Boys' Day Out

It was boys' day out. Tomorrow is "German reunification day", kind of our 4th of July minus the fireworks, good weather and great parties (it's more about somber speeches and endless reruns of footage showing mullet-headed East-Germans flooding through newly opened border crossings in 89). Since I get the day off before any major holiday (sorry, still no paper on holidays around here, because the union don't care about no media crisis), I picked Karl up from daycare and took him on an errand run, restocking our pantry at the Italian food wholesaler. The great thing about his age is that he can already be a useful chore companion. He can stack noodles into the cart, charm meat counter ladies into letting us skip the line, hold on to cookies and point me towards purchase-worthy food items. Afterwards I took him to the museum quarter, trying to get him to go to the newly opened Sammlung Brandhorst again to look at some staples of 20th century art. He was having nothing of it, insisting on the Alte Pinakothek, being the traditionalist that he is. Not that he can pronounce such a tongue twister yet, but he yelled out the main detail of his favorite painting (a 16th century still life by Georg Flegel featuring a "Parrot!!!!"). Of course there's lots of child appropriate fun to be had there. Testing the durability of art history books, proving that security measures are truly lax (both pictured above, and yes, I was surprised that the alarm didn't go off). And of course the home stretch towards the customary Apfelschorle, the local mix of seltzer and apple juice that has become synonymous to summer outings in his vocabulary.