Bye-bye, Germany.

Our last few weeks in Germany were... interesting. We spent them in hotels in both Berlin and Hannover. I have never spent such a stretch of time living in hotel(s) and I must say that we fared well—although we were very excited to move on to our next landing spot—England!

Here are some photos of our last few weeks in Germany. We will miss our friends and neighbors that we have become close with over the last 5 months in Germany but will always carry wonderful memories of our first time living abroad.

We are too cheap to rent a crib. This is our makeshift baby bed in Berlin, Germany.

Sansouci Palace. Berlin, Germany.




Stella loved the over-sized playground. Especially the sand! Hannover, Germany.


Maschsee, an artificial lake in Hannover, Germany.

5 hours on the Autobahn to Würzburg, Germany

(Click this slideshow to see the entire image width)

By Liv

I swear those five hours shaved a few years off of my life. German drivers on the Autobahn are very good drivers, but they drive ridiculously fast. And, of course, Nick decided that he needs to drive "like a German" even though we have a 3-cylinder rental car. I bet we were the only people going that fast that weren't driving a Mercedes!

Our first road trip in Germany was to Southern Germany, to a town called Würzburg. One of our dear friends, Hilde, is from Würzburg and was heading back to visit her family, so we met her there and stayed one night in her Brother's hotel right near the center of town.

Hilde took us through the town and gave us a wonderful tour filled with stories of her life during the war. We are thankful to have such a lovely friend and to be able to share a day with her and her family while listening to stories and memories in such a historic town.

Munich, Germany

By Liv

From Venice, we boarded a high speed train (about 150 mph) to Munich. We passed through the Alps and Austria and vowed to make another trip to Austria one day. The views from the train were breathtaking. Small villages, beautiful snow-topped mountains and churches built in to the side of mountains, or on the top of a mountain that would seem impossible to climb, yet alone build a church on.

This train ride was particularly difficult for Stella. She has been working on her bottom two teeth and the nonstop travel has made it difficult for her to get any good naps in during the day. But we arrived in Munich in the same number of pieces that we were when we boarded the train, made our way to our hotel and collapsed in to a night of restful relaxation.

It soon dawned on us that we needed to learn German. Although some people in Munich speak English, we knew that the town we were headed to was not as large as Munich and our chances of finding another person to talk to (besides each other) was next to none. We practiced our German every time we went out to eat, but we were almost always simply blabbering :)

While in Munich, we took in some of the local sights including a huge farmer's market with bright and exotic produce and cheeses. On our way home, we stopped at a park and enjoyed an afternoon of playing in the grass with Stella. She's been a trooper through all of this change and craziness. We really have been impressed and look forward to showing her even more great trips and sights soon.