We didn’t waste any time finding some castle ruins to explore. These ruins are called Hohenhewen and are near Engen. They are on top of a dormant volcano like the ruins of Hohentwiel. Highlights included some ponies on the way up and a great view from the intact castle tower.
And we are back!
In case you are confused about where we live, don’t worry so are we. The deal is this: Smarty Pants Andreas now has a research project that means that we can spend the next few summers in Freiburg. We are going to be shuffling back and forth between Germany and Canada every year. This year is extra complicated, however, because Professor Smarty Pants got another research grant to do work in Berkeley, California. We’ll be there for the second half of the summer.
We are pretty happy about this. (Actually, I can’t quite believe that I’m so lucky to get to lead this life. Thanks Professor Smarty Pants!)
In any case, here are some photos from our first stop in Germany: Hamburg. We caught up with Christiane, Conny and Karsten, German coffee, and Christiane’s excellent cooking.
On our way to Europe, Kai and I had a two-day stopover in Iceland. Andreas and I have visited Iceland before and we loved it. We loved the raw, empty landscape and our friends Alex and Addy live in Reykjavik so it is an ideal destination. When we discovered that IcelandAir was going to be the cheapest flight we could find to Europe, I jumped on the chance for a weekend there with Kai.
Although Kai was suffering from lack of sleep from the flight, we still managed to enjoy our tour to Geysir and Gullfoss. He was very impressed by the geyser. He has, however, been recently suffering from nightmares involving volcanoes and lava!
We got a chance to see Alex and Addy and their three kids, eat lobster soup, and enjoy the view from their apartment. We are already planning our next trip back to Iceland next summer (be warned: Alex and Addy!)
by Nancy