Father's Day

It was Father's Day this past Sunday, at least according to the US calendar. We found out that the actual Father's Day celebrated here in Germany was on May 13th, a Thursday. They are even given the day off of work! Considering we missed that date and are still on the US calendar in terms of holidays, we planned to celebrate with the rest of the US.

The morning started out very rainy here which was fine because we had been going through a heatwave in the 90's and there is no air conditioning. In fact, many places in Europe do not have or use A/C except for in hotels. I know, mind blowing right? Needless to say, our flat would get pretty hot by the late afternoon which made it pretty uncomfortable to want to do anything productive. This much welcomed rain brought the temps down a bit and we were able to breathe again. We made some coffees and hung out. Calvin gave Aaron his Father's Day gift which were a nice new pair of house shoes (Slippers).

We didn't have a big breakfast planned and so Aaron actually went to the McDonald's which happens to be close by us for some Egg McMuffin's. It wasn't our typical breakfast but it was good and he learned the McDonald's here are extremely nice. They are very clean and you can order a whole host of things you can't get in the US. Not to mention they have a whole coffee bar with real espresso machines and you can order fancy drinks like at a Starbucks. We have yet to try any out but it will likely happen on a weekend when we are up early given the cafe's tend to open much later on Saturday and Sunday.

When I asked Aaron what he wanted to do for Father's day he answered by saying the Zoo and a good dinner. So, shortly after the rain cleared up we ventured to the Hamburg Zoo, Tierpark Hagenbeck. Calvin loved going to the Zoo in Atlanta and so we figured this would be a hit with him. It wasn't too expensive and it was so open and expansive Cal was able to run wild. Something about how open this zoo was made us feel like the animals were not as caged as I typically feel they are. Each section of animals really had a lot of space to roam and live. They had just about anything you could think of including a petting zoo type area with cows, pigs, bunnies, horses, goats, roosters, etc. One of the most interesting things is they have areas where there are animals just out and about like roosters and hens. They just walk around out in the open freely.

The highlight of the day was seeing these little animals that looked part bunny, part donkey in this giant unfenced courtyard. They were the size of a small to medium size dog. They were all just sitting there, very still when of course Calvin had to take off running towards them. I had no idea what these animals were and was terrified of him getting too close to one. I assumed the zoo wouldn't let them just roam free if there was any chance of them attacking but still. It soon became clear that they would never let Cal catch them as they would just hop away as he approached and then sit down again in another area. It was so funny to watch Cal chase these things and other kids joined in to try and catch them as well. He had a blast doing that and expended a ton of energy running around this big field.

I did some research upon returning home and came to find these animals are Capybara's, the worlds largest rodents! Some other fun facts about these animals; they can run as fast as a horse and they bark like dogs. They eat grass, fruit and tree bark and they are autocoprophagous which means they eat their own feces. Yuck! They were really funny little creatures and I think they may be a highlight for Cal for at least another year or two.

Some other really cool things we saw were the Elephants which all seem to be rescued as none had any tusks. There were so many of them as well. I think the Atlanta Zoo had two, where there were like 9-10 of them that we saw at the Hamburg Zoo. The flamingo's were pretty cool to see as well because there were so many of them. The Walrus and the Seals were also fun to watch although the Walrus sounded like it was crying and Calvin got sad and started to mimic him! There was a really crazy looking bird too that caught our attention and seemed to follow people along the fence it was inside of.

We spent a good 2 hours there and started to head home when Cal fell asleep in the stroller. We took advantage and went to one of the best coffee shops in Hamburg called Elbgold. We got some really good latte's and a pastry and headed home. Most of the rest of the day was spent just relaxing and hanging out as a family. We spent some time trying to plan out our first few trips in Europe and can't wait to start traveling. We ordered dinner from this amazing Indian restaurant called Authentikka which is actually close to the neighborhood we will be moving to in August. It was incredible and I think all in all Father's Day was a total success. Aaron seemed to have a good time and baby girl even made her presence known by giving us multiple kicks throughout the day. He really is the best dad ever and deserved so much more but for being our first holiday overseas we made the best of it!

-Katy