Hanging out in Hamburg

After the Kunsthalle, we went around town for a

while. Our first stop was the Hamburger Rathaus (City Hall). There's a large square in front of the Rathaus with a canal running alongside it. We went down by the canal and Micah looked at and yelled at the ducks and geese. We didn't have any bread to feed them, but he had fun anyway, because they came right up to us even without food in our hand. After hanging out there for a little while, we walked around to find a place to eat. While walking around, we noticed that a statue that we'd walked by earlier was actually a painted guy. He was really good at what he did. If you threw money in his tin, he would move. We told Mikah to go put money in. They guy gave Micah high fives and kissed BreAnne's hand and it was just fun.

We found a reasonably priced italian restaurant downtown that had good food. We decided to eat outside, even though it had been raining off and on. A man came and pplayed his violin while we ate, so we gave him a Euro. After eating, we walked all around, took the subway to the harbor and just enjoyed the view. We got some ice cream, which Micah really enjoyed, and watched boats and ferries float by. I hope that gap in in his teeth goes away with his baby teeth... goodness.

After that, we went to the Michaelis Kirche, a large, catholic church close to downtown. The sculpture is over the main doors. It's really an impressive church inside as well, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to take our word for it. Once we'd spent a little time there, we went to the Nikolai Kirche. The chruch was destroyed in World War II by Mr. Roosevelt's and Mr. Churchill's armies, and the church was left in ruins as a monument to everyone that died in the war. It's a really neat monument and definitely worth seeing. It's strange seeing what the war really did to the country. For us it was overseas, but to have that all going on where you live is something else.

To end our visit in Hamburg, we walked around the old Speicherstadt, a section of town that was the old warehouse district. The canals and houses are beautiful. They have boat tours of the area, too, but we didn't have enough money for it.

Die Hamburger Kunsthalle

We visited the famous art museum in Hamburg. Inspired by the abstract expressionism seen during our visit, Micah felt free to delve into some avant-garde technique of his own. The museum was great. They had Max Beckmann (my favorite artist), Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Picasso, and lots of others. The Caspar David Friedrich collection was really cool, too. If you're ever in Germany, go to Hamburg and see it.

Willkommen in Kiel!

Kiel is right on the water. There's a huge sandbox downtown full of kids and toys and even some parents standing around smoking. Micah loves playing there, and usually gets mad when we have to go. Kiel's harbor is really pretty. There are some beaches around, too. Those pictures are in a later blog, since our camera's battery went

dead and we couldn't find a charger for it for a week or so. In any case, we've liked it here. Micah loves seeing the boats in the harbor. We rode on a ferry our first weekend here and he loved that.

There are jellyfish all over in the water. That's what Micah's pointing at in the picture.

Willkommen in Deutschland!

Upshot: we're in Germany!! Downside: so is our luggage... After trying to convince several different taxi drivers that we could fit it all in their station wagon, we found a taxi driver with a van. It all fit, although I still don't really know how. Our driver was super nice and took us to our hotel, which was right by the Hamburg Central Station. The next morning, it was off to Kiel.

Cheerio England.

After a hard day of walking around Manchester and trying to sleep in chairs, Micah decided that an airport floor was suitable as a bed. As disgusted as we were with the idea of touching the floor, we decided to let him just sleep until we had to board.

The airplane to Hamburg was small, but the flight was barely over an hour, so it was pleasant. They even fed us on the flight! Delta won't even do that for a five hour flight. Everyone should fly Lufthansa (just make sure your carry-on is light and you only have one)! Besides, finally getting to Germany would have been worth a crappy flight.

Our morning constitutional in Manchester...

Manchester was surprisingly scenic. This is a picture of an old pub in downtwown Manchester. The city had more of these Fachwerkhäuser (I don't know what they're called in English) than I expected. I love these; it was nice to feel so close to Germany. So, we walked around town and ate a British Breakfast at some little Cafe in a department store. It was good and filling, but it cost us around 8 pounds, which ended up clearing our account as $17 or something. Micah really tried to stay awake and excited, but it didn't work very well for him. I can't remember how long he stayed asleep in his strollerr. After seeing the old town hall and walking around town, we started feeling (really) tired. So we went back to the airport and crashed for a while (hours) on some nice vinyl chairs in a busy hallway.

Cheerio England.

Here's Micah after landing in England, around midnight MST. We actually felt really good when we first arrived. Since we hardly had anything to carry with us, we decided to go into the city to celebrate our 12 hour layover and hear everyone's accents (it's so funny, they really talk like that!). It was like listening to the BBC all day. We got to ride the train. Their train system is (I think) a little more confusing than Germany's, but it had to do for the time being. It was Micah's first time ever riding in a train and he loved it (still does in Germany)! He stood up and looked out the window and started dancing and singing and just enjoying himself more than we would have expected a sleep-deprived child to do. Maybe the lack of sleep was why he seemed so "happy."

Goodbye USA!!

Here we are at the airport. Our dear friends Matt and Emmy (with kids Ellie, Matt, and Josh), and Gayle came to see us off before they left to Texas. At this point, our luggage was checked in and all we had to worry about was getting on our plane. But it didn't work that way. When we got to Chicago, we had to run with our carry-ons, catch a train, run some more, go through security, then run some more until some beast of a lady stopped us right before we were boarding (the plane waited for us!) and told us all about how Lufthansa's "rules are different," and we couldn't carry on basically any of our carry-on items (3 bags and a guitar)and we'd have to gate-check them, since she - the weak beast - couldn't lift the carry-on bags (although pregnant BreAnne could just fine?). Despite the fact that a nice man told me he'd ask the crew if I could keep my guitar in the locker, said beast informed me that wouldn't be an option. So after some explitives and our favorite beast trying to convince us how merciful she was for not charging us something like $170 per bag for checking them because she "[didn't] have time to!" On the upside, we didn't ave to carry all of that stuff around Manchester.

The flight to Manchester wasn't too long (comparitively, anyway: 7.5 hrs), but Micah had had it about 2 hours before we landed. It was fun being asked about every 30 minutes if we wanted tea. Seriously, who needs tea that often, especially on a flight? I was sitting next to some Brit whose left elbow was definitely on my side of the armrest the entire flight. BreAnne sat behind this lady who kept laughing at a Friends episode when everyone was trying to sleep. That same lady had told Micah to "stop it," when he was fussy. As one might expect, we landed in England greeted with a healthy cloud cover and a light rain with the sun showing no intention of favoring us with its nice, warm electromagnetic radiation.

He has his Mama's pretty eyes!

Micah's version of smiling.

Some more pictures of Micah with his brand new (short!) haircut. He looks like his Uncle Wells!

On the phone again.

More from Micah's party. He loves his Mama. Grandpa showed up and had fun with monkey too.

Micah's 2nd annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. We can't believe our little monkey is already two! He likes the little jets he got from Opa Dick.

Micah likes to read with or without us. When he reads with us he usually likes to read it out loud to us.

So, we haven't posted in almost a year. Micah gets regular haircuts. He has a lot of hair, like his mommy. One of Micah's favorite things to do is talk to Oma on the telephone.