Happy Birthday Gesche!

...and thank you for a unforgetable party til the early morning in Munich!

40 is the new 20 - isn't it :-)

The castle trip with Kristen

With our American visitor we did THE tourist program: the romantic castles of King Ludwig of Bavaria - Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. The weather was not perfect and the tourist mass pretty annoying - but the scenic setting of these castles is just outstanding - have a look!

And our night was unforgettable - due to the weather we slept in a barn with kittens on a little farm - including a wake up call from a roaster at 5am and cow milking at 7am :-)

The China-Leipzig-Stuttgart-Connection

A spontanous gathering at our place last week - we all know us from the US but life now either in China, Leipzig, Stuttgart or even the same street - we did not see us in this group for quite a long time...it was fun!

Detroit Expat Weekend - Murmeleshuette Spielmannsau

This year our belated 4th of July weekend happened on a nice mountain hut in the alps near Obersdorf. Thanks to our organizers Susi and Philip we enjoyed a weekend with a great hike, a dip in the cold mountain lake, petting cows - or pushing them out of the way, had lots of space for the kids to run around and much more. ...and we will certainly all remember the stomach flu ;-)

Esslinger Zeitungslauf 2011

Today was our local 10k run - though the medival town of Esslingen. A narrow and windy course on uneven pavement with over 3000 runners! I ran with our company team - and had a great race (our ladies team got 3rd and I ran a PR in 48min)....so back into running mode! The first part I ran with my new running friend Eva - in the blue shirt.

Berlin Trip June 2011

Another visit in our nations capital - where you can see the largest dinosaur skeleton of the world, amazing sunsets during a walk along the former "Grenzstreifen" (Berlin wall area) with view to the Alex followed by a sightseeing jog around along the river Spree.....afterwards a drink at the beach bars and a boat cruise along the old museums area and the parlament always worth another visit!

A few pictures - after project phase one

For our friends faraway - a few impressions of our new place after nearly finishing phase one (took them while we had a thunderstorm with hail outside!) - the sunsets are still spectacular - and finally we took a shot of our backcountry view to the little view point tower (Katharinenlinde - with one of the nearby beer gardens ;-) )