aaahhh... finally...

... summer arrived... so no further reason needed for a night on the town with Denise and Sarah (ECB friends)

Madness

We decided to head up to Holland to welcome Mom back from her travels and as Wednesday was a public holiday here in Germany we decided to make it a long weekend.  After we had booked our train, the Queen announced her abdication and they decided to inaugurate the new King on the 30th April. With history in the making it was an opportunity not to be missed and as neither Linda (our neighbor from the UK) nor her friend Vicky (from Stuttgart) had been to Holland, we all decided to go up together.

The weekend started rather tamely when we met Christiaan and his girlfriend in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon. But, alas, it all went a bit pear shaped on Queen's day when we thought 'oh, well, if you cant beat them, join them....' 

We have been to many Queen's days and it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly mad everyone goes - especially when the weather is so good (around 15 degrees but more importantly, no rain).

We also managed to squeeze in some fantastic bike rides to Egmond an Zee, Alkmaar (for a spot of  shopping...) and Bergen.  Because of the long cold winter, the tulips were just blooming so we got to cycle past some beautiful scenery.

Searching for sunshine

After living in Europe for almost 20 years, this is the first year that we have really had enough of this cold miserable weather.  So when Al registered for the Rome marathon as a training run for Comrades, I thought 'great, a little bit spring sunshine to warm the bones.....'.  But boy were we wrong, it was FREEZING...... Our hotel was right near the Colosseum (also the start and finish of the race). 

 

Rome was buzzing... on Saturday there was the rugby (Ireland/Italy), on Sunday the marathon, a big football match and the annual celebration of the flag and with the Pope's inauguration on Tuesday loads of dignitaries and pilgrims were arriving.

   

Quite an awesome setting for a marathon (3hrs 53).

 

 For some reason on Monday Al was not so keen to do the tourist thing and traipse around town so the only option left to us was to chill out at one of Rome's many lovey restaurants.  Not a bad way to spend a Monday, I could get used to this....

 

 

Where is the sun?

While those in the UK were welcoming the first rays of sun with a braai, we had no such luck here in Germany.  Another grey and cold weekend here but we made the best of it by heading up to the Feldberg with our toboggans.  Till next week....

slip sliding...

Although there is almost no snow in Frankfurt, here in Falkenstein its just 2 degrees colder and we still have loads of snow in our 'back yard'. As it was a lovely clear, crisp day we walked into Koenigstein, took the bus to the Großer Feldberg and from there its a 5km toboggan run back home (with the obligatory half way stop at the Fuchstanz of course).  Because we started late, the track packed so it was super fast - even satisfying Al's need for speed.

Winter wonderland

 

 

St Luc

On Monday morning we woke up to 20cm of fresh snow and blue skies and decided to head over to the next village St Luc.  It really doesn't get much better than this and the added bonus was that it was a work day. Very few people on the slopes and at midday we were still making tracks on the pistes....

Grimentz

In order to get the courage to ski in freezing temperatures and with not much light, we (about 200 of us) started the evening at the mid-station with a fondu and a bit of a sing-a-long. The live music was great and we were quite surprised that we were familiar with many of the songs despite the multiple languages (or perhaps the schnapps made us think we knew all the songs....!!)

At 9.30pm we all lined up at the ski lifts - quite scary at first but our eyes quickly got used to the moonlight - it was an amazing experience to ski on perfectly groomed pistes and with no artificial light. 

Back at the house, there was only one way to warm up.... Jim & Christine's new toy was a major hit with Alistair... so much so that he was talking about one for our balcony.