September 2012 Updates: Naomi and Hyma Down Under!

We had a family trip on the train on a Saturday to meet our friend Naomi Trostler, who was in the city for a conference, and her lovely American friend, Hyma, who joined her for a tour of the continent. The girls both wanted to sit with Barak on the train so I had an unexpected free hour, which I used to make all the play dates arrangements for the school holidays, thanks to mobile technology.

We saw Barak’s workplace in the Rocks – he works in the modern building behind this lovely restored historical building.

We had a lovely time touring the Rocks and the Opera House area with the ladies. Alma found a new attraction in the area we never noticed before...

We stopped for lunch at an Austrian restaurant. The girls both enjoyed the kids’ menu...

Barak drank two jugs of Austrian beer! He wasn’t affected by the alcohol, but needed a lot of toilet breaks in the next couple of hours...

The restaurant was full of attractions: a Bavarian band (with one of the patrons dancing), waitresses in traditional costume and face painting for kids!

Hahgoot chose a giraffe for her face painting – mum was very happy, of course!

We walked around the galleries and shops at the Rocks, visiting cute buttons shops, a milliner (where Naomi tried on the largest hat in the shop) and then stopped for a coffee and pastries at my favourite French patisserie.

Alma woke up from her nap and joined in. On the way back the girls again insisted on sitting with Barak on the train and he wasn’t very happy he couldn’t have his hour reading as he is used to (although he tried).

Naomi and Hyma travelled around Australia and came back for a couple of days, so this time we travelled on the train in the middle of the week to meet up for dinner. Barak was working from home that day so we again travelled together. This time Hahgoot was busy with her stickers maths workbook (she can do addition and subtraction of double digits numbers in her head) and Alma enjoyed the LeapPad with dad’s assistance.

Hyma stayed at the Jewish museum till late so we only met Naomi for dinner at the great Belgian beer cafe near the Rocks. The girls were very enthusiastic to try out the mussels, as you’ll see in a minute...

Pouring Belgian chocolate over their desserts was a big hit

In our next presentation: Celebrating Rosh Hashana and Sukot