Denmark

We all arrived in Blavand in Denmark. Alistair and Jessica with the kids flew in from Manchester, and Andrea took a week holidays to join us. We are staying in a holiday home of a friend of ours, perfectly suited for 5 adults and 3 kids with a swimming pool, sauna, steam bath and jacuzzi. It is only about 300m to a 40 km long sandy beach. Blavand only has about 200 inhabitants, but there are over 2,000 holiday homes in the area and the village is quite busy. The weather is sunny, but with a cold wind. The jacuzzi is great after a walk on the beach.

Celle

We are spending a week in Denmark with the kids and grandkids. They fly in, we are driving from Heidelberg. On the way, we stopped in Celle in Northern Germany. The old city still has over 400 half-timbered buildings from the late 16th and early 17th century, very picturesque. At the time Celle was experiencing a boom, partly due to the influx of Huguenots forced to leave France. We are enjoying just walking around, and spending some time in a Café in the sunshine.

The oldest house in Celle, built in 1526

Hirschhorn

I took my bike along the Neckar to the East today, 30km to the historic town of Hirschhorn, first mentioned in 773 AD and visited by Mark Twain on August 9, 1878. The paths were quite a lot along busy roads, but there were also beautiful stretches along the river. The wind was cold, but no rain today. A nice Greek lunch warmed me up, but then it was another 30km to come back.

Neckar with bear

I took a bike ride along the Neckar this morning and came across some bears (behind glas, in the zoo). Almost like being back in Canada.

Visitors

Tim and Liz are visiting us, and the weather is great. We went out into town last night and are going on a hike today with Liz. Tim has work meetings at the university.

New kitchen

Our new kitchen is almost complete, and we can use it again. That also allowed us to unpack most of the remaining boxes from the move. I cooked lunch today, of course white asparagus with fresh strawberries for desert.

Asparagus season has started

This week the white asparagus season started in our region, and all locals are convinced we have some of the best asparagus here from all of Europe. I love this vegetable and usually eat it with salmon, but today I had schnitzel with it. Sheila has ordered a new kitchen, the old one has been taken away, and we need to go out for our main meals this week, tough.

Back in Germany

We had a great time in Manchester and all came back to Germany. Jessica and the kids are staying in Siegelbach with my parents, though the kids take turns visiting us in Heidelberg. Today we went on a successful Easter egg hunt.

Manchester

Sheila has been in the UK for a week and today I joined her in Manchester. Jessica and Alistair are redecorating their house and the bedroom is straight out of Africa, the kids love it. The weather in Heidelberg was awful, wet, windy and cold. In Manchester it is sunny and warm (and I am not supposed to comment on how unusual that is).

Weisser Stein

The weather was sunny and warm today, so I took my e bike up to the Weissen Stein, a hill behind Handschuhsheim. Despite using up a lot of my battery, it was still a strenuous 1 hour ride. There is a pub on top so I had a nice lunch and an easy, quick ride back.