Run Baby Run: Our European Adventure Part 1

Guten tag!

Dan and I returned from our European vacation two days ago, but life has been a blur ever since. We've been playing catch up with laundry, emails, groceries, and life. Luckily the weather at home has been beautiful, which made coming home a joy!

We left for Germany on Thursday, March 28, and had an overnight flight to Copenhagen before another hour flight to Hamburg. I was totally nervous about trying to sleep on the plane, but, thanks to the aid of a leftover Lunesta from my Lasik eye surgery, I slept like a baby! A lot of people don't advise taking a sleep aid on a flight, simply because in the case of an emergency, you have to be alert. But, like I read on another blog, if there's an emergency over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I'm not so sure I want to be awake and aware of it.

We flew Scandinavian airlines, which I really liked. They served us two meals, which were actually pretty tasty, even though we only flew Economy. I also learned that when they serve a meal, you get a free drink of your choosing! One mini bottle of wine later, I was in great shape for the flight. Dan mostly stayed awake and watched movies.

Upon getting to Germany, I was THRILLED to see Lynn sneaking up behind us in the airport! We arrived about 4 p.m. local time, and went to Lynn's fifth floor walk up apartment. It was then I realized how Europeans can eat pastries every day and still not gain weight -- there's so much climbing stairs! And walking!

We took it easy on Friday evening, going for a walk, and having dinner at Hofbrauhaus. After a seriously authentic meal of beer, pretzels, wienersnitzel, and cheesy spaetzel, we were full and happy. That's when the cold set in.

Yummy shandy!

Does this count as carb loading?

Our entire trip was unseasonably cold for this time of year in Europe. All the stress I caused myself about what to wear was almost instantly negated by the fact that I wore my winter coat the entire time (I kind of want to burn it now, because I'm so sick of it. Instead, I will hide it until next year). So, as we were walking around Haumburg, freezing our tail ends off, we stumbled into what Lynn called the sofa bar -- quite literally a bar filled with comfy couches. We ordered Bailey's and hot chocolate (Dan got beer) and settled in for a warm up on the couch. It was a great drink with great company.

Saturday kicked off with a run around the lake. It was overcast and even snowed a bit while we were running, but was a nice morning run nonetheless. We walked a LOT on Saturday. We went to the city center, the train station, and shopping. Dan and I had our very first currywurst (who knew such a thing existed?!), and we had afternoon cake and coffee at a restaurant called the Chocolate Maiden. This was one of my favorite parts of Germany... it's almost expected that you stop what you're doing in the afternoon and have cake and coffee! How great is that?! Great!

Hanging out with our new friend, the Chocolate Maiden!

That night, Lynn took us to the party street of Hamburg, the Reeperbahn. Let me tell you, things are different in Germany! Besides the typical bars and parties, there's also a lot of, umm, adult stores, and also, prostitutes. Lynn pointed them out to us because, get this, they were all wearing puffy winter coats and moon boots. Apparently that's the prostitute winter uniform. There were a LOT of them. And it's legal, which is even weirder to me. They were literally standing down the street from the police station. Hmph.

We ended up at an Irish bar where a live band was playing all American music. By midnight, we were tired, and heading home. We were the only people going home -- the bus was packed, but every other person was going out. Lynn says people really don't go out until 12, because most bars go until 5 a.m. I was just proud of us for staying up until midnight!

Easter Sunday started early with a trip to the Harbor, a visit to St. Michael's Church, and a yummy homemade Easter dinner made my Lynn. We had a lovely dinner with Amin, Lynn's boyfriend, and even enjoyed an Easter egg hunt, courtesy of Lynn!