Lebkuchen: Best Day Ever

James declared today to be the best day we have had yet in Germany. Somehow, we managed to cram more activity into this one day than we have done in the last 4 weeks.

It all began with much-needed haircuts for Micaela and me. Then David and I went to IKEA and picked up a desk, shelves and an office chair to make a scrapbooking station. Setup will need to wait a day, though. What is a few days when I have already waited months?

A little while later, David took Micaela and James to an outdoor skating rink in Frankfurt where James' teacher had arranged an informal get-together for the class. Many of his classmates were there and James at that point declared it the best day yet in Germany. Little did he know that the best was yet to come.

After a short rest, a recycling run and some food shopping, we all went out for an evening of Kegel, or bowling. David had been before, so he was not surprised when we first entered into a restaurant, descended the stairs and then ended up in our own personal bowling lane with a table set up for dinner.

The balls were about 1/2 the size of the American ones and the pins were also much smaller. The 9 pins had strings attached to them and they looked like marionettes when they were picked up and placed upright.

We first had fun bowling but had to adjust to only getting 1 attempt per turn and then with the pins being thinner, no one was able to knock down more than 8 pins at a time, and even that was a rare event. I grew up in New England doing candlepin bowling, and this was pretty similar.

Watch, Micaela. Watch and learn.

We enjoyed typical German fare for dinner. Here is a kid-sized schnitzel and fries. And no ice in soft drinks here. Schnitzel (usually pork cutlet) is something none of the kids wanted to try when we first moved here, but now they all order it when we go out.