Blogs from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Europe - page 3

Germany's a convenient country to visit, I must say. First off, for being so far north, it's surprisingly temperate (likely due to its proximity to the ocean). However, they also almost all speak English, which makes it slightly less awkward for Samii and me as we scramble our way through the days. On the flip side, the amount of volleyball I'm playing has helped me learn a few things: I'm pretty good with the numbers now, and can say things like "sorry," "mine," etc. Things that are important to know for sports. Despite the language barrier, the team I play with seems to like me and as a team we work well together. Olympics, watch out! The bike ride to the beach was also much easier today. I don't know whether the wind was lighter or ... read more

Relaxing is so nice for the body and mind on occasion. Today was one of those occasions. We woke up around 9:15, and after a family (plus 4) breakfast, some of us went off to rent bikes for the week (bikes are the main mode of transportation, apart from nice German cars...Mercedes, BMW, Audi are all everywhere). We then rode the 10ish miles to the family's favorite beach, against the very strong (15-25 knots, depending) winds. As Sylt (approximately pronouced 'Zoolt') is a narrow island with open ocean on the west coast, this will likely be a regular occurence. At the beach, we of course took advantage of the open ocean to swim. There's a sandbar between 3 and 50 yards from the beach, depending on the tide -- at the lowest tide, some of the ... read more

Anne lived with us in Seattle for a year, 2011-12, attended Highline High School as a member of the senior class, and got to walk in the commencement ceremony at the end of the school year. Of course our entire noisy mob of a family attended commencement and did our best to embarrass our kid at it, as loving families must do. When she came home to Hamburg, she still had two years of Gymnasiumahead of her: not university, not high school, not quite but probably closest to what American students do at community college when they're planning to transfer to a four-year university to complete a Bachelor's degree later. Anne told us Gymnasium has nothing like the American high school graduation ceremony, and she wasn't wrong, but she didn't entirely give us the complete picture ... read more

Today we ventured out to Lübeck, which is about an hour northeast of Hamburg by train. Lübeck still has its medieval center, ringed by a canal and two of its four gates still standing and in use. We made our way to Hamburg's Hauptbahnhof (main train station) via two buses and the S-bahn, which is akin to our light rail, although not so light and much more heavily used. After getting some cash from the Bankomat, we were able to purchase Fahrkarten for the train from the machines, which only took cash or something called a "Eurocard", which we did not have. I also had the privilege of paying 2 Euro to use the Pissoir, which is exactly what it looks like and actually what they call it. Luckily, we got word from Andrea that she ... read more

After 15 months of business travel that turned my and our family's life upside-down, I've wrapped up my international client engagement and we're celebrating with a 3.5-week family vacation to reconnect with our loved ones in Deutschland. This week, we're all together in Schenefeld, outside Hamburg, to see Anne, Lars, Andrea, and Ulf, our German family. Truly they're enough like our siblings that it's just easier to describe them that way, except Anne was our daughter for a year, so "niece" doesn't quite cut it, but whatever, family. :) Tuesday, our arrival night, was a comedy of drowsy. Greg and I got in about noon from Amsterdam and were whisked away in a taxi by Ulf and Laura, who arrived here last week. A couple of hours later, Barb and Joe arrived from Reykjavik and were ... read more