Category Archives: Travels

Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Mom in Law, Travels

Few Hours in Hamburg

24 Comments

Now I’ve reached the last city we visited with my Chinese mother-in-law. We wanted to go to Hamburg already much earlier during her three months with us but it never worked out. However this time we really managed it as it was just a few days before she would be flying back to China. Another important reason for this city visit was to get for little Nathan his Chinese travel document so he can go ‘Visa-free’ to China. But the most important reason for the two women was of course shopping…

HH7
Alsterarkaden

Our first destination was the Chinese Consulate General located at the Elbchausse. The Elbchausse is a street which is a bit different from most others as it is full of old villas and framed by ancient trees and parks. From there you also have a good view over the river Elbe and part of the container port. The Chinese Consulate General is in one of those huge villas but sadly the area we had to visit was located next to the villa in some small side building. Everything went without problems when applying for this travel document except that they were surprised or lets say confused about the Nathan having two nationalities. After this short visit we headed to the city center for the shopping and of course for some food.

To find the right place for our lunch wasn’t that easy even though we passed by many restaurants. The reason behind it was that we spent rather much money on food in the other cities and wanted to keep it a bit more simple this time. Thankfully I had just recently read one blog post by CL (RealGunner) about his Europe trip and eating out well in the train stations. This gave me the idea to find out what Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hamburg Main Railway Station) has to offer. Lets just say the amount of restaurants and snack bars is just stunning! Within short time there we found some Asian food for the women and I went to the snack bar right next to it to eat something more German: Currywurst and beer. Though my food was pretty decent the women were not so fond of their lunch, well they had to take again some Asian food and of course it won’t be as good as in China but I guess they will never learn.

HH12
Busy railwaystation

Now came the prime time for both MIL and my wife as we headed to Mö (Mönckebergstraße) one of the main shopping streets in Hamburg and with enough stores to keep MIL busy for a few weeks. At this point I need to say that crazy mother-in-law had some bad day or something similar as she lost her shopping mood after just a few stores, something what had never happened before. This gave me the opportunity to take them a bit around the city center to visit some tourist sightseeing points. The first place I took them was the Hamburg Rathaus (Hamburg Town hall) which is a very impressive building. On that day there was some kind of event as the plaza in front of the town hall was filled with a South German styled market offering food and drinks from that region. The town hall is located next to the Binnenalster another tourist spot and of course leading into another shopping street, Neuer Wall. This shopping street is full of those luxury stores and MIL was going around video taping everything. This is just her, filming a shopping street even though the same stores she can also visit in Xi’an.

HH1
Landungsbrücken

From the shopping street I took them to the Finnish Seamen’s Church in which Nathan and me were baptized. There we had some Finnish snacks and drinks and went on to our last destination the Landungsbrücken/ St. Pauli Landing Bridges. Back in the day big oversea ships landed at those piers but these days only the harbour cruise ferries and some other small vessel are stopping there. By now both women were exhausted from this little walking around and wanted nothing more than heading back home again and thus our few hours in Hamburg ended. Just two days after this trip we drove to Hamburg again but this time it was to send MIL to the Hamburg Airport for her journey back to the east.

Have you tried before to do a sightseeing tour with only a few hours time in a big city?

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.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam

 

Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law, Travels

Discovering the Hanseatic City of Lübeck

29 Comments

My Chinese mother-in-law is gone now, she just left a few hours ago from Hamburg Airport and life goes on its normal path once again. This week was pretty busy as we had some little sightseeing tours in different cities around here which started with Kiel last week. The next stop on our sightseeing list was Lübeck, another port city in this state and roughly 45 min driving distance away from my hometown. I have been there before only for swimming competitions and once long time ago during a school trip and thus I had to check myself what to visit before going there.

Lübeck16
Nice cafes are all over the place

Lübeck or the Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second largest city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and has around 200.000 inhabitants. It got its Hanseatic title back in the day and was known as the “Queen of the Hanseatic League” during the 14th century. Even though the city suffered also a lot during the air raids during the second World War there is still very much of the historic center left. Lübeck is also home to Niederegger. I know, many people outside of Europe are not the biggest fans of Marzipan and especially Asians have a dislike for it however for most people here it is just wonderful.

Lübeck1
Lübeck recreated with Marzipan!

Enough of all the background info and lets start with our little trip around the city. We had luck with the weather as it wasn’t so hot anymore as the previous days and a little breeze from the ocean kept the air nicely fresh. After some confusing ride through the city (thanks to the GPS device slowly failing me…) we arrived at a parking garage and we could start our sightseeing tour. Okay, we actually headed straight to the restaurant I had picked out as it was already past noon and our stomachs were growling. Our destination was the restaurant “Kartoffer Keller” (Potato Celler) which had a variety of different dishes made out of, guess what, potatoes! The restaurant itself is located in the historic vault of the old Heiligen-Geist-Hospital (somehting like Holy-Spirit-Hospital). It looked pretty impressive in my opinion especially as I havent been before in a restaurant located in a vault. I have only read about them such as Leipzig’s Auerbachs Keller featured on Henry Lee’s blog Fotoeins. I surely enjoyed my meal which was of course with potatoes (grilled potatoes) with egg, some unknown vegetables (all vegetables are unknown to me, I just call them the green stuff) and a steak, more than enough for me. The women however are not really fond of German food so they did not enjoy it so much. Nathan was a real hero and after he finished his own baby food he helped to empty his mother’s plate, he surely does love German food!

Lübeck10
Part of the Kartoffel Keller

After this was survived we started our sightseeing tour/ shopping tour. Sightseeing in a way that we went through the historic city center and took some nice pictures and shopping as the entire city center is filled with stores those two women just had to visit. This gave me the chance to go around on my own with the camera. Lübeck certainly offers a lot of opportunities to take pictures however I faced the dilemma of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of photo opportunities that I gave up after a while and headed back in search of my family.  Somehow this short shopping time was enough for them and they were ready to head back home but I decided to have a stop at St. Mary’s Church. This I did as MIL is a very religious person so I thought it might be interesting to take a look inside. However once we were inside and MIL realized that the entry fee was 2 Euros she didn’t want to go inside anymore. The entrance fee is basically there to finance the restauration work as this church got some years on its back and needs constant fixing as any other old building does but MIL did not really comprehend this and was asking my wife non-stop why there would be an entrance fee for a church…

Another part of the town hall
Another part of the town hall

Though the day seemed pretty short in Lübeck we did in fact spent nearly half day there and the only reason to head back home was because Nathan’s dinner time was approaching. I certainly hope to go to Lübeck with my wife again in the near future as there is still so much I want to discover in the historical city center. One thing became clear during this trip: No more German food for the two women!

What do you think about entrance fees in historical buildings such as churches and what is your opinion about German food?

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.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam

Crazy Family, Our cute son, Travels

Flying with a Baby

42 Comments

In the end of August we have our upcoming holidays in China. This means that we will fly from Hamburg to Helsinki and then from there straight to Xi’an. The first stretch within Europe only takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours but the final flight will be roughly 9 hours. Yes, 9 hours with a little baby with us. Our little Nathan is surely no novice anymore when it comes to flying as one year ago we had a one week holidays on Rhodes which included a 4 hours flight which he managed like a champ. No real crying the entire time, instead mostly staring at the other passenger, eating or sleeping. But no, it will be a bit different as he is one year older by now and much more work. He won’t sleep the entire time, oh no, he will be restless and won’t stay in our lap for several hours in a row.

WP_20140803_16_36_44_Pro
Flying is fun

I guess everyone has experienced on a flight already the kid who is seemingly crying the entire trip. What can be done against it? Not so much, except praying and having enough stuff with to distract the child. We have on our mind to have enough snacks with us, some of his favorite toys (such as an empty yoghurt box, he just loves to play with trash…) and a tablet with some Crayon Shin-chan or Moomin episodes. He can be distracted very easy for multiple hours but sometimes he got his grumpy days where all hell breaks loose. Furthermore we are afraid about the jet lag. One of our ideas was to change his sleeping pattern for a couple of days before the trip to make the adjustment to the new timezone easier but we have no clue if that works.

 

Do you have any tips for flying with a baby? What are your stories with crying kids on a plane?

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.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam