29 April 2015

Car seats, IKEA... and a play in another country (Fort Willem, Maastricht)

Simple things like shopping for car seats require military style planning when you have to split into two teams and take alternate travel routes... Ben in the car and Kirstie, Lew and Josh proceeding on foot and train in order to rendezvous at the Babyfachmarkt! Thankfully, our uber helpful car seat man Nikolai had us sorted and even came out to the car to make sure they fit. Before unfitting them and taking them back inside to pay. Noooo... I hate fitting car seats!

Car seats sorted we ducked across the megalopolis carpark to grab some Ikea cafeteria food for lunch. And then got lost finding the exit. It really is the same no matter where you are in the world. 

With tummies full of meatballs and gravlax we hit the Autobahn to try out the new seats. We passed the most important car seat test with flying colours: Lewie's asleep!

Before we knew it we found ourselves across the border into the Netherlands (actually I had sneakily entered it into the SatNav). And since Lew decided to keep sleeping we kept on driving until Maastricht. As more than one person had told us before we left, 'this is going to be a tour of Europe's playgrounds', of course we didn't want to disappoint and found the Fort Willem historic site with its 'awesome as' playground (this is just a small part of the playground area - it was huge!).


Mmmm... Proferjibegees...





Josh worked the pump while children with more body awareness walked over balance beams over a pond.

Kirstie decided to tackle the tunnel slide on her back... with limited success.

 "Can we come back here again tomorrow?" Umm... No it's in another country, an entire HOUR drive away!

27 April 2015

It's the blog (V2)!

Hi there! And welcome to our 2nd blog - does anyone still remember the old one? erswa.tblog.com if you're interested! Funny how everything changes and yet remains the same...

We must give much love always to our wunderful Briski for the blog title, albeit with a slight German twang (for originality), who, when we first mentioned this crazy idea of moving to Germany, immediately sent us a frame with the words, "Endless wonder".

We love the idea of wunder, of looking at the world with excitement. For now, we will be focusing on our new hometown of Koeln, but our aim is to continue this blog no matter where we live, in an attempt to keep on wundering.

Much love,

Kirstie, Ben, Josh and Lewie xx

Competition time!

Who can guess how much Moser Roth costs in its homeland? Anyone? Anyone?

Getting legal... and eating (again)

Choofed off to the Foreigner Office today to make sure our 'papers were in order'. Which they were so now we are legal. Yay! But now I can also start work. Boo... 

On the way home we stopped by the star attraction of Köln: the Dom cathedral. Josh was suitably impressed, but more so by the small fountain which he nearly fell into. 

A chilly 12deg "Spring" day saw Kirstie donning most of her current wardrobe. Plus Ben's jacket. Stylish.

Having paid our respects to the Dom it was time to worship at the alter of the Schnitz...

Poor Lew is not feeling too good and was not impressed by the schnitzel. 

...and purchase one too many Berliners (donuts)!

I assure you all I am alive and well despite not appearing in any photos. 

Oh look, here you are (nice snood). Hold on tight Lew! (Kirstie, Editor-in-chief)

26 April 2015

Abendessen Deutsche style

Well maybe it's more of a smorgasbord than the traditional German light dinner... But it was super yum town!

25 April 2015

Our house

We have stairs to my playroom that are a bit broken so we hang clothes on them to dry - Josh 

24 April 2015

Lunch, Spielplatz and ice cream

What a lovely sunny day to explore the local area of Ehrenfeld! We stopped at a outdoor restaurant in the Stadtgarten (one of the very many parks around the city) for lunch where our waiter quickly picked up that we were "not from around here"... I wonder how he knew?? Wir kommen aus Australien! He kindly suggested that we can speak in English, but we said we wanted to keep trying. Clearly a very patient waiter!

After lunch we walked through the park and stumbled upon our first Spielplatz (playground). Josh had a wonderful time on the old school metal slides and swings, and Lewie had a little play in the sand without eating it all. Continuing our walk we found another park with two huge slides. "Do you want to have a go on those big slides Josh?" "YES I do!"

It was such a lovely day that we thought we'd find an ice cream shop on our walk home. Unfortunately we went the long way home passing many more Spielplatz but no Eiscafe... Until we came to the one around the corner from our house. Three thoroughly well deserved ice creams, please. €3.20? For everything? Oh yeah!!






23 April 2015

The recovery...

Jet lagged much?

We made it!

After wrangling two suitcases, two large backpacks, five bags of various shapes and sizes, one portacot and two children via two trains and one very unhappy taxi driver, we made it to our short-term apartment! I don't even want to think about how we are going to get to our long-term place right now!

Leaving on a jet plane

Off we go to Germany! 
Lewie seems to be the only one who grasps the horror of the upcoming flight.