Botanica and 7.5 points!

On Dad's last day we walked into Bremen and then got the tram up to Rhododendron Park and the Botanica Museum.  Dad was surprised and although I have been here eight months now, I was a little surprised too at just how green Bremen actually is.  The Werder Lake at the end of my street, Burgerpark on the edge of town, green space in town itself, where the city wall used to be that can make you feel far away from the city and now a new park, some parts of which make you feel like you're on a whole different continent! 

Botanica is a lot like Tropical World at Roundhay Park in Leeds...but without the meerkats.

Here's Nico in the museum with a flower we built!  The games were brilliant.  I won a pack of refreshers on one quiz!!

Dad and Nico on our journey to the tropics

Orange Tree

Dad as we arrived in the tropical section

Waterfall

Where to go first?

Here are my favourite sandals on their last trip out on the lovely cooling indoor stream.  More on that later.

Relaxing Buddha Lake

Tea Hut

Nico enjoying his complimentary tea

Me and Dad with ours

The gardens are filled with these 'ghosts' who are supposed to ward off bad spirits!

Japanese Gardens

Nico having his hand eaten by Koi Carp in the Japanese Garden

 Okay, although Botanica doesn't have meerkats, I was very impressed with their Easter exhibition.  Except that the newborn chicks were left to fend for themselves and didn't all look like they would make it!!  I have been assured that they did though.

Chick Nursery

Easter Bunnies

Easter Bunny having a time out

The hatchlings

The gardens outside were equally as amazing.  So many different plants and colours.  Here are some giant lillies that I have never seen before.  There was also a huge herb garden and a rose garden.  We could have walked for miles.

After this we headed back into Bremen and had a lovely dinner at the Turkish restaurant.  By the time we got in to the flat we had earned a record breaking 7.5 points on the pedometer!

Bremerhaven

Last Tuesday we went to Bremerhaven for the day.  I originally went there five years ago with a friend from when I lived in Oldenburg, my brother and his girlfriend.  We visited the ship museum and the emigrant museum as many Germans emigrated across the world from Bremerhaven.  This time we visited the town centre and the zoo!

The Chimps

The Polar Bears

Lemmings

Let's hope I don't meet a real one in the wild!

Arctic Fox - soooo cute!

...

Seals, Walruses, Sea Lions - it was all a bit lost in translation.

The Lighthouse at the zoo

Cute Penguin Couple

Crowd Pleaser

Raccoons!

Pumas

The Easter Hare!

Feeding Time

Love this - taste of German sarcasm

Horace/Doris' long lost uncle

Feeding time for the sea lions!

 Afterwards, we walked through town...

... and found some new flowers and decorations for my ever growing balcony garden!

Dad's Visit

Dad came back to Bremen last week Saturday until Thursday.  On Saturday evening we tried the Sudhaus restaurant in Neustadt for the first time and it was really good.  On the Sunday we had a long walk around the Werder Lake, calling at Cafe Sand in the glorious sunshine.  When we got back we decided to carry on making the most of the weather and took a picnic down to the lakeside where we read our books and played badminton!

On Monday, we took Dad on the usual town tour of Bremen which of course involved the Stadtmusikanten visit.

We started in the cathedral which included all of our first visit to the lead cellars where some mummified bodies are kept which were buried in the cathedral centuries ago.  We also climbed the tower for the first time and here we are at the top.

I thought we had achieved quite a feat with 6 points on the pedometer after walking around Bremen and then to Walle but we achieved much more later in the week.  More on that tomorrow.

Cooking!

As I have been mentioning in my Saturday updates, we have been trying a few new recipes this year in an effort to keep the diet interesting and motivation high.  Here is a selection of what we have been trying.

Chicken and Mango Salad

All Day Breakfast Omelette

Weightwatchers Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Walnut and Rosemary Soda Bread

Blueberry Muffins

Jigsaw Time!

Before this latest adventure, I can't remember the last time I did a jigsaw.  To be honest, it's something a little bit associated with children or the elderly but when I saw this 2000 piece work of art at Nico's, I had to convince him to bring it back to Bremen and for us to have a go at it.  It was quite unbelievable how relaxing it was.  The day we started it (around lunch time), it was 8pm before we knew it, and after a few more afternoons we had it completed.  It was a shame that a few of the pieces were missing but it felt like a real accomplishment to have it done.  Now we're working on penguins...

The Saturday Update

As you may have guessed from the timing of this update, it wasn't good news on the scales this week.  I should have expected it since the diet has gone out of the window due to three factors - one was Dad's visit which meant lots of being out and about (more on that later this week) which in turn made things more difficult to plan, another problem was that German supermarkets close for bank holidays which we forgot and so were stuck on Friday and have been to do a big shop today to keep us going until Tuesday and the third factor was the gorgeous weather we have been having means that afternoon ice creams are mandatory!  Basically, I put on the three pounds I lost last week and while it could have been worse, I hadn't expected it to be so bad given all of the walking we did while Dad was here (achieving a record 7.5 points on the pedometer on the last day).  Also, I'm just plain sick of this yoyoing and Dad brought a suitcase full of my summer clothes that I either can't get into or look horrendous (one advantage of this is that I now have a new 'before' picture and extra motivation to stick with it).  So today I have been very good - weetabix for breakfast, turkey korma for lunch and now rosemary chicken with potato and fennel wedges and veg for tea.  (21 points in all but I have burnt five with walking and cycling - more on that later)  I'm also trying to stay off the alcohol for the week to give myself a boost next week, not sure how that will go...it is holidays after all.  My main idea is that now I have had a week 'off', I should use the rest of the holidays to get back into good habits before it's back to the grindstone.  Here's hoping for better news next week!

Baking Bread!

Last Saturday I finally got to baking in preparation for my Dad's visit.  I looked up a nice bread recipe in my Weightwatchers books (in an effort to be good this week that quickly went out of the window!), translated my shopping list and headed to Combi to stock up.  I was a bit unsure about what I was doing and if it was right or not - especially as it was rosemary and walnut soda bread and I had no idea how that would be different to normal bread but actually it turned out quite nice!  First we had some as a snack on Saturday and finished it with a nice stew on Sunday. 

Not one to take things one challenge at a time, I also baked 12 blueberry muffins on Saturday in my new muffin tray and these went decidedly better although complaints were heard about the blueberries - I really liked them and will be making them again soon!