Christmas / New Years

Well 2005 finally wound up. Setting several landmarks along the way. we've now been here in Germany for over 6 months - really doesn't seem like it! Although our slacking around for 3 months does seem like quite a long time ago.

Here in Germany everybody celebrates Christmas on the night of the 24th. That means that we got to open our presents before NZ despite the time difference! Unfortunately the snow for my first white Christmas didn't quite arrive in time - started on the night of the 26th :-(

It was nice to spend some time with Kerstin's family, especially since it was their first Christmas together in about 6 years - Nina and Phil making the trip over. We gave Nina and Phil a voucher to the Roman style bathhouse here - thought we would blow Phil's kiwi mind. I think they liked it ;-)

Afterwards, Nina and Phil came and crashed with us for a while - we do have a couch that converts to a bed, but not a lot else as far as guest facilities go. We have since started to remedy that with a visit to Ikea...

We did a few trips around to places such as Heidelberg - really nice old 'Palace' there. Its falling apart a little (war damage?), so you can see how it was built in places - pretty cool.

A view through a wall of the Heidelberg Schloss to the old bridge (actually rebuilt after the war)








It was easy to tell that New Years was coming up - here fireworks are the name of the game and if you wander around town at night a few nights beforehand, you'll see weirdos lighting them, throwing them somewhere then pretending it wasn't them. Come New Years eve it went ballistic! The whole city echoed of crackers going off and there was a fairly dense smog covering the city. We made our way into the centre to watch the official fireworks at midnight, but they were pretty much shamed out by the hundreds of private displays on show. For about an hour there was a continuous display going on - a bit scary at times because you don't know what some idiots are going to do. There was a brief 'lull' when the offical fireworks were let off, then the unoffical show continued.

The night was concluded by half a dozen firetrucks arriving with sirens screaming - they really love their sirens here. I don't think there was a fire - the snow was a fairly good back up in this regard, but I think they just wanted to make the point that people shouldn't be idiots - not without cause...

Change topic...

Yesterday I went into the local land transport place to get my NZ licence 'extended'. They have a lovely habit (just like every other country) of setting random time intervals for things. So I am allowed to drive on my NZ licence for 6 months, but then after having driven about 15,000kms here in Germany they basically want me to sit my licence again. So my cunning way out of this was to get the company to write a letter saying I am staying for less than a year, so I can get a 6 month extension, then I will look at getting an English licence - still have to give up my NZ licence (can PAY to get it back within 5 years), but at least don't have to sit all the tests again.

I love red tape!!

A few photos:

We found New Zealand!!! (New sea land translated from German - or in this optomotrist pun, New see land)











Prehaps a better piccy of our car













Cars on the street below our flat

Munich and a little Vienna

I'm currently sitting in the Munich office "working". It is now 11.45am and I just went outside to take a few photos. While outside I checked the temperture - still -8C. It got down to -9.5 the other day and I was hoping that it would reach double figures... but no such luck.

I don't think I've ever seen a hoar frost that lasted throughout the day - its actually sunny today and everything is still pearly white. The ground etc is still white anyway from the snow a few days ago, but at the moment the trees, bushes and grass all have a white lining.

I'm looking forward to a months time when it should be even colder. So far the clothes I have already are still OK apart from my shoes - can't say that I've ever contemplated buying new shoes for winter before.

So far I've been to about 6 or 7 different Christmas markets - really popular here. Basically people just go along, drink a mulled wine or two - using it to keep warm in the freezing tempertures.

Here are a few piccies of the hoar frost.

This is from the view from the kitchen window here at the Munich office












This was walking down the main road to get lunch yesterday.












Here are a few piccies from when I was in Vienna last week.

This is the Summer palace "Schönbrun" where the Hapburgs used to swan around before they were toppled in the first world war after 700 odd years of rule. It is really quite massive with a zoo and very large landscaped grounds.









Here is the view going in the opposite direction - the hill you see is completly sculptured to look its best :)











Here are some crazy colourful little ducks that were in one of the ponds at the top of the formentioned hill.