In 1963, President John F Kennedy expressed solidarity with the people of Berlin by stating “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Depending on how strictly you apply the rules of German grammar (which Germans apply quite strictly), this means either “I am a Berliner” or “I am a jelly donut.”  In spite of this cute faux pas, no one ever confused JFK or any other American president with pastry. I know what you are thinking but Cheetos are not really pastry.

We are in Frankfurt, so this historic anecdote has a modern corollary for Avery, Bella and me: If we were to express our solidarity with our short-term German neighbors, we would declare ourselves either Frankfurters or wieners. The metaphor could be employed with more precision if our current president were to visit Frankfurt, if you know what I mean.

The tour guides call Frankfurt a “financial hub,” which seems like a polite way of saying it’s not very interesting. No anarchists. No horses. No UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The wine is German.

Yes, some people think Frankfurt is boring but Avery and Bella don’t. 

Alas, their expressions of joy were not to be tolerated in the financial hub. About half way through filming, ein herr came out of his fourth story apartment yelling and swinging his cane at us and pointing to this sign even though we weren’t picking the flowers!

So we left the park and went to Frankfurt’s version of Whole Foods where we were treated with some suspicion because “we” still had a lot of pent up energy. Fun!

We have also had fun learning a few bits of language, like “dankeschon” and “einfahrt,” which, incredibly, means “enter,” and “ausfahrt” which, even more incredibly, means “exit.” Bella and Avery now understand the close relationship between the German and English languages.

Tonight, after an “online chat” with Ryan Air during which two customer reps required more than 2 hours to figure out how to allow me to travel with minors and charging me $70 for the privilege (don’t ask), some of us picked up where we left off at the park.

Can’t wait for Day 2 in Frankfahrt.