Sunday

5:30am it was this morning when Tessa and I woke up, Nick had just woken up a little before us and Ben seems unaffected by the whole time change and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00am.  All good, still heading in the right direction and tomorrow we will need to be up early anyway as I am meeting Birgit at 7:25am on the corner to walk to school with the boys and Tessa will meet with Jana and another friend to bike to school.

The children and I walked the route to the boys’ school this morning, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes and took us through a very pretty and leafy suburb.

A typical north German street.

The school itself is situated in really pretty grounds with lots of trees and wonderful wooden play equipment for them to use in the breaks.  We stayed for a bit today and had a play and then we walked back home.

The boys’ school playground

On our way the church bells started ringing like crazy, it was 9:30am and I am guessing this happened to remind people that church service will start in half an hour.  Do you know what I did when I heard the bells?  I started crying.  Just a little bit, but I suddenly realised that you don’t ever hear church bells in NZ, and for me this is a very familiar sound as I grew up very close to a church that rang the time every 15 minutes as well as going crazy on Sunday mornings, like the one we head today.

After this Birgit, Jana and Tessa cycled the way to the school that Tessa will be more familiar with it tomorrow morning.  Marek took the boys and me there but unfortunately we couldn’t really see much as this school in contrast to the primary school was all under lock.  There was a playground just outside the girls’ school as well however and everyone enjoyed the flying fox in particular.

Marek really liked the flying fox!

In front of the girls’ school.

While the other girls cycled back, Marek took us to the ‘flea market’.  Marek visits flea markets a lot as he buys and sells himself and so he knew just were to take us once the boys told him that would like to look for some Playmobile toys.  Both spent some of their birthday Euro and I must say, they did so wisely and successfully with Marek’s negotiation help.  Ben bought an enormous (but we can take it apart to fit into the suitcase) air plane and control tower and Nick invested in yet more Lego.  Both buys were at a very good price and they still have plenty left!

Then we had Italian for lunch as promised but unfortunately they didn’t have the typical dishes that I remember loving in Italian restaurants as a child, like Cannelloni or Lasagne al forno.  You know, the cheesy gooyey over baked in a stone oven sort of dish.  The pizza was great though and young Ben, bless him, said that my Spaghetti Carbonara was much better than the one he had there.

Thank you to Tante Ingrid who took us all out for lunch.

After that Birgit and Jana came back to our apartement and the children played with all the games in the lounge while Birgit and I had a long chat in the kitchen.  A lovely and relaxed Sunday afternoon.

I must say, I am really looking forward to having a break from my lovely children tomorrow morning and I think they are looking forward to a break from me, too, so thank you to the local schools who are taking them in.  They are all really excited, let’s hope that lasts!!

Good night

Tanja