Round The World

Auckland was packed and the parade was loud.

We walked via K-road, which is the most colourful and exciting street I know in Auckland to the Santa Parade.

The “Farmers Chistmas Parade”  heralds the christmas preperation period in Auckland.  Whole  Auckland is sitting on the siedways picnicing and watching the show. So did we.

We walked to the so called Domain. It is a reserve with lots of gardens and duckponds a very expensive cafe and a great tree to climb on.We also strolled by a hippie cafe where people left their wishes for life on a huge chalk board. It was a sunny wonderful walk.

Walking and climbing a lot Clara was so tired that she fell asleep on the way back nearly falling of Henryks shoulders. He caught her feed before her head hit the ground. In the end kind of funny.

The kids were amazingly brave. We started of in the afternoon and the sun was still giving us a sunburn. Since it is still spring though, one cloud was enough to get the chills. In the evening we relaxed at a playground munching on crackers and apples again. The playground was lots of fun. We used the flying fox and several tubes enjoying ourselves. On the peak it was quite touristic. But the view was excellent and Clara made lots of pictures with her camera.

Vincent got the chicken pocks. Thats why we had to bath im everyday. And it became fun.

Afterwards the whole family was soaked in green smelly water;) including Onchao (little unicorn) and Mietzi (cat).

when the best and simplest solution’s so close at hand (1,5 km) from home base. We packed our crackers, fruit pack and went to see the ducks again. It was a great walk. Not many people around and just the right thing to do with chicken pox babies.

Ponsonby is the “X-Kölln” or “Prenlauer Berg” of Auckland. We walked through this part of Auckland with its great restaurants and bars to Victoria Park whick we expected to be much more like Western Springs Lakeside Park. It was not more than a green sport arena. Afterwards we went to the harbour. Our goal: Eating Fish` n Chips! We ended up sharing some sushi and a muffin on a bench at the waterfront.

On our first trip in Auckland we went to a duck pond. Thats kind of what we thought of  in the first place. But arriving at the park made it clear for us that there are miles between a duckpond in Berlin or in Auckland NZ.

As always we planned in a playground stay for Clara.

Our next stop from there on this day was the medical center. Suddenly Vincent got weird spots over his body. The doctor diagnosed “Chicken Pox” and “both are going to be sick” and ” they are going to be grumpy”.  We were delighted! In the end though Vincent took it as a brave baby he is.

After standing in front of endless foodrows at Countdown, which made it quite challenging to make a  choice , we took what we picked and carried it home. At the end of the day we ate terrific sandwiches. They seemed to be especially good in the sunset with this great view on Auckland.

When we arrived in Auckland we were much more relaxed than after our first trp to California. The Flight had bee pretty relaxed and we got at least some sleep.The Taxi driver in Auckland was much more welcoming than the one in L.A. We arrived in the morning at Auckland and still had the whole day to enjoy the jetlag and get adjustetd. First we were introduced to our fabulous apartement by our terrific host Erica in Auckland. The view was amazing and a park with playareas nearby.

Before we occupied the appartement we went food shopping and of course on playground exploration in the Grey Lynn Park.

Last stop before leaving the U.S.

…although it is not In-N-Out-Burger but 50’s Diner.

Impressions from the Venice Canals, California.

…, Pacific Wheel, Roller Coaster and Beach. Back home by Velo Taxi.

Jetlags totally mass up everything. I think we were all very tired walking on clouds not beeing able to realize where we were and how lucky we are.

Venice is a great place to stay with children. Miles of white sandy Beaches are edges with Playgrounds and pretty clean public bathrooms. It is not actually a familiy crowded area though. But at least we always got a space on the swings.

Almost as good as the swings was the sand of the beach hmmm yummy.

After the first days were still al little chilly the sun became very strong in the middle in the week and catapulted us into summer.

On One of those days we walked from Venice Beach to Santa Monica. This was a great walk on the beach watching all those fitness junkies on muscle beach and hucge Playground for adults.

We ended up on Pacific Fun Park, making funny pictures in a foto cabin and on the ferris wheel. Clara actually made her first ride on a mini-roller coaster.

Finally after beeing already pretty tired we went home all crunched up in a velo Taxi.

… and other yummy stuff and insights into our Californian house including some of Clara’s first steps with her bright yellow photo camera.

After spending a surprisingly pleasent day at the airport in Heathrow we started our way to overseas.

We flew with the dawn and arrived at dusk around six o` clock local time (3 am Berlin time).  Henryk and I didn´t sleep at all. I think I needed the whole week to get over it. (Is that a sign of aging?). Clara and Vincent slept in beetween. Since Vincent had a bassinet though he slept better than Clara because in the first row the armrest are not foldable and she had to sleep straight in the seat, till we built a bridge of backpack and jackets between our laps. That worked.

The security line in L.A seemed endless taking into account that LAX is one of the most ugly airports I have seen so far. Very happy finally having passed the registration of my fingerprints we took a cab heading to our apartement. Henyrk tried to start talking to the taxi driver who simply ignored our attempt of beeing social. We made it finally safe and happy to arrive in our apartement in Venice Beach.

Tired as we were we took a last walk to Abbot Kinney Road, to get some food (Schinkennudeln). After Dinner we slept our first night in the wild west.

Status: Trip preparations ongoing