Bath, England.

Our first trip out of London was in September to Bath, when Papa Mickey was still in town. Oh, Bath. Looking through our photos a few months later, I wish we could transport ourselves back to that lovely town. I can't describe Bath without using the word lovely - it's pretty impossible. We squeezed a lot into 2 days in Bath - a visit to the Roman Baths, walked to the Royal Crescent, took a hint from Jane Austen and walked up Lyncombe Hill, and also visited the Jane Austen center where we learned all about her life and even got to dress up like locals. When in Rome. I have big plans to go back in the Summer, which coincidentally is when we hope to have some more visitors. (wink wink, visitor, that means you!)

4:00

It is completely dark here by 4:00 every day.
Somehow this makes those wiggly 5-7pm hours so much harder to do.
Mark gets home sometime between 7:30 - 8:30, and sometimes, I'll be honest - I just turn on a movie when Henry wakes up because WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO.

We are going back to DC for Christmas and even though it's only been 3 months since we left, somehow this seems like the most welcome treat of my life. Family, good friends, and great food - what else is there?

I love London, and really this winter has been pretty mild so far - no snow, not a lot of rain, and we even see the sun most days. But. The meteorologists are calling for the worst winter in modern times starting at Christmas time (what do they know, right? RIGHT?) and I'm afraid that coming back to London after the holiday will be extremely hard on our sense of well being. Cold, snowy, darkness until Spring? I doth protest.

The silver lining is that when we come back, the sun will have started to set a little later every day. Maybe it will even be light until 4:15! Just think of the possibilities.

Germany, 3 seasons later.

Last Spring I went with my mom to Germany, for a family history/sightseeing vacation. I already wrote about the family history part of our trip to Marienbrunn, but life got busy and I never did share the rest of our trip. We spent some time in Frankfurt, Wurzburg, the Black Forest, and Munich. Looking back, there were many favorite parts to the trip, but maybe my favorite memory is the 4 hour baths we went to at the thermal springs in Baden Baden (no pictures of that one for obvious reasons). Or the bratwurst in Munich. Or driving through the black forest in search of a cuckoo clock. I hope I can return soon with Mark and Henry, I know they would love it, too (I'm looking at you bratwurst).

Our first day we drove, with severe jetlag, through the Black Forest to find my dear mother a cuckoo clock. We drove to Triberg, the capital of said clocks. And we found it. It's hanging on her wall and brings us all a smile every time we see, especially the little toddler boys in the family. The Black Forest is beautiful, haunting, and full of houses with solar panels, which makes me giggle. Germany has an outrageous policy that allows homeowners to put solar panels on their roofs and sell the energy at a premium price. Good thing Germany is not sunny Arizona, or the government would be totally bankrupt. :)

We spent the last bit of our trip in Munich. Munich totally stole our hearts, with its grand buildings, amazing food, and the friendly and spirited people! And all the bikes were just icing on the cake. It began to snow our first day there, which just added to the magic. We stayed near the town square, and were lucky enough to stumble on the Viktualienmarkt - an amazing market with German handmade goods, amazing food, and the best jar of mustard I've ever tasted. Oh, Mark and I fought over that mustard the whole month it lasted.

We spent a few days in Wurzburg and Frankfurt, as well, and that post is up next...soon. :)