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Published: January 9th 2012
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Hello again!
I am finally getting caught up! I figured I better get on top of things before I head to Kassel because I know there will be so much to say about seeing Karl and Ilse!
First though, is life with Anna! I stayed with her and her Dad and I got really lucky that I got to catch her right before she left to go back to Freiburg for school. She goes to medical school there, she actually used to go to school in Hungary (and took classes in Hungarian) but transferred back to Germany just a couple years ago. When I got to her house and she brought me to her room I was greeted by the pillow I made for her when she arrived in the US. I used to be so craft with a needle and thread! 😊
Thankfully, Anna is like me (and the rest of the world on break I guess) and likes to sleep in. We lazily got up around 10 or so and had breakfast, then in no hurry decided to go see the “Aquazoo.” If you know me, you know I love
Clemson Fish!
I named it that because it is orange and purple! the ocean; therefore the Aquazoo was pretty great for me! They had a lot of species that even the Henry Doorly Zoo doesn’t have in Omaha. Anna said it was kind of old, but they are working on renovating it. We spent about two or two and a half hours looking at all of the animals. They even had a special pressure wall with deep sea fish behind it. The fish they had on display was a lantern fish and when I let my eyes adjust I could see a small dark shadow moving but it wouldn’t light up for us. 😞
That evening thought we went over to Anna’s Mom’s house to have some dinner. Anna’s Mom, Barbara, is so very sweet and she and her husband together are quite a fun pair! They still had all of their Christmas decorations up and they said, “Now you get to have a German Christmas again!” Here decorations stay up until January 6
th which is the day they celebrate when the three kings came to visit Jesus, they do it in Spain too, seems like the US is the only place missing out on the fun! 😊
Barbara was very glad to have me as a guest. I didn’t realize how much she and my Mom had been in communication while Anna was at our house. She kept all of my Mom’s e-mails she sent with updates about Anna and videos. Gosh, we used to always get annoyed with my Mom and her video camera constantly attached to her hand, but I guess once again we have been proved wrong and we have to admit that it is really a very nice thing to have all of those videos to share. She is such a sweet lady. She gave me a big hug at the end of the evening and said that she wants to keep in contact and that I am welcome any time.
The next day, Anna and I woke up and went with her Dad on a little drive around the area. There is a giant indoor skiing facility nearby that we got to go see and honestly, if I didn’t know I wasn’t on a real mountain, I would have thought I was walking through winter park. It is all decorated in Austrian style and really neat on
the inside. Then we went and saw where they are mining coal near Düsseldorf. It’s not like mining coal like you would think of, its more coal that’s closer to the surface, but the hole is still about ten times bigger than Lincoln East High School and maybe three times deeper…it’s a big hole. Finally, her Dad dropped us off at Schloss Dyck which is a palace near Düsseldorf. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and the weather was actually really nice to walk around the grounds and enjoy the gardens, even though they are pretty bare right now. When we actually got to the entry of the palace there was a worker there sort of looking at us funny. It was in German, but from what I understood and what Anna told me, she asked if the palace was open, he said no, she said that she had a friend here from America and then they man led us into the palace and said, “You may look around as long as you close the door when you leave.” So, we just got to walk around the palace by ourselves and explore and when we left we did
as he said and closed the door.
There wasn’t a ton more to see after that so we headed off to the café for drinks and a snack were Anna’s Dad eventually joined us and then took us home to rest before dinner.
However before we could eat, we had business to attend to. Anna wanted to come with me to pick out mustard for my Mom at the mustard museum in Düsseldorf. So we walked around and I tasted all of the mustards and picked two that I thought she would really enjoy. One is so hot that I took too much and my nose burned for about five minutes and the other is made from Düsseldorf’s typical beer, Altbier.
Zum Schiffchen is the oldest restaurant in Düsseldorf. Want proof? Napoleon actually
ate there once. They have the place where he sat adorned with a statue and a French flag. I know why he ate there because their braised beef is just delicious. I was so sad when it was over. It’s in some kind of vinaigrette dressing that is simply divine. Mmmmm…
After dinner Anna and
I walked around town some more, went to my favorite place, Mayersche the bookstore and finally stopped at a bar to meet with Jana. It was pretty cool having them both in the same place. How odd that they both lived in our house, in the same room even, and then both ended up in the same city, and had never met until I came to visit. We stayed and talked for a few hours, mostly about Nebraska really, and staying at our house and East, etc., etc.. “Oh and the waterbed! At first I was like, ‘what is this?’ but it was so amazing!”
“We actually don’t have the waterbed anymore.”
Then equally shocked and sad Anna and Jana both let out a “NOOO!”
I had forgotten about the waterbed almost completely! Haha! I guess waterbeds are pretty awesome. I always liked going and getting in my parents waterbed when I was little because it was so warm. How much the little things you don’t even think about anymore have big effects!
It was really fun getting to have the two of them in the same place
and getting to see them both again after so long! Hopefully it won’t take another nine years for everyone to visit! 😊
Love and miss everyone!
Love always,
Devin 😊
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Barbara von Renteln
non-member comment
Napoleon never had a waterbed
Dear Devin, I just saw your blog about your time with Anna :-))) very cute--- thank you for all your nice words-- hope you are well--- bis hug, Barbara