Getting Settled

We have now been in Germany for six weeks.  It feels like it has been a lot longer.  The first couple of weeks were a blur of shopping for and assembling furniture.  It was a lot of work but nice to have the essential stuff like beds, a couch and a dining table.  There are still plenty of things we need though and it will be much better once our things arrive.  Right now it looks like that won't happen until the end of November or even the beginning of December.

One thing we did get was a shopping trolley.  It is essentially a large canvas bag with an aluminum frame, wheels and a long handle.  It makes bringing home groceries much easier especially since we don't have a car and have to cart everything home by bus.  Anna was pretty excited when we bought it because it meant she could help "carry" the groceries.  However, she almost never goes shopping with us since she is at school and the gym.

Anna with the cart and her Fanta

The girls are settling in too.  Sabine has discovered museums.  She likes them all (at least so far) and her favorite is the Naturkunde (Natural History) museum.  The biggest draw is the dinosaur skeletons in the main gallery.  As a result she has become really interested in all bones and dinosaurs.  They also have a large display of stuffed birds that she really loves.  In fact, a couple of  weeks ago when she got to chose which museum to visit she went back to see it again.

At the Naturkunde Museum

Sabine has also spent lots of time playing with her ponies.  She has enjoyed having space to line them up or put them into some elaborate party configuration.  She also likes to set up reenactments of her favorite episodes.

Playing with the ponies

Ponies on an air mattress

Anna has settled in at school.  She is attending school across the street from the SportForum which is where she practices every day.  After lunch, she takes her scooter from the school to they gym with two of her teammates.  You can check out the school here.  There are some nice pictures of it including one when it was newly built in 1978.  Her teacher (Frau Staggenborg) lived in Seattle 13 years ago as part of a high school exchange program.  As a result, her English is quite good. She also knows lots of stuff about where Anna is from which is cool.  The only bummer is that school starts at 7:40AM and it is all the way across town.  This means we have to leave the house by about 6:25AM every morning.  We have our trip down to a science though so it goes pretty fast.  Anna likes it because she gets to use almost every form of transit the city offers.  We take the 237 bus to the Bahnhof (train station) where we transfer to the U-bahn (subway) from there we change to the S-bahn at Jungfernheide finally we get on the tram (street car).  It is only about a five minute walk from the tram stop to the school.  

Gymnastics is going well too.  Anna tried out when we first arrived and was invited to the state team.  This means that she is on a team that represents Berlin for her age group.  There are 6 girls in Anna's age group and 20 total (including all age groups).  The nice thing is that the state team really starts when you are in 3rd grade so the girls on Anna's team have only been there since August when school started.  They practice 5 days a week but the start and end times vary slightly and they sometimes practice on Saturdays.  There are lots of differences.  They have a dance teacher and regularly scheduled dance training.  They go to the sauna after practice on Tuesdays.  They go running on Thursdays (weather permitting) and on Saturdays (if they practice).  They have a much more intense conditioning routine so Anna actually comes home sore sometimes (especially after they go running or on dance nights).  There is a twice annual training vacation where the coaches take the team somewhere for a week.  In December, they are going to Austria.

The team practices at the SportForum in Hohenschoenhausen.  The facility houses practice facilities for all kinds of sports including archery, swimming and soccer (just to name a few).  It was the East German Olympic training center and is the largest of it's kind in Europe.  Patrick found something that said 3,500 athletes practice there every day.  It also includes dorms and a school.  Here is the link to the official gym website.  If you want to see more, there are some great YouTube videos (in German of course) that showcase two of the older girls at Anna's gym.  It gives a better view of the gym and you get to see the coaches too - Tammy  (This one is actually a four part series.  The Go for Gold website where it came from is something produced by the SportForum.) and Michelle.  Two great things about this gym, the wall of  windows makes it really light and it is warm even when it is cold outside.

At the Gym

Anna has learned some new skills and is becoming more confident.  Each week, the coaches recognize the girl who did the best/improved most in each event.  Anna has now gotten the award for every event and she is very proud of that.  The coaches are quite impressed with her since she never cries.  Apparently, if the other girls fall or don't like something or are having a bad day they cry.  The coaches can't believe that Anna doesn't cry and they asked her if the girls at her other gym cried a lot.  She is getting ready for her first meet on Saturday (November 17).  This is the only time she will compete as an AK8 since the German system is age based.  In January, Anna will become an AK9 since she will be 9 in 2013. 

Anna with her bar bear

October 28 was Berlin's 775th birthday and the first time the city celebrated as one.  The 750th celebration happened right before the wall fell.  It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to go check it out.  We headed to the Nikolaiviertel which was really crowded.  We walked around a bit and then ended up at the Deutsches Historisches (German History) Museum .  Entrance was free to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the museum so it was also packed.  We wandered through quickly since it was so crowded it was hard to see.  The big hit of the day was a section of paintings both very old and some newer ones.  Both Anna and Sabine really enjoyed it.  In fact, Anna wants to go to an art museum next.

Rotes Rathaus & Fernsehturm

The Berliner Dom

The very best part of our visit to the Deutsches Historisches Museum was they had free face painting.  The lady who was doing it was very artistic.  She added glitter, painted lips and did all kinds of other cool stuff.  We had to wait a bit but it was worth it.

A couple of Sundays ago we went to the Tierpark.  It was the East Berlin zoo.  It was built on the grounds of a castle (the Schloss Friedrichsfelde).  As a result, it is big and beautifully landscaped.  We saw lots of animals including some we had never seen before like maned wolves and manatees.  They even have a honey badger but we didn't see it.  Sabine and Anna both had a great time.  They got to visit the spielplatz (playground) and the petting zoo.  Both of the girls were worried about that because they had a bad experience with the goats in the Munster zoo.  It wasn't much different here.  The goats are really pushy and want food so they stand right by the food machine and watch to see if you buy food.  If you do, they run to the gate and wait.  They push and shove trying to get the food.  Sabine didn't stay long but Anna had Patrick carry her food in and then went to find the sheep and goats not right by the gate.  

At the Tierpark

Relaxing in Aschaffenburg

Today was a nice relaxing day.  We got up a bit later and went down to breakfast.  The breakfast lady LOVED the girls and thought they were so cute.  She kept coming back to chat with them and with us.  We had a wonderful breakfast and then went back up to the room to plan our day.

We started in the Schloß garten.  It is immediately out the door to our hotel so it was the perfect place to begin.  It was beautiful and green.  The first building we came to was the Früstucks (Breakfast) Pavillion.  It is the place where the king used to take breakfast and it has a phenomenal view.  From there we walked to the Pompeianum.  It is a replica of the villa of Castor and Pollux from Pompei.  It was severely destroyed in World War II but has since been rebuilt and is full of Roman artifacts.  Anna really enjoyed walking through and the Admissions lady kept saying how cute the girls were.

After we finished at the villa, we made our way through the garden to the castle.  Along the way, we enjoyed plenty of scenic views of the Main river.  We even saw two pairs of swans swimming in it.  At the castle, we made our way inside to the exhibits after looking at the courtyard.  The first thing we saw was an explanation of the castle’s history.  It was first built in the 1300’s then it burned.  In the 1600’s it was rebuilt as a castle for the Archbishop of Mainz as a secondary residence.  That building included the remnants of the original fortress.  It was then destroyed in the Second World War when a German army commander chose to base his operations in the cellar.  The U.S. Army destroyed the castle to get to him.  In the 1960’s the Bavarian Castle Department restored the castle and opened a portion to the public.  Today, it houses an art museum, a display of castle furnishings (hidden during the war to avoid destruction) and the world’s largest collection of cork models.  Anna had a good time at first but got bored after the first half.  There is only so much art an 8 year old can take.

Afterward, we found a playground where the girls could get some wiggles out and then we ate lunch including some Bavarian pretzels which were excellent.  After lunch, we continued wandering and made our way to Schöntal Park.  We walked past a ruined church covered with all kinds of birds which Sabine loved and made our way to the playground.  We didn’t have much time since we had to go meet a high school friend of Patrick’s.  We rushed back through town to the castle to meet her.

We went with Martina and her boyfriend Michael to have ice cream.  By this point, Sabine was quite tired and ready to be done.  She had a little melt down while we were having ice but was better once we were done.  From there, we walked back to the playground we were at before and the girls played.  It was pretty hot and humid and they were both tired so it didn’t last long.  We walked back to the hotel, stopping at another church along the way.

After a short break in the hotel room, we made our way out to dinner.  We stopped at a wine bar not far from our hotel.  The woman who helped us was very nice and the food was great!  I had flammkuchen – flat bread pizza – with almonds and gruyere cheese.  It was very yummy!  The girls weren’t that hungry so they played while Patrick and I relaxed and had dessert.  We chatted with our waitress for quite a while and told her it was our last night in Germany.  She gave us a discount and wished us well on our trip home.

We heard music and walked back up toward the castle to see what was going on.  We found a restaurant full of dancing people.  They were all quite good and we watched for a minute.  Pretty soon, Anna was dancing with Patrick.  We then walked back up toward the castle since Sabine wanted to see it again.  The girls danced with Patrick again and then we headed back toward the hotel.

Tomorrow, we are leaving.  On the one hand, it will be nice to get back to our regular routine.  I know Sabine misses it.  On the other hand, we will be sad to go.  We have had amazing weather (only two days of rain out of 13 and most of the time temperatures were in the 80s), great food, lots of cool stuff to see and fun times with family. 

Another Long Day

We started the day at a bakery.  We had croissants that were quite excellent.  Since we didn’t see much of Erfurt the night before we decided to walk around and do a bit of shopping in the morning.  We walked over the Krämerbrücke.  It is one of the city‘s most interesting structures.  It has shops and houses that line it and the bridge dates from 1325.  From there, we walked to Dom.  It is a huge church on a big square.  On our way up to the church we walked through a market selling everything from flowers to fresh meat.  We did a bit of shopping and then hiked up the stairs to the Dom.  It was quite impressive but the main church was closed until noon so we didn’t get to see the inside.  We then walked around through town and into the Anger district for a bit of shopping.  We even saw statues of die Maus and die Elefant.  By that time it was time to hurry back to the hotel to check out and be on our way.

Today we drove through the Thüringer Wald (Thuringian Forest).  It was similar to the Harz but with different kinds of trees.  We first stopped at Oberhof a ski resort and summer hiking destination.  We stopped for lunch at an Italian place where the owner seemed to know all of the guests.  They were very nice and had excellent food.  After that, we continued on our way through the forest.  Once again, it was very scenic. 



On our way down the mountain, we saw a big ruined building with a guard tower next to it.  As we drove by, Patrick figured out that it was a remnant of the East German border defense.  A few meters later, we saw the sign about the wall falling.  Shortly thereafter, Patrick pulled off to see if we could hike to see the tower.  We did but we also found a small remnant of the West German border controls as well as a hike to a sculpture garden commemorating the fall of the wall.  We talked with Anna about how her Opa used to guard the border on the Western side and how Papa’s Opa fought in the Second World War and what happened to Papa’s Oma and Opa at the end of the war.  She was really interested in figuring it all out.



Finally, we were on the last leg of our journey to Aschaffenburg.  By now it was 5PM and we saw lots of people heading to church in a couple of the towns we passed through.  By now, the girls were done riding in the car but they did great.  We did make one detour outside of Schweinfurt to see the place where Patrick used to live.  Anna was interested to see the field where Patrick cut his arm as a boy.  She knows the story well. 

We finally got to our hotel right at 7PM.  Our room is on the 3^rd floor and there isn’t an elevator so we had to lug all of our stuff up to our room.  On the plus side, the room is huge and has plenty of room for all of us.  We are excited about that since we are staying here tomorrow night too.

Once we got settled, we went wandering about to find dinner.  We walked toward downtown and the Schloß.  It is HUGE.  We walked a bit and found a Bavarian restaurant for dinner.  The food was excellent.  While we were eating, we heard an organ grinder and saw girls handing out leaflets.  Anna went to get one and we found out that tonight is the night of open churches – for Pfingsten.  We were going to check it out but Sabine was done so we walked a bit instead.

Finally, it was time to go back to the hotel.  The girls wanted to write in their journals and we were all tired.  We are looking forward to checking out the city tomorrow and having a slow day with no driving. 

A Long Day

Today we started early since we were on the road to Erfurt.  When we got up, Sabine wasn’t happy.  We thought that she was just tired and didn’t want to leave Heidrun’s since there are so many animals there.  We packed up, said goodbye to Heine and were on our way.  She fussed the whole way to Oma and Opa’s so Patrick concluded she was hungry.  We fed her as soon as possible and that was a mistake.  She vomited!  After that, she had a drink and was ok.  In fact, she ate almost all the rest of her brötchen and a slice of meat.  After eating, she drank her bottle and fell asleep.   We had a nice breakfast and chat with Oma and Opa.  Anna was really sad to go and she hugged both Oma and Opa a couple of times. 

Sabine continued to sleep for about 2 hours and we thought the vomiting was just stress.  We were wrong.  She woke up about 2/3 of the way through our drive to Goslar and started fussing.  When we were almost into town she got sick again.  Patrick tried to find a place to pull over but there aren’t tons of options when you are on a narrow mountain road.  As soon as we got into town, Patrick stopped at the first Apotheke he saw.  The woman there was very nice and gave us some tummy medicine for Sabine with some water to take it.  She sucked it down, we changed her out of her barfy clothes and she seemed better. 

Goslar was very nice.  There is a large, old section of town that is a UNESCO world heritage site.  We walked around looking at the old buildings and churches.  It was really cool to see all of the old buildings and walk on the narrow cobblestone streets.  It wasn’t long until we decided to eat.  We found a nice little place with outdoor tables and had lunch.  Sabine ate great.  We gave her another dose of medicine after lunch as a precaution and everything seemed better. 

We got back in the car and continued our journey through the Harz mountains.  About 30 minutes later we stopped in Braunlage for ice cream.  It is a cute little ski resort town.   We had a nice time eating ice outside in the sun and then continued on our journey to Erfurt.

We drove down the other side of the mountain through a few more cute little towns.  On the other side, we drove past the line that used to divide eastern and western Europe.   Of course we had to stop to take a picture.  We chose back road for the rest of our journey since they are more scenic and they were.  As we went back up into the Thuringian mountains we could see the hills, fields and towns.  It was very pretty.  As we got almost all the way to our hotel, Sabine got sick again.  This time we anticipated a bit better and we got stopped before she was actually sick.  We still had to change clothes again and she took another dose of medicine. 

At last, we were within a few minutes of our hotel.  We ended up on a narrow, cobblestone street driving right past a huge church.  When we got to the end of the road there was a problem however, the GPS wanted us to turn on a small, pedestrian only bridge.  By this time we were all done and ready to be at the hotel.  The car GPS was able to find the hotel easily.  We drove around to the other side and down more narrow streets and found it.  YAY!  It was after 7PM when we finally got to our room.

After making our way to the room it was time for dinner.  We walked a little bit and found a nice Thuringian restaurant.  We had a relaxing dinner and then started back to the hotel.  As soon as we left our restaurant, we noticed people everywhere.  Every restaurant and bar was packed with people and we heard music.  We walked down the street and found a beer fest and plenty more people.  We walked back through and found the café where we will eat breakfast.  The hotel we are at tonight doesn’t include breakfast in the price of the room so we are going to branch out.  Anna isn’t certain how it is going to work but once she has her brötchen it will be fine.  We stopped at a playground on the way back to the hotel and the girls played a bit.  By the time we were back in the room it was just after 10PM.

Tomorrow we will be on the last leg of our journey.  Sabine is ready to go home, Anna wants to stay here….

On the Beach

Today we got up earlier planning to go on a small adventure.  After breakfast, the girls revolted.  Anna said she wanted to stay here and play, not go.  So, we changed the plan.  Once that was decided, Heine told the girls they could help him let all of the animals out and feed them.  So, of course we had to wait to do that.  They had a blast feeding everyone and Sabine even got to hold a pigeon chick.  Anna didn’t want to.  They also saw rabbit babies.

After everyone was fed, the girls were ready to go.  We drove to Wremen.  It is a cute little town on the mouth of the Weser.  We went through town to the National Park and walked along the dike.  The weather is still warm and beautiful although it is cooler today.  It was windy up on the dike but so clear that you could see quite far.  We made our way down to a playground and the girls played for a bit.  We then took a peek at the beach.  The tide was out but we decided not to walk.  The ground is essentially very wet sand and Patrick wasn’t dressed for it.  We saws tons of vacation homes and thought it would be a great place to relax.  We made our way back to where we parked for lunch.  There were some little food trucks there selling fish and such. 

We then made our way back to see Oma and Opa again.  First, however, we stopped at the bakery.  When we were in town on Tuesday, we saw a display of Berliner.  Since then, both Patrick and I have been craving them.  Sweets in hand, we went back to see Oma and Opa again.  Sabine was really excited to be going back and she gave Opa a big hug when we got there.  Oma and Opa needed lunch first so Anna ate with them.  Sabine played.  We then ate our coffee and cake.  Anna ate a whole Berliner.  She was very proud of herself.  Sabine just ate the frosting off of half of hers.  The girls then went outside to play.  They had a great time.  Anna was pushing Sabine high on the slide and Sabine’s shoe came off.  They both laughed hysterically about it.

As soon as we were done with coffee and cake, we hurried back to Heidrun’s.  Martje and Lina were coming to visit and we didn’t want to miss that.  Sabine was sad to leave Oma and Opa though.  She wanted to stay with them longer.  So, we are going back for breakfast on our way out of town tomorrow.

Anna had a great time playing with Martje and Lina once she got over the language barrier again.  It was warm enough for the girls to play in a little pool.   They splashed around for a while but the water was cold so they didn’t stay long.  Sabine wanted to play more but we made her get out because she was getting really cold.  She was also really tired so she came in to watch TV and relax.  While we were sitting in the house the girls started screaming.  The baby geese had found the pool.  They took a little swim.  It was really cute.

Martje and Lina didn’t stay long.  They have school tomorrow and had to get home to go to bed on time.  Anna and Sabine watched German TV until dinner and then played a bit until bath time.  We wanted to take advantage of having a bath tub.  Anna does great in the shower but Sabine doesn’t and most hotels have just showers no bath tubs.