Category: Europe (Page 3 of 11)

The next weekend we met up with Manjas ex colleagues again for brunch – which included a whole lot of awesome food and even a bunch of deserts! In conversation about music and instruments, our host brought out this classic Accordion. This was an important day, because we all learned that I can’t play accordion 😂

Yuuuum

Nope. Nope. Nope

In the next week we went on a boats tour with some colleagues and customers, making full use of a nice autumn evening. On Saturday it was Manjas Nephews birthday, which was on the same day as a puppet show in the Museum Lübben which lent itself to being combined. The guy presenting made all of his own puppets our of recycled materials, in part telling a story and in part demonstrating how easy it is to create things from things which are ostensibly trash. The story was probably great for kids, and could have been improved a little for the Adults watching. After the show we went to a nearby cafe for some coffee and cake, while chatting to the Family.

Tin Castle

Getting oiled up

Visiting the circus

Demonstrating the puppets

Character line-up.

The knight and his… frog.

Eventually it got to the last weekend of August, which was also Manjas Birthday. Given that her birthday was on a Saturday we decided to host a party and celebrate into the day. The week before we got some plums from Ilkas garden, so after work I made a nice plum cake for the party. We also prepared the standard party stuff like chips and home made dips and I offered to mix cocktails for everyone. The party was a raving success – almost everyone invited came, meaning that it was a little crowded at times, with up to 30 people in the small flat at a time. Around midnight we lit some candles on a cake and served champagne to the guests as we sang Happy Birthday to Manja.
We continued to chat the night away when one of the guests let us know that a neighbour had come by and complained about the noise…  Now this was the most relaxed and quiet party I had been to, so I decided to ignore it. Eventually she rang the doorbell so long and aggressively that I took the doorbell “off the hook” and went to speak to her – it was just before 1 am.

She proceeded to tell me that

she had to get up to work the next day and that
she had called the police and they would not do anything and that
she didn’t want to be the old anti-party woman but she was 58 and needed her sleep and that
she would have to get up at 5 am and that
she had never had any problems with us before, but that this simply wasn’t acceptable, and that
she would have to go to work so that our pension would be paid….

You read that last one right, and much like the whole conversation it didn’t make much sense. I suggested that we close the windows to help keep the noise in. It was the last we heard of her, so I guess that satisfied her. Some people are really just difficult. After the last guests left around 3 we cleaned up a little, Manja got my gifts and we dropped into be exhausted.

Dough

Plums in dough

CRUMBLE YUMS

Cat likes the bed well made.

Guests on the balcony

Guests at the balcony

Honey, I may have set the cake on fire…

Presents!

More presents!

As the most astute of you may remember, Manja took me to tropical islands last year for my birthday, in part because you get free entry on your birthday. So this year it was her turn.
I had arranged a car yesterday already so we just had to throw everything into the car and head off, so even though we were a bit bleary eyed from the night before we managed to leave reasonably early.
We found a park after driving a bit and headed in. As soon as you pass the doors you feel like you are in a different world: It’s warm and humid with the buzz of a happy crowd. We got our bracelets, which I love: You use them as a key for your locker and to charge everything to during your stay. We got changed and headed out. Each time I’m here, I’m amazed once more at the sheer size of the place. There are fully-grown palm trees as well as a range of wildlife, and nothing comes close to touching the 107m high dome top. We spent the day warming up, swimming around, relaxing at the “beaches” having some food and exploring the flora and fauna.  One of the cool new things is that they started a butterfly house.  Unfortunately some less-than-attentive customers let some of them escape into the “wild” of tropical islands. While I think it would be cool to have butterflies everywhere, I highly doubt that will happen…  But I wish the escapees the best of luck in colonising new frontiers!
The day ended too soon and we had to move on, leaving a bit before sunset to head over to Cottbus. We dropped by a shopping center to pick up some last-minute ingredients for the 2(!!) cakes I promised to make Manja and grabbing a bite to eat. The evening was spent with the grandparents, chatting a bit and watching TV.

Tropical Islands Dome

Relaxed Simon is relaxed

Flower

Butterfly, looking out

Butterfly keeping an eye on us

Butterfly having an orange cocktail

Butterflys pre-hatching

Flamingos in the distance

Flamingos closer

Pheasant going for a walk in the wild

Refined pheasant walking on the footpath

Tropical Island didgeridoo?

Having only just been at the sea the week before, we arranged to have a short work-week and spend a few days with Stefan in his holiday home on the island Föhr at the north sea. It was a fair distance away and this time we decided to go by train rather than arrive exhausted from driving. Overall the trip would take us about 7 hours.

When we got on the train at Berlins main train station, it was already absolutely crowded. The first leg was spent on a fold-out seat next to the bicycles, but we entertained ourselves by playing a talk-box, which is basically a game with a whole bunch of creative questions to get to know each other a bit better.  We told some interesting stories from our past, but really had to admit that we already knew each other pretty well. Who’d have thunk it? Eventually we switched trains and got some more space, so we could comfortably sit, read and write blogs. Another couple of hours later and we were onto the ferry. It was a bit windy 🙂

On the other side Stefan picked us up and we walked over to his house, through the very pretty old streets of Wyk. After dropping off our bags he gave us a short tour of the town and the beach. On our way we had to drop by a classic place of Wyk: The 50c ice-cream place. This place is run by a guy who had been selling nothing but chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice-cream from his classic machines – next time we’re there I’ll have to take a photo of them. We wandered the promenade and beach a bit and Stefan also showed us the communal herb garden and the Stork sanctuary.

As today was a festival day, there was plenty of activity in the harbour, including a rubber-duck race, which was super cute. On our way back we went shopping for dinner and had some awesome home-made meatballs at Stefans, paired with a nice local beer he had organised. Now I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I enjoyed this one!

As darkness fell we headed out to the beach once more to watch the fireworks. This was the end of the festival day, “Föhr on fire” and this was the last year it would happen, so they made an effort. The fireworks were set-off on a barge which had been setup specifically for this. It was a spectacular sight, although it was getting a little cold. We followed the crowd and headed home and called it a night.

Training to pass time in the train

Ferry nice!

I see shoes on green, red roses too…

Hair is down

Hair is up

Surprisingly comfortable bed-couch!

Streets of Wyk

More streets of Wyk

Colorful baskets on the beach

Half a windmill (for sale – really!)

Wormwood in the local herb park.

Pretty home

Habour prepared for the duck race

Simon Prepared for Duck race

Stefan and I cooking

well, I drinking

Stefan cooking

Dinner!

On Sunday we decided to take a bit of a bike tour. After an excellent breakfast made by Stefan, we pumped up the tyres of the old bikes and got on our way. It was a bit windy at times, but it was nice to be outside. Along the way we stopped to check out the milk station, where you could bring your bottles and re-fill your own milk anytime. If it wasn’t Sunday, you could also tour the factory and possibly buy cheese… And we all know how much I like cheese, right? Unfortunately it was Sunday, so we moved on after checking out the machinery and being impressed with the “pay at the pump” credit card option for the milk station. Our goal was to go to a “Watt Walk” which you can do with a guide during low tide, because the ocean totally recedes in this area. We were a bit early so we headed to a local township to grab some lunch before coming back, only to find out that the winds were so strong that the water did NOT receed today and there would be no way to do the walk. To be fair, it probably would have been too cold for me anyway 🙂 As the ride there took over an hour we decided to break up the ride home by stopping at a well-reviewed cafe. and OMG it was worth it. I had the best strawberry cake I can remember! We also saw a classic car with little “Don’t touch” notes in all the windows 🙂
Our next stop was on a place google maps found for us – an ancient grave site.  We walked the beach and the path near the beach, but could not find it. After walking past twice Stefan decided to go off-road, walking straight through some reeds, eventually finding a fenced-off area which had the grave-site in it. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was ancient, and we did have to work to find it 🙂

Stefan had one more stop planned for us – an old church which had the graves of sailors around it. These graves had stories about the people, not just names, which made them interesting. Unfortunately you had to know ye-olde-german and spend a long time deciphering the fading texts to understand it completely, but we got the gist of one or two of them. The church itself was massive and smelled a little damp… it also had a boat suspended in one corner. Sea-farer church I guess! As we were riding through the township of the church we came across this odd little store which made us stop… they sold a random collection of everything, across two old (sand-and cobble-stone floor old) buildings. It was eclectic, selling alcohol, perfumes, crystals, tea and coffee. They even sold Kopi Luwak – the coffee beans digested by cats. As tempting as it was, the average quality of the coffee did not entice me to try it here 😅
Another 20 minutes later we made it back home, in time for dinner.  We decided to head across the road to order some pizza and have a movie night in, watching a downright terrible horror movie, which made us laugh more than jump 😂.

The “Milk Petrol Station” or “Milk Charging Station”

1L=1€

Simon Riding

Countryside

Countryside

Countryside at the sea

AWESOME CAKE

Stefan eating AWESOME CAKE

Cafe Making AWESOME CAKE

Stefan Rides

Stefan Considering the problematic tides.

Old-timer with “No touching” on every window

Another angle

Simon and Stefan Ride

Beach

Considering the beach

More beach

Looking for the ancient grave side

Stefan found it

Here it is!

There he goes

Almost gone, but nothing to see there.

Manja rides too

Stefan find the friendliest of cops

Seafarers church

Classic Gravestone with story

Ship in the church, because, why not?

Exhausted after ride

Pizza was picked up

Movie was prepared

Monday we decided to take it easy and spend some time at the beach. The weather was friendly enough to let us be at the beach, though not friendly enough for extensive swimming: The water was cold and the wind did not help in warming up once you left the water. We all waded in a bit, but only Stefan was tough enough to actually go for a swim. One cool thing at this beach is the disappearing jetty, which basically gets covered by water at high tide. This usually creates a moment when it looks like you are walking on water as the tide comes in or recedes, but due to the wind gave us more of a feeling of a sinking ship as the water exploded through the planks 😂

Around noon there was a lot of clouds and eventually the sky opened up – it was bucketing down. We very quickly grabbed our stuff and got off the beach, under the covers of the local shops. Somehow we managed to get separated, with Stefan and I waiting it out in the foyer of a chemist while Manja somehow made it into a tourist shop a few doors down. As the rain slowed we headed over to pick her up and head back home to dry off. Did I mention that Manja somehow convinced me to move around without shoes? Turns out my feet are NOT hardy enough for this – I felt like I was walking on needles the whole day, especially when we returned after the downpour and had to navigate fallen twigs. I was very happy to get back to solid, smooth, concrete when we left the asphalt and cobble-stone roads 😁

When we were dry again we headed back to walk along the shore for a bit, with Stefan showing us some of the local sights, including the lighthouse of Wyk: Which Stefan decreed as “embarrassingly tiny”, being just over a single story building in height. We were also shown the house in which Theodor Fontane stayed for a bit. Toward the afternoon we headed back via some shops, and Stefan made pasta with two sauces – a white-wine and beef creamy sauce and a tomato vegetable sauce with chilly.  Both were delicious and we all ate way too much!

Big Blue Jellyfish of the German, undangerous kind

Jetti into the water

Head of the jetty

Water explodes!

Stefan swims

Simon pretends to swim

Manja sensibly not swimming

Wet Simon finding safe footing once more

Walking the beach

Fontane stayed here.

The legendary lighthouse

Beach

Beach

Beach

Returning home

Yummy dinner!

Tuesday morning was spent relaxing and waiting out the rain, before we eventually decided to explore the township on foot a bit. We headed to a well reviewed and  nice-looking cafe. Unfortunately they did not have seats for us inside, so we sat outside for 2 minutes before deciding that this was way too cold. Given there were no inside seats, we continued on our way to the next cafe. Unfortunately that place wasn’t a cafe, but rather a shop selling locally made sweets, so we turned around to go back to town. We came by the first cafe again along the way, deciding to just brave the weather. We got lucky: As we arrived someone just left, so we got a table inside. Score!
We had some coffee and cake, all of which was okay. I had a chocolate salted caramel cake which literally made me feel ill about 3/4 of the way through – it was just too massive. Think chocolate mud cake with serious icing, in a large slice. Walking off our food babies, we headed to the port just outside, walking along the storm breaks and collecting some of the massive amount of plastic litter which was in those rocks. At one point we spotted a crab, and Manja and I were unsure on what to do. Stefan on the other hand just picked the little guy up and threw him back into the sea. When we asked him if this crab actually lived underwater and would survive he said matter-of-factly “No idea”. 😀

We continued along the pier and saw the source of much of the plastic, which we had initially assumed to be fishing line: The boat ropes were made of tiny strands of long plastic. I mean, I get it: It doesn’t absorb as much water, is resistant to mould…  But can’t we just use good old hemp ropes? It’s worked for hundreds of years without destroying the ocean and everything around us!

On the way back we stopped past a games store too, where we picked up an escape room in a box as tonights entertainment. When we got back it was about time for dinner, so we jumped onto the bikes once more and rode to a beachside burger place across the island. The burgers were really delicious and made for a fantastic last meal of this trip.

When we got back the tensions rose as we worked our way through the haunted mansion themed escape room. It was great fun, and we managed to solve it just in time 🙂

Walking to the cafe which could only seat us second go

Very Very Heavy cake

Chocolate espresso helps!

Seaside

Crab!

Being a crab

You would not believe the rubbish in these tide breakers

Well, now you see what we picked up in 5 minutes

each…

Flowers growing in old ships exhaust

Pretty village

Pretty Beach

View from the restaurant

Dinner!

Rainbow!

Rainbow

Escape room

One of the puzzles as viewed by Stefan

I see it too!

Wednesday was our final morning with just enough time to casually get ready and have breakfast before jumping back on the ferry and taking the long train-ride home.

Our bed, returned to orginal purpose and position

Bye Stefan!

View from the ferry

Leaving Wyk auf Föhr

View from the ferry

Waiting for the train

Seagul patrolling the trainstation

We started August in style by heading to the east coast of Germany for a weekend. We picked up a car and used the opportunity to return a few bits and pieces which we ended up deciding against. It really is awesome how easily they exchange and refund parts! Our Kitchen and garden were both really taking shape 🙂

Kitchen!

Balcony Flowers

Ready to bloom

Chillies are growing

and tomatos too

We drove to Dierhagen for a long weekend and to catch up with Manjas Family for a bit as several were holidaying in the same area. After a drive of a couple of hours we arrived in a cute little apartment, which was walking distance from the beach. The weather was nice, so we walked the beach for a while and chatted about life. The weather was a little windy, so not pleasant enough to tempt us into the water with more than our feet 🙂
Toward evening we returned to the main touristy part of town to find ourselves some dinner. I decided on trying the local delicacy – a Plaice  – which is a type of flat fish. We also stumbled across a brochure for the local gemstone museum, which had a special exhibition of Australian Opal, so we decided we would have to go there tomorrow!

Hotel bed with storks

I think he wanted a power boat, but got a flower boat.

There be seals here. Much cuter than American Seals.

Feet, meet sand.

Beautiful sky

Mocktail for dinner

Yummy fish!

The case of the stabbed burger?

Tomorrows destination for sure!

We decided to get up super early to watch the sunrise. Well, Manja decided and I came along 😉
We managed to get ourselves outside and to the beach as the sun was rising, which really was super pretty. One of the reasons for doing this, besides the quiet and relaxing atmosphere, was to look for “Donnerkeile” or “Belemnoidea” which wash up on the shore when the conditions are just right. This morning they were not so perfect, so we didn’t find anything of note, other than plastic which we collected of course. On the way back we stopped at a cafe and grabbed a breakfast roll each which we then ate on the balcony while watching the world wake up around us.

Alex, Angi and Kids were also holidaying in the area, so we agreed to meet them at the Chrystal cave in the morning. Given that they had already explored the museum the day before, we arrived a bit earlier to have a look through it. It’s a private collection, large enough to cover a 3 Story house, mostly of precious gemstones but also of some stuffed animals, with a fairy garden to boot. It’s extremely impressive, especially given that it remains completely private! One of the highlights for me was a rams skull which had been completely covered in Gypsum crystals, from, you guessed it, Australia 🙂

As the family arrived we looked through the store a bit more, and decided to purchase a nice gemstone necklace for Manja. We headed to a local beach as a group and spent a good couple of hours looking for Amber or more Belemnoidea, while playing in the water with the kids. Eventually Manja and I headed off to explore the town a bit, finding ourselves at a little cafe which had the best iced-coffee and ice-cream-cake I have had. When we headed to the beach we drove past a little nature path, and agreed that we wanted to check it out, so we stopped by and walked through the forest for a while on an educational path meant for children but managing to fascinate us.
From there we went to another small township where we would meet the family for dinner again. We had one small problem: Very bad internet connectivity, very little cash and no ATM anywhere nearby.  As we were traveling with kids we decided on Döner and Pizza for dinner 😅
Before leaving we decided to walk the Graal-Müritz jetti, which just happened to be surrounded by extremely large jellyfish that day.

Full of food we headed back to the family accommodation where we played a card game for a few hours before heading back ourselves, totally tired from a long but fun day 🙂

Sunrise at the beach

Baskets are all empty

Ocean as the sun comes up

Getting up early may cause tiredness

a whole lot of donnerkeile

Opal snail and donnerkeil

Some Mussel!

Emerald in Quarz

Tourmaline

Boulder-Opal

Ram in silicone crystals

Butterfly

Open Wings

Flower

Flower

Flower

Butterfly

Swimming time!

Playing in the water

Jumping in the water

Beach with pink sun shelter

Awesome ice-cream and cake!

Eagle watching over this sanctuary

Insect Hotel or Insect Mansion?

Jetti entrance

Jetti

Yeti

Walking the Jetti

View from the Jetti

View by the Yeti

Jelly Fish

Jelly Simon

Sunday Morning we headed back to the beach, still early but not quite early enough for sunrise. We decided to take a longer walk, walking along the beach for a couple of kilometers and back via some breakfast restaurants…. or at least that was the plan.  When we tried to get back to the road we had to get through a hotel, where we expected a locked gate any moment. As luck would have it though, every gate was open and we managed to pass 😊
We checked out a few places and eventually settled on a pancake-kitchen style breakfast restaurant. I had my savoury bacon and egg while manja had blueberries – both delicious and both shared 😋

We walked back to the hotel and checked out, and then went back to the beach to go for another walk. One of the cool sights was that someone was making sand sculptures along the beach, which were pretty damn good! At one point in our walk Manja suddenly jumped. There was a kid nearby playing with her dad, who also thought something might have happened based on his face. What actually occurred, though, was that Manja found a perfect little piece of Amber just lying there and grabbed it before the waves did. When we got back we still had some spare time, so we settled down to do some reading for a bit before we had to leave for the long drive back, where we were joined by the worlds most tame Seagull. It didn’t want anything, it just settled in about a meter away from us.

Beach

Sinking

Stuck

Basket 13 and 31

Grass

Sandy path to the beach

Forest Path to the Food

Breakfast!

Feet watching the sea

The tamest seagull

Feet in the water

Amber?

Amber!

Lion

Croc

Turtle

July started with Manja and I celebrating our anniversary…  As those who have been reading these blogs for a while may remember, we kinda got together over a really long time, and so don’t really have an anniversary. So a while ago we decided that it would be in June, but we had been so busy that we kept pushing our date night to a more relaxed moment. That Moment finally came on a Wednesday night. I left work a little early, grabbed some flowers and got changed into a nice fresh shirt to meet Manja at a restaurant. I had chosen a local Lebanese restaurant which is a bit more upmarket and lent itself to conversation. We had a really nice night, chatting about everything that had happened that year, and our amazing journey so far while sharing a plate of Mixed Mezze. As the evening was really pretty, we decided to walk back through our local park in the sunset. We were so engrossed in our conversation, that we both failed to take pictures 😅

Anniversary flower being pretty

One of the responsibilities of my team at work is company events. We had decided to arrange a summer party for the whole company, which included a boat tour in the afternoon over lunch and a party with a buffet and cocktails in the evening. Being the first time I arranged anything like this in Germany, I was very happy that it went so well – I think everyone had a blast, and I even tried a cocktail or two for a change! Manja came too, and was stuck with me and Vincent cleaning up until about 1am – luckily we were only 15 minutes away from home by bike 🙂

View from one side of work

View from the other side of work

View of the cocktails at work

Expecting the Party to take a toll, we had both taken the following day, a Friday, off. After a slow start we packed our gear once more, and at around noon Tina and Stefan picked us up. Manjas birthday gift to Tina was a weekend away at the East coast of Germany, on a small island called Usedom. Tina had the choice of being “with or without partners” and she had chosen to have Stefan and I come along. They picked us, and our Guitar, up in the afternoon and we snacked on some pre-made fruit salad on the 2 hour drive while we chatted. After we arrived and moved into our accommodation for the next few days, we decided to go off and have a timely dinner around 5:30, heading to a quaint place which had a typical “German Kitchen”. When we got in we were greeted by an eclectic collection of random stuff, including dolls in prams and stuffed animals on the walls. It wasn’t quite as spooky as the Airbnb in London, but definitely an odd place! Dinner itself was delicious though!
Even though it was getting a bit cooler, we decided to head to the beach, as daylight would still be around for a few hours. You really can tell why this place is absolutely over-run in Summer!  On our way back home we got supplies for the next few days, including some fire wood as we had a small wood-fired fireplace in the lounge room and the temperature was definitely getting into the territory where it was useful to turn it on. With the fire going we settled down to play some music for a few hours before we all dropped into bed exhausted.

Traveling fruit salad. It did not survive the trip.

Accommodation!

German Restaurant

Nice Drawer. Shelf. Drawer… Thing

Cuttlery or coat hanger?

Ah, right. Good.

Post dinner stroll

Pretty view from the top

Pretty view from the bottom

Walking the shore

Waling the shore

Watching us walking the shore

Walking the shore

Water on the shore

Sunset and water on the shore

Simon on the Shore

Our group on the shore

Basket 120

Seagul

Walking the shore

Simon was here

Manja was here

Postcard scenery 1

Postcard scenery 2

Postcard scenery 3

Postcard scenery 4

Great Advice: Bathe naked and you need no swimsuit figure!

Sunset view from our room

Post sunset view from our room

We started the next day with my typical avocado, salmon and poached egg breakfast, before heading over to the most famous beach area of the island, which also has plenty of small shops all over, including places which provided traditional versions of fish. We found out that today would be a parade day, so we walked over to the final destination of the parade and waited for a bit…. But it got pretty darn cold and the only entertainment in advance of the procession was a children’s entertainer who wasn’t that great….  So rather than freeze to death we decided to head back to the car. Manja and I made a short detour, only to walk right into the oncoming fair, so we spent a few minutes watching before racing back to the car where Tina and Stefan waited for us.  For the evening we had decided on making some pasta at home, so Tina created a wonderful bolognaise! With bellies full we sat down to play some code-names and then guitar in front of the fireplace.

Breakfast

Flowers

Furthest point of the long pier

Furthest point of the long pier

Gulls watching

Gull watching

Bumblebee watching

Band Marching

Ye-old patent

One Pot Dinner!

Just add pasta and sauce!

Fire for warmth

Games for smiles

Today would be our final day, so after another breakfast a-la Simon, we packed our gear and loaded it into the car.  Rather than racing back, we decided to check out one of the largest piers of the area to check it out. As it turns out it’s large enough to have a small shopping strip built into it. When we got back we were a touch cold, so we headed back into the township proper in search of some food. The food was elusive, but we did find this cool little statue which I posed with by hugging a dog… We eventually found a place we could all agree on and had Pirogges with view of the beach, but in a sheltered area. With the food all done we walked along the beach once more before jumping into the car and driving all the way home.

Breakfast V2

Tina is better at braiding hair

Plants

Cute doggy!

Birds of stumpville

Major of stumpville

Fly of the sand

The next week we went to Ikea to get the final confirmation on our kitchen configuration – it was all approved, so we can order when we are ready! Yay!

On Friday it was time to head to Katrin and Kilians place to have a Birthday dinner for Jana, including delicious gin-and-tonic icy poles to get our tongues stuck on 😅

Prepared to eat

Sunset

Tounge. Stuck. Help, and stop taking pictures!

Cheers!

Saturday it was time to head off to Neuruppin, to meet Steffis parents as they had invited us when they were visiting Oz for Stefs wedding. We arrived by train, and Daniel, Stefs brother, was kind enough to pick us up. The parents  have this awesome little sea-side property, which includes a Sauna, mini boat and nice little home. Of course we got taken for a spin in the boat, which was a LOT of fun. We chatted about life, the beauty of cultural differences and their horror flight home. Daniel had to leave in the afternoon as he had a longer trip back, and  eventually it was time for us to head home too. Stefs Dad was kind enough to drop us off at the trainstation, even though it required him to take two trips in his little two-seater pickup truck 🙂 A couple of hours later we arrived back home toward midnight.

Sunday Morning I finally got to chat to Amy for a bit! It was great to catchup and find out how life was progressing in Oz.  In the afternoon Kai, Manjas youngest brother, dropped by.  We were giving him some support preparing a resume in the afternoon before heading over to do an escape room in the evening – We made it without too much hassle again, and it was great fun. To round off the day we headed out to grab some burgers before Kai headed home and we dropped into bed.

Beautiful abode

View from the boat

View from the boat 2

Daniel and I chilling

Bernie and I going for a spin

Yipeeee!

The Forest

Dinner after the Escape room with Kai

The following weekend we were off to Wiesbaden again, this time by car. Doris had been sorting some of her belonging to give or throw away, and we had agreed that we’d take some off her hands – like great glassware, silverware and crockery. Much to her disappointment, we had arranged to stay in an Airbnb nearby because we didn’t want to be a bother. We were told in no uncertain terms: Next time we stay with her.
We spent the day sorting out all sorts of things, including old documents which she needed support with to be able to read them at a reasonable pace.  We agreed that we would take along the rubbish and destroy it securely, lest anything sensitive falls into the wrong hands. We also worked through various cupboards and Wardrobes with her, selecting things to keep, things we would take, and things to get rid off. In the evening we headed over to a winery to enjoy the scenery and chat about life, the universe and everything.  Doris has a wealth of information on the area, and it was great to hear some of the stories of her past too.

Champagne on arrival

View from our Airbnb

Someone more German/Swabian will have to translate this

Doris Skyping with Sigrid

View from the Winery

Wine, classic format.

Dinner!

Going for a stroll

a few more drinks elsewhere.

On Sunday we had a nice relaxed breakfast with Doris. As we had the car there we decided to spend the morning checking out Wiesbaden a bit again.  We headed into town and had some ice-cream on the promenade and a short stroll before we already had to make our way home. We dropped Doris off and loaded up the car – we ended up with a whole car-load of stuff which she did not need and we liked a lot 😅

Given that we still had a car, we also made use of this trip to borrow some tools from Ilka in preparation for our upcoming kitchen replacement!

View from the window this morning

Tree of Parrots in Wiesbaden

Tree of Parrots in Wiesbaden

Ice-cream and Ice-coffee

View of the Promenade

View of the Promenade

View of the Promenade

View of the Promenade

View of the Promenade

View of the Promenade

5:35 to go. Our trip for the day!

On the 25th of July it was finally time to pick up our new kitchen! To make space for it though the first task was to remove the old kitchen throughout the week before, slowly taking everything apart and getting it ready for disposal, while moving all cupboards out. It looked a touch barren and we would have to wash our dishes in the Bathroom, but it was manageable. It also involved a few trips to the hardware store to get any and all tools we might be missing.
On the day itself, I headed straight to the car rental place after work, ready to grab the car only to get a “Sorry, you can’t hire a van with us, you haven’t had your license for 2 years….” Okay, says I. How about my Australian one? That one has been valid for around 10 x as long as you require. “Sorry” says the attendant “I can’t accept international licenses.” Well.. F*C*. So I called Manja, who jumped onto her bike to come and pick up the Van, arriving minutes before the place shut. After throwing our bikes into the van, we may or may not have switched drivers seats after the first intersection, as we headed home to “park” our bikes. We couldn’t just go to our “local” Ikea, because they did not have all the parts in store, so the drive took us around 30 minutes.  It was starting to get tight, but we managed to get there and pick up the pallets of stuff we needed. It turns out that it’s quite a bit of work to just lift it all into the car…  and we still had to take it out on the other side! We knew there was no way we would be making dinner tonight, so we stopped at a famous Veggie Döner place. Unfortunately they had a line down the street, and we did NOT have that kind of time, so we found the next-best place, who did not server a veggie Döner which was anything comparable, though did have a delicious chilly oil to spice things up a bit. While the food wasn’t perfect, we did have food which energised us for the next task: Carrying some 150 boxes and bits into our flat. Luckily we didn’t have many stairs to conquer, so we managed to have everything inside with a lot of effort but little trouble – though the kitchen counters were DAMN HEAVY!  We were both exhausted, but still had one more thing to do: Put all the parts of the old broken kitchen into the Van for disposal the next morning. With that done, and laughing at the idea of someone stealing the van now, we put together the first cupboard so that we would have a feeling of starting the kitchen build on the day 😅

A few hours sleep later we really wanted to start putting it all together, but we had to pull the break a bit and make use of the Van rental to get rid of the parts of the previous kitchen we would be getting rid of. This meant getting up at around 6:30am, as we only had the van until 9am when the rental place opened up. We got to the tip around 7:30, and cleared out the Van, which contained not only the old kitchen but also all other larger pieces of rubbish we still had around.  In Germany this service is free, and being so early we had almost the whole yard to ourselves 🙂
A bit later I was just about to pull into the driveway of the car-renal, but remembers that I wasn’t the driver. Whoops. We drove around the block one more time and may or may not have switched seats again. The Van was returned in perfectly good condition, and we jumped onto our bikes and rode home ready to start building.
We spent the weekend drilling, cutting and putting it all together. It all worked well until we got to the bench tops, where I would have to do three things:
1.) Cut the right size
2.) Cut out the hole for the sink
3.) Drill the hole for the tap.

How hard could it be? We even had some spare space, so I decided to start with the hardest part first: Cutting out the hole for the sink.  I marked it exactly, and carried it outside, drilled a hole and started cutting it out, using Ilkas little old jigsaw. By the first quarter my arm started to go numb from the vibration, but I persevered, using 4 new blades in the end, burning my fingers on a hot blade once.  It was done! I tested and the sink fit, almost perfectly.  I had taken off a tiny bit too much in the corners, (The sink has round corners) but it could easily be siliconed up and put into the back, where no one would ever see it. Phew! First part done.  The rest was easy: Cut a straight line and drill a hole with a hole-saw.  I marked up the cut and cut a nice straight Lin… a damn. The blade in the elderly circular saw had shifted and the cut was not at a 90 degree angle. I took the saw apart, re-tightened everything, re-aligned and took off another slither.  The bench would not be about 50mm too short. We took it upstairs and tried it out. It fit, but there was something I hadn’t considered: The wall was not 90 degrees. this increased the gap bit, and meant that we ended up with an angled gap of 30 to 50 mm visible next to the oven. We could do preciously little about it and I was about to have a tantrum when Manja asked how large the cornices were, which seal the counter to the wall and stove. Turns out they were 50cm, so we could hide the problem! Yay! We held everything in place and I quickly screwed the counter top in place.  The second counter top was simple, just a single straight cut, with a now working circular saw. I lined everything up and cut, until the resistance suddenly increased. Knowing that was unusual, I stopped and pulled out the saw. This time I had managed to cut into the kitchen chair which we used as a workbench. Luckily no structural damage, only a nice reminder of this day for years to come 😂

The remainder continued without too much trouble, until I realised that I had forgotten point 3 on the bench top agenda. A few curses later I very gently drilled a hole with the hole saw right next to the sink which was already glued in place. Of course, as fate would have it, the hole saw was not deep enough and I had to drill it from both sides, which was a challenge to get straight. I spent the next 30 minutes with a file slowly making it large enough for the tap to just fit! But eventually it did! Yay! Success! It was a struggle to get it all connected in the little space behind the sink, but it worked. I used the opportunity to also connect the dishwasher and washing machine to the siphon…  which only had one inlet. DAMN IT. I connected the dishwasher for now, deciding that the washing machine can wait until we solve that problem next week.

Manja and I worked well together – I would take lead on building things while she would take lead in organising everything around me – including making me food the whole time even though I made it almost impossible to use the kitchen. Just before dinner on Saturday, for example, I suddenly noticed that the light in the oven was on, and upon further inspection I found a nearly ready home-made Flammkuchen in there.  Score!

By Sunday most of the kitchen was functional but incomplete. We headed over to Ilka who had invited us for dinner and spend a nice and relaxing evening with the garden gang in the garden. By the time we returned I dropped into bed feeling more sore than I had in a looong time but also happy with how much we accomplished. While the finishing touches would take weeks of “just an hours” after work, most of the kitchen was ready within the constraints of the weekend.

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail…

Stage Clear!

Flat pack kitchen!

Flat-pack Kitchen outside

Flat-Pack kitchen captured in transporter.

Chilly oil!

Flat-Pack kitchen inspected by Odin

Flat pack kitchen becoming less flat

Flat pack kitchen becoming less flat

Ready to cut

Sink cut in progress.

It fits! (sort of)

The failed cut, in progress

Chair, before the next cut

Chair after the next cut

Food! Simon less grumpy now.

Ah yeah, forgot something.

Drop saw not deep enough

Managed by doing two-sided cut

Working position

Coming together!

Surprise!

Dinner!

The following day we slept in a bit and had brunch, after which we were off to Cottbus to celebrate Hagen and Corinnas Birthday.

We arrived around coffee and cake time and, sweet as they are, they got me a “Being German” starter kit, including flip-flops and tennis socks amongst other things 😂

Both of their extended families and some friends arrived not long after, and we had a range of cakes, all delicious and many home-made. We chatted the afternoon away and Hagen began making a really fantastic charcoal BBQ, testing out a “Quick lighting” contraption he recently acquired to get the coals glowing hot more quickly.  It’s basically a wind-funnel for coals, where the hot air is used to create a draught, which brings in more oxygen to continue the cycle.  It worked amazingly well, and Hagen was off-and-cooking within a few minutes.  Hagen made many things, including a roast which was one of the best pieces of meat I remember eating.  We all ate way too much, so we decided to crack open a “Timm’s Saurer” which basically translates to “Timms’ sour” a Vodka and Lemon mix popular in DDR days.  It’s supposed to help settle the stomach, though as Manja points out, this is more myth than reality. Amongst the discussion were things like “What’s a real German classic movie?” where “Manitus shoe” was unanimously voted as THE one to see.
Eventually, as night fell, we headed back to the trainstation and got home around Midnight, leaving us some time to recover on Sunday, and watch Manitus shoe as recommended by the party guests the night before.  It’s a good movie, though I don’t think the humour would translate too well in an English version.

Simons Smile is like Smilies Smile

A Big Box of German

Cake!

Firestarter

Cooking away

super delicious roast

So much food

Simon eating some of the food

Timms sour

Timms sour being shared

The following week was a fairly normal work-week, but on Thursday night we were once more heading out for dinner at a Bavarian restaurant before cashing in a birthday present and see the infamous Blue Man Group which is… well it’s hard to describe really. A little like circus. A little like comedy. A little like really awesome pipe-drums being played. And best of all? You can play their pipe-drums in the intervals, which I definitely took full advantage of to give it a try.

German Beer and meat dinner

Blueman!

Blueman band!

That Saturday we started to sort out some of our Domestic to-dos before I chatted to Amy on Sunday for a few hours.  It was really great to catch up 🙂
After our chat we headed over to some old collegues of Manjas for Brunch for a few hours, after which we went to Ilkas for coffee can cake…  and for picking a whoooole lot of super delicious cherries! We had so many that we decided that we would need to invest in a cherry stoning tool to de-stone them all 😁

One of the things in the “German starter pack” was a nice Kassler, which I prepared for dinner the next night – Turns out I managed to cook it quite well, delicious and with a nice crust 😋.  I also managed to do a first sketch of our new Ikea kitchen, using the kitchen visualiser.  A pretty amazing tool!

Kassler being cooked

Kassler, being cut

Kassler, being presented

On Monday I had a bit of an adventure: My drivers license was ready! I rode over in the later afternoon to pick it up, and actually had to hand in my Aussie license to get the German one 😭. Ah well, at least I’m able to drive again!

That Thursday we headed over to Ikea to get another Kitchen Consultation, where the first few “bugs” in our kitchen idea were ironed out.

On Saturday we headed back over to Cottbus for Manjas Grandmothers birthday…  Which was the event exactly a year after I first met the family. For some reason they still seem to like having me around 😅.  We drove down in a little smart which we rented from a car sharing service for the weekend, which felt like driving a toy car down the highway! But we got there safe and sound in time for coffee and cake! Yum! Carmen had on this cute little T-Shirt which was very punny: Apparently she was Koalified to travel, hang-around and party.

Manjas grandparents really have a well-qualified and experienced green thumb, growing all sorts of things in their garden. We explored what had changed and what was growing, including checking out the Bananas they have! A little later Manja, Kai and Carmen showed me the local park, where we headed over to the weir and spent some time chatting by the waterside. We returned in time for dinner, which Hagen prepared: A nice BBQ! Much like most grandparents they over-catered, and much like an Australian summer, it was sweltering by the charcoal bbq.  We clocked the temperature on the verandah at around 45 degrees. Summer Indeed!
Hagen worked up a sweat cooking everything as I carried various cuts of meat back and forth. Over-full of excellent cuts of meat, we all chatted the afternoon away. As the evening set, the mood turned into a real party-like atmosphere, including music and dancing.  By the time we headed back to Manjas mums place it was well past midnight, and we all dropped into bed.

Sunday we had to head off again already, but we caught up with Jana, Carmen and Hubert at a local lake for a couple of hours first, taking a dip in the wonderfully cool water. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before we had to drive home, park the car and call it a day 🙂

Arriving

CAAAAKE

Koalified. Well I thought it hilarious!

Banana!

Capsicum

Capsicum 2!

Cucumber

Bee, doing Bee work

Butterfly, doing Butterfly work

Tomatoes, doing nothing

Flowers taking over the footpath

Walking to the park

Hot damn!

Ka-

-Splash!

My Birthday started with a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” from Manja as she bounced on the bed to wake me. We got up, had a short chat to the family and unpacked a gift, had breakfast together before I headed off to work, knowing that I would have to finish a bit earlier today to go to “Manjas surprise afternoon”.  At work my colleagues had been kind enough to decorate my desk!

Family on tiny screen

Present Time!

Birthday Desk 🙂

The day flew by and before I knew it I got the instruction to come to Warschauer trainstation to meet up with Manja.  I had no idea where we were going, but she brought a heavy bag of food and drinks which I helped her carry.  Eventually we stopped at an intersection and a few minutes later Robert showed up. Not 2 minutes later, Katrin, Kilian and the kids came along with Ilka too. We headed down a path and stepped onto some paddle boats which Manja had arranged for the afternoon. I received a bunch of gifts on the water, along with some Champagne. The combination was a little tricky at some points, but we didn’t loose anything or anyone to the water. Technically we were not allowed to move between boats, but we anchored to each other and moved across freely, sometimes towing one boat and overcrowding the other. I had a really fantastic time and I think everyone else did too 🙂

About 2 hours later we headed back to shore where everyone unpacked a great variety of things for a picnic, for which Diana and Vincent came by too. As we were chatting away we got a dance performance from Kilians kids and a nature performance as a Cormoran (Black bird) caught and ate a live eel. Manja was quick enough to get the camera on it – the video is below the pictures 🙂

As night set in we danced around the picnic site for a few minutes before eventually heading back home. It was such a nice afternoon and a beautiful way to celebrate my first birthday back in Berlin…. Finally in Summer once more!

Gift to Board

Holding onto the Present

Unwrapping, but keep paddling!

Serenade with Happy Birthday while I unwrap

Time for a drink

Some for Ilka

Some for me!

Kicking back with a drink

Cheers Manja!

Gift from Robert

Book to read in German

Big grins

Towing them along

Australian Wine

Cheers!

Hugo for Ilka

and Katrin

Ilka and Kilian bringing the boat home

They’re getting away

Cheers!

Nope, not running out of steam

We got this!

Back on Shore, Picnic setup time

Guitar is tuned

Kids are fed

Diana and Vincent join

Watching the Comoran

Hello!

Sunset

You would think that after a three-day music festival, we would just take a weekend off, right? But noooo….
So after a gruelling work-week, we celebrated Katrin and Kilians Birthday and moving in party on Saturday night. We didn’t stay too late because we had to get up early the next day. None-the-less it was a fantastic night out chatting to a range of people, and a bunch of swing-dancing in the evening. We need to get some practice in so that we can join that too 🙂

Sleep cat in the afternoon

Party view!

On Sunday we grabbed a DriveNow car (car sharing) and headed over to Dresden, near where Manjas sister lives. Along the way we stopped by a place in which the very well known German “Three wishes for Cinderella” was made back in 1973. It was one of the many fairytales we watched over Christmas, so I even recognised some places from the film. Movie tourism of the classic type! 😀 The Palace itself was beautiful and we chose to do a bit of a tour, which included a viewing of the Antler collections. Antlers were a sign of wealth back in the day, the more spikes the more valuable. The most impressive has a massive weight of 19,8 kg, the heaviest in the world. In the Monstrosity room there are also Antlers which are deformed – which are then put onto wodden carvings of demons and the like…  Unfortunately several of these deformed Antlers were purposely deformed while the animal lived, including, to my horror, shooting into the antlers as they grew. The palace also has many more sights, including leather wallpaper which was gilded with real gold. An amazing place to visit and learn about a a different time! As we ran out to time we headed out and grabbed an ice-coffee before making the last part of the trip to our Airbnb, but we had to stop along the way when we saw a full field of Poppys!

To keep with the palace theme, the Airbnb Manja found was in an old castle, in the Rapunzel tower. You read that right. We arrived fully enthused to find such an unusual and awesome Airbnb. When we got there the owner showed us to our room, three floors up a circular tower. He also apologised in advance, he didn’t mean to rent out the place tonight because there was a wedding and it would be noisy. By way of apology they offered us a free buffet breakfast – with all the other guests. We accepted 🙂

For dinner we headed out to an all-American place, in the middle of Germany.  Because, why not? It was VERY stereotypical, and I loved it, including the part where you got peanuts and just threw the shells on the floor under your table, to the pile of other peanut shells and to raising the tiny American flag when you wanted the waiter to bring you something.

We returned to our Rapunzel room around sunset, and the wedding party was in full swing. You would THINK that a tower some 200 meters away would keep you safe from noise, but…  “Pustekuchen“. We spent a restless night trying to get to sleep, eventually falling asleep with the wedding party around 4 am.

The Cinderella Castle

Collections of Antlers

The Alter

Banquet room

Time for Iced-chocolate and Iced-Coffee!

Field of Poppys!

Poppies!

Manja in a Field of Poppies

The Airbnb

The view of our room

The view in our room

The View from our room

American Diner

Chilly steak!

Chilly Burger!

The next day we started around 8 with breakfast “on the house”.  This was okay, seeing that I got plenty of coffee to offset the short night. After breakfast, and a few more photos of the awesome place, we headed to Sophias place where we met with Manjas family to celebrate Clemens, Manjas newphew, first birthday. When we arrived we got a quick tour of the house and helped setup everything for the day. Not long after Manjas Family arrived we spent the afternoon chatting away and having a great time.

As the sun started to set it was time for us to set off on our drive back home. On the way we dropped off Manjas Mother back to Cottbus, which was only a slight detour, and took her brother along all the way to Berlin – from here he took a train.

Path to the front door

Doorbell

Rose

Castle

View of our room from the gardens

Another angle on our room

Rose

Flower

Blue flower

Indoor rose

Palace from courtyard

Manja in the palace

Path

Statue

Rose

Bug in flower bed

Flower

Bee!

Rose

Rose

One Cake

Two cake

Three cake!

Cupcake!

Flower

The following Thursday we headed to Ikea, ready to begin planning our new kitchen. We made a bunch of pretty concrete plans, in terms of what to buy and how to fit it in. I have to say: Ikeas Kitchen designer is pretty damn good for novices like myself!

I’m handling this well

Sinking feeling

Bright doors

And Friday was the 14th, which was my birthday…  That’s really a post all on it’s own!

Hello Present!

The next weekend, as spring was starting to show up on the balcony and Manja still limping a fair bit, we headed over to view a flat in Spandau. It  was not looking too bad at all! Just one small issue – it has a large pine tree next to the building and one of the branches is above the balcony. The current tenants were telling EVERYONE that the owners refused to take down the branch and that this was the reason they were moving. It seemed a bit to far-fetched to me, and I think that we would consider the flat if the branch were removed, so we put in an application.

Chili plant outside

Plants starting to grow

The balcony of the flat in Spandau

The branch in the flat Spandau

It was the weekend of “Superbooth”, a world-famous Synthesizer conference in Berlin, and Stefan had come to Berlin for it. Synthesizers are sort of his thing: He builds hardware and software versions professionally as a freelancer. Really it’s a festival of electrical engineering creating all sorts of digital modulation for music, speech and all sorts of sound. The place was fantastic, and Stefan was an excellent guide. We had a great time learning about things which I knew nothing about, and I can totally see how people get fascinated by this topic. Eventually it came time to leave and we headed over for some dinner at an asian place before we split ways.

Welcome to Superbooth!

People who know the scene

Many people

More cables

lots more cables

Stefan plays

Stefan surprising people with LEET SKILLZ

Conversation with mortal who made the device

Not a map

God of synth watching his minions

I saw a sign

Dinner

Sunday evening we all met up again, this time at Katrin and Kilians place for dinner and boardgames…. and Jägermeister, because Stefan brought a bottle to drink. We settled on an escape room in a box, which I had unfortunately played before but which was seriously difficult, so I sat back and provided “wise sage” advice to help the group along when they started to get stuck. It’s surprisingly fun to  just watch the game 🙂

Do you see what I see?

Getting close to the solve

A bit of extra light helps with the final puzzle!

In the following week we were surprised when they offered us the flat, and things suddenly got real. In talking about it at length we realised that we live very comfortably where we are now, and that the lack of space really isn’t affecting us as much as we expected. Plus the flat is very central and not too pricey.  Given this we decided that we would go back to Spandau on the weekend and walk about a bit more, which we did.

The next weekend would be our first step in preparing for Costa-Rica: getting immunised! We headed over to the Tropeninstitut to get jabbed. Of course, I have no idea what immunisations I HAVE had and which I didn’t, so I went in saying “Hey, just immunise me for the stuff we need for Costa Rica, which I didn’t need in Nepal”…  Turns out it’s not quite so simple and so the doctor on duty suggested that I get some bloodworm done with my GP to determine if I need further jabs. Fiiiine. Manja, being an organised German, had her Immunisation booklet with her and was immediately jabbed with the relevant jabs.

Being all immunised-up, we headed down to a street party where a friend of Manjas was performing with his band. The party was basically the neighbourhood getting together and various shops and clubs having stands and selling things. We grabbed some food while we waited for the performance to start, and checked out all the stalls once. One of my favourites: Rubber duck racing for kids. The performance was pretty good – they performed their own songs on a street corner, and plenty of people stopped to watch them play.

Delicious veggie lunch burgers of pink and black.

Cool guys playing cool music

Sunday we relaxed, but also used the excellent weather to spend some time in the park, where Manja played with her new hand-held metal detector… Finding plenty of beer caps :D.  After this we decided on some ice-cream at a local ice-cream parlour

Yummies!

Happy Simon in the sun

On Wednesday we tested the idea of living in Spandau. I caught the train after work and so did Manja, meeting at the flat we were considering. Turns out living here would be entirely possible, so we went to a local pizzaria to chat about it and consider our options. The nice thing about this place would be that we would have waaay more space and could have people over anytime. And we could get all my stuff sent over! The not so nice thing is that it was about €1000 more a month than we pay at the moment – which is not because it’s super expensive, but rather because our current flat is super cheap. Where we are is very central (15 minutes by bike to our workplaces and 15 minutes by bike into the CBD) and has loads of trendy restaurants.

Creek near the flat

More creek near the flat

Nice tomatoes at a nearby store

Confused bear

Sunset over the market

Crazy eyed bear

Streets of old-town Spandau

In the end we decided on visiting the real-estat agent and have a conversation about the branch. If they are willing to remove it, or put in the contract that they would if it bothers us, then we take the place. If not, we don’t and we stay where we are and take more active advantage of the cullinary options – speak restaurants – and hire a storage unit to store my stuff locally.

The next day Manja called them and we got an appointment for lunchtime on Friday. So on Friday we met for lunch at the Königliche Gartenakademie, which was close to the realestate agents, and headed over to speak to them after having some food. The lady seemed nice, but she “only just took over” this property and “would have to get herself across” the “potential issues with the branch”.

Spring

Happy sunny kitty

Flowers!

So many

Flowers!

Lunch Drink

Spargel lunch

Dessert for lunch

Flower

Flower

Ladybug!

Saturday we headed over to meet up with Tina and Stefan to go to a concert in an old farmhouse outside of Berlin, where an American band was playing. They even had some Alpacas on display for people to get to know these awesome animals. The Barn/farmhouse which the band was playing in reminded me of a LARP group in a big way: The whole thing had a distinct King Arthur Theme about it – massive round table and backdrop included!

Alpaca and Person

Alpaca sans person

Stage

Venue

Band on stage – notice the round table!

The band plays

Candles to set the mood

More candles

Half devoured by plants

Horsey!

Horseys!

The venue from outside

The following Tuesday we got the reply from the realestate agent, which basically said that they “confirmed the previous tennant had issues with the branch” but offered no solution to this problem or mention anything even slightly solution oriented. We quickly decided that we did not want to have to deal with such an unresponsive agent and would just stay where we are. In conversation we agreed that we would invest in a kitchen too, because this was the only real painpoint about the small flat we have :).

That week I also got a letter from my Parents, which I was not allowed to open.

On the weekend, after an awesome Egg/salmon/Rocket/Avocado breakfast, we went off to vote (my first time in Europe!) before hitting the shops to try and find me a summer jacket. Something to wear in Spring or Autumn. We found something but it wasn’t fantastic, so we decided against buying the first thing we saw. In the afternoon we headed over to Ilkas place to celebrate her birthday in the garden.

No open. No fun.

Yummies!

Civic duty done!

Did not buy

Ilka and Cake

Cake and Fork

Plant

Tiny spider, classified by Germans as “Huge”

Cute cat

The following Wednesday it was time to head off to Manjas festival – aka Immergut Festival – which is a three-day music festival across three stages in the middle of a forest in Brandenburg. Most people camp while there, and Manja had volunteered the last 10 years. Given her broken foot this year, the organisers were kind enough to give her backstage access, including parking and we rented out a holiday home for the three days. This time Manja had to drive, because my license hadn’t been approved yet and I could only drive on the international permit for 3 months 🙁

We arrived in the afternoon and started by making lunch, before heading over to the festival. We explored the whole area and Manja showed me backstage. This first night is still quite relaxed and not too full, so we checked out all the sights and activities early. We watched a couple of bands before heading back into “town” and walking along the sea in search for some dinner. Along the way we found this abandoned looking building with a sign saying “Paradise”, which I though was very funny. Given that we had a big lunch, Manja chose a smaller sweet dinner while I decided on a burger. Full of food we headed back for the evening bands before calling it a night.

Lunch!

Walking in

Arrival

Living Polaroid?

Some Sprouts!

The local paradise

Dinner!

View of the lake

Viewing the lake

Lake!

A rose amongst many thorns…

On day two we started slowly by spending some time at the local lake and having breakfast (we had the beach area almost all to ourselves, win!). We would have wandered along the forest a bit more, but didn’t want to strain Manjas foot more than we had to. Toward noon we drove back to go into the festival and check out the afternoon bands, and on the way we found this old “Mental Hospital” called Domjuech, which is now being maintained and slowly restored by a local club. Unfortunately it was closed this weekend, but there are tours available. Next time we’re in the area I’m keen to check it out! Back at the festival we watched a couple of Bands before heading to town to explore the palace gardens and grab dinner, before heading back for the evening set.

Breakfast

Into the forest

through the trees

to the sea

relaxing at the “beach”

Manja Labeled me “Red Prince”

the sea

Back to the forest

through the trees

Can I check in?

Afternoon set

Afternoon break

Flowers

in the palace garden

fountain

statue

beautiful roof

Mausoleum to Queen Luise

View from the park

Some guy at a door

As the evening set

the evening set began

Small crowd between sets

On Saturday we had a lazy breakfast before picking up Ivo from the trainstation just before lunch. We headed over to get his tickets and had lunch in town before spending the afternoon listening to Bands and relaxing at the Festival and checking out the hammock collection. We walked past one stall which had cardboard boxes one could sit on, properly reinforced as super-light stools. Manja managed to get permission to borrow on to give her foot a bit of a rest. As the afternoon gave way to night, Ivo already had to head off. We dropped him off at the trainstation and enjoyed the sunset over the sea. We headed back to see the main act for the night, and enjoy the festival atmosphere. We may have even used the photo-booth to make some silly pictures.
Eventually we returned home, tired but happy.

View from the restaurant

Dinner!

Entering the festival

Giant swing-seat with stage view

Ivo, hammock model

Drinks!

Broken foot resting on cardboard box

Sunset!

Beautiful Sunset!

The night-light in the carpark

Main act

Crowd

Immergut!

Silent side-stage

Spooky trees

People!

Backstage

More spooky trees

Photo-Booth!

Sunday was time for our return. We left quite early in an attempt to avoid some of the traffic, deciding to drop by Ilkas new workplace, the Forsthaus at Schloss Sommerswalde  to have brunch instead. The place is quite pretty, we really enjoyed the food and the scenery.  We had some more time with the car in the afternoon, so we decided to check out the touristy “Spargelhof Kremmen“, which was great. Amongst a lot of animals, we also saw a traditional horse-drawn-post-coach!

Eventually we drove home and I dropped off the car, after which we dropped into bed exhausted from an awesome weekend. And just like that, it was June already.

View from our Flat

View from our Flat

Brunch!

Brunch 1

Brunch 2

Super Friendly Waitress!

Post-Coach!