I only wish that right now I had my mom's little red notebook that she kept notes in so I could make sure not to forget any of them -- yes, we wrote down funny moments as they happened!
I am thinking I'll do this one in bullet form instead of large paragraphs. These are simply going to be in the order I remember them as I type this tonight!
- Lunch at what we now call "Sleepy's Chinese Restaurant." This was in Speyer, at what is actually the place that serves what we all agreed is the best Chinese food we've ever had. We couldn't find a restaurant that was actually serving lunch by the time we were ready to eat (lots of places close down here in the late afternoons to prepare for dinner.) However, the yummy Chinese place was open. We enjoyed our food and the waiter was so cute, saying "please, please" the time. (He was using a literal translation of a German word that means please and you're welcome, only he was using the wrong English word. Too cute!) Well, after we had all finished eating we realized we hadn't seen the waiter in a while. Not unusual, since waiters here let you enjoy your food and you have to signal them for everything. One problem: he wasn't around to signal that we were done. So we sat and waited and chit-chatted but after quite a while got kind of curious. Dad decided to walk over to the counter and see if he could peek into the kitchen and find him. He came back to the table with a bit of a goofy look - "He's asleep behind the counter!" We didn't believe him until he offered to buy lunch if he was making it up -- we knew then he meant it. So dad went to the bathroom and slammed the door once, then twice and all of a sudden the waiter shot up out of his chair and came running over to see if we enjoyed our food. You could tell he was horrified and probably had no idea how long we'd been out or if we knew. We didn't tell him, of course! Too cute!
- Gabriella picking us up at the airport and not remembering how to find the parking lot! It was fun :) Then later we arrived to meet Simon for the first time with his wonderful breakfast he had prepared for us. We learned all about "Simon the Troublemaker" who that afternoon redeemed himself into becoming "Simon the Tourguide." My mom and I definitely enjoyed touring by the Royal Palace guards and getting our picture taken next to them! We also had a fika (coffee break) in a coffee shop built inside a 700-year old prison that day.
- Seeing the speedbump sign in Uppsala, Sweden: The Swedish word is "Farthinder." HAHA Of course we all had to get our pictures taken by the sign! (Okay, actually only dad and I had our pictures taken there).
- Riding the train to Uppsala and seeing my mom's goofy grin as the very attractive ticket taker came through -- she of course pulled out her camera and asked for a picture. :) He didn't mind!
- Eating dinner at Story, a new restaurant in Stockholm. The place was very nice -- cool atmosphere, kinda built below the street level so you are looking up at the people walking by. However, the boys got nervous when they saw the portion size, and we all got nervous when we saw the menu prices and the waitress told us we were supposed to order two entrees! Carl decided to be daring as he thought Simon explained that 'tartar' was actually very lean meat. Oh contrare. He later found out when his biff tartar arrived, that it was actually a plate of raw meat. Hence he is now King Carl de Tartar. He ate it! We all laughed hysterically! We all then ordered two desserts since we had to order two entrees. Almost the Swedish kronar equivalent of $350 later, we finally left.
- Walking into the Frankander residence on our second visit there and mom saying "Oh, this is nice! Where are we now?"
- Eating schneeballen in Rothenberg. It was fun to introduce them to a treat we had been talking about. A week later, finding mom sneaking a bite of schneeballen in the kitchen still. (It's okay, I had been sneaking bites earlier. Those things seriously last a long time!)
- Learning all about the funny rules and laws of mideival times at the Crime and Punishment Museum in Rothenberg. Who would have known that people were punished for telling smutty jokes, being a blabbermouth or baking a loaf of bread too small? We decided none of us would have lasted very long in that time period!
- Eating dinner in Leimen on their first night there, and seeing them try authentic German food for the first time. Dad never did find another dish he liked better than his Schwabentopf (I am sure I spelled that wrong) the first night!
- Eating ice cream in downtown Heidelberg after shopping and a nice old lady started chatting with mom in half English-half German.
- Mom taking pictures of everything! But the Flickr site is perfect for displaying all of them, and I'll admit, I took a lot too!
- Hiking to the gorge in Garmisch only to discover it was closed! But we went around the sign and kept hiking anyway. Got some great pictures.
- Watching dad demonstrate how to ski jump at the Olympic Ski Stadion (1936 ski jumping stadium) in Garmisch.
- Night Watchman's Tour at the Heidelberg Castle -- this was something I was covering for work, and we did it their last night there. Awesome. We were in the year 1622 and touring the castle with the night watchman as he was preparing for a battle with the Catholics. We met a sergeant, a townslady and the castle maid along the way. So much fun! Perfect way to end their trip but also a must for everyone else who is coming to visit!
- Walking, walking, walking.... we walked everywhere in Sweden, then hiked in Garmisch. Lots of exercise.
- Touring the Neuschwanstein Castle. The hike up to it is about a 30-40 minute hike basically straight uphill (it switches back and forth too). The walk itself was actually fun too and we beat the crowd. The castle was amazing.
- Searching for the lost city of Zitzelville (pronounced Zitzelwill) as we drove through Bavaria -- trying to find my grandma's long lost relatives!!
- Leif, Gabriella's father, singing a song after serving everyone "Swedish Punch" in celebration of Gabriella's birthday. All I know is that it burned when I drank it! But I had to ater he sang that song!
- Candy stores, candy stores, candy stores! We bought lots of gummies in Heidelberg but in Sweden I think we hit every single candy store we walked by -- their candy is awesome!
Alrighty well I think that's enough for now. I am sure I have left out many more of our favorite funny moments but I think this is good for now. :) I will add more as I think of them!
I hope you've enjoyed and I look forward to many more funny moments with whoever our next visitors are...any takers???
1 comment:
Oh, yeah. And nobody believed Mr. Chung was asleep behind the bar. You can also mention the two memorable moments at the sauna and the whirlpool. Or maybe you shouldn't.
Post a Comment