Easter in Regina then back to Hamburg, Germany

We arrived back into Regina late evening on Wednesday, April 16.  It was barely above freezing, trying to snow, and our poor little Mexican rescue dog shivered for two days until we bought her a t-shirt dress and, if you can believe it, a dog parka with a fur-trimmed hood!

Cheryl, Alex, Chris, Shawn - Easter dinner

Shawn carving the Easter turkey

I think I shivered for two days too but the weather did improve a bit.  Stayed with Lonny, Cheryl and Greg in Regina as Alex moved into her own apartment the day after we arrived.  Her and Shawn got a great two bedroom apartment so we had Easter dinner there the day after they moved in.

Eric and Greg eating Easter dinner at Alex & Shawn's

Lonny, Ed, Shari, Cheryl, Easter dinner at Alex & Shawn's

Alex strikes a pose!

Greg had use of our Ford Escape through the winter and it survived his driving okay but it's age is starting to show.  We needed new brakes, brake lines, battery and part of the trim snapped off in the cold weather.  Time to go car shopping!  :)

2014 Nissan Pathfinder

I test drove the new Nissan Pathfinder SL.  This would look GREAT pulling our little T@b trailer!  Well, maybe next year as the Escape is running great again now that it's had a little overdue maintenance.  I am highly recommending Landry's NAPA Autopro Service at 180 Winnipeg St. N. in Regina.  They got me in same-day (twice) for both repairs and offered great friendly, informative and affordable service.  

My birthday present, a Think Tank Airport Takeoff Rolling Backpack bag

Although we didn't get a new car, I did get a great birthday present from Chris; a new rolling backpack carry-on bag from Think Tank.  It's a great bag built tough to handle the weight of all my camera equipment plus it has a laptop pocket.  So I can finally drag all my camera gear back and forth to Mexico without wrecking a new bag every year ... I hope.

Our apartment on the top floor of Sternhauser apartments, Hamburg

So after 9 days in Regina and a couple of day trips to Swift Current, we're off to Europe again!  Back to Hamburg to see our medical genius guy, Professor Heinrich Seegenschmiedt.  This is our 5th trip to Hamburg and although I have grown to love this city a lot, we're really hoping this will be the last time here.  I thought I had trouble sleeping for the first few days here each time due to jet lag.  But now I'm thinking it's because I can't get comfortable enough to sleep on the plane, jammed into a sitting position in my 30 inch space.  Damn I wish I could afford to fly business class all the time!
 
This time we're not staying at our usual Courtyard Marriott.  We found some furnished executive apartments in Norderstedt for about half the price and they're double the size with great features.


We're on the top floor (unfortunately it's a 4-storey walkup) in a studio suite in the north of Hamburg, just 5 train stops from the clinic.  As we're arriving on a Saturday, the office is closed so they left our keys at the Park Hotel across the street.  We had no problem finding our building then hauling our suitcases up the 4 flight spiral staircase.  But as we walked into our apartment, in this non-smoking building, the stench of cigarette smoke nearly knocked me over.  The place really reeked of long-term, constant cigarette smoke and unfortunately the office being closed until Monday, there's nobody to complain to.  Hopefully the weather will be good enough over the weekend that we can get the place aired out a bit.

Bells on the Norderstedt City Hall

We're pretty "jet-lagged" today so all we did after arriving this morning was to walk the neighbourhood a little bit and buy a few groceries.  We found a nice little street-side Italian restaurant for supper and had the special, pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach.  I may have ordered something else but this was the only item I could decipher in the German menu.  I asked the waitress what another kind of pasta on the menu was and we ended up playing pictionary as she tried drawing a tomato for me.

While we were out we suddenly heard this great glockenspiel music.  The source turned out to be coming from the city hall, with all of the bells on the outside wall.

It really is a nice building we're staying in though and a great little apartment, well furnished but a little sparsely equipped in the kitchen.  We tried out the gym and sauna in the evening and were the only people around.  We both fell asleep in the sauna but luckily woke up before we cooked to death.