Bus Ride To The Waidsee

We’ve been in Germany 2 months and taking the trains, trams, busses is all the kids have talked about before the move till current. The ever present Corona Virus has not made me want to test out public transport by any means but it really does limit our daily adventures.  After himming and hawing about it I finally decided to take the kids to the lake by bus. I mapped the route - no changes en route, walked to the closest stop, pre-packed so I knew what I was dealing with in case of a melting down child who couldn’t walk 🤦‍♀️ and seriously was nervous about the adventure.  It is super easy - I know very well - to take public transportation here, even more so now than it was before because there’s an APP for travel!  But to do it with the kids made me nervous.  

I figured they’d be up at 5:30 ready to go but thankfully they both slept in a little. Evie did NOT want to be late for the 9:36 bus so we headed out 15 minutes early for the 4 minute walk!

As of the night before they were more excited about the bus than they were the lake!  Then the bus was about 5 minutes late and they were getting very worried!

Kids 6 and under aren't required to wear masks but my kids don't mind it at all.

In the back, in the very back they picked and 

I do not do well in the back of a bus even at only 20 minutes. 

It was nice to ride around on Bus 631 and see a few spots in Weinheim that we haven’t seen before.  We made it to the Miramar/Waidsee stop in no time at all and walked about 4 minutes to the lake. At 10:00 it was VERY quiet which is a bonus in Germany doing things in the morning - our experience is that this culture doesn’t get around very early in the day! We had our pick of a spot and the kids couldn’t wait to get in the water. 

The best part is we were so close to the water, it is not that deep and they could get right in and play while I set up and organized.  They swam for about a 1/2 hour before getting out for snacks and playing in the sand. 

We were in the water A LOT! It was a beautiful day. People came but it was not crowded at all. We had our little picnic lunch and played on the playground in the hot hot sand. 

We were there for 5 hours, we honestly could’ve stayed longer.  Evie brought up the fact that people were naked (kids mostly as well as a few adults with thong bottoms and older women changing tops) so we had a discussion about how that is different here and it’s actually ok for all of the kiddos to be naked or change their clothes out in the open. It certainly didn’t take my kids much time to get comfortable with that - as they changed in and out of their suits a few times right on our blanket. 

Seashell Scavenging 

William was playing with a little boy in the water who was wearing only a Paw Patrol swim top and arm swimmies. The grandmother that was with him talked with me for a long time - some German - but she was also a very good English speaker 😉 She was very impressed that William was just a little older and so brave in the water!  All the while my kids are staring at the little half naked boy wondering why he doesn’t have bottoms on. I think this is great exposure for them and hopefully after a few more trips no one will think any differently.  A naked body is a body and there’s nothing taboo here about that. Now let’s just see if I feel the same and carry on that confidence at my next spa/sauna visit!! 😳

It was a great day. NO meltdowns made it even better.  The kids had an ice cream right before we needed to leave which enabled me to pack up since they were preoccupied.  We still have nearly 2 months left till school potentially starts so now that we've figured out how easy it was to get to the lake via the bus we will be doing it a lot more.  It's only about 10€ for transportation and entrance to the lake so definitely doable! 

We have a road trip coming up in a few weeks to Southern Germany which the kids are super excited about. It should be a fun get away.  

Bis zum nächsten Mal,

Tschüss!