A European Adventure
Change of Plans
Alt Spandau, a quaint little village outside of Berlin.
This week did not go as planned. Monday thru Thursday were pretty normal for us with work and getting up to speed coming back from a week off in Innsbruck. On Thursday night and Friday morning we got packed so we could head to Brussels. On the way out the door Doreen got a text message that our flight was canceled, and with a double check on the website, we confirmed. The next few hours were spent looking into options that would get us into Belgium before midnight. All of the options would have had us flying hours out of our way, staying in a connector airport for hours and then heading to Brussels. The train would take hours and it was no guarantee we’d be able to board showing up to the station last min. We had just driven the length of Germany the week before when we had flight trouble so we weren't up for another 9 hour drive across Germany this week. With no good options, we had to come to grips that we won’t be going to Belgium this weekend.
“Happiness always comes over suffering”
Unfortunately we missed the festival, a chance to see some friends, and explore a new country. With our bags packed we explored traveling to another destination but alas it just wasn’t in the cards. The silver lining was that we found some great towns in Poland that are only a few hours by train. When you book a ticket with at least a weeks notice they are also really affordable and beautiful destinations. So, in the coming weeks we will likely be going to a few towns in Poland for the weekend to make up for our missed adventure this week.
Regardless, we did what we always do when we get bad news. We let it sit for an hour or so and then got off the mat and made the best of it. We don’t have a huge adventure to report this week but we still had some fun as the McNeill’s often do. What was supposed to be a post titled “Belgium” is now a part of our reoccurring theme “This Week In Pictures.”
Friday afternoon we explored a new park in Friedrichshain. The spielplatz was incredible and Logan enjoyed the slide and the zip-line - his two favourites at any spielplatz. After we went to a little cafe and had some Austrian drinks in memory of our time in Innsbruck.
On Saturday we went to the sports store and bought a bike trailer for Logan. While we love his bike seat , longer rides are’t totally feasible without something more substantial for him. So, we got a cool new trailer to toe behind us. At the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, Logan decided he wanted to make lemonade so he tried to carry 5 lemons across the store - it didn’t work as he expected. When we got home, Doreen helped Logan with his lemonade project and it turned out pretty well.
Sunday we wanted some adventure, and needed to test out our new bike accessory, so we took a long bike ride to the lake areas just West of the city. About halfway through the ride we ran across this beautiful little town called Alt Spandau - a place of some rich history that we will have to go back and explore. We stopped for lunch and had some delicious Doener, which is a quick Mid-Eastern style food popular in Germany, and then continued on the ride. We rode 25 miles in all.
After the ride we made a stop at a splash pad where Logan played water gun fight with another American kid - he had a blast.
All and all the week wasn’t bad, just had an unexpected twist. We discovered a new village, learned that weekend trips to Poland are something cool to do in the near future, had a fun bike ride, and we will see our friends at a later date (they live in Belgium not the other side of the world).
Chad also got some of the pictures developed he shot on film while in Innsbruck and we thought we’d share here.
Until Next Time,
The McNeills