Catching up with the Apapapate's

We recently caught up with our good friend Rakesh and his wife Emily, who we met for the first time.  They were both travelling for work and had to make a short stop in Switzerland.  So we spontaneously arranged a weekend meet-up with them along the Austrian/German/Swiss border at Lake Constance (also known as Bodensee).

We picked them up at the town of Bregenz, Austria in the Honda Jazz.  We made the 2 hour drive from Munich and they took the train in from Zurich (you know, the Washington DC to Zurich to Bregenz connection).  We didn’t waste any time on chitchat and headed straight for the nearest mountain gondola (Pfanderbahn) to get up into the mountains, enjoy some views, and drink a beer.  We made a few attempts to stroll around the animal park but the rain kept us mostly inside.  

Eventually we set out for an early arrival to our hotel in the nearby town of Mellau, which happened to be offering cheaper rates than along Lake Constance.  We were in for an amazing surprise as we made the 30 minute drive to our hotel.  The mountains and scenery were so incredibly beautiful… I will let the pictures do the explaining on this one.   But the surprises did not end there because we were completely blown away by the amazing guest house we ended up at.  Apparently it is brand new and we may have been one of the first guests to stay there (at least judging by Booking.com).  Our little apartment was equipped with a kitchen and an enclosed balcony with the most spectacular waterfall and mountain views.  This felt like a 5 star kind of place for a 2 star price. 

After an evening of catching up we spent the next day back along Lake Constance in the town of Lindau.  This is the same place we came to for Julie’s birthday last year so we were able to navigate our way around the adorable little town with ease.  Number one on our destination for the day was this restaurant/café which offers the most delicious wraps and healthier oriented fresh food (exactly the kind of food missing from the scene in Munich).  This was one of the highlights from our previous trip to Lindau and we were not about to pass it up.  And just like we remembered, the fresh wraps were incredible.  Oh and of course spending the day with our fabulous friends from America was also wonderful. 

It was, however, just a short visit, which meant we were back on the road to Munich by the afternoon.  So the last time I saw Rakesh was of course in Brazil for the World Cup last year.  The time before that we were in Hawaii.  I sense a trend here, looking forward to seeing you in Asia somewhere and sometime in the near-future old buddy old pal!

I am Dreaming of a White Easter…

As any of our avid blog followers probably have noticed (hi Mom(s) and Grandma!), we have not been very active this winter.  Partly this is because we burned ourselves out visiting 9 countries last year and we are saving up our vacation days to do it all over again in 2013.  However, another large factor of why we have not done much lately is that this winter has been very, very long and dark.  Julie and I had discussed that there just didn’t seem to be as much sun this winter as last year, and the German Weather Service confirmed our suspicions.  This winter was officially the darkest winter for at least the last 60 years (they have only been tracking sunshine records for 60 years). 

The temperatures have been relatively constant around the freezing point, which brought a lot of snow this year.  It seems the snow started in October (see previous blog) and has not let up since: except for Christmas of course when we had a freak period of warm, sunny weather.  We’ve had a few freeze/thaw cycles in March, but even this week, the first official week of spring, we had a little bit of snow.  So since our ventures began in Munich back in December 2011, there have been 0 white Christmases and 1 white Easter (last year, 2012).  And with just one week to go, the forecast has us dreaming of another white Easter.

So naturally we have spent a lot of time avoiding the darkness by staying inside where it is warm. But seriously, what have we been doing!?  We conquered a 5,000 piece puzzle, bought a Nintendo Wii, had Indian food delivered about every Friday, watched 3 seasons of Downton Abbey, and learned to play/became addicted to the strategy/conquer board game Die Siedler Von Catan (The Settlers of Catan, also available in the States).  Oh and I can’t forget the thrilling episodes of “Der Bachelor”, “Deutschland Sucht den Superstar”, and “Germany’s Next Top Model” featuring Heidi Klum.  Only a small price to pay so I can watch soccer once a week, and it’s good German practice…..don’t judge!  I went to the FC Bayern vs. Arsenal Champions League game...pretty much a soccer fan’s dream come true.  Meanwhile Julie was busy winning trophies beating her co-workers in Go-Kart races…..I’m just glad I wasn’t there to also be defeated.

I also spent a lot of hours this winter studying German and preparing for my B1 language exam in February.  Today I received my scores and found out I passed with 93% and received the Goethe Institute “sehr gut” (basically an A) stamp of approval!  Yay!  Now the Mt. Everest that is German grammar looks a little bit smaller.

But don’t worry; our blog is about to get new life because after Easter weekend we are booked for every weekend until July.  We are jet setting to Denmark and Iceland in early April, then we prepare for 12 visitors over the following 6 weeks while also making long weekend trips to Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg.  And that doesn’t include the trip to Croatia in August we just booked.

It is bound to be an awesome spring and summer - we just have to get through the last days of winter/ our potentially “white” Easter.  Happy Spring everybody!