Back to Bremerhaven

Today was hot again.  We decided to go back to Bremerhaven.  There was quite a bit of stuff we didn’t get to see.  Also, there was another gymnastics practice for Anna to try and it was fairly close to downtown.  We started off visiting Oma and Opa again.  The girls were sort of excited this time but had lots more energy because we hadn’t done anything else first.  We looked at the book we made for Oma’s birthday and talked about all of the pictures.  Anna and Sabine had fun finding the things they knew and talking about them.  After that, they went out to play again but it didn’t last long.  Anna went in and out a couple of times.  She was excited to figure out how to find her way to the playground and how to ring the bell to get back in.  It didn’t take too long for the girls to get bored and so we were on our way.

We made our way to the Mediterraneo.  It is an indoor made to look like the downtown area of an Italian city.  It has shopping and restaurants.  We wandered a bit until we found a restaurant we liked.  In the center of the mall, they have a fountain and the restaurants have “outdoor” seating around it.  There is a glass dome so it feels like you are outside even though you aren’t.  We ate and then were on our way across the building to the Klimahaus.

The Klimahaus is an exhibit that traces a path around the earth on the 8^th degree of longitude.  It follows the journey of one man from Bremerhaven around the world.  It takes you through 9 different cities and introduces you to a family in each of those places.  It was pretty cool.  We saw a Swiss glacier, Sardinian forest fires & rain, African heat, Arctic cold, humidity in Samoa, and barren landscape in Alaska.  Sabine had a good time until we went into the jungle at night.  It was dark, hot, humid and full of weird noises.  We had only just walked in when she said she wanted to leave but the path was one way.  She survived but was much more timid. 

After we finished at the Klimahaus, Anna and Patrick went off to find gymnastics practice.  Sabine and I stayed behind since we didn’t want to sit around for two hours while Anna did gymnastics.  Instead, we made our way back to the Mediterraneo for ice cream.  Sabine was pretty impatient for the zoo but we ate ice cream and relaxed for a little bit. 

The zoo is pretty tiny and focuses primarily on Arctic animals but it was perfect for Sabine.  Since it was so hot most of the animals were sleeping or resting in the shade.  It was late in the afternoon so the zoo was pretty deserted.  We saw sleeping chimpanzees, polar bears, seals, penguins, other birds, otters and owls.  There were also raccoons.  Sabine wasn’t impressed.  A zoo employee was feeding them to show them to a group of birthday kids so the raccoons were out and about.  Sabine walked up to the exhibit looked in and said “those are raccoons, I have those at home” and walked away.  Of course there was a playground and we stopped for a bit.  Once we were finished, we went into the zoo shop.  They had tons of stuffed animals and Sabine couldn’t resist.  She bought a snowy owl for herself and a polar bear for Anna.  We then went in search of something to drink.  We finally found slushies.  Sabine got a big red one and drank almost the whole thing.  She loved it.

Meanwhile, Anna had a great time at gymnastics but it still wasn’t quite at her level.  First, they don’t have a vault because they don’t have enough money to maintain all of the equipment so they just don’t vault.  Second, they practice 6 hours a week, 2 hours per session.  Anna’s shortest practice is 3 hours in one session.  However, it only costs 10 euro a month which is a super deal.   The coach loved Anna and mentioned to Patrick how great her form was. 

We met back up in front of the Klimahaus and went off to dinner in the Columbus Center.  We had a good meal and were ready to go home once it was done.  It was after 8PM and everything was closed.  It was still very warm and nice outside and we had another beautiful sunset.