The view from Augie's apartment!
We've been having a great time so far... arrived 2 days ago. (I'm typing on Augie's german keyboard and it's pretty annoying... the y and z are switched, the apostrophe requires shift key and is farther away, the shift and return keys are farther away than usual). The flights went well, kids got about 4.5 hrs of sleep on the long flight to Paris (10 hr flight) and it was very bizarre to see the daylight when my watch said midnight and I was feeling ready to try to sleep a bit. I ended up not sleeping and missed a night's sleep but feel normal after a regular night (even though the kids kept me up for 2 hrs in the middle of the first night here).
2 exhausted travelers
Cam's been dealing with some allergy issues, not horrible, but annoying. They are exaccerbated here since Augie has a cat. Being away from the apartment today helped him out.
Augie hid tons of chocolate eggs and bunnies and such plus 20 colored hard boiled eggs in the courtyard at her apartment building as well as set out a great breakfast spread and we all ate and the kids excitedly gathered all the goodies. Happy Easter!
This is almost everything ... except whatever gave Reagan a chocolate mustache already :-)
After that, we went to Checkpoint
Charlie (Reagan's standing on the old Berlin Wall in the left side picture), then the place where Hitler committed suicide along with a section of the berlin wall left remaining (pictured right), and then the Haus Am Wannsee (where the head nazis laid out their plan to get rid of "racial aliens"). Pretty crazy, I took pictures of some of the papers (translated versions) outlining their plan (talking about mixed race jews that were part german and whether or not to evacuate them or not and who they would let stay/live but would sterilize so they couldn't pass on any more jewish blood. Just totally insane - see pics of 3 pages of it below). As I was explaining some of this whole thing to Reagan, I told her about Great Grandpa Andrew being in one of these concentration camps. She had a few questions, but didn't dwell on it. We tried explaining to her how none of us would exist had he not stayed alive and she didn't seem to grasp that even though I tried explaining it again. Oh well.
On the way back, we found a street fair and the kids got to do a few rides, then we ate at a very traditional german restaurant and had awesome pork and dumplings and schnitzel, etc. The weather is nothing but perfect and with a light sweater, we could eat dinner outside (both of the last two nights). The first evening we got here, we walked a block and a half to a really great vegetarian restaurant and then stopped for an ice cream cone across the street from Augie's apartment on the way back. More sight seeing for Monday and then heading south Tuesday morning.
Can't be in Germany and not order a beer larger than your own head :-)
Differences that stand out here:
1. Ordering water at a restaurant isn't easy ... you must specify tap water, otherwise it's bottled and getting a waiter to back down from wanting to give you bottled water takes a bit of back and forth (even with Augie speaking to them in German, not because of a language barrier)
2. Never turn right without watching out for bikers
3. Not an SUV in sight, lots more smart cars, and very few vans
4. The "walk" and "don't walk" signs are little walking and standing figures with a hat on, the walker is green and the standing person is red
5. The holes in toilets are in the front of the bowl instead of toward the back
Aufwiedersehen für jetzt!
Holocaust Memorial (some heart wrenching stories and pictures in the underground museum below these structures). They warned us about bringing kids in (Ryan was napping at home with Augie, so it was just Reagan) but said they could provide crayons and something to color. That worked perfectly when we noticed all the pictures were at adult eye level and you needed to get close to tell what was going on.
Justice of the Ministry where Augie works as a translator (or a Sprachendienst) and has met some famous political figures because of it!
3 translated pages of the (huge, multi-page) document created (in a fancy lake home that was taken from Jewish people) to deal with the "racial alien" "problem". Clicking on each will show it large enough to read ... practically makes you sick to your stomach, but worth reading. Then just hit the "back" button to return to the blog (It annoyingly returns you to the top of the blog and you have to scroll down to this post again ... sorry!). By the way, "Mischlinge" means "mixed blood"
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