Allentown

Enough blogs, already, huh? Chris and Craig are at the mall, so I had them drop me off at Paneras so I could get some computer time. I've posted some more pictures - we've finally organized all of them. We created 3 slide shows of about 200 pictures each to show the highlights of our trip.

Benajmin and Alexander are still at camp, while Jonathan enjoys his time as an only child. Right now he is at Bible School at my parents' church. Craig came over yesterday, as did my friend Tom. We hung out in the afternoon and played a little four square. Then Tom left and the three of us played two games of Ticket To Ride. Chris and Craig stayed up until 1:30 playing a Settlers Card game, too.

Today we walked the mall and then played Ticket to Ride again. We're playing Settlers tonight, and will probably play something else tomorrow morning before Craig goes home. Keeping busy keeps my mind off Alexander, whom I hope is having a great time at camp!!!

Serengetti Park

We took a day to go to Serengetti Park, a combination safari ride (on a bus) and amusement park. We started with the ride, and got off at a stop to feed the animals. Benjamin had his hands full!
The Shiller family - Matthias, Inid, Elias, and Joel
Alexander made a new friend, who liked to chew at the strings of his pants.
The giraffes came right up to the bus, as you can see. One even stuck his head in the bus as the guide fed it some greens.

On top of a ride, I took this picture of the park. This is about half of it. The big boys' favorite ride is the one in the middle.

Ottersberg pictures

Ottersberg is where we spent a week and a half. We stayed with Hermann and Judy, Chris' dad's cousins. Right next to them live Inid and Matthias and their two children, Joel and Elias. The boys probably liked their time in Ottersberg the best; it was relaxing, and there was plenty of room to play and run around.
The family owns huge greenhouses, and produce 20% of Germany's Heather (as seen in this picture.) On our first day, Elias, who is 4, took me on a tour of the greenhouses and told me (in German, of course) how all of the machines work. When I got the English tour later, I realized that he was right - he knows how everything works.
Jonathan thought this was cool - it moves down the rows, watering the plants.
Besided the greenhouses, they have beautiful plants and flowers all around their house.

Here Benjamin is teaching Joel how to blow dandelion seeds. I'm not sure if they appreciated all of the seeds flying around...
We went to two big parties to watch Germany play in the semi-finals and finals of the European world cup. We all got into the spirit with face paint and Germany clothing.

The boys with Frank, Hermann and Judy's son-in-law, who owns the greenhouses behind him. They grow plants for cemetaries.

Some local TV reporters came to the party, and I think we were on TV. Notice here he is interviewing Kiersten, while hiding the beer bottle behind him so the camera can't see it.

Munich pictures

This is Dachau, a concentration camp. It was a work camp, not an extermination camp, but it was a powerful visit.

Artwork; never again

While the Seabreeze group went to Dachau, I took the kids to the Munich zoo. They spent as much time at the playgrounds as they did looking at the animals (which was fine with me because I could sit!) This is the coolest slide the boys saw all trip. You climb up inside, then go down the slide!!
They loved this one...notice it is flush to the ground so you can't get dragged under it while going around.

While walking around, we looked up and saw this monkey above us. They fed it granola bars as Benjamin proclaimed it was the highlight of his trip.
Downtown Munich, the famous glockenspiel.
This is one of my favorite pictures. As you can see, Jonathan made friends with many of his "teenagers."
Benjamin and I saw a ballet here in the Munich opera house. We were sitting on the top tier. It's quite a grand house, and we loved the ballet.
After visiting Dachau, the group went to the BMW plant. How's that for a unique building?

As usual, Alexander shows remnants of his ice cream.

State College

Chris and I are in State College, visiting Jeff. He took us on a tour of the campus. It's gigantic. We even got our picture taken by the famous Nitany Lion. We took him out to dinner at BigBowlNoodle House, which is appropriately named. Yes, our food came in big bowls. We the walked a little more, up to the famous creamery for huge ice cream cones. (I'm seeing a pattern here.) I had "death by chocolate," but should have gotten my money back since I'm still alive. 

Penn State is very impressive, and Jeff really likes it here. He walks everywhere. Right now he is taking intensive German, so he and Chris talked German for awhile. Now we have to get on the road so we're home before midnight. It was a fun visit, though, worth the three hour drive.

We're in Allentown/Heidelberg

We have made it to Allentown, after 16 1/2 hours in the car. Believe it or not, we did it in one day, and the boys were fabulous. That's actually an understatement. We hardly heard a peep or complaint out of them, probably due to the 3 DVD screens and 3 Nintendo DS's. Whatever works. We arrived on Tuesday evening and have spent the last two days relaxing in the beautiful Pennsylvania summer weather. This morning we walked to a neighboring berry farm and picked about 11 pounds of blueberries. Now we're sitting in Panera bread, getting a fix of the internet. This afternoon we'll take theboys to Wehr's dam to play in the river.

We have also managed to sort through and edit the rest of our Europe pictures, which was quite a chore. Posted below is a picture from our short stop in Heidelberg, where our bus took us to the top of a mountain to see an old castle. We then walked down an incredibly steep stone street to explore the town. You can see from this picture how old the castle is and how high up we were. What an amazing view!

We're off again

Okay, I promise this is the last post of the night. I tried to add as many pictures as possible, because tomorrow we are leaving for Allentown, and my parents don't have internet access at the moment. We're going to attempt to drive straight through, leaving at 4AM. We'll go until we get tired, and will hopefully make it to Allentown before midnight. I'm hoping to use some of the time to edit the rest of our pictures, or at least look at them. We'll be going to Panera periodically to check email and update our blog, but it won't be daily. We return on the 8th, 3 days before I start my new JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rothenberg

At the risk of picture overload today, here are a variety of pictures we took in Rothenberg, a medieval city. The town has been kept in its orignal state since then, and was a real treat to visit. This is one of the few cities that was not bombed in WWII, due to its historical significance. This year, Alexander will study this time period, so we were sure to take a bunch of pictures he can share with his class.

A world-famous Christmas shop. Yes, we bought a few ornaments here. Couldn't resist.

We had a quaint (and expensive) lunch here. We sat in this little gazebo, surrounded by a beautiful, peaceful flowergarden. At least it WAS peaceful until the Weinrichs came. Alexander took some of his flower pictures here.

Neuschwanstein/Oberammergau

I'm busy tonight - This is the second batch of pictures I've gone through, from our day where we visited the famous Neuschwanstein Castle and the old city of Oberammergau.
The Castle was quite impressive, even from a distance.
After a LONG climb up the mountain, we finally made it to the top. We posed by this old looking gate.
We had a guided tour of the interior, but no pictures were allowed. Bummer.
Alexander took lots of flower pictures, and here is one of them.
More Neuschwanstein

In Oberammergau, the majority of the buildings have elaborate paintings adorning them. They perform the passion play every 10 years, and they are gearing up for 2010.

Everywhere you look there are mountains, and we never tired of it. Imagine living there and waking up to the moutains every morning. How incredible that must be.

Innsbruck Pictures

On our travels to Innsbruck, we drove through the tiny country of Liechtenstein. Here's proof that we were there.
Akexander and Benjamin also got their passports stamped. It cost 3 Swiss Frank, but one of the other parents had extra coins and gave them to us. When exchanging money, you cannot exchange coins! I didn't know that until this trip.

At night, Benjamin, Alexander, and I went to an Austrian folk performance. it was very similar to what you see at EPCOT's Germany pavillion.
Our hotel was located up a moutain next to this church. The ride up was harrowing - on a huge tour bus, going around hairpin turns on a one lane road. I'm glad I was a passenger!
Benjamin took this picture of us standing on our hotel deck (!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Another view from our hotel
And another. That is the city of Innsbruck you see at the bottom.

Innsbruck was hosting some of the European (soccer) cup games, and they had a huge pedestrian area set up for spectators. Benjamin is the only one of the five of us who dared to try the bucking bronco. He stayed on for a good thirty seconds, I think.
A view of the street - with a mountain the in the background and soccer balls above.
The architecture was amazing, and there were flowers outside just about every window.
Inside St. Peter's Dom
Here's most of our group (except those who were snapping pictures).

Europe in Alexander's words

Here is a copy of what Alexander emailed to his teacher. It's a nice summary of what impressed him on the trip.

Our trip was really awesome. First we went to London and we went on the London Eye and saw Big Ben. Then we went to Paris and went to Versailles and saw all the paintings there. We also saw the Eiffel Tower and went up to the second level. Then we went to Lucerne, where we went up Mt. Pilatus. There was actually some snow up there! We got to kick it. It was also a very good view. It is one of the top ten highest mountains in the world (we think). We were above the clouds.

I liked Ottersberg, where we stayed in Germany. We stayed at our relatives' house. They had a go cart and greenhouses. They also spoke very good English. In Denmark and Sweden the people spoke a lot of English. There were lots of Metros. We went to Legoland there. I really liked all the rides. And I liked the mini city made out of legos.

Lucerne pictures

Welcome to the next batch of pictures. I had a difficult time choosing them, since they were so beautiful. This first one is the boys' favorite. As we were driving through the alps, they got excited every time they saw snow on the top of a mountain. They were convinced they would be playing in snow. We were worried that they would be disappointed. They were SO excited when we got to the top of Mt. Pilatus and they saw this hunk of melting snow. Here they are running up to the snow and kicking it. It is one of the highlights of their trip. To us, though, we only saw the mud in which they were standing.
We decended the mountain in this car. What a gorgeous ride.
View from the top, looking down on Lucerne

Many of the buildings in Lucerne were painted in this style. I just kept snapping picture after picture.
The famous bridge has paintings all along it. Part of the bridge burned a few years ago, so some of the artwork was lost. What remains, though, is amazing.
The bridge is behind Chris. This is one of many sleeping Jonathan pictures we have.
Here we are, at the top of the mountain!
One of our first glimpses of snow

Can you believe this was the view out of our hotel? You can't tell, but they are staring at a huge mountain that happens to be covered in clouds. What a way to wake up every morning.
We took this picture to remind us of all the ice cream we consumed on this trip. We tried the ice cream in every city. It's an easy snack, and we know the boys will like it. The ice cream was delicious.
Alexander in front of the famous Lion Monument in Lucerne
Here is the whole family on the bridge.
Our tour guide was Hartwig. We loved him, and the teenagers especially enjoyed him. He's German, and was a big help as we came to the German speaking countries.

JOB JOB JOB JOB PART 2

Yesterday I went to the church/school and visited my classroom and formally met the principal. It just gets better and better. I have a very nice sized room, lots of supplies, current textbooks, one computer, and, best of all, 10 children on my roster. That's right. TEN. I am still in a state of shock. There will be no excuses for me, that's for sure. Imagine what I can do with a class of ten. I just can't believe it!

Paris, here we come!

I've now gone through our second batch of pictures: Paris! I have to admit, it was our least favorite city, but we did see some fabulous sights. The Louve was absolutely incredible. The size was intimidating. We saw the required Mona Lisa, and then wandered around, bumping into (not literally) famous works of art. Amazing.
While we waited for the rest of the group, the kids played in this garden outside the Louvre. See those buildings behind them? Those are part of the Louve. I can't even describe how massive it is.
On our last night, we went to the Eiffel Tower. We were up there around 10:30 PM - notice the sky is still dusk. It was beautiful.
Jonathan's only desire on this trip was to see the Eiffel Tower. Once we arrived in Paris, any time the bus gave us a glimpse of it, he would yell, "There's the Eiffel Tower!" to the great amusement of the teenagers. Here he is hugging it!





This is most of the teenagers, minus the one who puked on the bus that morning (Chris took him back to the hotel and met back up with us a few hours later.) They were a great group of kids.
We traveled on the Eurostar through the Chunnel to get to Paris.
Our family in the gardens of Versailles.

When we stopped to see the Eiffel Tower, Jonathan took picture after picture. There must be about 20 on our camera. He was absolutely hilarious, as are some of the pictures.

We had a bit of free time by Notre Dame, and we were able to walk inside.
Hmmm...what is this strange food I am eating? Will I like it?? I guess I'll give it a try...
...I like it!
I'm still hungry!
Just plain cheese, please.

What a trio!

JOB JOB JOB JOB JOB

As of today, I am officially employed again!! I got a call this morning from the principal of Trinity Lutheran Church offering me a first grade teaching position. I'll have 18 students and virtually none of the paperwork public school teachers have. I'll also have much more flexibility in my teaching and curriculum. At this point, I am probably more stunned than excited. This afternoon I am going to the school to talk further with the principal and to collect the teachers manuals so I can begin preparing for the school year, which starts August 18th.

When I told Benjamin, he was really excited, gave me a great hug and said, "Congratulations! Now can you buy me a Lego???" That's Benjamin, always thinking of others.

More London Pictures

Last night I realized the monumental task ahead of me with the pictures. I have downloaded all of them onto the computer, but have only looked at the ones from London and Lucerne! At about 10 PM, I finally finished editing all of the London pictures, so here are a few more, just to give you an idea of what we did. We were only in London for 2 days, which is barely enough time to recover from jet lag. But it did give the boys a small taste of the British. We took this first picture on our quest for Platform 9 3/4.
The British Museum is amazing. This is what you see as you enter. There are treasures in the museum from all over the world. Benjamin wanted to spend the entire time in the Greece wing, but we pried him away for a bit to go see some other objects. We spent a mere 90 minutes there, which was just enough time for us to realize what we were missing!
Any time we were in a museum, you would find Alexander, staring at the displays. He loves detail and was fascinated by just about everything. I would say, "Come on, Alexander, it's time to move on" and he would inevitably reply, "Wait! I'm looking at this!"
This is an individual capsule on the London Eye. Not for those who are afraid of heights, that's for sure.
The boys soaked in the amazing views during the 35 minute journey.

Cobblestone streets abounded. They look beautiful, but can start to wear on your feet after awhile.
Benjamin took this picture on our first day in London. Can you find Jonathan?
The Queen's birthday celebration meant everything was decorated in the British colors...it was so picturesque.
The size of the buildings is truly amazing, isn't it?
We have many pictures of Jonathan asleep on someone's shoulder. Here he missed the mummy display at the British Museum. Benjamin was fascinated because he studied both Egypt and Greece in third grade. Alexander will be studying them this year - he'll be light years ahead of his classmates!

London Pictures

Well, I've downloaded all 2,600 pictures, but have not looked at all of them yet. Last night, we looked at all the London pictures. Here are the best of them, to give you a taste of our 2 1/2 days in London.

While Chris saw King Lear in the Globe Theater, I took the boys on the London Eye. It had incredible views of the city.
This is what the pods look like. It slowly rotates around.
We went in search of King's Cross Platform 9 3/4 , as a bit of a joke.

Everyone has to get their picture taken at one of these phone booths. What you can't see is that they have pictures of "escort services" inside them
We had to get this picture of the guard, just because everyone does it.
This is Camilla and the princes.
After the parade for the queen's birthday, there was a flyby of England's finest jets, from WWI to the present.

The Rosetta Stone!!!

We're back!

Yesterday, 3AM Swedish time (that's 9PM EST). Our alarm goes off, I roll over and look out the window and see that the sky has already started to lighten. Sweden is crazy - they have about 3 hours of darkness in the summertime. We went to bed when it was light and awoke when it was light.

But I digress. We had packed the night before, so we got up at 3:05, took a quick shower, and ate just a little. The taxi van was downstairs when we stumbled outside at 3:50. The vans in Europe are nothing like our here, so we ended up having the boys and me squish in the backseat (Benjamin and Jonathan shared a seatbelt) with Chris next to the driver who spoke broken English. 20 minutes later, we were at the Arlanda airport checking in. They had pre-assigned seats, and we had seats together for the Stockholm-Frankfurt flight and the Dulles - Orlando flight. The 8 hour flight from Frankfurt to Dulles, however, was a different story. We had 2 seats together and then 3 seats close to each other but not next to each other. The woman checking us in assured us we could change them in Frankfurt.

The first flight was uneventful, and we had 1 1/2 hours to get to our next gate. At the gate, I stood in line for about an hour to change our seats and we ended up with 2 and 3. We were worried about this flight - 8 hours where the boys need to sit and be relatively quiet. We had the borrowed Nintendo DS's, but were unsure of how long the charge would last. We piled onto the plane, gaped jealously at the first class and business seats, and found our seats. A woman generously offered to switch so we could have 5 seats together.

It turns out we didn't need to worry about the flight. The boys were occupied with the Nintendos and the in flight movies. They watched Horton Hears a Who numerous times, along with Fools Gold and some Disney channel shows. That, along with Nintendo, was enough to keep them occupied.

In Dulles, it took us about an hour to get off the plane (20 minutes to search for one of the Nintendos), go through customs, retrieve our luggage, go through customs again, and hand our luggage back to the baggage handlers. I'm actually glad it took us an hour, because we had a 4 hour layover. We occupied ourselves by playing travel Trouble, making some phone calls on my poor phone that's been ignored for the past 5 weeks, and, of course, eating. By 7:30, we had full bellies and two sleeping children, just in time to board the plane.

We touched down in Orlando around 9PM. Chris' parents picked us up, and we had a pleasant ride home, soaking in both the humidity and the total darkness. We realized we haven't seen total darkness since Paris, when we went atop the Eiffel Tower at night.

By midnight, everyone was in bed and asleep. The boys slept until about 5:15 this morning, which was later than I expected. Now we have the monumental task of unpacking and doing laundry. First, however, Chris is watching the rest of the baseball All-Star game he packed last night, and I am going out for a run. I hope to start downloading our pictures throughout this week, so stay tuned for highlights. We have over 2,000 pictures, so I'll try to be judicious in sharing them!

Stockholm, day 2

Today was another full day. We began by taking the "T" to a "tower" that looks out over Stockholm. It's not very impressive, and didn't give the greatest views, but I took some decent pictures. We then went to a newer museum, the Nobel Museum. Chris and I could have spent 2 hours there, but the kids lasted about an hour. Benjamin listened to all of MLK's acceptance speech and was quite impressed. It was a neat museum, giving the history of the Nobel prize and the winners. Did you know that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite? I didn't.

Our next stop was the Postal Museum, which traced the history of the Swedish Postal Service. Jonathan loved all the vehicles. The kids section opened at noon, and they loved it. Each of them made their own postcard, and then the employees gave them a stamp and they mailed it! Cool, huh?

We left there and walked to see the changing of the guard, which wasn't nearly as impressive as the queen's birthday parade in London. Oh well. After a bite to eat (pizza, again! It's cheap, the kids like it, and we can share! Today we had ham, pineapple, BANANA, and curry), we took a bus to the Music Museum. Unfortunately, we had only 90 minutes, but I think the boys could have stayed all day. Finally, we walked to a park, where they played for a long time. At 7:00, we dragged them out, returned to the hotel, had a bite to eat, and put them to bed. Hopefully by the time I get back to the room they will be fast asleep.

Stockholm!

Today was our first full day in Stockholm. We began with a boat ride to Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a ship made in the 1600's that sank on it's maiden voyage. Yes, as they launched it for the first time, it listed back and forth, and promptly sank into the sea!! In the 1950's, it was rediscovered, and subsequentally brought back up. It now resides inside a huge museum, and it is simply fascinating.

Next we walked across the street to a museum devoted to Astril Lingren, the children's author of Pippi Longstocking. We went on a great "train" ride through all of her stories. We then visited an aquarium and Stansen, the world's oldest open air museum. It reminded us of St. Augustine and Williamsburg. It was a full day.

Now the boys are begging for me to get off so they can check their webkinz account. Looks like my summary is done.

What we can learn from Europe

As promised, here is our list of things we would like to see the United States learn from Europe. This list is compiled with the help of Benjamin and Alexander.

1. MASS TRANSIT - It is possible to visit Europe without a car. You can't say that about the United States, unless you are only visiting major cities. Rail travel in the US is a nightmare. Here, people regularly take the train to other cities. You can also bring your bike on the train, which we have seen quite often.
2. OBESITY - I have seen no one who could be labeled "grossly overweight." Why? Because their portions are much smaller, there is no transfat in their food, and people walk or bike just about everywhere!
3. ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS - Europe has many incentives to do the right thing environmentally. For example, you either bring your own bags to the store or pay for new ones. You also sort your garbage or are fined. There are even extra fees to drive your car into big cities, encouraging mass transit.
4. FRESH LOCAL FOODS - Visit the butcher, baker, produce store on a daily basis and you know from where your food comes. Hermann personally knows the person who makes both his bread and his honey. In Copenhagen, there were many fruit and vegetable stands throughout the city.
5. BIKE PATHS - There are separate lanes for cars, bikes, and walkers. Free air stations are all around the town of Odense. Today I even saw a speed limit sign for bikers!
6. NATIONAL PRIDE/UNITY - The European football championships say it all.
7. LAWSUIT UNAWARENESS - There are fun playgrounds here with much less adult supervision. We have seen playgrounds taht would make US lawyers salivate, and they are always the ones our kids love the most. Parents don't watch their children every second -they are more laid back while kids are playing at playgrounds.
8. CITIES ARE QUITER - Benjamin and Alexander find the cities here quiter than major US cities.
9. REWEARING CLOTHING - Here, you wash your clothes when they are dirty, not after you have worn them only once. It saves the clothes, and the environment, too.
10. NAKEDNESS - I'm not sure how to title this last one, but people her are much more open. At the lake in Ottersberg, people change into their suits right in front of everyone. The young kids ran around naked. The ads in the subway show naked men. And don't even start with the art. Nakedness is everywhere!!

Copenhagen!

What a city Copenhagen was! We arrived on Tuesday at about noon, and made our way to "Chicken's Private Pension," a 400 year old house that rents out rooms. We had the largest room on our trip, access to the fridge, and two bathrooms to share with the other 4 rooms, which never turned out to be a problem. When we checked out this morning, the caretaker complimented us on the boys' behavior, noting that she was a bit scared when we checked in with three young boys. Luckily, their behavior redeemed them!!!

We were amazed how many bikes there are in Copenhagen! Again, they have separate bike lanes, but they also have traffic signals for the bikes. It was very organized, and it seems like most people bike to work. They even ride in the rain, in special rain gear. You should see the cool baby carriers they have - many of them attach to the front of the bike! They have free bikes you can use throughout the town, but Jonathan isn't big enough, so we didn't use them, despite the older boys' protests.

There was so much in Copenhagen we didn't even seem to scratch the surface. We toured an old castle that was neat - they decorated each room in a different king's style to suit that time period. It showed us how little Danish history we know, that's for sure. We also went to an art museum and the Danish National Museum, which had a great kids' place. That evening, we discovered an indoor swim complex, and spent over 2 hours swimming in their four pools. It was open until 11PM, but we left at 9PM, while it was still light out.

Yesterday, we began by taking the bus to the Little Mermaid statue, which is the most famous landmark in Copenhagen. It's not that impressive, which didn't surprise me. Next, we walked to Parken, which is the city's football (soccer) stadium. There we took a guided tour that was done in Danish and then translated into English for us - we basically got our own private tour since we were the only ones who spoke English. Luckily, practically everyone in Denmark and Sweden speak English, so the only time language has been a barrier is when we are trying to read signs (which can be very frustrating!!)

After our tour, we bought hot dogs for lunch (AGAIN) and walked to the local park. I think this park was the highlight of Copenhagen for all three boys. There was a playground, which they never touched, because they had manual go-karts (for free!!) for the kids to ride around mock roads. These roads were complete with working traffic signals, bike lanes (of course), shrubbery, and a "gas station." We were there for at least an hour and a half. We tried to relax and just run on kid time, but by 2:30, we decided it was time to move on and we pried them away, with cries of "can we come back tonight??"

Next we walked through the park to the zoological museum, which is run by Copenhagen Universtiy. This was a small, but informative museum. Benjamin and Jonathan go through places like this quickly, looking at everything. Alexander, however, goes slowly, looking at all the detail. He got caught up for 10 minutes at the live ant hill display. His powers of observation are greater than mine, that's for sure.

For our last stop, we went from dead animals to live animals, and went to the zoo. We spent about 2 hours there, because it started to rain and it is mostly outdoors. By this time, it was 7PM anyway, so we were ready to pack and rest.

This morning we awoke to POURING rain. Luckily for us, it slowed down by the time we had to catch the bus to central station. We then took a 5 hour train to Stockholm, which is where we are now. We're staying in an apartment hotel, which has a kitchenette and is about 10 minutes outside the city. Tonight we took a 40 minute boat tour around the city (covered by our stockholm card -yea!) just to get an overview of the city. There is free internet and laundry here, so right now I am doing both.

There is even more to see here than Copenhagen, so we'll try to do what we can. It should be a full three days. Stay tuned for updates...

Today we had quite a pleasant surprise. We had planned to take a walking tour of the city, followed by the Hans Christian Andersen House, and then the Odense museum. Rain was predicted, so we figured the house and the museum would be a good bet.

When we awoke, it was sunny and pleasant. After a hearty breakfast at the hotel (bread, meat, cheese, eggs, fruit, cereal, and yogurt, we began our walk. Unfortunately, the map the city gave us was terrible. After finding only one of the sights, we went back to the Hans Christian Andersen House. Kids are free, which is a definite plus. As we bought our tickets, they asked us if we also wanted to go to the children's cultural center, which is NOT free for kids. After some hemming and hawing, we grudgingly decided to pony up the extra money. It's a good thing we did, because it's the best museum we've been to on this trip. Here is the link: http://museum.odense.dk/H_C_Andersen/H_C_Andersens_Hus/Fyrtoejet.aspx?lang=en

First, we explored the free museum. It had just about every piece of memorablia you could imagine, along with displays written in both Danish and English. They had sound recordings of some of his fairy tales. All in all, however, the kids only needed about 20 minutes. By then, it was time for the free outside performance of some of his fairy tales - very cute, and "Hans" did some of the descriptions in English.

Then we went to the Tinderbox. When you walk in, everyone (adults included) choose a cloak to wear, along with items to put in its pockets. You then walk through a wooded tunnel and enter fairy tale land. It was amazing. The kids created their own swords (which we purchased on the way out), ran through the forest, making up their own fairy tales, rode wooden horses, and watched a kids' comedy show. Upstairs was an incredible art room with every kind of medium you can imagine. Next to it was a dress up room where we tried on king and queen clothing. Benjamin and Alexander got their faces painted. There was also a woodworking shop, and tons of old-fashioned toys everywhere. It was a dream come true for kids who know how to pretend.

We left for lunch, then returned for the rest of the day. I'd say they spent a little over 4 hours there altogether, which definitely made it worth the money! Dinner was once again in our room, and they are all trying to fall asleep while I write this.

They are starting to get a bit grumpy, and I think we may have stretched this trip out just a little too long. Last summer, after our 6 week trek, I made a note that four weeks is long enough. We've been gone since June 12th, and they are ready to come home. We decided to push it so they could experience as much as possible, but next time I think we'll try to stay closer to four weeks.

Tomorrow, Copenhagen, and then Friday we're on to Stockholm. From everything we hear, they are both amazing cities, so hopefully it will distract them from bickering and complaining. Right now they are just excited for the two hour train ride because that is the only time they are allowed to play thier Nintendos!!!

What we did today

A quick update - This morning we left Legoland, then traveled by bus and train to Odense, Denmark. We had intended to stay at a farm, but as I alluded to below, we were unable to get there, due to no available rental cars and buses that don't run on Sundays. To say Benjamin was disappointed was an understatement. Instead, we booked a room at a hotel in downtown Odense. The room is small, and we had to say we only had 2 kids. Jonathan will be sleeping on the floor tonight. But it's clean and was only a 5 minute walk from the train station.

After dropping off our luggage, we found some overpriced food - have I mentioned how expensive Denmark is??? I had better find a job when I get back - and then we walked to a children's playland. For 55 DKK each (about $14), the boys played in a huge indoor climbing set complete with a gigantic ball pit. We stayed for two hours, until they were too sweaty and tired to continue. (Benjamin, sitting here next to me, notes that HE was not tired.) On the way back to the hotel, we picked up bread, bananas, yogurt, cookies, and chips for dinner. We've been relaxing here ever since, aiming for an early bedtime. Tomorrow we will explore the town of Odense, Hans Christian Anderson's birthplace. It's supposed to rain, but we're not complaining because it's really the first day of rain we have had on this trip. And, Benjamin adds, they do have a ping pong table and a pool table we're going to use tomorrow when we need to dry off.

Why we love the USA

Last night Benjamin and I had a long conversation with the hotel worker, all about Denmark and his town of Billund, which reminds me of Orlando in its early Disney years. Billund houses Legoland and all of the Lego corporate offices, and will soon be home to Seaworld. As you can imagine, they are rapidly expanding, and he was very proud.

On our way back to the room, Benjamin noted that he is not always proud of the United States. So, in his honor, we have worked up a list of reasons we are glad we live in the United States, from the perspective of a family who has spent a month (!) traveling throughout Europe.

1. PUBLIC WATER FOUNTAINS - Everywhere we have been, we have had to buy water, at a very steep price, and often we can only find water with "bubbles." At our hotel in Billund, the restaurant charged us 50 DKK (12 $) for TAP WATER at dinner. We are saving our water bottles and refilling like crazy.
2. FREE BATHROOMS - There is nothing like paying for a toilet, only to find it as disgusting as a porta potty, smelly and gross. The bathroom we paid for in Vejle this morning was lit with only ultraviolet lights. And we paid 50 cents to use it!!!
3. RELIGION - Although America's religious right is scary, America is a much more religious country than any we have visited so far, at least as measured in paricipation in organized religion. Our churches play an important social/charity role in our country. Many European churches are state-sponsored, and come with the pitfalls associated with government.
4. LOW TAXES - I know those who have not travelled abroad would disagree, but the US has very low taxes. I hesitate to put this on a list of positives, because our low taxes = low public services. But for those who hate taxes, the United States is the place to be.
5. FREEDOM - This is Benjamin's contribution, and he says that in the United States we are free to do what we want.
6. CAR RENTALS - We attempted to rent a car today to get us to the farm that we ultimately couldn't reach, but were unable to becasue they were extremely expensive, and the rental places were closed, which leads us to...
7. SUNDAYS - In the United States, most everything is open at least for a bit on Sundays. Not true here. Almost all the shops in Odense (where we are now) are closed today, as are most of the restaurants, car rentals, buses, etc. Funny, this seems opposite of #3, but we Americans tend to be hypocritical, don't we?
8. MELTING POT - Looking around Legoland, 95% of the people had blond hair. Not much diversity, to say the least. With the exception of the big cities, we have seen very little diversity here. Even with our racial problems, we're proud that America has so many different cultures.
9. SMOKING LAWS - Although smoking has dimished since our last European trip (in 1998), it is still prevalent. People smoke just about everywhere. I see parents practically blowing smoke in their children's faces. The restaurants prohibit smoking inside, but on the outside terraces, you're likely to be seated close to a smoker. Yuck.
10. EXTRA CHARGES - Everything costs extra here. Today we went by a grocery store that charges for shopping carts. You also have to pay if you want shopping bags at some places. At this hotel, coffee and tea cost extra. Yesterday we would have had to pay to use the swimming pool. And with the value of the dollar, it makes it even worse.

That's all we have for now. We are working on a list of what the US can learn from Europe. Stay tuned!!!

Legoland!!!

We spent today at Legoland and had a blast. Jonathan was enchanted with all the lego creations (there were lots of vehicles). He kept looking at them and saying "they are so adorable." He was adorable saying that. And now from Benjamin...


...my favorite ride at legoland was power builders. in this ride, an assistant gives you a card. you take the card and enter it into a computer slot. then, you choose the intensity level and the moves you want the ride to perform. after that you continue to the ride area. you get on a robotic arm with your partner, and ride it in special seats! It was awesome and I rode it 7 times.

...The boys met a teenager previously from Ohio but now living in Finland. Nash hung around with us for most of the day and took the boys on all the water rides. We had a great day and got our moneyøs worth.

Big day of travel tomorrow, as we go to Odense, so we are off to bed.

And we're off again!

Tomorrow morning we leave Ottersberg for Denmark. Our first stop is Legoland!! The boys are very excited, although they are sad to leave. They've had a great time visiting with our relatives. Yesterday we swam at the local lake, and today we spent the day at the Bremen Science Center. It was incredible, and we were there from 11-6. Unfortunately, we still have to pack, and the boys are still up and wild, and it's 9PM. So it's back to Hermann's house to put them to bed and get ready for tomorrow. We leave bright and early at 7AM.

We'll probably be out of touch computerwise until we return on July 15th, but we may get the chance to check while in either Copenhagen or Stockholm. Time for another adventure!!!

Serengeti Park

We had a great day today. We went with Inid's family to the Serengeti Park. It begins with a bus ride through wild animals - you can choose to drive your own vehicle, but since we're borrowing Hermann's, we though he would appreciate it if we used the bus instead. There was a nice petting/feeding area. The giraffes came right up to the bus while the guides fed them - very exciting.

Next, we went into the park itself. They had rides for every age, and there were no lines. I mean that literally - there were no lines. When the ride stopped, people just walked on. It was about as opposite to Disney as you can get. There were no workers to help you on, and some of the rides had one worker to start three or four. Being American, I saw it all through the eyes of a lawsuit waiting to happen. It is really sad what has happened to our country with the fear of litigation. This place had no safety rails, or any of the other things we have come to expect.

Lastly, all of us but Jonathan did high ropes. Benajmin, Alexander, and I went first, then Benjamin went back on with Chris and Mattias. It was challenging but lots of fun. Now we are all filthy, and ready to shower and get to bed!! Tomorrow we're hanging around the house, getting a tour of the greenhouses and swimming in a local lake. What fun!