Last Days in Germany

No, our plane didn't crash down in the frigid Atlantic waters in its charted course from Tegel to JFK!  No, we weren't defrauded out of our apparent contract and now lie languishing under cardboard boxes in a feeble defense against a cruel Eastern sun!  No, we didn't even lose our USB cable and have no way of posting pictures!  I'm just super lazy!

So, in a few attempts to catch up on our life:  we did some last minute touring of Germany.   I think Justin actually wrote about our visit to Schloss Cecilienhof ("my wrath thou art my devil" or whatever Eli said), but here are some pictures.  We really liked the elephant-shaped tree--two little boys had scaled the thing and sat astride it The Little Princess style when we were there--and the Narcissus pool.  All our little Narcissae liked it, too.

Here's a cake I made for Justin to celebrate his finishing his dissertation draft.  Woo hoo!  Right on schedule!  He is the MAN!  And I can tell you first hand he makes 100 pages of German supreme court cases feel like a fast read, but I have a second witness on that, too.  That takes some skill!  Julia is not eating cake here, though, she's eating the salad she grew herself at the Gartenarbeitsschule, Garden Work School.  It was a little gritty, but otherwise sehr lecker.

The following are from a Medeival Festival we went to.  They seem particularly German and English to me, so I thought we should go to one.  We liked the falcons, the pony rides, the knight tournament, and the mice that you could pay a small fee to let run through little houses.  Katharine kept stealing the mice's marshmallows when the caretaker--and her parents--weren't looking.  Julia's attempts at a real bow and arrow were quite different from the one she had at home.

The girls were so amazingly brave, humble, submissive, patient, and long-suffering about this year in Germany we wanted to do something really special for them as a goodbye present.  So we went to dinner at the Fernseher Turm, a 365 meter high television tower with spinning restaurant at the top. 

Justin helped a girl in the ward with a bunch of translation for a job application, so she offered a baby-sitting trade.  We decided to visit as many places in this little "Take a Walk Through Berlin Coloring Book" as we could.  The World Clock and the Brandenburg Gate were two of them.   

And a few days later we were home to America!  Tomorrow I'll post pics from Julia's birthday and baptism, and hopefully sometime soon Justin will post a classic New Haven conversation her heard on the bus.  So great to be back.