JoJo in Deutschland

Wow, September is really flying by!  My apologies for so few posts this month.  I will blame it on a mean cold that took over Alexander's (and therefore also my) life for a week or so.  Naps were few and far between, so there was little time for blogging.  And then we were busy with our trip to Germany, which I shall tell you about now.

We of course went to visit darling Brinja, who you may recall from a.) Your life (as many of you know this sweet gal), or B.) Previous blog post fame. We left last Thursday and traveled by train from Copenhagen to Brinja's hometown of Elmshorn, just outside of Hamburg.  Alex has been very interested in trains lately, so he was thrilled to ride on one.  This particular route is especially cool as the train actually boards a ferry to cross the Baltic Sea.  All passengers are required to exit the train and head to the upper decks of the ferry for the 45 minute crossing.

We went outside on the top deck of the ferry to see the ocean and it was SO WINDY!  Then we headed to the cafeteria for a snack:

The whole trip took just under 6 hours.  Alex held up quite well for the duration.  He loved the ferry ride and he very much enjoyed spotting cows and windmills out the window of the train (and he insisted on having seen goats too, but I can't confirm that).

So we arrived a little after 3 PM and Brinja was there to scoop us from the train station and take us to her (and our) friends Irina and Christian's house.  We actually stayed with Irina and Chris for this trip, as their house was a little more accommodating of our high-maintenance, traveling-with-toddler, selves.  They have a little baby (Frederick), and all the baby gear one could hope for in a home away from home (Thank you Irina and Christian--you guys are the best!).

Once we were situated, we figured Alex could use a little outdoor time, so Brinja walked us to a beautiful nearby park.  Unfortunately, Alex fell asleep as soon as we arrived and he snoozed through a whole hour of us grown-ups on the merry-go-round, rope swing, and three-person swing:

That evening Irina baked us a smorgasbord of pizza, and we had a lovely dinner together.

On Friday morning we woke up VERY early (5 AM, thank you Alexander).  Once the sun joined us we took a morning stroll to Irina's local bakery.  The woman at the shop was so sweet, and so apologetic for not understanding our failed attempts at German, that she ended up giving us free pastries and rolls.  It was  a good omen for all the kindness and generosity that continued to be bestowed upon us throughout our stay in Germany.

Later that morning Irina and baby Frederick escorted us to town for a little shopping and coffee while Brinja was at work.  Brinja met us at lunch time and took us back to work with her.  She is a English teacher, so she made a fun lesson out of our visit and brought us to school with her for the last class of the day.  Her students had prepared questions for us like "What do you find to be the biggest differences between the US and Europe?" and "Is it true that California boys are all surfer dudes?"

We actually had a great time chatting with Brinja's class.  They got to practice English, and we got to learn a little about what young Germany thinks of the US.  I was very amused to learn from Brinja afterward that one student (who had studied abroad in Scotland) was annoyed by our American accents and therefore did not want to participate in the dialogue with us that day.

Brinja, Alex, and I walking outside Brinja's school

Friday evening we were invited to Brinja and Irina's friends Jochen and Katrine's house for a dinner of authentic German spätzle.  This is a traditional noodle dish from Jochen's home in Southern Germany. 

Russ, trying his hand at the spatzle-maker

Brinja and Jochen

Jochen and Katrine have a little son, Mattis, who is just a month older than Alex.  The two boys had a great time playing together that night:

On Saturday Brinja took us to Hamburg for some shopping and site seeing.  We had fun being dorky tourists:

Russ, sneaking onto the "Men's only" street in the Reeperbahn,
Hamburg's red light district

We just had to get these awesome glasses  ;-)

Saturday night we had another fabulous meal with all our German friends, this time a delicious pork roast prepared by Irina. 


Then on Sunday we ended up going to Hamburg again to show Alex the train museum. This museum was a trip.  There were mini-replicas of cities and towns from all over the world, and a system of trains that traveled through the whole of it.  Very detailed. Most surprising to me was how popular this place was.  It was wall-to-wall crowded.  I never knew there were so many miniature train enthusiasts!

After the museum we walked around the city's canals and new harbor, taking in the sites and trying not to freeze cuz it was very cold!  

  

Sunday night Brinja treated us to a meal of schnitzel and other yummy German goodies from a local restaurant.  We wrapped up the trip with a tearful farewell.   It has been a huge highlight of this European adventure that we've been able to see Brinja twice in just two months.  I wish we could go on seeing her so often . . .


So that was it.  Monday morning we were off to the train station, and back home again in time for Alexander's afternoon nap.  


Many thanks to Brinja and all her wonderful friends for such an fun visit!  


PS--Thanks also for the SesamStrasse Grobi snacks.  They were deelish!