You will learn an important word if you visit the Azores islands of Portugal in the Atlantic, and that is miradouro. It means viewpoint, but my mind now translates it as “beautiful view”, because that is what we saw whenever we stopped at a miradouro, labelled with a binoculars sign. Doesn’t the word miradouro also sound a bit like admire? Continue reading
It’s been a while since I participated in Mani’s Weekly Small Pleasures blog event, I guess to be honest this year has been dominated by work so far and January/Feburary in Berlin are pretty grey and not so much goes on in Berlin. Not only that, but often it was hard to squeeze in time to blog, so when I had time I updated mostly on special trips I’d taken, for example to the Harz mountains for cross country skiing or to a meeting in Switzerland. Anyway, in the beginning of this year my small pleasures mostly included making it to the weekend, getting to catch up on an hour of sleep or so and having a nice meal at a restaurant now and then, as well as some visits to the farm in Czech where we catch up with the family and pets. Maybe I’ll do a Janurary/Feburary update some time, but for now here were this week’s small pleasures: Continue reading
Easter is coming and so is spring! Although I quite like the warm Christmas we have in the southern hemisphere, I do find that spring is probably a nicer time to have Easter, like they do in the northern hemisphere, since it comes with the added excitement of the arrival of spring. In Germany I first came into contact with the Easter egg tree, and have since also seen them in other countries such as Czech and Slovenia (apparently you can also see them in Austria, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary). Sometimes people decorate trees or shrubs outside, but you also see cut branches decorated in vases. This year I decided to make my own Easter egg tree. Continue reading
About an hour from Prague are other cities and towns well worth a visit. We’ve made a couple of day trips to several of them. Two cities, Pardubice and Hradec Kralove, lie relatively close to each other, and not far from Pardubice lies the town of Chrudim. We visited this lovely town again this weekend and I thought it was about time I posted some photos of it. Continue reading
(Look away now if weddings bore you.) I’ve just discovered the world of online shopping. And let me tell you that many hours can pass while you are looking through online catalogs of wedding paraphenalia. You can find almost anything you want on ebay or in online stores (I switched to looking at German online stores, since the postage from other places is pretty high on average). Once you start looking, you see things that you hadn’t thought about, but of course you need at a wedding. Pininterest is another good place for getting wedding theme inspiration, although I don’t find it very practical for finding items, it’s more just eye candy. Weddix is a useful German site, I spent ages looking at all their table decorations, guest presents and other ideas. Giving sugared almonds is a wedding tradition I remember from childhood; you can buy different kinds of sugared almonds and bags now. I chose bags to match with our planned woodland / nature theme, but there are lots of options. Continue reading
Tübingen is a picturesque, hilly university town in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, only 30km from Stuttgart. To the north is Schönbuch, voted one of the most beautiful forests in Germany, and to the south east are the Swabian Alb mountains. The river Neckar flows through the town, which has many beautiful old buildings, canals and cobblestone streets. In fact, Tübingen has one of the most intact historic old towns in Germany, so it’s surprising that it’s not on most people’s tourist radar. Like in another famous university town, Cambridge, boating is popular in Tübingen, which has its own version of the famous Cambridge punt boats, called Stocherkähne. It’s very pleasant to visit Tübingen and wander its streets. Here are some of the photographs I took during my visit. Continue reading
As I mentioned, recently I spent a week in the village of Les Diablerets, tucked away in the Swiss Alps at 1160m. There was no time for skiing unfortunately as it was a work trip, but in the evenings I went for a few walks in the woods, and on the last afternoon I went up to the glacier with some friends. When I arrived the forests were quite green, the paths were icy, and the snow levels in the village were not as high as the previous years – it was a snow-poor winter all round in Europe this year. However on about day two or three it started snowing…and snowing…and snowing…the mountain disappeared in mist, and soon the forest and village were transformed into a winter wonderland. Following that was another day of snow, and then the sun came out and we were able to experience the village and the mountains with sunshine and deep blue skies, perfect for a visit to the glacier at 3000m. It was great to experience the area in all types of weather. Without further ado, here are some photos from my visit. Continue reading
In early February I went to a meeting in the charming snowy village of Les Diablerets, nestled in the Swiss Alps. I’m still busy sorting out the photos, but on the morning I was leaving I had a few moments to write some quick notes on my phone… Continue reading
Finally some free time I could use to work on my literature review write a blog post (:-) and what do I end up doing….playing around making example wedding invitations online.
But it is addictive, see here. With the online templates you can change the text, add your own photos and so on. So far J says all of my creations are too pink (even the purple ones). He is now keen to have a simple invitation with a protea on it, the South African flower I’ve chosen for my wedding bouquet. Let’s see how that evolves.
This past weekend we were kicked into wedding planning gear by J’s sister (and rightfully so, since we’re planning a June wedding but have not organized much yet at all). We’d done a bit of research about all the forms required to get married and had visited a priest at Christmas in Hradec Králové who’d informed us that to get married in a church we’d have to do the marriage preparation course. We’d also located a church in Berlin where we could do the course, although the usual parish priest was away so we’d have to wait before meeting with him. Other than that, we had not settled on either a church or a reception venue. Continue reading
When my Czechman moved to Berlin over three years ago, he brought his cross country skis with, ever hopeful that there would be enough snow one day for him to ski to work. So far it hasn’t happened! Rumour has it when it snows enough you can cross country ski in Tempelhof, the old airport that is now an open park in Berlin, but that hasn’t happened yet either. But for cross country ski lovers, never fear, the beautiful Harz mountains lie only three to four hours away from Berlin. Continue reading
