Usually we celebrated our birthdays in autumn,
having lived in the Southern hemisphere of course. But this year saw spring
birthdays for both of us. It felt really good to have a fresh new start with
all the green springing up and blossoms blooming. We began the celebrations at home for Arne’s
birthday at the end of March, and for mine we took a beautiful road trip to a
medieval town called Rothenburg ob der Tauber (see part 2).
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Hmmm, schnapps! |
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Celebrating in style...we saved this fancy Champagne for the two fo us |
Das Wetter – I thought it appropriate to mention
the weather at this point. In my mind
spring should have begun according, to the calendar (and my body clock wishing
winter would be over) in March. And when
the sun came out and blue skies abounded around the third week of March, with
temperatures reaching 25°C, I celebrated and took out my running shoes to enjoy
the weather, and packed away the winter blankets. I thought “horray, winter is
over and I survived”. Well, it was short-lived. From the end of March up until the
beginning of May it has been rainy and cold. We even had snow in April!
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Snow in April |
Most days have seen temperatures
of around 9 to 12°C and have been very wet. So it seems that Spring
temperatures that I am accustomed to really only begin at the start of May! Yesterday
was a sunny 24°C, and although it’s rainy today, it’s feels more like “spring
rain” than horrible cold, grey days.
Easter was somewhere in between all the birthday fun, and in Germany Easter decorations are all around people’s gardens, just like Christmas but this time with colourful eggs in trees; almost every house in our road did something in their garden.
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(Above)My attempt at Easter decorations German-style (this is kind of how they do the indoor ones) |
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In Rothenburg |
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In Rothenburg - Real eggs! |
On Easter Sunday we took a drive to a little town
called Cochem along the Mosel River. Cochem is about 130km west of where we live, and a
lovely drive. When we got there we took
a steep walk up a hill where the Cochem chair lift is, then admired views of
the Mosel river and Reichsburg Cochem, had coffee and cake (as Germans do) and took the chair lift
down. The little town is very quaint,
and the area along the river was dotted with beds of tulips – so pretty.
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Finally at the top |
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Reichsburg Cochem |
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Well-deserved coffee and cake |
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Loving the tulips |
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Mosel River |
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The hill we climbed |
The blossoms have been blooming and for the first
time I am seeing the life-cycle of a cherry tree in my own
garden. It’s amazing to see how the buds suddenly appear one morning, then the
blossoms, and then after a couple of weeks they fall off, and like magic the
tree is filled with bright green leaves.
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The blossoms fell like confetti all over the garden |
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The other cherry tree in our garden |
More news on the cherry trees another day … the poor things have to be removed.
Coming soon…torture devices, rhubarb and another
new bed!
LOL - torture devices? Oh I see .... the visit to the criminal museum in Rothenburg ;) Can't wait for that update!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have been busy! Lovely colourful pics! Hope you had a great birthday! :)
ReplyDeleteThanx :-)
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