Strike a pose. Vogue-ing in Erfurt & Leipzig

Since we've been struck down by some kind of family viral lurgy, it's been difficult to blog. Not so much because I have lacked the energy or the mood (though I have in a way), but because with Stevie off work, he's been rather annoying every time I even look at the laptop, in a "Is that you on the internet again?", and I swear, I have barely even logged on. A glance is all it takes to set him off.

The issue has been sparked by Hamish who in earshot of his father clocked me huddled furtively in the corner, and asked innocently enough what I was buying off the internet, and could I get him something. This is the kind of thing that Stevie hates. His feeling is that if a 3 year old (nearly 4 year old actually) knows what you are doing on the internet then it's indicative of oft-seen behaviour by dear old me.

Curse those pesky kids! I'm having to become increasingly careful about all my regular little habits. The ones which seem to drive Stevie nuts in particular relate to (a) the internet CRIME: using from dawn till dusk (supposedly) and (b) photography CRIME: documenting every second of every day. One thing he can't complain about is that he buys me new lenses and then I don't use them; I'm pretty sure that would annoy him too. But while we were away on out regular little Legoland/Playmobil Funpark jaunt he became utterly riled by things like this:

I hear you. "What?" you're saying. The thing that he finds so awful is that the kids when they see things like Der Maus and Bernd Brot in the street they automatically run up and start posing in front of them, which in my mind only looks really embarrassing (for me) when I don't have my camera with me, and they still do it. It happens whenever they see anything which they consider a 'photo opportunity'. Giant strawberries, 4 foot high polar bears holding ice creams, bronze hippos, Berlin Buddy Bears, barely known German tv characters...they spot them, run forward and start blathering on about cheese.

This crime is compounded by things like Stevie saying "Come on Hamish, what's taking you so long?", and him responding "Oh well, you know, Mummy likes to take a few photos". It's like a red rag to a bull. In my defence I have also trained the two of them to stay absolutely stock still by my side when I am taking photos of buildings and things. That way I don't lose them and they don't risk getting run over, so that's something, right?

Anyway, I won't bore you to death with yet another bunch of Legoland/Playmobil photos, we had a great time at both places though I was coming down with the lurgy at the Playmobil Funpark, and felt like I was getting the flu because everything ached. Apart from the obvious highlights (no wasps, no queues, kids having a fabulous time) we also visited a couple of places we hadn't previously been to. Leipzig was the first. I don't know why, but we both had had a much different picture in our minds of Leipzig. Stevie was somewhat disappointed that it wasn't desperately communist and eastern looking (I know, prettiness is so old hat), and I'm not sure what I thought. I knew about it's role in the fall of the GDR, where the first important demonstrations took place, but not much else.

Leipzig

What I didn't know was that it was the hometown of Bach, or that it would be so pretty, with a different style of architecture to other German cities we've visited. It has previously been on the New York Times list of top ten cities to visit.

Erfurt

The other place we stopped off for a break was Erfurt, which had been recommended to Stevie by his work colleagues, and it was lovely. I would highly recommend a visit to Erfurt. Our prior knowledge of Erfurt was phenomenal: basically we both know it as the place in our very first German book where people like to hitchhike and strangers chat about getting a light for their cigarettes. And certainly there were a lot of people there, and quite a lot of them were smoking. But what we liked about it best were the little narrow streets with utterly gorgeous fachwerk buildings. Not that I got to take photos of them all, because what I realised on this trip was that it's not the kids who inhibit my enjoyment of visiting new places, but my beloved Stevie, who practically races through them, no lingering and lazy wandering allowed. Now what he really needs is a camera in order to slow down and really enjoy the sights...

Jubilation

Funnily enough, I haven't heard of there being that many Jubilee parties at home in Scotland. In fact, of my friends in England that I have spoken to recently, I'm not sure that even one of them was doing *something* for the Jubilee beyond trying to avoid all the news coverage on tv.

And yet, here in Berlin, there has been quite a lot of Jubilee action. Patently abroad is where you need to be in order to muster up the enthusiasm for a party. We were invited to 4 Jubilee parties yesterday. Since we were invited to a staunch republican's party yonks ago, that was the one we went to.

Essentially, I think it was just a good excuse for a lot of us to get together, the kind of get-together that always seems too much of a faff to be bothered with at home. So it was good fun, and the kids (for it was all people from Orla's school) had a great time. We even had imported British weather just for the occasion, which was, um... lovely.

Stevie was feeling a bit tired though, and he's got a sore back, which might have something to do with us just having driven back from Bavaria. For oh yes, we spent the past few days down south visiting Legoland Deutschland & the Playmobil Funpark again. We got back on Saturday evening, and as I was baking for the party, that meant I got to spend last night getting Orla ready to go back to school today. Because of course you can guarantee that if you've been away for the best part of a week, come back and partied then of course it goes without saying that a fancy dress outfit will be required for the following day. Meet my vision of modern monarchy, Princess Orla:

Today they're having a Jubilee party at school and the kids were to come dressed up, ideally incorporating the theme of red, white, and blue. Because they love to make things easy o us parents. I struggled a bit with the royal theme. I would have loved to have dressed her as a corgi (too hard, & I thought (wrongly) too warm for this time of year), or as the Queen (as she is today, but where would I get one of those dress coats and matching hats and handbags in an age 5, and I'd still like to coordinate the look with a couple of corgi puppies on a lead - too hard and beyond my sewing abilities), and then I thought of dressing her up as the Queen as she looked when she was 5 years old, but when I Googled photos of her, she just looked like any other 5 year old in a fancy dress. So I just went for a nice easy solution: Princess Orla, a crown, a sash, and a robe.

I am never sewing with crushed velveteen again. It was quite hard. I could have done with an overlocker to edge it, and I gave up completely on adding an ermine (white fake fur with black marker pen) edge to it. The sash doesn't sit right because by the time I got on to it Orla had been asleep for early 4 hours, so I couldn't fit it on her properly. I also had to sew three ribbons together for that as I couldn't get anything Jubilee themed here. I do wonder whether when we go back to the UK I will continue to make outfits for the kids or whether I shall just go back to using good old Tesco.

Anyway, in other Jubilation news: today we have been in Berlin for exactly 2 years! 

Lego: that's what little boys are made of.

.

Wannsee: That's a lot further out than I thought. Especially when I don't follow the satnav correctly. Orla had a party to go to today. She's going to be one of these women who has to start getting ready at lunch time for a night out. I know this as she had me laying all her potential party clothes out on her bed at 7am this morning so she could properly consider what she wanted to wear. The party wasn't starting until 2pm. And even with all this outfit deliberating, she still seems to have inherited my 'last minute' gene, and ate her lunch naked. 

Hamish, struggles with the whole party scene. Only because he can't deal with not being invited. So, I said that he could choose something to do with me and the other person with nae social life in this house, and thus, I spent another 4 hours of my life wanting to kill myself in the Legoland Discovery Centre, Berlin. It's a bad day when I hear myself saying "Are you sure you wouldn't rather go swimming?" given my deep-seated hatred of swimming pools. It's not that Legoland isn't great, it is, and I would highly recommend a visit to anyone coming to Berlin with kids. But I feel like I have been there 1 billion times now. I only look forward to the 4D cinema because it means I can have a 10 minute nap behind the 3D specs while Clutch Powers sprays water in my face from time to time, reminding me not to snore.

Anyway, today I realised something as I sat trying to file my nails with a Technics block. Lego is the perfect gift for grown men. And Legoland is the perfect place to take your husband/boyfriend on a date. Let me present the evidence:

Exhibit 1: Daddy 'helps' build a car while son gets to watch.

Exhibit 2: Father builds car while toddler son is playing with the Duplo shaking tables.

Exhibit 3: White-capped man tries to concentrate while wife wonders aloud if Legoland can be cited as grounds for divorce.

Exhibit 4: Man sits frustratedly while boy makes a hash of it.

And it seems a lifelong love of Lego starts with a head first dive into a barrel of the stuff.

Crackpots & cracking times

I should have said my name was 'Finja'. P.S Not only are our real names plastered all over the internet, you'll also find them on the wall at the Legoland Discovery Centre, Berlin.

Ah, the things I could tell you if only I had never set up this blog using my real name, and had never used photos of my family. Sometimes it's a curse! For example I would have been able to tell you an awesomely funny story of a truly horrific playdate I went on with the kids this week. You know it's not going well when you get asked round for coffee and you're the one who has to go for the milk, and you have to run faster than Paula Radcliffe there and back because Orla's parting words are "They're trying to take Hamish's trousers off!", and there's just something about the family that makes you just a little uncomfortable with that.

Alas, we're going to have to wait until either we've left Berlin, or they've left Berlin (and let's hope it's them, and soon) before I can tell you about it. Unless you email me, and I'll spill the beans ;)

As you may have noticed from the plethora of bunny-related blog posts, it's Easter. Orla has been on holiday now for a week and without even trying we've managed to pack each day with events that have cost either very little or nothing. We had a day of playing on 'one' day as Orla wanted to stay home and get stuck into all her new toys. Then on 'another' day we had a lovely day at Berlin Zoo with some good friends and spent a lot of time not looking so much at animals, but talking endlessly, avoiding fast-moving zoo traffic, and playing in the quite brilliant park.

Now this was a nice playdate. Fun is a shared love of railings.

On 'another one of the' days we spent a couple of hours in the depths of hell, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, and then went on a fake appointment on the other side of the city so we didn't have to spend any longer with them. And we also went to Legoland 'another' day because the kids have been dying to make more use of our year passes and I HATE that place on the weekends. For some reason I had convinced myself that the Germans would take their Easter holidays on a different week, perhaps that was the only way my brain would allow me to actually make the suggestion of Legoland to the kids. It's not that it's not good: in fact I'd say that the Legoland Discovery Centre at Potsdamer Platz is one of the best places to take kids in Berlin. As long as you like being underground and packed in like a sardine and enjoy noise levels from squealing kids that could drown out a pneumatic drill.

Don't get excited Orla, this poster is the best bit.

We also went along to the 'Helden' (Superheroes) exhibition at the Film & TV Museum in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz. I had seen the poster in one of the U-Bahn stations and Hamish had been very keen to see Spiderman. It was reasonable enough to get in to: Euro 4 for me and the kids were free, but it was a bit of a disappointment. The 3 Spidermen they had on display looked remarkably similar to the very small ones Hamish plays with, and well... the Star Wars display was just the Lego figures of the characters. If anyone wants to see a Disney Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, & Cars exhibition, I will be showing one made out Duplo for the next 6 months in Hamish's bedroom.

The Sony Center roof viewed from the -2 floor. It's a geometric dream.

I will say however, that I am glad we went into it. I haven't bothered visiting the Film & TV museum because I kind of assumed that it would primarily focus on German films and tv that I wouldn't be familiar with. But it's worth going in even to the foyer and using the glass lifts to get a different view of the Sony Center roof. And you know how I like to take a photo or 80!

Postcards from Germany: Legoland & Günzburg

Paddling as fast as they can to get away from the wasps.

Squeal with delight if you want to go faster!

The pretty wasp-free streets of Günzburg

Ah...I've just realised that this photo doesn't really show the curvy roofs. Oh well, you'll just have to go yourself and have a look, as I'm too lazy to change the photo.

So after the Playmobil Funpark we moved on to Günzburg for the night before hitting Legoland Deutschland. This was our second visit. We went in April on our trip to Munich and Regensburg, Augsburg, Bamburg and the CzechRepublic. Ideally I would have liked to have had a little more space between the Playmobil trip and the Legoland trip just to eek things out a bit, but god forbid, we might have missed out on the wasps had we done it that way.

My enduring memory of Legoland is of the wasps. They are everywhere. Gazillions of them. You can't stand still for more than a second or you'll have 3 of them at you with back-ups on the way. So it's best to keep on moving. Which was fine when we came in April because the queues were almost non-existent, but some queuing was required this time round and the wasps were driving us all nuts. Eating was not a pleasure.

But Legoland was still great. The kids loved it. Same as last time. We didn't spend as much time this time round walking round mini-Germany, but I did go back and check out Frankfurt, just to make sure that was the place I fancied visiting. It was - but you know what, I think I prefer the Legoland version to the real version.

Anyway, the other thing about the last time we visited is that we didn't actually go into Günzburg the last time we went to Legoland. We stayed in a farmhouse outside of the town. But we went out for dinner there and if you are planning on visiting Legoland Deutschland, I would highly recommend a visit to the town. It's full of lovely architecture, with buildings with curvy roofs, and all painted pretty colours and little tree-lined streets. And less wasps.

4 go on a German (& slightly Czech) adventure.

Cheb in the Czech Republic

A teency piece of loveliness from Regensburg

Frankfurt in Legoland Deutschland. I quite fancy going to Frankfurt now!

Orla channelling her mothers taste in sunglasses as they ride the Augsburg rhinos

Bamburg, it's all beautiful

What a lovely holiday. It was remarkably drama free - if you don't count the fact that we hadn't read the mail from the Commerzbank that told us that we would neither be able to get money out of any cash machine or use our cards for in store transactions for any of the days we were away. 4 days? That's a bit much, isn't it? Anyway, thankfully we both had our British cards with us.

But that aside, the children were rather good, not nearly as horrid as they could be when faced with endless journeys in the car, and we saw some really beautiful places.

We'd been really keen to see Regensburg as we'd heard it was lovely, and I think we'd like to go back there and spend more time. We also spent a morning in Augsburg, before heading off to Bamburg which was really, really pretty.

But best of all we went to Legoland Deutschland which the kids utterly loved. It wasn't too far from Munich where we spent a day and a half, and we all had just loads of fun. This trip has made us really keen to see more of Germany...