Tag Archives: 2014

Indian Summer in Berlin

It’s a bit sad to see that my last post was all the way back in August (what happened to September).  I even have an iPhone now, so it’s pretty poor track record which I will need to fix.  In the meantime, we have the exciting news of our new nephew/cousin William Logan Wolfson, whom I am hoping to see (and post about) soon.

But back to our story, it was a “million dollar day” (as WW#1 used to say) here in Berlin, so we needed to take advantage.  While we had originally planned a short roadtrip to the west lakes of Wansee, we hit a snag at our favorite bagel place (Fine Bagel) as all the sweet bagels were still in the oven.  We decided that there were plenty of lakes around close by, but not so many good bagels and thus camped at a local playground for the next 30 minutes until our goods were ready.  Now fully prepared for our picnic, we headed to Treptow Park and Berlin Inslet (a small island in the middle of the river, accessible by a bridge).  We enjoyed a nice picnic (with a few too many end of season bees) with our fresh bagels, and then decided on a paddleboat adventure on the spree.  We were not sure how Teo would last, but he managed to stay inside the boat thanks to Chika’s watchful supervision.

Next time, maybe we will go for the motorboat 🙂

Adventures in the USA

What a trip!  A great week at the beach celebrating mom and dad’s 70/75th birthdays with the family, pool parties at Michael and Melanies, dim sum in Philadelphia, and much much more.  So rather than write all the details, I will let the pictures do the talking.

 

Salzburg and Munich

Wow.  Things have been busy.  But a few minutes to catch up on the family adventures.  Work in Munich started at the beginning of June right after a long weekend for the boys.  So we decided to head south en mass and do some extended Bavarian exploring.  One city which had popped up on our radar was Salzburg, home to Mozart and just over the border from Germany.  What a great city it was, especially for the kids.  We stayed at a hotel about 20 km outside of town set in a beautiful country lake area.  Even though the weather was rainy/overcast, we had been given fantastic big rooms at the hotel and enjoyed the indoor pool.  The city was really nice as well, with a great toy museum for the boys.  Munich was unfortunately impacted by some fever for Teo, but we did get to the famous Englisher Garten for some beer and fresh roasted mackerel.  Overall a fantastic trip which is likely to be repeated.

 

Japan Visit: Short, but so sweet

So it seemed like the major work I needed to do to get my job situation and other things were taken care of, a long Easter weekend was coming up, and British Airways was having a fare sale.  So there seems little reason not to jump over to see the family in Japan for a week.  I think it was one of the better decisions of recent times, as we all had a great time and got to all relax outside the pressures of day to day life.  And of course, there was lots and lots of eating great food.  I am already looking forward to the next trip.

 

Teo is 1!!!

Teo has become such a part of our daily lives that the concept of time before Teo is a bit of a blur (that might be because with the 2 boys we have been mentally and phyically pushed into a completely different zone, or just that we can’t relate to time without our lovely brothers).  While the party may have been on the smaller side, it was certainly sweet.  Great food and drink and a very special present for Teo (and his brother Kai it seems) from Grandma and Pop Pop.  Arigato!

Hanami in Berlin

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect early spring Sunday.  The morning was a bit crisp, but the afternoon was perfect for enjoying the sun without being baked.  A Japanese friend had organized a Hanami (flower blooming) party and we had a fantastic picnic under the cherry blossom trees.  It was paradise.