It was yet another successful day of fun and travel (and fun travel!) :)

As I said in yesterday’s post, we wanted to take as much advantage of our Copenhagen Cards as we could, plus our new destination was only going to take a 40 minute train ride to get to, so we gave ourselves time to putz around Copenhagen some more :)

It was overcast and misty most of the day today, which was a little bit of a bummer, but it kept things nice and cool for our main activity, which was visiting the Copenhagen Zoo! We caught breakfast at a lovely little place called Cadence before heading to the zoo, which ended up being busier than I expected for a *bleh* kind of weather day…

The zoo itself was incredibly fun (I have yet to find one that isn’t)! They had lots of different animals, from polar bears to giraffes and everything in between! We were super surprised and very delighted that there were actually four polar bears on display! When we lived in Pittsburgh, they had one (maybe two) and it was never out! Copenhagen Zoo also has a set of pandas on display in the middle of the zoo. Their enclosure is very unique in that it is shaped like a yin-yang symbol! I thought that was such a different design and a great way to include the Chinese culture! We were pleasantly surprised to find some otters at this zoo, as well, which are Brandon’s FAVORITE! The map of the zoo gave no indication of them having otters, so it was a fun discovery :) We also rode the zoo’s Skyliner attraction, which is a tower with a rotating enclosure that gives you awesome views of the zoo and the surrounding area! It was also a nice respite from walking around as I was getting a little tired by that point. When I researched it, I found that Copenhagen Zoo is only 27 acres big, but we were there for easily 4 hours! For context, Pittsburgh Zoo is 77 acres and I feel like we spent about that much time going through there…I don’t know, maybe I’m remembering incorrectly *shrugs*

By the time we left the zoo, it was around 2:30/3:00 in the afternoon, so we hopped on a series of buses back towards our hotel where we had our bags stored in some lockers in the lobby. Fortunately SleepCPH allows you access to the building with your unique code until 11pm on the day you check out! We grabbed our things and headed to the train station for our nice little trip to Malmö, Sweden!

The train ride was quick, easy, and uneventful. We sat in the quiet area of the train because that’s where we got on the train and also where there were open 2nd class seats. Coming into Sweden, we had a GORGEOUS view of the water out the windows. There were SO MANY sailboats! The Malmö main station was also pretty easy to navigate as we didn’t have as many people to maneuver around when we arrived. Not sure why, but I’m not complaining :) We popped by an ATM to get a little cash out and then headed to our hotel. Fun fact: the Swedes use the Swedish krone, which is worth a whole 0.099 USD (last I checked)!

We’re staying at the Noble House Hotel, which is a Best Western Plus property. The lobby is super cool; it’s got a lot of movie/film-based decor! Our room is very cozy and even comes with a doormat that says “Hello You Lovely People”! We took a little time when we got in to chill and recoup (and charge our phones). After about an hour, we decided to go get some dinner. Brandon found an INCREDIBLE Irish place right next door called Fagans. Seriously, not only was the food some of the most flavorful and delicious (I had a sausage pie and mashed potatoes, Brandon got Beef Wellington), but the vibes were IMMACULATE!

Shortly after we arrived and were seated, a small group of musicians came in and sat a table in the section across from us. Not too soon after, they just started playing some traditional Irish folk music and it continued the whole meal! They were phenomenal! Brandon and I have a friend who is a brilliant Irish step dancer and we both said at one point that, were she there, she’d have been up and dancing in no time!

Full of goodness, we wandered around a little, bought a couple souvenirs, and then headed back to the hotel to relax and watch a movie. Tomorrow is our only full day in Malmö (and Brandon’s birthday), so we’ll have to see what we can get into! Stay tuned and enjoy the photos!!

We got a lot of fun in today!

Since today was our only full day in Copenhagen, we wanted to allow ourselves to do as much as we could, especially because we could get in to A LOT of places “free” with our Copenhagen Card!

We began the day by going to breakfast at a place near a popular section of the canal harbors. The restaurant was called The Union Kitchen. It had a nifty and modern vibe, and the food was SPECTACULAR! We both got the eggs benedict, which came served on a thick slice of sourdough bread with ham, spinach, tomatoes, and homemade hollandaise sauce. Unlike the eggs Benedict I’ve had before, the eggs were simply soft boiled (with the shells removed), as opposed to being served over easy. Regardless, it was amazing!

Done with breakfast, we putzed around the area a little bit. In this time, we took lots of pictures of the boats docked in the canal. The absolute coolest thing happened, too! While we were taking photos, some older gentleman in high-vis vests asked everyone to “clear the bridge!” Why? One of the boats in the canal was a sailing boat with GIGANTIC masts and it was going out to the open water. But first, it had to get past the bridge! It was so cool to watch the bridge go up, the ship go through, and then have the bridge lower again in a matter of minutes!

Full of awe from that experience, we did a little more shopping around before heading to one of the other ports along the canal so we could get tickets for a canal boat tour. Lucky for us, one was heading out in about 10 minutes from when we arrived, so we got tickets for that tour and got cruising! Our tour guide, Julie, gave her talk in English and Danish, which was really cool to listen to! She gave us lots of fun facts along the way, including the fact that one of the few remaining frigates currently stationed in the waters of Copenhagen by the Danish Navy is nicknamed the “Whoops Missile” because in September of 1982, a missile launched from the ship while it was on exercises around an area of summer homes. Several homes were destroyed or severely damaged, but thankfully no one was hurt as the homes were unoccupied! The tour was great for so many things, including a beautiful view of Copenhagen from the water! 

After the tour, we went and got some lunch and then putzed around some more. We soon caught a little city train, which took us around the city to some other sights. The tour was a hop on/hop off situation, but we just rode the loop the whole way and admired things :) From there, we headed to the botanic gardens across the city.

The botanic gardens were beautiful! They’re open to the public free of charge from what I could tell, but there were a couple parts that cost a small fee, which we got to then use our Copenhagen Card to access: The Palm House and The Butterfly House. The Palm House is a big greenhouse with mostly tropical plants mimicking a rainforest environment. It was very hot and humid, but very pretty! The Butterfly House did have butterflies, but you first went through a section of a greenhouse that was entirely filled with succulents. There were a LOT of big, pointy cacti! The butterflies were gorgeous (of course) and I was surprised how many of them sat pretty still on flowers, leaves, etc. while so many folks (us included) got up close to take photos. It was a great way to round out the afternoon!

A bit tired, but not ready to go back and call it a day, we took the subway to a local mall where we walked around and had some dinner. We ate at a place called Dalle Valle. Their big selling point is a nice buffet full of various foods, hot and cold. You can also order a la carte, but c’mon..who’s passing up a buffet?! Some of my favorites from the buffet were the lamb sausage, shepherd’s pie, and the chicken curry and vegetables :) We wandered the mall a little more after dinner but then collectively came to the conclusion that we were ready to go relax.

Our destination tomorrow is a short train ride away, so we are going to pop by the Copenhagen Zoo first thing before heading out for good. I am so excited! Thanks for continuing to follow along! Enjoy the photos!

It’s a mildly deceptive title, but stick with me…

We left Hamburg today early, but not as early as originally planned. We were on the bus to the main station before 7 as we were supposed to pick up our main transport at 8. Today’s grand adventure: a Flixbus ride from Hamburg to Copenhagen, a trip that should last about 6ish hours.

From the start, everything got thrown off as the bus we were to take was running late from its origin point in Munich. It did not get to us until a little after 9, and until we really got rolling, the bus was 2 hours behind schedule. For us, it wasn’t that big of a deal as we tend to not schedule anything major on travel days. The bus ride itself was okay. It was a little warm despite the A/C running, and there was some confusion with who had reserved a particular set of seats in the second deck (we only got in the “middle of it” because we sat in seats the row in front of the contended seats). Also, apparently the bathroom on the bus wasn’t functioning, so they made sure to give a little extra time at one of the other stops for people to go.

The coolest and the most…aggravating (for lack of better word) parts (they are two separate things) of the whole trip happened one after the other. The coolest part of the trip was having the bus board a big ferry boat that took us across the sea from Germany to Denmark! The bus pulled onto a lower deck with several other big trucks, and we all had to get off as the trip lasted about 45 minutes. When we went up top, the rest of the ship had so many cool things like an arcade, a big store with all sorts of goodies, two restaurants, a coffee shop, and some EXCELLENT views! It was seriously so wild to know that below us a few decks was the bus we’d be getting back on to continue our journey :) After the coolness of that, I got mildly excited because the driver said we’d have to stop through border control to show our passports. I was hopeful I’d get another stamp. I was equal parts disappointed and mildly put off because what actually happened was this: the entirety of our bus had to disembark with all our things, including the big luggage stored under the bus, and we all lined up while Customs had a (very cute) dog sniff around and they checked all our passports. To their credit, the customs folks were nice enough, but it felt so strange to just be in a giant lineup of people waiting to see if we could keep going on our trip…Nevertheless, the process (thankfully) didn’t take too long before we were on our way again.

We arrived in Copenhagen right around 4, got our things, and headed to the information office. Brandon found a pass called the Copenhagen Card that allows us access to almost all the major attractions in and around the city, including public transit, for 48 hours. We had to take our vouchers to the Tourist Info office, though, to get our cards. Again, thankfully, that was not a lengthy process. We then hopped on a bus and headed to our hotel. This one is called Sleep CPH and it’s entirely self-service. When you reserve a room, you get a unique door code before you check in that is good for the keypad to the main entrance, as well as your room. There’s a tablet in the room to check-in; it’s all very high tech!

We took some time to relax and then went to get some dinner. We found a very kitschy pub-like restaurant to eat. We tried beef tartare, and I was not a fan. Our dinners were puff pastries filled with a chicken and asparagus stew…SO GOOD! Brandon and I shared a strawberry tart for dessert, and then we were all filled up :) The one thing I have found I’ll have to get used to for the next couple days is the prices looking OBSCENE. Denmark uses the Danish krone, which is worth *literally* pennies (lot of bang for your buck!), so while it looks like we’re paying a fortune, it’s actually fairly equitable to an equivalent establishment in the States. 

​Tomorrow, we go exploring! Enjoy the photos!

It was a DAY today!

We started out with doing some laundry, which involved hopping on a bus so we could get to the closest laundromat. According to Google, we only had a few stops between where we got on and where we needed to get off. Shortly into our ride, the bus made a turn that put it WAY off the route shown on Google Maps. Mildly stressed, I went online to find the most recent bus schedule (Hamburg has a lot of construction affecting the transit lines) and found that, while we were off from the Google Maps route, we would be “looping back” and eventually pulling up to the stop we needed. Once at the laundromat, everything else went smoothly, so that was helpful.

While our wash was running, we found a cafe nearby to eat breakfast. We just got some pastries, despite the website suggesting they had a more involved set of breakfast items. They had a digital menu that cycled through screens, but we just managed not to catch the breakfast stuff until we’d already gotten our pastries and sat to eat. By that point, I was also too embarrassed to go back up because I had struggled with giving accurate answers to the questions I was being asked (my brain was STRUGGLING). Nevertheless, we had some food and finished with our laundry and went on with our day.

The *highlight* of the day was checking out a place called Dialogue House, which has an experience called Dialogue in the Dark. The house’s purpose is to showcase and educate people on what it is like to be vision impaired. They also work on showcasing hearing impairments. The Dialogue in the Dark experience was something I was excitedly anxious to try because you are put in a small group with a visually impaired guide who walks you through a PITCH BLACK set of rooms. I was confident in my ability to do the practical “stuff” in navigating with the provided cane (I spent an entire summer navigating parts of Pittsburgh under blindfold). What I had not fully considered, and what caused major stress for both myself and Brandon was the fact that the tour was, in fact, in German, and I had not indicated that we were primarily English speakers. I figured we’d be able to manage alright, but that added a special layer of chaos to the experience. I would absolutely do it again, but I’d be certain to make sure there was at least some English involved. Anyhow…the “course” itself was pretty cool. We went through a room walking across some small bridges, including a very wobbly one. There was a whole room setup (like a living/dining room space) that you had to get around. We had a simulation of crossing a street using audible signals. The end of the tour included the cafe, where the gentleman behind the counter was conscious enough to identify my hesitation in movement as a lack of understanding directions, so it was established that English works better and he used that with us for the duration of our stay. I want to clarify again, the cafe was PITCH BLACK. We ordered, paid, and partook in our wares completely in the dark. Again, too, the experience was very neat, but ultimately a little more stressful due to a lack of foresight and appropriate planning on my end.

After the Dialogue House, we headed to the center of town and got some lunch. We had some delicious burgers! Then, we putzed for a while, checking out some shops in the nearby mall. Brandon scheduled us a harbor tour, which we got to take by riding a HUGE steamboat! It was a really cool tour! From there, we decided to go venture to some other areas of Hamburg, including the Hamburger Dom, which is a big fair complex with a Ferris wheel I had eyeballed yesterday when we were at the harbor :)

We took a nice ride on the Ferris wheel, and by that point it was nearly 8 and we still needed dinner. We headed back towards the Rathaus and ate at a delicious steakhouse. Then, I got us on the wrong subway in our initial attempt to get back to the hostel. We figured it out quickly though and got ourselves on the right track (after riding one stop in the wrong direction)! It’s another (literally) cool evening here in Hamburg (plus we missed the bus), so we walked back to the hostel from the station and got ourselves settled in and packed up for tomorrow. It is an EARLY start for us, but we get to see another country! I am very excited :D Enjoy the pictures!

It’s a double post today, so prepare yourselves!

Day 49 not only took us to another new city, but it also became the start of the 14-day countdown until we fly back to the States…

We enjoyed one more breakfast at the hotel in Berlin and then gave ourselves some resting time back in our room since we didn’t need to catch a train until 12:30ish and check-out wasn’t until midday. Once we headed out, the trek to the station was mostly uneventful. Berlin’s main train station is quite big, but we came to it via the U-Bahn, so we got to bypass a lot of the ground level craziness. We found our track and then out our stuff down since we had some time to kill. I made a pit stop, and I was grateful that we had a little bit until our train was coming because the line in the bathroom was quite long! It moved quickly, but I told Brandon when I got back to our stuff that I found it odd there was only 12 stalls in the women’s room of a station in the CAPITAL of the country. Perhaps there was another bathroom elsewhere, but I saw no other signage…

Our train came on time, and we had easily one of the shortest direct rides so far between travel destinations. Berlin to Hamburg on the ICE was less than 2 hours, and then we hopped on a bus to our hostel. The hostel is pretty basic, but it’s cute! We were both still a little tired, so we mostly chilled in our room for a couple hours before going out to grab dinner ahead of our big plans for the evening.

We took a walk to the closest U-Bahn station (which was 10 minutes away…pretty far by comparison to our proximities elsewhere) and headed towards the harbor. I found an Italian restaurant for us to eat at that was very good :) We did the whole meal ordering and payment process in German, which is not a first, but I think it’s one of the few times we haven’t had staff at a restaurant actively “call us out” for being native English speakers, so that was nice! After dinner, we wandered around for a few minutes taking pictures of the boats in the harbor before heading to the dock we needed. Our big plans??? We went to see The Lion King (Der König der Löwen)!!

The theater for both the Lion King and Frozen (Die Eiskönigin) are on a little peninsula thing in the middle of Hamburg Harbor. The theaters actually sit right next to each other. While you can drive, most people take the ferry across (arguably, it’s the much cooler way). It’s a very quick ferry ride, and then you just walk up the ramp and there’s the theater!

I have never actually seen the “original” Broadway production of The Lion King. The German production is verbatim to the one in New York; it’s just all in German. That piece was the only caveat in me feeling like the experience might be a little extra overwhelming, but I learned very quickly once the show began that I have clearly taken on a greater understanding of the German language because I felt like I could *mostly* actively translate the dialogue as the show progressed. It was either that, or I’ve seen the movie too many times :) The show really was incredible! The puppetry, the dancing, the…everything was just magical! I highly recommend the show if you get a chance to see it (in English or in German)!

By the time the show ended, it was almost 11. The ferry folks were incredibly efficient getting everyone back to the “mainland”. We got a U-Bahn and a bus back to the hostel and then crashed. As I write this, we’re doing some laundry, but I’ll write more about today’s plans in the later post! Until then, enjoy the pictures!

It was another day of enjoying what Berlin has to offer today!

We started with breakfast in the hotel. I decided a while ago, but reaffirmed while eating, that I will only be eating bakery fresh bread from here on out. Does that mean I will be shopping more frequently during the week? Maybe. Have I already located at least one bakery in the vicinity of our apartment? Yes…yes, I have…moving on!

Post-breakfast, we had a little time to kill before our single scheduled activity, so we went back over to Checkpoint Charlie because there was another, slightly larger, souvenir store we didn’t get to check out yesterday. We didn’t really find anything. We then went through a few other random souvenir shops before killing some time people watching in the subway station.

By about 10:30, we hopped a U-Bahn a few stops into the city as we had scheduled an hour long riverboat tour! The weather today was the coolest it’s been in a while, and I was feeling mildly unprepared for the slight chilliest, but we chose to sit inside the boat for the tour rather than up on top. The tour was very cool; it went by a lot of the major buildings in the city that lie along the river Elbe. We saw the Berliner Dom, Reichstag, Futurium, and several other really cool buildings!

With the tour done, we headed back towards the Sony Center where we ate lunch and *tried* to see more of the Sony store. Once again, there was a rope going up the steps, and after some sleuthing, we came to the conclusion that there wasn’t very much else in the store past what they have on the ground floor at the moment. It was a little bit of a bummer, but c’est la vie…

From the store, we went to the Film Museum, which details the history of German film and television. It was a really nifty museum with a lot of old costumes, props, and memorabilia! There was a big section on Marlene Dietrich, and the section on film in the Nazi era was really fascinating! We didn’t spend too much time on the television areas, mostly because the access to them was confusing. We were both also getting kind of tired. I, in fact, had dozed off briefly during our boat tour earlier in the day!

Before we went back to the hotel to relax, we popped over to the Schloss Charlottenburg. We didn’t take a tour, but it was magnificent from the outside! Satisfied with our perimeter tour and *very* tired, we went back to the hotel, where we spent the rest of the late afternoon/evening. I think both of our bodies were trying to tell us to calm down since we’ve been running amok so much the last couple days! 

Tomorrow, we move on to Hamburg. Fair warning, it may be a double post day the day after tomorrow as we have something EXTREMELY FUN planned for the evening! More details to come :) As always, enjoy the pictures!

We covered a lot of ground today!

We started with breakfast in the hotel restaurant area. It was a delightful spread of cold cuts, cheeses, breads, fruit, yogurt, and hot items like eggs and currywurst! The drink area had fun coffee machines that we’ve become accustomed to. The coolest part was the juice machine! It was a little touch screen that you selected your juice flavor, and from there the machine auto filled a certain amount of juice! The machine also dispensed water, but you had to press and hold the water type for whatever amount you wanted. Regardless, it was magical :)

After breakfast we headed to the Brandenburg Gate. It was really cool to look at. To truly take in the size and spectacle that it is was really awesome! In the area of the Gate are some of the embassies for countries outside of Germany, including the US Embassy. Like…the embassy is *literally* next to the Gate. It was cool to see from the outside, mostly because they were actively flying the Progress Pride flag with the American flag. In fact, it was the only embassy I noticed in the nearby area flying a Pride flag. Kudos to our embassy!!

From the Gate, we walked over to the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe). It is a phenomenally understated installation about a block from the gate that is deceptive in size from street level. Containing (we looked this up) 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights, it is a “maze” of solemnity as you wander through and imagine the lives this sea of gray stone is dedicated to. The ground upon which the slabs are situated rises and falls in waves, aiding in the distortion from above. It was a very humbling place to experience.

The other major sight in the same area is the Reichstag. We walked about half a kilometer (a third of a mile, give or take) to go view the MASSIVE building from the front. One thing we’ve encountered a bit since getting to Berlin yesterday is construction. The Reichstag was no different, so the viewed was skewed a bit by equipment, but it was still cool to look at :) From the Reichstag, we took a series of U-bahns and buses to the East Side Gallery, an ever changing remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Why is it ever changing? The artwork on the now defunct wall gets redone all the time by various artists, so going now may mean you see a section full of handprints, but this time next year, someone may have decided to turn that into an underwater scene (this is pure speculation). The gallery was very cool, and if you didn’t know what it was before, you’d think it was a barrier put up during some construction that just got lots of *very cool* graffiti. It blended into the construction zones around it a little too well…  

By this point of the day, it was nearly time for lunch, so we headed to the Museumsinsel and found a lovely Italian restaurant to eat at. Brandon had pizza, I got pasta. Then, we went to a surprisingly(?) dangerous place…the Ampelmann store!

If you are not familiar with Ampelmann, go to Google right now! I will not be taking questions lol…Both Brandon and I found a handful of Ampelmann items, including shirts, that I will be unnecessarily giddy about for a while. Having spent more money than we probably should have, we then headed to Checkpoint Charlie, which is in an active traffic area and is not very large, so we only needed a few minutes to take some photos. From here, we then headed to a whole other section of the city for a tour of the Olympia Stadion!

The Olympic Stadium is a listed historical site in Germany, as well as the home of the “West” German football club, Hertha. We learned LOADS on our tour about the stadium’s history and Hitler’s hopes for it, as well as its upkeep and constant shifts for not only football matches, but special events, like concerts. We got to tour the VIP lounges and the locker rooms. Our tour group was only five of us, Brandon and I, a young guy from the UK, and a father and son from Flanders (Belgium). We all took the English tour, and our tour guide was a wonderful older woman who really took the hour and made it fly! One of the things we got to do at the tour’s conclusion was wander the outside perimeter and some other sections of the stadium (the “away” side), as well as get a view of the pool. Fun fact: the pool complex is now a public facility, which I found VERY FUN and wished that circumstances would play out so we could go swimming while we’re here (unfortunately, we probably won’t). 

Tired from the excitement of the day, we went back to the hotel to chill before getting some dinner at a Chinese restaurant a short bus ride away. From dinner, it was back to the hotel to settle in and prepare for tomorrow. We’ve got another jam-packed day of bopping around Berlin! Stay tuned and enjoy the pictures!  

After many weeks, we have finally gotten to the capital! 

We had a midday direct train to Berlin today, and it was back to work again for Alina (it being Monday and all), so we didn’t rush about too much today. We still got up before 9. We had some breakfast before finishing up reorganizing and repacking Brandon’s suitcase (I had gotten mine in order last night), and then we had lots of time to chill.

We left Alina and Peter’s around 11. We wished Alicia a fun time on her upcoming trip to Hastings, UK. She doesn’t leave until the end of the week, but she will still be away when we come back from this little tour….We took the Straßenbahn to Bochum Hauptbahnhof where we were to catch our ICE to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Since we were *intentionally* early, we grabbed some sandwiches to eat on the train, as well as a small snack. Then. We just had to wait for the train.

The train to Berlin was another one listed by Deutschebahn as “Exceptionally High Demand,” so Brandon reserved us seats. That ended up being good for us and unfortunate for some other people as there was a couple about our age in the seats we reserved when the train rolled in. Brandon showed them our reservation and they moved (I think they found unreserved seats not too far down from where they had been), but we felt bad. Anyhow, the ride itself was relatively uneventful. We did get delayed within the last two or three stops before Berlin, so we didn’t roll in until about 30 minutes after we were scheduled. There’s a particular reason we don’t tend to schedule anything specific on travel days….

From the station, we hopped on another regional train that took us towards the zoo, and from there we took a bus towards our hotel. We are at the Hotel Berlin, which is quite big! It’s very nice, and our room has some very cool vintage furniture pieces! Because it was close to dinner time, we basically dropped our things and hopped back on transit to go get food.

We headed to the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, which has a VERY BIG Sony store. It was closing within an hour of us getting there, so we didn’t look around too much today. Also, only the ground level floor was open; they had a rope across the stairs going to the other floors (not sure why *shrugs*). By this point, I was very hungry, so we walked across the plaza to a restaurant called Corroboree. It’s an Australian restaurant Brandon had been at in 2010, leading to his first encounter with kangaroo meat. He ordered the kangaroo steak and I had a burger that was a combination of kangaroo and beef. Both were EXQUISITE! I was so glad to be able to get there!

Once we finished dinner, we wandered around a shop next to the film museum, which we will be exploring another day. We found some cute souvenirs :) After that, we headed back to the hotel to chill.

Tomorrow, we’re going into the city to explore the major tourist spots, including some of the WWII spectacles. Thanks for continuing to follow along! Enjoy the photos!! 

We sort of had alarms set today so that we’d be prepared to both eat breakfast and get ready to be out the door on time to go to church today. I am happy to report we were successful :)

With the delicious spread of breakfast today, because it was Sunday, we also had some scrambled eggs mixed with veggies. There was also fresh squeezed juice! I don’t recall everything I saw put into it, but there was definitely apples, peaches, and kiwi. It was the perfect amount of sweet :) As I stated already, Brandon and I were planning to go to church for the first (and maybe not only…TBD) time since we got to Europe.

The church we were going to today was an English-speaking congregation that hosts its services in an evangelical church in Bochum. One of the pastors of the congregation is a former pastor from the Kutztown area that Brandon knows because she was part of the board for the ministry house he lived in during our college days. We weren’t sure if she was preaching today, but we figured it would be cool to check out the church nevertheless.

Unfortunately, the pastor Brandon knows was not preaching today, but we got to meet the president of the church council. His name is Sebastian, and he was very nice! We also enjoyed the sermon given by the pastor presiding today. He is from the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon. He gave the start of his sermon in German because a congregant had told him that they didn’t always understand his sermons when he only used English. It was unclear if it was because of the language barrier and that person’s English knowledge being in development or if it was due to the pastor’s accent in conjunction with speaking in English. Regardless, Brandon and I both did our best to follow the German portion before he continued in English. After the service, they had a coffee hour that we popped into. The cafe next to the church that is used for this fellowship time was lovely!

We left from the Kirchencafe to get some lunch. We found a little Brauhaus nearby and ate inside to try and avoid interactions with bees (I still had one try and fly into my mouth). We both had steak salads, which were very tasty :) We then putzed around Bochum a little bit before heading back to Hattingen.

While we had been gone, Alina, Peter, and Alicia had gone for a bike ride. By the time we got back, they had returned. Alina was at the house, but Peter and Alicia had gone out on the river to use the SUP. We chilled for a couple hours, playing cards and watching TV, before enjoying some dinner on the patio downstairs. We had some leftovers from the grill party along with some broccoli. For dessert, we had some yogurt with red currants! 

Tomorrow, we are on the road again for about a week. Stay tuned to find out where we end up!!

Today we went for a local adventure to check out something we’ve been spending lots of time on…

We got up and had a delicious breakfast with Peter, Alina, and Alicia. There was a new cheese amongst the usual spread; this one had some herbs in it…it was wonderful! On the agenda today was a train museum in Bochum that Brandon and I wanted to check out. Alicia debated coming with us but decided to ultimately make some plans with a friend. So, once breakfast ended, we set off for the museum.

Our journey began with the Straßenbahn. Unlike many of our treks, we only took it a handful of stops instead of the whole way to Bochum Hauptbahnhof. We got off at a stop called Südbad. From there, we got on a bus to the area of Bochum where the Eisenbahnmuseum is. Thankfully, the bus was running a little behind, so we got off the Straßennbahn and then the bus pulled up (we had the potential of just missing the bus and having to wait about half an hour for the next one). The bus ride was uneventful, and we found that the stop being named for the museum was mildly false advertising as we had to walk a few minutes to the actual location.

The museum entrance was confusing to find. Brandon and I came to the agreement that, for all the wonderful things about Germany, clear signage is not always a strong point. We did find the entrance and then had a nice time at the museum. It was a combination of outdoor and indoor attractions. The inside attractions, naturally, being trains on display. You could only go onto one engine they had displayed, but some of the other cars had steps up to the windows so you could look in. Outside, there was some old signage; we’re guessing it’s from when the museum area was a more active station. The S-Bahn did roll through nearby a couple times, so at least one of the tracks is active. The museum also hosts a three-hour ride with one of the old steam engines a few times a year. We may try to do the ride coming up in August…

When we finished with the museum, we were getting hungry for lunch. I argued that we shouldn’t eat too much as Peter was grilling for dinner. I was craving a burger, though, so we got on the S-Bahn and headed to Essen to get one. We putzed around Limbecker Platz for a little bit after eating, and then headed back to Hattingen.

Back in Hattingen, we played more rummy. I FINALLY BEAT BRANDON!! By the time the game ended, it was just about time to set up for grilling. Alicia and her friend Lisa Marie came back to the house around the time the first round of food was ready. We had another delightful spread of things, including salad, homemade pita, potatoes, vegetables, baked beans, steak, sausage, and chicken. We were very full by the end :)

The girls went upstairs after eating to do whatever 10-year old girls do lol. The rest of us remained outside chit-chatting for a while about life and the necessity of high-speed rail in the US (among other things). As I write this, we have settled in for the night, but we can hear some singing coming from next door. The daughter of the neighbors, Frank and Cathrin, has a birthday today and they are celebrating :) 

Tomorrow, for the first time since we got here, church is on the agenda…then we’ll see what the rest of the day brings! Enjoy the pictures!