The summation of today is beware of runaway goats!
We started today with a quick breakfast and then me, Jana and the kids headed to the local playpark whilst the boys nipped over the border into the Czech Republic to circumnavigate the German Sunday (lack of) trading laws to do a quick food shop. The kids had a lovely time at the park and paddling in the stream which I can't imagine doing at 930am back in the UK. With the day looking to be a hot one we decided to head up the local mountain, Großer Arber.
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Having a quick paddle.
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After a short drive we donned our facemasks to head up the mountain on the gondelbahn (cable cars) travelling up between Talstation (1050m) and Bergstation (1400m). We then explored further climbing up to the Großer Seeriegel (1450m). Whilst Forrest charged ahead with Matty and Petr, we took the slow and steady pace with Paloma. She was determined to make it up onto the top of the rocky outcrop even if it was just because we had told her we would have snacks when we got there! The views were great although I couldn't quite enjoy them as much as I would have in the past with three excitable kids constantly on the move and no safety barriers.
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Looking odd in the hat, sunglasses and facemask combo on the gondelbahn.
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Made it to the top of Großer Seeriegel.
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Made it to the top of Großer Seeriegel.
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After a much quicker descent we had a play on the Bergstation playground before heading back down on the cable car to Talstation to check out the "longest slide in the Bavarian Forest with two steep curves". This slide was built into the hill and the kids loved it. On the fields above the slide there was a large group of sheep, goats and donkeys being herded up the mountain by several farmers and their dogs. And this is when it happened. Now I can only relate second hand from the eye-witnesses there, as at the time I was on ice-cream buying duty but the basic summary of what happened was that one of the sheepdogs was sent after a dawdling goat, scaring it and causing it to charge towards the slide area. It leapt over the slide in one direction leaping straight over Paloma's head before turning back the other way, back over the slide taking out another little girl before running over Forrest who was climbing the hill. Forrest was scooped out of the way by another parent as the dog caught up with the goat at this point but he has a hoof sized bruise on his back as a memento. Thankfully whilst sore he wasn't too badly injured just shaken up and the arrival of ice-creams was the perfect medicine but we are incredibly glad that the goat missed Paloma as at that point it was going full pelt. The other little girl seemed okay as well and the farmer did come down from the mountain to apologise. We also thanked the parent that rescued Forrest whose quick actions got him out of the way of further injury.
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The scene of the goat incident!
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Not too daunted by it all, and once the herd was safely out of the way the kids had a few more goes on the slide before we moved on to have a late lunch down by Großer Arbersee.
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Needed a beer (or should that be an apfelschorle) after the goat incident!
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After lunch we all had great fun on the 250m long Waldkugelbahn (wooden marble run) that had been built in the forest next to the lake. It may have been in need of a little TLC but the kids really enjoyed watching the wooden marbles (purchased for 1€ from the vending machine) race down the track and chasing after them when they inevitably jumped off the track but continued to bounce and roll down the hill on which it had been built. We eventually dragged them away from this to start our walk round the lake but quickly got distracted by the opportunity for more paddling for the day in a little shallow area with a small wooden crocodile (Das Krokodil vom Arbersee) to climb on.
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Having a paddle in Großer Arbersee.
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Having a paddle in Großer Arbersee.
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The many faces of Paloma... Normal, happy, grumpy, excited!
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Paddling done and another ice-cream stop completed we finally started our walk around the lake. However, with time running away from us and after a busy day for the kids we decided to abandon plans to go all the way around and just walk out to a small viewing point before turning back and heading home.
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View of the lake.
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We may come back later in the week to try and complete the walk but will have to see if time allows.
Blogged by Amber.
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