Grüß Gott

So I've been on vacation.

First we took the big boat to Kiel and the we drove to Rothenburg where we spent a night.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a lovely little town. People tell me the town in both "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Pinocchio" is based on Rothenburg. We spent only one night though, so I didn't see that much of it, but I wandered some of the streets and I got to visit the Christmas store there. Which felt strange. You're out in the streets in the beginning of July and then, suddenly, you're in some Christmas wonderland.

Then we drove to a Vinyard near Lindau by the Bodensee (Lake Constance) in southern Germany where we stayed for almost two weeks. Here's the view from our balcony:

The mountains to the left belongs to Austria and the ones to the right belongs to Switzerland. We visited both countries briefly, but stayed in Germany most of the time and visited small towns around us.


                                                                                          Lindau -->


My favorites were Meersburg, a loveley medieval town with a proper fort and plenty of small trinket shops.
 

And Wieskirche, a beautiful rococo church that was apparently saved from WWII bombings thanks to an Englishman refusing to follow his orders.

And the most beautiful of all:

the wonderful Neuschwanstein Castle which I've always wanted to see. I didnt get to see the inside though because the people I was with can sometimes be kind of lame and I'm too shy to tell them how much I wanted too. My siblings and I are planning a future road trip though, so I will see the inside one day.



AND THEN

the highlight of this summer, in my opinion:

We spent two nights in Riquewihr. An adorable little town in France. Surrounded by vinyards and full of tiny timber framing houses in bright colors.

And what do you know! The Christmas store chain has a shop in Riquewihr as well so I visited christmas twice this summer.

We rented a small cabin from a very French man and his wife. I made the mistake of answering all the polite phrases you know, like "ça va" and such, and so the man was convinced that I knew French even though these few phrases are the only thing I remember from French class ten years ago. (I understand politeness, food words and when something is beautiful). Luckily my Mother-in-love (I changed law to love because we're not married) speaks French fairly well.

pretty, pretty little town. I'd like to come again.

Then we drove up north trough the Moselle Valley and slept one night in Bernkastel-Kues and one night in Cloppenburg and then we were back in Schleswig-Holstein, where we always are, and spent one week before we went home.

"Grüß Gott" is a greeting some people use in the south of Germany where Catholicism reigns. It means "May God greet you".

You're amazing

I think maybe Edinburgh is my favorite city of them all (of those I've visited at least). The climate is familiar to me, the people's accent is adorable, every wall reeks of history, the buildings are beautiful and the people are super friendly.

My sister already made a good resumé of our adventures in Scotland, but I thought I too should share some photos (even though they were taken with my phone and thus hold terrible quality) and highlight moments.

First of all. This is a view of Edinburgh New Town and Calton Hill seen through the battlements of Edinburgh Castle. One of the buildings you see contains our hotel. The Royal British Hotel (the picture on this page shows exactly how our room looked), and I must say that, even though the hotel was somewhat worn down and they were in the middle of renovating, the service was great and we couldn't have asked for a better location.

Next is a picture taken during our visit to Edinburgh Castle. The building is the Royal Palace and contains the Scottish crown jewels. (I've now seen the Scottish and the English/British ones, but not the Norwegian ones. kind of ironic?)

On our way down from the castle we met a nice lady with a vibrant lipstick who wanted to promote a book called Edinburgh Shorts. I thought I'd share this for with the way she told about this book (apparently it's a collection of shorts in different styles that's all centered around Edinburgh, there should be crime, drama, romance and comedy) it sounded really cool. I think I'll put it on my wishlist.

Not far from the castle is this old cathedral which is not used as a church anymore, but it is really pretty and I have eaten lunch inside it. How cool is that? It's called The Hub.

Also. just down the street from The Hub, near St.Giles Cathedral (which we of course visited) we were surprised by some street performers. Walking down Karl Johans gate in Oslo during summertime you will encounter people playing the accordion or playing guitar and singing Wonderwall by Oasis or Knocking on Heavens Door by Bob Dylan (usually they are good and you get in a summery mood, but it's always the same). Or maybe you meet people jumping around their cd-player. I don't know what the traditions on Scottish streets are, but to me this group of musicians was a welcome change from the accordions and cd-players. And they were really good! (it should be said that I love this kind of music.Cheerful strings). The sound quality in my video is horrible, but I hope you get the picture. (And at the very start you'll hear me say "...there's a man in the way though..."

Also! Silly me didn't think of filming this, but every day there was a man, in a kilt, playing the bagpipe at the street outside our hotel. And not just the kilt itself; the whole get-up! (I admit it. I have a thing for kilts).
It was really cool. Even though it resulted in us having bagpipe music stuck in our heads even after we left the country XD

About the superfriendlyness of the Scottish people. They say "thank you" ALL THE TIME. I'm astonished. The waitress even thanked us for letting her clear our table as if we were the ones doing her a favor... (no, thank YOU for bringing us food and cleaning up after us.)
Besides. On Norwegian walls you can find drawings of willies or sentences like "[someone's name] is gay" (that's how childish we are). On Calton Hill you could find stuff like this:

Maybe it's the other way around. Scottish people aren't extraordinarily friendly, Norwegians are just extraordinarily... cold.

Anyways. It was a great trip and I would love to return and see more of Scotland some day. It is a lovely place.
And I leave you with a picture of some doves taken in St.Andrew Square.

(For other dove-pictures, go here XD )

♥

It's spring! And the snow is (almost) gone, and the sun is up warming, and I've got easter holiday and everything is just great :)

And I'll be celebrating easter in Finland this year. I am. It's really happening. I've packed my suitcase and everything.

My mom is really sweet. Every year at Easter eve my siblings and I each receive an easter egg filled with candy after finding it at the end of our own personal set of rebuses and riddles. It's been a tradition for years, and I was slightly sad that I was going to miss it. But I woke up today, got out of bed, opened my door, and there it was! My own pre-easter-rebus! Isn't my mom the coolest?

Ready-Set-GO

I've been postponing my packing the whole day.
Because it's so boooring.
But now I'm finished I think.

And I hope it's room for the bag in the car 'cause I think it's slightly bigger than I remembered. But I think it'll work out ok. It's not that much bigger.

When I'm traveling, I'm perfectly calm the whole time until the night before departure.
That would be now.
Now I'm stressed out and convinced that I've forgotten something.

But I got my money and my passport, so there's no reason to panic really.

And I'm excited!
I've been wanting to go to Finland for years now, and this year I'm actually going!
YaaaaY

Roadtrip even~
=D