Summer Travels

School ended last year on July 24th, with the usual panic of having to take apart our classrooms and pack everything into boxes. All this with the knowledge that come beginning of September, they won't actually have cleaned everything they said they would, and we will have to unpack and redecorate everything we so recently put away. Not exactly my favourite tasks.

England

After school that Friday, Regina and I drove directly out to Hahn for a Ryanair flight to Stanstead. The next morning we took the bus to Chelmsford for Claire and Felix's English wedding. It was such a lovely wedding, and we really lucked out with the weather. 

Just like at their Viennese wedding, they provided transportation to and from venues. This time in a red double decker bus!!

After the ceremony, which was held in the church where Claire's parents got married

All of the guests - many came over from Austria and Germany to celebrate again

After the ceremony there was a lovely reception at a local community hall. It was all very simple and low key, but because of that I found it so much more enjoyable. Not many weddings do you get to sit down and eat a buffet dinner with the bride and groom :)

The next day I took the train up to Kessingland for a visit with Auntie Pat and Uncle Ian. I was lucky, because I also got a short visit with Anna. We overlapped for lunch, before she had to go back to Cardiff to finish purchasing her new house. 

Cousins :)

I had two nights in Kessingland. Auntie Pat and I took a short trip down to Sutton Hoo the first day. We saw the burial mounds there, which looked like small hills in one field. They also had a great exhibit with lots of information on the Anglo-Saxon burials, with recreations of the artifacts found and what the ship burial would have looked like.

The next day Auntie Pat and I drove up to Barnby Moor (near Worksop) for Haydn's 70th birthday. Unfortunately I could only stay for half of it, as I had to catch a train back to Stansted for my flight back to Frankfurt. Haydn had arranged a lovely lunch at the pub there with many of his friends coming from various parts of England. It was a nice place: they even packed up my dessert for me to take on the train! 

Munich

So after a whirlwind trip to England, I finally made it back to Frankfurt and home by about 1:30 am. No sleeping in though, as the next morning Anna and I had to help Teresa move to Munich. And that meant driving the truck!! As Teresa can't drive standard, I had volunteered. It was an interesting experience, though maybe not getting stuck in traffic due to an accident on the Autobahn! We finally made it to Munich, a few hours after we had planned, and got all her stuff moved up into her new tiny apartment. She is living in the old olympic village there, basically in a hotel converted into one room apartments. It is pretty nice. We had the next day to explore the city a bit, before Anna and I had to take the bus back to Frankfurt. 

Me with Anna and Teresa, in the English Gardens

Watching the wake boarders in the English Gardens

Home

To continue being busy, I had a softball game the day after and then the day after that I finally flew home!! It was so nice to be home, after almost two months of constantly being busy. I enjoyed just getting up each morning and deciding what we would do. I got to see Robert quite a bit, since he has moved back to the Vancouver area, including going over to stay with him for a night.

Mum with the twins

Practicing for Germany (but with more hills!) - biking out to New West

End destination on the bikes - meeting Christie after work for dinner, Mum also came on the skytrain

Being lead on a hike in Lynn Valley, near Robert's new house

Pitch and Putt with Melissa - definitely a pro!

I did lots of other things while I was home. Christie and I went to see Hairspray at Theatre Under the Stars, I met up with Sandra, we went on lots of walks ... Mostly just relaxed and enjoyed doing whatever took my fancy :)

Our yearly family photo

And then it was time to go, but this time Dad was coming too!

After lots of research on the internet, we finally decided to just wrap his bike in plastic and tape. Luckily it made it there safely, with only an hour or so waiting at YVR for someone to come and pick it up.

Germany

Dad and I arrived on a Thursday, so had a few days to recover from jetlag and do some sightseeing in Frankfurt. 

An evening walk down the Main

Selfie from the top of the Main Tower

Watching the sunset from the Main Tower

Dad came and watched my softball game, so I had a personal photographer. 

Dinner across the street from my new apartment. Though this really could be a picture of any meal out we had in Germany

Biking Day 1:

The day after my softball game we got up early, finished packing our bags and headed off to the Hauptbahnhof. We took the SBahn to Mainz, and then got on an IC train to Köln. 

Kilometer 0 - joining the Rheinradweg in Köln

We started off in Köln at about 11 am and biked to Wesseling for a late lunch of Schnitzel and beer (for dad). We then continued on for a short stop in Bonn, mostly just to see where Beethoven had lived and the old centre. Then continued on to our hotel in Bad Godesberg.

Day 1 biking complete. Still trying to figure out the GPS, so we actually rode about 45 km. 

Took the ferry across to Königswinter and up the Drachenfelsbahn

View from the ruins of Burg Drachenfels, looking down on Schloss Drachenfels

Day 2:

Starting out for day 2 from the Rhein Hotel Dreesen, in Bad Godesberg

Lunch in a field

Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, after an afternoon icecream stop

Day 2 biking - made it to Braubach in time for a hurried taxi ride up to Marksburg to join the last tour of the day

Overlooking the Rhein from Marksburg, on an excellent tour of the castle

View of the castle from our hotel window

Day 3:

Day 3 stop in Sankt Goar. We had lunch and then climbed up to Burg Rheinfels, with a view of Burg Katz behind my head

A shorter day, down the UNESCO world heritage section of the Rhein - so lots of castles!

Where we stayed in Bacharach. It was like stepping back in time!

Day 4:

Apparently not as interesting, as I did not choose any pictures from day 4

Day 5:

Last day, and the rain came. We made the unfortunate discovery that both our rain jackets are not rain proof... made for a wet ride and a cold lunch sitting outside at a restaurant on the river. We didn't want to go inside soaking wet.

But the sun almost came out to welcome us back to Frankfurt

Made it!

We made it back to Frankfurt just in time for the Museumsuferfest, the biggest festival of the year in Frankfurt. We even had a bit of energy left to go that evening to the architecture museum. The next day we visited the sculpture museum, history museum and the Dom museum. Plus ate lots of yummy treats at the tents along the river!

One of my favourite treats - chocolate popcorn

Just a few people along the river!

On Sunday I had to play softball again, but Auntie Pat, Uncle Ian and Robert came over from Nürnberg/Bayreuth for the day. I made it back in time to meet them for a dinner at Wagners.

Lots of food and Apfelwein!

The next day it was back to school ... 

Dad stayed until the next weekend, with a trip during the week to Bayreuth. We managed to get the bike packed up again and with some good German efficiency we didn't have to wait at all at the airport. Then because of a delay in his flight, we got to take a bus tour of the airport before saying goodbye.