AND................... We're Booked!!!

The DEL has a break from games next week and after the boys have practice next Wednesday, they are free for 4 days. So we've finally booked our first trip out of Hamburg. We're going to...........

PARIS!!!!!!

Eiffel Tower, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers Lagen!

Kevin and I are so spoiled here because we once again had visitors in town last week. Kevin's brother, Mike (or Slick, whichever you prefer!), and 2 buddies, Brad and Dan came to spend a week in Germany. And boy, did they have a whirlwind of a trip! They literally did a German tour in the span of 8 days! Let me tell you a bit about this trip!

night one on the Reeperbahn

Day 1. Arrival: The boys get into Hamburg on Friday, take a nap, and start drinking to pre-game for Kevin's hockey game that night. We go to the game (Freezers won) and have a few more beers there. Kevin drops them off at the Reeperbahn for a night out and I hear them fumbling with the key to get back into our place at about 6:45.  A.M.!! What?????? I have never been more impressed!

Day 2. Saturday: Kevin leaves in the morning to go down to Dusseldorf with the team for Sunday's game. The boys don't get up until late afternoon just in time to go to the Hamburger HSV soccer game. They were hurting pretty bad after Friday so they were home and on the couch before I was home from a dinner out with the girls.



Brad, Dan, and Mike downtown



Day 3-6: The boys take Germany's high speed train (travels 260 kilometers/hr) to Dusseldorf to watch Kevin's game. They proceed from there to Munich and Berlin before coming back to Hamburg. Somehow they also find the energy to stay out into the early morning hours in all of these cities as well! They get back to Hamburg Wednesday afternoon and treated Kevin and I to a steak dinner downtown.

Day 7: Thursday: Kevin had to leave once again to head down to Iserlohn with the team for Friday's game. The boys met me downtown after my class to shop around and go to a Currywurst restaurant. Shannon and I take them out for the night and trick them into a "boy band" karaoke sesh of "It's Raining Men" at one of the bars on the Reeperbahn. It's considered an early night for them and we are all home by 4 a.m.






"It's Raining Men, Hallelujah!"



"Wannabe" Spice Girls











Friday night is much more relaxed for these guys and Saturday morning, it was off to the airport we went! Needless to say, these boys enjoyed their trip, being able to run around Germany consuming countless numbers of beers and making up their own German slang, "Cheers Lagen!" What does that even mean???? Kev and I were really happy to have them here with us and wish their stay could have been longer!

Mike in front of the Schmidt Theater, a comedy theater on the Reeperbahn

As for a hockey update, the boys won their game yesterday and are currently in 2nd place in the league. They only have a game on Sunday of this week and then have a break for a week with no games. After last nights game, the team captain organized an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant downtown for the entire team and their wives/girlfriends.

It's back to normal around this apartment and back to a regular work week for me! Hans and his father ended up just joining me for the game yesterday and really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was Hans's first hockey game and the entire game he kept asking me where is Kevin, is Kevin playing now? He's taken a real liking to Kev and even saved him a seat in the VIP room after for dinner.

That's all from here for today, Tschüss!

Your first Hamburg History lesson!

Europe, Germany, and Hamburg itself is full of history! Yesterday Kev and I took a little "lift" ride to the steeple of the Mahnmal St. Nikolai (St. Nicholas Memorial). Although there are a few different historical churches/chapels in Hamburg, St. Nikolai is the tallest. When it was built back in 1874, it was considered the world's highest sacral building. The point of the steeple is 483 feet high. This church burnt down in the "Great Fire of 1842," and the citizens rebuilt between 1845 and 1874.


St. Nikolai



View of town hall from St. Nikolai steeple



St. Nikolai served as a landmark for the bomber pilots during World War II air raids in 1943. Hamburg was one of the most destructed cities during the war. Over the course of three days and nights, Allied airplanes attacked Hamburg in what was called "Operation Gomorrha." This operation is the most extreme in the history of international air war. Bombs put the city up in flames and caused a "fire storm." Over 35,000 people died during this while temperatures were pushed over 2000 degrees (C). Over 250,000 homes are destroyed along with St. Nikolai.



View of the ports from St. Nikolai steeple



The only remains of St. Nikolai after the air raids of the war were the steeple and parts of the walls. After this destruction, it was decided that St. Nikoai would not be rebuilt and it the ruins were declared a historic monument in 1960. Between 1973 and now, the St. Nikolai has been reconstructed into a memorial. Even while Kevin and I visited St. Nikolai, they were completing further construction on maintaining the church. We were amazed at the detailed architecture of this church, it is by far the most beautiful church I have ever seen.

We were also able to go into a small exhibit while we were here. The exhibit had old artifacts from the church's remains, but the most touching part of the exhibit were the pictures they had. There lines and lines of photos of areas of Hamburg after the air raids. We were able to visualize the destruction and get a tiny glimpse of what the people of Hamburg had gone through. They also had an area with pictures of parts of the city before the air raids, during the war, and present day photos. You can see one of those photos below.



St. Nikolai after the air raids



before/after photo

On a different note, we have visitors coming tomorrow! Kevin's brother Mike and two of his buddies arrive early tomorrow morning. It is going to be a riot around this household in the next few days! Have a great weekend everyone! Tschüss!

Trying new things!

I feel like we have been pretty busy around here, so there hasn't been too much time for a blog update! I have really been starting to get into a class/work routine. Bea and I have discussed and came up with more of a set schedule, which is wonderful, because the first couple of weeks we were basically going day to day. I would head to their house in the morning not even sure what time I would be coming home at. But now we have set 3 days a week aside for me to come work. Mondays and Thursdays I go straight to their house after class, stay until seven, and Fridays I go there from 10-5. This leaves me with only having class Tuesday and I get Wednesdays and the weekends completely to myself. It also works out great with Kevin's game schedule that I shouldn't have to miss any.

However, we did already pick a Sunday afternoon game for me to stay home with Ida, and for Hans and his parents to get to go to Kevin's game! Hans has never seen a hockey game before but after seeing Kev occasionally, he talks about Kevin and ice hockey a lot. He is always asking me where Kevin is and what Kevin is doing during the day and gets really excited to see him when he picks me up from work. Other than that, on the work and class front, things have been going really well. I am beginning to understand a lot more of what Hans and his mom say to each other and communicating with Hans is slowly but surely getting easier!

Source: Google Images

Since I titled this post trying new things, I should probably give a little update on what those new things are! My brother will be proud to know that I drove Shannon and myself to the boys' game on Sunday. The catch here is that means I drove stick shift!!!!!! After a couple short lessons my first week here, I had been completely dreading getting behind the wheel and basically avoided it as much as I could (which has made me a pro with the train/bus system!) But Shannon was a trooper and took me to the empty Ikea parking lots to practice before the game and I drove us to it, and Kevin made me drive back home after! This may seem trivial to some people, but I have been so nervous about this stick shift thing so I am pretty dang proud of myself! :-)

The other new thing we tried was SUSHI! Now, I have had sushi a time or two before, but Kevin has never put in a full effort to try an entire meal of sushi. We went with 3 of the other couples last night to a sushi restaurant of one of the famous sushi chefs in Hamburg. I personally really liked everything we got and although Kev liked it, he definitely isn't sold on having it regularly. Supposedly Olivia Palermo (a New York socialite and from MTV's The City, for those of you that don't watch trashy reality shows) was eating at this restaurant while we were. I wasn't made aware of this until we were leaving so I didn't actually see her. I need to make sure everyone knows that being from a small midwestern town, I would really appreciate if people do an obnoxious point or shout the next time we see anyone remotely famous! I mean, come on, I'm just trying to be one of 'those people' sneaking a candid shot of the famous person!

Basically ate sushi with her last night
Source: Google images

Anyway, that's the news around Hamburg these days! Kevin's brother, Mike, and his buddy Brad are due into town on Friday for a visit, so I'm sure I'll have crazy stories soon. I'm bracing myself already for these two boys! Only kidding, Mike, can't wait to see ya!

I suppose before I go, I should give a bit of a hockey update. The boys won their game Friday night and lost this past Sunday, so they are currently sitting in 5th place in the league. Sometimes the league website, http://www.del.org/ puts up highlight videos of the previous games so scroll around that website if you'd like! Tschüss everyone!

RHCP!!

Kevin just got back at around 4 this morning from a three day road trip with 2 games. The boys won their game on Sunday 6-5 and lost 4-3 on Tuesday. Kev had his first point in regular season games with an assist Sunday night. With the boys out of town for a few days, us girls didn't want to be lonely so Sunday night we got some tickets to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the O2 World Arena (the arena the boys play in). We scored pretty awesome seats for getting our tickets the day of the show and the Chili Peppers put on a pretty amazing performance! I was also lucky enough to get a text from Bea during the show saying I didn't have to come nanny the next day. Which obviously meant I got to give in to a few extra drinks with the girls!

Since the boys had a long road trip, Shannon and I made them a pretty epic brunch today complete with chocolate chip banana pancakes! So delish! I have had all week off so far so it is back to work for me tomorrow. Kev has an away game on Friday and then they are finally back home on Sunday for a game. I can't wait to see him play again!

At the beginning of next month, Kev has a week long break in the season so we have started looking for places to take a vacation for 4 or 5 days! The Scherenbergs recommended Barcelona to us and Italy is also at the top of our list! Any suggestions??

I'll just leave you with some pics from our concert (And Laira, a vid for you!)! Tschüss!

Cat and Shan with serious moves

 

 

Circus Krone

Yesterday, Kev got to head over to a teammates house and have a feast for the Canadian Thanksgiving. Can you believe that they told me I wasn't allowed to come since I'm American?? That's because they didn't, I couldn't go because I had plans to go to the Circus with Hans and his dad. Circus Krone is Europes largest and oldest circus, so knowing that, I was pretty friggin excited! Circus Krone is based in Munich, but they are currently on a summer tour through Germany. The circus has animal trainers and performers from 14 different countries. I'll let the pictures do the rest on this one!

 

 

 

 

Kevin left this morning for a little road trip. The boys flew this morning to their game against the Straubing Tigers and they will fly tomorrow to get to Köln for a game on Tuesday. A few of the girls and I may be going to the Red Hot Chili Pepper concert tonight, but we aren't sure yet! Have a great start to your week everyone! Tschüss!

Horst's visit to Hamburg - part zwei

On Tuesday, the Freezers had their NHL Premier challenge against the L.A. Kings. The match was kept pretty friendly but both teams played hard and the Kings won but only by a goal, 5-4. The highlight for us was that Kevin scored his first goal as a Freezer in this game! The highlight video was put up on nhl.com and below is the video! Kev is #32 and got our teams second goal. The other neat thing about this video is you can hear a little of how intense and loud the fans are.



Terry left to go back to Dubai on Wednesday morning, so it was just the three of us for Horst's last day. Horst went with Kevin to practice in the morning and he was able to pick up a few Freezer's souveniers. We lied low the rest of the day and went over to the Elbe Einkaufzentrum, which is a huge indoor shopping center, and just hung out at the apartment at night. While we were at the mall, Kevin did a phone interview wih someone from the Hannover Indians (the team he played with last year). Little did he know, that interview was recorded live and put on their website as a podcast so you can all listen to that here!
Horst has since left for the airport so it is back to just the two of us around this apartment. It was great to have some visitors and to see some family for a few days! I better get going so I don't miss the train to get down to my German class! Tschüss!

Horst's visit to Hamburg - part eins




Horst, Kevin's dad for those of you that don't know him, got into Hamburg last Thursday morning. We took him to an Italian place downtown for dinner that night and got him out and about to see Hamburg downtown in the evening. Since I've been here, I haven't really seen much of downtown at night so it was great to be able to walk around. The city is beatiful at night and if I hadn't forgotten to put the battery in my camera, I'd have some pictures to show for it! Friday, Kevin had a home game so Horst and I went pretty early to check out the arena and watch warm-ups. Horst got to try his first currywurst before the game and enjoy a few Weissbiers throughout! After the game that the Freezers won, we headed into the VIP room for a great buffet and to wait for Kev after the game. Not to mention, the food and drinks are free here, so we thoroughly enjoyed that! Currently, Kev's team is 4-1 and tied for 1st place in the league.



Horst and Kev in front of Town Hall



Saturday, we went with a few of the other North American couples and did a bus tour downtown. The tour was done in a "hop on hop off" way so that we could get off at different areas of the city and do our own sightseeing before getting back on the bus to head to the next location. This was a great way to see the different sights of the city and to find some places that we want to explore more.

Sunday, one of Horst's good buddies Terry, flew into Hamburg to visit from Dubai. We decided to take them both over to Blankenese, one of the ritzier areas right along the water with beautiful views and homes to check out. 

 We stopped at an Italian Gelato Cafe to sit outside and enjoy the weather (it has been sunny all week and in the 60s/70s which is unheard of here for this time in Hamburg). Kevin tried the eis spaghetti which is vanilla gelato that looks like spaghettie noodles, strawberry sauce and white chocolate pieces that look like parmesan cheese.



Spaghetti Ice Cream!

Last night, we had dinner on the Reeperbahn (Hamburg's entertainment district, I'll devote an entire post eventually to explain this area of Hamburg) and left Horst and Terry to fend for themselves and have a boys night out together. They had a great time checking out the Las Vegas style strip and I'm sure they got pretty roudy at all the bars and pubs! They actually got pretty lucky because today is a holiday in Germany so the Reeperbahn was extremely busy for a Sunday night. Kev and I got to enjoy watching most of the Packer game on our slingbox last nght! Kev has an afternoon game today so I need to get going to head on over to that! Tomorrow the Freezers play the L.A. Kings in an NHL premier game so check back soon for an update! As for me, the Scherenbergs got home from vacation last night so tomorrow is back to class and work before the hockey game! Have a great week everyone, and I hope all my Wisconsin friends enjoyed the great sports weekend we had! Tschüss!