Day 34 (July 12th)

Woke up and went to our corner bakery. Al and I eat there while I brought back food for the kids. We hung out in the apartment in the morning. The kids painted their warhammer figures and I updated the blog and got my pictures organized. We met Al for lunch and went down to the Carisch Haus and had Thai food. The kids had plain grilled chicken with rice while I had a good size soup bowl of Tom Yum Guan (spicy soup with shrimp) along with a Thai beer. All day the kids were asking to go to GameWorks so they could buy more warhammer figures and paint them. After lunch we ventured towards Avis rental to see if I could swap cars. We had rented a Volvo XC 90 and didn't love the car (sorry to anybody who owns a Volvo). It was way to big for the tight European streets and it guzzles gas. When we arrived at Avis they informed me that a BMW X3 would be available at 5:00 PM tonight and if I came back later I could swap the cars. I told them "I'll be back". We made our way to GameWorks and the kids looked around and found a box of figures that included over 100 figures to paint. I knew this would keep them busy for a while. We bought that box as well as another set of better paints. The kids sat down at the painting area and hung out and painted for a few hours. They were totally absorbed with the painting. We cleaned up and left around 4:15PM so we could make it back to the apartment and give me time to get the car. We got back to the apartment and I let the kids stay there while I went and swapped out the cars at Avis. Everything worked very well. Avis had the BMW all ready for me and it was a pretty quick turnaround. I was actually able to drive home without using the Nav system.
Al came home later and we decided that we rather go and get some food to bring back to the room. The kids stayed home and Al and I walked over to Lupo’s and picked up some pizzas. On the way back we stopped at Fritz and Friends (French Fry store) and bought a package of fries with ketchup. Everybody eats these things in Dusseldorf (most of the times as lunch) and we wanted to try them out. They were good but nothing special. We got back to the room and chowed on our pizzas while we watched Gilmore Girls. It was the first time since we had been here that we eat dinner in the room. We watched TV for a couple of hours and had a nice relaxing evening. Of course, it was after 12:00 AM before we went to bed.