What its Like to Travel with Me

I'm a kind of a goofball. Ok, thats an understatement, I'm a HUGE goofball. However, traveling with me is never dull. I can comfortably say that I often provide some comic relief and I'm pretty good at laughing at myself. Thank goodness, because if I didn't I'd be getting my feelings hurt on a regular basis when my friends laugh at some of my dumb moments. Case and point....we were at my best friend's house the other weekend and I ended up sleep walking from the couch, upstairs, to her room where I put her dress on over my clothes and woke up in her bed. Don't ask, because I have no answer. Anyway...when I travel, I think its important to have a good time, and that includes taking lots of funny pictures. Actually, my thing is getting everyone to do a statue imitation when possible, or just taking funny pictures. On our recent trip to Germany, I got everyone including my mother and father-in-law to do at least one imitation. We got some good ones for you to see:

This is Kraut's youngest brother and he was willing to be the first as we toured Berlin. What a good sport!

Then it was Kraut's turn.

Then we got Kraut's middle brother to do one the next day at the palaces in Potsdam (which is just outside of Berlin).

This looked like a good one for Kraut and I to try while waiting outside one of the palaces. Kraut was having some trouble balancing though.

Here is Kraut's dad's version. Not sure he has the hang of this yet, if only I could find a statue to superimpose behind him!

I'm pretty sure this picture reiterates what I said earlier about being a goofball.

Here is Kraut's mom. This picture was funny to try and take. The boys were all giving her directions at the same time on how to hold her fingers, and the result is that she looks like she is hitchhiking.

Here is me washing my hair at the Zwinger in Dresden.

Hamburg....Kraut's dad did pretty good on this one!

I didn't want Brussels to be left out. I actually did a much better imitation than this photo shows, but Kraut was taking forever to take this picture and I was starting to get a little ancy and embarrassed lying there while people walked by staring.

The picture above and the following pictures are just random things I wanted to share. This one was in one of the palaces in Dresden. They made us try to fit these slippers on over our shoes to walk through. It didn't work very well with sneakers, so I just shuffled around instead of walking. Kraut slid around like a speed skater. Wish I had video for you!

The above picture was taken in the plaza area near the Brandenburg Gate. These ladies appeared to be American. They were wearing these colored wigs while riding around in this float waving at people and saying hello. They have to be much goofier than me....and somehow that makes me feel better about myself.

When Kraut spotted this car he immediately said we had to take a photo for one of our Memphis friends. She is from Malaysia and dislikes things that fill the Asian stereotypes; specifically she hates Hello Kitty and making the peace sign for photographs.

Check out the embroidered Hello Kitty seats!

Peace!

When Kraut's brother spotted this lovely pink car in Hamburg, he liked it so much he wanted to "hold" it. As a side note...Kraut works in the car industry, and there was soooo much car talk on this trip between him, his brother pictured above, and their dad. I know they are all very passionate about cars, but I didn't go to Europe to check out the cars!

I was much more interested in the bikes than the cars. Everyone bikes in Germany, and I would love to be able to do that. Not just because I enjoy biking but also because I would want a Kettler cruiser. That has such a nice ring to it, and who wouldn't want a bike named for them?

Here is a picture of the SAP office we passed in Hamburg. We passed one in Dresden too, but I didn't snap a photo of that one. We use the SAP system at my work. So while Kraut was checking out cars all over the place, I was seeing this....I guess you can never truly get away from the office!

I will leave you with this one from Brussels. Belgium is known for their cartoons, most recognizably the Smurfs. They have comic murals all over the city, and there is a specific comic strip walk you can take. We only saw 3 or 4 murals, but given my infatuation with statue imitations, I'm guessing no further explanation of this picture is needed!