A Sort-of Day Off

8 AM came early.

The girls got in bed at 12:30 AM or so, and I imagine they were asleep soon afterwards. Me, not so lucky.  I finished the blog at 2 AM, and slept fitfully for 3 hours, finally gave into the incredibly bright sun in my eyes and just got up.  Coffee, NYTimes, get dressed, create an earthquake for the girls at a bit after 8.

We made it!  Breakfast on the terrace at the Strandlust Hotel on the river in the sunshine with warm breezes.  Hard to get better than that!  The girls were a bit modest in their breakfast choices (Dylan had Frosted Flakes and a spoonful of scrambled eggs with some bread and butter - maybe a grape or two :-) )  and Amina about the same.  The rest of us adults enjoyed it all - the eggs and sausages and bacon and bread and smoked fish and cheeses and fruits and yogurts and it was great! While we talked, the girls tried to snooze a bit... it was late to bed and early to rise, after all!

When we finished, the vendors at the Hafenfest were starting to open their booths and we all took a little walk around.

Then good bye to the Baums.  It's always fascinating to me how children connect even with a difference in ages and languages.  I hope they can meet each other again. René is doing his usual face. I think he's still 13 sometimes....

We looked a bit more at the stands and Dylan found the iPhone case she'd looked at earlier and still liked, so another souvenir in the bag! A fidget spinner for Hayden, a personalized friendship bracelet for Avery.  That was interesting to watch being done! Really, this guy had put together his own loom from odd pieces.  People are so inventive.

After a little rest, we climbed on the bikes to find an ice cream parlor.  That is not a hard thing to find here.  In fact, we tested the chocolate gelato at two places! Both excellent.

On the way home, we found this poster on the street.  There's a little circus in the neighborhood!! That we will do!

Somehow around preparing dinner (pizza, salad) we got to talking about how tall we were (maybe because Christoph is so tall and we all had to look up to him yesterday).  So out with the pencil and the tape!  Dylan is a serious 4'7" but Werner was SERIOUSLY distressed to find he had shrunk from 177 cm to 174 cm.  I of course had already endured the shock of losing two inches when we measured ourselves in Atlanta last January, but it looks like I've lost a bit more.  I wonder when we will disappear.....

With some protest, it is an early-to-bed-night.  Tomorrow, we'll be up kind of early again because....

a visit to the city and the Bremen Town Musicians!!!  I hope we'll find the magician too.