There were many things on display at Checkpoint Charlie that were from failed and successful escape attempts. It is hard to see in this photo, but a person could hide under the front hood of the car while the driver drove through the border control (hopefully) without the vehicle getting searched.

We really loved Berlin. Our favorite museum was Checkpoint Charlie. I was in East Berlin before the wall came down in 1989. It feels completely different today- in a very good way. These photos were taken outside of the Checkpoint Charlie museum. (Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.)

Lennon showed me his sock in the car- apparently, my sewing repairs no longer held up!

Vielen Dank fur alles. Sie Sind sehr gute Freunde!
We loved your town, your food, your home, your school- but most importantly- we love you guys! You all are looking happy and healthy. Good stuff!
Aaron, thank you (again) for giving us your room – you are one lucky kid!
Claudia, keep rockin’ your little orange car and breaking hearts all around town – you little hottie! 🙂
Becky, keep being so sweet, friendly and funny! You have an incredible sense of humor.
Liebe! Liebe! Liebe!

This was such a good time. It was so nice to get some exercise (as if we don’t get enough from the miles of walking we do every day!) The kids said their boats were slower than ours! We told them to buck up and get their little legs moving faster! Ha!

Our friends have a koi pond, a bridge, lots of green and tons of flowers right outside their back door. When it wasn’t raining, the boys loved to explore back there.
The photo is of a bouquet that M and L picked for me so I could make lots of wishes- which (of course!) I did.

From the movie “The Jungle Book”
“Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You’ll see it’s true
I wanna be like you, oo, oo!”
The first picture is of Jesse post haircut and Maddux pre-haircut. The second picture is of Maddux with his hood up pretending he didn’t go through with his haircut. The last one is Maddux’s new ‘do which we stick up with gel. He thinks he looks like Sacha (Kljestan) – our buddy we visited in Brussels. I think both my boys look pretty cute. Lennon said he wanted his curls cut off- I said, “no way!!!”

The Hamburg Rathaus is the city hall of Hamburg. It was built from 1886 to 1897, but was destroyed in a fire in 1842. It took almost 44 years to build a new one. Construction was completed in 1897 and cost about 80 million euros. Wow!
During World War II, the city was severely damaged by British Royal Air For bombs on July 23, 1943. Reconstruction was completed in 1957.
All the photos below are taken in and around the Rathaus.