Kings, Queens and Strawberry Fields

April 26, 2008-

Today we went with Marita and Christian to Laffeld for their king and queen celebration. Every year each town gets a king and queen that represent the town in parades. They have to dress in formal clothes and have parties, it is a really neat tradition that Germany has had for awhile. Marita and Christians friend and his girlfriend were king and queen. It was nice to see, there were marching bands from different towns and they go to the king and queens house and get them and then march them around the town.
After we went to Laffeld we figured we were already halfway to Heinsberg so we might as well go and get ice cream! So we rode there through all of the strawberry fields. Unfortunately they hadn’t started ripening yet so they didn’t smell great! Usually when they are ripe you ride through them and all you smell is strawberries. So we had some ice and then rode back home. It was such a perfect day for riding, it was warm but overcast so the sun wasn’t beating on us. It was sad because it was our last bike ride with Marita and Christian here in Germany. I will definitely miss being able to ride my bike anywhere I want. The movers come and get the rest of our stuff Tuesday and we move over to the hotel :-( Can’t believe it is two weeks from today....really sneaks up on you!

From around the town...

Some scenery from our beautiful sunny days!





Can you see the rabbit?



What I see every time I look out towards the backyard.





Daily encounters.






I love Germany around this time of the year because everything is blooming and beautiful! I love this tree when it is blooming it is gorgeous!

Ahrweiler, Germany

Saturday we went to Ahrweiler with Marita and Christian in our pursuit of wine. We have to get at least 100 bottles of wine if we want to ship it back to the states with us. So the past few weeks we have been buying wine like crazy. We are up to about 65 bottles so in Ahrweiler we finished buying our wine, topping out at 105 bottles! Ahrweiler was beautiful, places like this make me sad to leave Germany. We left in the morning and had lunch in Ahrweiler and walked around town and along the river. In the afternoon we did some wine tasting and bought a bunch of wine (35 bottles!). It is nice when we go out with Marita and Christian because they can communicate with the locals :-) We will miss them the most when we leave! Here are some pictures of Ahrweiler and one of Marita and Christians new puppy, Fienchen, she is a 4-5 month old Westie.

Moving Day....sort of

March 23-24

The past two days the movers were here bright and early...8am! To start packing our stuff. Two guys packed the whole house, including wrapping and packing the big things, in two days! I don't think I could pack our whole house in two days. It was sad to see all of our stuff leaving...well Luke was sad, I was trying to be sad but failing miserably. I am excited to go back to the states, but I will miss some things about Germany, but not enough to make me sad to leave. So now all we have in our house is a table, coffee table, two chairs and a bed, all rental stuff from Schinnen. Having nothing in the house makes the house have an echo as everyone who calls us mentions :-P Here are some pictures from the moving process. Here's hoping all our stuff makes it to Colorado in one piece, especially my kitchen hutch i got in Tongeren!!