Monday, September 01, 2008

Holiday - Part 1 of 3 (Germany)

As mentioned in the earlier post, Germany was awesome, beautiful and invigorating. We had an amazing time and ran every day - I actually ran twice most days - it was just too perfect!










One morning I rode through the forest with my brother-in-law, Markus - what a buzz - he told me of the time that my father asked him if he knew where he lived? A strange question you might think but what my dad was getting at is that Markus and my sister live in paradise and they should never forget how lucky they are.







Clearly Markus does know that he lives in paradise and he does know how lucky he is - we're very envious (although we consider ourselves to be very lucky living in a tropical paradise too).

We ran with the running club again that evening - the first half an hour was with the local kids to encourage them to run. The focus is on fun, gamboling through the moss, jumping from log to log, running in zigzags through the forest, you get the picture. Lots of fun but not too stressful. After that the kids went home and then the club usually runs for another half an hour but because we were there they took us on a special "tour" of trails and climbs until we were totally lost but totally wowed by the scenery - magical.

Other things of note in Germany were: -

The indoor heating pool in our apartment complex, the boys loved that. The Wheat Beer - Daddy loved that. Gorgeous Ice-creams - Daddy loved those too.









One day we went across Lake Constance on the ferry and then to the Monkey Forest where the kids got to feed popcorn to hundreds of monkey's.










Great fun for the boys although Seb being Seb didn't realise that the screaming and aggressive gesticulations from one rather large monkey meant that perhaps he should back off - instead he stood there laughing while the crowd stood in shock - Daddy jumped into action and unceremoniously grabbed Seb and all was well. Seb of course didn't have a clue what all the fuss was about.






Another day we went to Triberg to see the waterfall - gorgeous of course. I have a photo of myself and Kirsty on my shoulders when she was one and a half years old at the waterfall (see post in a few days when I find it). I suggested that we take the same picture again but since she is considerably taller than me I should go on her shoulders - she declined, strange!



Big thanks have to go to Angela, Markus, Jan, Kirsty, Nico and Sven for making the first part of our holiday so perfect. Markus and the kids looked after Sid and Seb when Shilpa, Angela and I ran together (greatly appreciated); they made us the most magnificent German brunch the day before we left - we still dream of that. Markus took time off work to be with us (fueled me with copious amounts of wheat beer), Angela took time off revision for her University exams (she's taking them now, good luck sis), she and Markus drove us hundreds of kilometres to and from airports, sightseeing, shopping etc, their kids looked after Sid and Seb as if they were their own baby brothers -

THANKS SO MUCH, YOU WERE ALL WONDERFUL TO US.

PS. Thanks also to Unterkirnach Running Club for embracing us and showing us the wonderful trails and paths of the Black Forest.


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