It's been awhile...

I apologize to all of the adoring fans that have been left in suspense waiting for the next posting. The real reason for this is that I haven't had much going on... But, I have decided to write about some of the random things here.
A few weeks ago we took a trip to Heidelberg for a few hours on a Sunday. It was a very easy drive just about an hour south of Frankfurt. It was a beautiful day as well so we took advantage of that by taking a tour of the HeidelbergSchloss (the old castle) that requires quite a hike up the side of a mountain (look back a few posts and you will notice this is a recurring trend...something about safety from attacks etc). The best part about the town is that it was largely spared during WWII and so it really is an old German town.
Earlier this week we received our "permanent" car. We have had an Opel Astra (look at the new Saturn Astra, it is the exact same car) for the past few months. It is a good city car being very small and somewhat quick. If you are looking to take a trip of more than 20 minutes you will see why it is a good city car. So a leased vehicle became available and we are the proud users of a Volvo XC90. This is not really a great city car as it is an SUV that at times barely fits down our street but for longer journey's it is great. One small downfall that we still don't get is that it is a manual transmission! I think most of you will agree that there aren't too many manual SUV's out there now. But this is a diesel manual. So my new mission is to learn how to drive a stick! Watch out driver's of Frankfurt.
After checking the weather and talking to people back in Michigan we are really starting to appreciate the weather here more and more. Today for example was 55 and sunny. We were able to take a walk through the large Gruneberg Park and see people playing soccer, walking their dogs, running and the first flower buds sprouting up. We are very used to it being 5 degrees with snow, snow, and more snow so this is great. I haven't taken a picture yet but we have palm trees in our back yard!
We are planning a trip to London for next weekend which we are both looking forward to. One of the best parts of the trip is the strength of the British Pound (or better yet, the weakness of the American dollar). When looking up hotels you think 100 a night? That's a great deal, until you see that GBP symbol in front of it and you realize it is actually $200. We are very excited though and can't wait to speak English to people!

I am not sure if most of you have significant drop in the usage of exclamation points in this entry but I was informed that I used them excessively before. So, to my editor, this ones for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some highlights of Heidelberg






Our Palm Trees