We hope you have a wonderful holiday! We had a lovely Christmas with Katie's family here. We got to see some amazing sites:
Katie and her family spent the weekend in Paris:
du Louvre
The bridge of locks - couples come here and place a lock with their initials on it to show their everlasting love.
The hotel we stayed in
Versailles - that's real gold!
The ceilings were magnificent
The palace bedrooms
In Du Louvre
Mona Lisa - so small!
Notre Dame
Notre Dame
Family walking around Notre Dame
Amazing stained glass windows!
Then we spent time in Germany. Everyone got to experience the Christmas Market in Rudesheim. We also visited a castle - Schloss Heidelberg. You can see the changes in architectural style as the castle was destroyed and re-built over the years.
Giant wine barrel
Stairs to walk over the wine barrel
Destroyed part of the castle
Overlooking Heidelberg
We also saw the world's largest cuckoo clock in Wiesbaden:
It was wonderful to have family here. We learned that there is not much to do here after Dec 23rd (note to future visitors). Regardless, it was fun to relax and hang out with the family.
New Year's eve was a pretty low-key event for us. We had friends over and went out to dinner and watched a movie. In Germany, fireworks are legal for New Year's use only, so at midnight every German was outside lighting off fireworks. There was no organized town or city show, it was just on all the streets, in between houses, in the fields, everywhere! It was pretty amazing to stand outside and be surrounded by fireworks. It was hard to know where to look - every direction there were fireworks! Mike promised that next year he will be out there with everyone else setting them off (note to future visitors).
As with any new year, I like to reflect on the past year. And let me tell you, 2012 was a year we will never forget. At the beginning of 2012 I would have never thought we would be living in Germany right now. This year has been the most exciting, challenging, adventurous, stressful, straining, and busiest year of our lives. I cannot speak for Mike, but I am extremely thankful for what this year has brought me. We are both very excited for 2013 and hope it will not be quite as busy as 2012. I have a lot of plans for this new year. No resolutions per say, but just goals. My main goal is to learn more German and get a productive job/volunteer position started. There are lots of plans in the works and I hope to have something finalized in the next month.
Look forward to pictures of our furnished house in the next few weeks!
Wishing you all an adventurous 2013!
~Katie and Mike
