Summer Seminar Year #2

Last month marked my (Bryan’s) second Summer Seminar trip.  You may remember the post from last year when we went to Austria.  This year, we spent a week in Makkum, Netherlands in a bungalow on the North Sea.  There were about 15 of us (me, 9 students, 4 colleagues and Professor Langer) on the trip.  My colleagues and I shared one of the three bungalows, while the students shared the other two bungalows.  All of the other bungalows were occupied with other families and really old people.  This prompted two security guards to visit us before we even set up the grill to ‘make sure we weren’t going to make any problems this week.’   

Makkum, Netherlands

These Summer Seminar weeks are good German practice, as pretty much all of the conversations are German.  If I was speaking one on one with somebody, there was still a pretty good chance we were speaking German.  I was encouraged that I could actually understand a good portion of the presentations this time around.  The worst part about catching most, but not all of a conversation is that you can’t add any comments.  You basically sit there and try to focus on understanding.  By the time a thought comes and you formulate the thought in German, the topic has moved on and you start the process all over again.  I am typically not the ‘quiet guy’ in the group, but I usually don’t say much in a German conversation.

The North Sea in June was not exactly Siesta Key, Florida, but the weather ended up relatively nice.  Relatively means it was 60 degrees F (15 C) and sunny, which meant we were able to get a tan.  I had no idea 18 months ago, living in hot and sticky Florida, that I would be able to sit in the sun in 60 degree weather.  My blood has thickened.

Cold North Sea in June vs....

Siesta Key?

Speaking of German speaking, it is not as far along as I would like.  Somehow, Dana’s German has gotten much better and she is really good at understanding.  She has gotten a lot of telephone speaking practice from speaking with Dylan’s Kindergarten and making various Doctors appointments for her and Dylan.  Hopefully, we will have time this fall to get enrolled in a course that could take our German skills up a notch.   

Munich Flashback

I realized that Bryan didn't post a ton of photos from our trip to Munich a few weeks ago, so here are a few more in case you were wondering what else we did while we were there.

We sought refuge from our grouchy son in the English Garden, one of the few places he was content to hang out in (probably because we bought him massive pretzels)

This is at the start of a walking tour that we did, but only I completed.  Bryan and Dylan pealed off after about 20 minutes because Dylan was being disruptive.  

We thought The Champions League Festival would be fun for D, but the whole time we were there he refused to get out of his stroller and kept saying "It's time to go."  

Things turned around by Thursday when Dylan was in a better mood.  He was pretty excited to climb around the lions at Odeonsplatz. 

Really cool watching the surfers in the Icar.

Dylan insisted on sliding down this hill with Bryan a few times.  It took Bryan a while to get up after this last trip down.

Family photo in the English Garden.

We met up with our friends Thomas and Ginny for an afternoon.  So good to reconnect with our old Jacksonville neighbors!

I think the highlight of the trip for Dylan was getting to watch Cars2 on repeat on the train rides to and from Munich.  Every time he sees an ICE train he says "I get to watch movies on that train."

Christmas in Maryland

Oh boy, it's taken a while to get back to the blog since our holiday in Maryland with my family.  After being there for 3 weeks (and taking nearly a week to get re-adjusted to the timezone in Germany), it's about time something was put up regarding our trip there.  

Here's a brief re-cap in pictures:

We took Dylan to Homestead Gardens to check out the train garden.  He was bonkers about trains (and still is) for the rest of the trip.

Lots of fun (and some arguments) happened around the ping-pong table.  Even Dylan wanted to get in on the action.

Although he preferred being spun around in Dad's office chair.

After being there for so many days Dylan tried to be "just like Oma" and insisted on standing like her, eating like her and imitating her.

Bryan and I snuck out and took the train to DC where was saw Jersey Boys from the front row in the National Theater.  

Uncle Dan is always good for a laugh.  Dylan is particularly impressed with his shenanigans. 

One of Dylan's favorite Christmas presents came from Uncle Dan and Aunt Robyn - a fireman's costume!  He walked around the house pretending to put out fires.

Santa gave all the ladies the same sunglasses.

We brought Dylan to the Baltimore Train Museum which had - you guessed it - more trains!  We even took a train ride with Frosty the Snowman through what appeared to be the area of town that is the basis for the TV show The Wire.  It was an odd train ride listening to happy holiday songs and seeing Frosty meet and greet with little kids, then to look out the window and see burnt out shells of buildings, crack houses and a dump slowly passing us by. 

We managed to bring Dylan to a sports bar (God bless the iPad for keeping him occupied) so we could watch some college football bowl games.

My parents live on a golf course, so when the weather was nice enough - which was most days - Bryan would take Dylan out there to swing the club around .

Our good travel fortune had run out, however, when we headed back home to Germany because we incurred one of the worst and longest travel days I've ever experienced.  It started out all right and Dylan even fell asleep on the airplane, which is in itself a small miracle.  About 45 minutes before landing in Amsterdam the flight became really turbulent and by the time we landed at least three small children around us (thankfully not Dylan) were barfing their brains out in the loudest most grotesque way possible.

After getting off the plane we learned that all flights to Germany were cancelled due to high winds and we were instructed to pick up our luggage and retrieve train tickets for the rest of our journey.  3 hours later, we finally got our luggage and train tickets but proceeded to get on the wrong train.  This, in my opinion, was not entirely our fault since pretty much everyone else from our flight who needed to get to Düsseldorf did the same thing.  The Schipol train station had scheduled two trains to leave from the same gate 2 minutes apart going to the same destination, except one was faster than the other.  There was no indication which was which, so we got on the first one to arrive ... which happened to be the slow one.  It dropped us off in Utrecht 25 minutes after our train to Düsseldorf left, leaving us stuck there for 1.5 hours until the next train departed.  Finally on that train, we got off in Oberhausen, then switched to Essen, then got on the train to Borken.  Finally at the Borken train station we tossed all our luggage (3 large suitcases, 3 backpacks, 1 carry-on roller bag, 1 diaper bag, and 1 stroller) into a taxi and finally got home after about 27 hours of traveling.  Dylan was a champion traveler until the very end and he pretty much screamed from pure exhaustion (voicing what Bryan and I were feeling) for the taxi ride and went right to bed when we got home. 

It's no wonder it's taken us a full week to recover and get back on the right time schedule.  Glad to be back in Germany and back to our  normal routine.  Stay tuned for new posts coming up soon!

Date Night at the Essen Christmas Market

Every date night is a reason to rejoice, but Bryan and I were particularly looking forward to our most recent date night in Essen for the Christmas Market.  Dylan's babysitter came at 4:00 on Friday afternoon and we caught the 4:30 train to Essen.  It always amazes us how close we are to nice, big cities like Essen, Münster, Dusseldorf and Cologne.  And hour train or bus ride in any direction and we're in a pretty cool destination.  And hour traveling in any direction in Jacksonville and we'd be, well ...  probably still somewhere in Jacksonville.

Essen's Christmas market is very large and beautiful.  Unlike Münster's and Cologne's markets where there are 5-7 mini-markets set up around the city, Essen's market all seems to wind its way through the main shopping district but always remains connected.  So instead of traipsing through a large city on a cold day to multiple smaller markets, Essen's is one very large market that seemingly never ends.

Plus it has this:

I really wanted to go on this ferris wheel but Bryan distracted me with Glühwein and shopping, so we were pretty much in Dorsten (half way home) by the time I remembered that I wanted to go on the ferris wheel.  Bryan has a selective fear of heights.  He gets all willy-nilly at the top of the Eiffel Tower or on a ferris wheel, but his acrophobia miraculously disappears when it's time to go on roller-coasters or do something that he wants to do.

Anyway, our first order of business at the Essen Christmas Market was to get Bryan a wurst.  This wasn't a difficult task because I think there is some Christmas Market Law that requires every 5th booth to be a wurst + pommes (Bratwurst + French Fry) stand.  Our second order of business was to have a Glühwein (hot, spiced wine), which I'm easing myself back into drinking after a particularly embarrassing episode during last year's Christmas market where someone thought it was a good idea to give me a "bottomless cup" of Glühwein that turned into quite a debacle (Borken basketball people, you know what I'm talking about).  German readers who aren't familiar with the American expression "bottomless cup" - it means free refills.  This year to keep it under control (and avoid the worst possible hangover ever), we limited ourselves to two-cups each.

Bryan about to enjoy his bratwurst.

Less than 10 minutes later while I was buying the Glühwein, Bryan snuck off and returned a few minutes later with a second bratwurst.

Dear Glühwein,  It took me 11 months to forget what you did to me last December.  I forgive you.  We can be friends again, but I will only take you in small doses.  

We then spent the next 3 hours wandering from booth to booth, exploring the different kinds of Christmas decorations, jewelry, chocolate and other goods.  A lot of factors went into this probably being my most favorite Christmas Market experience yet.  I mean, leaving Dylan at home with a babysitter is enough alone to push this experience to the top of the list, but that combined with the size of this market, the good weather and the festive atmosphere made Essen's market one that I'll want to return to next year.

No, that is not a booth going up in flames behind me.  The camera was doing weird tricks with the nighttime lighting.

If I ever forget that I'm in a foreign country, all I have to do is look at the names on these cups.  Dieter, Ingo, Felix, Janus... Bryan said "Hey look, there's a Brian.  Oh no wait, that says 'Biano.' Nevermind." 

Nord pas de Calais, France - Our Family Vacation Part 4

I kind of feel like this past week I've been forcing our blog readers through a grueling old-fashioned slide show of the most mundane details of our recent family vacation.  I mean, how many photos of Gravensteen castle can I post, right? (Note: there are LOTS more in my iPhotos folder.  Want me to post them? Anyone? ... Anyone?... No. Ok, your loss.)  Are you guys groaning "Nooooo! Not more vacation photos!" For those of you who find this boring and painful to read - don't worry, this is the last one and we'll be back to regular, more exciting blog topics like how the Netto grocery store that I went to every day has closed and how this has ruined the flow of my daily life by forcing me to find a new grocery store within a reasonable walking distance. So, as you can see, this is the best we've got as far as exciting topics to write about.

Anyway, back to Calais.  I'm pretty sure we're the first people ever to spend 3 full days in Calais, France.  When booking the hotel, they gave us the 3rd night free, which we thought was great until we realized that - tricks on us! - there are not 3 days worth of activities to do in Calais.  If this part of the world was known for its spectacular weather instead of its spectacularly crappy weather, then 3 days at the beach in Calais would be perfect, but instead it's a bit disappointing not being able to enjoy the nice beaches.  This photo of Dylan about sums up the beach weather in Calais:

"Umm, Mommy, this is not how I remember the beaches from Florida. "

To be fair, the weather wasn't totally terrible. On Friday we spent the day driving from Calais to Cap Blanc-Nez and Cap Gris-Nez, which are two large cliffs that overlook the English channel and where you can see England's "White Cliffs of Dover" on the other side.  We did have really nice weather this day (It was so warm for about 30 minutes we took our jackets off! Wow!) and enjoyed the high cliffs and sandy beaches.

First glimpse of the water, just as the sun is beginning to burn off the clouds...

My handsome guys...

White Cliffs of Dover ... the whole time Bryan was humming the Eric Johnson "Cliffs of Dover" tune that was his favorite to play in Guitar Hero.  Funny at first, annoying by the end of the trip.  

Beautiful views

We got in about 30-45 minutes of beach time before the tide came in.

Gorgeous beach.

Dylan was trying to make friends with the kids who had the shovels.  They weren't into sharing.

The water was freezing and Dylan would shriek every time his toes got wet.

Bryan tried to teach Dylan how to skip rocks.

It was so nice to have nice weather, even if it didn't last long.

Saturday morning in Calais was super rainy, so we went to the mall.  At least it was a big indoor place where Dylan could run around and get his energy out.  We didn't do a whole lot else this day because Bryan was quite ill from the gross sandwich he ate from a street vendor the night before.

For dinner on Friday night he ordered a monstrosity called "The Texan."  This sandwich was on a massive hogie bun and included: 2 or 3 hamburger patties, nacho cheese, slices of ham, scrambled eggs, spicy sauce, grilled onions and was topped with about 1/2 pound of French fries.  We guess that this sandwich had about 2,500 - 3,000 calories in it, and anyone would have gotten sick by eating the whole thing as Bryan did.  (Note: Here's a new rule of travel - don't order sandwiches named after America or have an American sounding name in a French speaking country. This backfired on us when we were in Liege, Belgium and ordered "The American" which was one of the grossest sandwiches I've ever had.)

The only good thing (for me) to come from Bryan's illness is that he stayed in the hotel room with Dylan while he napped and I was able to have a few hours on my own.  By this time on Saturday the sun was out again, and I had a chocolate eclair and a glass of wine at a local Brasserie, sat in the sun and read my book in peace.  Probably my favorite part of Calais.

Sunday morning came and we hightailed it home in about 4 hours.  More than anyone, I think Dylan was excited to be home.  By the time we got to France he had started to ask about home by saying "Mommy, home?" and giving me a quizzical look.  While we had a good time and got to see 4 cities we've never been to and experienced things we'll always remember, Bryan and I agreed that our next vacation will be a little more stationary and we'll probably rent an apartment or house and stay in 1 location for the duration of the trip.   

Bent on Gent: Our Family Vacation Part 3

We were ready to hit the road after 3 nights in Brussels and checked out pretty early Thursday morning.  To our surprise, we made it to the highway without getting lost and were closing in on our next destination, Gent, within about 50 kilometers.   After booking our hotels and researching the destinations we realized that Calais, France (our final destination) might not have enough activities to keep us occupied for 3 full days, especially if the weather was bad, so we planned to spend our Thursday "morning shift" before Dylan's nap exploring Gent, Belgium.

I really wanted to check out the Gravensteen Castle, which is located in the center of the city and has a really cool medieval vibe to it.  The castle was built in the 1100s and is known as the "Castle of the Counts."  The castle was not "stroller friendly" and didn't look very compatible for a 2-year-old's energy.  It had countless narrow, windy staircases and lots of high ledges with no railings for Dylan to fall off of, so Bryan graciously took Dylan to a nearby park while I got to explore the castle uninterrupted.  

For a castle, Gravensteen isn't really all that big, so I was able to do a thorough tour in about an hour.  There was a huge room full of fighting devices (swords, knives, clubs, axes, hammers, armor, etc.) followed by an equally huge room full of terrible medieval torture devices.  And there were lots and lots of great viewing points along the tower walls to take gorgeous panoramas of the city of Gent below.

A view of Gent from one of the tower walls.

Thank you, stranger, for taking my photo.

Good ole' fashioned guillotine. 

Another view of Gent from the castle walls.

Gravensteen Castle.

Chapel room in the castle.

Spooky dungeon.

Gravensteen Castle 

Gravensteen Castle

After the castle tour I met back up with Bryan and Dylan and we had a really great lunch at a local cafe.  It was a rare moment where Dylan was peaceful in his stroller and we were able to enjoy our meal together.  We enjoyed Gent so much that, in hindsight, we should have left Brussels a day early and spent more time in Gent.  Regardless, we were glad we took the time to detour our travel plans for half a day to see this charming town.

Bryan and Dylan exploring Gent.

Beautiful view of Gent

More beautiful Gent

Gent, Belgium

Best lunch of the whole trip.

We packed ourselves back into the car, yet again, in the early afternoon and made our way down the road to Calais, France for the last 3 days of our trip.