Well hello again everyone. It has been quite an eventful month and I apologize for the lack of posts in that time.
So now we are sitting here, back in my room, trying to recover from the
near chaos that has consumed my life for the past 2 weeks, but I am
blessed!
Where does the time go... I'll try and give an accurate recap of the past 2ish plus weeks, but times may fall out of order with the different trips that the Aakre clan took during their stay here in Germany.
Noon, Sunday June 24th... The Aakre's role into Osnabrueck Germany via a train from Amsterdam where they were greeted by me, Mrs. "Momma" Klietsch and Jovi. After the long flight Jake and Tina hit up McDon's for their first German meal, I don't know what they had, but they were as dumbfounded as I was right away with the classiness of McDon's in Germany. They have candles.
Later that day, Dad and I went to get the Tiger Van from the president's house and everyone else got dropped off at their hotel so they could finally get a nice shower in. Before we let them fall asleep for the night, everyone came over to the house for a nice Chicken Noodle soup. So good... It's weird that you remember some meals more than others.
Monday... While everyone was still sleeping, Chrisman and myself made a special appearance at one of the local schools in town for a couple English classes. What an experience, during the 10th grade session while we were outside throwing the balls around, one girl came up and asked if she could touch me. I laughed, after she proceeded to poke me and then returned to her friends saying it/he is real. Unbelievable... Something you won't forget.
(Picture of the 10th graders at Wallenhorst School)
Later on that day, after everyone had returned to the house from the hotel we took off towards a local museum and battle field where the Germans defeated the Romans around Jesus' time. With the audio tour we had, it turned out to be quite interesting and after living around the area for a while now, I was finally able to check that off the list. Many different exhibits in the area but below was by far the best...
(Jake insinuating a fart into a "megaphone")
I'll say megaphone because I don't know what to call it, it was a device that rotated in a room out in the open and was used as an amplified ear to hear what was going on in the surroundings. This way Jake was letting everyone know our position, not strong battle tactics if you ask me.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday nights we have practice so the first day was kind of short, but Monday night the family did take a tour of Osnabrueck that they said was very good. Maybe Chris and I will have to do that someday but not a priority on my list.
Tuesday we took off towards Hamburg and stayed over night just outside of Hamburg. While in the burgs of Ham, we went downtown towards the train station and Rathaus (city hall) and walked the streets for a few hours. We took a canal tour, but collectively were very disappointed with the English commentary on this one because it was like float, float, float for a couple hours and maybe heard 15 minutes of talking, but it was pretty neat to see Hamburg by water ways. We stopped for lunch at a sea side diner and ordered, basically just shooting in the dark off the menu and Dad was the unfortunate one to have the short end of the stick or the fishy end of the meal. He was thinking/hoping for some sort of bratwurst but ended up with some sort of dead/raw fish with everything, from gills to tail. Needless to say, this was not his favorite meal of the trip, but he did like the potatoes that came with it.
We also went through/stopped by the Church of St. Michael which was pretty neat to see. Big statue of the Angel Michael on the front while he's saving, what I believe is, Adam and Eve and there three kids from the devil as he crushes his head. That could be the coolest sculpture I've seen so far.
Wednesday before heading back to Osnabrueck for pratice, we stopped in Bremerhaven which is another port city in Germany. They had a great ship museum where we could've spent hours but only had a couple hours.
(His hand was just so big)
We saw anything from new cruise line ships to old row boats... Pretty fascinating because it gave you many different plans of how things were built and sizes of things. Arguably the best part was when you could actually drive the model ships in the small pool they had. The guys had a blast... Outside the museum there were a few different boats and ships you could walk around on. These weren't no small ships and they didn't really restrict you where you could go, nearly everything was open so it was exciting to see different components of the different ships.
(The ship was just out of control, I couldn't handle it.)
Thursday we headed towards Koln and saw the dome (a giant cathedral), walked along the Rhine river, and toured a chocolate museum/factory.
The Dome was absolutely the biggest church I have ever seen. Construction took nearly 1500 years to complete and we had to take over 330 step to the top of where spectators can go and that's only 2/3 of the way of the tower. So big...
(Mom and Dad relaxing after a long day)
(Long walk, but made a great family shot)
There were 6 bells in this tour and I have no idea how they got them up there... So heavy and large, they definitely didn't take the winding stairs. Probably built the tower around those things.
The chocolate museum was by far mom's favorite part, that's complete sarcasm, but reminiscing before she left, she did say the butt game there was a highlight of Koln. So this butt game, complete chaos and excitement for bouncing up and down on your seat. There were 6 stools with different color seats on them, there were a few different games but the stools controlled either a direction in a maze or moving/twisting a piece in putting together a robot on the screen. So much fun, although we weren't close to breaking any world records; it was all a good laugh and brightened mom's day. Dad on the other hand was all smiles in the chocolate museum, they actually made their chocolate there too which was great. Had a chocolate fountain that they served chocolate dipped waffers there as samples... Good stuff. I think Dad's favorite part was the shaking machine, I think that's what he said, to get out all the bubbles. He's sometimes an interesting fellow.
Thursday had alot of driving but it was all good, Friday we decided to head a little closer to home and finally see some castles. The one thing all mom talked about was seeing a castle and we skipped one she had planned near Koln, but I think this one and the others made up for it. The audio commentary in this castle was much better than some of the others that we toured, but looking back much of the presentation focused around the people's lives and politics of the castle; personally not that exciting. But this one did house some pretty sweet old arms and armour, so boy warrior in me had a good time.
(Another great family pic at one of the castles)
By the time the end of the week came, I was exhausted and actually am still recovering today (Sunday a week later). That Saturday we played the Hamburg Huskies, we won 28-15 and the weather again held out to be another gorgeous day. I have come to this conclusion, that visitors bring nice weather for roughly two weeks. Mom and Dad left today and it started pouring outside, when I arrived I think it was nice for the first two weeks and then became Germany as I believe it to be; RAINY!
After the game on Saturday we headed towards Amsterdam, so we wouldn't have to drive there in the morning for the brothers' flight. No GPS because that doesn't work in Germany and a map of Amsterdam because I wouldn't know the names of the streets anyway. With our exit being blocked in Amsterdam, thankfully there's a road that runs in a big circle around the city; although it was a night we did get to see some lights and two tunnels that went under the big water ways.
The hotel was super nice... But after leaving Jake, Justin and Tina, for the airport in the morning on Sunday, we took the shuttle to the airport and then the train into the train station. We got off our shuttle at roughly 12:20 ish, time to remember. Once in Amsterdam we walked around, got a duner, took a very good canal tour (trumped the one in Hamburg for sure), saw Anne Frank's house and returned that night to the hotel before taking off for home.
Not really knowing the history/conditions that Anne Frank had to go through but just knowing the name, it was really interesting to see where and how she lived through the museum of her house. Life wouldn't have been easy, definitely no football.
(Before taking off we got this shot: Jesus Loves You; so true)
As we got back to our hotel and leaving the parking lot, Dad found a note stuck in the window of the van saying we haven't left Amsterdam and we're in such and such rooms. We head back into the hotel and find them eating supper, plane got cancelled and they had to run around and around but were by "chance"put back in the same hotel. Boom... Jesus strikes again. Justin was a little upset because he was supposed to get back to 1st graders at camp but I believe everything had worked out for them. He would now be with another group being a week later, assume no news is good news.
But they just missed the 1:40 shuttle heading back to the hotel so that means in about a 15 minute window, we missed them. They could've spent the day with us in Amsterdam but they said they enjoyed just lounging in the hotel. The next day, there flight was delayed another hour, but last word is that they finally had made it home and are back at the grind of school, camp and work.
Week two... All day trips this week, but alot more down time and time with each other. These are the days that are going to get put out of order.
Mom, Dad, Chris and I went on a tour of three castles towards Muenster and had a really good time. It was hard because each of the castles weren't like any we had seen before so it was tough to compare them. In my mind a castle is a rock fortress, where some of these were giant mansions that you would see on MTV Cribs. I wonder what the definition of a castle is...
(Dad, myself and Mom infront of one of those castles)
(Chrisman on the other side, it wasn't small that's for sure)
At one of the places, they were baking bread; we didn't eat it while it was fresh but learned for next time that you buy two loaves, one for instant consumption and one to take home.
Tuesday or Wednesday we went to the Botanical Gardens at the University of Osnabrueck, because Mom wanted to see her flowers. They were nice and it was good just to be able to walk around with them. The other day, Chris and I went to work out as I told them just go get lost in the city. I don't know how many new things they saw but I hope they just enjoyed Osnabrueck.
We did eat at Bella Vista; it's so good, and they agreed so they understand my obsession with the place. Dad had the Chris Classic, Pizza Hawaii and Mom and I got different baked pastas. Mmmmmm.... Mouth waters just thinking about the good food. That place will be missed when it comes time to head home.
Thursday we headed up to Cloppenburg to see a huge "Farm site;" this is a place where they have hauled in old machinery and old buildings to give insight into the history of how farming used to be done. Buildings were as old as early 14th century.
Here's where we capitalized on the bread trick... We stopped at one of the backeries on sight to get a loaf of raisin bread, we may had been walking for a couple hours at this point and we hadn't eaten in multiple hours so taking a break and consuming that loaf of bread was soooo gooood. Like wow... I want another one. We did take one home but that one also disappeared in a hurry. Comments from Mom and Dad were often heard, "We don't get this at home" and it's true the bread over in Germany is top notch.
Mom found a small garden and had time to smell the flowers... All smiles she was.
(Just a little enjoyment)
(Old school plow, pretty big for a 1 bottom)
We had visited another old farm while outside Hamburg, but this one definitely trumped it and we spent all afternoon there and were actually quite surprised at how long we were there.
Friday was just a lounge, pack, clean day at the house. Exhaustion from the previous weeks of travel had taken it's tole and also knowing what was about to come with a road game at Bonn and then flying home, Mom and Dad just wanted to relax.
Saturday... Road trip to Bonn was quite eventful, after sleeping most of the way and only being within 10 miles of the field, our front tire blew on the bus. So we took a little stroll on the autobon and waited for a wrecker to come help change the tire. Jokes were made how the O-line should've just picked up the bus and changed the tire themselves, but it's a big bus.
We arrived at the game a little later than anticipated but a line that the team uses is "When a cheetah is hungry, he goes and eats." No stretching, no warming up... Although we didn't arrive that late our warm ups were modified and it didn't throw us for a loop. Scoring on every drive, we finished the game with a victory 44-34. Little shout out to my man Chris, says it his best game of his life. 4 receiving TD's and an interception because injuries have taken a tole on our team... Nice work.
Took Mom and Dad back this morning to the train station in Osnabrueck to make their way to the airport in Amsterdam... at this point, I believe they should be over the big blue but who knows if they got delayed too. Stranger things have happened.
Love you Mom and Dad; Jake, Tina and Justin. Thank you all for coming, it was a great experience to have you here in Germany with me.
Special thanks to the Tigers for being generous to let us use the van, the Kliestch's for their continual hospitality, and Jesus for giving us some nice weather in Germany so we could explore some. Boom... Jesus strikes again. He's the man.
What do you want to know?
Thanks for being patient with me... No more excuses.
Joshua Aakre
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
