A busy week 4

As you have noticed, this blog has been more about parenting than about living in Germany. It turns out parenting is the bigger deal. Go figure. But that doesn't mean that we don't notice the change in scenery. Here's view of the Frankfurt skyline from across the river.



Our rudimentary German is still a problem, although it's possible to get by without it. A lot of signs and such are actually in English.

And some things are self-explanatory...









So it hasn't been too hard to make ourselves known, although I hope to start German lessons soon. We visited the cathedral in Mainz last week, which was nice, although the farmers market on the plaza outside was actually more interesting. The outdoor markets here are really great. Last week in Frankfurt we went to one (accidentally happened upon it, actually) that had a blacksmith tent and live animals for sale. We got dinner from a stand; it was five baked potatoes in a bowl of dip (3 euros!). Churros for dessert. And I had pumpkin wine. Delicious.

Elias travels well, which is good because we go out a lot. Here he is on the train.

Elias continues to grow and be wonderful. He's not sleeping through the night yet, but when he's tired, he's tired.

Maybe it's from all that exercise.












We finally got our bank account and EC card. We went shopping for clothes for Elias, because it's gotten colder and he didn't have enough warm stuff. Here are nice corduroy overalls.

Playtime is always fun. He's very active.





This morning we went to the flea market on the river bank, in a neighborhood called Sachsenhausen. It was CRAZY. Think of anything--anything at all--that might conceivably be sold for under $10, and you will find it there. The saying "everything but the kitchen sink" might apply, but we did see a kitchen sink for sale. More candelabras than you could dream of. Not one but two stands selling secondhand surgical equipment. Plenty of big-screen TVs. A miniature working cannon. Mannequins! We could go on. We can't wait for the Christmas markets!