Munich Part 2

I hope everyone back in Canada is having a great Thanksgiving weekend with lots of turkey and pumpkin pie. I am very jealous. I did have a pretty good weekend myself, I was in Munich with my buddy Brad. I have been to Munich already, but it was during Oktoberfest so I didn't get to explore much of the city and surrounding area.

http://bevand53.blogspot.fr/2013/10/munich.html

Brad is still in the military and was on his way to Oberammergau for a course and he came in a few days early so we could meet up. We had a great time catching up over many of the local beers.

 We are also very big fans of the HBO series Band of Brothers and since we were in the area, we took a day trip to Berchtesgaden and the Eagles Nest. It's a beautiful area with great historical significance.

The Eagles Nest is now a restaurant and a tourist destination, which is understandable, but it was still a little odd to see. We both had an image in our head from the show and we were a little disappointed when the image didn't match reality. We were able to get inside and you could see where certain scenes were filmed. We also saw the Marble fireplace that was a birthday gift to Hitler from Mussolini.

It is still an impressive spot and quite moving when you consider what was planned here and at the Obersalzberg just below. It does feel a little weird that these places have become tourist destinations, but at the same time, the world should never forget what happened here.

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Party Time

Wow, I have not posted an entry since August. It was not intentional, I just didn't have anything to write about. It's funny how routine our life feels now. I'm not complaining, I like the stability, it's just very different from when we first got here and we had to see and experience everything before we left.

We have been focusing on getting our apartment set up the way we like with furniture and decorative items that Lori has added to the uncomfortable and ugly furniture provided. I have also been getting to know our neighbourhood merchants like the butcher, bakery and cheese shop. I even took a cooking lesson this past week. It was me and 7 women learning how to cook a leg of lamb.

It was fun, but I don't think I'll go again. We also threw ourselves a house warming party on Thursday night. Lori invited several of her work colleagues over to our place. I think we had 17 or 18 people in our apartment at one point. Thursday may seem like an unusual choice for a party but Lori discovered that weeknights are for friends and weekends are for family. It was a great success.

Lori also discovered a store that sells American and Canadian groceries and they deliver. In addition to Maple cookies and pancake mix, we bought several bottles of Clamato juice so I was able to introduce everyone to Caesars. They went over well.

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Settling In

Just like that it's September and we've been in Paris for three weeks. Maybe it's just me, but the older I get, the faster time seems to fly by. Things are going well here. The stuff we shipped from Canada finally showed up on Friday. It's so nice to have our own things here. Not only do photos of family and paintings from Canada make it feel like our home, but little things like Tupperware and ice cube trays make life easier. We weren't allowed to ship furniture but we sent bedding, towels, dishes, pots and pans. Life is so much easier now than it was in our last apartment.

Getting our things into the apartment wasn't easy though. Some of the boxes wouldn't fit into the tiny elevator. The delivery guy said they were too heavy to carry up the stairs, so his solution was to unpack the boxes on the ground floor and place the contents into the elevator. I was waiting on the 5th floor and would unpack the elevator. It looked like something out of a Laurel & Hardy movie. Anyway, everything arrived unscathed.

Lori's company provides furnished apartments, which is why we weren't allowed to ship our furniture. The furniture they provide is not what you would call high quality. It's all brand new but kind of ugly and uncomfortable. Imagine a cheaper and crappier version of Ikea. Since we can't take it with us, it doesn't make sense to go out and buy our own stuff. Lori couldn't take it anymore though and she went out and bought a new couch.

It finally feels like we are settled and our life is back to normal. We went to the market on Sunday for the first time since we've been back. I have missed that. I found some incredible cherry tomatoes and basil so I made my version of a Caprese Salad. Of course, I couldn't leave the market without cheese and bread as well.

  

On a completely unrelated note, here is a link to my friend Anna's blog. She and her husband Eric were in St. John's for our anniversary party and she put up some great pictures. Enjoy.

http://jiggityjog.blogspot.fr/2014/08/newfoundland.html

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New Apartment

We are back in Paris and in our new apartment. We've had a few headaches getting our phone, TV and internet hooked up and our stuff from Canada hasn't shown up yet. My first blog post was going to be a scathing rant about France's antiquated infrastructure and outdated business practices, but it's nothing you haven't heard before. If you want to read more about that, just search Google and I'm sure you'll find thousands of stories just like ours.

Instead, I will show you our new apartment. Lori was in Paris for a couple of weeks in June and she found this apartment then. She was worried about picking it without me seeing it first, but she did a great job. We are closer to where she works, it's only a 25 minute walk. There are grocery stores, markets and restaurants close by. Most importantly, it's a full-size apartment with two bedrooms, separate living and dining spaces, a real oven and a refrigerator with a freezer. It's not an over-sized hotel room, like our last apartment.

The ceilings are 10 feet high and every room has floor to ceiling glass doors that let tons of light in. It doesn't feel like we live in a dungeon anymore.

We also have a fireplace. It has been sealed off to help reduce pollution, but it's still a nice feature.

The one downside of the apartment is the tiny elevator. The building was built before elevators were invented, so when they wanted to add one, they had to build one small enough to fit inside the central staircase.

It is not built for North American sized men. I can't walk straight into it, I have to turn sideways.

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20th Anniversary

Lori and I will be marking our 20th Wedding Anniversary in just over a week, but we celebrated a little early this past weekend. We had a kick-off party at the house on Friday night to welcome everyone who came in from out of town. Then on Saturday night we had dinner and dancing at The Rooms overlooking downtown St. John's and the harbour. Finally, everyone went out on a whale watching tour yesterday. We were a little light on the whales, we only saw one small Minke, but we saw lots of people out jigging for Cod.

It was an incredible weekend and what made it incredible was sharing it with so many friends and family.

It's amazing to have so many people, come from so far away, just to be with us this weekend. We are very lucky to have great people in our lives.

Our time in Newfoundland is coming to a close for this year, as we fly back to Paris next weekend. We are looking forward to it, but at the same time it will be sad to leave.

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East Coast Trail

We went for a couple of hikes this week along the East Coast Trail and they were spectacular. I've known about the trail for awhile and have read rave reviews online but I had no idea how incredible they were until we went out. The trail runs along the eastern shore of the Avalon Peninsula for 265km. It's broken up into 24 segments of different lengths and difficulties.

The first hike we did went from Logy Bay to Quidi Vidi village. We picked this trail based on the length and degree of difficulty. What we forgot to check was the elevation chart. The trail itself was 9km which wasn't bad, but the changes in elevation nearly killed us. We went from sea level up to 169m (550 feet) back down to sea level and then back up to 150m (500 feet) and then back down to sea level again with lots of fluctuations in between. It was worth it though.

Luckily the hike ended in Quidi Vidi which is the home of Quidi Vidi brewery so I was able to quench my thirst with an Iceberg beer.

The next hike we went on, we checked the elevation carefully on the map. I was looking for a trail where the contour lines were far apart. Of course, it's Newfoundland so there are no flat trails but the one from Cape Spear to North Head was pretty good. The total hike was longer at 11km but it took us less time and we felt a lot better at the end of it. We were watching Minke whales for the entire hike. Of course, I couldn't get them to pose long enough for me to get a picture. The terrain was a little different, it was wide open with meadows full of wild flowers, including Newfoundland pitcher plants. There was also a great breeze off the water. This has been the hottest summer on record in Newfoundland and the breeze really helped. 

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Manuals River

Most of our week was spent in malls, banks, insurance offices and at motor vehicle registration. Not a lot of fun, but things we had to take care of before heading back to Paris. Now we can enjoy the rest of our time here.

We did manage to get out and explore a bit on the weekend though. On Saturday we went for a hike along the Manuals River in Conception Bay South. It has some beautiful waterfalls and marshy areas with lots of birds and animals.

We discovered that the T'Railway goes by the parking lot, so we took our bikes with us on Sunday. The T'Railway runs along the path of the old rail lines. Newfoundland hasn't had trains since 1988 so they've been converted to trails. They are great for biking because it's the only place on the entire island that you can ride on flat ground for more than 50 feet at a time.

Here are our new bikes. I sarcastically call Lori's bike "White Lightening".

Lori loves it because it's the most comfortable bike she's ever owned. It even has a shock under the seat.

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