sommer R O D E L B A H N S

Last year at a track meet, I met a mom from Naples. Still struggling with our transition to Germany, her upbeat personality and positive outlook on Europe were exactly what I needed at that time.

Her name was Mary. She said a few things that I won't forget.

The first piece of advice was to stay away from the toxic women here.

Those who never leave the base, hate the fact that they're living in Germany and let every conversation {short or long} come back to the fact that they're so unhappy.

Miserable, actually.

These {toxic} type miss drive-through banking, the convenience of fast food on every corner, Wal-mart and their garbage disposals.

None of the above happen to be here in Deutschland.
I've mentioned more than a dozen times {or more} how rough our first year was as we experienced culture shock and struggled to adjust to our new normal.

I can admit {to the world}, I was in a slump and struggled perhaps more than I have in my entire life to focus on the positive.

It was rough.

Declaring that aloud {even through the tears}, from the day we learned we were being moved- I wanted to fall in love with Germany.

I wanted to see what there  is over here and experience the adventure that awaited our little family.
It just took me a little time to figure it out.

As soon as I learned how to pay our bills, recycle using  different five garbage cans and memorized our home phone number things were looking up.

It's stuck with me to steer clear of those who are toxic and think it's wonderful advice for anyone transitioning to life abroad.

The other advice Mary passed onto me was- in our travels, whenever we passed a Sommerrodelbahn- STOP.
She said I'd be the mom of the year and the memories with the boys would never be forgotten. If we were on a schedule and drove past one- it didn't matter- STOP.

She was adamant.  She was right.

We found a couple last summer and tried to make a trip, but didn't. Until Spring Break this month.

After a full day of castles and tired boys, we plugged the Sommerrodelbahn address into the GPS- returning to the Black Forest, close to our rental house.

We made it back ten minutes before they closed- allowing for two runs down the mountain.

What is a Sommerrodelbahn?

Sommer, of course is summer. Sommerrodelbahns are exciting toboggan runs down a hillside on a rail system.

On the one we found, the lift system takes you on a 300 meter track to the mountain station, where it disengages from the bob and begins a fast-paced, varied descent.

Into the roundabout, over jumps and through tunnels is 1,150 meters {maybe, almost a mile} long- the tobogganing fun.

It was a BLAST- we laughed, laughed, and LAUGHED.

I screamed causing the boys and Jim to laugh even more.


Ty and Coleman way down below Jim and I on our second run down

I'm sure I was especially entertaining on the run with Jim as he was laughing too hard to remember to hold back on the brake.

We were flying. I'm not exaggerating one bit either.

Seriously, flying.

Justin and Caden went together both runs, of course. I volunteered to go with Coleman for our first run.

Neither of us is too fond of fast or high, both of which we had to endure for our little run.

You're able to control the speed, so I knew I could slow us down.

I was a little freaked out as we went to take off- the guy gave our quick directions in German.

German that I didn't catch or understand in my nervous state. I can admit, this freaked me more than a little. It would be one place I wouldn't mind the English translation be added to the sign.

Oh well, we were off- straight up the mountainside.

For the second run, I went with Jim. I was in front as he was behind the controls. All I could do was scream and he loved going fast.

Wow.

So much fun - I now get it.

We'll be stopping at each and every one we see along the road.

The castles were great.Obviously, not as great as a good run down a hillside.

This was definitely the highlight of the day. It's all about the memories, right?