As the holidays draw nearer, I get more and more excited about bringing my children to Mutzschen for the first time. They have heard about it and seen many pictures. They know about the MotoSoul project, and they have been listening and watching as it progresses.
We have a week in Germany and a couple of those days will be spent in the Muldental, visiting in Döben, Leipzig, and at Schloss Mutzschen. We will also be visiting with friends in Bamberg, which we are also excited about, since we are bringing full arsenal of nerf guns!! The boys have been to Germany before but they were very young, so to them it feels like the first time again.
We arrive to the beauty of snow and cannot wait to get outside and play in it! The combination of tastes, beauty, and cultural exchange are intoxicating, and often quite funny too! We decide on pizza for lunch one afternoon. After giving the boys some coaching, they decide to order “American Pizza” off the menu. Imagine their laughter when the pizza arrives and it has hot peppers and olives – not at all what they think of as American pizza! It remains a family joke whenever we order pizza now – please order US American, not German American pizza!!
After an adventurous road trip in the midst of a snowstorm we arrive in Mutzschen. The Schloss is covered in snow and has never looked more magical! The snowball fights begin immediately and the bridge proves to be a great place to launch a battle!
The lower terrace is perfect for making a snowman, which we attempt to place in the firepit, but unfortunately it collapses before we can finish. A competition ensues for who can throw a snowball the furthest on the frozen lake ending in peals of laughter, with no apparent winner. Talks of ice skating, hockey, snow forts, and zip lines fill the quiet winter air as we dream about all of the possibilities of this magical place.
Back around to the courtyard we go to attempt one last snowman. The boys decide they prefer to see the place once a plan is in place and the renovation begins, so we do not go inside. As I watch them play and see them with the Schloss in the background, I know this is going to be a fun journey together. My dream of teaching them and learning with them will come true. We will share so many memories and create so many new things. We will make new friends and bring all of our old ones here too. This will be a big part of our family story. I can’t wait for it to begin.