Day 49 (July 27th)

Woke up and went to our usual corner bakery for the last time. It was an emotional experience as I ate my fruitcake with chocolate milk. I was waiting for the goodbye banners and streamers but there was no celebration. I’m sure they are going to miss the guy who wakes up five minutes before coming in wearing docksiders and a NYPD hat everyday. I walked Al to her office since it was the last time and because she had extra bags with her today. Went I got home Zach was sitting up in bed waiting for his chocolate milk but Hannah was still sleeping. Zach came into bed with me and played his DS until Hannah woke up. We got organized in the morning and packed up some stuff in anticipation of leaving tomorrow morning. For lunch we met Al at her office and went to Zach’s favorite place, Lupo’s for pizza. Rajina joined us since he wouldn’t be available for dinner tonight. Zach and Al had the margarita pizza, Hannah had the gnocchi and I had the mushroom pizza. Lupo’s was good like always. After lunch we got some ice cream and said goodbye to Rajani for the last time. We then walked over to Avis to change out the contract and put the car under my name since Citigroup won’t cover us during our vacation time. We kept the same BMW X3 because we liked it and now I’m used to driving it. We got back to the apartment and did a couple of loads of laundry to hold us over until we made it back to Atlanta. While the laundry was running, the kids painted their warhammer figures and then we played in “the cave” in the basement. When the laundry finished everybody folded their clothes and we relaxed until Al came home. For dinner, YH joined us for our last meal in Dusseldorf. We stopped at the two man sculpture and took some pictures before going to the restaurant (see bottom and middle picture). We ate our last meal at a place called Block House (see top picture; YH is on the right side). I had a salmon with a beer, Zach had a cheeseburger that he didn't like and then we ordered him a baked potato. Hannah had a baked potato and some of my salmon. The food was ok. For dessert, we went to our crepe place and I actually had a waffle with cherry jam. Not bad. Hannah went for ice cream around the corner. We did our last lap around the Alstadt and then headed home. YH came up to our room for a few minutes and then we said our goodbyes. The kids liked YH a lot and will definitely miss him. I ran out and got the car filled up with gas so we are all ready for tomorrow. It is almost 12:00 AM and we have barely begun packing. Looks like another late nighter. Goodbye for now.