Kevin's Konfirmation

Here are some photos of Kerstin's brother Kevin's Konfirmation:

Konfirmation is a big moment in a kid's life here in Germany - they have to go to church for about 2 years learning all the traditions, stories, etc from the bible, then there is a ceremony that is almost like a wedding - everyone dresses up for the occasion, and gives them money (including random people from the surrounding area).

Kevin was pretty glad to have it over with - his priest was old and very boring - it was his last Konfirmation before retirement.

Tramping to a hut in the Ammergauer Alps

After a very mild winter with hardly any snow in Munich, we decided to do a tramp to a hut in the alps and experience a bit of snow at the same time. Off we went to Unterammergau, from where we walked for about 3 hours to get to the hut. There was quite a bit of snow around us and the weather stayed dry, despite the weather forecast predicting rain or snow. The hut was very luxurious compared to New Zealand's huts' standards. There were rooms with bunk beds, out of which we had one to ourselves, there was running water and flushing toilets and there was a restaurant. We ate a nice meal and sat together for the rest of the evening.

The next morning we were woken up by beautiful sunshine and sparkling white snow. It was beautiful. We walked down and were jealous of all the others, who had sleds. We tried to slide down on a couple of plastic bags, but gave up due to our butts getting a bit too sore.

The remainder of the second day we spent looking at Oberammergau with its painted houses, going for a walk through the gardens at Linderhof Castle and looking at the monastry in Ettal.