Amsterdam

The Canals of Amsterdam






One of the three staircases to our hotel room!



Maddie outside the Van Gogh museum next to a print of Van Gogh's Almond Blossoms with the buildings across the street reflected in the window


We got to Amsterdam at about 9:00 on Friday night and checked into the Hotel Filosof (Philosoph) in the museum district of Amsterdam. We were surprised to find that our room was across the street from the lobby of the hotel and up three flights of very narrow stairs. The hotel clerk helped us lug up all of our luggage and the room was really nice. Even a separate room for Maddie. The houses are so narrow in Amsterdam that they have hooks protruding from just under the roof. These are used as wenches so ropes can be used to hoist furniture up through the windows because there is no way you can get them up the narrow hallways and staircases. I can't seem to discover exactly why the houses are all so narrow. Skip thinks it might have had something to do with taxation laws once upon a time.

Our first stop Saturday morning was the Van Gogh museum. Skip is a fan and has wanted to to visit the whole time we've been in Germany. We had just agreed that I would stay with Maddie and when she got bored, we'd head down to the coffee shop and have a snack so Skip could enjoy the museum. But the museum has this great illustrated quiz pamphlet for kids. It was kind of like a Van Gogh scavenger hunt. So Maddie and I looked at all the paintings--answering questions about certain ones and trying to figure out which paintings little puzzle pieces on her quiz had come from. Even Skip, who already knew a lot about Van Gogh, learned some new things. We all had a great time. Skip got a print of Wheatfied with Crows which is thought to be Van Gogh's last painting, and Maddie even got a little lunchbox with her favorite--Almond Blossom. I pretty much struck out on my favorite--Bible as Still life--which only rated a postcard. I hadn't known that Van Gogh was a preacher's kid.

I have to brag on my daughter just a little. She asked the lady at the information desk if they also had any paintings by Claude Monet, and the lady said that they did. Then Maddie was a bit disappointed because none of them were of bridges and those are her favorite Monet paintings. Can't really complain about the education my kid is getting. And on that same note, because they have looked at a lot of these paintings at her school, when we got to the floor with all the Van Gogh's she said, "I've already seen all these." We had to tell her that theses are not just pictures. They are the actual paintings that Van Gogh actually painted. THEN she was impressed!

The weather was good that day, so we wandered around the canals of Amsterdam--steering clear of the Red Light District. It's a beautiful city. Full of bicycles. It is estimated that there are over 1 million bicycles in Amsterdam. We also opted out of the Anne Frank House. We just weren't ready to share that story with Maddie, yet. I really liked the city. Skip did, too, as far as cities go. That's our vacation tradeoff--he'd rather be in a quaint little village somewhere and I'd rather be in a crowded, off-beat city. I guess that's our life trade-off as well. We've been in quaint Kaiserswerth for two years and now we're headed off to London. Guess who's excited to go and who is sad to leave?

Back in Amsterdam, after quite a bit of walking and an ice cream break (at a shop where the owner was pleasantly surprised that Skip and I guessed that the icons behind his counter were Coptic and not Greek or Catholic), Skip took Maddie to a bead shop while I toured the Amsterdam Bible Museum, which was an odd assortment of really interesting items. A pastor back in the 18th century took it as his life's mission to make a large-scale model of what the temple looked like back in the days the Israelites were wandering around the dessert. Using the descriptions from the Bible and other research has created this entire depiction that takes up an area the size of our bedroom here in Germany. Also in the museum is someone else's model of Jerusalem as well as a history of the 3 major religions who consider the city Holy. There was an assortment of other interesting items relating to the church and it's history in Amsterdam. Then in the basement of the museum are two intact 18th century kitchens, because the museum is in what used to be a house, so they've kept the kitchens as they were so people can see what life was like then.

We knew today would be rainy so we headed to the NEMO kids museum. It's a big hands-on, figure stuff out kind of place. My favorite exhibit was this mirror table that Maddie got to sit out. The "mirror" was really a video screen that asked questions about her. What color was her hair? Can she roll her tongue? Does she have freckles? After each question, the screen told her what percentage of people had given the same answer to the question. At the end, it ran down all the questions and told her the percentage of people who had visited who gave the exact answer to all the questions that she had. Turns out, only 0.028 percent of the visitors where like her. The idea is to show kids how unique and special they are. I'm thinking one of those machines for our home so everyone who visits can use it! Maddie loved the museum and we liked it too, although, even all the info was in both English and in Dutch, Skip and I had some trouble figuring out how some of the things were supposed to work!

We had to hustle back to Dusseldorf so Skip could repack and head off to London. His new job starts this week, and the trade-off for not pulling Maddie out of school mid-semester is that he won't be around much.

Maddie goes back to school tomorrow and I will start to knock off items on an ever-growing "to-do" list. At least I know that we're moving and when it's going to happen. I have friends who may or may not be staying next year, but their company still hasn't let them know. Yikes!

Day of Bad News with a Twist Ending

Yuck. Not a feel good day today.

My parent's neighbor died after a painful battle with cancer. I suppose it's good news that her pain has ended, but still all in all quite sad news.

Last night a friend of mine here in Germany had to call an ambulance when she had a mysterious allergic reaction. It began right after she ate something she eats all the time, so the docs are running a battery of tests to see what has caused it because no one seems to know right now.

Our 10 year anniversary is Friday and attempts at celebratory gestures and gifts seems to be snakebit. We may just defer the 10-year celebration until the 11th year.

And I found out that my 20th high school reunion has been scheduled for October--not really a time when I think I'll be able to just pop over from London. I'm one of those people who actually liked the people I went to high school with and would have liked to have seen them before another 10 years go by.

Cousin Elke's father passed away today as well.


Then my husband comes home and rescues the anniversary debacle. Sinse my day hasn't gone so well and the seats are filling up, he gives me his gift early. Oh, yeah. We're going to see Bon Jovi in May in Gelsenkirchen. It is a confidant man who takes his wife to see her longest running crush for their anniversary.

Easter

We had a relaxing Easter Sunday here in Dusseldorf. It was the one day when the weather was nice.

The church service itself was not particularly invigorating or celebratory, but it's always moving to worship with people who come from all over the world. Although it's a British church, there are people from Africa, Indian, Malaysia and other parts of the world who attend. It was a communion Sunday and it irks Maddie that she doesn't get to take communion. She can only go up and receive a blessing. It's an open table, but not to children who haven't been confirmed. Kind of irks me too.

The US consulate general to Duesseldorf was in attendance with his wife and two of this three children, and I'm guessing he wasn't too happy when the prayers of the people included prayers for Iraq after five years of occupation. Guess the global view of that situation is a little different outside of America.

I am now back to being a meat eater. I'm not sure how much good giving up meat did me--spiritually or health wise. I did have moments in restaurants where I felt quite proud and righteous for forgoing my favorite meals there, but I think that may be missing the point. In theory, I would like to remain a vegetarian not for animal rights or health reasons, but in order to to have a smaller footprint on this planet. And I think I will try to eat veggie more often, but giving up meat entirely is just too inconvenient--particularly here in Germany. I think next year, Lent is going to have to be a money thing.

Easter Monday is a holiday here and we woke up to a winter wonderland. Snow covered the ground and continued to fall until about 9 a.m. We had our friends the Fosters over for brunch and ate so much that I wasn't hungry the rest of the day. I think the addition of meat back into my diet may have also had something to do with it.

On a literary note, Skip has completed all of the Harry Potter books, in German. He's been working through them for a little over a year. He'll have to find a new series.

Maddie is out of school the rest of this week as well. This is a child who needs to be in school. When she's out of her structure, she gets obsessed about what's coming up next and that's all she can think about. Skip and I have banned her from talking about her birthday party (in MAY!) and her upcoming trip to the movies with friends, because she's about to drive us crazy! We've told her it's fine to be excited and to think about it, but discussing it every hour has got to stop.

Shops are open again, so Maddie and I will be heading into Dusseldorf to buy an anniversary present for Skip. If Maddie can make it to Friday without spilling the beans, it will be a miracle!

Holy Cow!

I'm still trying to recover from my trip to the grocery store this morning. I knew it would be bad. The Friday before Easter as well as the Monday after Easter are both holidays in Germany. That means that for a four-day span, in which many food-filled celebrations will be had, there is only one day when shops are open. Not only are our cupboards bare from being on vacation, but we are going to have a family Easter dinner tomorrow and have the 6-member Foster family over for brunch on Easter Monday.

So I got up early this morning so that I could be at the Edeka when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Surprise! Apparently on this special day, they open even earlier. I got the very last parking space. Keep in mind that this grocery store is nowhere near the size of grocery stores in the US. It's about the size of Wild Oats in Little Rock--without the vitamin department and coffee bar.

The produce section was extremely hazardous. Unless it is priced by the piece, you have to weigh your own produce and print out the bar code. One of the two machines was not working, so I worked at finding pre-bagged produce (which is already price) or items that were priced by the stuck. .

I got in line at the meat counter behind 15 people. Tomorrow, in honor of my making it through Lent meat-free, we're going to have Austrian beef which I mistook earlier in my time here for Ostrich. Who knew Oesterriech simply meant it was beef from Austria.

I only had to wait for five people at the cheese counter, and the bread would come from the bakery that sits outside the cash register. I didn't get everything I meant to. My cart got too full to fit anything else in. The carts are about 2/3 the size of a US grocery cart. When I got in line at the cash register, no one got behind me until I got to the point where I was putting stuff on the conveyor belt. And remember, no one bags your groceries here, so I just had to put everything back in the cart and wait until I got to my car to bag and box my groceries. There is a counter just past the check-out lines where I normally pull over and do that, but today was far too crowded to use that space.

But before I could get to the car, I had to stop by the bakery. The thing that was most surprising about this morning's experience is that everyone formed orderly lines. At the bakery there were even two lines--one for people with carts and one for people without. This was very unusual. As orderly as Germans are, they do not generally que up. They are clumpers. I guess the sheer volume of people forced everyone into lines today. I got a free colored egg with my bakery purchase.

The parking lot was even worse when I got to my car. Someone saw me push my cart to my car and waited on me. It was clear that I had a full cart and was going to have to bag and crate everything and return my cart before I could vacate my spot, but they just waited. It was worth the 5 to 7 minutes to be guaranteed a spot!

Fortunately, if I had to be face with such a chaotic situation, it was at the grocery store. When it comes to food, my German is pretty good. I was glad I had looked up the German word for "nutmeg" before I left home. I don't think I would have gotten Muskatnuss on my own!

So we should eat well for Easter Sunday and Monday, but Maddie will have to wait until Tuesday for any juice boxes or her favorite yogurt.

Happy Easter to all

More Ulm Pics

Maddie atop Ulmer Minster



This is the house in Neresheim where Skip's Oma Johanna lived. She is who Maddie gets her middle name from



Maddie and Skip with Tante Rosl.



Maddie and Skip in front of the Danube



Ulmer Minster--Yeah, we climbed it!

Lego Land

They actually had some of the water rides running. Fortunately for me and Maddie, it was Skip who bore the brunt of the log flume. But afterwards (for only 2 Euros!) you could stand in the people drier. It started off with about a minute of warm lights and then progressed to warm air. Maddie and I got in it with him just because it felt so good!



Einstein is from Ulm, so they've created this giant Lego portrait to honor him!




Skip and I are about to celebrate our 10th anniversary. If you had told me on my wedding day that 10 years forward would find me spending an entire day in 37 degree weather outside at an amusement park, I would have said you were crazy. Now, it seems that I have gone crazy.

The next day, it was so cold in Ulm (freezing, but the wind chill is lower) that when we came in for a break and I spent 30 minutes surfing the Internet while sitting on the bath mat on the heated bathroom floor to warm up.

Ulm is a beautiful city. Everyone talks about what a nice place Duesseldorf is, but I think Ulm has it beat. I hope we'll have the chance to return someday when the weather is nicer.

Photos--Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein

Still having trouble uploading pictures. May have to wait until I get home to a faster internet connection.

We drove to Neuschwanstein Castle--it's the Southern German castle built by King Ludwig that the Disney Cinderella castle was modeled after. Lots of Americans there. I don't think I've heard so much English spoken in Germany outside of the International School. I also was impressed by the reasonable cost of entry, food, parking and transportation. It's a huge attraction, but nobody seems to be out to gouge the tourists.

We didn't get the full effect since the weather was really crummy. We took a half-hour walk up hill in the rain to get to it. Maddie was a super trouper! Then they take you on this tour, so you don't get to fully explore the castle--which was incredible. It would have been nice to have been able to linger a bit longer in some of the rooms which were painted with scenes from Wagner's operas (Ludwig was a megafan) and look more closely at the ornately carved furniture. After slogging through the cold, wet weather, I wanted more castle for my effort!

I'm sure the castle and the grounds would be even more enjoyable in spring and summer, but then you would have to battle crowds. There were quite a few people there in this weather, so I can't even imagine what it must be like when it is nice outside.

The castle was only started in the late 1860's--which is pretty new for Europe. Basically, Ludwig built his dream castle, which never was fully completed. After Ludwig was diagnosed as being mentally ill, he died under mysterious circumstances--drowned while on a walk with his psychiatrist. Skip has a book about Ludwig back in the states that I plan to read this summer. He seems like a real character!

When we came out of the castle a mix of rain and snow was coming down, and we opted for the covered horse-drawn carriage to take us back down to the town. Then, of course, we had to make the gift shop circuit with Maddie. I think we might have spent more time in one of the shops than in the castle.

Today, we are headed to Legoland and it promises to be a sunny (if cold!) day.

Between climbing the church tower, ascending a castle-hill in the rain and a near-freezing day that an amusement park, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a vacation after this vacation.

Checked it off the list

So we're a good five hours from Duesseldorf staying in the world's most tilted hotel and we go down for breakfast and who should be there? A room full of people from ISD. There were 3 different families from Duesseldorf who had come down for the weekend to take the kids to Legoland. One family was headed back, but the other two were going on to Salzburg. It is indeed a small world after all.

After breakfast, we went and climbed the 768 steps to the top of the world's tallest church spire at the Ulm. Maddie made it through the first two levels and then Skip and I took turns heading all the way to the top. I've added it to my list of "I've done that now."

The hotel is this fabulous mixture of ancient and modern. There are beams here that date back to the 1400's, yet there are very modern bath and light fixtures mixed in. Also, the bathroom has heated floors, which I find quite nice. However, Maddie thinks the floor is too hot and tonight we found her standing in the bathtub brushing her teeth!

Today we also went to Nerhesheim, where Skip's Oma Johanna (the woman from whom Maddie gets her middle name) lived and we went to Herbrechtingen to see his Aunt Rosl. I have more pictures, but am having difficulty uploading today. Perhaps I can post more tomorrow.




Maddie and Skip at the Danube



Ulm



Maddie and Skip outside the Shiefes Haus



Maddie and Skip on the enclosed porch of the Schiefes Haus that sits over a running creek.



Yes. We climbed to the top of this!

The Road to Ulm

On the way to Ulm, where we will spend 5 days on vacation, we stopped off Kupferzell-Hesselbronn, where Skip's cousin Kersten lives with her husband Heinz and her daughters Cede (short for Mercedes and pronounced Sadie) and Nena (short for Mary Magdelena). Kersten had to work most of the day, but Heinz was an excellent cook and tour guide.

Heinz had to take us to a shopping center because both my daughter AND my husband left their coats in Duesseldorf. Then we headed into the old town of Swabisch Hall--a beautiful town that dates back to the middle ages.

After we headed back to the cousins house, Kersten was able to join us and we had some great cake made by Nena.

We made it to Ulm late and are staying at the Schiefes Haus, the most tilted hotel in the world. Too dark to get good pics tonight, but will post some tomorrow.



Heinz, Cede's Beau, Nena, Maddie, Skip and Cede on HER motorcycle!


Maddie in Schwabish Hall



Schwabish Hall

Phewf! GB, here we come

Maddie and I navigated our way through the Visa process for entering the UK. Skip already got his passport back and it was mine and Maddie's turn. So Skip made us appointments so that he could ride the train down with us and show us where the office was. He went to wait for us at the Hotel Nikko up the road. Only people with appointments are allowed in the office.

Maddie and I made it to the first check point and found out that, despite the mountain of paperwork Skip had assembled, we needed Maddie's birth certificate, our marriage license, Skip's work permit and a copy of Skip's passport. We had to show all of that since Maddie and I would be allowed to enter the country because we are related to Skip, the permit holder.

So we all took the train back to Kaiserswerth and Skip was able to locate all the documents with the exception of our marriage certificate. I went on the web site of the Pulaski County Clerk's office and was able to pull up a copy. Skip and I decided that would be good enough and Maddie and I headed back downtown. This time we made it past the first checkpoint and were given a number. Maddie and I looked very blonde in a room where everyone else who was waiting was Indian, African or Turkish. After waiting about a half-hour, we made it to a counter where the information was processed by a woman who was born in Arlington, MA. The web version of our marriage license passed muster. I was totally holding my breath on that one.

After about 15 minutes, we got through that part and then went back to the initial table where we given another number to wait our turn to be fingerprinted. We're all in some master system now. No crimes for us! This was done with a fancy electronic scanner, so we have no ink stains, but apparently it's hard to get kid's prints to register and it took about 10 minutes just to get Maddie's prints to come up right. When we were finally done, they kept all of the paperwork, including our passports and gave me a receipt. We should be able to pick it up about the time we get back from our vacation to Ulm. Basically, the whole adventure took from about 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (including a trip to McDonald's as a reward for Maddie's cooperation through the process!)

We are very happy to have that behind us.

Tomorrow, we are off to Ulm where we will be staying in the Schiefes Haus, the most tilted hotel in the world

Goings On

Skip may still be recovering from the bowling birthday party he took Maddie to this weekend, but all in all we had a really great family weekend. Which is even more appreciated since with the transition to his new role in London, Skip has been busier than usual with work.

After Skip and Maddie went to the birthday party we all took the train into downtown Duesseldorf. We, of course, headed to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee for me and Skip and Munchkins for Maddie. The whole place looks exactly like an American Dunkin Donuts until you look closely at some of the donut flavors which include donuts filled with bananas or plums and see these huge apple dumpling-like pastries. The experience was only marred by choosing to sit downstairs where there was a group of small children whose mothers weren't watching them or expecting them to behave. Even Maddie was a little wide-eyed at the spectacle. Not even when one of the children set off the fire alarm by opening an emergency exit did any of the moms move from their own coffee and donuts. I'm sounding horribly judgmental, but honestly!

Then we all headed to the bookstore where Skip and Maddie bought purchases in German and I bought the latest Meg Cabot book in English. We headed to Galleria Kaufhof, which is the big department store here in Germany, and bought Skip some pants and shoes for work. His cords may not always cut it in the London office. Then we had dinner at the Galleria cafe. Some of the big department stores here still have in-store restaurants. This one is a buffet--which is the ideal set-up when eating with Maddie.

We are bad people who do not usually attend church on the first Sunday of the month because at Christ Church the first Sunday is "Family Sunday" and there is no Sunday School. The trouble is they don't do much in the service to make it more family friendly and Maddie is so restless by the time the long sermon rolls around that it becomes a worshipful experience for no one in our family. So instead, we headed into Kaiserswerth for the annual Easter Market and then headed to the circus.

Circus Hansa is no Barnum and Bailey, but it's a family owned and operated traveling gig. There were trained horses, Llamas and even camels. They even had a knife thrower and fire eaters. It was a little cold to be sitting in a circus tent, but Maddie really had a good time. I was a bit dismayed that after 18 months and 90 course hours of German I could understand absolutely nothing the ringmaster was saying. I'm still a lousy German speaker, but I can generally get the gist of something. Then Skip told me that the man was indeed difficult to understand and had some sort of accent.

I have an dinner outing tonight with the staff of the Radschlager--the American Women's Club magazine that I work on. We're going out for Lebanese.

Sushi and Belgian Waffles

Today I was invited to a good-bye party for friends Kristy and Mikki. Mikki is Japanese and is the mom to Masaya, friend of Maddie. They are moving to London during the Easter break, and we're already making plans to have lunch when we go in May to look for a place to live. Kristy is staying until the end of the school year, but wanted to have a party with Mikki. Kristy is mom to Takuya who is also friends with Maddie. They have been in Germany for 5 1/2 years and are moving to LA.

The party was hosted at Rosie's house. Rosie is English and Irish and has been in Duesseldorf for almost 5 years but may be moving to the states this summer. There was a huge spread of sushi for all the party guests and when all that was gone, the Belgians in the crowd brought out their waffle irons and cooked up Belgian waffles topped with sugar and strawberries for everyone. Everyone should depart Germany in such style!


Guest of honor, Mikki with Dutch friend Maike

Dalnim from Korea, Kirsten from Germany and Kristy and Mikki


Antje and Erika explain the finer points of Belgian waffle making to American Sheree

Catching up

Egg Hunting with friends Matthew and Jaime

Schloss Kalkum

Dinner with the Cousins in Dortmund

Maddie and friends' Matthew and Madison's birthday party

We really enjoyed having Skip's brother Brian and his wife, Ann, here for the week. Over last weekend, we got to see cousin Detlif and his wife and daughter and then Torsten and Elke came down to Duesseldorf and had dinner with us on Wednesday. Brian and Ann went to Amsterdam in the early part of the week and reported a good time. I can definitely report that they ate well while they were here because, for me, Germany is all about the food and my tour guiding includes many meals and snacks along the way.

Last weekend was a busy one for Maddie. There was an Easter Egg hunt at Schloss Kalkum. Nothing like hunting for eggs in 38 degree drizzly weather. I think this is a truism in any country--the day you plan the Easter Egg hunt will be the worst weather day of the week! She also had Matthew and Madison's birthday party. It was absolute madness! And, of course, the kids had a great time.

Skip was supposed to be headed to London on Sunday and stay all week, but he's had to reschedule everything because he had to surrender his passport to the British Consulate in order to get the proper permits we need to live and work in the UK. They won't tell him when he can get them back! It won't be longer than 10 days, and they'll call when he can pick it up! Maddie and I will have to go down and surrender ours as well. Lots of red tape and bureaucracy getting from country to country.

Hey music lovers, why is Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah the number 2 downloaded song on I-tunes right now? It was released back in 1994 and then came back again when it was used in the original Shrek soundtrack. What's going on in the US that it has made yet another comeback? I really miss American radio. I certainly miss having the Radio Disney option when Maddie is in the car. You know, she has a real gift for lyrics and the censorship of inappropriate lyrics doesn't really exist here, so she's picked up a couple of really delightful songs just because I haven't been paying attention. So mainly we don't listen to the radio and she can sing the entire soundtrack of High School Musical, HSM2, Hairspray and Wicked. I'm trying to decide what play to see when we're in London looking for a house in May and I think I will base my decision on what soundtrack I'm most willing to hear played over and over and over!

This weekend Skip is off to a BVB football game tonight and Maddie has a cast party for the Peter Pan play after school. There is a birthday party (this time it's Skip's turn to go!), an Easter Market in the center of Kaiserswerth and the circus is in town. Lots going on.