Willingen expoloring

On Saturday we had classes in the morning for the strong bonds retreat while the kids had fun with the other children that were there.  After lunch and a quick meeting for David we decided to head out and see what there was to see in the town.

 

We started off by walking to the nearby gondola and took a ride up the mountain. 

 

Aren't we all so cute?!?

 

It was a really beautiful view with cows along the way.  :-) 

 

At the top of the ride was a tower.  In the fall of 2002 the “Hochheide” tower was opened on top of the “Ettelsberg” mountain and is the town’s noticeably landmark ever since. The 59 m high tower at 875 m above sea level is the highest viewing platform of North West Germany.  I made the boys walk up the 241 stairs in the tower.  They weren't very happy about it though.  I let them ride down in the elevator though.  :-)

 

 

A view from the top of the tower.

 

They had a great playground up there on top.   The boys loved that part!!!

 

There was a huge party going on up there and I am not sure what it was about, but there were guys dressed as women, a nun, a big chicken.  Very interesting and couldn't understand any of it.

 

The boys climbing the little tower!  Always my monkeys!!

 

More fun at the park!

 

 

David and I at the top of the hill!

 

Then we hooked up with some friends and off we went walking to find a rodabon!

 

AJ was old enough at this one to ride by himself!!  He was soooo excited!!!!

 

This one was a little different way to get up the hill, they hook up the sled and it tows you up that way.

 

AJ coming down the hill, totally enjoying himself!

 

Michael and Mommy heading down and as you can see that Michael has the stick all the way down so no brakes at all!  So much fun!!!

 

My boys heading for their next ride up and down the rodabohn, all smiles!!!

 

They had a trampoline there too and of course they wanted to jump.  All of a sudden we saw storm clouds a coming.  So we quickly got they out of there and started walking back to the hotel.  Unfortunately it started raining pretty hard and we didn't have coats or anything.  Luckily we are made of sugar so we made it back to the hotel.

 

The hotel was a little different and they had a center that was completely open.  You can kind of see David and the boys on the third floor.  After that we headed for dinner and then we had some free passes to get into a fun water park, so we decided to head there after dinner.

 

 

AJ heading down the first slide with a little push from Michael. Gotta love that brotherly help!

 

Michael and I heading down the slide together.

 

This was a really wide slide and really fast!  The boys liked this one the best and stayed on it the longest.

 

Michael just finishing up the dark slide!  Loving it!

 

The boys liked making a chain.  They tried to have as many people in one chain until they all fell down the slide.  Lots of giggles and laughter!

 

David's turn to go down the slide!

 

One fun thing is that it was an indoor and outdoor pool!  But I have to tell you it was cold outdoor if you got out of the pool.

 

So in Germany they don't have lifegaurds at the top of the slides, they assume you will wait for the green light.  Well when you get four boys up there they don't always wait.  You can see the three right behind Michael, there were all smiles when they crashed into each other.

 

My boys - they are so awesome!!!!

 

This was one of the slides!

 

So after swimming we went down to a club that was a family club.  The bartender was so awesome he made AJ a drink for free, just gave it to him.  He was hilarious also!!

 

The boys wouldn't dance at first, but Michael heard his song and off he went!

 

AJ finally started dancing as well right before we called it a night.  It was really late and we had to be up in the morning.

 

The next day on our way home we saw the viaduct.  The railway line between Brilon Wald and Korbach was built at the time of the First World War between 1913 and 1917. It posed a colossal challenge at the time, with the construction of deep trenches and high dams resulting in enormous costs. A particular problem was the building of a number of railway bridges, most notably the large viaduct in Willingen, which today is the town's most famous landmark. It was rumored that every kilometer of the line between Brilon Wald and Korbach cost around 100,000 Goldmarks, an exorbitant sum in those days. The viaduct rests on ten columns, is 290 meters long and 31 meters tall at its highest point.  It was a fun weekend and we were all pretty tired after the full weekend.