Off the tourist trial . . .

Apart from discovering numerous new places both within and outside Germany, we have also had a few unexpected excursions to places not usually sought after - namely the interior of emergency medical departments at hospitals both here in Essen and in Bonn. And unfortunately our visits seem to last several weary hours.

Our first 'emergency' occurred in Bonn, a lovely historic city, the former Capital of Germany. However, instead of exploring the historic Altstadt or Beethoven's birthplace we visited the local hospital. Somehow Mia's teeth had torn a significant flesh wound into Steph's scalp. It was a completely unintentional collision on a trampoline. Steph's scalp was cleaned and glued back together. Mia's teeth took 5 weeks to re-settle and stop wobbling (one is now dark grey).

Our second 'emergency' occurred here in Essen. Mia was testing her new cycling skills - obviously to the limit. She hurtled down a steep, slippery, ash felt slope - decided to slow down - slammed on the brakes. The biked stopped but she flew chin first onto the tarmac. Two old ladies mopped up the blood, while they waited for a responsible adult to arrive. So Mia was rushed to the local children's hospital where she was stitched 6 times. There was a moment of comic relief, when the young German doctor mispronounced 'sew' and said "don't worry I'm just going to saw you a little". Mia was not the only one temporarily worried.

Interestingly medicine is generally free (well 43% of their taxes) so the Emergency Departments had no mechanism to charge us - so we received free treatments.

Later that evening our friendly neighbours had heard the commotion and enquired what had happened. When informed, all four stuck their chins out and said - we've had stitches there too!!! It's obviously the done thing in Essen.

Mia also fractured a molar - which was dissected and capped by a very friendly and very expensive local dentist, whose billing mechanisms could accommodate even foreigners like ourselves.

Mia and Steph are now fully healed and jumping and cycling as wildly as before!

Our Neighbourhood

We can not really believe how lucky we are. By some amazing stroke of luck we found an apartment in one of the prettiest spots in Essen - and let me tell you, there are some very not-so-pretty places just around the corner. However, you will possibly not find us on Google-Streetview next month, as the Germans are still deciding whether or not to permit Google to put their Wohnungen on the Internet - currently 400,000 homes have asked in writing NOT to be on GSV in just one week.

You've heard already we live in a VERY purple house - but now we know the full story. One of our neighbours protested about the construction of an external glass lift to the rear of our house. So naturally in silent protest the owner of this building quietly had the entire place painted in a very LOUD purple!

Our suburb is called Ruttenscheid (first known record of this suburb was in 970AD) and our street is called Hans-Luther-Allee (named after a famous judge and politician from Essen). We have a very pretty little park directly across the road. So we have been able to watch the changing seasons - currently the trees have golden and red leaves - they look as though they'll last a week or two more. Every week the council workers sweep up the leaves and 2 days later you'd never know. In summer we can not see our neighbours on the other side of the park. However, the glow of their warm living rooms is peeping through a bit now.

About 500m down our street and along the bike path is the Gruga. This is an enormous park including botanical gardens, bird avaries, animal nursery, zillions of sculptures, an adventure playground, mini train tracks, open amphi-theatres etc etc. There are family activities every weekend.

Naturally we have half a dozen bakeries within 500m of our home, several churches, a restaurant strip, a weekly fresh fruit and veg market (plus sausage grill or course) and train or sub-way access (a train comes every 4 min to our station). Apart from these 'standard' amenities we also have a few peculiar sites nearby.....

There's a quaint little yellow church on Ruttenscheider Strasser, which was built for Essen's lepers. Ruttenscheid was outside Essen's city walls at the time of its construction.

And literally 100m from the girl's primary school is a remand centre/prison. It is positioned behind the law courts, for 'convenience'. One morning a large man stopped us on the way to school to ask directions to the prison. After orientating him, he thanked us and said he'd left his bag of clothes behind. Obviously he was more familiar with the interior of the prison!!!!!

Hubertus' University Clinic is in the other direction. He can leave for work 85 min after the girls leave for school and still get there before 9 am! Apart from the convenience, I think the highlight for him are two subsidized cafeterias. Today for lunch he consumed half a plate of mayonnaise with a few potatoes, a whole fried flounder, side salad and a yoghurt fruit desert for a total of 3.60 euro! On a hungry day I have been seen down there too.

Our neighbours are somewhat manic. We are positively laid-back and relaxed by comparison. They are mad BVB football fans and travel to all away games, whether they be in Uzbekistan, Paris or Seville. More than 3 nights-in per week probably amounts to social failure. However, this restlessness is somewhat cultural, as their work ethic is so ingrained, a leisurely night at home in front of the TV or reading a book, feels like laziness and a failure to make the most of every second. But they are lovely, culturally switched on, obviously full of energy, fluent in English (which German isn't) and very generous. They have a 5 yo daughter called Katinka, who takes charge of all play activities despite any language barriers. The girls have an enthusiastic playmate just 20+ steps away - what a dream!

Rubbish collection in Germany probably deserves its own Blog Entry - but I'll try and summarise. We have 3 bins for paper, plastics and general waste (there are no green-waste bins). They are all emptied on different days and either weekly, fortnightly or monthly. I am totally confused so just copy the neighbours. Glass is deposited in the bins at the end of the road (green, white and brown). Then at random times a truck roams the neighbourhood sounding a lot like an Aussie ice-cream van - but this one is for electrical and scrap metal waste. Plastic bottles receive 25 cent refund which you can get at the supermarket or the bottle shop. But what really epitomizes waste collection was an incident we experienced in our first fortnight here - someone rang our doorbell at 7 am - we staggered to the video screen and heard our local garbo telling us we'd forgotten to put out our bin and that he'd wait if we wanted!!! WOW!!! How civilised.

I hope it now feels like you're right here with us! xxx

Italy and Dante for fun!

One early morning in October we decided to go tree climbing down at the Baldeneysee with our cousin Sofia. Much to our surprise and horror a cold front swept across during the night, sending temperatures plummeting to below zero. Our central heating kept this fact a secret until we emerged in climbing gear at 10am - with temperatures still no higher than 5C! It was freezing! Afterwards we came home, guzzled hot chocolates then immediately booked tickets to Tuscany for the Herbstferien (Autumn Holidays). Surely 1, 175km south would be warmer...

1 week in Italy. How many pizze can one eat in that time?

Well if you are like Mia, who (if allowed) would eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner, that would be 21 pizza meals. Fortunately we kept it to a mere 11 (that's 2 breakfast, 2 dinners and every lunch!!!). And of course 7 gelati each. As you can see, this visit to Italy was not a culinary exploration. This time we concentrated more on Italy's rather turbulent history and arguably it's most famous writer, Dante.

For those who don't know (and I didn't know before this trip, so don't worry), Dante Alighieri (1264-1321) wrote what many believe is Italy's most brilliant piece of literature called The Divine Comedy. It's about his travels through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven (Inferno, Purgatoria e Paradiso) guided by the Roman poet Virgil. On his journey he encounters a host of familiar faces (wealthy noblemen, recent Popes and even critiques of his literature). Rather cheekily he placed many who opposed him in hell, including Pope Boniface VIII... they were described as swimming in pools of poo with their faces submerged, or frozen in ice or attacked by devilish monsters. The girls were positively gob-smacked (we read the kid's version). After the book's publication, the rich and powerful in Florence (his home town) sentenced Dante to death - so outraged were they by his 'comedy'. The Siennese, who constantly rivaled those in Florence, gave him refuge. We were fascinated. We even visited his home in Florence which is now a Museum.

Voltera, San Gimignano and Monteriggioni were all gorgeous towns. It's amazing how many have retained their old city walls and have preserved their inner cities for pedestrians and local residents only.

We spent the last 2 nights in Pisa, a rambling town with 3 universities and 65,000 students. Mia was longing to climb the leaning tower of Pisa. Its restoration and reinforced foundations had long since finished, so we were keen to compare its ascend to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately Hubertus returned from the queue with bad news, only visitors over 8 were allowed to climb to the top. Mia collapsed onto the ground and howled for 20min. That still did not sway the merchants selling the tickets. In the end Hubertus climbed alone - and it didn't fall over - phew!

Mia loved the pizza, Stephanie loved the Pinocchio puppets, Hubertus loved the medieval towers and I loved the views from San Gimignano.

The girls missed bretzels. Hubertus missed the Autobahns. And I missed the food I had last visit - pizza is OK but not everyday!

Our Pyrenees Hideaway

For three days we disappeared into the rocky depths of the Pyrenees ... if only they had swallowed us up for a little longer... We were extremely lucky to find a remote little farmhouse, beautifully furnished, nestled in a spectacular valley, surrounded by rocky cliffs and gurgling streams. The air was crisp and clear and the constant tinkling of cattle bells wafted up the valley to our little retreat.

We left Barcelona assuming a tapas bar could be found on every other corner - even in the mountains. Unfortunately, we were quite unprepared for our isolation and had to eat a meal of just dry bread, olive oil and salt on our first evening. But the views were definitely worth it.

We then ventured into the neighbouring towns of Salsona and Cardona - not just for some sustenance but also for some local 'excitement'... we found a bull ring in the middle of Cardona but no bulls, so the girls had to re-enact the fight for us. Interestingly, bull fighting was banned in Barcelona in July 2010!! And due to be fully enforced in 2012. This is partly humane and partly to differentiate themselves from the Spanish. Barcelonians are Catalan.

Also in Cardona is a magnificent (now dis-used) salt mine. The salt came from the ocean which was swept aside when Africa crashed into Europe 40 million years ago, causing the Pyrenees to rise up from the ocean bed. The salt was gradually restructured into a mountain - which has been mined since 2,500BC. The local medieval knights were known as the rich Lords of the Salt. Mining stopped in 1990 due to the cost and risks associated with extracting the remaining salt, now most concentrated 1km below the surface. It is an exceptionally beautiful mine - with numerous caves filled with snow white or rusty red salt stalactites and stalagmites.

In the mountains the only early risers (apart from our two daughters) were the cows and the mushroom hunters. Both species roamed the mountains in the morning and spent the afternoons slumbering!!

Ignatius di Loyola Pilgrimage

I am sure our Saint Ignatius School friends would be most impressed (and for those who know us well - moderately amused) to hear we embarked upon our own little Ignatius di Loyola pilgrimage across the Catalonian countryside. The path to our pyrenees hideaway traversed two pivotal sites where Ignatius underwent his transformation from roving Basque knight to a pious priest motivated to do good. I might too, if I'd been wounded by a canon and had to spend my days limping about Europe.

Our first stop was at the magnificent Montserrat Monastery perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Catalian countryside. Montserrat (which we think must mean serrated mountain) is where Ignatius in 1522 experienced a vision of Mary and Jesus - which cemented his plans to leave his employment as knight and enter the church.

The monastery was swarming with tourists, which may be why we managed to bump into friends from both Adelaide and Edinburgh!! Amazing.

A few more kilometers inland was the town of Manresa (check out the address of the highschool...) where Igantius travelled to after Montserrat. Its large church had a plaza dedicated to him. During his stay in Manresa he spent most of his time praying in a cave - up to 7 hours a day. Apart from the church there's not much else appealing about Manresa - we recommend only a short visit. But back to Ignatius, by 1540 he had written the Jesuit Constitutions and in 1548 the Spiritual Exercises. He died not long after in Rome (1556) of malaria.

Maybe our next visit to Spain will include a visit to his birth place in the Basque country!?

Beautiful Barcelona

We recently escaped the Vaterland - travelling south for a little more sunshine (given the German summer was almost non-existent) to the stunning city of Barcelona. Hubertus attended the ERS (European Respiratory Society) conference at Fira Europa (it was supposed to be at Fira Espanol but they changed location without telling the 39,000 delegates....) and the girls and I explored the magnificent city.

On the surface, Barcelona looks pretty unattractive. The standard family lives in small apartments in buildings which look distinctly run-down - most wiring is external, pinned to the crumbly walls with large rusty nails; the paint work is usually peeling; laundry is dried on external lines under everyones' windows (if something drops it's history); the footsteps and voices of your immediate neighbours are always audible; there are four traffic peak hours at 9am; 12pm; 3pm and 8pm - due to the 3 hour semester enjoyed by everyone; and unless you have both double glazing and roller shutters on your windows the noise from the traffic and tourists will keep you awake to well past midnight most evenings (I think Monday was the only quiet night, then the noise slowly escalated daily to Saturday!). There are also many pickpockets just waiting for you to absentmindedly open your backpack or place your camera down for just a second. And everyone in Barcelona seems to smoke - it's revolting. Apparently they introduced optional legislation to prohibit smoking in restaurants and pubs, but those that adopted it lost so many customers they decided to revert back to old ways rapidly. Also can you believe that if you work for the Govt or a post office you need only turn up between 10 and 12:30pm Mon to Sat!!! Coor blimey! There are 1.6million residents in Barcelona and up to 5 million tourists - over the span of a year!!

However, scratch the surface and you will discover the most beautiful ancient streets reserved for pedestrians, winding through medieval buildings, churches; under archways and occasionally opening up to reveal a scrumptious market packed with local delicacies. The food is fresh and fast - we even managed to get the girls to try squid-ink paella - and they loved it! The place is riddled with museums of famous artists (Miro, Picasso) or architects (Gaudi); there are zillions of fabulous Spanish designer boutiques for jewellery and fashion; and the buskers on Las Rambla are truly amazing!

Although the standard tourist sites such a La Sagrada Familia; Casa Bastlle; Miro Museum; Picasso Museum; Las Rambla; the harbour; Parc Guell; FCBarcelona Stadium; The Olympic Stadium; etc etc are essential places to visit - the best discoveries were off the beaten trail (such as their amazing Science Museum and Planetarium - we spent 6 hours there and still did not see all of it. And a local ballet for children). It was some much needed sanity, to escape the tourist throng and witness the local traditions and customs.

Despite having no Spanish or Catalan it is quiet easy to interpret written text (interpreting the spoken word was totally impossible) - Catalan is esp close to French. Only the locals employed in heavily visited tourist sites could speak English - but leave these places and suddenly no-one can speak a word of English. Nor could anyone we came across speak German and when I told them I was trying to learn it they all shook their heads in sympathy!! ;) Most amusing of all are their English translations at the tourist sites - see photo above!

Australia Vs Deutschland

You can see from these photos, it's quite a challenge getting a German child to smile ..... something that is maintain through out life....

We're just about to complete week 2 of school in Germany and reality is hitting us a little. Steph's thirst for conversation is largely unsatisfied at school with her limited German. Dividing air-time between the girls has always been a bit of a challenge - but now after school both have so much say, having been bottled up all day, I need two sets of ears.

The girls and I have come up with a list of 'differences' between their Australian and their German schools, the most glaringly obvious one is the clothing...

Uniforms or not?

There are no uniforms worn in school in Germany. This means we've had to purchase a stack of new clothes. I'm missing the uniformity of a uniform, the girls have a heightened sense of fashion already, which can be quite tedious in the mornings. Casual clothes certainly enable kids to individualise themselves, there's one little girl I was convinced was a boy until I saw her name and Mia is now obsessed with unicorn ear-rings. Fortunately fashion has never been very important to Steph.

Food

Our State in Germany (NRW) has committed to providing hot meals to all children who need to stay longer than the usual pick-up time of 12:30pm. However, they have run out of funding or capacity (or both) and on the two days our girls stay back until 2:30pm they are given cold vegetables and fruit. However, all children are also give a bottle of flavoured milk for morning tea, which the girls find quite special. There are no tuckshops.

Birthdays

Birthdays are celebrated in the class with parents providing the usual lollies and sweet for every child. However, when they sing Happy Birthday it is in both English and German and the child is lifted in the air on a chair once for every year old he/she is. So far no-one has fallen off yet....

English Lessons

English lessons start in Year 1, so it's the favourite lesson for Steph and Mia ... finally they can answer the questions! The teacher has already taught the classes to count to 20; greet each other and know the colours. All language learning seems to be through songs and games.

Welcoming Ceremony

The new students have a truly beautiful welcoming ceremony (see earlier Blog entry). The participation of the entire school is the nicest part and by the end of Day 1 each new child is bubbling with enthusiasm and a positive sense of growing up.

Sport

As the days are so short, we were not expecting to do much sport at school. However, we were wrong. Every Monday the entire school heads to the local indoor swimming pool for 2 hours and every Friday they go to a local sports hall for another 2 hours. Sports Day was cancelled last Term as it was too hot, so they have rescheduled to Monday. They will start the day by marching all the children 5km into a local forest. Afterwhich they will perform sport until midday and then no doubt gratefully catch the bus home again.

Communication with the Teachers

This is terrible. There are no school diaries for parents to write little reminders or express concern etc to the teachers, so every morning a queue of parents stand in line for up to 30min. The teachers don't send home monthly letters outlining the curriculum, planned activities etc. We're completely in the dark about what they are learning until they bring some homework home. And even that is a trial as the children are expected to write their homework duties in a book, which of course is beyond the ability of Steph and Mia at this stage, so we guess what might be nice to do every evening. Reading is definitely not a top priority as it is at St Igs!

Social Calendar

There are none. There are no mechanisms for parents to get to know each other apart from brief conversations at collection time. I really miss having a class representative parent and a few coffee sessions with other Mums.

Discipline.

Compared to St Ignatius there is very very little discipline. Some kids run amok. Yesterday Mia was whipped on the stomach by some child who took a home-made whip to school. It took far too long before a teacher realised what was happening in the yard. When Steph's teacher restructured the class, some children came in and started re-arranging the furniture before the start of school.We mentioned that maybe a point system for positive and negative behaviour might be useful. Now Steph's teacher has one, but with no obvious consequences....? ie very little affect.

So all up we are missing school in Australia. There are days when Mia is overjoyed with the day and others where she is utterly miserable - which is exactly as it was in Australia. Steph is in a trough - no doubt her need to communicate will rapidly propel her to learn some German.