BBQ's and Nurburg!

Hello again!

One thing that we really like in Germany, that we have to share with everyone is how cheap their BBQ's are.  We bought our first BBQ for 3.99 Euro ... a bargain!  We took it to the park across the road and had ourselves a great BBQ.  The weather was just lovely!

 Amelie enjoying the sunshine, and the BBQ smells ..... don't worry, she didn't drink the beer and pass out, even though thats what it looks like in this photo!

 Amelie, still enjoying the sunshine, while Peter, Ollie and myself play a bit of soccer!  Ollie is using his usual defence tactics here.

Peter, tending to our BBQ.

For sale, one BBQ, slightly used, does not come with fork or leftover meat!

On Friday 13th May we picked up the kids from school and travelled about 5.5hrs to Nurburg.  We stayed at a really nice little hotel / pub called the motorsport hotel, just up the road from the BMW test centre.  On Saturday we went to watch an endurance race at the track (even though we could hear it from our hotel).  The country side in this area is just beautiful, but you would need to like motorsport to live there!

Brendan, a friend of ours from Australia and avid motorsport fan, was in Cologne for work and came over to join us in Nurberg for the day (or part thereof).  Here is a photo of us at the race!

Those who know me will realise that the beer in my hand is Chris' not mine.  We saw some really fast cars, and two crashes from our vantage point, and the kids had fun making cubby houses out of the picnic rug and umbrella.  Ollie did not like getting too close to the track because it was very loud, but we all had lots of fun regardless.  We had a BBQ lunch on a disposable BBQ.  We don't really know who was winning the race, but it doesn't matter, because Ollie and I were going for the one that won anyway (whoever that was).

Here is a photo of the kids at the track.  Amelie was being very helpful and proving what a big girl she is getting, by carring the picnic rug and chair all the way back to the car without complaining, Ollie carried the ball.

The highlight of the weekend was definately our trips on the Nurburgring.  Chris and I had a ride in the BMW ring taxi, then the whole family went for a drive in our very own high tech, finely tuned BMW!

Amelie and Oliver were very good and waited with the nice lady at the ring taxi office while mum and dad went in the ring taxi.  Ollie was very proud when mum arrived back safe and sound without wetting her pants :)  The track was a bit wet, so there wasn't much grip and the driver was battling with understeer a lot of the way (or so Chris says), but the ride itself was awesome.  I closed my eyes sometimes and held on with a vice like grip to the door handle.  We saw a Subaru which had clearly been driven past the limit and had crashed quite badly, we don't think anyone was hurt, but the owner will definately be finding another mode of transport home.  Chris kept talking with the driver, who was happy to have casual conversation, I was wishing Chris would just be quiet and let the driver concentrate!

 Prior to the ride in the ring taxi, I was keen to have a drive, then I realised that I would probably cause an accident by obstructing other fast cars, so decided against it.  I really didn't want to be responsible for my whole family and others in that situation.

Chris, of course, was happy to take us around in our car.  We told the kids it was illegal to play DS in the car on the Nurburgring because they had to help Daddy watch out for other cars etc.  Ollie was very excited to see lots of things he recognised from his Gran Turismo playstation game, like the carousel.  Amelie wanted Chris to go faster.  But don't worry, we only got to a top speed of 210km/hr in our car with the kids along the straight.

Here is a photo of us with our own race car at Nurburg ....

Thankfully, we all got around safely, and our little race car got us home to Magdeburg no problems.

Till next time ... Megan.

Berlin! We are not jelly donuts JFK!

On Saturday 30th April, we went to Berlin with our friend Peter (who is a postgrad student that Chris is supervising).

We got up early and took the train to Berlin.  First, the wall!

Although the Berlin Wall was dismantled in 1989, parts of the wall are still standing so that people can see where it was and what it looks like.  There is also special paving in the streets so that people can see where it used to be.  There was lots of information at this park which told about what the wall was like, and the people that died trying to cross it.  Here are some pictures Amelie and Oliver at the wall....

And another picture of the wall:

After we saw the wall, we took the train and walked for a bit to the Museum Island.  We had some yummy lunch, and then went on a boat tour, there were so many beautiful buildings ... we saw lots of things.

We saw a man with a strap on BBQ ...

And we went to a museum called the GDR (or DDR) museum.  In this museum we saw all sorts of East German things, like a Trabi (which is a little car) and East German soldiers .... oops, thats just Ollie!

After that, we went for a walk to the Brandenburg Gate .... this is an old city gate for Berlin, it is near their parliament building.

Ollie did not want to be in this picture.  At the gate, there were people giving out free hugs!  Amelie loved the hugs, and had about 5, all from different people....

We went and saw the German parliament building, called the Reichstag.  You can see Peter in this picture with us.  The words on the building mean "to the German People".

From here we took a 7 seater bike (perfect for the Collis family) on a little tour ... we saw the holocaust memorial, the place where the bunker was where Hitler comitted suicide, Checkpoint Charlie and a memorial to the books that were burned by the Nazi's outside the Humbolt University Library.  Here is a picture of us on the bike at Checkpoint Charlie - McDonalds is very well placed here don't you think?

After we finished the bike tour, we thought we would get dinner and then catch the train back to Magdeburg.  We went to a nice beer garden where after about 1/2 hour, I got a really bad migraine, I couldn't move and was really sick ... I was taken to hospital, given some medicine and then felt much better ... I had never experienced anything like it!  While the others were waiting for me in the hospital, Oliver rested his head on a chair that was steel with little holes in it .... he got spots on his head, that stayed on his head for days and days!  He looks very tired here, and has a VERY messy face!

It was such a big day, the kids slept all the way home on the train, which was probably a good thing, as there were many people partying (and feeling sick) as the next day was a public holiday for "May Day".  The next day, we all slept in until 11am.

On the Sunday, "May Day", we went to the park with Andre and his two girls (Charlotte and Hendrika) and Peter.  We had a lovely afternoon, we all rode our bikes. We had pony / horse rides, and went on the toboggan ride, it was so much fun!

Here is a photo of Peter and Charlotte on the toboggan ....

and Andre and Hendrika ... this is Andre's speedy face!

it is very funny!

As I said, before, Amelie and Oliver have started school in Germany, they had their first day on the 2nd May.  They are both in the same class for now, so they can help each other.  It is a trilingual private school, speaking french, german and english.  They have learnt a few german words now, and are having a great time at the school!  Only one girl in their class speaks fluent english, all the others are learning.  The school is very happy to have our "native" english speakers to help the other kids.

Cheers for now,
Megan.

OH NO..... NOT ANOTHER TOOTH LOST!

The tooth fairy is losing lots of money on this holiday!!! Ollie lost this tooth when dad brushed his teeth ... apparently a little harsh ... he lost it on the 26th of April.

zum Autorennen mit Papa (To the car races with Dad!)

The day after we went to Autostadt, Chris and Oliver decided to go to some local car races .... Amelie and I stayed home, and I got sick ... Amelie was a very good nurse for me, I love her soooo much!

Ollie came home with a big smile and 2 german flags.  He said that he was "going for" Emeil sp? who was a brittish driver and he won!  Chris took the following photo's ... maybe Chris can add some more comments later.

These were some very fast cars ..... but here is a very ugly one!

Autostadt - Wolfsburg

OK ... so Amelie and Oliver are at school and Chris is at work.  The kids start school at 7.30am and don't get home until after 5pm, so they don't have much time to update the blog ... so it has become Mum's job for now.

On the 23rd of April, we all went to Autostadt in Wolfsburg.  Wolfsburg is not very far from Magdeburg.  Autostadt is where they make VW's (or volkswagens).  Because it was Easter Sunday, we didn't get to have a tour of the factory where they make the cars, but we did get to do heaps of other very cool things!

First of all, Amelie and Oliver had to do a course so that they could get their drivers licences.  They went into class for about 20 minutes and then ....

they had their licences .... arghhhh!!
They went out to the driving track and had heaps of fun!  Amelie concentrated very hard, stayed on the right side of the road, and had no crashes.  Ollie wanted the car to go faster, crashed into the curb when he tried to do a U turn at an intersection, and was disapointed to find the car did not have reverse!  Here are some photo's:

You can see that Amelie was concentrating very hard, Ollie was almost on the right side, but not very focussed ... surprise surprise!

Autostadt also had a very cool kids area with lots of different sorts of pedal cars .....

The kids spent a lot of time on these, going round and round and round ... changing cars each time!

At Autostadt, they have 2 big car towers, where they keep the cars they make before they are delivered to the customer .... it was very cool.  One tower can hold hundreds of cars, and a robot puts them in and takes them out ....

After we saw the car tower, the kids wanted ice cream ... they also got gummi bears!

All up ... we had a very fun day there ... it's worth a visit for anyone in the area, we think we might even go back again!

A long overdue update...

It’s been a long time since the last update and we have lots of catching up to do!

After we left London, we had a huge week at Disneyland Paris.  We got there by car; driving all the way there from Steve and Pat’s place in London.  To get across the Channel, we drove our car onto a train and went across in the tunnel.  It was a bit strange being inside our car inside a train for the trip across, and as soon as we got across everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road!  Luckily, with a lot of concentration from Dad, we finally made it to Disneyland.

Disneyland and Paris was a lot of fun, but we all left totally exhausted and in need of some rest and relaxation.  A couple of weeks ago we made it to Magdeburg (Germany) which is a nice quite city – the perfect place to recover from all the travelling.

Now that we are rested, we need to get up-to-date with the blog.  So let’s start with Disneyland;

Disneyland was great and there was so much to do.   We stayed in a really nice hotel that was a short walk to the Disney Village and the two Disney parks.

Everywhere we went we kept bumping into Disney characters.  Sometimes they were just statues, like Wall-e and Eva, and Mike from Monsters Inc.;

But most of the time they were live characters that we could talk to and cuddle (they didn’t talk back).  We say Mickey, Miney, Goofey, Pluto, Stitch, and lots more…

The cheekiest characters were the chipmunks.  We saw them twice; the first time one of them stole Olivers hat and the second time one of them stole Dad’s hat and sat down to steal Dad’s dinner.

We saw lots of characters at a restaurant called the Mickey Café.  We ate dinner there on the second night and Oliver liked it so much that he wanted to go back there for dinner on his birthday.  We even got a cake!

Stitch and Pluto came out to our table when the cake came out and danced like crazy while they played Oliver a birthday song.

There are lots to see and do in Disneyland.  On the first day we watched a big stunt show with cars going over big jumps and lots of explosions.  We even saw lightning McQueen.

Other than meeting characters and watching shows, the other exciting thing about Disneyland was the rides.  Some of these were heaps of fun, like the Buzz Lightyear ride and the spinning car ride, and some were really scary.

The scariest ride was “Crush’s Coaster”.  It was a really fast roller coaster that was all inside a dark building.  Oliver and I never want to go on it again!

One of Oliver’s favourite rides was “Autotopia”.  In this ride you get to drive your own car around a track.  You have to control the brakes and accelerator and steer the car so that it doesn’t crash into the sides.  It was pretty cool.

One of my favourite things was the exhibition about Disney animation.  There were lots of things to explain how animation works and how to draw Disney characters.  Dad and I learnt how to draw Mickey Mouse.  I also traced some pictures of a worm crawling along and watched it as an animation.  When we got back to the hotel, dad took photos with the camera and made my pictures into a movie;

I was very proud of myself!

On the third day we went in on the train to have a look at Paris.  We walked along the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe as well as going up in the Eifel Tower;

Eventually our time at Disneyland and Paris ran out and we hit the road again.  We drove all the way from Paris to Magdeburg in one day.  Most of the main roads in Germany don’t have speed limits, so we could go really fast.  Even going really fast, it still took us 10 hours.

We were glad to arrive and start resting.  We have been out exploring Magdeburg and the surroundings in the past couple of weeks, but we’ll leave that for another update.

Tonight we are going to be early because we are starting school in Germany tomorrow.  Maybe Oliver and I will be speaking German when we come home…