Category Archives: Travels

Crazy Family, Our cute daughter, Our cute son, Travels

In search for some snow

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For some time Nathan has been asking us already when we will have snow so he can go play outside and build snowmen and snow fortresses. The thing is we will most likely not have any snow this year either. For the past decade or so we barely had any snow which stayed for more than just few hours or a day. Now I know from my childhood that we had enough snow here (and pictures to proof it) to go even skiing or sledging at the nearby hill. Few times even the lake here had solid enough ice to go skating. However times are changing and we have hotter and hotter summers and milder winters.

December 24th here few years back, drowning in snow

So what to do when the kids want snow? Go to the mountain areas in middle and southern Germany or do something very different such as visiting Finland during the winter time? My wife is not really fond at all about snow and she does not want to do any activities outdoor so a little skiing holiday within Germany would be kind of meaningless. However visiting Finland would most likely mean tons of snow, stay at our own cabin and visit some friends afterwards before travelling back to Germany. So yes, my wife would prefer Finland (even though she is not fond of having the long ship cruise during winter time) and the kids could finally enjoy some snow.

The situation in Finland is a bit different

Now our plans are not set in stone at all but we have more or less an idea what to do and when to go. Our preferred time would be around the Chinese New Year as we have barely any work as all customers are busy visiting their relatives and that time is also more or less the snow peak time up there in Finland. For extra support we would force my parents to join us, especially as I have no real clue how to manage the cabin alone with all the heating and switching on the water supply.

More snow

I know that in Finland there are also bad winters with barely any snow in that region however from all the years (soon 30 years) I have lived or visited Finland it only happened a couple of times with a no snow/ barely any snow. Chances are pretty high for some snowy madness and at least Nathan could learn some cross country skiing, ice skating and perhaps even downhill skiing. Nathalie on the other hand will be still a tad bit too young for such activities but there is still so much to play around with the proper amount of snow. I remember in my childhood building gigantic snowmen, fortresses and snow caves. Right now I really hope this will work out and we should really order the tickets for the ship soon(ish) before the prices become ridiculous. The ship cruise is however a matter of mostly bad memories as during the winter we always had storms resulting in many sea sick people on board and my wife is handling it poorly as well.

What are your plans for the wintery season?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

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Crazy Family, Our cute daughter, Our cute son, Travels

Hagenbeck Zoo 2019

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We have sunshine here in North Germany again! What felt like ages with only constant rain (three weeks or so) we have no a period of good weather once again so we took the kids to Hagenbeck Zoo. Last time we had been there was back in 2014 when Nathan was just two months old and we loved it. We planned each summer to go there but well, nothing happened as always got in the way. Sadly we could not take Haruki the Shiba with us as dogs are not allowed there. At first I was confused why it would be forbidden till I realized again that the entire park is filled with small animals running around. You got the basic chickens and peacocks everywhere but also other animals such as Maras and Capybaras. Dogs would be no good in such surrounding.

Someone with a long neck

As I had mentioned back in 2014 there are barely any “cage bars” in the way as most enclosures are surrounded by a moat or something similar to prevent animals to escape. Especially nice was the Penguin Area as those little feathered bros can just jump out of their enclosure when they feel like it. Due to this I got some nice close-up picture of few of them just standing right next to the people. One guy who tried a selfie with one got his hairs searched for food by one penguin. So far the Hagenbeck Zoo is my favorite one as it is just such a nice place. Everything is clean; the whole park is really like a park full of old trees and fields. It just feels so relaxing to be there.

Nathalie with Wapiti Antlers

Wherever you are you have some animals nearby to watch / some maras or capybaras come to you to check out the situation for food. Of course you are not allowed to feed the animals there with some exceptions. At the entrance you can buy a bag full of fresh vegetables and fruits to feed for example the Asian Elephants. Those big ones are pretty much the stars in the zoo as they reach with their trunk over the moat to pick up the food from your hand. But there is also staff watching that you do not sneak in any wrong food. MIL had the idea to give the elephants some sweet bread but we were able to stop her.

Hello there

In case you have some holidays planned in North Germany and enough time I really recommend visiting Hagenbeck Zoo. Additionally to the Zoo they have a Tropical Aquarium area, however it requires its own entrance ticket. We did not visit it so far as the Zoo itself was already plenty enough for us and we had to get home in time for Haruki, don’t want to leave him alone for the whole day either. The aquarium area has of course a lot of fishes and whatnot all but also other animals such as ring-tailed lemurs (King Julien) running around freely and many birds.

 

What is your favorite Zoo?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam

https://www.instagram.com/Crazychinesefamily

 

Crazy Family, Travels

Nothing New In Germany

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This summer I have not been that forthcoming with crazy stuff from my family. Basically nothing much happened except that worrisome things I wrote about in the past two blog posts. By now all the stress from China has been become just an annoying background noise and we have been only focusing on work and the kids. My dear Chinese mother-in-law is still here in Germany but will leave back to China in the end of August.

Besides the annoying stuff from China we had to manage for three weeks through the kindergarten holidays and thus having both kids with us all day long. For those holidays we had some nice things planned such as trips to the beaches here, traveling on weekends to some cities in the area and such but oh boy, of course the weather had to change to the worse during those three weeks and we had just rain every single day. We only managed to visit Legoland in Billund again and we had semi-good weather with just some minor showers in between. After those holidays were over we managed also a trip to Sankt Peter-Ording here in North Germany where a fantastic beach is located. I must say we had really bad luck with the weather this summer as we only had nice temperature and sunshine on the days we were neck-deep with work.

Now the holidays are over already for a few weeks and something new started for us as Nathalie started kindergarten this week! Little Nathalie aka the Thundergoat can be a difficult little monster so I prepared for the worst when going with her to kindergarten. But for some unknown reason she is a completely different person there. The staff there is super happy with her, she never cries, does whatever they tell her to and is just a little sunshine there. I already told the staff that this little girl they describe can’t be my daughter.

At home we have the usual madness with MIL as describe in the previous post so nothing new from that front. On a personal note I got even nerdier as I picked up during spring again Warhammer 40K after near 20 years away from it. Not writing now anything specific about it but I will have eventually a geek post about my newfound hobby in the upcoming weeks. For now I hope we have some luck in the next weeks with the weather so we can go to Hamburg Zoo again as the last visit there dates back to 2014 when Nathan was just 9 weeks old! This also somehow reminds me that I need to continue editing the last holiday “movie” as I still have tons of material to go through.

 

How has been the weather for you this summer?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts. Furthermore there is also my Instagram account in which from time to time some pictures and short videos might pop up.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam

https://www.instagram.com/Crazychinesefamily