I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas! Dawn, Osu, and I had a great time in Dresden. We now have a new favorite Christmas Market! The Dresden markets were even better than we had heard and we really enjoyed exploring the different ones around the city. We were a little surprised when we arrived in Dresden on the 23rd that there wasn't more snow in the city. What little snow there was was dirty and rotten and not too appealing. However, on Christmas Eve night, a new storm rolled in, ensuring that we would wake up Christmas morning to a new blanket of white. We had a great walk around the old part of the city on Christmas morning, but didn't stick around for too long. I knew that the drive home was going to take longer than usual due to the still falling snow. My fears were realized when the drive that would usually take only 2.5 hours turned in to a 5+ hour ordeal. It really wasn't too bad, just slow due to the condition of the Autobahn.
Pictures from Dresden
On the 26th, we all decided to go have a little fun in the snow. Here is a short video showing what we did. (the video might take a bit of time to load - be patient!)
The original video can be found HERE
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A bit of a different Christmas
First of all, we'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We wish we could be with everyone at this time of year. That is one of the hard things about living overseas - being away from family and friends during the holidays. Heck, we have a big enough place now - how about you all come over and stay with us next year :)
This Christmas, we are taking it pretty easy. This morning we are leaving for Dresden and are staying for two nights in this fantastic city. We only decided on this plan late last week, having heard from numerous people that the Dresden Christmas market is THE market to go to in Germany. We actually hear this about a lot of the different markets around the country (and in France and Italy and Austria), but too many people have told us too many times now that Dresden truly is one of the special ones. We've been to the Nurnberg Christkindlmarkt - more than a couple of times. We did Rothenburg ob der Tauber last weekend. We've been to Hexannager and the Regensburg markets, Salzburg, and numerous other small markets around our area. They are all great! But, Dresden is one we really want to check out. When we asked each other "if you could only go to one more market, which one would it be", we both answered "Dresden".
So, Dresden it is. We're really looking forward to it! We'll be returning home on Christmas day with plans to take it easy, eat a lot of food, and watch a lot of movies. It sounds delightful to me!
Merry Christmas!
(All of the Christmas Posters I've created this year can be found HERE)
This Christmas, we are taking it pretty easy. This morning we are leaving for Dresden and are staying for two nights in this fantastic city. We only decided on this plan late last week, having heard from numerous people that the Dresden Christmas market is THE market to go to in Germany. We actually hear this about a lot of the different markets around the country (and in France and Italy and Austria), but too many people have told us too many times now that Dresden truly is one of the special ones. We've been to the Nurnberg Christkindlmarkt - more than a couple of times. We did Rothenburg ob der Tauber last weekend. We've been to Hexannager and the Regensburg markets, Salzburg, and numerous other small markets around our area. They are all great! But, Dresden is one we really want to check out. When we asked each other "if you could only go to one more market, which one would it be", we both answered "Dresden".
So, Dresden it is. We're really looking forward to it! We'll be returning home on Christmas day with plans to take it easy, eat a lot of food, and watch a lot of movies. It sounds delightful to me!
Merry Christmas!
(All of the Christmas Posters I've created this year can be found HERE)
Friday, December 17, 2010
Pictures - 2010 Favorites
It's finally done. I've gone through the thousands and thousands of pictures (something like 22,000....) that I took over the last 12 months and plucked out my favorite ones. I know that I am still way behind on posting up pictures from the many trips we took over the year, and it will still be some time before I get to those. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this set of pictures. It was fun going back through them all. Wow, we did a lot over this past year and definitely kept busy!
To see the full set, click HERE. A few samples below.
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Jef, Dawn, and Osu above the Mer De Glace in Chamonix, France  |
Monday, November 29, 2010
Finally - Pictures of the New House
Of course, when I finally get around to taking some pictures of the house, the place is an absolute disaster. See, we just returned from Rome yesterday and still haven't fully unpacked. Before we left for Rome, we hosted an early Thanksgiving with many of our friends. We never got the chance to fully clean up before heading off to Italy either. So, excuse the mess in the pictures, please. We usually are much cleaner people! On top of the dorm room-esque look of our house, we received our first big snowfall of the season last night (and it continues to come down as I type this). So, instead of seeing our nice green lawn and the various rosebushes and other plants, you can really only see a blanket of white surrounding the exterior of our place. I'll make sure to take more pictures in the spring, especially after we plant our garden.
It's probably been evident that both Dawn and I have been very busy these past few months. It's made it really hard to post much to the blog lately. It's also been hard for me to find any time to put many new pictures up from the trips we have taken. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of them up soon, however -especially for the bigger trips we've taken. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pictures from the house - you can find them on my Flickr Site (<----- click on that link)
ps - I've created many, many new posters and placed them on my Taku Posters and Photography Site. Please take some time to look through them and tell me what you think! A lot of the posters are from trips we've taken, so it will give you some idea of what we've been up to!
It's probably been evident that both Dawn and I have been very busy these past few months. It's made it really hard to post much to the blog lately. It's also been hard for me to find any time to put many new pictures up from the trips we have taken. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of them up soon, however -especially for the bigger trips we've taken. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pictures from the house - you can find them on my Flickr Site (<----- click on that link)
ps - I've created many, many new posters and placed them on my Taku Posters and Photography Site. Please take some time to look through them and tell me what you think! A lot of the posters are from trips we've taken, so it will give you some idea of what we've been up to!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
All moved in!
We’ve finally got all moved into the new house. It’s all setup and ready to go, except a few parts of the kitchen, not bad for a week and a half. We’ve got new rugs, since most of the house is tile or laminate, tons of wall space, and a nice big yard. Osu is adjusting well, although he wasn’t sure if he was going to be left here.
We went out exploring a bit this weekend. Nate got the bikes all ready to go, and Osu was happy to follow along. We started in our town and headed through the woods towards Mausdorf and then rounded back passed Godlricht and back to our house. Osu was pretty tired afterwards, but very happy. He is still recovering from the ride, which has made him run a little slower on our trip through the woods a different direction yesterday.
Currently, Nate is out in Austria. He’s headed down to Grossglockner, then driving the Grossglockner high Alpine road, and stopping in Hintertux to ski and head home. It is all for work, so he says J Nate will also be stopping in Innsbruck to get some cityscape pictures.
If all works out well we want to head to Strasbourg, France this weekend. The city looks beautiful and has a lot of history as well. But, you should read the history yourself; I don’t remember ANY history for very long.
We went out exploring a bit this weekend. Nate got the bikes all ready to go, and Osu was happy to follow along. We started in our town and headed through the woods towards Mausdorf and then rounded back passed Godlricht and back to our house. Osu was pretty tired afterwards, but very happy. He is still recovering from the ride, which has made him run a little slower on our trip through the woods a different direction yesterday.
Currently, Nate is out in Austria. He’s headed down to Grossglockner, then driving the Grossglockner high Alpine road, and stopping in Hintertux to ski and head home. It is all for work, so he says J Nate will also be stopping in Innsbruck to get some cityscape pictures.
If all works out well we want to head to Strasbourg, France this weekend. The city looks beautiful and has a lot of history as well. But, you should read the history yourself; I don’t remember ANY history for very long.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The View Has Indeed Changed!
Greetings All!
This past weekend we made the move to our new locale in Ursulapoppenricht (yes, it's a mouthful). We have actually managed to get a lot done in the last few days, although a lot of work yet remains until the pictures are hung, shelves are stocked, and things are organized. Slowly but surely, things are getting accomplished, however.
The picture at the top of the page was taken from the office/workout room in the new house. We don't really have a front porch anymore, so I figured the most interesting view would make the best banner for this page. Yes, that is a train that passes the house, but luckily, it is not a commuter line. I've noticed that the train comes by two to three times a day, and also luckily, not at horrific hours. You may also notice that we have no neighbors on this side of the house - just fields of corn, rapeseed plants and some other unidentified green stuff. It's quiet (except for the train passing a few times a day), peaceful, and a nice change from the 'city life' of Parsberg.
We'll start to update this blog a little more often as we get further settled in. Finally, things are starting to calm down for us. It's a nice change!
This past weekend we made the move to our new locale in Ursulapoppenricht (yes, it's a mouthful). We have actually managed to get a lot done in the last few days, although a lot of work yet remains until the pictures are hung, shelves are stocked, and things are organized. Slowly but surely, things are getting accomplished, however.
The picture at the top of the page was taken from the office/workout room in the new house. We don't really have a front porch anymore, so I figured the most interesting view would make the best banner for this page. Yes, that is a train that passes the house, but luckily, it is not a commuter line. I've noticed that the train comes by two to three times a day, and also luckily, not at horrific hours. You may also notice that we have no neighbors on this side of the house - just fields of corn, rapeseed plants and some other unidentified green stuff. It's quiet (except for the train passing a few times a day), peaceful, and a nice change from the 'city life' of Parsberg.
We'll start to update this blog a little more often as we get further settled in. Finally, things are starting to calm down for us. It's a nice change!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The view from our front porch will be changing very soon
Unfortunately, that view won't be as scenic as the castle from our current yard, but we are both very excited about the move! Yes, it's finally happening. On October 1st, the movers come to haul our stuff 53.2 kilometers to the north. I've been alluding to the fact that a move might be imminent for the past couple of months, but I haven't been very forthcoming as to why. Basically, I am not renewing my government work contract and will be free from the constraints of a cubicle, 12 demanding bosses, irrational work demands, and performing tasks that I have found boring and unchallenging for the past 10 plus years. Instead, I will be doing my art, photography, writing, and web work fulltime from home. I have a few solid things in the bag right now, but also have 1,000 other ideas to implement and try out. I am really looking forward to these new challenges and opportunities!
As for Dawn, she has renewed her contract and will continue working at her current position where she is very well-liked and is doing a great job. The best part of all this is that she will no longer have to make the one hour slog each way to work every day. Instead, a 20 minute, very easy drive, will put her at the front door of her office. No more 4:30am alarms, no more getting home at 6:30pm after a long day, no more cramming in workouts and exercise in to her already busy schedule. We are both looking forward to her having much more free time after the move.
I will update our situation a bit more in the days to come - and when I'm more coherent. The last month of travel and work has left me a little thin on energy! The remaining weeks of September will not provide any respite either. We'll get through it, however, and very much look forward to kicking back in our new digs and enjoying our new lives starting in October. Yes, things are looking up!
As for Dawn, she has renewed her contract and will continue working at her current position where she is very well-liked and is doing a great job. The best part of all this is that she will no longer have to make the one hour slog each way to work every day. Instead, a 20 minute, very easy drive, will put her at the front door of her office. No more 4:30am alarms, no more getting home at 6:30pm after a long day, no more cramming in workouts and exercise in to her already busy schedule. We are both looking forward to her having much more free time after the move.
I will update our situation a bit more in the days to come - and when I'm more coherent. The last month of travel and work has left me a little thin on energy! The remaining weeks of September will not provide any respite either. We'll get through it, however, and very much look forward to kicking back in our new digs and enjoying our new lives starting in October. Yes, things are looking up!
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