Easter Weekend Pics

First of all, thanks to all of you who wrote or commented with updates on what's going on in your lives.  We really miss being able to easily keep up with all of you, and it's nice to hear what's going on there.  Keep it up! (For those who don't have a blog/haven't sent an update - take a hint ;)

I don't have a ton of pictures from Easter weekend, but it was a nice time of relaxation and enjoyment of the beautiful weather God sent our way that weekend.  Most of all, however, it was a wonderful time of worship and reflection on Christ's sacrifice for us!

Hope all of you are doing well!  Hugs and enjoy!

On Easter Friday (Good Friday - which we had off work/school!) we went to see the memorial for victims of war and persecution downtown.

There are many steeple towers in HH, but we both agree this one is the coolest, and when we checked it out, we found that it is actually a memorial rather than a cathedral!

Info about the memorial (I took this pic especially for you Mom! ;)

The Grand Entrance! (Sidenote: it is really amazing to us, being from a nation whose national culture is a mere 233 years old, to see some of these truly old structures!)

One of the "windows!"

A bronze in the courtyard of the memorial which represented a child who had lost his family.

After leaving the memorial, we walked along and found a cool little alley which led to a little dock on the edge of one of the small tributaries of the river Elbe (which runs in front of Sidonie's school.)

Sid on the dock with her school in the background.

Closer pic of Sidonie's school: Joop van den Ende Academy.

I took some pics of Sid enjoying the warmth!

Contemplation...

After enjoying the dock, we walked to Rathaus (Townhall) which is a big tourist/shopping area.

Rathaus with the trees getting ready to bloom.

On our way to Rathaus we saw a really cool suit - Sid: You'd look great in that! Me: I'll bet it's expensive (this is the ritzy area of town.) And the verdict...

It was indeed expensive!  Translation of German -> Suit: 2,600 Euro, Shirt: 339 Euro, and Tie: 149.50 Euro!  W O W!  I'm pretty sure I've never worn a suit that costs as much as that shirt!

After our great time in town, we stopped and had dinner at a Thai place we've been wanting to try near our house.  We had set aside some money to go after we found that they have Vegan options!  I got the Thai Curry, and Sid got the Stir-Fried Veggies - both of which were YUMMY!

On Saturday we stayed around the house and had a picnic at the lake (see previous blog for pics of the lake area.)  We had set aside 5 Euro each to get each other a gift for Easter to remind us of the Gift Christ gave so many weekends ago.  

Here is Sidonie's 5 Euro Easter Basket!  Yes, that is the inside of our salad spinner with tissue paper for "grass!" (Kelley should be proud of my ingenuity!)  I also made colorful IOU-type cards instead of eggs since we wouldn't eat the eggs anyway!  I found this DVD at a Flomarkt for 1 Euro - WOOHOO - four more to go...Then I found, at another booth on the same day, a pair of earrings to match the Amber necklace I got Sid for Christmas, and managed to talk the lady down from five Euro to four!  I did it!

We had a wonderful weekend, and hope you all had a blessed Easter celebration too!

More to come soon!  I've got lots of pictures of my exciting Birthday weekend activities as well as some pics of highlights around HH and my trip to Denmark!  Stay tuned!

It's Springtime for Hamburg and Germany...

Photo journal, as promised!

SPRINGTIME MEANS...

Enchantingly lit glens with lovely little flowers,

Young vines beginning their Springtime climb up craggy bark,

Quiet and peaceful moss-covered clearings in the lake-side woods,

Duck families giving you the eye and waddling away if you get too close,

Bees collecting pollen from the sweet-soap-smelling blossoms,

Small sail boats and canoes gliding across the sparkling lake...

...Controlled by little old men with remotes,

Golden blossoms dipping their faces to glimpse their reflection in the lazy stream,

Fragrantly blooming trees framing the lake as the world comes back to life,

Small ponds that offer their surface as a reflection of God's beautiful creation,

Beautiful pictures of the gorgeous world God created for us,

Sidonie enjoying her sandals and spaghetti straps in the Springtime sun,

 

Picnics indoors and out,

The return of the fair and fun times with friends,

Sausage houses...

...Some of which offer seldom-seen and often puzzling vegetarian cuisine,

A medieval village section where real-live bagpipe players can be endured/er...experienced,

And, of course, no Springtime day at the fair would be complete without Disco Balls, Platform Shoes, and an Afro Wig!

Well, hope you all enjoyed this photo-look at the arrival of Spring here in HH!  Stay tuned for more to come on Easter Weekend and my excursion to Denmark.  Send me an email or leave a comment to let me know how you're doing!

P.S. Ten points to the first person to correctly guess the song from which I've ripped off my title! ;) P.P.S Sidonie is excluded as we've already sung it together with the new lyrics!

Bis Bald!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a Photo Journal...

A pictorial look at the show I just directed, as promised. Enjoy! (Our photographer hasn't retouched any of these, so there will be some that are dark etc - don't complain, at least you get to see them, right?!) :D

This is Francheska - she was the dummy in the show, and played the roles of: Beaten up Samson, Random Football player (as a part of the "pile up on the field"), and the Dead Ophelia.

Lexi and Jasper - "These teeth...cry out floss me!"

This painting was hanging on the wall in the pub, so we decided to make him into "William Shakespeare." We referenced him several times throughout the show, to the extreme merriment of the audience as this gentleman looks absolutely NOTHING like William Shakespeare! He, he!

Titus Andronicus as a cooking show: "Roman Meals!"

"You make a nice clean incision from Carotid Artery to Jugular Vein, like so!"

Romeo & Juliet Prologue - "civil blood makes civil hands unclean!"

"Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?"

Romeo

After running himself "through" with Romeo's blade, Tybalt laments: "Oh, I am slain!"

Juliet at the ball - dancing to "Dancing Queen"

Juliet's Nurse - a la Fran Drescher

"Here in this manly...(pop)...here in this manly breast." We used balloons so he could pop them for this line with his cigi rigged with a needle!

The Balcony Scene!

"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks..."

"Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear!" This painting is a part of the wall in the pub, and we used it as the moon!

The Othello Rap ("She was pure she was clean, she was viginal too!"...)

"Three sets of identical twins" - A line from the comedies section. (They condense all 16 of Shakespeare's comedies into one play entitled: "The Comedy of Two Well Measured Gentlemen Lost in The Merry Wives of Venice on a Midsummer's Twelfth Night in Winter," OR "Cymbeline Taming Perecles The Merchant in The Tempest of Love as Much as You Like it For Nothing," OR "The Love Boat Goes to Verona!")

Macbeth: "Stay, ye imperfect macspeaker, mactell me macmore!" (Yes, there were ridiculous Scottish accents!)

McB leans on her sword while the witch tells her of Birnam Wood etc...

"Behold where lies the usurper's cursed head!"

Jeff and Jasper as Julius Caesar and the Soothsayer!

Cleopatra: "Is that an asp I see before me?"

Lexi tells Jasper that the character of Cressida has to feign indifference, to which he responds: "Whatever!"

The interpretive dance (to Troiles and Cressida!)

"This...has nothing to do with the Hulk!" Jasper, in an attempt at performance art brings out a stuffed bear, a walking robot, and the Incredible Hulk to war with one another as Lexi narrates the play - needless to say, her character doesn't take to that so well!

"Twenty-three, Forty-two, Henry the Fifth, Richard the Third, Part One, Two, Three, HUP!"

The Histories: "There's a pile up on the field.  FUMBLE!"  They play football with the crown representing the ball and the players being various kings killing one another off!

The cheer leaders after the football game!

For Uncle Wayne: You never thought that this joke would be used to illicit actual laughter did you?

Yes, the audience each night thought that the big reveal was absolutely hilarious!  Thanks for putting me though this so many times as a child - I never knew it would come in so handy as an adult! ;D

After intermission, when Lexi and Jasper "aren't back yet" Jeff has to do the sonnets, so he condenses them all down on to "this one circular beer mat" which he intends to pass around the audience letting everyone read, enjoy and pass on to the person next to them.  There are 154 sonnets, so, luckily for the audience, the missing two actors return before this can commence!

ACT TWO

Hamlet

Bernardo and Horatio at the top of Hamlet.  As you can see, Jasper's character didn't want to do Hamlet!

The Ghost of Hamlet's father. Notice that the knife is "going through his head" and the blood is on his shoulder - we thought that was funny ;)

The Ghost's sign for the forward version of Hamlet.

The Ghost's sign for the backward version of Hamlet.

"Would the night were come"

The lights shift immediately to a blue wash ("night") and they act very cold "The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold"

Polonius - Jeff played him as an extremely old man with false teeth that he had to adjust, and who couldn't move more quickly than a shuffle and could not climb the one step to the platform without physically lifting his leg with his arms! We worked this into a very funny bit!

"To be, or not to be!"

The players - "Speak the Speech I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue."

Hamlet and Gertrude - "Mother, THOU hast my father much offended!"

Hamlet kills Polonius.

Hamlet licks the knife after killing Polonius.

Ophelia "drowning." Jasper would get water in his mouth, gargle violently, then fall to the ground, having "drowned."

Ophelia's funeral with Destiny's Child singing their very interesting version of Amazing Grace in the background.

Hamlet and Laertes fighting over the body of Ophelia (Francheska) as Gertrude looks on.

Yorick - "This skull had a tongue in it and could sing once - blaaaaahhhhhh!"

In the fast version of Hamlet (for those who don't know, there is a normal Hamlet, a fast Hamlet, a faster Hamlet, and a BACKWARDS Hamlet in this show - well worth the ticket price!)

Hamlet says: "It is I Omelet the Danish!" (as she eats a pastry - cheap joke, I know, but I only played into what was already scripted! ;)

"Remember we are trained professionals, do not try this at home. Yeah, (removes fake cut) go over to a friend's house!"

"The rest is silence" - just before Hamlet dies.

Hope you all enjoyed (and understood) that!  I know it's a crazy show to try and follow if you've never seen it!  Love and Hugs!

Be sure to look for upcoming photo journals including: "Springtime for Hamburg and Germany," and "Easter Weekend!"  Stay tuned!