Lazy days with Friends
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- Frank is cooking
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- Church towers plus the Oker River in their backyard
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- This church tower plus seven others is the view from their window
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- The table is set
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- Frank and Suzanne
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- Morgan and Leo after tea and cake break
When was the last time you didn’t get out of bed until 10:30am? Well, for us, it was today. Ten hours of sleep were interrupted by church bells from at least five different towers calling the faithful on Sunday morning. Morgan spent the night with Leo and it is luxurious just lying in bed, talking. A little blogging gets done, then we go to brunch at the hotel before we head up to Frank and Suzanne’s for one of their famous walks. It’s alternating sun and rain through the parks and nice neighborhoods.
We knew Suzanne and Frank when they lived in Hampton; they were friends of friends. Even though we didn’t know each other terribly well in Hampton and don’t keep in touch between visits, we are the best of friends when we come to Braunschweig. Whenever George has a meeting within two or three hours from here, we come early or extend our visit so that we may visit. Their son, Leo, is Morgan’s age, and they have a younger son, Georgie, who is eight. I like to get the boys together with the future hope that maybe one day Leo can come to visit us or Morgan can go to spend some time with them, a foreign-exchange, if you will.
There is a rhythm to our visits, we take them out to dinner (we’re on per diem, after all) and they take us on amazing walks through the parks and fine neighborhoods of the city. Morgan spends the night. We have cake and coffee/tea at 4pm then go out to dinner about 8pm.
Last night we went to an Italian chain restaurant called VaPiano. There are no waiters, just stations for salad, pasta, pizza, and drinks. You bring the card, like a credit card, they give you at the door and it is swiped for everything you order. They make everything fresh at each station and you stand there and watch while they create your dinner(except for pizza, they give you a beeper). Sort of like Subway, but not with sandwiches. Prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is fun. Some tables are taken up by bumblebees and cowboys.
Tonight, Frank is cooking good German food. Braten (roast) with gravy and semmelnudeln (dumplings made with old bread), plus red cabbage and salad. So nice to have a home-cooked meal! Rotekrutze (berry compote topped with vanilla sauce) is for dessert. We enjoy dinner with their view of the town and church towers.
Nice to have a lazy day.
Practicing Travel 
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