From Erik

After a slow start to our day, we made our way to a local bakery, that turned out to be a chain. Juliette partook in a glass of orange juice, where half the experience was seeing it made! The machine had oranges that were loaded into a hopper, and upon turning the machine on, sliced the oranges in half and extracted every ounce of sweet juice. The result was exactly what you’d expect, a glass of juice without rival!

We then headed from Rahlstedt to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, a trip we would take many times over the next week! Since I was heading back to Boston for an Entrepreneurial Masters Program (EMP) in just a few days, Liz wanted to start taking the lead, which would get her prepared to be alone with all four children in Germany. The first, and most important step, was figuring out how to operate the ticket kiosk, which she did with no problems!

After arriving in Hamburg we elected to try a Hop-on-Hop-off bus trip around the city. Along with our ticket, we also purchased a boat tour of the Hamburg Harbor, because who doesn’t like a boat ride! The kids were excited to ride on a double decker bus, so we immediately made our way to the upper level. Shortly after our bus departure, disaster struck – the bus was in an accident! Our driver rear ended the car in front of us, and luckily no one was hurt. They exchanged information, and we were back to the races.

The odd thing about this Hop-on-Hop-off tour, was no one was actually doing either of those things. The bus just kept right on chugging through town, and we were left a little confused as to how the whole thing worked. Maybe it was the rain or the fact that it was a Monday, but basically we just took a nice little ride around town, and the bus’s audio guide shared some fun trivia. The fact that we were on a double decker bus wore thin with Charlie, pretty much almost immediately, so it was difficult for the adults to take in the sights and soak up the history.

We also learned all about the Red Light District, and because we’re trying to maintain the innocence of our children, we did a lot of redirecting. After navigating that mine field, we did finally hop off the bus and looked for our ship. It was propelled by a giant paddle wheel, which the following week we would learn in Berlin that paddle wheels suck and are far inferior to propellers. Unfortunately, again based on our particular timing, the narration was only provided in German. Making matters worse, my vocabulary doesn’t include any nautical, container ship kind of words, so I wasn’t any help on the translation front.

The ship ride ended up being a big exercise in futility! While I enjoyed looking out on the harbor, all the while feeling very small next to the giant container ships, no one else was remotely interested. Who doesn’t like a boat ride? I found the answer to that question the hard way!!

Once that ordeal ended we hopped back on the double decker bus and completed the circuit back to our starting point. During our ride we had discovered an area of Hamburg that we wanted to explore a bit further, so we hopped on the subway and made our way back to the Jungfernstiege. We had seen a really cool soccer display, so naturally we were thinking it would be a cool soccer store or have something to do with sporting goods. We tracked the place down and were disappointed to only to find a Nivea store.

It was again time to feed everyone – and we found a great spot right on the Inner Alster Lake called Alex, with something for everyone – soccer for Juliette, a beautiful view for the parents, and familiar food options for everyone else. After enjoying our dinner we headed back to Rahlstedt for the evening.

The next day was to be my last in Germany until I rejoined the group in Berlin a few days later. My goal was to find something that would be difficult for one parent to do with the kids (i.e. maybe a little boring), so Liz would be left with very exciting activities! The perfect candidate was the Freilichtmuseum am Kiekeberg. To start with, the place was a jaunt – it took over an hour to get ourselves there, and it was a combination of Regional Railroads, U-Bahns, S-Bahns, and some city buses. I also made some navigation errors along the way, so we also got some life lessons about ‘going with the flow’ and ‘embracing the journey’ (both true by the way). Once we arrived, the storm clouds were threatening, but we had come this far!

To begin, they had some interesting displays depicting farm life hundreds of years ago in Germany. They had a bunch of activities for the kids, which was great, except when they decided to fight over, well anything you can imagine and some things you can’t! The rain then started coming down in earnest, so we headed to the indoor displays and the café for some lunch. Sadly, the café didn’t offer much in terms of variety. We ended up with a few sausages, a meat and cheese plate, and the weirdest thing of all – meat spaghetti! Meat spaghetti is exactly what it sounds like, wurst extruded through a Playdoh fun factory, with a little vinegar and pickles mixed in for good measure. Not popular.

After what I’m calling lunch, we checked out some old tractors and a historical toy area. At this point the rain was really coming down, so we spent a lot of time checking out the toy displays, and more time playing. They had an old space invaders game, and everyone had a great time trying to get the high score! Charlie and I made a bunch of different paper airplanes, and he had a great time trying to remove his sister’s eyes (that’s what it seemed like he was doing anyways). After we had exhausted those activities, we headed to the gift shop where each kid got a cone of candy for €1 each. So much candy, so much fun!

When the rain finally let up we continued to explore the park and happened upon a water area. We all had a great time pumping water, riding the little boat, making tornados, and just playing! The sun started to peek through, and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon strolling around the park, checking out the historical buildings, and taking turns doing the activities. Except this one time with the stilts, where everyone got all bent out of shape about who was going to use which set at which moment. I’ve never seen anyone get so crazy over a few pieces of wood screwed together!

At the end of our day everyone was really hungry for some reason (candy isn’t lunch?), and in need of a slam dunk meal, we headed to Ciao Bella in Rahlstedt. This quaint Italian restaurant had all the things the kids love, including pizza, pasta, and grilled meats. They also brought out a huge plate of olives when we arrived. In the spirit of trying new things (and bribery), I offered the kids €1 if they would try one of the olives. Much to my surprise that was enough to buy them off, and three out of four gave it whirl (no one ate a second one).

After our long day, we headed back to our apartment and I began packing up my bag for Boston. I loaded up all the souvenirs and knick-knacks that we had acquired and packed them into my suitcase for the long trip back to the USA. Upon my arrival, I shipped everything back to our house, where it will be waiting for us when we return home!