Day 59: Repurposed Buildings and Things to Think About

Today started with breakfast made by Brandon and I and ended with a nice little catch up moment…

We were up earlyish today so Brandon and I could don our chef hats once more! Today, we were making “American style” pancakes for breakfast. I have never made pancakes from scratch before, and thankfully they were fairly straight forward. The recipe I had found online said it made about 8 pancakes, so I tripled it since there was 5 of us eating. That turned out to be A LOT. So much so that I am pretty sure if Alicia hadn’t asked me to make some really big pancakes, I’d still be working on them right now (kidding, but it really was a lot of batter!)! Nevertheless, the pancakes got made and were enjoyed by all :) We did have several left over, so…pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!

Following breakfast, Brandon and I headed to Oberhausen. There is an old natural gas storage building there called the Gasometer that has been refurbished into a rotating exhibition space. When Brandon went in 2010, he said the exhibition was about the planets. Currently, they are running one on climate change. The exhibition features a series of award-winning photos of animals, plants, people, and places in a juxtaposed set of levels where the first level has images featuring the natural beauty of the planet and the second level features images showing man’s effect on that beauty (aka climate change). The pictures on display, whether of cute baby turtles or showing the devastation of the bush fires in Australia, were incredible and came paired with write-ups that really made you think. In the exhibit, there were also 20 holographic Earths showing a variety of things, such as CO2 emission levels around the world. One of the other really cool things at the Gasometer was a GIANT holographic Earth projected in “the arena,” which is a dome-shaped space on the third floor that would make a great space for a planetarium show (for example). The projected Earth rotated and changed from day to night, it showed what looked like electrical connection lines around the globe, weather patters like clouds and hurricanes. It was constantly moving and changing; it was SO COOL! The Gasometer has a set of viewing platforms outside all the way at the top of the structure, so we waited in line for the elevator up so we could do that, too. The views from the top were incredible! You could see a really nice “slice” of the Ruhrgebiet region.

From the Gasometer, we got some lunch at the on-site restaurant. It was delicious :) Then, we headed back to the house to chill and prepare for Peter to break in his new grill! For dinner, the five of us had our own little grill party. As you can imagine, everything was cooked to perfection :) There was sausage, steak, potatoes, veggies, bread, and salad. We were very full when all was said and done! Alicia and I played a little more Subway Surfer on my phone before she FaceTimed with her grandparents. By the time she was done, it was time to FaceTime my parents. I *finally* (sort of) got my iPad to connect up with them long enough for them to say hi to Alina, Peter, and Alicia! The signal still wasn’t great, and I am convinced my iPad is simply trying to be dramatic for no reason… Alicia and I played a round of solitaire when I finished chatting with my mom and dad, and then it was time to call it a night.

Tomorrow, we revisit a place from our first week to check out stuff we missed the first time, so stay tuned! Enjoy the pictures!