Tag Archives: crazy Chinese mother-in-law

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

Few Hours in Hamburg

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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?

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Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Germans, Mom in Law, Our cute son

Hidden places can be found everywhere

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And the “sightseeing” tour continues! Our past travels had brought us to Kiel and to Lübeck however this time we didn’t go to any city as I was in no shape to drive too much and the weather was rather poor as well. So I came up with the idea to visit some nice spots in the surroundings villages of my hometown. Needless to say my wife and my crazy Chinese mother-in-law were not really that interested as one main aspect would be missing in that tour: Shopping…

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Just moments before her feet are getting soaked…

Indeed it took me a while to convince them that it might be nice to get out on that day even though the weather wasn’t that great. Furthermore MIL barely saw anything of this town except the city center and some grocery stores around our apartment. After a while I succeeded and hence our tour started by going to the north to visit Lake Einfeld (Einfelder See). It is a small lake in the northernmost part of my hometown and the district itself was 1970 a small village but got integrated into Neumünster due to changes in the county border/ district management. During warm summer days the lake is full of people trying to escape from the heat but on this particular day it was just too windy and rather cold resulting that only few people were windsurfing without anyone bothering them. Our little Nathan tried to hunt down the geese but they were tough opponents and in the end he had to escape himself. MIL wouldn’t be MIL without anything happening and she actually managed to get her feet soaked in the water and Nathan’s as well while posing once again for some pictures.

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View over the lake

After the lake we drove to the town Bordesholm to visit the old abbey and the old lime tree which is called just “Bordesholmer Linde”. What is so special about a lime tree you might wonder, well it is a pretty old tree as it is around 700 years old.  It is located in the historical center of the town and the diameter of the trunk is 2,30m. Even though the tree is taken care of by professionals it is still slowly dying due to the environmental changes. Behind the tree is the abbey dating back to 1332 so the tree pretty much was there from the beginning on. The original monastery to which the abbeysurroundings16 belongs was torn down somewhen in the early 1700s as due to the reformation nearly everyone became Lutheran and thus the monastery lost all its members over the decades. In the abbey are several tombs of old dukes and other high-ranking people of their time. Right next to the abbey is these days a retirement home in which is also a museum about the history of the area and there is also an entrance to the old vaults of the monastery which had been found during the construction of the retirement home. Furthermore there are some small parts left of the old monastery wall including a tunnel leading into the vaults and other secret places.

 

Our last destination for that day was the Boxberg, a “mountain” here with a height of 76,8m over the sea level. It is located in the Aukrug Nature Park and the Boxberg is part of the moraine landscape.  At the base of this huge mountain is a restaurant in which we strengthened ourselves with coffee and cake before attempting the dangerous climb. It was so steep that even Nathan had troubles getting all the way up himself but in the end he managed and was faster than his mother and grandmother! From the top we had a wonderful view of the surrounding area and it really felt peaceful there and secluded even with a herd of goats in the background. Seriously, why on earth was there a herd of goats? Because of them I could not even read several information boards regarding the history of this area as they were inside the goat enclosure which was protected by an electric fence!

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Moraine landscape

Even though all these places are located in the surrounding area of my hometown it took us the better part of the afternoon until we were again back home. Remember that MIL and my wife were in the beginning not really interested due to the lack of shopping possibilities? This changed and in the end they were rather happy that I convinced them to do this little sightseeing tour as it was a nice day and a new experience for them. I must also admit that I had never visited those places before in my life (except the lake) and was truly amazed what wonderful secret spots are so nearby my home.

Did you ever find some “hidden”  places near your home?

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Mom in Law

MIL’s Kitchen Weirdness

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It’s been now a few days since my Chinese mother-in-law left Germany and it gave us enough time to rediscover our kitchen. Before her 3 months visit I already feared that the kitchen might be destroyed but thankfully it didn’t go that far. However there are a few things which are not really anymore the same. Right now I have to disappoint you as I did not take any pictures of the kitchen during MIL’s reign as it was just too much to take and I didn’t want to have any record of it.

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MIL holding a speech about kitchen destruction

So what did happen in the kitchen? As you can see in the featured picture above it is a rather “simple” kitchen without too many things being all around. Well, it stayed a simple kitchen but it got stuffed with all kind of things. The kitchen counters were filled to the brim with Tupperware, vegetables, medications, some kitchen equipment, trash and other stuff. The same fate the fridge had to go through…filled to the maximum with all kind of things. The worst part was that she simply forgot some things/ lost the overview so more than just once food started rotting in some corners. The ultimate horrible happening was right after she had left and my wife went through the fridge. She found one Tupperware with some unknown creamy thing inside which smelled cheesy…it was the rest of the whipped cream my brother and his girlfriend brought for his birthday cake 6 weeks ago! My crazy mother-in-law just saved up the rests from that day and forgot about them.

Also some things broke during those three months. One bowl we lost as she dropped it from the fridge (yes, bowls filled with food, sauces and unknown materials were always in the fridge), another bowl has a crack, one part of the kitchen counter vanished (a small part to cover a gap behind), the tile flooring suffered as well, the fridge defrost drain got clocked more than once and many other smaller things.

Then there are the just weird things such as her talking often about how less many other Chinese are cleaning the kitchen equipment and she actually showing the very first day how to do it right but then never doing it again. This resulted that I spent hours scrubbing every pot clean/ back to their metallic look rather than the brownish crusted look, scrubbing multiple times the induction hob plate, the filter of the kitchen exhaust hood (usually done once every six months, during her reign every 2 weeks to no avail as oil was just running down on it all the time) and still much more things still. She seems to really dislike cleaning in the kitchen otherwise I can not explain this whole mess. I do not even want to mention the rice cooker…I still got nightmare from cleaning it. In my opinion she is a kitchen demon to wipe out humanity with dirty kitchen rags and rotten “things” all around.

Have you experienced similar kitchen nightmares?

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