From – Erik

Unbeknownst to me, when Liz took the kids shopping yesterday, she also coordinated a Father’s Day celebration, and I was the happy recipient! After catching up on my sleep, I was greeted by a spirited rendition of “Happy Father’s Day to You,” sung to the tune of Happy Birthday. Each of my children gave me a little card that they had found at the grocery store, and they also gave me notebook that brought us all back to our time together on the Zugspitze and inscribed – “Take it to the top every day!” Be careful what you tell your children, because they may surprise you and listen!

The cherry on top was a lovely breakfast in bed, which I understand was prepared through a concerted effort (and saint like patience from Liz). After enjoying my meal, we got underway by heading into Hamburg! The family got their first take of a regional train, which much to everyone’s delight, was a double decker. We just had to sit on top! After arriving at the Hauptbahnhof, it was once again our favorite time of day, meal time. Luckily the central train station has a wide assortment of options, so some kids got McDonald’s, while the other kids ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. On this particular day, it wasn’t a battle worth fighting and keeping the peace made much more sense!

After lunch made our way through the city center, and even though we already knew the situation, we couldn’t help but be disappointed that EVERYTHING was closed on Sunday. Luckily, we always come with a plan, and visited something not closed on Sunday – St. Peter’s Church. This is Hamburg’s oldest parish, and the building of St. Peter’s began in 1195!! And just up the street we also found the Hamburger Rathaus, and we did quick walkthrough there as well.

The real target for the day, however, was Germany’s first game in the 2018 World Cup! In Germany, they do huge public viewings for all of the games, and a little research led me to a Fan Park outside of St. Pauli’s stadium. In hindsight, the whole thing was a terrible idea, but it was Father’s Day, and this is what I wanted to do. They displayed the game on a 120 m^2 screen (1300 ft^2), and beforehand they had some live entertainment. What we didn’t know is that St. Pauli’s IS the red light district, which might attract a crowd we aren’t exactly used to…

As the festivities got underway, the noise level got so loud, that maybe Katie and Samantha started crying or it could have been the beer that was spilled on their heads. The crowd was also thick with smoke from cigarettes and other things that burn, which didn’t make for a kid friendly environment. Oh yeah, and to make it all even better, it was raining off and on. Needless to say, it was real winning moment, and I’ve scarred them all for life.

Oddly enough, once the game actually started, the crowd was more or less silent, unless they needed to express their disgust with the officials. Once Mexico took the 1 – 0 lead, well, you’ve never seen a more disappointed crowd. Since I’m not entirely deficient as a parent or a human being, we left at halftime, despite the fact that everyone was willing to stay since they knew how much I wanted to drink in this experience. I’m really incredibly lucky to have these guys!