I'm out of hibernation!!

Spring is here at last!! Blue sky! Sunshine! Warmth!! No more snow!! Yayay!! This solar powered girl made it through her first German winter and is now loving every minute of Frühling (Spring)!!

From what I'm told, although our winter here started early, it was fairly "mild" compared to other years. For me, it was like a living hell. I thought it would never end - endless snow, bitter cold and miserably grey days  .... it was definitely a challenge for me. BUT - it's all over now!! We have blue sky, sunshine and warmth ... HOORAY!! I am officially out of hibernation and ready to update you all on our whereabouts.

Since the temperatures have risen, we are spending as much time outside as possible. We are now officially (finally!!) a bike riding family!! Henry is finally riding his bike confidently (yayaya!!) although on our longer family rides he still uses the trailer bike. We rode the 7kms through the local forest bike trails to Lake Starnberg recently, enjoyed lunch in the glorious sunshine and rode home again. We are loving the bike riding opportunities in this area! Polly rode the 18kms to work with Nick this week and performed like a champion!! Henry and I met Nick and Polly for lunch then came home - a great day!! Lots of time spent on our bikes, at the park, by the creek, at the ice cream store ;-) Munich is divine in the Spring time!! Colorful Spring flowers are everywhere!! Who knew that under the fields of snow were hundred of daffodil bulbs eagerly waiting for Spring to arrive!! The colors and smells are fantastic!! It appears that all the Germans have dusted off their bikes and the bike trails are frantic with locals out to enjoy this gorgeous part of the world. Children's parks and playgrounds are full of families enjoying the fresh air, boats are on the lake, beer gardens are open and in full swing, hundreds of tables full of happy Germans enjoying their liter glasses of beer! Cafe's and restaurants all have their tables set up outside where the locals are enjoying a meal or a quiet espresso in the sun.

Nick spent a week in Marllorca in February for his cycling team training camp.  Training 6hrs a day, eat, sleep, repeat. He was in heaven!! He is now reaping the benefits of his training and enjoying the race season with his team. Racing here is quite different from his Californian experience but he loves his team and is learning some key German phrases on the bike ;-)

While Nick was living it up in Mallorca, my Dad came from Australia to visit for a week. It was fun to show him around "our" town so we did some of the local sights in Munich and also visited the impressive Neuschwanstein Castle which was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle. The kids had a blast with their "Pa" and I am so thankful that he was able to spend some real quality time with the kids.

We have also been lucky enough to have one of Polly's dear friends from California, and her family, come for a flying visit too. It was a crazy 24hours but it was so wonderful to see them and catch up on all the news!! We miss all our Californian friends!!!


Also, my dear Scottish friend Ann and her son came to visit for a week. I met Ann about 15 years ago when I lived in Scotland and she is like family to me so it was wonderful to catch up with her and meet her son! So many laughs that week!! We love having visitors here and have a few more visitors lined up over summer too - so if you think you might be in the area, let us know! We'd love to see you!!

I have been enjoying riding the local bike trails with a super fun group of women I met through school. We drop the kids at school, ride all day and then collect the kids after school - such a wonderful way to spend the day! We are far from hard core but there is a lot of laughing, chatting and lunching going on - loads of fun!!

I have made a couple of wonderfully welcoming German girlfriends that are introducing me to some of the local haunts. They are so fun to hang out with and extremely tolerant of me trying to practice my German - it is somewhat discouraging though when they have absolutely no idea what I'm trying to say - and here I was thinking I was fluent!! Ha!! 

The kids are doing really well. This term at school Polly is doing tennis and bouldering and guitar and Henry is kicking butt (literally) at TaeKwonDo. Henry lost his first tooth in February and his 2nd tooth fell out 2 weeks later. He looks so grown up now!! They are enjoying school and both have lots of wonderful friends from around the world. They are both thriving at the German language - unlike me. Nick speaks and understands a lot of German and better still, he actually understands the grammar. I am a lost cause. I am trying, but have resigned to memorising as much as I can now....oh....and I smile and apologise A LOT....and I'm getting by just fine ... most of the time ;-) Ha!

We visited Legoland a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! We promised the kids we could go there for their birthdays last December but the park closes over winter so this was a long awaited trip and well worth the wait!!

We have just returned from our super fun Easter break roadtrip to Berlin and Dresden so stay tuend for that update shortly!!

I hope you all had a Happy Easter ... or Frohe Ostern!!