar to what Americans might refer to as modern day reform Jews. This isn’t a slam on anyone, just an observation that the level of observance amongst most German Jews was quite low before the holocaust. Finding kosher food in a place like Wurzburg or Nuremburg wasn’t so easy, nor very sought after. We’ve been told that the communities back then weren’t keeping strict kosher, so the need for kosher meat, wine, bread wasn’t enough to keep a kosher butcher, baker, or store in business.

    And this is where the museum reference comes into play. In Wurzburg, JP had the sense of a museum because this isn’t what communities are like back home. And he wasn’t expecting them to be like home. He wasn’t even sure what to expect. But the sense of having a synagogue supported by the government (without interference) is kind of a weird vibe. The people were lovely, the service was perfect, but there was something that was slightly off (JP’s words). 80 years after the war, a country that obliterated the Jewish population has deemed it essential to not only invite Jews back, but to financially support Jewry by providing security and funds for establishments, it’s an interesting perspective. JP basically feels like we’re observing people who are observing the rituals, but there are few people coming back (most young folk leave for Israel or larger cities or other countries). So, visiting these facilities creates a sense of looking in on the communities that existed, but aren’t growing again, and are kind of like being in maintenance mode. Preserved for the future to see what it was like, but not in a way that is replanting the destroyed forest for new growth, just a well maintained garden. 

    In the end, we loved the experience and look forward to our next visit!

    Sunday we can stroll around the city, found a new playground (this also had a zipline, and a little hut that JP barely fit in), but again, most places are closed. For dinner, we added a bag of Jumbo Fries, Extra Dick (see photo at the top)

    Don’t judge.

    Monday found us taking a long walk back to the city’s big grocery store, Edeka. We scored some essentials, got some snacks, divvied up the load, and headed back home.

    By Wednesday, JP took some paperwork to the government office to apply for registration (first step he needs to do before applying for his visa).

    Then we headed off to Wurzburg for some activity time. Elyce took the AAs to try and find LazerTag (sadly you have to pre-register,and also must be at least 14), so they found some sculptures and a yarn store.

    JP and Vered found the city’s climbing gym and spent some time bouldering!

    JP also submitted all the paperwork to hopefully get his visa!

    Hopeful all of this effort will pay off and we can stay longer than 90 days in the Schengen zone.

  • You’re a firework

    An early morning walk, the last of 2025, led JP through a field, past windmills, into a vineyard, along the town’s hospital’s helipad, past a frozen fountain, and up to a wild rooster. These walks really do cover a lot of random things

    Being New Year’s Eve, everything is open until about 1400, and though stuffs will be closed Thursday on the first, everything will be back open on Friday, so no 4 day weekends this week!

    After breakfast, we took a family stroll, exploring more of our city. This time we discovered what people call Dracula’s grave (spooky?), the leaning tower of Kitzingen, a marker of distances to the next towns, the barrel jester, a red phone booth free library, and made our way across the river.

    Fun fact, the official name of this city is Kitzingen au Main, which translates to “Kitzingen on the river”. The river (is called the Main River) is pretty wide, and it runs all the way to Frankfurt, and keeps going to a bunch of other cities. JP has a dream of getting a boat and just moving up and down the river, exploring the country by boat.

    JP had the fancy idea that we should walk over to the airport (other fun fact, it’s a former military airport, and doesn’t seem to be used for anything commercial). On the way, we found the largest grocery in town (Edeka), and we took an indoor tour to get a sense of how this compares to the stores by us. It is massive, the bacherei (bakery) is stocked, there are lots of choices, and many sections just for cheese.

    From the store we traversed past a WWII memorial, and through open fields. Ultimately, we were cold and wanted to start making our way back to the house. Incidentally, we found an RV with a logo matching Vered’s t-shirt (photo op!). We headed back home to warm up and eat some food.

    The fireworks themselves are something to actually talk about. Like the playgrounds and many other facets of European life, fireworks on this evening are an exercise in self-preservation while open-jawed astonishment in the bevvy of flammable, explosive materials people wish to detonate in close proximity to each other. 

    And all this on top of a bridge!

    Simply put – New Year’s Eve is like living inside of a fireworks display. Leaning over the sides of the bridge, or holding up rockets in their hands, or using empty bottles in the middle of the road, everyone was lighting off fireworks. Some were tossing explosives into the middle of the street, others threw them into the river. Roman candles, sparklers, whizbangs, twirlers, fountains, poppers, zipping magnolias, flying dragons, and myriad other whimsically named fireworks were on full display.

    And yes, they might even fly at you.

    Caveat emptor!

    Sometimes a rocket flew into the crowd. Someone tossed a popper at the feet of others. Another burning top spinner lit up right near a group sitting for a smoke. Dads and moms, sons and daughters, boyfriends and girlfriends, gaggles of teens and tweens, Russians and Germans, North Africans and Ukranians, everyone was anticipating and participating in the biggest winter event here!

    And wow, there were a lot of people!

    And at midnight, every church bell, every tower, every horn, every firework, everything contributed to the cacophony that meant the new year had arrived. This was the demarcation of time between the old year and the new. 

    Auld Lang Syne

    JP & A1 stayed on the bridge and watched while the others moved away and more toward the main strip. When the bells tolled, bats flew from the belfry, and the people of the city mingled and cheered.

    What a rush.

    Now it’s late and we’re exhausted. Happy New Year. ‘Cause, baby, you’re a firework, 

    come on, show ’em what you’re worth, make ’em go, “Oh, oh, oh”, as you shoot across the sky