Hamburg with 4 kids in 4 hours

Time to catch up on our weekend activities. Saturday was lowkey - we played in the garden with the neighbors and went for our usual stroll to the market.The roses along the walk in front of the IBZ. Sam climbing at the playground on the way to the market. We ran into a family in the market square who we met in the first week or so of our stay here in Bielefeld. They are from Kansas City, and moved to Bielefeld last year. They sold their minivan, house, motorcyle, and now they have bikes (no car) and live in an apartment with their three kids. The wife is originally from Germany (but accidentally gave up her German citizenship when she forgot to file a particular paper.) They said the only thing they really miss about America is their church - it's hard to find a church in Bielefeld that isn't super liberal (according to them.)Sunday we traveled to Hamburg - it takes about 3 hours of train riding each way from Bielefeld. On our second train (from Hannover to Hamburg), Sam and Katie had great fun playing hide-and-seek with a six-year-old German girl named Milana. Look closely for Isaac in this photo, as it's the only picture of him you'll see today. We didn't give him much face time in this set of pictures.

Grace (who you can see on the right, playing under her table) entertained her seatmates by putting Isaac's hat repeatedly on her head and chuckling. (Another object she knows how to use!)
The view as we hit the ground in Hamburg, outside the train station.This vehicle made us chuckle. It's called a bierbike - it's a bike that's outfitted with a bar and stools for beer drinkers to ride along on. They traveled through town singing some rousing songs. Were it not for the kids, I think Dave would have hopped on.The Altersee in Hamburg. Cranes are all around the city - lots of new development. It's the second biggest city in Germany.The side of the Rathaus. More of that magnificent building to come.Hamburg is crisscrossed by oodles of canals and three large rivers. It has more water and canals than Venice. The front of the Rathaus. We couldn't get over how ornate it was. So much to look at. There was fine netting covering every possible place a bird could nest. It was so unobtrusive that I didn't notice it - Dave pointed it out to me.We paused to see this lock in action. These rowers (who looked to be in their 60s) were traveling with packs and sleeping bags - what a neat way to take a trip.On our way to our real destination - a playground. Dave found one within walking distance of the train station by looking at a Google Earth satellite map of Hamburg. If I didn't already have two full-time jobs, I would write a travel book focusing on the best playgrounds to visit in Europe. Doing the research would be a blast.The playground (spielplatz) was located in a huge green park, filled with fountains, botanical gardens, and walking paths.We got there with time to play for an hour.Katie can officially claim that she is an expert swing pumper now. She put the finishing touches on her technique in Hamburg.This boat was so cool - the kids could get it rocking back and forth so that it was almost sideways vertical (it's suspended by chains from the posts). It even creaked like a real boat. Once one kid would jump off, the rest would get catapulted off the other side.This area of the playground was a kid's dream - a little creek of water flowed through mounds of sand. There were wooden dams kids could use to build mini lakes, and then cause great floods by releasing the waters. A kid could truly be a kid at this playground - lots of opportunities to get dirty, wet, and happy.Grace spent some time in the swings (but had to give up her spot because the swings were highly sought after.) Mostly she did some serious digging in the pebbles.You can see Sam in the red shirt, wading in the water. The water from the play creek all ended up in this pond, which was only a foot deep.Here he and some other kids are following a remote control ship.Katie tries her hand at the boat.It's all mine!Our time at the playground and Hamburg was too short, but it certainly whet our whistle for more. Someday we'd like to come back when we have more time to dally and enjoy.Isn't this park beautiful?We walked by the Rathaus again on our way back to the train station. This is the side of the building. The gates at the front of the Rathaus.Back home again.Thanks to Dave's encouragement, I'm letting Grace have a go at using a spoon. I think I probably coddle her too much. Sure enough when I gave her some yogurt and a spoon, she knew exactly what to do. Some of it even ended up where it was supposed to.

Here you can see her focused on her task this morning. Shortly after this picture was taken, I left the room and returned to find the yogurt dumped on the floor. I guess I gave her a bit too much leeway.

At lunch today, Dave's colleagues asked what we did this weekend. He reported that we traveled to Hamburg. When asked what we saw, he got quite a few laughs when they found out our trip revolved around finding a good playground for the kids. To each his own - it's actually a pretty nice way to get a feel for a city. Based on our playground experience this weekend, Hamburg gets six thumbs up.