Upon perusing my photos from January, it looks as though we didn't really do anything which will make the January recap super easy. It was cold, we went to a few Berlin museums, Neil resumed classes, and Annika thought she could avoid bedtime by hiding in the bathtub. Also, we spent a couple of nights in the hospital due to a nasty respiratory bug for monster. The main amusement there (apart from Winnie the freaking Pooh painted on the wall) was the fact that every morning for breakfast, Annika received a walnut yogurt. I think that would be tantamount to attempted assisted suicide in the US, but there is less/no nut fear here. Annika starts the Kita next week, and I have yet to hear mention of eine Nuss. I know that nut allergies are very real and scary, but I can't help but wonder why the overall incidence and handling of nut allergies is so different here. Moving on...
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| Berlinische Galerie |
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| Berliner Dom |
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Less stealthy than she
believes herself to be. |
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| Walnut yogurt. Anaphylaxis avoided. |
After a grueling January, February got off to an exciting start with Karneval/Fasching/Mardi Gras. I will say that it seems to be more about costumes and booze than about beads and nudity. This suits me just fine because:
1.) We don't need beads or any other non-essential junk around.
2. ) It's cold at the beginning of February.
Up in Berlin there are, of course, parades and parties because Germans also enjoy the opportunity to drink more than normal during the day. We happened upon the parade by chance as we walked to lunch on the first Sunday in February. There were floats with costumed people tossing candy and slightly creepy stuffed animals (so much for no junk), so Neil and Annika were entertained.
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Annika loving the horse-
drawn carriage. |
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| Giant turnip float throwing candy. |
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| Neil sharing his loot. |
It is a far bigger deal in Bayern which is the southern and more religious part of the country. Fortunately for us we had planned a ski trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where there is an Army post attached to a ski resort. This also meant we would get to load up on cooking spray and brown sugar at the commissary, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Another bonus of this was that Annika could be dropped off at the CDC for a very reasonable fee so that Neil and I could ski unfettered. That is to say unfettered by Annika. I was plenty fettered by the skis and poles and my lack of real skiing experience. I went skiing once. I was 17, and I joined my friends with their church youth group on a week long trip to Vermont. It was awesome, and I think I skied for a total of about 5 hours over 6 days, but I digress. About 2 hours into the first day of skiing, I had the thought that maybe I could take advantage of the fact that Annika was someone else's responsibility and go get a pedicure or massage. Instead I foolishly stayed on the mountain with Neil. I kept insisting that he go ahead, but he kept insisting that he wanted to ski with me. This was a sweet idea, but what I think he meant was that he wanted me to be a better skier so I could ski with him. After a rough (and by rough, I mean completely miserable) run down an intermediate slope before lunch, it was decided that we would ski separately for the rest of that day and the following one. There is probably an entire entry or two here about how men and women and particularly we do things differently, but I will spare everyone. That afternoon we picked Annika up from the CDC and tested out her new sled around the hotel. One of Neil's former coworkers who is stationed at Ramstein happened to be there with his family, so we met them out for dinner that night. We enjoyed a traditional Bavarian meal and also happened to get a taste of some awesome and totally scary Fasching costumes. The next day, we survived a bit more skiing before heading to München the following day.
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| Neil, ready to ski better than me. |
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| She stayed in the sled for almost 5 minutes. |
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This mask is creepy, right?
Happy Mardi Gras! |
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Yes, he smelled like fresh pine.
Annika loved it/was terrified. |
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This kid sat completely still like this for
about 15 minutes. |
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| Nice view from the gondola |
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| Zugspitze. |
We made our way sorely and stiffly to the home of the Murphys (Olmsted 2011, München) where we met Pat. His wife Susan and the kids were in the US for a visit, but he was gracious enough to let us stay with him on what would have been a probably-much-needed quiet/empty-house weekend. We tried not to be a bother and headed to check out the Olympic park and the BMW museum. It was cold but sunny which was nice as we had not seen much of the big yellow orb in the sky in Berlin. We meandered through the BMW museum, saw some cool concept cars, and tried to move fast enough to keep Annika from getting bored and at the same time actually learn some things. While it is not entirely surprising, it was still somewhat alarming to learn that they utilized workers from the Dachau concentration camp for construction projects and also for manufacturing. I've never liked BMWs, so this is just one more reason not to buy one. I will say that, overall in Germany, they are very transparent now about everything that occurred during WWII and later in the DDR. The presentations at the various museums and memorials is very straightforward and almost clinical. We have found that it is a constant struggle for Germany as a nation to take responsibility for the transgressions in your past and also move forward with a sense of national pride about the things that your country has become. Again, this could be another entry and probably will be...you've been warned.
At any rate, our time in the BMW museum gave the day time to warm up so that we could make our way through Olympiapark. I make no secret about the fact that I love the Olympics, so it was exciting to see the venues of one of the most memorable Olympics to date. We walked in and saw the pool where Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals and broke 7 world records and saw from a distance the site of Olympic Village where 11 Israeli athletes were killed. A trip that evening to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner completed our first quick tour of München. The next day, after a delicious breakfast prepared by Pat, we were on our way back to Berlin but not before a stop at Dachau concentration camp. I imagine that the impact of walking into one of these camps never diminishes. It is truly impossible to grasp the things that went on at these places, and I think the memorials and museums are a vital part of keeping the memory of the prisoners who passed through the gates alive.
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| Us reflected in the BMW museum. |
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| BMWs through the years. |
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| Olympiapark. |
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| Olympic swimming pool. |
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| Hofbräuhaus. |
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| Labor makes you free. |
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| The grounds of Dachau. |
The rest of February came and went without anything terribly exciting. It snowed a few more times, and Annika made, in my opinion, a really advanced Valentine's Day card for Neil. We headed into March with the false hope that spring was right around the corner.
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| See what I mean? |
Coming up:
- March snow
- A swim meet at a witch pilgrimage site
- The Hoff returns to Berlin
- McDonalds taunts me as I ride on the bike trainer
- Winter becomes the spring of our discontent
