Karl & Henri: Deutschlandtour revisited

Alright, once more a roundup of the hole trip. Starting in Weimar, birthplace of modern culture, the enlightenment and German democracy.

After some strategic planning we were off.

Ah - I forgot to mention that his place was also the birthplace of modern design (not too shabby a historical record for a town of 60K).

Even the playgrounds breathe high culture there.

Of course it helps, when sunlight gets filtered by willow trees, giving it all a golden glow.

Of course there was a castle too, where Karl and Henri enacted some not so democratic and not very cultured parts of history.

Followed by some wrestling in the castle's park.

We also got to visit the "abbess", who used to really run a nunnery in Northern Germany where Fred lived as a kid and had recorder lessons from the abbess. Who is around 90 years old now, living in a very nice home in Weimar, when she's not party hopping (good to have a large family at that age who drafts you to all these events every other weekend).

Alright, we also did some serious culturing there. I read an abbreviated version of Faust in the reading room of Goethe's old residence.

Later we went to see his garden house (sweet deal if the local prince is your sponsor).

Gotta say he knew how to hang this Mr. Goethe.

And gardening was obviously another one of his many fortes.

Last stop was "Die Lücke" (the Gap) a really cool pop-up restaurant run by students who just built it for the summer out of used wood serving just one dish per meal (tasty it was).

Next stop - Berlin. Three days with wonderful Gaby. While Gaby took Fred to have a pedi at the Soho House the boys and me went to the film museum where they had an exhibition for kids explaining how movies are made. Heaven for Karl (seen here in the screenwriting workshop drafting an action movie in which a baker chases down an alien).

Lots of great exhibits and interactive stuff.

Luckily the film museum is right next to the Lego center. So...

...we went again! Big time fun. For the boys... I actually preferred the part where we joined Gaby and Fred at Soho House lounging in large sofas consuming lots of calories from the massive brunch buffet.

If was of course not only high glamour in Berlin. You can also rough it and have a waffle breakfast on the half pipe.

That you can later test with some scooters somebody left for the public to use.

And of course there's all this history in town. We kinda explained the holocaust to the boys, but it was quite fine to use the memorial for some hide and seek.

No, really, believe me, we weren't the only ones.

Yup, we went here too. They even had a protest rally in front of it. All very authentic.

Karl and Henri also tried the hooligan thing for a bit.

But reverted to charming optical illusion posing (can't you see? They're actually lifting up the Reichstag).

After which we went back to the glamour part of town and visited Markus who once upon a time did very heroic things like founding Tempo Magazine (where I got my professional start), throw a big bash for his 40th in Vienna (where Fred and I met). In the meantime he gave up journalism and runs a quite prestigious gallery. He made quite an impression when he told Karl that one of his clients is Jogi Löw (trainer of the national soccer team) and showed him a soccer painting that he had one of his painters do.

Next stop - the Baltic Sea. I don't know, why we took so few photos there.

It was fantastic. We loved it.

After a quick stop at Emil Nolde's house, which is now a museum (again - great gardening)....

...and restaurant....

serving great waffles...

...we went to the island of Föhr (image taken during our bike trip, actually the first serious bike trip the boys did - almost 18KM! Gotta brag again....).