The Mouse has been studying potatoes at school and due to the warm summer the harvest happened the first week back at school. This was the sneek preview potato before the big Kartoffelfest on the last Friday in August. She has been wanting to try spiral potato cooking after a good one at the Royal Adelaide Show 2 years ago and this day and this potato were the perfect combination. The class festival coincided with the arrival of Family M who popped in whilst on their Europe Grand Tour. As always a train is late and you miss the bus when you really want to be eating potatoes but we made it in time having dropped off the majority of the tour group at home and shown them where the food and drink was. Hey we brought a big bag of potatoes home later and you don't get a better welcome than a bag of potatoes and sharing stories with great mates!
There is no better incentive to try your language skill than to be given 2 euros and dragged to the lolly stand with your friend. The grown ups stood back and watched as all kids (yes I still call the teenagers the kids) were amazing and gave it a red hot go. It must have worked as they all came back with a bag of lollies and a couple of extras thrown in for their effort.
After the Wochenendemarkt and the kids just swimming and hanging out catching their breath we headed out for a Radtour on the Sunday. We packed up the bike bags and backpacks with rations for the day and off we went. We picniced and wandered in the grounds of two grand houses and rode around 25kms. Bless the kids they all wore their Berlin shirts!
Trying to decide weather to try the other way home...it was a winner!
Monday morning was tricky as our kids had to go to school but off they went and Familie M and I prepared to head into the museum. Luckily we are a slow moving machine as around 9 30am the Bear comes unexpectedly home from school. After we heard him ring the bell we all curiously gathered around the door. As a mum you get worried when your kid comes home early looking flustered and panting from riding fast and running up the stairs to the door. As he entered his victory arms went up and he managed to get the word "Fliegebombe" out. Turns out a WW2 bomb had been found on a building site nearby and they got evacuated. So with one kid home I am wondering where his sister is. After realising my phone was on silent and I had missed 2 calls the Monkey got in touch to make sure someone was home (as the school directed) and came home too. Then I got an email from the school explaining. I love that the Bear heard go home if you can contact your parents and so took off faster than Speedy Gonzalas but the Monkey followed the rules and went to the 'safe' area. Appartently the Bear's backup plan as he didn't have a house key was to head to Herr F's office in town.
New word for the day... Kampfmittelraeumdienst = bomb squad
So we all went to soak up some art and culture with the aid of icecream.
Much to the disappointment of the Bear and the Monkey it was all very efficiently sorted out and around 4pm we got the email saying school would be on the next day. We all had such a fantastic time showing our friends from home our home away from home.
Unbelievably 10 people can, for a short time live in a small appartment with one toilet in the bathroom and still be best friends when the time is up. We also made it through the long list of possible (I had promised Herr F that I wouldn't explode the guests) adventures to do with Family M including a ladies lunch, lads beer tasting night and a cuppa afternoon with Herr G who was surprised to see our dining table in the apartment foyer when he entered. 10 people only requires a bit of furniture shuffling.
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