Happy 2016!

To everyone out there, a wonderful, happy, healthy, content, relaxed, funny and amazing new year!

Our New Year’s Eve was very calm, the three of us stayed home, Quinn went to bed at around 19:00 and my boyfriend and I cooked meals out of the “Game of Thrones” cookbook. That was my Christmas present for him, as well as the “Game of Thrones” monopoly which we played to stay awake until midnight.

Having a little baby which wakes up every day at 6:00 o’clock sharp and keeps you busy during the day can be exhausting and normally we both fall asleep on the couch at around 21:30 :).

2015 was a very special and impressive year for me, for sure. I

I’m very excited to see what 2016 will turn out and all the fun times with Quinn and I’m nosy to see what he’ll learn for new things in 2016.

Rhineland-Palatinate, Bruges and Amsterdam

From September 19th to September 28th we visited the Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, Bruges in Belgium and Amsterdam in The Netherlands. It was a lovely vacation and all three places are very worth seeing. Friends moved to the Netherlands so we combined all the city trips and ended our vacation with visiting our friends.

Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

We had a lovely B&B in a very small town where the Bubby and me plus my parents stayed. The B&B only had two apartments so we had the whole place for ourselves which was awesome! The hosts were Americans as well which made this vacation perfect.

We arrived on Friday and went out to eat and had typical Palatinate plates. Massive!

On Saturday we had our first “Meet the Parents” day, well, the parents met the parents. The Bubby and I have been going out for 4,5 years now and lived together for two years, yet our parents have never met. Now, with a baby on the way it was a great opportunity though we had that trip planned before I knew I was pregnant ๐Ÿ™‚ So my Lover and my Dad went biking and my mom and me hiked up to a hut with his parents, his brother and wife plus their two boys. We all met at the hut and had again typical Palatinate plates for lunch, mainly potato sup with plum cake. We sat and chatted and in the afternoon we hiked down again and all met for dinner. I had “Saumagen”, which is a mixture of lean pork, sausage meat, potatoes, onions, marjoram, cloves and pepper, all covered. It tastes ok but it’s not my favorite.

On Sunday we had a lovely breakfast prepared by our hosts and all drove off at around 11am.
The weather was so great the whole weekend and we all enjoyed it lots.
Below are photos from our lovely B&B, the house was built in 1556.

Rhineland-Palatinate - Our B&B
Rhineland-Palatinate – Our B&B

Rhineland-Palatinate - Our B&B
Rhineland-Palatinate – Our B&B

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges is a nice little city in Belgium. We stayed in a B&B in the middle of the city and parked the car for free a bit outside, in Magdalenenstraat, so if you’re ever in Bruges by car, you can park there for free. We stayed in Bruges two nights, from Tuesday to Thursday, so we could walk through the city two whole days.

On Wednesday the weather wasn’t that great and there weren’t too many people outside. We walked around 17km and looked at different museums and the town. We stopped for lunch or hot chocolate and for dinner I had a big salad. The food is very expensive, the salad cost me around 16 EURO. On Tuesday night I had Spaghetti Bolognese for 11,50 EURO.

Our B&B in Bruges, Belgium
Our B&B in Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium
Minnewaterpark, Bruges, Belgium

The Belfort, Bruges, Belgium
The Belfort, Bruges, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium
Bruges, Belgium

You could find empty streets a bit outside - Bruges, Belgium
You could find empty streets a bit outside – Bruges, Belgium
You could find empty streets a bit outside - Bruges, Belgium
You could find empty streets a bit outside – Bruges, Belgium

We had waffles Thursday noon in Bruges, Belgium
We had waffles Thursday noon in Bruges, Belgium
And French Fries with stew for Lunch on Wednesday - so good but so many!
And French Fries with stew for Lunch on Wednesday – so good but so many!

All in all Bruges was a lovely city with many tourist groups, it’s very expensive, it’s got a lot of chocolate stores and if you don’t go to every museum in town you can see the city in one or two days.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Amsterdam, the NetherlandsAmsterdam, the Netherlands

We only spent half a day in Amsterdam but I thought that was ok. Sure, there’s so much to see there but we went on a Friday and it was very very crowded there, bikes all over and a lot of people walking around too. We visited the city, at something (I finally found something healthy for under 10 EURO – the wok to walk and I got all veggy, so delish!
Later in the afternoon we visited a ship museum which cost 15 EURO but was worth every penny, very much and interesting things to see. In Amsterdam we parked the car a bit outside and drove into the city with the street train. That way we could see a lot of the city as well. I’d recommend two days though, esp. if you want to look at different museums or have a nice coffee somewhere. Maybe I’ll go back one day but for now I’m good ๐Ÿ™‚

France 2014

I’ve been back from my three week vacation in France since July 12th. Yet I was too busy (or lazy) to blog about it.
It was lovely, as always, the weather was so so, the waves were mostly good. The last week t got quite windy but at least we didn’t get sand blown in our faces ๐Ÿ™‚ So all good.
I went jogging every other day which was soo nice and relaxing and amazing. Hearing the ocean and the chirrs of the crickets. Just lovely. We also enjoyed good food and lots of sweets and alcohol.
Let the photos talk…

france2014
Windy Day
france2014
Best Sandwich EVER
Dinner
Dinner
Why drink water if you can drink beer?
Why drink water if you can drink beer?
Bad weather ahead
Bad weather ahead
So good burgers!!
So good burgers!!
On the way to the beach
On the way to the beach
For the first time in my life I tried Macarons.
For the first time in my life I tried Macarons.

I’m all set

books for vacation
I ordered five books which I picked up at my local book dealer yesterday afternoon. Got one book from my mother in law and one from each sister and had three here to read. So now I’m ready for my beach (and surf) vacation. Well, almost ready, I have to pick up the beach-ball set I ordered via Amazon next week ๐Ÿ™‚

Cross-Country Skiing in South Tyrol

The lover, a friend and me spent a lovely weekend in South Tryol. The weather was great (see photos below) and we also still had some good snow. The first day we completed 22.17 km.
langlaufen1
On the second day we went 21km, unfortunately my Garmin wasn’t loaded so it stopped recording pretty soon ๐Ÿ™
langlaufen2
Luckily the Lover also uses a Garmin ๐Ÿ™‚

And wow – the pain I have in my legs! I can hardly lift my right leg. Good excercise for the triceps and butt as well. Yumm!

IMG_2435Drei Zinnen view from the Ski-Tracks

IMG_2448Ski-Tracks – so idyllic

IMG_2418Our great breakfast, made by the apartment hosts

IMG_2426Cross-Country Skiing and Skating

IMG_2444A Vegetarian’s dream!

IMG_2467Another photo of the Drei Zinnen