Vattenfall Cyclassics

On Sunday I took part in my first cycling race – the 11^th annual Cyclassics, which is a huge event with the top level pro’s riding together with 20,000+ amateur riders. I had a great time and enjoyed the race immensely. I did the middle distance which was 100km and the course was mostly rolling and through some very nice country side. Few downhills in the pack were exhilarating and fortunately I had mo crashes or mishaps. Despite finishing right around my predicted time I think I ran a tactically horrible race and have much to improve for next year.

Germany and culture shock

Culture Shock! The things that we find interesting these days deal with culture adjustment or culture shock. An adjustment is dealing with kids not being welcomed in most dining establishments, unless they are quieter than the adults that is, which somehow many Hamburg children seem to be. Culture shock is dealing with park etiquette - kids hitting and spitting at Sasha and Jonas or splashing me to the point that my dress is soaked. The mothers in these situations tend to either say nothing or vehemently defend their children. Yup, crazy but true. I had hoped that this part of German culture was a myth that the few other foreigners we had met were making up, but a few months into our adventure we have experienced it for ourselves on several occasions.

Other things that make us smile, smirk or grimace...., the worlds worst ketchup and possibly the worlds best mustard, no ice cubes anywhere (except in a mojito:-), beautiful shoe repair, ice-cream for only 80 cents a scoop, beach clubs with no beach in site, never saying "don't worry about the penny" (17.01 better have that one cent), little samples being given as "gifts" from the store, price of entry into a toilet bares no correlation to its cleanliness, meeting really friendly, smiley peple at sports events when in the "outside world" people never smiling despite you greeting them with a beaming smile, people bumping into you without saying sorry, straight men proudly wearing pastels, pink Lacoste and La Martina shirts indicating your status in the Schickeria, the worst cappuccino foam ever, never breaking traffic rules or rules of any kind, Jakub running every red light on his bike just to make things interesting!

Our apartment is beautiful but it lacks a balcony, an essential feature in this heat. All of the older flats in this building have at least 3 balconies so I have been turning a little green. To counter this Jakub grabbed me and a bottle of wine and took me onto our roof. We hid out there one night, right above the sky light in the boys room.









The boys headed to the zoo today to give me a much needed break. I had a great run in the rain and lazed about reading a chic mag and drinking a latte!

Sweden

Few pictures from our trip to Sweden. More to come...

World Cup Recap

So the Czechs started off with a convincing win over the US and everyone saw them as the next champions. For the second game we got all dressed up in national colour and went to watch in the public viewing area - a big plaza with beer and sausages and a really big screen. Before we settled down the Czechs were loosing and never recovered. At least there was still some hope.

For the game against Italy I snagged a ticket on Ebay and witnessed the final defeat at the stadium. The atmosphere was great, fans were all very friendly and the game was entertaining. Great game, wrong result - Italy and Ghana are through, Czechs are going home.
After that we cheered for countries in this order Sweden, Australia, Ghana, Spain, Germany and France and one by one they too were eliminated. At the end only Italy prevailed again... I think they deserved the win but their play was far from stellar. But there celebration sure made up for it.
It was a fantastic month, full of emotion and national pride. Germans embraced their Nation and celebrated the success of their young team with flags everywhere and on everything. Feels like a much more positive expression than the repressed notion that any expression on patriotism equals extremism.

St.Peter- Ording

The mercury has been rising here right along-side World Cup fever. As a result Sasha, Jonas and I decided to escape to the sea, and have Jakub joing us come weekend. We drove north to Sankt Peter - Ording where we had found a small apartment to rent. My German is so fabulous now that I thought I was booking an classic reed roofed house, common in the area. Instead we had the attic of a four-plex that turned out to be hotter than our rooftop apartment in Hamburg! No worries. We spent most of the day on the beach, hidden for the hottest part of the day in our little beach shell and then we had Siesta back at the apartment. We all stayed up late to watch the last of the World Cup games and really relaxed. It was SOOOOO refreshing to let go of schedules! I think I might just become a little more Spanish/Italian in my parenting after all. Well maybe not, since the boys were so tired today they fell asleep at 6:30 pm.

We did have a little glitch in our plans though, my ATM card was demagnetized and I was therefore without and money. No one takes Visa in the small towns and that was my only back-up. I thought this would be so stressful, but in the end, we took what money we had, bought food and enjoyed life. It actually ended up enriching the trip, if you can believe it.

Jakub joined us on Friday, coming by train, and on Saturday he had convinced me, forced me? to do something I have been talking about doing since I was 13 - a triathlon. Yup, I finally did it Mom and Dad. I swam 500m in the sea, road 20km "Gegen den Wind" against the wind as the triathlon is called, and ran 5km. All in all, it was AMAZING! All I can say is, "Why the hec didn' t I do it sooner?".Nicole had a fantastic race, stayed relaxed and obviously had fun the whole way. Despite a thick, rented wetsuite she came in 24th overall and 6th in her age group. Not bad at all for first time.
Not to be outdone I ran a 1/2 marathon the next day. The race was much smaller which explains how I finished 18th overall and 8th in age group. The time was slow 1:50 but part of the race was through a deep sand and long stretches were into a brutal head wind.

As we were leaving a huge storm was brewing on the horizon. We got soaked on the way back to the house but the boys were safely tucked in a bike trailer. The last two pictures are by Jasmine who was also competing at the triathlon and offered to take Nicole on some training rides.

A long time coming....

It has been 2 weeks since our last blog entry(longer now), just goes to show that I am no better at writing a blog than an ordinary diary. It seems that though Germany is a super techy, and slick country, getting DSL and phone for that matter can take a while.

We are in our new apartment and it is beautiful! Our apartment is on the top floor and we have a glorious view of the city from our bedroom and even better from the rooftop. Sadly, we don't have a balcony, but I think this is better given Jonas is pretty daring these days. It does limit July 1st (4th of July) BBQ options though...

Our first weekend here we decided to give up on unpacking and head to the Matjes Festival in Glückstadt (Glückstädter Matjeswochen). This festival is all about celebrating one of Jakub's and my favourite foods, matjes. I had hoped for matjes prepared in all forms, but it mainly seemed to be matjes brotchen (matjes on bread) and matjes plates (served with a mayo, apple, onion sauce and dark bread). I am not complaining, I love matjes in all forms so I happily ate...and ate.....
We walked off the matjes on a beautiful bike path with sheep all around and then headed for the mandatory kaffee and kuchen (coffee and cake) - this will explain much when you see the pictures of our waistlines;-). It was here in the restaurant that we found the diverse matjes dishes we had hoped for. The food looked incredible and there seemed to be no end to the fishy options. Sadly, we had to settle for a cappuccino and a small apple cake as our bellies were stuffed.

It has begun

The World Cup has started and the atmosphere is fantastic. It is truly a global holiday – fans from all nations are celebrating together, the games are shown in all cafes, restaurants and public places and the fan attractions around the city are very civilized. To be honest I expected rowdy fans, animosity and a lot of drunks urinating in public, but it seems like FIFA screened all the undesirables and only the well behaved fans were allowed to travel to Germany.

So far the games are mostly pretty exciting. Nicole had the good fortune to go to the perhaps most exciting game so far, which was Argentina –Ivory Coast here in Hamburg. I am sure Nicole will add her own impressions but I must report that she came home around midnight, very energized and exuberant about the game. I think watching 22 men in shorts running around has something to do with it.

A day before the start of the tournament the weather shifted from bitterly cold to a heat wave and we are spending most of our time outside. We are much more north compared to San Francisco and the days are long with the sun finally setting down around 10:30. Last night we were enjoying the World Cup festivities at 9 o’clock still thinking it was a late afternoon. So as a result the boys are going to bed very late and take long siesta naps. Oh, the Mediterranean lifestyle.

Last but not least the Czechs won their first game last night over the US 3:0. We were cheering them wrapped in Czech flags at the old Fish Market. The joy of victory was overshadowed by an apparently serious injury to Jan Koller, the giant offensive player on the team, but fortunately the latest news is that he will be able to play again. I think we might be OK without him for the rest of the group games but he will be needed in the round of 16. The final group game is against Italy here in Hamburg and I will be there! It’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and the anticipation is overwhelming. Look for a first hand report after the June 22^nd game.

Of Mice and Men

So on Saturday we finally made it to Berlin to visit the Biennale before it shut down as well as check out the city. The art show was very interesting, although the exploration of anxieties and universal fears might not be the best suited for four and two year old children.


The exhibit consisted of 12 venues all along Auguststrasse in central Berlin. We only managed to visit the two biggest: an art exhibit space and an old derelict school. The school setting was very powerful: formerly the School for Jewish Girls it was used as a DDR elementary school and appeared to have stood vacant since the fall of the Wall. It felt like a time capsule from a dark past filled with disturbing imagery. The art was as I remember the art scene in the old West Berlin quarter Kreuzberg - dark, gritty, intelectual, but also heavy and not necessarily beautiful.

After the exhibit we wandered into the pouring rain and found a shelter in a small cookie bakery/job counceling agency/cafe on Oranienburgstrasse. While Jonas slept in the stroller, Nicole and Sasha played dominos and I checked out the demonstration going on outside. The participants were from a wide gamut of leftist organizations ranging from the unions to the anarchists and they were all very pissed off about the eroding welfare, low minimal wage, health reform and pretty much anything else associated with the current right-of-center government. But despite the anger in the air and a light police presents they were all very well behaved with children in strollers sleeping through the slogans and shouting.



After the intermezzo we walked by the Neue Wache memorial along Unter den Linden to Brandenburg Tor. The memorial was very moving with light rain falling on the statue of a mother holding in her arms her dead son.



At the Brandenburg Tor Nicole got reaquainted with the long lost relative King Friedrich. She and Sasha previously saw him on travel TV but a live encounter was trully grand.

Finally we fullfilled Sasha's dream and took a velo taxi back to the train station. The train station opened just a week ago and it is more a shopping center and a glass palace of light with trains leaving into the four corners of the World.

It was a short trip and if it wasn't for the rain, we would have covered much more. Berlin gives out much more interesting first impression than Hamburg - it seems much edgier, more grungy and cosmopolitan, where as Hamburg at first sight recalls a Ralph Lauren commercial with beautiful people sailing in front of perfectly maintained homes. But that has a lot to do with the part of town we are staying.

Our things arrived....

Our much anticipated early drop-off shipment finally arrived today and we were all over-joyed! Is that even a word???hhhmmmm Anyway, we managed to unpack everything with my new bike being the very last item. Everything was in great shape, except of course my new bike:-( The movers forced the drop bars under the frame and there is some damage to the bike...I need to have a bike shop take a look at it so we can determine if it is just superficial damage or something more serious. I am so bummed...and think it is so classic, so me. Oh well....other than that, we are having a nice day. We took a super long nap today so the boys can still be up when Jakub gets home. Really, the rain kept us indoors for most of the day anyway. I did manage to get us all out this morning at 7:00 for a trip to the bakery before I headed for my first German lesson at Goethe-Hamburg. All in all, a great day.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I met a woman from New York in the park yesterday. She lives just down the street from our temp housing, has a daughter just over 1yr old and she seemed really great. She actually reminded me a lot of my friend Lori in Mill Valley. Same great long curly hair and warm smile, smart as a whip too....made me a little sad to be so far from our friends. We went to our "new pizza" spot for dinner tonight and that made me think even more of Lori, Greg and Bella.....till Paris.

It rained and rained and then it rained some more....

The weather here in Hamburg has been atypical for this time of year: cold, rainy and dark. Once in a while the sun peeks out but when and where one can never know. The boys and I have decided that we can't let the rain stop us, otherwise we will be stuck inside all the time, so instead, we make our way out with rain boots, pants and jackets and umbrellas. Some days, like today we get lucky and the showers come just as we are nearing our doorsteps, others, like yesterday, find us caught at least 20 minutes from home in a torrential downpour. Either way, it is somehow really invigorating and, dare I say, romantic?

Our big adventure yesterday was taking the U-Bahn to Jungferstieg, to do errands and then making our way home on the ferry. Though a pretty simple trip, it was bursting with adventure…you know the kind where you break a cup and ash-tray within 5 minutes of being in the coffee shop, step in dog poop, have your youngest climb all over the table on the ship in an effort to really take in the view. Yup, life is interesting here, and very busy.

The ferry trip on the Alster is amazing! For a mere 6€, we cruised over almost all the lake and were dropped just 5 minutes from our door. If you are ever in Hamburg, I would put it on your list of “must-dos”. Given the boat was full of people from Oklahoma, I am guessing I am not the only one that feels that way.

We are hoping to finally make it to Berlin to see the Bienniale this weekend. We had planned to make it last weekend already, but we learned the hard way that buying same day tickets is 2X the price. Our plan of getting tickets for 80€left us looking at paying 200€! So, this weekend it is. The Berlin Biennial is supposed to be amazing this year.

“The 4th berlin biennial for contemporary art, "Of Mice and Men," curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick, opened on March 25, 2006. The show includes works by more than 70 artists in twelve venues that dot the entire span along Auguststraße in Berlin-Mitte.

The exhibition Of Mice and Men unravels as a novel, a story involving different characters and individualities, dissecting their private destinies and universal fears.

In order to capture and amplify these tensions, the curators of the 4th berlin biennial have selected an array of unusual venues and exhibition sites, all concentrated along one street, Auguststrasse in the Mitte district, in the heart of Berlin.

Choosing one street as both an example and an archetype, Of Mice and Men leads its viewers across a variety of environments and experiences, opening doors onto forgotten buildings and hidden sites, dispersing art in the spaces where we usually work, eat, pray and play. The artists in “Of Mice and Men” were asked to intervene or present their works in places that represent the every day that is our common ground: private apartments, offices, schools, galleries, trailers, and former factories.”

I am so looking forward to this trip...we will try to take lots of pictures!

World Cup fever

The whole of Germany has succumbed to the World Cup fever. Soccer balls are on every product, Hamburg skyline is alight with blue neon goals and the TV primetime is all about Fussbal. And this being Germany it is all about rankings and countdowns: Germany’s 50 best players ever, the 25 best World Cup moments, 15 funniest soccer videos (and a whole segment on penises falling out of shorts) and yesterday a 2 hour show dedicated to 25 best soccer songs. In addition there are live broadcasts of all tune up games, replays of vintage games and daily summaries. Once the tournament starts for real the whole country will be paralyzed. Our train discount card gets extended by a months for every game German team wins so I guess we will cheer for them a little as well. At least until they meet the Czechs…

Small picture from my phone: yesterday we came across the start of an oldtimer ralley from Hamburg to Shangai. This Jag was particularly nice so I hope it makes it all the way. Other entrants included some vintage Porsche, Mercedez and Citroen cars, Land Rover truck and even one motor bike (a BMW airhead of course).

Just a little note to add to Jakub's....the boys are fully into the fever as well. We hit the Völkerkundemuseum to see Faszination Fussbal (http://www.faszination-fussball.de/)

I miss....

I was skyping with my mom last night and she asked, "Do you miss San Francisco?". I quickly replied, "No." with confidence. This morning I wondered just how true it was, there certainly are things I miss. This thought prompted me to ask my family, "Do you miss San Francisco?"

The things we miss....I miss Mt. Tam, I miss the Square, I miss my school, I miss Sasha's school too, I miss sunset walks from our little house, I miss my commute, I miss my friends at school, I miss my friends on our street (Bella, Ronan, Maeve, Will, Finn), I miss the quiet, slow pace, I miss the trails, You know what else I miss, I miss the garage:-)

I know even in listening to them that I miss Mill Valley too. For right now though, I still need to focus on figuring out where to buy diapers, wipes, plastic toys for the park.....I need to keep trying to settle into our life here and to try to get use to speaking German on a regular basis. I guess I am still in survival mode/vacation mode a little. I imagine when the school year starts in August and we really fall back into a schedule, then I will really miss our little town. For now, I miss the trails, oh how I miss them....and good grapefruit!

Vatertag in Germay

Today is Fathers Day in Germany and so it is appropriate that I write today’s entry. Typical German father receives gifts from his children after which he gets together with his buddies and goes on a hiking trip. They pull behind them a small wagon with a keg and make sure the keg is empty by the end of the day. How they get home was not explained to me.

Unfortunately the weather is still cold and stormy so instead of hiking with a keg we met Albert, Christiane and their son Bernard for a nice brunch at the Stern Chance Café. Sasha and Jonas were exhilarated to be in company of another child and played with Bernard for most of the day. So we actually got a break and were able to have a conversation and two. After the brunch we walked through Planten & Blohmen botanical gardens and let the kids play at a fantastic playground. Should anyone wonder: rubber raingear and wet slides make for fast rides. The boys also managed to ride some ponies and we found a shelter from the rain in yet another café where we enjoyed yet another coffee and Kuchen. Which is pretty much what happens any time you go out with the friends.

For the weekend we are planning to take the train to Berlin and check out the art Biennale as well as take a look at all the new modern architecture. Berlin is the biggest construction site in the world and the many new public buildings and monuments are fascinating. Hopefully the rain will stop and we’ll be able to take some interesting pictures.

And Finally Father Sun Came Out....

The sun finally came out today and stayed long enough to keep the rain away. We celebrated by putting the kids in the stroller, croissants in hand and heading out to run around the Alster (which is only about 200m from our apartment).

After a nice hot shower, it was sunny but boy was it windy and chilly, we headed out for some "kid-friendly" coffee. I was warned before moving here that restaurants and cafes are not keen on having kids about, so far we have not had any problem, still I thought I would check-out what Hamburgers consider kid friendly.

We took a nice 30 minute walk from our place to De Nino Kids and Coffee (www.kidsandcoffee.de) where we were greeted by a parking lot of strollers. Inside, the space was small but cozy. The owner was very friendly and food definetely kid friendly. A major perk was all the moms seemed to be relaxing and having their coffee while the kids played. Unfortunately for me, most of the kids were under 1yr so prime targets for Jonas to pick on, I call it younger brother syndrome. I needn't have worried, Jonas was a little aggressive when we first arrived but within 2 minutes he was so excited to see other kids, he forgot his turf war and played nicely with Sasha and the one other older boy, the owner's son. An hour flew by, we walked back along the canal to a bus stop, and made our way home. The great thing about the public transport is, the kids are so excited to ride the bus or U-Bahn, there is no whining!!!! Hurray!!!!

Fischmarkt and a Lazy Sunday

Our day began with a bright-eyed Sasha telling us all to get up as the Fishmarkt had already started. As much as I did not want this to be the case - the red wine headache and lack of sleep calling me back to bed - Jakub confirmed it was already past 7:00 am. We all jumped out of bed and got ready to catch the U-Bahn. A train switch, and a short ferry ride later we arrived at the splendid chaos of the market. Now this was a real market, not like the proper Isemarkt by our house. Here the vendors were yelling, holding up HUGE amounts of fish and veggies that they offered to sell for a mere 10 Euro...people scrambling to buy just the right fish and ending up with a big bag of something else. We luckily made it out of the market with just two Dorado, a big bag of potatoes and 3 papaya; not to mention a great breakfast in our bellies of pain au chocolat, mohn schnecke (poppy seed snails - the pastry not the invertebrate) and a nice strong fishermans coffee plus a very creamy cappuccino. Yup, all this before 10am on a Sunday, not bad. When the rain and winds picked up we made our way for the U-Bahn again, all the while Jakub telling us how soft California had made the boys and me....we were freezing in our summer wear, despite having 3 layers of it piled on. Seeing our apartment when we stepped out of the U-Bahn made the boys shreik with joy...we made a run for the door and headed inside for a nice warm lunch. After that the boys and I settled in for a nap while Jakub braved the elements again for his first run since our arrival.

AP Masters Am Rothenbaum

Our temporary apartment is directly adjacent to the Hamburg tennis center. The annual Masters tournament has been going on since we arrived and Nicole and the boys have enjoyed a couple of afternoons watching the matches. I (Jakub) finally managed to join them for quarterfinal games on Friday evening. Despite the absence of Federer and Nadal, the action was great and some of the games were a real nail biter. Tommy Robredo is my pick for the winner despite him playing a Czech in the final.

Trendsetting in Hamburg

Okay, we have decided to be way too trendy and do a blog for the year that we are in Hamburg.It just seems easier really. So here you have it......This was our first Saturday here, and with Jakub working really late nights, we desperately needed a "family day". We headed out for a quick breakfast in the Portuguese Quarter, with Jakub promising great baked goods. It was so great, we had to fight over who ate what, ie. "...you have to eat it, I already ate the Berliner and can't take another bite." The pastries were artificial tasting, covered in way too much sugar and just plain bad. The coffee however, was great! Thank god there is coffee everywhere here....we are drinking about 5 a day right now just to stay upright. I guess the fatigue is a combo of the jet-lag and all the lost sleep from the month of packing that predated the move. Either way, we are bone tired.

From the bakery we took U-Bahn - Germany's amazing underground (subway) that like most things German, is clean, relatively inexpensive and always on time - to the Hagenbecks Tierpark. This is the Hamburg Zoo that everyone raves about. Frankly, Jakub and I think it is much ado about nothing. To start the entrance fee was 37Euro for our family (Jonas does not yet pay). This fee does not include the price of a map, which will cost you an extra 3 Euro. I have been to a lot of zoos in the last few years and at none did you have to pay for a map. At first I thought maps would be posted so no big deal, well I was wrong. After I looked for a WC for 30 minutes and almost peed my pants, I broke down and bought a map at one of the many souvenir shops. Shops and restaurants everywhere......just no toilets or for that matter animals. Though there were few animals, one of the major perks is, that for a small donation you can buy 2 big bags of fruits and vegetables that you can then feed to select animals. Elephants were one of these groups and they were a HUGE hit with Sasha. He quickly and gleefully fed the elephants. Even cooler yet, if you give the elephant some change, he will take it and pass it along to his trainer. Though it seems somehow wrong to be allowed to feed the animals, this made the zoo for us. We liked it so much after this that we decided we would head home for the kids naps and then come back in the afternoon, may as well since it was $50 to get in. Well, no such luck, they do not allow in-and-out privaledges:-( Hhhhmmmmm......back to that original comment I guess.