Author Archives: Steve

Author: Keegan

Well I’m not going to start like I did last time, that’s for sure.  I am going to go straight out and tell you. Well first I woke up (that’s a no brainer) then I had a scrambled egg breakfast that my mother made me. After breakfast Dad and me went to a German haircut place to get my Dad a hair cut (which I don’t think he needed). After we left he said he asked the barber to shave his head to a zwei clippers (which is two in english) and held up his thumb and pointer finger.  But the barber gave him a one. So once we were walking back to our apartment he asked, “This looks like a one doesn’t it? I asked for a two.” But then I told him “You put up two (in German) on your hands, but you said ein (which in english is one).” Then he said, “I did, I thought I said zwei?” “Nope you said ein”.  So that day he got one heck of a haircut. We didn’t do much until 12:00 sharp except for my Dad did his shoulder exercises which include bending forward and putting his right arm in front of him and spinning it one way then another because he said he hurt it playing basketball. We got the internet fixed at our apartment at 12:00 sharp. So we were online doing whatever for about 1 hour then we took a break at around 1:00 and we had lunch.  Then we went back on the computer for a little while longer. At around five o’clock we took the UBahn subway to the zoo (we didn’t go in but I wanted to) and walked to the Tiergarten (it is like New York’s Central Park) to meet Steffi who was going to run in a relay race. We were about to get on a bus to take us there but then she called and said that it might rain so you don’t have to come so we didn’t go. 😦 But then since everyone was hungry and it was raining we went to an Italian restaurant to have dinner. It was delicious!!!!!!! Then we went back to our apartment and Skyped with some people and then we all went to bed.

THE END………(this time for real…HEHEHEHEHE)

I took this picture of my Dad getting a haircut - he says it'll grow back

Here's my Mom in one of the gardens in the Tiergarten

Author: Steve

We are having a wonderful time in Berlin, Germany.  Even with the cooler weather and the rain on-and-off again (its light and seems to pass quickly), it’s a great place to be. The history is rich and the sites are many.

We had an amazing hostess our first day and she showed us some great sites:

1) The Humboldt University in Berlin – where she attends school (first semester classes started back in 1810 and it is located in the center of Berlin off of Unter den Linden Boulevard);

Humboldt University in Berlin with Steffi

Keegan, Steffi and Kendal in front of the US Embassy

2) The East Side Gallery to see what remains of the Berlin Wall (very interesting aspect that we learned more about was the “Death Strip” and how 100 people, over those years, had been shot dead trying to cross over to West Germany. One of the most famous being 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who was shot in the hip and left to bleed to death for over an hour in the “Death Strip” with citizens from both sides watching as well as journalists but everyone reluctant to help because of the unknown nature of consequences that they could face);

The Berlin Wall

One of the most famous paintings on the Berlin Wall - depicting the infamous kiss between East German leader Erich Honecker and his Soviet Union counterpart Leonid Brezhnev

3) The Brandenburg Gate (one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany, it is the only remaining gate of 18 in which Berlin was once entered, it was erected in the 1730’s). People may remember when former President Ronald Reagan spoke in front of the this gate in 1987: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Brandenburg Gate

Steffi gave us a great education on how things operate in Berlin, we had a wonderful time with her and we will hopefully meet up with her again before we leave; we just want to make sure we don’t interfere with her studies.

In the mean time we also visited:

1) The Memorial for the Murdered Jewish Families of Europe (which is behind the US Embassy);

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe is a very powerful Holocaust memorial for Germany

We were lucky enough to get a top view during a light lunch

2) The famous streets of Kurfurstendamn (which origins date back to the 1500’s) and Unter den Linden (Unter den Linden leads you straight to the Brandenburg Gate and has the sweet smell from the Linden trees);

Keegan and Amy

Keegan and Kendal on Kurfurstendamn

3) The beautiful Charlottenburg Palace (which was built in the end of the 17^th century and is the largest palace in Berlin, it’s only a few blocks from our apartment and has a huge fairytale garden in back);

In front of the beautiful Charlottenburg Palace

Kendal and Keegan approaching the Palace

In the back garden of the Charlottenburg Palace

4) The completely amazing Tiergarten (we rented bikes for a couple of days here); and

Riding bikes all around the Tiergarten

Amy and Keegan climbed to the top of Victory Column which is in the center of the Tiergarten

And this is what they saw from the top - a section of the large Tiergarten

5) The Sony Center

The Sony Center

We learn and see something new everyday. So much to see and so little time.

Our apartment is ½ block from the UBahn so we have been going most everywhere via subway.  The subway system itself is very easy to navigate. As I mentioned earlier we rented bikes for a couple of days and got around town as most of the locals do and that in itself was a true experience. The bike lanes are huge and people bike fast and efficient just as if they were walking.  It is common to find 10 to 15 bikers at your side waiting for the light to change. As busy as the streets are I am happy to report that we got around quite effectively with no injuries.  The apartment is very clean and has what we need – IKEA merchandise fills every corner. The first few days the WiFi system would not work but with some persistence we were able to get that resolved. Our apartment is on the 5^th floor and there is no elevator so we are definitely getting our workouts in. The kids are sharing a room… it’s a pullout bed that is in the middle of the kitchen, dining room, laundry room and overall family area. No complaints from the troops; so far all good. We also have many store options for food and beverage right in our area, which has been very convenient.

Biking around the city of Berlin. There are traffic lights for cars, pedestrians and because there are so many bikers they even have their own traffic light (notice the guy in back waiting for his light to change)

We have been eating in for breakfast and dinner. Our lunch is typically not sit-down but maybe a few baguettes or Panini sandwiches to share. We take apples or some other snack in the backpack while we are sight seeing and that seems to hold us over until we eat at the apartment. That doesn’t mean we don’t have the occasional ice cream, pretzel or Nutella and banana crepe when needed. The grocery stores in my opinion are a pretty good value – $25 euro can feed us for a few days in-house (and yes that includes beverages as well ;-)).

Dinner in our apartment in Berlin

It’s funny how after only a few days we can acclimate ourselves to our surroundings and feel “at home”.  We have never felt unsafe since we have been in Germany, which is probably why we feel so at ease.  Similarly it has been so easy to find the benefits and beauty of this area, as we did in Gelsenkirchen, without even searching. Germany has been a wonderful country, full of great history and culture and we look forward to seeing and learning more in the next couple weeks that remain.

Author: Steve

Honestly folks how does one measure what is and is not appropriate!

Well there we were on a platform in Dortmund, Germany waiting to get on a connection to Berlin. It’s rainy and cold, we are carrying pretty much everything we have on our backs but we are still all very happy after leaving our good friends in Gelsenkirchen. The train before our train approached the station and was there in a waiting pattern for about 5 minutes. There was a cute little blonde girl about 3 years old standing on the seat in the train looking out the window. She started waving at Kendal and me so we waved back; we did this for some time.  [I reminisced how Kendal was once that cute little girl with a hardy laugh as she still has.  I remembered how she used to call cookies “coo coo’s” and how she loved playing with her dolls for hours on end.  Now I look at Kendal and she’s a young lady who’s going into high school and will driving before we know it; how time does fly.]  Then this little blonde girl on the train started blowing us kisses (it seemed like she just learned how to do that).  So I “very innocently” blew her a kiss.

Amy: What did you just do?

Steve: I blew that little girl a kiss.

Amy: That’s kind of inappropriate isn’t it?

Steve: (thinking) – OMG I can’t believe Amy just said that to me!

All of our backpacks have a connection clasp in the front that goes across our chest and each one has a whistle incorporated in it for safety purposes (you can’t tell by looking at them). Before I could say anything…Keegan put his chin to his chest, put the whistle in his mouth and started blowing it.

Keegan: INAPPROPRIATE MAN, INAPPROPRIATE MAN, INAPPROPRIATE MAN!!! (yelling this while pointing at me and blowing his whistle – you see, this is my son’s humor).

It all happened so fast – my body froze.

Steve: Keegan stop it, are you crazy!!

Amy, Kendal and Keegan were all laughing hysterically (probably because my body completely froze except for my eyes which were racing back and forth at an extremely fast rate).  But I was not laughing. I was imagining the little girls Dad hearing Keegan through the windows of the train, getting the cops and now I’m in jail.  It wouldn’t be so funny then, would it everyone!?

Steve: Kendal blew her a kiss!

Kendal: No I did not!

Steve: Yes you did, I saw you!

Kendal: No, I waved, I did not blow any kisses!

Amy and Keegan still crying of laughter and again I do not find this funny.

Steve: Kendal, blow her a kiss!

Kendal: What!?

Steve: Blow the kid a kiss!

Kendal: No, why?

Steve: Because then they’ll think we are just a happy family of “kiss blowers”! Just do it or would you rather I go to a German jail!!??

Kendal: Fine! (she reluctantly blows a kiss, the little girl smiles and the train rolls away).

Thank you Kendal!!

Amy and Keegan- we will meet again my laughing friends!!

My family of comedians on a train in Berlin

Inappropriate Man sporting stylish outfit

Author: Steve

As we leave our first stop in this region of Germany we leave knowing that Gelsenkirchen, Cologne and Oberhausen are all beautiful cities with very unique and distinctive qualities and a day in each city could never do that city justice.

It is interesting to know that once not too long ago 150-200 coal mines existed in Germany (with the region we are leaving having one of the higher percentages of these facilities) and that only over the last 50 years this industry has diminished to only 5 remaining coal mines. Once close to 1 million people were employed by this industry and that has diminished to about 20 thousand today. The plan is to close the remaining coal mines by the year 2018.  With nuclear plants in heavy discussions as well, the goal is to establish wind and solar energy as the standard in Germany. While some embrace its possibilities others question it.

What I found most amazing and impressive is that with so many large unused coalmine campuses scattered throughout this region they did not demolish them and build new buildings; instead they reused the facilities and put in universities, museums, restaurants, hotels, etc. These facilities were not poorly maintained places but very nice, high-end, clean facilities. One of the coolest museums we visited was the Oberhausen Theater; it was in a massive silo that once was used for storage of coal through the refining process; just incredible. In fact, our last night we went to a very trendy and hip beer-garden, this building was a part of a large coal mining facility that was once used for holding people that had been seriously injured (or worse) in the mine. Back many, many years ago; this happened more often than people like to remember. Across the way from the beer-garden was another large building that was used to house the Executives of this particular coal mining campus; that is now a beautiful hotel.

When all the coal mining facilities in this region were in operation they had many railroad tracks in place that they needed for the transportation of goods. Since most of these routes are not used in that fashion anymore the tracks have been removed and they have been turned into beautiful biking and running paths. We were lucky enough to be able to utilize these paths for both hiking and biking a couple times in our short stay.

A special thank you to our incredible hosts that showed us around their beautiful region. We enjoyed every minute of our stay and of their company –none of us wanted our days to end. We could never have imagined the amazing treatment we received. We know that one day our paths will cross again with Werner and Annette and we look forward with anticipation to that time. As our train left the station heading to Berlin, we were all very sad to leave these great people but happy that we were given the opportunity to be a part of their lives even if only for a few days.

Prost!!

Oberhausen Theatre

Our Family from Gelsenkirchen

Off to Berlin

Author: Keegan

Hi it’s me Keegan. Well today was fun. The End……… Just kidding, I will tell you what happened today in Germany. Well first we had a scrambled eggs breakfast. After that, we went to a museum and climbed to the top of it and it was 104.95 meters off the ground. It was really high off the ground!!!!! It was very scary for Kendal and I. In the center of the museum was a HUGE fake tree. Every year it is a different thing in the center. Like last year was a HUGE moon… well that’s what I heard. After the museum we went to an attraction that was called ”tree2tree” it was an obstacle course in trees. You had a harness that held you up with karabinar’s and a roller and a very strong rope that can hold up to 4 tons and in between each obstacle there was a platform to hold you up while you wait for your turn. At the end of each course was a zip line. After that we went to dinner, which was delicious. Then we went back to the house we were staying at and had “ice”(ice cream) and chocolate. Then we Skyped with some people and went to bed around 11:30 (our time).

Keegan and his new German Buddy

Ready to head to Oberhausen

Waiting for our safety class

Keegan preparing for action

Kendal - It's a long way up

Keegan on his way down

Kendal in focus

The Dynamic Duo could have went 3 more hours

Author: Amy

After another fabulous breakfast we headed via train to Cologne, Germany today.  Thank goodness for our hostess because even though it is very impressive how many people speak english here many do not (obviously since we are in Germany) and we are having a hard time understanding the language.  We visited the huge Cologne Cathedral and climbed 532 stairs to the top.  This amazing cathedral has structures dating back to as early as 870 AD.  We ate at a very cool Gasthaus for lunch and had some traditional Ochsenschwanzsuppe and Bratwurst.  We tried to get SIM cards for our unlocked phones and found that they were not “unlocked”  so much for our “techie” talent.  A few dollars later we have a local phone – so we can call our rental’s etc.  Let me tell you we laughed so hard at the thought of trying to speak to them over the phone in German, without the use of hand gestures.  Who knows if we’ll ever use the phone but we have it, just in case.  Our last stop in Cologne was a wonderful Schokolade (Chocolate) Museum.  We didn’t get home until after 8:30pm, we had a great spread of left-overs and a good number of Flensburger Beer’s to end the great full day!

Cologne train station

German Brezeln

Cologne Cathedral

Hmmm apples...

Schokolade Museum

Lunch in Cologne

Author: Kendal

We arrived at the Düsseldorf airport at 7:00am (Germany time), which is 1:00am (eastern time). We were welcomed with open arms by a fabulous host family; they then drove us to their house in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The place they live in is amazing! They have the whole backyard to play and frolic in. They were so nice they gave us a traditional German breakfast; filled with different meats, butters, cheeses, and breads. It was like a firework in my mouth. 🙂 The kids then took off to play some one-v-one futbol (soccer) in the backyard.  After we had our warm up we went for about a 2-1/2 hour “walk/hike” throughout their “park/forest”. The adults took the regular plain and boring paths, while the kids took the more dangerous, life-threatening paths (that helped them not complain ;)). It was so cool we climbed this huge hill called “stairway to heaven” and saw some actual World War II bunkers still standing in the forest. Once back to their house the kids were tired and cranky so they retired to their room to play on their computers, while the adults went to get train tickets for Cologne and Berlin; the next couple stops in our Germany adventure. We are trying not to sleep to adjust to the time change but it’s getting very hard.

Traditional German Breakfast

Awesome Hike

Just Don't Look Down