Archive for April, 2007

Quick Links to our German Trip

Published by kindli on April 30, 2007 in Germany, adventures and travel. 1 Comment

Here are links to days 1-10 of our blog posts. Pictures have been uploaded to Picasa! For the time being I am done with updates!

Day 1 Our travel adventures from Boston to Bad Godesburg

Day 2 Lunch out with Oma, Uncle B and the Neighbors

Day 3 Our day trip to Lintz am Rhine with Oma, Uncle B, Renate and Doris

Day 4 Our day trip into Bad Godesburg

Day 5 Our trip to Munich, visiting with Leslie, Sam, Leah, Kim & Beth, and Axel & Anja

Day 6 Adventures around Munich, and overnight travel experiences

Day 7 Our excursions around Berlin, Check Point Charlie, Snack Point Charlie, and the DDR Museum

Day 8 More of our excursions around Berlin, the Reighstag, the Brandenburg Gate, and other places of note in Berlin

Day 9 Our adventures on the train to Frankfurt

Day 10 Getting back to Boston

Day 10 - April 30 - Back to Boston

Published by kindli on April 30, 2007 in Germany, adventures and travel. 0 Comments

After a refreshing night sleep in our upgraded king size hotel room, two refreshing hot showers in a shower that had more knobs than an advanced coffee maker, and a last check of our room, we checked out of the Airport Sheradon and began our adventures in Frankfurt Airport.

I would like to state now that I have previous bias against Frankfurt Airport, today’s experiences only reinforce it.

We arrived in Terminal A and were told by a rather shrill little woman that we needed to be in Terminal B. This was hardly unexpected, I find it inevitable every time I fly out of Frankfurt that I always arrive at the wrong place to check in.

We arrived at Terminal B and checked in with out any problems. Then we were informed we would need to proceed to C2 to go through “American Security Procedures” and a “shuttle bus” would take us to our terminal.

Right then.

American Security procedures were actually more lax than those in the US (and far more lax than the previous time I’d attempted to leave Frankfurt). No shoes came off, the computer stayed in the bag, neither of us got wanded. The beefy security guy seemed almost dissapointed neither of us had beeped. We’d checked all our liquids, which seemed to be the new trend in “American Security” (the large signs were everywhere), so we had nothing exciting to paw though. It was rather anticlimactic.

On the bus we were given no real instruction, or direction. Our fellow passengers were as confused as we were, but we followed the heard off the bus and up the stairs labeled “After January 2007 this entrance is off limits to passengers. AIRLINE PERSONAL ONLY.” Gavin found the irony amusing.

We then had to pass through another Boarding Card Check Point. The woman two people in front of us, who was not a U.S. Citizen, did not know the address of the place she would be staying and some confusion ensued. Apparently if you’re not a U.S. Citizen you have to have the address of the first place you’re staying incase they want to check up on you later. The other lines breezed past us and we stood there as the woman got more confused and the Card Checker got more frustrated. Finally a superior was called over to clear up the matter.

Because I am an amazing and wonderful wife, I offered (rather stupidly) to go find Gavin something to drink. The ONLY drink stand accessible in the ENTIRE terminal (past the Boarding Card Check Point) was at the other end from where we were, and had a line with about fifteen people. It was being run by a single, easily distracted little man who spoke barely passable German, and a smattering of English.

To make matters more amusing, a petite woman in long traditional Indian dress kept trying to cut in line. When she was finally told off by a large German a few people from the front, she appealed to a younger woman to buy her an expresso and pressed a few coins into her hand. The young woman complied and the German had a few words to say about it all.

The line continued slowly until the woman two people in front of me (also in traditional Indian dress, although she carried a man’s wallet with a CA man’s drivers license) got to the counter. She pulled out a $20 dollar bill (US Currency) and wanted to buy some drinks. The following conversation ensued:

Little Man, looking at the $20 bill: “The change will be in Euros.”
Woman, perplexed/annoyed: “But I don’t want Euros.”

I would like to point out now that we are in FRANKFURT, which is in GERMANY which is part of the EUROPEAN UNION, and the current going currency is the EURO.

The woman poked through the wallet finally pulling out the $13 in ones, a ten and some change.

When I finally got to the counter the little man only had Bechers of Fanta, no Flasches. So I got Gavin a 0,3L Becher of Fanta for 3 Euros (he wanted Orange juice or Fanta, the OJ was 2,80 Euros and was a brand I’d never heard of, Fanta tends to be safe).

I got back to Gavin with the little Becher Fanta and related my story to him. He looked amused.

My second adventure was going to the Women’s WC. The moving sidewalk goes right past two temporary Women’s WCs, both of which, are locked. I learned this after going past them, walking back and trying both doors.

The real WC for Women is down near the end near the Snack Stand. It was dirty, and there was a line. There was a man in green cleaner’s coveralls who occasionally ran a damp mop over the floor making it slippery, he also opened the doors of the stalls of women who hadn’t locked the door properly. It was a rather revolting situation, but there were no other bathrooms.

When I got back to Gavin and our boarding area 22, a voice came on the loudspeaker asking us to exit the area so we could have our boarding passes scanned (again). We dutifully trekked out and formed two lines, one for questions, one for boarding card checking.

My question, where was the little lady to check our boarding cards? Fortunately we had company in our five-to-ten minute wait. Two robust comfortably dressed women from an “unsafe country” (some where in Africa, I missed the name), discussed the regulations (which they didn’t mind), and the very rude airport personal (their main gripe).

The two women were well spoken, educated and up-to-date on some pop-culture. They looked forward to going back to “Bean-Town,” and were very sociable. “Unsafe country” or not, the only way they’d be dangerous would be in a large well organized group, like the PTA, STUCO or a Human Rights Organization, fighting injustice and bad cafeteria food.

They were cheerfully disgruntled and had quite a few things to say about it all, and shared a few of their gems of wisdom with us: “George Bush is not the President of this country” (in response to being told the regulations were Bush’s fault) “If you want to search me get a room! Don’t go showin’ my skin to men!” (in response to being felt up by airport security personal) “That’s just rude, they are so rude!” (their general consensus of the airport personal). I couldn’t disagree with any of it.

At 10:30 a voice came over the loud speaker “Ladies and Gentlemen due to a mechanical problem we will not have information about when we will board until 11:30.” We were supposed to board at 10 and leave at 11.

Gavin turned to me:
“What time is it?”
“10:30.”
“And we won’t know when we can board until 11:30?”
“Yeah.”
“And we can’t leave the gate?”
“Exactly.”
“Having fun yet?”
“Welcome to hell.”

In the distance a small child started screaming. All around us passengers started to grumble. It would be a long day. Fortunately Boston is our final destination.

I checked the prices for the T-Mobil internet Hot Spot usage. Eight euros for an hour, or 2 euros for 15 minutes, payable via credit card. I think not. The 18 euros for the 24-hour usage at the hotel was outrageous enough.

We boarded at 10:45 am. We were in row 55 out of 56 in the middle row, aisle and the seat next to the aisle. Gavin accused me of picking awful seats until I pointed out that he’d booked the flights.

The flight wasn’t too awful as flights go. The last half hour the baby behind us felt the need to loudly express it’s unhappiness at whatever the situation it had back there in row 56 was, which was, by far, the most unplesant part of our trip.

During the turbulance in the landing a bottle of white wine broke in the bin above me and slowly dripped onto me during the landing and taxiing. One of the other passanger’s bags got soaked, happily our bags were in a different bin.

Immigration went easily. Germany 10 days, weather was lovely (the woman looked envious), saw Oma for her 87th, stamp-stamp go on through. Baggage claim too a bit longer, but everything came out fine. The machine belched luggage for about twenty minutes before spweing out our bags with their matching green-and-white stripped luggage belts.

Customs was equally easy. We declared we had spent 66.50 in Euros and we’d carefully itimized it. It was a bit of a joke really. Five euros on post cards, a Berlin Bear Figurine, a Glass Frog Prince, a Bear for the neighbor, Gummi Bears and Cocolates, and a book. Really big spenders. The guy glanced at us and our customs delceration and waved us past.

The taxi ride home was terrifying. Our apartment was still standing, our plants were OK, our window is still festering with rot, and we are ordering pizza for dinner.

Day 9 - April 29 - to Frankfurt

Published by kindli on April 30, 2007 in Germany, adventures and travel. 0 Comments

I should have known the day was going to be different when I awoke suddenly at 6:30 am to bright sunlight streaming into our hotel room. As a rule, when on vacation, unless I really have to, I try and avoid waking up at 6:30 am.

On our way down, we shared the elevator with two middle-aged women, this is not overly unusual, lots of middle-aged women frequent cute little hotels, what was weird was they were wearing Amplemanchen t-shirts.

At breakfast the two middle-aged women in Amplemanchen t-shirts from the elevator suddenly multiplied. There were between ten and fifteen of them, in jeans/khakis and matching t-shirts. It was mildly unnerving: they giggled like teenagers and drank lots of expresso.

We checked out of the hotel at around 9:45. For some reason, the price quoted on our internet booking was lower than the price-per-night listed in our room. The bill was for the lower (internet quoted) price, so we didn’t question.

Second breakfast was had at the Dunkin Donuts/Internet Cafe. I checked my e-mail and Gavin read on his Nokia. We shared an orange juice and an apple fritter. After awhile we got bored and headed to the Zoo Bahnhof where we took the S-Bahn to the Haupbahnhof.

The new Haupbahnhof in Berlin is amazing, and reminds me somewhat of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof in the way it goes down several stories and is visually interesting.

We opted for an early lunch around 11 because we were going to catch the earlier train at 11-something to Leipzig and then continue on to Frankfurt Flughafen. Lunch was at a rather posh McDonalds. If you’d taken down the garish bright yellow M and the obnoxious red trays and food packaging you would’ve thought you were in a trendy coffee bar or posh bistro. The employees wore bright red polo shirts with a white M on the side and dark wash jeans with an M embroidered lightly on the right rear pocket. They looked very sharp. McD’s has worked on it’s European Image.

After some debate and last minute train checking (yesterday’s internet disagreed with today’s internet and both disagreed with the posted schedules) we got on the 11-something train to Leipzig.

Half way into the trip to Leipzig it got eventful. The train schedule said the train we wanted to the airport did not run on 29/4/07… which was today. We got to Leipzig and the posted schedule said the train would show up at 1:11 on gleis 10. I asked a Service Info man and he pointed me to the Service Center for more information. Turns out due to construction the train had been canceled. No worries, at 2:11 there would be another train.

We had ice-cream in the Leipzig train station for an hour.

If the excitement had stopped there we would’ve all been very grateful. It didn’t. Our train from Leipzig was running late, not that it mattered, we had a hotel reservation, and our flight didn’t leave until the following day, something drastic would have to happen for us to miss it.

About half way through our trip a voice cracked over the loud speaker, the gist of what was said was “Due to forest fires between *static* and *static* the train is going to have to detour and will be even later. Sorry.” He later came on with a message for “the men traveling to Luxembourg” and an update that “no one has information about our arrival time in Frankfurt.”

I’m not sure how we were rerouted, but the train drastically cut back on speed. I got the impression the areas we were going through did not have tracks that were ideal for the ICE (inter-City Express).

Fortunately, it was a Sunday and we had no one to meet in Frankfurt. Our only exciting plans were checking into our hotel, dinner, hot showers (or a long soak if there was a tub), and bed. A forty-minute-plus delay, while not ideal, did not cause a huge mess of our travel plans. If we had tried to go from Berlin to Frankfurt on Monday and had a similar situation, panic would’ve ensued.

We arrived in Frankfurt around 6:30 pm. Checked in and went in search of food. We ended up eating Chinese food, again. After a hot soak in the huge tub, and some blog uploading, we collapsed into bed and watched Harry Potter in German.

Day 8 - 4/28 - Berlin 2nd Day

Published by kindli on April 29, 2007 in Germany, adventures and travel. 0 Comments

I love breakfast buffets at the Augusta. The collection of breads, meats, cheeses, juices, yogurts, jams, and coffees is spectacular. Gavin and I enjoyed breakfast, and went to the internet cafe to check e-mail.

Our big adventure of the day was to go to the Pergemon Museum, with a quick stop at the Gedenkness Kirche on our way to the Zoo Bus stop to catch the 100.

If you’re ever in Berlin and ponder taking a tour bus, don’t bother, take the 100 or 200 Bus (and a good map). It goes past all the major things to see, is cheaper (we got a 72 hour bus/U/S-bahn pass for less than 20 Euros), and runs far more frequently.

We took the 200, and walked to the Museum District. Several tour groups beat us so we had about a ten minute wait to get tickets. Gavin also got an audio tour, I can’t stand audio tours. Gavin likes to look and read/listen and remember what he sees, I tend to look, read the placard (if what I’m seeing interests me), and continue on at a slightly quicker pace. It made for an interesting few hours.

We saw the Pergemon Alter, some Hellenistic statues, a lot of things from Babylon, the Middle East, Egypt, Greece. Gavin probably remembers better than I do. I took a lot of pictures, and tried to remember what display I’d left Gavin near.

A few hours later, we left in search of lunch. There was an open air art-market, so we strolled through it. Gavin thought it was ironic that I wanted to spend more time in the art market than I had in the museum. In my defense, it was very nice outside.

We finally had lunch around two. After lunch, we took the 100 bus to the Capital, took a few pictures, then walked to the Brandenburg Gate. There were lots of street preformers, and the weather was beautiful. We walked around for a bit more, then rested on a bench along Unter den Linden.

Around 4:30 we headed back to the hotel to check our blister collection, stopping at the internet cafe to check train times, and the Steif store because it was fun. Later, we went to the grocery store to get food and snacks for our trip to Frankfurt in the morning. Back at the hotel, we did a little packing, and a lot of relaxing.

For dinner we went to “HOL IN WAL” a yummy out of the way Chinese resteraunt. Gavin had Broccoli Beef and I had Chicken with pineapple and vegtables in a sweet-sour sauce. It was a most excellent meal.

We stopped by the Steif Store to check out the animals, and found a cute little bear for our downstairs neighbor’s unborn baby. Hopefully the bear will be safe from Poli (the cat that we occasionally keep an eye on) until Baby has a chance to get it’s hands on it.

For dessert we went to the Hagen Daas shop and got a scoop each. Gavin pointed out that they were advertisiting it as a San Fransisco icecream, while in the US they tout the icecream’s German heritage, as Gavin pointed out “after all, it has an umlaut!”

Day 7 - 4/27 - Berlin

Published by kindli on April 27, 2007 in Germany, adventures and travel. 0 Comments

At about 5:15 am I told Gavin it was “time to get off the train” we’d over slept. This of course was not true, our train would not be getting to the Berlin Zoo stop for another 2 hours and 15 minutes. Gavin mumbled something, I rechecked my watch, corrected myself, and fell back asleep.

Around 6:30 am the conductor came by knocking on cubicles waking people up. I was already awake, I just didn’t want to uncurl myself from the blanket, or risk my neck getting out of bed on a moving train. I eventually got dressed and joined Gavin in his little area.

Coffee came at around 7:00 am and Gavin groggily decided it would be a good idea. I opted to take a few large swigs of water instead. When 7:30 rolled around we got off the train at Berlin Zoo. Our first mission: find a ticket machine for the bus/subway and buy two 3-day passes.

That was easily done, next: find our hotel. Gavin asked me where our hotel was, and when I couldn’t tell him and told him to “just trust me, I know where I’m going,” I got a skeptical look. We got there the first time, and did not get at all lost. Now I can give excellent directions:

From the Zoo Bahnhof go towards the Burger King, past the erotic shops, keep going until C&A is on your left and H&M is on your right, cross the street. Go past the pubs, go past Hagen Daas, Dunkin Donut, and Hol in Whal. Turn left at the first street after Hol in Whal, the hotel is on the right (across the street). Very simple, don’t ask for street names.

Our room wasn’t ready for check in until 2:00 pm so we left our luggage and went to the internet cafe/Dunkin Donut for breakfast and e-mail checking. They do not offer wireless.

At 9:30 with clarified directions we headed off to Potzdamer Platz, Gavin had written a paper about it in German and wanted to see it. After Potzdamer Platz we (and two large tourist groups) went to Check Point Charlie, saw the little hut, still guarded by American MPs (wearing Kevlar under their uniforms), and walked through the museum.

We opted for an early lunch at “Snack Point Charley” and ate at “Checkpoint Pizza” for lunch. As we ate we pondered the best way to get to the DDR Museum. Leslie had raved about it and had given us vague directions and a little map that wasn’t quite like the surrounding scenery (we counted about three churches, she just mentioned one).

Ready for adventure we set out, map in hand, determined to find the DDR Museum. As we got closer there were a few small signs pointing out the way. It turned out to be as fun as Leslie said, possibly a little funner. Gavin (and I) grumbled about “revisionist history” and “idealism” but over all it seemed like a fun, interactive way to experience the DDR, and it stood in stark contrast to what had been exhibited at the Check Point Charlie Museum. I would say they balance each other nicely.

Our feet rebelled so we took the 100 Bus back to the Zoo stop. On the way we passed (in no particular order) the Bundestag (with its new glass dome to signify the openness of government), the Brandenburger Tor (no longer covered), the Opera House, the Concert House that looks like a possessed oyster, and a few other notable landmarks that I can’t recall the names of (I’ll have to consult the guide book).

We happily checked into our hotel room at about 2:30. Tired and stinky from our previous day’s excursions, the night’s adventures on the train and the day’s outings in Berlin, we were quite thrilled to be able to finally relax and shower. We napped, relaxed, blogged, read and debated what to do with the following day, our only real “full day” in Berlin.

For financial reasons we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was pretty good, free refills of 7Up, and a yummy apple cobbler for dessert. As we munched on onion rings, Gavin flipped through the DK Germany book deciding what we should see next/tomorrow. For awhile we’d considered a tour with the 100 bus, but Gavin found the Pergemon Museum and has decided that’ll be on top of our list (after breakfast and e-mail).

On our way back from dinner, I started walking the “wrong” way. Gavin was a little concerned, but I reminded him I knew where the hotel was and he was somewhat reassured. Gavin was quite excited by the furniture showroom and art galleries in the area near our hotel. He chattered quite happily about good and bad modern minimalist design. It was endearing, and a topic I could follow.

We opted for a quiet evening in, a nice change after late bedtimes, and lots of walking. I watched “The Jackal” dubbed into German… Gavin read his Nokia and declared that “movies should never be dubbed.” I agree, movies are better in their original languages, but sometimes they can be amusing.

Day 6 - 4/26 - Munich… then to Berlin

Published by kindli on April 26, 2007 in Germany, adventures, friends and travel. 0 Comments

The official greeting of Axle and the official meeting of Anja (Axel’s g/f) took place after we’d showered and gotten dressed, but well before breakfast. We’d brought a book about Boston for Axel, and he and Anja excitedly flipped through it asking questions and oohing over the lovely scenery.

We went to one of several bakeries in the Max Weber Platz near where they live. We also went to the meat and cheese shop where Axel attempted to convince us sausages and cheese were good breakfast foods. The variety of meats on display was most impressive, and a little overwhelming. Anja had to hurry off to work, but Axel had breakfast with us and we chatted about the days plans.

We agreed to meet Beth and Kim at 10:30 at the propellor near the Deutsches Museum. Neither of us had to wait, which was very nice. Once inside, we agreed to meet up again “at noon” to decide what to do next. Gavin and I looked at the boats, and Kim and Beth disappeared off somewhere else.

Around 11:30 we saw Kim and Beth as we were checking out engines and helicopters. They were worried we were going to leave at noon. “And there is so much that we still want to see!” Beth said showing us her list of things circled. We agreed to regroup at 12:30 for lunch.

Gavin and I saw the ceramics, glass blowing and a little of the paper on our way to see the printing exhibit. Gavin excitedly explained everything and attempted to keep me from pushing buttons (then losing interest and walking away).

By the time it got to be lunch, Beth and Kim still hadn’t seen everything they wanted to, so we agreed to meet up at 3:00 to see what was going on. Gavin and I looked at airplane technology, while they disappeared off to floors beyond.

At three we regrouped and went up to see the sundial exhibit on the sixth floor. Then we went to the museum gift shop where Leslie met us. Gavin sat outside with his Fanta (that he ordered himself) and read his Nokia while I picked out postcards. I bought two post cards and joined him in the sun. Leslie followed shortly thereafter.

Around 5:00 we started walking towards the English Gardens and got distracted by an ice cream parlor. Mild hilarity insued as the menu was deciphered, and our waiter attempted to explain in english what the * meant. We’re still not entirely sure.

Gavin and I split an After Eight Sundae, Kim had a Mango Becher, Leslie had Chocolate Spaghetti Ice with a Different Sauce than the One Listed, and Beth had a (very watery) Milk Shake. There was quite a selection, and I got the impression our waiter was amused.

Instead of walking all the way to the English Gardens, we took the U-Bahn. Beth and Kim decided they wanted to go shopping, so Leslie shepherded them off in the direction of the English Bookstore, while Gavin and I headed towards the English Gardens in search of the Chinese Tower.

We walked around enjoying the lovely weather, not finding the Tower. After about fifteen minutes with no luck, Gavin asked me when I’d become so goal oriented. No particular reason, I just wanted to see it. After a few circles and some map pondering we finally came across the Tower. There is a Bier garden next to it and the tower is a broad interpretation of what Chinese is.

Satisfied with our success, we shared a Fanta. Then we sat on a bench for a little while enjoying the sun and the breeze. Around 6:15 we decided we should head back to Axel’s, as we had promised to meet up for dinner at 7:00.

Anja was already at the main door when we emerged from the U-Bahn station. Her sister’s water heater had broken, so she was coming over to have a hot shower. While we waited for Anja’s sister to finish up, we talked about our day, the trip to the museum, the English Garden, and clarified that Samuel is NOT Leslie’s child, Leslie is the au pair.

Around 7:30 we headed out for dinner. We found a table, Axel got us drinks, and then we went to the counter and ordered our food. The place makes a variety of pastas, pizzas and rices. While you watch they toss the ingredients in a wok like pan, finish boiling the pasta, mix it all together and slide it into a funky shaped bowl. Very fun to watch.

We sat and ate and talked until about 9:45, then we headed back to Axel’s, picked up our suitcases and we all headed for the bahnhof. Leslie, Beth and Kim had agreed to meet us at 10:30 to see us off on our 11:02 overnight train.

They showed up as we were heading for our track. There were handshakes all around as Axel and Anja met Leslie, Beth and Kim, and then sad hugs and goodbyes as Gavin and I headed down the bahnsteig to compartment number 24.

As predicted, compartment #24 numbers 32 and 36 were in section G, almost as far away from the platform where we’d hugged everyone goodbye as you can get.

Because the numbers were 32 and 36 we were not sure if we would be in the same compartment, honestly, I wasn’t even sure what sort of sleeping facalities I’d booked for us. They wern’t all that bad. Number 32 was two seats that folded together to make a bed, number 34 was a pull down mattress that was suspended over 32 and had safty rails and a ladder. Gavin expressed lower bunk prefrence, so I climbed into the top bunk.

There was no door, just a curtain, and I think I woke up several times in the night. I know I told Gavin it was “time to get off the train” we’d over slept at about 5:15 am.

Day 5 - April 25 - To Munich

Published by kindli on April 25, 2007 in Germany, adventures, friends and travel. 0 Comments

This morning, after breakfast, Gavin finished hammering the final shield on my walking stick and we loaded up the Silber Kugel with our bags. Uncle B and Oma drove us down to the Bad Godesberg Bahnhof and waved from the parking lot as we waited for our train.

We took an RE to Koln, and debated locking up our luggage to check out the dom. We opted not to. The Dom is impressive, but not worth missing a train for. Instead, we picked up a few brotchen at the bakery and headed up to our train.

Internet on the train turned out to be a misreading of both the web site and train propaganda. Cell phones work on trains, Telecom cards work on trains, but the train itself does not offer a wireless internet. Some train stations offer hotspots (for about 8 euros an hour), but the trains themselves do not. Eventually this will be posted to the blog.

The train ride itself was fairly uneventful. Gavin read on his Nokia, while I looked at scenery and clicked around on the laptop. We had our brotchen, and some Leibniz Waffle & Nougat keks which proudly stated “Butterkeks (38%) und Waffel mit Nuss-Nougatcremefullung (50%)” … what is the other 12%? I’m not sure I want to ponder that too deeply.

Eventually we arrived at the Munich Hauptbahnhof, we purchased U-Bahn tickets. Axel had given us very good instructions the day before, and we easily found the chocolate shop where he had left the key.

Clever Axel simply mentioned he lived on the “second stock.” In Germany the ground floor is counted as zero, so the “second stock” was actually the third floor of a beautifully maintained older apartment building with no elevator and very loud creaky stairs.

The apartment itself was quite nice as well. High ceilings, good views, and lots of light. There was also a well finished bathroom and a kitchen about the same size as ours, only much better thought out. Axel was still at work, so we left our bags in the living room and headed out to visit Leslie.

Getting to Leslie’s was an adventure. We changed U-bahns, caught a bus, and walked “down a street that looks like a driveway” (following directions). We arrived at the house before Leslie, and were let in by Silke, Leslie’s employer.

We had only been there about five minutes when Leslie and Samuel showed up. Samuel had been to the children’s gym and he had “lots of fun.” Sam was quite excited to meet Gavin and I. Leslie disappeared and came back in a dirndl. It was quite something.

We gave Leslie the stack of magazines we’d brought for her, and the books we’d brought for Sam, including “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” - the complete set, including songs, activities and a CD for Sam to ask Leslie to play “lots of times” and “Make Way for the Ducklings.” I read the Mouse one, while Gavin got about half way through Ducklings before Sam found other things to do.

We started into the carrot cake Leslie had made. Baby Leah joined us, and about ten minutes later, Beth and Kim arrived back from their day at art meuseums. There were more hugs, and more cake. Sam brought out his helicoptor and showed it off, and then went off for bed time.

While Silke was attempting (and losing) Bedtime Rounds 1-3, we passed Leah around, helped her play with her baby-food-jar-cap collection, the finger puppet pig, and talked about what we’d been up to.

At around 8 pm, Silke triumped or Sam gave up, and Leah also dissapeared to bed. We headed out for dinner. Leslie took us to a Greek resteraunt. Outside seating was full, so we sat in the basement dining area. We got there around 9 pm and ordered fairly promptly. The food showed up around 9:30-45.

By 10:05 we’d paid and left quickly before they could change their minds. We headed to the Irish Pub where Bizan (Leslie’s boyfriend) was watching “The Game” (whichever soccer game that was playing). On our way, we stopped for icecream. When we got to the Pub, Leslie handed off her purse to Beth and bravely headed into the pit of Soccer Fans.

Eventually Leslie emerged and informed us that “Bizan said the game would be over at 10:30 and he’d be out then.” So we headed across the street to the park to sit and wait. Sure enough, at around 10:30 the soccer fans started staggering out. One of them recognized Leslie and walked across the street and gave her a hug. He was introduced as Bizan (“Rhymes with Dijon, like the Mustard” Kim explained).

It was late, he seemed like a nice enough fellow. They’d met at an international group for young adults of sorts where he was an active member, and where Leslie was told to go to “make friends and meet people.”

We got back to Axel’s apartment around 11:15. Fortunatly, Axel had just gotten back before we had, so we didn’t wake anyone up. Axel popped out of his bedroom as we dragged into the livingroom. We said our hellos, and our goodnights and promised to catch up in the moring.

Day 4 - 4/24 - Into BG

Published by kindli on April 24, 2007 in Germany and adventures. 0 Comments

This morning after breakfast Gavin and I walked down the hill into Bad Godesberg. It took us about twenty minutes as we were in no hurry and wanted to enjoy the lovely weather and scenery.

Our first order of business was to find an internet cafe, and check our e-mail. We didn’t update our blog, so our fans will just have to wait until I can get the laptop to the internet. I hope everyone survives the suspense. We used the internet each for half an hour and paid a total of 1,50 Euros. A very reasonable rate.

We opted for an early lunch at a local cafe, as the exercise and fresh air had worked up our appetites. After lunch we walked up to the Godesberg itself, about a fifteen minute hike.

The view from the viewing platform/hotel/restaurant was spectacular. We bought drinks and enjoyed the sunshine. We also considered walking up the tower itself, but could find no one to pay the 1 euro entrance fee, and that was a good enough excuse not to walk up more stairs.

Back in the city proper, we visited Globus, which is “a cross between Market Basket, Target and SEARS with better toys.” Gavin spent a good deal of time admiring the LEGO train sets, while I found Maus, Elephant and Ente from Sendung Mit Die Maus, and a Schnappi Crocodile that sang the Schnappi song (Shnee-shna Schnappi, Schnappi Schnappi Schnappi! … Schnappi d- klein- Kro-ko-deel!). In the end we bought a bottle of water and some gummi bears.

We continued through the city, stopping at Telecom to see if they sold international phone cards (the sales people never even looked our way so we left, but not before Gavin had admired nearly every phone in the store and grumbled about America cellular plans).

We visited both bookstores, Gavin very much wanted to buy “Children of Hurion” (the newly released Tolkein book), but I insisted that Amazon would be less expensive AND we wouldn’t have to carry it around with us. For the first time in recent memory we went into a bookstore and did not buy any books.

As compensation, Gavin and I stopped by an ice cream parlor and had a spaghetti ice, vanilla ice cream run through a gadget to make it look like spaghetti, topped with strawberry sauce, almonds or white chocolate flakes, and occasionally chocolate meat balls (ours had white chocolate flakes and no “meat balls”).

We took the bus back up the hill, and arrived about the same time as Uncle B and Oma who had been out on a walk. We all enjoyed some water and talked about our adventures. Oma and Uncle B had a very nice walk, and we told them about our adventures. I also helped Oma finish hanging our laundry.

For tea time we went next door to Christiana’s house, she lives two doors down from Oma. We had the rest of the previous day’s birthday cake with sahne, and adorable little cups of tea. We sat and chatted for several hours, until the tea got quite cold.

After tea we came home and checked the drying laundry’s progress. The jeans were tossed in the dryer, Gavin went back to reading, and I tried in vain to download the quicktime movie of the shildkruter onto the computer. I shall try again with the iMac when we get home. Gavin didn’t have any ideas either, so I didn’t feel quite as stupid.

Back at Oma’s the phone rang. Oma answered it and looked quite confused. Then she called to me “Kindli, Munich is on the phone.” Munich? It was Axel, he had gotten my e-mail and had called with directions to his apartment and where to pick up the key. No sooner than I had hung up with Axel, Leslie called.

Leslie also had directions on how to get to her place. I will have to look them over and look at our map a few more times. Then in the background I heard a wail: “Ga-veen! Ich talk to GA-VEEN!” Apparently Samuel wanted to talk to Gavin, so Gavin was called to the phone and looked very confused as there were loud beeping noises (Sam pushed buttons). Sam proudly informed Gavin that he’d spent the day at his Oma’s and his Oma had a soccer ball for him. When Leslie got the phone back, she finished giving me directions.

Our laundry finished drying (mostly), and with our early (9 am) departure looming in our minds, Gavin and I packed most of our nonessentials in preparation for the departure.

Oma insisted on a “little appetizer” before dinner, so around six we had pizza bread. It was hardly a “little appetizer” and would have been quite sufficient for dinner, but Oma insisted and then served apple pancakes for our “real dinner.”

Eventually Oma settled down to watch TV, Gavin to read, and I sorted pictures to upload to our pictures and blog. Hopefully that will be done on our train trip tomorrow. I have several blog entries to up load, and a few dozen pictures.

Day 3 - 4/23 -A Trip to Lintz

Published by kindli on April 23, 2007 in Germany, adventures, family and friends. 0 Comments

Today was Oma’s birthday so the phone started ringing off the hook around 9 am with well wishers and congratulators. The plan for the day was to take a shiffahrt to Lintz am Rhine, have lunch, and walk around the town.

It was Oma’s birthday, so she got a free trip. Uncle B. and Renate got the senior discount and Gavin and I rode along under some odd-balled discount scheme that I never quite figured out.

In Bad Honnef, the boat stopped and picked up Doris. Doris is a long time friend of the family, the exact details perpetually fail me, I just remember she is very nice, speaks excellent english, and we got lost walking down the Drachenfells a few trips back.

We arrived at Lintz around 12:50, and went to Oma’s favorite restaurant. It is a little ways away from the main shopping district, but worth the extra three block walk. It has a lovely view of the trees, train tracks, and river; it also has a nice shaded eating area outside with old grape vines growing up on the surrounding trellises.

Gavin and I read carefully over the menu for something that he would like. He had “Putenschnitzel Hawaii Art” –breaded chicken with pineapple and hollandaise sauce, I had some sort of regional specialty, with kartoffel knodeln and apfel kompote.

After lunch we walked around Lintz and had ice cream. I had hazelnuss and I ordered Gavin peppermint chocolate chip. Gavin and I stood in the shade while Renate, Oma and Doris lined up on a bench. Following that there was some light shopping, walking around the city and deciding that we should probably head back to the boat.

Oma, Renate and Uncle B. headed back to the benches by the Rhine, while Dorris, Gavin and myself went to the glassmaker’s shop. I had never realized there was a glassmaker’s shop in Lintz, apparently sometimes you can watch him at work, but he was not there today.

The variety of glass work on display was amazing. The colors were intense, and the shapes were amazing. There was also a whole room of Christmas stuff. Gavin made a few disparaging comments about commercialized Christmas and we exited quickly.

I was quite proud of myself, I just bought two postcards (and a little note card to leave a note for Oma). I also got a little green glass frog king, modeled after the Grimm’s fairy tale. In the original story the Princess throws the frog forcefully against the wall after he tries to jump into bed with her.

The boat trip back was much faster than the trip there as we were going down river. Uncle B. spent nearly the entire time in the pilot house, while Oma, Renate and Doris wondered why the boat was so empty, and talked happily about the beautiful weather.

We got home around 6:30 and I uploaded the pictures from the trip, while Gavin gleefully found his Nokia and started to read HP again. I had made him leave it at the house so he could enjoy the scenery on the cruise.

About the same time I finished uploading pictures, Christiana came over with a birthday cake for Oma. Her husband, Richard, was waging war on the bugs eating their cherry tree and the bushes, so he arrived a little later. It was a heart-shaped chocolate cake with pears inside and powdered sugar on top. It was quite good with lots of whipping cream. We also had schweine ohren (pigs ears, also referred to as mause ohren) a somewhat heart-shaped pastry partially dipped in chocolate.

We had cake, schweine ohren and tea. We sang Happy Birthday (loudly and very off-key). Then Oma dissapeared for a little while and came back with mini-pizzas. The timeline here is a little messed up, but we sort of lost track and soon it was nearly 9 pm.

The party eventually broke up, Richard and Christiania went home, Renate and Bernie dissapeared, and Oma went off to do whatever it is Oma does in the evening when she’s not watching TV. Gavin happily went back to his Nokia, and I uploaded more pictures, recharged batteries, and blogged.

Day 2 - 4/22/07 - Maritime Hotel, Bonn

Published by kindli on April 22, 2007 in Germany, adventures and family. 0 Comments

This morning at around 8:30 I plodded down to the yellow bathroom. As I passed Oma’s bedroom, she was up and about in her bright orange bathrobe, and excitedly informed me she was about to go down and make breakfast. She further reminded me there was a yellow bathrobe for me, and a blue bathrobe for Gavin, and we should be down for breakfast shortly.

Breakfast was more brotchen with Nutoka (similar to Neutella), or himbeern jam, depending on your taste. Oma had musli. We all had tea. Oma reminded us to be ready by 11:45 at which point we would be going to lunch with the Mullers, her next door neighbors. Herr Muller helps her with the gardening, and Frau Muller feeds their shildkurter the leftover salad greens.

After breakfast, I showered, then I finished up the previous day’s blog while Gavin showered. We went downstairs where I watched a talk show about animals, they talked to an animal psychic, a person that filmed wild animals, the director of the Koln Zoo, and two other people who weren’t important enough for me to remember.

At 11:45 we dutifully walked Oma over to the Muller’s. Frau Muller told us Karl (Herr Muller) had gone ahead to the garage and was taking the car out, so we headed to the garages.

As we drove to the Maritim Hotel, Oma told everyone about her friend Ushi’s plight. Due to the Bonn Marathon’s road closures, Ushi couldn’t join us for lunch. We passed a few Marathon walkers, and only one or two minor detours on our way. There we met up with Uncle B. and Renate, and heard about Ushi’s plight again.

Lunch at the Maritim was about how lunch at most large hotel buffets was. The difference is in America, you get a glass of water immediately and it is perpetually filled through out the meal. Gavin and I drank water out of .2L shot glasses, while the others had a variety of drinks. Oma reminded the waiter that although we’d originally reserved for 8 there were only 7 because of the Marathon.

Uncle B. ate his way through everything, Renate had predominately salads and fruits, Oma had a lot of lax and smoked eel, the Mullers had the warm lunch, and Gavin and I had a little breakfast and a little lunch. We all enjoyed dessert, and Oma warned us we should “eat up because I won’t be cooking dinner tonight.”

Lunch concluded nearly three hours later and was followed by a photo shoot at the fountain. Uncle B. lined everyone up: Kindli, Gavin, Renate, Oma, Karl and Annamarie, and took some pictures. Then there was Kindli, Gavin, Oma, then Oma and Bernie, and finally Bernie and Renate.

When we got home Oma promptly hung up some laundry (some himberrm jam had ventured onto the table cloth, but that was OK, it was “cheap and from India and I don’t have to iron it” yay for synthetics). Oma then pulled her lounge chair out into the yard and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon weather.

Gavin and I ventured into the attic. Gavin marveled how it was solid concert floor with some area rugs and lots of insulation. He deemed it to be a “proper” attic, complete with light switch and good ladder.

I have very few things left in Oma’s attic: some hiking boots that are a bit small (left in 2002 after an Abroad…), two water guns (again, left after the 2002 Abroad), a sweater that does not fit, a white teddy bear, a collection of hotel-sized toiletries that are probably well past their prime in a complimentary airline business-class pouch of sorts, and some congealed nail polish.

Everything except the toiletries and congealed nail polish went back into the box boldly labeled “KINDLI’s.” I will probably abandon them in the yellow bathroom. No one will really notice, as it is already home to a collection of sample sized toiletries, toothbrushes, shampoos and such that have been left by fellow travelers, parents and relatives.

The yellow bathroom is seldom used except by guests, and even then Oma frequently needs to be reminded to turn on the water heater so the shower is not freezing on your first night in town (I suspect Uncle B. reminded Oma, Gavin had a warm shower last night).

Attic adventures complete, I uploaded the days pictures and updated the blog, or rather, wrote some more in an AppleWorks document that will eventually, hopefully be uploaded to the blog. Gavin sat and read on his Nokia, apparently he’s uploaded 30 books onto it. That should keep him busy.

After a short time, we realized it was nearly tea time. I took the laptop downstairs and showed Oma “over a thousand pictures” our our apartment, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and stuff around Boston. Oma was quite excited to see all of the pictures, and quite horrified to hear of our living conditions. “You mean in the basement?” she asked of our laundry room. “In the basement of the apartment next door,” Gavin explained. Oma looked horrified.

It took us a little while to realize it was dinner time. It was still quite light out, and none of us were very hungry. Dinner, when it did happen, were little pizzas Oma had stashed away in her freezer. A dubious sounding dinner, but quite good. They had a white sauce, shinken and kase on them, and possibly one or two other things that didn’t look to out of place on little pizzas. Oma also cut up some fresh pineapple.

Throughout dinner conversation continued about Boston, Gavin’s job, where we would like to move, politics, history, and current events. At 9:30, Oma realized there was a talk show she wanted to see at 9:45, so we moved into the living room. The topic was West-East solidarity taxes and the conversation quickly turned to complicated German phrases that are not quite in my league of comprehension. After awhile, we all gave up and went to bed, leaving them to argue and rant on their own.