Saturday, August 25, 2007

The last week in Europe...

So we are back in the US. Ahh, the comfort of my own pillow.... Anyhow, we spent the last week of our trip getting gifts for those back home and doing some touristy stuff in Berlin. The picture below is at Check Point Charlie. I usually am relagated to babysitting while the girls shop so I get to people watch. I bought an apple juice at "Snack Point Charlie" right across from Check Point Charlie. Heh.
Then I took the kids for some quality time at the Kinderspiel the evening before Silvia and I went to Poland.
The below photo is of a section of the main square in Cracow. The main square is the largest in Europe. Cracow is best known for the "camps" outside of town, but it was also largely spared by allied bombing and thus contains some of the best examples of early architecture in the world. The original seat of gov't, it contains amazing buildings and streets.
In direct contrast though, are many examples of 40 years of communist rule. It is amazing to see the contrast of pre-war buildings mixed with the soviet architecture (oxymoron) and the last 20 years of modern investment. There wasn't the huge investment of capital given to Poland after communism left that East Germany enjoyed. I think that Poland may be better off for it as the growth is more organic and without the huge debt to overcome. Cracow has a huge Gallaria Mall and is in many ways more accepting of Westernization.
The next morning we went to see the death camps. I could go on for hours describing the impact of the visit. The two biggest feelings you get are the efficiency in which things were done and the scale of the operation. The first picture is of Camp 1.This picture is of camp 2. It is 7x bigger than camp one. Truly a spooky place. The visitors do not give it the respect it deserves.

I have one point to make: It is important to not dehumanize those responsible for what took place here. Those reponsible were not aliens from another planet or souless monsters we see in movies. Those responsible were often family men and good soldiers. Those responsible were too much like ourselves for us to say, absolutely, that I would never have done such a thing. The true insidious evil of this place is that it could have easily been one of us on holding a rifle or holding a shovel. This place truly shows the depths to which our humanity can be lowered. A depth where only cruelty, pain, and dehumanization exists. 'Nuff said.
Ok now.. wow. Back to more mundane life.... We went to get the train to Warsaw the next day and I helped a guy carry his 50Kilo bags up the track. No good deed goes unpunished... I broke my camera doing it. So below is my last picture of our vacation... I missed about 4 days of photos. Bummer.

All in all, it was a fantastic time in Berlin and Poland. We went to Legoland in the Sony Center in Patsdamer Platz. We ate bad pizza and excellent schitzel and most excellent bier. I stole a couple beer steins...
The best part is that we were with family all the time. We shared the ups and downs. And we can laugh about it now because we're all ok.
School starts next week and I've got a ton of laundry to do....

Friday, August 17, 2007

Meghan's Birtthday...

We were going to go to Lego Land in the Sony Center but the line was long and in the rain...we we walked around in the rain instead. We passed by the Holocaust Memorial and saw the new US Embassy under construction. We ended up eating at a pasta bar and walking back to the Patsdamer Platz to come home.
There was a memorial to the wall. Sean is pictured here taking a closer look.It was also Meghan's 3rd Birthday. We had a cake and all the usual stuff.
Everyone helped open presents.The girls tend to coagulate together around the girlie toys.
Friday morning consisted of hide and seek around the flat. What may appear as an inoccuous clothes hamper is actually...sleeping quarters for two small waifs.
Today, I have a Rotary meeting at 1pm. Then some random shopping. We don't have a car anymore so our roaming is limited to public transportation. The difference is imperceptible.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Finally made it to the carnival...

The weather was finally nice enough in the evening to brave a trip to the carnival. Germany seems to be more accepting of the carnival event than some other countries like Sweden. As you can see, it is a very popular event with Germans. This one was the American/German Carnival. There were paintings of US States and American style music and food.Sean and Meghan were first up on the merry go round.
Of course there were many trips around on the pony rides...
After some hesitation and seeing his younger cousins participate, Sean tried the bungy jumping. It had been raining lightly but steadily for about an hour....
Waiting for the train back to Berlin, the boys are seen here tired and wet. It was a warm night (low 80's) even with the rain.
It was an excellent night out. I had a 3 foot long Wurst and a beer (I kept the glass). There was alot of American style BBQ and Chinese food. I did have a Miller Genuine Draft beer. But the German beer was much better.

It is raining this morning. We are supposed to go to Lego Land downtown. It is also Meghan's 3rd B-day and Silvia and my 10th wedding anniversary.

Wi: Stasi Trip

We went into old East Germany to see the Stasi museum. Our train took us outside Berlin where we got Wurst from the Human Wurst Stand.Then just outside the Stasi museum was another food stand. I had a horse meatball from the "Horse Ball Stand". There was even a picture of a horse on the menu. I was unable to resist.
This is a picture of the outside of infamous "Building 1" of the Stasi or East German Secret Police. The Stasi has a budget in 1987 of 1.3B Marks nearly 1.3% of GDP. There were nearly 61,000 officers and nearly 157,000 "unofficial" informants.
Preserved are the original offices and furniture of the high ranking Stasi officers including Erich Mielke. http://www.geocities.com/isanders_2000/stasi.htm


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tues is another beautiful day...Wurtz!

So Monday started as a beautiful day. I didn't get to go running until about 10am. I did about 10km. It is about 4.5km to the center of the Tiergarten from our flat in Friedenau. The kids were playing Lego Racers and went to the park. We got sitters for the kids and went shopping in the afternoon. We were going to go the carnival for dinner but the weather turned and it started to rain about 4pm. So the little ones took naps.


Tuesday is another sunny day in Berlin. I went for a run this morning in a really nice park with alot of other runners. My legs were a little heavy this morning, so I was having trouble keeping pace.
At noon we went to the farmer's market and ate wurtz. I had two wurtz and a pork sandwich. One of my wurtz was an award winning wurtz. I tried a normal one too. I must say that the award winning wurtz was tastier but it was about 2x the price too.

We are going to go the carnival tonight.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

A Sunday in Berlin...

So the day started out with the usual chaos . Silvia made an American style b-fast with pancakes and eggs and bacon. Then the troup headed out on the subway to the Communications Museum. Pictured are Warren, Cassie, and Sean.
The museum is kid friendly with lots of hands-on type display. One of the events was to demonstrate how to communicate with this little robot dog. We found out that it costs 7,000 EU. That is nearly as much as a real dog.
On the way home we took a side trip down to the Patsdamer Platz. Sean is sitting along side the pavers which mark where the old wall was built. These pavers disappear into new building and emerge on the other side.
This is a site that you will not find on any map of Berlin. I stuck my camera just inside a crack in a driveway gate to get this photo of Hitler's Bunker. It is still in original condition and walled in. It sat on the East German side and even they were at a loss as to what to do with site afraid it may spawn neo-nazi sentiment.
This is the same place with the newly restored street names marking the spot. That is a high wall. This site is an island surrounded by new construction.

Traveling to Berlin...

We left the house at 3:30am PT on Thursday and arrived in Houston at 11am CT. We were already tired and prepared for a 3 hour layover. That three hours was filled with infinite jaunts back and forth on the moving sidewalk.
Sean and Meghan were in good spirits for most of the trip.
Here they are immediately after going through customs in Amsterdamn.
Amsterdamn is a HUGE airport. It is 3x the size of LAX and has only one terminal. It took us 25 minutes to walk to our next gate. Unfortunately, the last hour jump from AMS to Berlin was delayed. We got on the plane and they couldn't get the left engine started. So we had to be towed back to the gate and get on another plan. We had been en route for 21 hours. Ouch.
We did eventually reach Berlin in time to have a late lunch with the Yerms.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Just before we go on vacation...

I am updating the happenings right before we go on vacation for two weeks to see the Yermacks in Berlin. Family vacation metaphor: The excitement surrounding big family vacations are like airline tickets in many ways. Airline tickets are worth more and more as the departure time approaches, but when the plane takes off, the value goes to zero. The excitement builds until you actually leave... then the work begins.
Both Sean and Meghan are in swimming lessons each day. It has been 7 weeks of daily pool visits at 5:20pm. The first couple weeks were rough. Meghan cried the whole first week. Sean had to be forceably carried while in hysterics by the teacher and unceremoniously thrown off the diving board. The swim instructors were under orders to apply whatever technique was necessary. They are much better now, but they still can't swim!...7 weeks is a long time.
Sean is playing Xbox. I took it from him and he can get it back when he learns to read. It has been two months....We'll see who is more stubborn. The problem with this strategy is that I lost alot of behavioral correction leverage. Drat!
This is our Weim, Wilson. He had an anal sack abscess and had to wear underwear so it wouldn't get everywhere while it was draining. Yuck!

This is our 13 year old cat, Scratchy. She is named that because when you walk by her she tries to scratch at you. She has a growth on her head that has to be drained every two weeks. It cost me a $80 trip to the vet who said I could drain it myself. Yuck!