Columbus Day

Although Germany celebrates neither Columbus Day nor Canadian Thanksgiving, Gianna had off from school today. To celebrate, we decided to hit the Frankfurt Zoo. It was a ghost town partially due to the cold, damp weather and the fact we got there right when it opened on a Monday. After seeing all the animals, we feasted on hot coffee and a Papagei Waffel (mit chocolate sauce and the German version of M&M's, see above).

Apple orchard tour

Deutsche Börse held a rare family event on Thursday at Obsthof am Steinberg, an apple orchard where they make their own cider and apfelwein. It was nice to get out of the city and walk around a farm complete with sheep and a free roaming goat. The goat was getting into all sorts of trouble, eating the flowers and holiday decorations. At one point I turned my back on him and he butted me twice in the thigh, much to the delight of the gawking Germans. Hilarity. They had a creepy magician for the kids. When I say creepy, I mean I just question the motives of any man working as a kids clown/magician. During dinner, he held a magic show in a back room with me and two other parents supervising. Gianna volunteered us to participate in one of the acts. Mind you, this was all in German, so the kids got a real kick out of the fact that I had no idea what this magician was telling me to do. At the end of the night, Gianna let him give her a dolphin tattoo on the arm.

The goat in question:

Frankfurt Harvest Festival

There is never a shortage of festivals around here. For the next three days at the Frankfurt Harvest Festival, farmers have displays downtown with live farm animals, fresh apple cider, pumpkins, and all sorts of food. Gianna and I went this afternoon for two hours. She pet pigs, gazed at horses and cows, rode a small tractor, drank fresh cider, and ate a bratwurst and chocolate ice cream cone (with fresh ice cream). I was delighted to see the pumpkin tower, as was Gianna despite the pouty look on her face. She carefully examined several candidates until we found the perfect pumpkin, for only €3! We plan to go again tomorrow with Dan after work as long as the weather is nice.












After watching the large pig on the left scarf down food from a trough, Gianna thoughtfully remarked "eats like Bố loi". I had to concur. We spent a good five minutes petting the sleeping pig on the right, whose lethargy and pointy ears reminded us of Bruno.

Halloween decorations are up

Halloween is my favorite time of year. I love the costumes, the candy, and the seasonal decorations. All of our costumes and decorations are in storage, except for Gianna's dragon costume that I bought for her last year. After trying it on, she informed me she does not want to be a dragon, she wants to be a zebra instead. Well too bad, I don't think we'll be able to find a kids zebra costume in Germany. I was surprised to see the Galeria has a few costumes for sale (mostly witches and devils, all macabre, nothing cute), and a few decorations (mostly skulls and goblins, again, mostly macabre). I was able to pick up bat window stickers and bat and pumpkin garland for the balcony/kitchen door. Now all we need is a fresh Jack-O-Lantern. There are some pumpkin patches outside of town, but we don't have a car and can't drive a rental now that our grace period for using a US drivers license in Germany has expired. Also, Frankenstein's castle is located just 20 minutes south of Frankfurt, but again, no car to get there. We need to hire a private driver for all these Halloween destinations!

I love the UK

Germans love conformity. They have about 3 styles of kids shoes available in mauve (pictured), burgundy, or brown. They are ugly, overly supportive (like our kids are nurses on their feet all day), and EXPENSIVE. These modestly priced Lauflern-Booties will set you back €55. I guess that's why Germans buy all their kids shoes two sizes too big, so that they will last two seasons. Thank God for the UK, they are our lifeline for tasteful fashion at sensible prices. They offer US brands like Skechers and have character shoes like Dora that you can buy online (online purchasing is a concept foreign to traditional Germans). You should see the stares Gianna gets with her current pair of white [gasp!] Dora [choke!] sneakers [arg! not the German way!]. They have one too many sparkly stripes and a little Latino girl; what could be worse in the eyes of a German?

Tết Trung Thu, Mid-Autumn Festival

Otherwise known as the Moon Festival, Tết Trung Thu celebrates the full moon at the end of the harvest season. There are many traditions during this holiday that vary throughout Asia. Most often, families celebrate together by eating mooncakes while admiring the full moon and children light paper lanterns to show Chang'e (Cuội) and Jade Rabbit the way back to earth.

We celebrated with dinner at Mai Viên, a local Vietnamese restaurant. The feast included steamed rice dumplings (bánh cuốn), spicy Huế noodle soup (bún bò Huế), caramelized claypot chicken (gà kho gừng), and Vietnamese fried noodles with prawns (mì xào tôm). At the end of dinner, Gianna gave us a rare demonstration of her chopstick prowess. She puts me to shame.

The celebration continued at home with the lighting of a paper moon lantern. Gianna took it out on the balcony and called for Jade Rabbit.
Then we cut into the white lotus seed mooncakes. I almost bought the durian variety (authentic Vietnamese), which would have been a huge mistake in the taste department, but thankfully, the shopkeeper warned me at the checkout. Mooncakes are very rich; you can only eat about a quarter of a cake at one sitting, maybe half if you are really hungry.When we tucked Gianna into bed, she was chattering on about Jade Rabbit and the moon palace, wondering if he will find his way back to earth.

Oktoberfest

Mothers make a lot of sacrifices for their kids like catching vomit in your hands and cleaning up poop. I almost made the ultimate sacrifice--missing Oktoberfest :-O Gianna was über sick on Monday, with what I presumed was schweinegrippe, but turned out to be a simple rhinovirus with 105°F fever. Dan went to Munich without us while Gianna saw the doctor and recovered. By Wednesday morning she was feeling fine and ready to party, asking to go see Bố. So, in classic Marvin Landis* fashion, we did Oktoberfest in one day, catching an early Munich-bound train and arriving at the festival before the beer tents opened.

Dan met us at the gate with a Löwenbräu stuffed lion for Gianna. First stop: the beer tents. They were indeed large and I was amazed that they were actually modified tents and not completely solid structures.We ate breakfast at the Löwenbräu tent: weisswurst, a large doughnut, a beer, and mineral water in one of those huge beer mugs. Afterwards, we strolled around the fairgrounds, going on the slide and the ferris wheel.Shortly before lunch, the pony rides opened up. Gianna overcame her fear of horses and rode a pony without crying! It was so cute to see her bobbing up and down on top of that horse wearing her dirndl, she looked like a real cow girl...well a German cow girl, I guess. She also got to pet a lot of horses that were pulling wagons full of beer barrels. For lunch, we ate roasted chicken and bratwurst with some friends at the Paulaner tent. There was lively music and beer of course; Gianna was dancing and having a great time.Thereafter a novelty hat was purchased.By the end of the day, Gianna's dirndl was messed up with chocolate ice cream and whatever was all over the floor in the beer tents. We were ready to say auf Wiedersehen to Munich and head home to Frankfurt. Oktoberfest: mission accomplished!

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Oktoberfest

*Marvin Landis is my intrepid Dad. He believes whenever possible, all trips should start and end within a 24 hr period, thus eliminating the need to pay for a hotel room. The earlier in the morning you have to leave the better, as this accomplishes the task of "beating traffic". He has inspired such trips as driving a moving truck from PA to AZ without stopping to sleep, and driving a moving truck from MD to FL, again without stopping to sleep. Sleep is for sissies. Suck it up and keep driving!