Transport

Last year I drove a mini-van. My kids each had their own spot. They had drink holders. Often they watched a movie on the flip down screen! When on Mom drop off/pick up duty I also had my own spot. The drivers seat.......with lots of interesting buttons and gadgets for me to be in control of. I adjusted the speed, temperature and tunes to my own desire and settled my beverage of choice into my drink holder. I sure I hope I never complained........because from my current perspective I couldn't think of anything more luxurious than having what I've just described. Not to mention the wide, smooth roads! ( OH YES.......if you've lived in Africa........ALL ROADS in America are smooth.....it appears the same applies if you are currently living in a German town where all roads are STILL cobbled stone!)

So we sold the mini van......and jumped on a plane. Now we haven't ANY vehicle of our own........none. To be sure we are living in a prime location for this to be the case. On a main downtown road. Public transport is right around the corner. Ahhhhhhh public transport with a family of 3 small children. At first I thought it was refreshing. Just sit back and let someone else do your driving. But then I noticed some of the drivers are just plain crabby. Some drive far too fast. Everyone and their Uncle smokes about a pack of cigs at each transport stop. Bus stops are NOT a fun place to hang out with kids......We're dying of 2nd hand smoke and no one's helping me when I have about 3.5 seconds of trams doors opening/closing to get 2 kids with heavy backpacks, jackets and umbrellas and heave one kid locked in the stroller with grocery bags and purse hanging off the end of it up the steps and quickly find a place for us to sit while securing said stroller before it whizzes off and jerks us all backwards. (I've enough to worry about and still I've saved countless number of old ladies from falling on their rear ends! ) Once the doors whipped shut on my arms and so from now on Ben lets out high pitched squeals if he thinks we aren't going to MAKE IT in or out on time. The thing is we're quite a comedy act for the other passengers. Add to it the fact that we speak English most of the time and that causes quite a stir of heads. When my finger was all bandaged due to the (OOPS I cut my finger instead of the bread incident) there was a young man who hopped out of his seat and helped us all get on then watched for our stop and helped us all off and I nearly wept with thankfulness at this act of kindness. We ARE thankful for transport.......we are aware of the health benefits of so much walking !! ( clap clap) and we know it won't be like this forever.

Above find a series of photos depicting a day in the life of some of our transport scenes......Louisa gets a ride to school and Anna and I take Ben via bus and tram to Kindergarten.....and then back home again which takes about 1 1/2 hours of travel/wait time. The pics show our afternoon scene .......bus and then tram to pick up Ben......walk about 8 blocks and up an unbelievably steep hill to Louisa's school.....back down and bus home........walk to our apartment and up 5 flights of stairs ( this is usually where the real crying starts in......so actually drag ourselves up) and another good 1 1/2 hours goes by.

PS: When stefan first showed me the hill we had to walk up to get to Louisa's school my brain simply didn't register the reality of it. I was like, DO PEOPLE think this is NORMAL? THANKFULLY we don't have to go UP it every single day twice a day! Note also Louisa's cubby where all the kids change from their "house shoes" back into their street shoes. :)