Leaving Hamburg

After a long lazy afternoon with family, we hit the road and decided
to put a few miles in that evening towards Nuremberg...

Hope to see you again sometime Hamburg... You are a lovely town. :)

Aunt Maggie with her lovely grandchildren! :)

Oh how Annalena and Gregor love the doting attention of their Grandma!

Walking down memory lane

It has been such a treat to meet jana's family, as well as spend time
exploring her old neighborhoods... So interesting to walk the streets
where such a good friend grew up, and hear the stories first hand.
Quite a beautiful town to boot!

Marina on the Alster

Many of the sailboats just cruise around the small lake, but there are
locks that move larger boats to the other side of the "Kennedy
bridge", and towards the Elbe river in downtown Hamburg.

Jana's native backyard

Totally bloated from my massive piece of cake, Jana and I took a walk
around part of the Alster (small lake that is pool from the river).
It was a gorgeous day, and were were just so excited to see some sun
after most of the week having been cold and overcast with gloomy
clouds. Made for some fun "jesus clouds" in the pictures... But the
sun was much appreciated!!

I made myself useful...

Brigette's father made the most delightful home-made black forest
cake... Oh so good!

Cousins, cousins everywhere!

Jan Christian and 4 year old Gregor

Back to Hamburg!

Left Berlin early sat morning with Jana's uncle ulli... And drove 3
1/2 hours to Hamburg. We were surprise guests at her cousin Matis'
40th birthday party. Spent a lovely afternoon with all the cousins,
aunts uncle, and various friends. Jana got all caught up on family,
and everyone was lovely and welcoming to me.

The Dutch quarter

After a good workout walking around the enormous grounds of Sanssouci,
we headed back into the main part of town to find a bite to eat. We
landed in the Dutch quarter, a settlement for Dutch workers in the
18th century. 134 red brick gabled houses were built for the workers
in 4 clusters throughout this district.

Wonder if home depot in Germany had this lampost?

Neues Palais facade

Baroque palace built in 1763 for Frederick the Great. Has over 200
rooms, and 2 equally elegent buildings out back for the staff.

The new palace...

At the far end of the grounds of the Sanssoui park is the new palace.
Guessing they ran out of guest rooms in the old palace??

The pleasure gardens...

Sculptures on the deck of the teahouse

The Chinese teahouse

But of course you need an entire house dedicated to taking afternoon
tea on the grounds of your palace!

Decadent art

The grounds of the palaces were covered with sculptures depicting a
decadent lifestyle, or a "life with no regrets"....

Stupid financial markets...

Booooo. Just got word from Saf & Bev that they had to cancel their
trip to meet us for Oktoberfest because of the messy financial markets
in the US. Guess Jana and I will have to drink an extra beer I'd two
for them. :(

The "old" palace

Castle touring girls...

Jana, me and alexis in front of the fountain at the "old palace"
building and grounds.

Places to go, castles to see...

After wandering around doing a little shopping, Jana motivated us to
head south of berlin to the town of Potsdam. The current day site of
movie studios, we headed straight to the castle Sanssouci, translated
as "without a care". It was prettylate in the afternoon, so we passed
on the building yours, and opted to wander the extensive grounds.