Making our way to England

David often works in a small town near Newcastle, in Northern England.  He is here this week, and with school being out, Rio and I have had the good fortune to tag along this time around.

Dave landed at Frankfurt airport early on Friday afternoon, and Rio and I picked him up there so we could start driving towards Calais, France right away.  The drive was uneventful and we arrived at our little Budget Ibis Hotel around 10:00 pm.

Those of you not accustomed to staying in low cost places in Europe may not be familiar with check in kiosks.  Here's David inputting our reservation number, and scanning a credit card (for ID purposes) into the machine:

The kiosk provides you with a printed slip that has the room number and key code to unlock the door.  It actually works pretty well.  Here is Rio opening the door to our room:

Here are a few shots of the room.  This is about the standard size for such hotels (slightly smaller than the one I blogged about that we stayed in in May on our way to Disneyland Paris).  When you just need somewhere to sleep and shower before hopping on a ferry the next morning, it is fine.  I wouldn't want to spend several days in one though:

Saturday morning we were up and out by 9:00, stopped at McDonald's for caffeine and arriving at the ferry port by 9:45 for our 10:45 time slot (note: prebuying a ferry slot, or chunnel slot, is MUCH less expensive than paying when you show up--and it guarantees you a spot).   We have been foot passengers on smaller ferries before, but none of us had taken a car onboard before and we were interested to see how the process would work.  

The first step was making it through lines for a passport check with UK border guards.  There were many people directing traffic into lanes and keeping things moving very efficiently, in spite of the hundreds of cars, and dozens of motorhomes to work with.  In 10 minutes, we were through and splitting off to the lines for P&O lines.  We pulled up to a ticket booth and were  bit relieved at how easy it was to get printed tickets when simply telling then our reservation number.  We were handed a hang tag for the front mirror, which also noted that we had 3 passengers, and were given tickets to the "club lounge" (an upgrade option that we decided to try at a price of 15 pounds round trip).  

We were given a lane number to drive through (119) and were happy to see that the lanes were very well labeled and easy to get into. 

 We were in our lane by a few minutes after 10:00 and able to get out, stretch our legs, use the restrooms, etc while we waited to board.

It was fascinating to watch how quickly the ferry was unloaded, and how many vehicles fit on what looks like a fairly small boat.  Large trucks were being loaded on while cars were still coming off--they really have the changeover process down to a science!  

By 10:30, we were driving onto the boat (which is just an odd feeling!):  

We were quickly, and safely, directed to where to park, and space was fully utilized with some cars even being parked on the ramps.  In no time we were leaving the car and heading into the passenger areas.  Rio said the ferry looked a lot like an airport, which was a pretty apt description.  There were sitting areas, duty free shops and fast food areas, as well as an outdoor deck:

There seems to be plenty to keep people occupied for the hour and a half crossing.  We did not dally though and made our way up to deck 9 to the P&O Club Lounge, where we were offered a free welcome glass of champagne as soon as we arrived (Dave asked for his as a mimosa, it was 10:45 after all!) and I declined:

The lounge was spacious, with comfy sofas and many large windows.  Soda, juice, coffee, hot chocolate and tea, as well as small snacks (cookies, chips, nuts and fresh fruit) were available at no extra charge throughout the crossing.  It was well worth the extra cost to have the calm seating area and drinks and snacks.

There was also a Club only out door deck, which was a great place to view the White Cliffs of Dover as we crossed over.  In the second photo you can see how many more people were crowded in public deck below--it felt very Titanic with our "first class deck" lol  

It was nice to come in from the water and see the White Cliffs on our approach:

About 5 minutes before we docked, they announced to everyone to please return to cars--and only a a short while after that, we were driving off.  

The whole thing went extremely smoothly and easily.  David handled driving off and driving on the left hand side of the road for his first time ever, very well too (note: while waiting to board, we had lots of reminders to adjust our headlamps, etc to the opposite side driving settings--which was a good thing, and meant everyone was all set on debarkation).  

Dave did not feel at all sea sick on the crossing, but the last couple of minutes, as we rocked a bit attaching gangways while sitting in the car, followed by the disorienting feeling of driving on the "wrong" side of the road meant he felt a little out of sorts, so we took an exit and a parking and view area near the dock:

We headed down through the one way tunnel and then parked for only 50 pence for an hour.

There were clean, free, restrooms, a small snack counter and some nice walking paths out to the sea wall (as you can tell, it was quite windy; actually all of England has been quite windy for our entire trip thus far).  It was a pretty are for a break:

In about 30 minutes we were back on the road and heading towards the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which deserves a blog post all of its own.  

--Hadley

A Pleasant Day at Legoland Deutschland

The first two years that we lived in Germany we had annual passes to Legoland Germany and spent quite a lot of time there on summer weekends.  It was always fun, and with an annual pass made for an inexpensive outing--and it felt very familiar, back when Germany as a whole still felt rather foreign.

It's been nearly three years since our last visit, so we were overdue--and having acquired 50% off coupons Dave, Rio and I headed down yesterday.  The day started off cool and raining lightly, but really pretty pleasant to be out in.

Our first stop was the mousecoaster, Project X

The actual ride cars at Legoland are always pretty small and a tight squeeze for someone Dave's size.  I never did get a shot of him seated and shoehorned in, but you can tell in this one how little space there is for long legs--it is very typical of their rides:

After the coaster, we headed in to see one of the 4 D movies--the Chima movie is new since our last visit.  It was cute, but we like some of the older ones, with a full plot and no dialogue better.  

After the movie, guessing (correctly) that not many people would be on the water rides in the rain (why is that?) we headed back to the flume ride.  The ride is supposed to be a jungle adventure with "Johnny Thunder" (sort of a Lego version of Indiana Jones) as your guide.  It has some odd juxtaposition of dinosaurs, giant spiders, Little Shop of Horror style minifig eating plants, etc.  and ends with the requisite drop, of course:

Making sure that we hit all of the "big rides" (big being relative, this is Legoland after all), Rio lead us over to the castle next, to ride the Dragon Coaster:

The ride starts off as more of a dark ride through the castle, past various humours Lego scenes, before exiting out onto the mild but fun coaster section.  Here are a couple of scenes shot as we rode past:

We were getting hungry, so we decided to try out the new ride next, since I was not sure I would feel up to it on a full stomach.  Ninjago is a really unique (or at least, I have never seen anything like it) ride.  It can only take 12 people at a time and has a somewhat slow load speed, so the line tends to stay long, but it is worth a wait.  The little flight seats rotate around as a group, swooping high on one side of the rotation and back down pretty low on the other side.  What makes it so unique is that each rider controls his or her own "wings" and uses those to rock back and forth or even spin all the way upside down if wanted (okay, I wanted to, as did RIO, but neither one of us quite made it over--we got close but did not succeed--we saw others do it thought; we probably need to ride more and get the hand of when best to rock to work with the momentum of the ride as a whole and get that full spin going).  It was tons of fun and not too fast and very, very smooth.

(can you see how the people hold their own wing handles to control their side to side movement?)

They were advertising a really good deal on upgrading tickets to annual passes; we were not sure that we could take advantage of the deal using our discount tickets, but decided to head over and ask before lunch because annual passholders get a 10% discount on food).  Sure enough, they DID let us upgrade, so we now have year long passes--an added bonus is that they are valid at several other Merlin owned attractions in Germany, including the Aquarium just down the road in Speyer.  Yay!

After a lunch of pizza and pasta, Rio rode the Hero Factory--in which the robotic arm swings you all around.

When the Hero Factory was new, there were two sets of robotic arms, one on either side of a large room.  Now that the novelty has worn off, keeping just one in operation makes more sense, and the other side of the building has been repurposed: it contains several large Lego models of Star Wars items--including what was billed as the "largest Lego model"--a life size version of an X Wing fighter (actually, a life size version of the Lego model of an X wing fighter):

(close up of he wing showing the many normal sized Lego bricks making up the big Lego brick circles of the model)

There are also several other Lego Star Wars items in the room:

While we were inside looking around, the sun came out and the temperature started to rise rapidly; in about 30 minutes it went from near 65 degrees Fahrenheit to in the high 80s.  Being hot, it seemed like a good time to ride the "yellow boats"  The Wave Riders have been a favourite of ours since our first visit to Legoland San Diego back when the kids were much smaller than I am.  

We wanted to see the new (sometime in the last three years) Egyptian section, but were starting to drag in the heat (and no longer felt like we had to see it all in one day), so we hightailed it back there.  It is a bit poorly thrown together and feels like they wanted to expand but were low on space.  It's fine, but not up to the standards of the rest of the park.  There is one ride there--a dark ride to shoot lights for points, much like Buzz Lightyear Rides at Disney parks, but not as well executed.  We rode that, and had fun with a cute "sidewalk chalk" painting photo op:

And, still being hot, we decided to ride the pirate ride to cool off and then wander a bit in Miniland before heading home.  The Pirate ride WILL leave you drenched.  Riders spray water at those in other boats, as well as those waiting in line (who can also spray water at riders).  ON a hot day, count on being fairly damp before you even make it through the line and VERY wet after riding.  It's lots of fun as long as you are prepared for that:

Rio got an Icee to sip while we explored Miniland.  He can refill the plastic cup for half price for the rest of the time on the AP.  

There was a new Star Wars themed section in Miniland.  I took lots of photos because I have a lot of friends who love both Lego and Star Wars and I thought they would enjoy it.  I've only seen the original three films, and even those I have not seen since I was a kid, so I have no idea what half of this is:

I DO remember this bar scene!  It was fun to see recreated in Lego.

We only looked at a few of the other displays, some are really getting faded by the sunlight, but others have been rebuilt in fresh new colors.  Here is the huge stadium in Munich where the Bayern Munchen football (soccer) team plays their home games:

and Neuschwanstein castle:

Frankfurt, with some details (the details MAKE Miniland) from the red light district and the park:

and with that, we decided to call it a day and head back home.

--Hadley

Two wildly differing views on kids heading out on their own

In light of the recent arrest and felony charges brought against a single mother for allowing her 9 year old to play in a local park while she worked in South Carolina, and now another arrest and felony charge, this time against a mother of a 7 year old for allowing the child to walk to the local playground, with his cell phone, today's post is rambling, and not about any fun wandering adventure (we haven't been anywhere this week--even in Heidelberg).  It is also a bit of soapbox jumping, so if you come here for the pretty pictures, you may just want to skip right on past this one and take heart in knowing there will be photos from the UK coming up in just over a week.

So, yes, in the last couple of weeks, two American parents have been arrested and charged with felonies for allowing their children to go out to parks without directly supervising them.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/debra-harrell-south-carolina-mom-arrested-after-leaving-daughter-to-play-alone-in-park-1.8915331

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/31/living/florida-mom-arrested-son-park/

 There was no law, in either case, specifying the minimum age for such activities.  Granted, I think 7 is on the young side and some kids are not ready even at 9 (or older) and it depends on the kids and the area if this was safe, and it does sound like (based on some reports, no real confirmation yet) the 7 year old child might have been misbehaving and should not have been out on his own; however I think jumping straight to arrest and felony charges for these things, instead of speaking to the parents, and in the case of the 9 year old, if indeed any intervention was warranted (I am not so sure there was, based on what is out in the media thus far) helping the mother find low cost child care (it appears there were no spots left in her area) is unwarranted and a terrifically bad example of how over-sheltered American kids have become, and how quick our society is to jump to dire conclusions about parents who do not share that view.

This has me thinking about some of the many examples of the difference in how independent children and teens are (and are allowed to be) in Germany versus in the US--so I thought I would share a few I have observed:

In Germany, school is not babysitting, in the US it essentially is.  Actually, my kids were never in "grundschule" (grades 1-4) here in Germany.  I do believe things are different with such young ages, though I am not sure.  From grade 5 and up though, school is mot certainly not childcare here.  In the US, if a teacher is sick there WILL be  a substitute.  If something comes up last minute and a qualified sub is not available, it might be as simple as another school employee putting on a movie or telling the kids to read quietly, and staying in the room (this is not common, most teachers have emergency lesson plans and most districts have enough subs).  I was really surprised the first time one of my kids came home early, having been told their last teacher of the day was ill and would not be there and being allowed to leave.  Yes, this was Rio in grade five.  In our over five years here the kids have only had substitutes a handful of times, and only when the regular teacher would be out long term (a week or more).

Sending kids home early, without calling parents is just normal at all three of the German schools my kids have attended.  This would never fly in the US--both because so many parents would not be comfortable with their kids being unsupervised without warning (and many kids, having never been prepared for this would not be comfortable with it either) and because there is not a public transportation infrastructure that would allow all the kids to get home on their own if they were out of school before the expected hour.

In Germany, schools expect students to convey information to parents, in the US the schools provide most of the information directly, expecting no more than carrying a note home from the students.  In the US, if my kids were leaving school property on a trip, even if the "trip" was walking half a block to a local sport field or park, they would bring a note home several days in advance, informing me about the trip (including where they were going, how they would get there, what cost was involved and what they needed to bring).  The note would include a permission slip which HAD to be returned, signed, or else the child would not be allowed to go with the class on the trip.

In Germany, if I learn of a day trip ahead of time, it's because my kid tells me about it.  Rio might tell me he needs to take money, or a swimsuit, or meet at the Mannheim train station at 9:00 instead of school at 8:00.  There is never a form to sign (I have only signed for class trips to Rome and to an Island in the North Sea--both 10 days long).  The schools seem to trust that the students can and will convey the information (and, it seems the kids live up to the expectation and generally manage to have what they need and be in the right place).  Furthermore, it is entirely common for the kids to be directly dismissed from the places the field trip ended, even if it is in another town 30 minutes away.  There seems to be an assumption that they will all mange to get home on their own just fine, and might want to hang out in the area a bit first.

It is totally normal to see young children out on their own and using public transportation on their own in Germany; much less so in the US.  In 2008, a mother in New York City felt compelled to write an opinion piece for the local paper after letting her then 9 year old son take the subway home all by himself.

  http://www.nysun.com/opinion/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-subway-alone/73976/

The piece caused quite an uproar and started a movement by American parents who do want to foster such independence in their own children (the Free Range Child movement).

On the other hand, here in Germany I frequently see kids who look 9 or even as young as 6 or 7 out playing on their own as well as taking the trams and buses, etc.  No one seems to think anything of it.

 In fact, our first summer here, the kids spent two weeks at a language camp in Berlin.  The camp could escort them to the train station to ride home.  So, I went into our local train station to inquire about buying tickets for the then 10 and 12 year olds.  Did I need to buy them some sort of unaccompanied minor's ticket?  Pay an extra fee?   The worker looked at me like I had two heads and asked me why I thought my kids could not handle a train ride and why I thought the Duetsche Bahn employees should take care of them if they could not.

And on and on I could go.  One last example would be in the reactions Dave and I got almost two years ago when we took a cruise while the kids stayed home (with many adults they knew they could call on for help if needed).  For a week, every time it came up that our 13 and 15 year olds were home, if we were speaking with a German the reaction was along the lines of "that's so good for kids!"(often preceed e by a joke about the House Party probably going on) whereas all but one American expressed concern, many asking if it was legal to leave them.

To be fair, I probably would not have left them in the US.  In the US, they would not likely have had ready access to an extensive public transit system to get them anywhere they needed to be; they might not have been able to get a doctor to treat them without notarized notes from us; they would have been out of luck and had to miss any field trips which came up while we were away and unavailable to sign the permission slip, etc.


All in all,with the super independently minded kids I have (and Marika was just BORN this way--I swear!); I am so happy that I do live somewhere that I do not have to worry about being arrested for allowing them to take care of themselves once in a while.

--Hadley