Germany Wins!!!!

We had a lovely day yesterday. First we walked to Inid's other greenhouses. It was supposed to be about 3 miles away, but I think we took the long way. Oh well. The walk made us realize why Grandma's ancestors settled in Pennsylvania - it looks very similar, with rolling hills and pastures. Here we are, leaving for the walk.

There were many windmills along the way.

Instead of training wheels, Elias has this bike with no pedals. After a few minutes, he had it figured out and was balancing like a pro!
These are some of the many fields outside of their greenhouses. These are full of Heather, I believe.

After lunch, we went to the neighboring town of Fischerhude, where we took Elias and the boys on a leisurely boat ride down the Wimmer river. It was just a simple wooden boat, but instead of using oars to paddle, they gave us long paddle that we used to push the boat downstream.

Near the dock, the stream was so shallow that we had to get out and push! This afternoon turned out to be quite a workout!

That evening, we first went to watch Mattias play hockey. In the US, we would call it field hockey. Here, it is very popular and played by men. Benjamin and Alexander had never seen hockey and found it very interesting.

The highlight of our night, though, was the football (soccer) party at Lisa and Frank's. It is the European Cup Championship, and it is HUGE here. It's more intense than the superbowl. Germany played Turkey in the semi-finals, and in an exciting game, Germany won 3-2. Jonathan had stayed back with Elias and Joel, but Benjamin and Alexander had a great time! We got home around 11:00, and, of course, it was still dusk outside. We're so excited that Germany won, because now we get to go to a finals party on Sunday! We all have Germany shirts, and I have a Germany scarf. On the way home, all the cars were beeping, and people were standing on street corners, waving flags and singing. What a night!