Dad and Andrea in Oslo & World Championship 2014

Is it really 3,5 years ago my father had been visiting me here in Oslo??? Unbelievable how time flies!!!
I was so suuuuuuuper super happy that he finally came over again :-) And the best: the weather was just perfect!
He came together with his wife Andrea. They landed on Thursday 10th of July in the evening. Marco and I picked them up at the train station and by the time we were at our place it was around 10:30 p.m. But before going to bed we unpacked all that good stuff they brought from Germany and had some crackers and a glass of wine (or two).
They brought a lot of wine (of which unfortunately not much was left after this weekend - we drank it nearly all), a bottle of rum, beer from my area ("Kölsch") and the appropriate glasses you drink it from...

(typical glasses for the Cologne "Kölsch" beer, these ones decorated with the paragraphs of the "Kölsch Grundgesetz" = the Cologne basic law)

...fresh pasta and parmesan for Marco, sausages, several baking ingredients I asked for, chocolates, a gift (a beautiful summer dress) on my mum's behalf, stuff from the drug store - all in all a whole suitcase full of stuff :-)

On Friday 11th Marco had to work, but I had taken the day off. The weather was sunny and warm and I showed my father and Andrea around the area where we live now (Grünerløkka), walked along the river, had some drinks nearby the waterfalls, did some groceries...

Down in the city centre I showed them the new quarter of Tjuvholmen with it's recently finished bathing areas.

For dinner we all met at home. Marco had some friends that had asked him to meet that evening to play the board game "The Settlers of Catan". First he denied with the argument we had visitors over. But since we are all "Catan"-lovers we invited the couple (Tiago and Vanessa) over to our place and eventually played all together.

Following the weather forecast, we had decided to spend the Saturday on one of the islands in the Oslofjord. My father and Andrea had never been there before. I decided to take them to the main island Hovedøya - well equipped with everything we needed for a relaxing day: picnic blankets, BBQ, a lot of food, bikini and some playing cards.

In between sunbathing, swimming and eating we played all the time "Doppelkopf" - a pretty old German card game.

We have spent really the entire day on the island. And only when the sun had left our spot we decided to head back to town.

Sunday started with food, with a lot of food, yummy food. As an anticipated birthday gift for Andrea (her birthday was the next day on Monday July 14th), I had invited our visitors to the huge breakfast buffet at the Grand Hotel in Oslo. On Sundays it's even open until noon. And with all the food they (and basically the majority of all hotels in Scandinavia) offer a breakfast can well be seen as a huge brunch.
The weather was supposed to be pretty mixed that day and spent the warm, sunny moments outside on our balcony, continuing playing "Doppelkopf", one round after the other.

In the afternoon, though, we stopped as the preparations for an important evening started. Today, Sunday 13th of July is the 2014 final of the soccer world championship with Germany playing against Argentina!!!
Of course it would have been suuuuper nice to watch this in public at the huge screen at the Akershus fortress. But it would be impossible to find a place there if you don't come and secure your place already hours before - which we didn't wanna do. And on top the weather forecast for public viewing wasn't the best.
Alternatively Marco and I had reserved a table in a bar serving also food. So we could first have dinner and then watch the game.
However, eventually it all turned out differently. Here at home I receive the German TV channel ARD that was going to broadcast this match and we could all imagine watching it together at home - with German comments.
And for every Germany match that Marco and I had watched at home during this world championship, Marco had made homemade pizza - and Germany won each time. This was supposed to work out again and so Marco made again pizza this evening.
While the dough was rising, we got ready for the match :-)

My pizzaiolo :-)

I know, normally one sits around a table, but we all wanted to have the best sight on the TV.
So Germany GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Go and become world champion 2014!

My god, this match is too gripping. Argentina and Germany are playing both well, too balanced. That way no one will make a goal. I just can sit still and watch this!
Minute 90: still 0:0... Nooooo, another 30 minutes extra time. I can't stand this any longer!
But then, minute 113 - Mario Götze (actually absolutely not my favourite player): GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!! 1:0 for Germany!!!
Only about 7 more minutes to go. And then:

against Argentina :-) :-) :-) :-)

1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014 - Germany made it!!!
Congratulations Germany! Well done!!!

Time to celebrate :-)

Time to celebrate the new world champion and at midnight also Andrea. Happy birthday, Andrea! Herzlichen Glückwunsch und alles alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

After a long night unfortunately both of us, Marco and me, had to go to work. Today my father and Andrea were leaving again, but there was no way I could take that day off :-(

While we were in the office, they got ready to leave again, had packed everything, even cleaned the entire apartment (thanks a lot for that!!!) and my father mounted some flower boxes on my balcony I had just bought some days before and I didn't have time to set up.

Papa & Andrea: danke, dass Ihr hier wart!!! Es hat mich/uns riiieeesig gefreut :-) Schade, dass die Zeit so schnell rum ging. Ich hoffe Ihr hattet ein schönes Wochenende! Freuen uns jetzt schon auf Euren nächsten Besuch!