Gretel visit

Gretel visited last week during one of the coldest weeks we have had in Germany. She was a trooper, however, and brought her upbeat spirit to sightseeing all over the region.
Daph and Gretel managed to see quite a bit of Germany while maintaining the regular household activities including getting the kids off to school and feeding our young men. They went to Crazy Ludwig's castle, visited the downtown sights of Munich and even spent a long day in Salzburg, Austria. While they didn't go on the "sound of music tour" they did see this great old town.



Here are some of their pictures.
They spent long days walking on their tour (as they appeared pretty tired each evening) but the visit was a great chance for them to reconnect.

They also re-kindled old memories of watching the Oscars together. Daph hosted a party for some of her girl friends to come over an watch the tape of the event. They talked about celebrities and fashion.
The visit was really a treat for Daph.

St. Patrick's Day

Today was an unusual day - even by our standards. We woke, called Hong Kong to wish a brother Happy Birthday, went to a St. Patrick's Day parade in Germany, then had Indian food for dinner.

It was cold and crisp like our memories of a Chicago Parade but they don't dye the river green.

You can see from the pictures that there was plenty of room along the route but the organizers claim that this is the biggest St. Pat's parade in Europe outside of Dublin. 15,000 to 20,000 people come out.

It was not a huge parade. One Irish sheep hound.

A couple of walking pints of Guinness (the sponsor).

Two bagpipe groups. Don't get me wrong - it was nice - just not huge. I think the parade took about 45 minutes to go by us.

It also had some marchers that seemed to be looking for any occasion to march. There was a traditional Bolivian dance troupe and several sports clubs that were marching in the hopes of gathering new members.

The final picture is Odeonplatz were the parade ended and they have a concert. Nice.

New visitor / Becoming European

Gretel came to visit today. It's impressive how many of Daphne's friends have been able to visit. Julia also loves to have a female visitor - she grows tired of her younger brothers.

I was asked to take the boys out to buy jeans and shoes this weekend. Daph thinks I have lost touch with our American sensibilities. Dave got these faded European styles jeans. Brian wanted the black Pumas and Dave got the classic Converse All-stars.

They wanted their uncles to see their new style - especially the fashion uncle - Uncle Dave in Chicago.

On a totally different note - George is onto his third doctor. George had three days of problems and had to get more help for a problem stomach. If he continues to have problems, the doctor thinks something is stuck and he will need x-rays and maybe surgery. George doesn't like Germany.