Saturday, January 05, 2008

Writing, Relaxing, and Exploring in Franconia

The days following New Years' were pretty quiet for us. I spent most of my free time writing, and getting lots of help from "Papa", "Oma", and "Opa"with the baby.

I also finally found some time to update Lukas' Blog.

Oh, and on Wednesday night, we had a date night. This time, it wasn't one of those, "Ok, we have time for dinner OR a movie. Which should we do?" After (nearly) 2 whole years, we did both! It was great. Dinner was Asian-Fusion at a wok restaurant in the Erlangen Arcaden. Afterwards (well really, we had to purchase tickets before, because they still have assigned seating here), we watched the German romantic comedy Kein Ohr Hasen, or "No Eared Bunny", with the not-entirely-unattractive (yeah, ummm...) Til Schweiger. It got mixed reviews in the local paper, but we loved it (as did everyone we spoke to)! What we didn't care for was the 30 minutes of ads that one has to sit through before the film (come on!). Oh well.

Yesterday we explored a bit of the Fränkische Schweiz, or Franconian Switzerland, since it's literally right around the corner from our house here in Germany. We stopped in Pottenstein to grab a quick bite from the town's bakery (which is tucked away on the elusive main street), then headed to Behringersmuehle, one of many towns in the region which pride themselves on their "clean air" (in German known as a "Luftkuerort").

Franconian Switzerland is characterized by their huge bolder and stone cliffs, sometimes with ancient old half-timbered houses or fortresses built into the side. The river Wiesent meanders through it's base, a favorite for kayakers in the warmer months of the year.

After adventuring, we came home and prepared a German favorite - roasted duck breast with Blaukraut.

And now, it's time for us to pack up once again. I no longer envy people with multiple houses. Are we "home" now? Or will we be traveling "home" tomorrow, on our 700 km trip back to Holland? Your guess is as good as mine.

No comments: