The last week of Germany was wonderful. I got lazy and stopped posting, but I thought a final post was in order.

In the last few days of the trip, we took it easy. We went to the zoo twice, another indoor playground, the carnival, and shopped for new toys. John left on Sunday, so Bonnie and I had our hands more full than before. The zoo was amazing though; much cooler than any American zoos I've been to. You can get really close to the animals, and feed the elephants and the giraffes. And they didn't just have one or two of every animal; they had at least 10 elephants I could see, tons of baboons, lots of bears and tigers. It was great. And the kids could stay for hours without getting tired.

I don't think I ever mentioned the fireworks! Friday night (Friday the 8th) there were fireworks right outside, at St. Pauli church. Apparently they do them every Friday! They were absolutely beautiful, and went on for a good 10 minutes. I was amazed the kids slept through them. It was so wonderful to stand out on the balcony with a perfect view of them. That's the same church that has an 80-something year old man play the trumpet from the top of the tower every day at 9 in the morning and 9 at night. He plays in all four directions so everyone can hear it. It's sad though; it's an unpaid position and no one is inclined to replace him, so the multi-century-old tradition might be lost.

Saturday night (the 9th) was a blast because Bonnie and John invited some friends over to the hotel, and we sat outside on the deck eating pizza and drinking wine. It was nice for me because I put the kids to bed and then I got to hang out with the "adults". Their friends are all pretty young, so it was great to chat with some younger Germans about politics, school, life, etc.

We went to the carnival on the last night of the trip, which was a perfect way to end it. We went on rides, played games, did bumper cars, ate fair food (beer, fries, pretzels), and ended the evening with a ferris wheel ride that overlooked the whole city. The carnival (called the Dom) is really amazing because it's semi-permanent and is there 3 times a year, so it's huge and really well-established.

I was really ready at the end of the trip to come home, and the flight was easy and the kids well-behaved. But the last few days I have really missed the kids a lot! I got pretty attached to them! I am going over tomorrow to hang out one more time before I go to Mexico, but there's a good chance I might get to go back next year, this time to Berlin! That would be a really great opportunity. For now, I am relieved to be done with that trip, and excited to start packing and planning for Mexico. I just spent the weekend in VT with Mom and Dad and Gretta, and they bought me a great travel book about Mexico for an early birthday present. Now I just need to learn all the states and their locations, and master a few hundred years of history! Wish me luck!