The Events of Friday, June 24, 2011

Happy 14th Birthday Lindsey‼

                A fair amount of anticipation buzzed about our household. Usually for our family’s birthdays the birthday person receives a donut, usually chocolate, for breakfast. However, due to a German bank holiday yesterday, all the supermarkets were closed and we were not able to get a donut for Lindsey’s birthday today. We toyed with different ideas – should we spread ChocoDuo (basically chocolate frosting) on granola bars or Cheerios? How about on bananas? Maybe we could just hand her the jar and a spoon and wish her a Happy Birthday. My idea was the final one – wait until lunch, take her into a grocery store and let Lindsey choose her sweet of choice. We told her our plan at breakfast, and she, after making faces when we mentioned the other ideas, heartily agreed with it. So we set out from our quaint town of Dinkelsbühl and headed to the capital of Germany – Berlin.

                In Spain, Lindsey encountered her first round-a-bout. As we went round and round (because we were lost), Lindsey exclaimed, “This is fun!” Instantly she announced that she had decided that on her birthday, she wanted to go around a round-a-bout 14 times. As a result, when we drove out of Dinkelsbühl, we found a round-a-bout and started round. Circling around it fourteen times, we loudly counted each time we made a full circle. Everyone was laughing. At one point, Daddy asked Mommy to steer from the passenger seat so he could take off his sweatshirt. We ended up dizzy and perpetually leaning to the right. I’m quite sure we made many German people’s day – these crazy French people (our car has a French license plate) going around the round-a-bout again and again. As we completed the final circle, we all shouted 14! and again wished Lindsey a very happy birthday.

                Soon we were going straight again, (thank goodness!) and we headed towards Berlin, listening to a Rick Steves’ podcast on the way. The next notable happening in our day was our stop for gas and lunch. Daddy took Lindsey inside the tiny gas station and bought her a vanilla donut that happened to have crème in the middle. Then we drove on a bit further to a picnic table. Sneakily taking her presents from the car to their hiding place under the table, we commenced our lunch. After lunch we pulled out her donut, and her presents, and sang Happy Birthday in English, getting strange glances from all the people passing. Her presents mainly consisted of a lady’s kilt – the present we had bought in Scotland (with her knowledge). However she also received a pack of gum and a journal with shells decorating the cover. She feigned surprise well with the kilt and was excited to receive the other gifts and cards as well.

                After lunch we drove to the town of Wittenberg Lutherstadt (meaning Witten castle, the name of the town, and city of Luther, referring to Martin Luther.) This town was where, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a professor of biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg and also a monk, nailed his 95 theses on the door, changing the course of history and creating Protestantism. Luther had seen many people selling indulgences, promising entrance into heaven and short stays in purgatory. He nailed his theses to the cathedral door, as was custom in those days, as objects of discussion and debate. These theses circulated throughout all of Europe, and the Reformation began. Nowadays the former Catholic cathedral is now Lutheran, and Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses are engraved in bronze on the doors.             Once in Wittenberg, we parked and walked through a pouring rain to the church, mainly to see these doors. But when we learned that the doors were under construction, we headed inside and walked around the church with a laminated sheet of paper with information about different points of interest. We saw paintings of Martin Luther and most notably his grave, before heading back through, now of course, bright sunshine to our car.

                Continuing on to Berlin, we listened to another of Rick Steves’ podcasts and tried to stretch our cramped limbs in our small space. At last we arrived in Berlin and found our apartment with a couple of U-turns. Just as we pulled into our parking spot, a little boy across the street, noticing our French license plate, bid us a cheery “Bonjour!” before continuing on his way. After a short wait, we were welcomed into our new apartment and moved in. This apartment is rather cramped, with a small hallway and very cramped kitchen and dining table, but with three large bedrooms with two single beds in each. We sent Daddy and Ben shopping for supplies and then continued to unpack.

                Soon Daddy and Ben came back with lasagna, pizza, cake and ice cream for Lindsey’s birthday dinner as well as watermelon, cookies and many other things for the future. We quickly cooked up our dinner and sat down to eat. Partway through dessert, Dad commented on the cake and ice cream, “You know these two are a really good combo.” A second later, Ben said, “Yes, especially if they are mixed.” I thought this hilariously funny and chuckled through the rest of dessert. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing before going to bed.