Back to Berlin...and BEYOND: dad

Showing posts with label dad. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Where to Take Your Parents for German Castles

My parents never intended to go to Germany. They certainly didn't envision spending so much time in Berlin. They really never thought they might have to watch their future grandchild grow up speaking German (hopefully).

So when we can make concessions, we do what we can. On their last visit to see us in Europe we put in some time to see one of their favorite things: Castles!

Note: Not all locations have been tested on our parents, but I feel pretty certain recommending them after our visit.

Babies and parents and instagram - oh my!

The night of the test. We think this is...good news?

After sitting on the news for a whole month - a record for us - we finally told everyone what is up with my not drinking. Preggers.

Though initially terrified (seriously check those faces), we are getting towards the wildly excited end and are doing our best to figure out how to have a a baby in Germany. I am freaking out and keeping the US family informed on a tumblr of random at In Berlin, Baby. If you too find yourself interested in why we have considered the name Clovis for our offspring or what movies we are watching to prepare (movies are the new books, right?) - head on over.

On the other end of the spectrum, the parents are coming! Once again, my brave parents are trekking over the ocean from the American west coast and this time landing in Copenhagen. I will be meeting them up there where we are sure to cry and be fools saying hi again for the first time in almost a year. Ian will meet us the next day in Hamburg and then we will finally show them our new home in Berlin. Thought they've seen it on TV, this will be their first viewing in person. I hope they like it, and will forgive us the stairs.

DBall Baklava - Baking with Dad

Remember 6th grade when all you needed to get an "A" on a project was to bring food? I had one such project on Greece and being the "A" student I was, I took baklava (or rather my wonderful mom bought some for me from the local Greek restaurant). No surprise - I got an A.

Lets make these cookies!

Celebrating our Wedding Anniversary by Burning Down the Tower Bridge

Prepare to die Tower Bridge

You know the saying if you love something so much you have to let it go? This is kinda like that.

DBall Peanut Butter Cookies - Baking with Dad

Did your dad make you a
scale model of the Tower Bride for your wedding?

You may think your dad is pretty great*, but you just have to keep that to yourself because this post is all about how awesome my dad is. A newly retired Boeing wingman and all-around Mr. Fix-It, he has now taken on - and conquered- baking.

I've written about his awesomeness before, but I thought I might highlight his accomplishments in a medium we could all appreciate - FOOD. Baklava, raspberry lemon bars, killer omelets... the man is simply a marvel.

On our recent visit back to the States, Dad wow'd us once again with his new talent in an all American ingredient - Peanut Butter. And what is more deliciously American than peanut butter? Apple pie? Hamburgers? FREEDOM! Ok, maybe freedom. But peanut butter is pretty great.

Hometown Love

Before I wax too poetic about Berlin (because we've had some pretty unbelievably good weekends of late), it's important to look at our recent trip to the States and our favorite corner - Seattle.

Space Needle

Vienna: Much more than a little Sausage

Ian & I were excited to return to Vienna as we have been there several time and indulged in the cafe culture, oohhhed & ahhed at Stephansdom, and ate and ate and ate. But returning with the parents this time, we realized we actually hadn't spent much time in this Austrian wonder. In our usual whirlwind fashion of travel we had been here on our way elsewhere, but only actually stayed for 1 or 2 nights. This was an egregious error that needed correcting and we couldn't have been happier with our latest experience.

As always, what follows are our highly unscientific, capricious ratings of "The City of Dreams" (home to Sigmund Freud).

Vienna Ratings:

Gardens in the Rain: Berlin's Botanical Garden

I had a dilemma. My parents were visiting, but Ian worked during the week. What to do that wasn't going to make him crazy jealous, but entertain them. I got it - Berlin's Botanical Gardens!

Unfortunately, there was a hitch. It was raining. A lot. We're from Seattle, but c'mon Berlin. Good sports that they are, they accompanied on my fools errand and we got very, very wet. Trying to keep up our spirits, we tromped though the soggy grounds. I apologized. A lot.

Yeah, those are raindrops

Visiting Halfway Around the World...

Snohomish is a small town in the State of Washington (NO! Not the capital). About an hour away from gorgeous Seattle, it is known for antiques, quaint Victorian housing from it's time as a lumber town, and a charming 1st street that is often used for filming idyllic Americana.

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Paired with last night's karaoke escapades and tomorrow's flight, I got a little John Denver on the mind:

We are taking the parents to their 4th-6th European country. Flying to Budapest & spending a few days there, then a day in Bratislava, then Vienna. Some new, some old for us, but I am sure it will all be fabulous. Especially since having them here has been so fun-filled in boring 'ole Berlin.

Placing Poland: Szczecin

The parents are here and on day 5 of European travel. We have big plans for a trip to Hungary, Bratislava, & Vienna next week but since we are so close to Poland, why not a day trip? We didn't just want to hop the border for some nowhere, so we set our sights on Szczecin (auf deutsch Stettin). It reportedly had a Duke's castle, a tourist map with red line guided tour, and was only about 2 hours away. Plus - the train ticket was a Brandenburger ticket, meaning it would only cost 28 euro for all 4 of us to travel there & back. Bonus!

It didn't turn out exactly as we hoped, but was still an experience. Once again, we have decided to rate the cities we are visiting with our parental units. This town might not have stacked up so well, but there is more to come.

The Parents are Coming, The Parents are Coming!

It has been a lonnnnnnnggggg 11 months of Skype video chats, e-mails, and occasional phone calls. But today, my parents are an 1 1/2 away from taking the last leg in their long trip from Seattle to Berlin. I am picking up some flowers, then picking them up at the airport. I simply can't wait. I don't know that I have ever been this excited to see them. Ever.

Mum/Father of the Bride

The parent's visit in Spring 2008:

Hertha game where Dave Ball impressed us by ordering a mass

Wandering around Alex

Family photo at Brandenburger Tor

Our road trip through Southern Germany and through the Rhine...

Burg Eltz

Zell, Germany

Countless German vineyards

Heidelberg, Germany


Nuremberg, Germany

And my latest favorite of them in my beautiful home state of Washington:

We are going to do more fun things in Berlin, skip over to Poland, and take a trip through Hungary, Slovakia, & Austria. But best of all, we are getting a little time to spend together.

Oh - and they are proving word title holders for best parents ever in bringing over our cat Bella! Me-ow.

Love you mum & daddio!

(To get an idea of the teariness of the hello, check out the good-bye: Leaving for Berlin)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Video Trip: Copenhagen

Along with the missing photos, we have just recently discovered some missing videos! (More like Ian take the video & promptly forgets about it.) Nevertheless, here are a few videos of our travels.

Copenhagen

Tivoli Gardens
Lovely, small, and expensive

(Post where we Rate the Danes & describe our adventures)

Italy

Venice

Best pics & ratings of Venice

Bologna

Ratings for Bologna

Cinque Terre

More pics of Cinque Terre

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Summer in the City

Between our bouts of travelitis we have managed to eek out a little bit of fun in Berlin. It's not a bad life

Pics of "Sommer in der Stadt"

Our U-Bahn stop for our place in Wedding

Enjoyed a wet but wonderful 4th of July with Greg, Americans, and an Irishman. We even got Greg to drink a beer!

I'm apparently working on perfecting the "Boo the night is over" Look


One of my favorite things on earth - marking with a red star where we've been on our Europe map.

Thomas visited with his friends from Brazil

We took them to Kunsthaus Tacheles. Built as a department store in the Jewish quarter, served as a Nazi prison, was partially demolished, and is now occupied by an artists collective. Continually threatened with eviction, you can now just wander in on a week night to live music, independent shops, and wild art. .http://super.tacheles.de/cms/

They liked it.

Also showed them around the lovely city...well they were good enough to do some self-touring too

Making an effort to take as good of photos of the city we live in as the cities we tour

Living in Wedding, we've been spending a lot more time in the more touristed downtown. It's actually kinda badass...for the West

Love the U-Bahn windows

I've taken pics of the Memorial for Murdered Jews so many times and finally have one I really like.

The Fernsehturm, Brandenburgor Tor, & Caller.

After all that Berlining, Tiergarten Quelle was in order. Visit us & we will do our best to take you here.

Dave's first going away night we ended up in the basement of a gallery where we sweatily danced as the ceiling dripped. Sounds gross, but it wasn't.

I've been bugging Ian about this for a while. I simply cannot live without an animal- and even though Bellatrix the skank cat is on her way with my parents in October, we were off to the Tierheim. Way off- this place is on the outskirts of outskirts for Berlin.

But so worth it! We got a bun. He was kind enough to carry some bottle home for us as we ran out of hands.

Prost to the new addition - Herr Schmidt

Sadly, one of the latest changes is that our Irish friends have now officially left the mainland and are back in Ireland. At least they are just a RyanAir flight away. And why is he wearing that Holocaust victim/prisoner outfit? Nice enough to give us a few of their things before leaving. I'm afraid we did not take the costume.

Bye to the Irish...until next time

As always, there are more pictures of debauchery here.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Airport Goodbyes

Oh man I love the airport. Always a bit of tension, but you know you are on your way to somewhere new. I guess that's easy for me to say as I am usually the one leaving.

My mum & dad are visiting my Aunt & Uncle in Northern California and it was so good to see them all. Video chat can often seem so intimate, regular voice chat is the route we usually take. Kinda makes days like today when I do try to look more presentable for our chat more special.

Plus- my mum reminded me to look at some shots she had posted from my nephew's visit.

Look at that handsome family! My dad, Gavin, & Kyle

Becoming One with the Tourist Hordes in Cinque Terre

We knew it was going to be bad. Italy in June-July. But Greg is a schoolteacher & Italy was his #1 destination. So we took a deep breath, loads of planning, and became one with the mass of tourists.

And it wasn't as bad as we feared. Lots of it was unbelievably awesome. And Cinque Terre, where we've been a few times before, wasn't the mass of old people and blank eyed tourists we thought it would be...ok it actually kinda was. But it is STILL so awesome we loved it. And got burnt to a crisp. A good time was had by all.