Cologne, Routine, and a 725th Birthday

31.08.2013 - I know you are all concerned, but yes, Mike survived his first weekend away from college football.  We were able to watch the Penn State game…so lucky me.  The Sling Box might have been our best purchase for this adventure (The Sling Box is set up at Rick & Linda’s house to their cable box.  It sends the feed from their TV to either Mike’s phone or a computer.  Also, once our TV arrives, he has a ‘sling catcher’ which will display the feed onto the TV.  Since you asked)

 Ich bin ein Berliner

 

Sunday, we took the kids to Cologne for the day.   We arrived at the Dom just in time for noon mass.  Perfect timing, unless you ask the kids.  They were “surprised” that we were going to church.  I don’t know that they liked the surprise.  Mass was 100% in German obviously, but we were able to follow along. 

 

Side note, I was very surprised when it was time to go up for Communion, the normally ordered, efficient Germans simply rush the Altar.  First come, first serve, no lines, just chaos.  Cologne was also having a triathlon, so that was interesting to see.  We were tired, so we left a lot more of Cologne to explore next time

                                      

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We continue to fall more and more into our new routine.  Mike started work Monday.  He has about a 45 minute drive, which is about 20 minutes longer than home.  He calculated that he walks at least 3 kilometers a day between lunch and walking to the car, so that is great.  

 

The kids and I are have been taking the train to school.  I don’t know that the fun of taking the train will wear off.  It’s relaxing, and the kids see all their friends on the way to school. 

 

We booked our flight to Italy for the kid’s fall break.  Less than €300 for the 4 of us round trip.  Can’t beat that!  Also, we have our first booked guest coming early that week.  Mike’s Aunt Diane is coming for 3 days in October!

Monday I took Ryan in to have his cast checked.  They took another x-ray and said that it needs one more week. So hopefully this Monday he will be cast-free!

I was able to pick up some sweet new cabinets cheap, so we now have some storage.  I can’t wait to fill up a good junk drawer!  They will look much better between with a bigger TV in between them!  Our real furniture and stuff comes on Wednesday. 

 

07.09.2013 - This year, Düsseldorf is celebrating their 725 anniversary.  Crazy!  They have all kinds of events going on all weekend.  Musical performances, steam engine demonstrations, people in costume, etc. all over the Altstadt.  Very cool.  Ryan particularly thought the sword fighting skit was hilarious.  I wonder how much he would have loved it if he spoke German!

 

 Who gave these kids a bow & arrow????

 Ryan nailed one!

 

 

After that, we headed down to Cologne to a party that one of Mike’s colleagues was having.  It was in a very nice park with a playground and a lake.  We met a lot of great people, so friendly.  Ryan was able to work on his soccer skills with some of the boys, while Erin worked on her Bocce ball.  Her and some of the other kids also got to take a row boat out on the lake. 

I’m gong to be honest, we took the scenic route home by taking the long, slow, WRONG train.  You win some, you loose some.  But we made it home in time for Ryan to be able to Skype with Jack so that was great.