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. 

 

Housing Trip to Cologne/Düsseldorf

July 23, 2013

Last week Mike and I went on our housing visit to Germany.

We left Sunday night from Newark and arrived in Düsseldorf Monday morning at 6AM.  We managed to figure out the trains and buy our tickets.  We could have skipped this step of buying tickets, as no one EVER the entire week checked if we had train tickets or not.  I love Germany, they are all rule followers like me!  If you are supposed to buy a train ticket, you do it, it doesn't matter if someone is going to check it or not.  (That and the fine is like €200, which is approximately $260)

Monday we spent in Cologne.  We took a nap, which helped greatly, but we couldn't make it up until sunset which that week was about 9:50 at night.  Germany is pretty far north!  One of the highlights of Cologne is The Dom, which is just ridiculously huge!  Everyday, we would walk out of the Hofbahnhof (train station), and would still be shocked at how big The Dom is.  We never got used to it.

The Dom, officially the High Cathedral of St. Peter, has been under construction for more or less 900 years, since it was begun in 1248.  The Dom was never targeted in WWII, possibly because it was used as a landmark to for the planes to navigate by.  The relics of The Three Wisemen are located here, behind the Altar.  Mind-blowing!  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral)

I think after we toured The Dom, we took a nap but I really don't remember.  Running on adrenaline.

Lunch was delicious.  I'm not going to fill this blog with pictures of food (well maybe I am), but here is what I had.  Schnitzel with Pommes Frites, in some kind of mushroom sauce.

After lunch we walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenzollern_Bridge), which is for trains crossing the river Rhine.  There is a walking path along which people attach "Love Locks" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_padlocks).  No, we didn't, but there is still time.  

Here we are on the other side of the Hohenzollern Bridge looking back at Cologne.  While we were here admiring the view, this guy climbed the side of the bridge.  Maybe you can do that when you visit.

Tuesday morning we took the train back to Düsseldorf to meet with relocation expert.  She showed us around to about 9 different houses.  We had our minds set on a small 3 bedroom 1 bathroom "typical German" townhouse with a back yard just big enough for a table and chairs.  So when the realtor brought us to this house first, we knew it was going to be a hard one to beat!

It is located in the village of Kaiserswerth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserswerth).   It is about a 10 minute bike ride to Erin & Ryan's school, The International School of Düsseldorf (http://www.isdedu.de/ and http://www.isdlions.de/).     

Three (and a half) bedrooms, 3 and a half bathrooms.  It was built in the 1930.  The tile in the kitchen is form a church in France.  The living room opens out to a huge back yard.  Which includes a pond and a 'party house'.  Just what we needed, a built in excuse to throw a party!  There is also a 3rd floor porch off our bedroom.

Like, I said it was going to be hard to beat, and it wasn't.  

After visiting a few houses, we had an appointment at the school.  It certainly isn't what our kids are used to, but I think it will be a wonderful change of pace experience for them.  Erin's 4th grade has 4 homerooms this year, and Ryan will spend 50% of his day outside, no matter the weather.  

When we got back to Cologne, we stopped at a Convenience Store and grabbed a €3 bottle of wine (yes I can find 3 buck Chuck all over the world), and drank it down by the Rhine.  That sounds really degenerate, but trust me, we were in the norm.  

Wednesday brought more house-shopping and lunch with Mike's new boss at Bayer in Leverkusen.  The nice part of Bayer was beautiful, I didn't see the actual 'plant' part.

Thursday, we had lunch in Düsseldorf at a beautiful market with a woman I have been emailing with.  Her husband works at Bayer, they are from Pittsburgh and her kids are at the International School with Ryan and Erin.  Who better to make us feel at home and get the lay of the land?

Afterward Mike and I took in some of the sights of Düsseldorf.

After dinner with one of Mike's work colleagues who recently made the move from Pittsburgh to Leverkusen, we finally were awake enough to see Colonge after the sun goes down!

It was a great week in our new, temporary home.  These 2 years will FLY by I'm sure.  This won't be the last time I say this, but EVERYONE is welcome to come visit anytime that they want!  Book your flights now!