Day 42 (July 20th): Rhine Festival

Woke up and went to our usual corner bakery for breakfast and brought the kids back their food. Zach no longer wants his cheese sandwich but only his ruby red orangina. Zach woke up after 9:30 AM and Hannah slept until 10:00 AM. We planned to go to Game workshop (warhammer) in the morning but it was too late before everybody motivate. We met Al and she was in the mood for a quick lunch at Burger King. I got a chicken wrap, country potatoes and a sprite. It was a typical BK lunch. After lunch we headed over to Game workshop and sat down to paint the figures we purchased last week. It started pouring outside and it was lucky that we were situated inside, where we were dry. We all painted together and then the kids wanted to play their version of warhammer. At Game workshop they have about 15 tables set up each with a different scenario. The kids picked a winter scene and played for a while before they started fighting with each other. One of the guys who worked there came over and taught us some of the rules. Zach wanted to learn, but Hannah didn’t want to listen. The skies cleared up and we cleaned up our stuff. We started walking back to the apartment and stopped to get some pretzels and PowerAde (new flavor: mango). We sat outside and ate at one of the picnic tables. Then we walked over to the skateboard park around the corner and watched some of the skate boarders and a couple of guys on trick bikes. We made it home and it started to pour again.
Al came home later after the rain stopped and we went over to the festival in Oberkassel that is across the Rhine from Dusseldorf. On the other side of the river we found an Italian restaurant for dinner. Zach had a bowl of spaghetti with butter (that he complained about), Hannah had a tomato soup and I had a bowl of pasta with shrimp and garlic along with a Heferweizen. We finished dinner around 10:15PM and walked a few hundred feet back to the bridge to get prepared for the fireworks that were scheduled for a 10:30 PM start. The fireworks started pretty much on time and we had a great spot to watch them. They lasted for about 20 minutes and then we headed down to the festival (See picture on left). The festival was packed with people. It was larger than the typical local festival and you couldn’t walk 20 feet before hitting a beer stand. We went on a few rides but the best one was the fun house (see picture on bottom right). In this ride there was a large tube that spun fairly quickly and you needed to traverse it while it was moving. Al had a difficult time getting through it but finally made it across on all fours (see picture on top right). We all had a good laugh. By the time we walked from end to end it was 1:00 AM and the place was still packed. We walked back across the bridge and made it to the apartment by 1:30 AM. Needless to say everybody passed out.