Sea Life In Oberhausen

Things have been a little hectic lately. We spent all of Thursday decorating for our Annual BAF Day here on Kleine Brogel AB. (That stands for Belgian/American Friendship Day.) Friday, we got up early and headed back out there to finish setting up for the big event. It was a big cookout on Friday afternoon...hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad...the works! We all invite our Belgian landlords and local friends out to celebrate with us. We all had a super time, but we were exhausted, too. It was a lot of work, and a very HOT day. Did I mention that no one tends to have air conditioners in their houses here? That means when the temps are in the high 80's (or around 95 degrees, like it was on BAF Day), then you just have to sweat it out. Anyway, when we were done with the big cook out, we decided to take a little trip to celebrate our long 4th of July weekend. We drove over to Oberhausen, Germany, for a couple of days. On Sunday, we spent the day at the Sea Life Center. I didn't really get any great pics there, because they don't allow flash photography in there. Seems the fish don't care too much for it. Still, we had a great time there and saw lots of interesting things. The sting rays reminded me of Florida. One section that had the sound of sea gulls in the background reminded me of the Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska. This was a glass tunnel that went through a huge fish tank. Sharks, stink rays, and other exotic creatures swam right over your head. It was lots of fun to just hang out in there and watch everything passing by. This was the Amazon Rain Forest section. They had tanks of piranhas and other lovely things that live in that region. After exploring for a couple of hours, we went to our hotel to check in for the night. We stayed at the Best Western Park Hotel in Oberhausen. It's a great hotel, and I highly recommend it. The rooms were large, and it was close to everything we were interested in seeing. The staff was very friendly and helpful, too. Plus, we had this handy little extra sink in the bathroom. I know what you're thinking, it's a little short to be a sink. I suspect it's there for those rough mornings after you drink too much German beer. (Before you start typing out those e-mails...yes, I know what it really is.) After checking in and relaxing for a little bit, we decided to have dinner in the Irish Pub downstairs. This hotel actually has two restaurants, but the Pub is the only one open on Sunday nights. It's called Schottee's Kneipe, and the food was fantastic! We were in Germany, on an American Holiday (4th of July), sitting in an Irish Pub, and I was eating Hungarian Goulash for dinner. How sweet is that? Yep. Life is good.