Strasbourg - Capitale de Noël

We decided that we will connect Cléments job interview in Strasbourg with a little trip to visit his friends there and to shop for some christmas presents. Calling themselves the "Capital of Christmas" seemed pretty outrageous at first. But offering 11 christmas markets made it look quite legit.

Every little space that the city offers is covered with little cabins where people sell amazing things to eat, to wear, to play with or to decorate your house. There are stages with choires singing that it gives you chills that are not caused by the minus 2 degrees. Every street has some different kind of lightning and the the thin layer of snow that covered the city made the impression of a winter wonderland complete.

Mail box of Santa Clause :)

We met Sabrina on one of the christmas markets and took a little walk around. Then we found a little cheese restaurant to fill our stomachs with wonderful french cheese. Afterwards we rolled home.

Raclette and crusty cheese 

The next day we did another trip around the markets with Sabrina and Mathieu, ate wonderful Gauffre and Schuupfnudels and did some shopping before taking the crowded train with a lot of drunk football hooligans home which was quite sad because it ruined the peaceful pre-christmas atmosphere we built up in Strasbourg.

Sabrina & Mathieu

So everybody who loves christmas and christmas markets, I can only recommend you Strasbourg with its wonderful diversity between kitsch and art.

Advent, Advent, ein Päckchen bringt

And there is was.... the 1st of December. And every kid in the world knows what starts on this very day, starting the christmas marathon of christmas decoration, gift shopping and card wrtiting: the advent calendar! To start every day with a smile, I made one of my famous and proven to be fun calendars for my friends in Enschede, Laura and Frank.

I took some pictures that Frank shot when they where visiting me and Clément here in Ulm and turned them into a 100 piece puzzle. I wrapped some pieces in some paper and made 24 little parcels. I can say that this kind of advent calendar is fun, because I tried it last year with Clément, who was actually not able to keep himself from opening the parcels before the date that was written on it was reached!

One could say, it might even be too much fun.... Or that Cléments self-regulation is not very well developed. Either way, I sent a box with the 24 little parcels along with two jokers to them and yesterday and with a six day delay it finally arrived . Lucky for them, because they were allowed to open six parcels at once.

And I got this picture showing how far they have come.

Have fun guys, with your advent calendar!

And Clément got another one this year, again with a puzzle so he can work on his ability to delay gratification. And this year, I can keep an eye on him and make sure he stays on shedule.

Visitors of Heart

Last weekend we had dear friends over from the Netherlands. After more than half a year without seeing each other this reunion was far overdue and Laura, Frank and us spent a few precious days together here in Ulm. When you show your (new) home town to friends sometimes you are surprised by how much and how little you know about it. I know quite something over the old buildings and their purposes and also have my few places I like to go for coffee. But then there are a million things I haven't done yet such as climbing on the Münster.

Being surprised by blinding sunshine proving the weather forecast more than wrong, we took our chance and made our way up the what seems to be a million stairs. And every one of them was worth it. When my mum and my sister came to visit some weeks ago we climbed a tower on one of the surrounding hills but being so high up in the middle of the city and being able to see the Alps was a whole other dimension.

The next day the weather forecast was right (damn it) but still did not prevent us from going to Blaubeuren where the source of the Blau is, which is a little river flowing into the Donau in Ulm. The so called Blautopf is an underground cave which reach far into the mountain and were discoveres only 50 or 60 years ago by divers. The pictures they show about the inside of the cave are just fenomenal!

On Monday I had to go to work because one of our projects were due on that day and we had to finish. So Clément played tourist guide and took Laura and Frank for a little bike trip around the city. For evening we had home made Käsespätzle, which seem to become a tradition when we have visitors over.

It was such a nice relaxed weekend, spending hours on the couch catching up, watching movies and drinking tea... Thank you so much for coming and filling our home with your geniality!! <3

Musical discovery...

One new discovery in the shiny music skies. Blending in very well withour record collection of all-time-favourites such as Ben Howerd, Angus Stone, Bon Iver and Ed Sheeran. 

Presenting James Vincent McMorrow. 

Nights in Ulm...

Curious things happen in Ulm when night falls. Roboter try to make their ways across streets and into cinemas.

Snow appears out of the blue  and wrappes everything in icy coldness.

Global Home

We went to see the premier of "Global Home" yesterday in the Lichtburg Cinema in Ulm, which celebrated also its 60th anniversary. It's a very nice and humble documentary about the Couch Surfing Network that makes it so easy to travel and collect with the locals in a way that's almost impossible if you stay in a hotel (even more when it's a all-inclusive one). This movie did its job if you have this feeling of restlessness in your heart afterwards that makes you signing up on Couch Surfing and look for people that happen to live in places you always wanted to see. 

Wohin möchtest du gehen?

„Grinse-Katze“, begann sie ein wenig zaghaft…

„Würdest Du mir sagen, welchen Weg ich von hier aus nehmen soll?“

„Kommt darauf an, wohin Du gehen möchtest“, antwortete die Katze.

„Es ist mir gar nicht so wichtig, wohin“, sagte Alice.

„Dann spielt es auch keine Rolle, welchen Weg du nimmst“, sagte die Katze.

Lewis Carroll; Alice im Wunderland

The day we bought a couch on Ebay...

It was more or less by accident that we ended up with the couch. We were actually bidding on another couch because the fabric of that one looked nicer. The two auctions ended just four minutes apart from each other and because we wanted to see how far the price is going up, we openend the page of a similar one that started at about the same price than ours and was offered by the same seller but was already 100 Euros ahead of ours.

The couch looked also quite nice and when we found out that we could choose the fabric ourselves we decided to take our chances and just bid to our limit. As always the last seconds on Ebay cost you some months of your life and are a bit blurred with excitement. Then without really knowing what happened Ebay congratulated us on our new couch.

Quite freaked out by this funny attempt to take chances and actually getting it, we checked on the other couch that was still 100 Euros away from what we just paid for "our new couch". By that time we got quite anxious that we just bought a couch for far more money than we would have to pay for this one... So the last minute of this auction were actually more stressful than the one where we actually took part in the bidding.

10 seconds before the end, the price still did not move much causing quite some heart racing. And then... pff, we were fine.. the couch was sold for about the same price than ours. What's the difference between them? It's easier to vacuum under the couch we bought. And that is that...

Quality sucks but it gives you an idea... 

There and back again...

Surprised by the weather forecast promising a sunny weekend, we put on our hiking shoes, packed Cléments backpack and drove to Immenstadt. After finding the tourist office closed we were approached by some locals and before we knew what happened we found ourselves nevertheless well equipped with advice.

Blinded by the sun.

We took the chair lift up the next mountain and crossed some of its neighbours to reach our final challenge: the ladder. To the top you could either take some nice little path or climb up a very heigh ladder. After I made up my mind, Clément decided to join me despite his fear of heights. And he did well! A little shaky but proud we reached the top and enjoyed the view over the mountains and lakes.

Take in the ladder on the right.

Clément and a nervous grin.

This row of mountains is called something like God's beton, because they
are made of all those little stones held together by some sand turned to stone.

Holding on to the rope.

After getting excited by the first bit of snow, we started our quest for something ranging between hotel and stable to spend the night. After being denied once, we convinced the owner of the Naturfreundehaus Kempten that we are just fine to sleep in sleeping bags brought up from the cellar in a room with 40 other men, sharing our matress with at least one of them.

After some deep fried food and being laughed at by everybody in the restaurant for asking for something less than half a liter of beer, we went to bed. We slept surprisingly well, which was very unexpected after the concert of snoring started when everybody came to bed after I don't know how many beers and me having the dark suspicition that this will be a long and cruel night. We were woken by the sun shining into the window and with breakfast waiting for us.

So we were back on the road a little after nine heading in the direction of the Alpsee. The way was very steep and we could feel our muscles for quite a few days.

It was totally worth it and sometimes spontaneous ideas like that are the best! Not much planning which looking back at it could have gone quite bad if we would not have found a place to stay.
Living on the edge!!! (imagine weird hand shake here)

The Feeling Of In Between

Trying to get to know myself by trying to get to know the world that I'm living in. That's why I try to see as many different places as possible. It doesn't always have to involve crossing the equator. Sometimes adventures and paradise are just around the corner. Although I get this weird feeling of being stuck when I spend too much time at the same place, missing the feeling of being in between two lifes that's always striking me when I'm on the airport ready to start a trip. My old one and a new one....

I can feel it in my heart that soon, very soon, decisions have to be made, and a long distance flight to be booked...

Vacation on Oleron

 Holidays finally came and took me away from work obligations and moving and renovating stress. Clément and I moved our stuff from two into one flat a couple of days ago and leaving a big mess behind, we got behind the steering wheel to drive the 1200 km from Ulm to Oleron, where Cléments mum lives. The sore muscles on the other hand stayed with us some more days reminding us constantly of the chaos that is awaiting us on our return. We took a break in a shitty Formula 1 "Hotel" which could not have been located closer to the highway without being ON the highway. But even that could not interrupt our sleep after all the boxes, furnitures, fridges and washingsmaschines that we moved up and down several flights of stairs.

The money we saved by not using the roads that you have to pay for and by staying at the Formula 1, we spent on lunch. We ended up taking a break close to a little lake and the only restaurant there was a five star Hotel Château de la Cazine where the waiters are wearing uniforms and exchanges your knifes and forks after every course. We enjoyed being pampered eating an awesome desert while trying to look as if we belong there under this enormous chandelier on antique funritures.

We arrived on Oleron in the evening taking our first walk on the beach and reunting with Cléments family.

The next days where full of family activities and my ears were ringing because of all the fast french that was spoken around me. Cléments sister arranged a little get together with a part of the family in St. Trojan so I could meet some of them before the big family party. It was very nice, we had the perfect weather and a tasty picknick, just the waves where a little to high even for us to go swimming.

Hugo, Cléments nephew, fixing his bike with the help of the firefighters.

French kid, crazy about baguette :)

And then, on Monday evening, my little accident happened, when a wave caught me and I smashed my nose against Cléments ellbow. It made a loud cracking noise and I was really scared that it's broken. After a quick assessment by the life guard and the pharmacists it was decided that I would take some pain killers and rest to see how if its better the next day. Because it still hurt a lot and I felt dizzy and tired all the time we went to the doctor and finally to the x-ray. My nose is not broken so I am very relieved. Today, four days after it happened it still hurts me a bit and I rest a lot but I am sure I will be okay :)

Clément diving back into his childhood as a LEGO-knight.

The rest of the time I help Clément packing boxes for Ulm, taking pictures of his beloved LEGO and putting them gently into a big box so nothing can get destroyed, and going through his papers and books from primary school deciding which are worth keeping.

 We see a lot of Cléments friends and its nice because they all make a great effort to speak English. Even Cléments mum tries really hard and our mix of French and English can almost be called a coversation.

We will leave tomorrow so we can take our time to get back to Ulm and do some hiking on the way. We don't know yet which way we are going to take but we will figure it out on the go, I guess.

 

I hope you all have a great vacation and whenenver you want to come and visit us in Ulm, you know you are welcome and a spare bed is waiting for you! <3