Tschuess Frankfurt

Tomorrow morning we fly home to NJ. I must say that we have had a marvelous time, but we are all ready to go home. The boys are anxious to see their friends and the cats. I am ready to have a real kitchen again and to feel like we are settled in at home. Steve is looking forward to being at home in his own house, in his own yard in his own town.


Here are a few glimpses of our last day here-

The fully stamped and used Eurail pass! We are definitely saving this.


Will we be able to fit all of our stuff in our luggage???? The yellow bag is new and we spent a good half hour this afternoon trying to decide whether we needed one more bag. In the end we decided no, and we did fit it all! The big question now is whether we will be under the weight limit at the airport tomorrow, but at least we are packed.



Here are the boys' sneakers. Much to Henry's dismay these are NOT coming home with us!


As we ate our last dinner of eggs and peas we all daydreamed about what our first meal at home should be. It is looking like it will be burgers for the carnivores, grilled salmon for C., and some Jersey corn on the cob.

So, to pick our favorites (submitted independently):

Henry- probably when we went to a rope gym and also when we went to Paris and went into the Eiffel Tower.

Charlie-my favorite part was most likely the one moment on Lego Extreme when it started pouring with rain and we were the last car to be let onto the roller coaster track. Also, my favorite overall was probably when I sat down today and reflected on what he had done this whole time we were here, how many places we had gone.

Amanda- my favorite parts were our many travels, seeing new places and taking the boys to spots Steve and I had been before. I also enjoyed spending so much time with Steve, Charlie and Henry without the many distractions of our regular life. At times we clearly got on one another's nerves, but overall we all held up pretty well.

Steve-my favorite things were the Maurithaus, taking the train through the Alps and hanging out with Amanda and the boys without the usual distractions.

Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day. The boys all fly out on a direct flight that leaves Frankfurt at 8:10 am. They will be on the ground in Newark by 10:30 am. Henry is already looking forward to 8+ hours of television! My flight leaves Frankfurt at 2, I go to London, have an hour and half then board my plane for Philly. I will arrive by 7:30, and hopefully my bag will also arrive at the same time and place!

See you all soon.

xo,
Amanda, Steve, Charlie and Henry

P.S. An addendum- one more exciting event!

Last trip

This past weekend we took our final trip- we went to Berlin for a couple of days. In the end we didn't see too much, but we did hit the highlights. On Saturday we went to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a mad house. We didn't go into the museum itself, but instead we browsed through the gift shop and probably saw pictures all of the artifacts in the actual museum itself. The path of the wall is permanently marked in the streets by a band of bricks and interspaced columns. It is really interesting to see how it ran through huge squares and along individual streets.







On Sunday we walked over to the Tiergarten to see the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. We began at the Brandenburg Gate and headed over to the Reichstag. Again, as was true at the Musee D'Orsay, we were able to skip the giant line and enter via a special line for people with children. Yay! We passed through security and then entered an elevator that took us to the top of the Reichstag. Once there you can enter the dome on the top of the building. There is a pathway that winds up to the top of the dome itself. Charlie, Henry and I started up, but three steps in Henry changed his mind and went to stand with Steve at the bottom. The walk up was pretty short and the views from the top were amazing. Charlie took lots of pictures! After we left the Reichstag we walked through the Tiergarten which used to be the hunting groups for the royal family and marked the western edge of the city. Today it is a huge park and it has great manicured lawns, enormous statues and many areas that still resemble a forest. We finished our walk at the Memorial for hte Murdered Jews of Europe- an impressive field of granite stele. From a distance you just see the black blocks laid out, but when you actually get into it you realize that the ground itself undulates up and down. When you walk through the pathways, the stele are all different heights, some towering high above my head.







The best part of this trip however, was catching up with an old friend from hight school, Johanna. She has lived here in Berlin for the past 15 years and she and her husband Manuel have a little boy, Paulo (or as Henry thought, Apollo). We met up with them at their apartment and their block was having a street fair. The boys were able to do some bowling and listen to live music. We wandered over to a local biergarten for some dinner and caught up on what has happened in our lives in the past 20 years. It was a lot of fun and again I was amazed at how easy it was to fall back into a comfortable relationship with someone I hadn't seen in years. Johanna's family still lives in central NJ, so we made plans to meet up again when they visit in November.

Day trip

We did most of our traveling here by train using a family Eurail pass. Before we came we thought about where we wanted to go and purchased a train pass that was good for 10 days of travel in a 2 month period in Germany, France and Bennelux. We realized that once we finished our planned trips we would have a single day of travel remaining on our passes. As we visited with people the past few weeks we have been polling them for nearby destinations that should not be missed. After much thought, we decided that Heidelberg would be our one day trip. It is easily reached by IC, only about an hour away. So, on Friday morning we packed some sandwiches and set off for Heidelberg.

The major attraction in Heidelberg is the Heidelberg Castle in the old town. It sits high over the river, with a gorgeous view of the town. It was built around the 14th century and has been home to many princes, kings and queens over the years. It has inspired lots of art and literature, both Goethe and Mark Twain visited the castle and wrote about it. There are two ways to reach the castle, you can walk up, or do as we did and take the funicular up. We walked around, enjoyed the views, Charlie took lots of photos and then we ate our lunch are rode back down the hill.








We spent the rest of our time in Heidelberg just walking around the old town and looking at the various sites.

What time ist it? Boss Time!

On July 3 we all went to see Bruce Springsteen here in Frankfurt. This was Henry's first rock concert. We were seated way up high in the stadium, but the view was great. There was a rowdy person sitting next to us- he kept yelling "What time is it?", and finally on his way back downstairs to buy another beer, he looked at the guy in front of us and said "What time is it?", the guy showed him his watch and the rowdy guy said "It's Boss time!". One of the members of the E Street band is very energetic and small, his name is Nils. Sometimes he will bring a trampoline onto the stage and do a flip in the air with his guitar. The show was great- Bruce played for nearly 3 hours, non-stop. He played "Jungle Land" even though Steve told Charlie he rarely plays that song in concert. He took signs from the audience with song suggestions and played many of them. Charlie was so psyched when he saw Bruce point to a sign that said "Jungle Land". It was a perfect way to bring our time in Germany to a close. (co-written by Charlie and Henry)

The City of Light

We spent the last three days in Paris. Instead of staying in a hotel, we rented an apartment in the 4th arrondissement, in the Marais section of the city. I will post photos of the highlights:

Our apartment, a 4th floor walk up with a VERY windy staircase. One bedroom, a pull out couch and two bathrooms. The main bathroom had a bidet, Henry tested it as soon as we arrived. We were in a very hip neighborhood full of cafes and shops.






We checked our Notre Dame, it was a short walk from our apartment.






We went to the Eiffel Tour. Steve and I even rode the elevator up to the first level. Much to his horror, the elevator actually goes directly to the second level and then to get to the first level you need to ride back down. Fortunately, we did not HAVE to get off the elevator at the second level, so we stayed on (one of us was holding onto the hand rail VERY tightly) and rode back down to level one. We didn't go up the last time we were here and I regret not having done it, so I am glad that we waited in line for an hour to do so.













We visited the Musee D'Orsay, one of my absolutely favorite museums. We went first thing and of course there was already a giant line. The good news, however, is that the Musee D'Orsay is super kid friendly and we were quickly escorted to the short entrance line reserved for people with special passes and those of us with kids. The lady in front of us in line didn't really have the right pass for it and the guard sent her back to the long line while we sailed right in. A nice couple also gave the boys their headsets when they left- and this made the rest of our visit a lot easier. They are both much more interested when they have something to listen to.








We did a whole bunch of other things that didn't get photographed. Some of the highlights:

fantastic falafel sandwiches from 'The King of Falafels'
Berthillion ice cream on Ile de la Cite
a walking tour of sites from the French Revolution
the Picasso Museum
crepes and eclairs
more ice cream....

Only one more week until we come home. We packed up some books and papers and sent them by post and we will need to purchase at least one, if not two, more bags to get all of our stuff home. We do have a couple more adventures planned for this last week though.