Showered with Love

This weekend our friends threw us a few parties. The girls had a shower for me while the boys played poker. After the afternoon events we spent the evening at another friends home for a going away party eating BBQ and lots of delicious sides. We felt so loved and celebrated by our friends.

The shower was lovely with games, good food and lots of laughs. I love these girls and I am so excited that several of them will be returning to Charlotte over the next year.



Yummy treats and a picture of Phil and I in Scotland.
The two pregnant ladies.


Enjoying Kelley's incredible berry lemon punch.

The girls busy creating a picture of our little one from magazines.

Opening gifts. Little boy stuff is so cute.

Having guy time.

It was a beautiful day of celebrating and starting to say goodbye. So strange to think that we only have one more weekend left in Germany.

The Rest of Vienna

The following four days were filled with a trip to the oldest zoo in the world, the museum of musik and fun market finds.

Zoo Vienna


My favorite exhibit, the elephants, was by far the most entertaining. I could not get enough of the baby elephant.


Stopping to feed a squirrel


After spending the morning at the zoo we decided to head into the center of Vienna.

As we walked around we were really impressed with all of the beautiful buildings and churches in the area.

After hitting the Haus der Musik, we headed to Naschmarkt, the largest outdoor market in Austria. We had been told that we they had some of the best hummus in town...so that is where we headed first.

We agreed that it was good but not the best that we had tried.

A few pictures of the market




Since we are not ones to give up easily, we picked up a few different types of hummus to sample later that evening. The cilantro hummus was by far the winner.


On Easter morning we found an English speaking church and enjoyed celebrating with people from all over the world.

Once the service was over we walked outside to find that it was snowing. It was beautiful!

After church we went back into town to tour St. Peter's Church.




I was really impressed with the organ.


After seeing the church we walked across town....




Eventually making it to Hundertwasser. Hundertwasser is an apartment complex designed by famous architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.








For our final morning in Vienna we headed to the fair grounds to see the Vienna Wheel which was erected in 1897.


We played a few games and picked up a little cotton candy before heading to the airport.

Vienna for Easter

Our last holiday in Europe wasa trip to Vienna for Easter weekend. We had a great time and it was a nice end to our adventure over here.

Our first stop was to the Easter market at the Schonnbrun palace.

Me in all my pregnancy glory.


While walking around the market we came across a few festive treats.




Lots and lots of pretzels.


We ended up trying a krapfen pretzel which tasted just like a doughnut.


We also split a plate of prosciutto wrapped cheese with friends.


After the market it was off to explore the palace and grounds. The palace is magnificent and was built in the 1500's. It was also used in the filming of several recent movies.


The gorgeous palace ballroom.


The grounds




And of course a trip to the palace would not be complete without a game of frisbee.


It was a great first day in Vienna.

Family Visit to Coburg

We started out the next morning by walking around Erlangen and then heading to the trainstation. We took the 40 minute train ride into Coburg and arrived around 11am. The weather was perfect(our first warm weekend in 6 months)and we were impressed with Coburg as soon as we got off the train. The buildings are gorgeous as we made away into the center of town.

We walked around the downtown area, explored the market place and then made our way up to a beautiful castle.

Walking up to Callenburg Castle


Vin and Ash at the main entrance.


We are very excited to be in Coburg.


After walking around the castle grounds we decided to break for lunch. I had researched a few lunch options and found Miles and More, a great little Bavarian hole in the wall. We were seated for about a minute when a woman at the next table introduced herself to us. She mentioned that her friend performed tours of Coburg and could give us a short tour for free. 10 minutes later her friend had arrived and we all chatted over lunch. What a great way to get to know a little more about this town.

After our tour we hiked up to Veste Coburg (the Fortress of Coburg). It was a beautiful walk up to the top.


We finally reached the top and explored Veste.


Walking the grounds.


Ash and her horse.


The temperatures had begun to drop so we had a little hot chocolate at the top before heading back down.

After reaching the bottom it was time to walk through town and back to the train station so that we could begin our ride back to Erlangen. I love the way German towns look when the sun goes down.


We grabbed a loaf of Easter bread to enjoy on the train and had a relaxing ride home. It was a wonderful day exploring Coburg together.

A Family Visit, part 1

It is amazing how fast time begins to fly by when you have something big coming up on the calendar. I still can not believe that we will be leaving Germany in just over a month. There is not enough time to prepare for the move, prepare for our little ones arrival and soak up every last minute we have in Germany. A wise woman reminded me that I need to start saying good bye and begin to prepare my heart for the move now. This was good for me to hear since I would rather just put that off for our final trip to the airport.

As we wrap up our time here we are planning a few short trips but also enjoying a few visitors. Last weekend Phil's mom, brother and sister came to visit for a few days. We had a great time traveling to nearbye towns and eating delicious Bavarian cuisine.

After picking them up from the Frankfurt airport we decided to break up the trip home by stopping in Wurzburg. Phil and I had never been so it was a first for all of us.
Walking into the center of Wurzburg


Family


Beautiful Churches


Brothers in front of The Residenz.




Entering the gardens behind the Residenz.


After walking around for a bit we stopped for a bite to eat. It was fun to introduce everyone to Schnitzel and Spaetzle.



And a coffee break. While we were there the owner was roasting beans which made the whole shop smell amazing.


After walking around a little longer we decided to head into Erlangen and introduce everyone to our little town.

After a little dinner and talking we called it a night to prepare for our trip the next day to Coburg, Germany.