We have lived in the UK for 4 years but not had much holiday time locally. So we decided this year to take a Staycation! This meants we had plenty of time to check out the things to do near where we live, enjoy a few guests and more than anything relax!
So a wedding is always a lovely reason to take a trip, so when Nadine and Efren invited us to come down to Dusseldorf to celebrate, we couldn’t resist.
The trip took us through England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, and we enjoyed a nice stay at a spa hotel and then off to the wedding. It was a good party and we enjoyed the coffee and cakes and then had a fun night watching the German team perform admirably in the football world cup against Argentina.
Nadine, Andrea and Lena
The wedding ceremony
Mitchell enjoying the ceremony
Signing on the line
Outside the Standesamt
Christian and Gina
Our family!
Efren singing with the Mariachi band
The Mariachi band
Andrea and Lena chilling in front of the fan
Us with the happy couple
Mitchell reflects
Mike and Sheetal
Eindhoven
Sheetal, Lena and Greg
On the way home we managed to catch up with Mike and Sheetal in Eindhoven. We looked around the city, enjoyed a nice meal at a Grand Cafe, and then we made our way back to the channel tunnel and had fish and chips for dinner in Dover with the setting sun.
We’d like to introduce you all to our new son, Mitchell Robert. He was born in the afternoon of 6th August 2009, weighing in at a massive 4.5kg and 59cm tall already.
The latest harvest – foreshadowing a new harvest of another kind
We had a lovely easter in the sun, to celebrate the wedding of Dee and Martin, in the Munich Ratskeller. A Ratskeller is not a place where rodents dwell, rather the cellar below the Rathaus or town hall.
The wedding started with a drinks reception in the courtyard of the Rathaus, and then we went downstairs for the ceremony and then dinner.
Dee and Martin in cake form
The happy couple
The service and facilities were top notch, and it was great to see Dee and Martin marry.
Lena celebrated in style by driving her SLK Mercedes (ride on edition) around the restaurant.
Highlights for us were the well organised wedding – meant we could just have fun!
The food was good, and of course it was great to see everyone there too.
I have recently joined all the twits at www.twitter.com. Now you can track my comings and goings on the right hand side here under the heading Greg@twitter. This is the internet phenomenon that everyone from Stephen Fry to Demi Moore is using to keep their “followers” updated on their daily doings. So I now have it to keep you updated on what we are up to. Who knows who might do this next, maybe Andrea or Lena?
As part of my lazy updates to our family blog – Lena brought her little friend Alody up to the allotment (with a side trip to the park as well of course). Lena and Alody have lovely matching mauve jackets and every time they see each other it leads to a crazy squealing contest.
On February 2 we had quite a snowfall in Cookham, with 3-4 inches on the ground in places and no sign of it letting up. I guess I don’t need to mention that the country ground to a halt. My train was cancelled so I decided to work from home, now that I’ve set up the computer desk nicely in the living room for the time being.
Lena and Andrea enjoyed the snow, going out in a break from the heavily falling flakes to construct a snowman, complete with carrot, scarf and woven hat. To be completely honest, Lena liked the look of the snow much more than being in it. She does like the snowman though and made sure that Andrea repaired him after her nap. It seems that the snowman wanted a nap too.
We all got a weekend in Munich as Greg had a work trip, and Lena and Andrea managed to get a good price for a flight along.
We stayed with Dee and Martin, which was a good chance to catch up with them and other old friends, and also gave Greg a rare chance to go snowboarding on Saturday. Greg and Martin took the BOB bahn down to Lenggries and caught the ski bus to the slope, and enjoyed a long day of sun and snow!
Other fun things included a big brunch at Cafe Neuhausen on Sunday, and time to help Dee and Martin think about their wedding.
It was fun to be back, Lena now can say the word Munich (and much more of course), and we all had a great time.
