Paige's Return to Deutschland!: Unification Weekend at the Castle

The stars aligned for Team Biggs to visit our friend Robyn who recently moved into a castle 20 minutes outside Dresden. Robyn planned such a lovely weekend for us.

For those of you who are interested in our packing strategy, we are moving towards no-checked bags policy. We have more flexibility with the train, but it is much easier with smaller bags because we can put them above in the over head compartment. Our bag count:

1 US cabin size rollybag with Raingear and the Fox Potty
1 US cabin size rollybag with Paige and Carmen's stuff
1 Euro cabin bag with Crosby and Hugo's stuff (carried by Hugo)
1 Euro cabin bag for Paul's stuff
2 backpacks for Paul and me
1 man purse for Hugo
1 foldable travel stroller
1 carseat for Carmen
1 empty ziptop catch-all bag to put our coats in when we get on the train

So yeah, just 10 seperate items to track.

"Traveling light."

Our first stop after after arriving was a hipster coffee shop in Dresden with delicious coffee and cake. Did I take any photos? No, because I was in the moment. Also, it was pretty much a Portland coffee shop complete with rainy weather outside. But, Paul did take a picture of what Carmen was doing while we were drinking coffee:

iPhone baby monitor for the win

There was much discussion about if this castle would be an actual castle or more like a villa. Hugo concluded that it was, "a house with a dome on top". Apparently being built by royalty in the 14th century does not qualify as a castle for Hugo.

Renovated in 1890

One of a few remaining busts not stolen before unification.

We did not see the recording studio building as a band was using it this weekend. But, we did see one of the newly renovated buildings where Robyn is living and stayed under the dome in the "hotel" part of the castle.

Paul's view of Hugo and me out our window. Hugo is still carrying around 2 kilos, 5 pounds, of chestnuts in his pockets that he collected here on the grounds. His exhaustion of carrying so much weight around explains why he didn't notice his sister stole his pillow.

Robyn is also serving as a youth group leader of sorts, and organized a pre-church apple picking adventure with some of the kids who live at the castle. After a ten minute walk down the road, we were in apple paradise.

Crosby met a friend in .5 minutes. This kid was clearly a boss. He didn't bring a bag, just a stick.

We picked 35 kilos, 77 pounds, in 20 minutes. Also, we paid 36 Euros/$36 dollars for all of them.

The castle community has a church service each first Sunday of the month with a potluck after. Robyn made the service family friendly and the kids were calm.

After church she had the kids bake muffins for lunch.

No sabbath would be complete without a nap:

And then running off the nap:

On Monday, Unification Day, we went into town before catching our train. Our plan was to go to the transportation museum, but we didn't have a lot of time, and there were a lot of fun distractions.