Sunday, January 23, 2011

Getting Out

Avery turned 5 this month!!!! Wow, she'll start kindergarten this year! So to celebrate we went to the Heidelberg Castle. Truly the best castle we have seen yet, very romantic, I wish we were riding horses around the grounds!  To get there we took the Deutschbahn - the German Train.... I picture the train station like the one the Pevensie children board in Narnia, or maybe a bit like platform 9 and 3/4s. No such luck. It's 2011 and you buy your ticket at a machine, that speaks german...actually we were able to change it to english, phew. But still, there were so many options it was utterly confusing. We got help and boarded a train to a destination beyond ours. That is the thing, you have to know what stop is beyond your stop in order to get on the right train... To get home it was easier. The German countryside is gorgeous here. A little train ride is a great way to get to take it in.
 Happy 5th Birthday Avery!!!

Ave with her new Ipod Shuffle on the DBahn.


View from the Heidelberg Castle

 Heidelberg Castle


So later in the month, sorry I have not blogged more frequently this will be a longer one! We headed to Brussels, Belgium. An impromptu, totally spontaneous decision. And let me tell you that city is freaking amazing!!! Beautiful, old, new, grand and a must see!! The pics are below, but they don't do the city justice, if you come stay with us we'll take you there for sure! Any easy 3 1/2 hour drive from where we live.
In the states the distance would probably take 5 hours to cover, but driving 80-90 mph the entire time assures you get there fast!
Avery and I in the Grand Place, Grote Markt. A city square surrounded by the most incredible buildings covered in statues and gold/copper!

At Delirium a super cool pub with over 2,000 beers to choose from. Being as inexperienced as we are in the way of Belgium beer we had Guinness, in das boot.

That is Avery on the right, sort of gives some perspective to the grandeur of the place!

The Mannekin Pis, Brussels most famous statue, of a little boy peeing.

St Michaels Cathedral, just jaw droppingly gorgeous.

Well, I guess that is enough for now. Not sure where our next adventure will take us, Luxembourg I think. K

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Ugh, Germany

This is how the last couple of months have felt, ugh. I blame Germany. I couldn't even update this blog because all of my controls on the blogger website were in German - yes, it took me this long to figure out how to get it to switch back to English!!!

Same thing happened when we bought a GPS, which you cannot live without here btw, Ben somehow chose something like olde world Russian on the GPS and then of course, he had to translate said language in order to switch back to English! We are so spoiled in the US!!!

So we moved into our place right before Christmas, Germany was getting better... But we did have to spend Christmas and New Years with people we barely new...great people though - so that was good, still not the same but I'd like to think we made the best of it. Pics of the house are posted...it is a cool place, not what I expected but cool.

The fireworks in Germany are great, 1 for Germany.
The utility companies in Germany are a pain, Germany back to 0.
It snows almost every day here, Germany is down... you see were this is going.
I've found one awesome German store I love, not clothes, but something - Germany plus 1.

Seriously though - we are meant to be here I am sure.

We've met a really great couple and are having a blast getting to know them - so that is a highlight for sure.
P90X is on again..
Ben has a couple of job prospects we are getting busy working on, so prayers for that are welcomed!




I can't thing of anything else clever or appropriate to write about so out for now... K