Amazing April!

April has come and gone so quickly...with so many adventures.

I began the month with a day trip to Stuttgart, Germany. It was the first true day of spring, shorts and a t-shirt, sun screen and flip flops are finally being used again! The city is beautiful with so many old, preserved buildings including a palace and palace gardens in the heart of town!

My girls also had Spring Break so I ventured off with the Bleichs to Paris for Easter weekend. It was great. We stayed near the Pantheon where there were great restaurants, cafes and plazas to sit around in. We walked about Luxembourg Gardens and did some fun shopping too. One of our themes for the trip was to do the self-guided "Madeline" tour...from the children's books (and now movie too). We went to all of the places in the movie and drew pictures of them, just like Madeline does. We visited Notre Dame, Pont Neuf (where Madeline falls off the bridge), and the Eiffel Tower. But we did much more to; played in Tuileries Park, toured the Fashion Museum and saw the city from above at Sacre Coeur. We wandered an antique market and enjoyed the sweets of Paris...crepes, ice cream, eclairs, and macaroons. I am now oriented in the city so I look forward to going again!

Norbert and I took Kaete to her first football game. We went to Freiburg and watched them beat some team (I have no idea who) 3-2. It was a fun game but really you go to hang out before and after the game at the beer gardens around the stadium!

I also experienced Amsterdam! I really feel like I got an all round good impression of the city. Arriving was so exciting; the earth was a patchwork quilt of colors...not just the browns and greens of farms, the blue, yellow, red, white of tulips! I spent a day at Keukenhof, the largest (and most beautiful) spring garden in the world. Over 32 hectares of gardens and paths, all of the flowers in full bloom right now! There are also viewing decks of the tulip fields! I kept saying, "Oh, this is my favorite," then 15 minutes later I would have another favorite! It was truly breathtaking!

I spent that evening with my couch surfing host, a Canadian grad student in Amsterdam, and her visiting friend from Canada. We went to a sweet party with her classmates (mostly Dutch and Danish) and I made some really cool new friends! I also spent the next day with Michelle (my host) and her friend cruising the local markets; I found a skirt for 1 euro! But it was most enjoyable listening to all the chatter (in many languages), a variety of music blasting from different stands, and shoving your way through to the 1 euro piles of clothes!

That evening I set out on the town alone but quickly met up with some other American girls (we were both searching for the Red Light district) and we spent the evening gawking in windows! Among the ladies selling themselves, there are all sorts of "unique" shops in the red light district. We also were sure to check out a "menu" at a coffee house and get a beer in Dam Square.

My last day in Amsterdam was my Museum day. I toured the Anne Frank House. Done in good taste, it tells the story through the narration of Anne with direct quotes from her diary. I also Spent quite a bit of time at the VanGogh Museum. The majority of VanGogh's works are here, and I couldn't believe how many of his paintings I really am familiar with! There was also an exhibition of his work with night light and it had works of other famous artists that inspired some of VanGogh's paintings. And last but not least, with only a couple of hours left before my flight, I visited the Hemp, Hash and Marijuana Museum. It was actually quite interesting...not just about stoners! It had the history of smoking in cultures from all over the world as well as all the different things you can get made out of hemp; did you know you can insulate your house with hemp?! They also have a growing room with a bunch of different varieties of marijuana plants and explained how they grow. Silly but interesting!

Now I have trips to plan for May and June before the girls have summer vacation. Then it will be more work and less play (maybe!).

March Mayhem

March was a month with little photos to testify to all the fun I had! I spent a weekend in Chur, Switzerland couch surfing where I stayed with an AWESOME host. We went snowboarding at 2 different mountains (Brambruesch and Arosa) and I met his friends. We celebrated a birthday and played fusball (table soccer). Sunny skies and long groomers made for a very fun weekend!

I also spent 3 days in Nice, France. Some of my Swiss girlfriends used to live there so we all went and stayed with Damion, one of their friends. His flat, right in the middle of town centre, was great, hosting a party for us and going dancing every night with a bunch of "Frenchies" (I was the only one not able to speak French!). I spent days wandering the beautiful city and taking in France for the first time! Around every corner was something beautiful: flower stands, pottery shops, fabric stores, butchers and cheese shops, cafes and creperies. My favorite was the Gelati stand with 65 flavors, including tomato flavor and even beer flavor (but they didn't let you do any tasting). The Castle Hill (with no castle still there) was beautifully landscaped and had AMAZING views of the city and sea. I even put a foot in the Med, but it was still REALLY cold so I didn't swim! Afternoons were spent on the beach, hanging out with some local French guys, drinking beers and chilling. It was a great, relaxing holiday weekend.

I also went with Norbert and the girls skiing for the last time this winter season. Norbert's brother's family came too (wife, son 8 and daughter 4). It was a nice weekend but the snow was pretty bad! Very sticky and lots of fog at the top. I am getting much better at my tele-turns and had my first official tele wipeout...over the front somersault. It was real spring skiing, but that is ok...it means SPRING IS ON THE WAY!