Europe Tour 2019/20

We drove to the Neanderthal Museum after breakfast. This museum is actually the reason we are in Duesseldorf: we had heard of the museum from some of Mum's friends, who greatly recommended it. Anyway, when we arrived, we checked in, and looked at the special exhibition, which was about the Romans. We then also looked at the main exhibition, which was about the human evolution. There was a great audio guide too. At the end, we went into the cafe and ate delicious lunch, which I suspect was home-made (or shop-made?). I also tried a lychee drink, but found it quite disappointing. After this, we walked to the site of the famous find that reshaped our understanding of our evolution: the site where the first Neanderthal skeleton was found. We also looked at some outdoor paddocks which belonged to the museum, but didn't really have anything to do with it. We saw some horses, and also wanted to see the aurochs, but there was no trace of them except for a sign that said "Aurochs...

We went to eat breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, but then had to leave almost immediately in order to pack up and catch the train to Duesseldorf. But when we got to the station and the train arrived, we found out that the carriage we were booked into didn't exist. Apparently DB (Deutsche Bahn = German Trains) counts like this: 8, 9, 11, 12, with ten being our mysteriously missing carriage. Anyway, apart from that, the ride went well, and we arrived at Duesseldorf without complication. We checked into our hotel and said hello to Grandma Elke and Grandpa Siegfried, who drove over from Schieder. We would, after two nights in Duesseldorf, drive with their car to Schieder. After we unpacked our luggage, we set out for a walk around the city. We followed a canal that ran through the middle of the city, and then found an iceskating rink there. This was, of course, an immediate hit, and me and Niklas asked if we could go there. We went there, and while me and Niklas zoomed around the ic...

We walked to Grandma and Grandpa this morning for breakfast, but also to borrow their car to drive to Torsten and Anne's house. Torsten is my Mum's cousin, and Anne is his wife. They also have two young daughters, Ella, who is 4, and Maya, who is 1 1/2. We ate a delicious lunch in two courses (pumpkin soup + pasta with meatballs). Afterwards, we walked around the town, and then drove back to Karlsruhe, where we were going to meet with Uncle Ollie, Uncle Christian and his girlfriend, and Grandma and Grandpa at their house for dinner.

We went to Yoerg for breakfast. Yoerg is one of Dad's friends, and he is really nice. He made great hot chocolate and a breakfast like in a hotel, and afterwards the adults talked, and us kids read. Afterwards we went to the Stegmuellers. These are friends of my Mum's. We played games with Nils and Nele, their son and daughter, and had delicious afternoon tea (waffles with cherries and basically whatever we wanted!) and also ate dinner there. Dinner was raclette, which we had had on Christmas Eve too.

This morning there was frost everywhere. All the water in the ponds was completely frozen over, although not enough to stand on. We ate breakfast with grandma and grandpa, and while we were eating fog developed outside in such density that you couldn't see anything. It was almost worse than the fog on the first train. Around lunchtime, we went to Julia and Jan's house. Julia is one of our kindergarten friends and one of our best friends in Germany. Jan is her younger brother. We were meeting with them to have lunch and for us kids to have some other kids to play with. But that wasn't the main point of meeting. The main point of our meeting was to go to the nearby Karlsruhe Christmas Market & Iceskating Rink. It was really cool: there was a large circle around a statue in the middle, and also a long one-way high-speed run at the side, and  a rectangle at the side for tricks and practising. We spent about two and a half hours there, and then we went back to Julia and J...

This morning, we were going to go to the circus. Me, Niklas, and Mum took the tram to the circus while Dad drove Grandma and Grandpa. At the circus, we spent a while in the entrance tent, which had a Christmas-Market type fair in it. Then the time came for it to start, and we split up. Mum and Dad weren't going in. The remaining group of people (Niklas, Grandma, Grandpa, and me) took our front-row seats and waited for the start of the show. We were so excited; this was our first-ever circus. The lights dimmed. And then a spotlight appeared; in it stood the circus director. He spoke for a short time, and then the show began for real. I have to admit, the first act wasn't so good. It was a singing, dancing and mute drama performance, with one singer, a mime (a little girl who had gotten a book for Christmas) and her mother and Santa, also mimes, and six dancers. But then the next performance came on, and the next. There are too many to list all of them, but I'll tell you so...

This morning we were going to look at all the small things we had left out so far, such as the zoology park/public garden, the Pantheon, Rue Muftare, and the Jardin du Luxembourg. First we went to the zoology park and the public garden. Mum had previously thought that the zoo was also open to the public, but we were disappointed to find that you had to pay to get into the zoo so we spent a lot of time wandering around the garden. Then we went on to Rue Muftare, a previously unknown side alley which only became famous when the warm atmosphere and dainty cafes made it a very popular eating spot. When we arrived, though, there was nobody there so we enjoyed a hot chocolate/coffee and sat in the cold while being warm. We moved on after we finished our drinks. Next we were going to the Pantheon. This is a memorial to all French scientific minds that had contributed some significant amount to science. People in there are smart (or used to be, until they died). We admired the magnificent ...

Yesterday, we didn't go up the Eiffel Tower. Today, we did. We got up really early and took the same bus as yesterday to the vicinity of the Tower. We walked to the Tower and stood in the line for the security check. Then we stood in the line for the tickets. Then we went up the Eiffel Tower. This is the part where it really starts to get interesting. We climbed up to the 1 storey, and although there wasn't really such a great view from there yet, we spent a lot of time there because there were toilets there and also benches, so we ate there. Then we went up to the second storey, the highest we were going today. The Eiffel Tower has three storeys: the first storey, one quarter of the way up, the second storey, halfway up, and the third, top storey, at the tip. But we weren't going to the top, because that was only reachable by a heavily booked elevator. But the view from the second storey was good enough: in the words of Mum, "On the third floor, the view is the same, ...

This morning, we were in a huge hurry to catch a bus to the Eiffel Tower. But the skies were gloomy and we quickly decided to instead go to the Louvre. It was still adequately early so we should get in without a problem. As it turned out, there was a hundred-metre long line, but it moved quickly and getting in wasn't hard. We went through security, bought tickets, locked up our hot clothes, got our tickets scanned, and just as we were about to go through the arch, the security barrier closed with a boom. We asked the lady who had scanned our ticket, but she didn't know either. She told us to try the other two entries, but both were similarly closed. Then the sirens went off and the loudspeakers started: "Please leave the Louvre in an orderly fashion through the nearest exit". This repeated over and over. So, us being normal people, we followed the instructions, got our clothes, and exited up the spiral staircase where the nearest exit was. We were just about to go thr...

This morning, we took the tram. Mum had found out about one fully automatised route which drove along the north bank of the Seine. This was, of course, ideal for our purposes, for a large amount of Parisian attractions are near the Seine. One of these attractions was the Arc de Triomphe. This was built by Napoleon in the 19th century to act as a sort of war memorial, to commemorate all of his won battles. At first there was a bit of confusion because Niklas needed to go to the toilet and Mum went with him, and then we lost the two of them. But we found each other and we paid a small fee to actually go up the stairs to the top. Here we enjoyed the view and took a bunch of selfies. Then the time came to leave, and Mum told me to "go down and wait for me there". I later learnt she was going to the toilet. So I went down, all the way down, to the ground again. And there I waited. And waited. And waited. And she didn't come down, and nor did Niklas or Dad. So I went to a membe...

This morning, we left early again for Paris, the City of Lights. We were actually lucky, because strikes in Paris and France meant a lot of French trains weren't driving. Our train was a TGV, or Train Grande Vitesse, or High-Speed Train, and  French . So there was a high chance the train wouldn't drive. But we were lucky and it drove. Anyway, on the way, we were driving through whiteouts so intense we could barely see trees 10 metres away. 'As you can see, you can see nothing.' Then we arrived at this huge train station that was the Gare de l'Est, or East Station (or Station of the East if you take it literally). And this was only one of five stations (six if you count the disused one which is a museum now) in Paris, each of the same grandeur or more. After arrival, we then took a taxi to our Novotel, near the Gare de Lyon, which translates as Station of Lyon, or possibly Lyon Station. Lyon is a city in the south of France, which tells us the station's purpose: ...

Today was the day for train trip No. 1 to Karlsruhe. We took a taxi to the Schieder station and took a regional train to Altenbeken station, a big railway intersection in a small town. From there we took an ICE (Inter-City Express) to Karlsruhe. On the ICE, there was a pretty long delay due to "human damage", which probably meant that someone had fallen in front of a different train and needed to be taken to hospital. Other than that, the trip was quite enjoyable. When we arrived, we went straight to our hotel, which was just across from the station. There we checked in, went to the toilet, dressed warmly, and left again, for Grandma Gisela and Grandpa Pico's apartment. There we also met Uncle Christian and his new girlfriend. Together, we all walked back to our hotel, where we had booked a table in the restaurant in the ground floor.Then we went to bed.

First of all, sorry that I am writing this so late. There has been lots going on, and I didn't have much time to write my blogs. Second of all, Merry Christmas! Third of all, the actual post. Today I was sooo excited. I just couldn't wait until SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! came. I had to wait until 6 o'clock though. I know what you're thinking. What does 6 PM have to do with SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA? Well, in Germany, for no particular reason, SANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! comes at 6 PM instead of 12 AM. Anyway, 6 AM - 6 PM = 12 hours, so I had a long time to wait. At 2:30, our Great-Uncle Heinz came. Heinz is my Mum's  uncle on her dad's side. He has had 2 strokes in his life and is a bit wobbly on his legs, but he's really smart and funny. He brought four HUGE bowls of chocolate....

Today was shopping day. We drove to Detmold in Aunt Petra's second car and stopped first at a hardware store for light bulbs and a sink plug. Second, we stopped at a technology store for a charger. Last year, we bought a laptop for grandma, which she was meant to use every day to help with her dementia. But she never used it, and so the charger was lost for lack of use. We bought another charger, and I am writing on that laptop right now. And now the hard bit. Shoes and clothes. In Germany, in winter, it is extremely hard to find kid's sport shoes. This is because in winter, it is too cold to do outside sport, and so almost all sport is in a sport hall. For these, you don't use normal grippy shoes, but shoes similar to tennis shoes: with poor grip and a smooth sole. We did find a pair of shoes for me, though, but none for Niklas. After this, we searched for long pants to withstand the German winter. These were easier to find: go into any department store and you will find p...