Anyone for Crunch (Cars + Brunch)?

What better way to start off the day than with a delicious brunch at the Classic Remise Meilenwerk in Duesseldorf. This is an old restored roundhouse and maintenance station for trains, now filled with expensive cars both old and new. 

We even found a Shelby.

Sophie and Nanny looking for their favorite cars.

When does Sophie ever get to have both Nanny and Oma at one table in Germany?

Eating in style.

Sophie and I decided to take pictures of each other.

My favorite color on a car (this is a Jag)

Sophie's favorite car because it was red.

I liked the row of Porsches.

(The restaurant behind me.)

Another red favorite.

Subsequent food coma. There must have been a sleeping medication in the waffles.

But the weather was pleasant and we had places to see.

Sophie learning a pat-a-cake game from Nanny. 

Posing in front of city hall for the blog

International Children's Day Festival along the Rhine shore.

This is where we ran into our neighbors Sissi and Jessica.

Time for an altbier (the local brew) at one of the oldest breweries in town. 

Caught on picture: Andrew laughing with some Germans! Just give them a beer and their frowns are turned into smiles.

A fun bunch.

Ending the day in style with some of the best ice cream in Duesseldorf. We lined up around the corner and it was worth it.

By the way, for anyone who has been wondering how we can be buying ice cream on an almost daily basis. It's 80 cents/$1 per scoop here.

Irrland in the Heat

One day of 80+ degree weather - off to Irrland (the amusement park near my mum's in Geldern) to try the warm weather attractions. Packed with a huge picnic enough to feed the people around us and then some. 

 Although the water play areas were very crowded, we found a nice spot in the shade.

 Sophie taking pictures of us.

 That is Sophie's finger. My mum was annoyed that she had not brought her bathing suit. 

 We took Sophie on the water slide nearby a few times, but the water they used to wet it with was brutally cold. Berit yelled out "bladder infection" as soon as she sat down in it for the first time. Of course Sophie insisted on sitting in our lap - stinker. So instead we organized some spray guns and checked out the huge water gunfight terrain with fill-up stations, a labyrinth, bridge etc. as obstacles. Berit and I, being the oldest warriors in the terrain, soon had a considerable number of enemies to spray. Sophie exclaimed at one point that she no longer wanted to get wet, but continued to happily spray us - little stinker.

 ...meanwhile a goat was born in the adjoining stables.

 Finally a couple of pictures of Irrland's latest project: a play airport. But we will save this for a shadier day (soon that is).

Now headed back to Geldern for a BBQ.

The First Annual Robertson 4th of July BBQ

There was no question though we left the U.S. that we would continue to celebrate the American holidays like Thanksgiving and the 4th of July. Any reason to have a party, right? 

Our friends and neighbors were happy to hear that and we managed to get quite a fun crowd together for our first 4th of July BBQ in Duesseldorf. 

The planning was half the fun. 

I am quite proud of my little cheese cake creation. Not quite 50 stars, but 13 stripes! And it must have tasted ok, as it was gone in a heartbeat.

We went all over town trying to find a flag post to properly hang the flag Andrew had purchased on Long Island. We could only find fixtures for boats, so our bedroom window had to make do. 

Ah, the master of the beer and the burger meat fairy, alias uncle Ralph and aunt Helga, have arrived. Let the party begin.

Well, we opted for German beer instead of an American brew. That's understandable, right?

I think this was 8 lbs of ground beef. Twelve hours later, there was none left.

We could not have lucked out more with the weather. Probably the only nice day with California blue skies in the first three weeks of July. The rain arrived two hours after the end of the party and was to stick with us.

Two of Berit's friends - Li and Dennis hanging out in the beach basket.

We extended an automatic invitation to next year's BBQ to everyone who was present today.

More red, white and blue than I ever used to wear in the States.

Let me guess, airplane talk by the grill?

Kids' corner was in our neighbor's garden.

Lina's little brother Philip taking a siesta. He was to have a rude awakening when he was in the line of fire of a water pistol squirt from his big sister.

Andrew wearing his Hawaiian airplane shirt (making sure the grill does not catch on fire?)

Caught the kids finishing the candy underneath our dining table.

Finally, sparklers for the kids. For next year, we will save some proper fireworks from New Year's. 

The party went on for many more hours. Our margarita was flowing faster than the beer until we ran out of all three bottles of tequila. 

We thank everyone for coming and celebrating and look forward to next year's bash. 

Berit's Graduation

Today was Berit's big day. After four years of study, a couple of internships and a semester-long bachelor thesis, she was finally going to receive her bachelor in physical therapy.

 We were there to cheer on her big day, even though we were almost late as we could not find parking and then had to wait 20 minutes in line for the one parking meter machine. 

That is Berit's friend, Steffi, in the front. She is going to graduate from the same school (University of Nijmegen) in the winter. Sophie really likes her.

 Berit's teachers performed for us.

 Then it was up the escalator (!) to receive the diploma, a pen, a flower, and a little personal speech from her mentor (who only saw her twice in the four years). 

Followed by a celebratory dinner at the local Chinese restaurant.

Congratulations, Berit! We're proud of you!

What a nice day - just wait the rain and cold will come soon.

Not the Baltic Sea nor the North Sea, but...

... the Unterbacher See (See meaning lake).

This large nature area with woods, lake, playgrounds and numerous bike trails is literally in our back garden. Oma came over to visit us for the night, so we gave her Andrew's bike and off we went to explore this Duesseldorf beach.

After some time at the huge playground (I did not take a picture, sorry), we were all thirsty and walked over to the beer garden next door (I love Germany for that). They had even thought of putting a sand box next to the tables. And look who we ran into at the beer garden - our neighbor Andrés and his family! Didn't I say it was literally in our back garden?

(This was before Sophie poured sand all over poor Andrés' head.) 

Acquiring Essentials on Andrew's Birthday

We had our big helpers coming to visit for a few days: Oma, Aunt Helga, and Uncle Ralph. Armed with a drill, wrench and other handy tools, they were ready for our to-do list (not the honey-do list as I know better not to let Andrew near these fiddly tasks).

 First priority: setting up our Strandkorb (courtesy of Oma) while it was still mostly dry out. With this Strandkorb (literally beach basket) we have become very German. It really does block out the wind and some rain. And there is even a little table for our gin and tonics and apple juice of course - very clever design. Did I mention the foot rests?

 Quick break for the helper, Uncle Ralph. We beat the estimated set-up time of 2 hours by 15 minutes.

 My mum already promised that she would be spending quite some time in the Strandkorb this summer.

 Next, we headed to one of the numerous DIY-stores (the Germans have more than the Italians, British and some other country I can't remember put together) and to our surprise were met with excellent customer service by a first generation Italian-German. She sold us the "Bakersfield" grill. We downsized a little from our U.S. "monster" of a BBQ, but it can still cook good old American hamburgers. Andrew is happy.

 We had our neighbors (Andrés and Lina) over for our birthday dinner.

 ... as well as Berit and her friend Li.

I have to say, I was quite proud of my birthday chocolate cake creation. In never thought that baking could be so much fun. 

The Easter Bunny Was Here!

After we had started to think that the Easter Bunny forgot to stop by our house, he just happened to make his way through our row of gardens right when Daddy was taking a shower, Mama was picking up Berit from the train station, and Oma and Sophie were out in the neighborhood looking for him. Somebody was very happy upon returning.

 In Germany the Easter Bunny drops some kinder surprise eggs and other treats.

 Yes, it was cold!

 See, the Easter Bunny came to Lina's house at the same time. How perfect is that?

 Note the sunshine!

Then Berit colored some more eggs with Sophie while I prepared our Easter dinner: pork loin with pears and leek in a mustard sauce and loads of roasted vegetables. Andrew topped it off with an American apple pie (from scratch). 

Subsequent food coma.

How lucky that it is another holiday (Easter Monday) tomorrow with nothing planned.