Aufwiedersehen Deutschland - Bis Bald!

With mixed feelings we bade a melancholic farewell to our wonderful life in Essen on the 10th January 2011. We feel positively uprooted from our rich and happy existence there. We can only hope that the memories of our Essen 2010 Abenteuer remain as vivid as our lovely purple home on Hans Luther Allee.

We have so many people to thank for helping to make our sojourn memorable:

- Hubi's old uni friends inundated us with welcoming gifts and useful things for daily life (Andrea, Rupi, Kristina, Jani, Tilli Rings , Susanne, Markus, Sophie Berrisch-Rahmel, Bernd, Kirstin und Tobias Woelbert, Bernd-Willi, Theresa, Elsa, Darius, Silvin Zanke)

- our amazing relatives who literally bent over backwards to collect us from airports, cloth us warmly, bake for us and endure many sleep-overs with 2 excitable little cousins (Jersmanns, Aschofs and Beissels)

- the supportive Maria, Thomas und Jonas Wessendorf who sadly could not come to live at Ormond Grove, so stayed home and helped steer our way through life in Essen

- Hubi's lab team-mates who laughed at all his jokes and LOVED pavlova

- our immediate neighbours, Alexandra, Peter, Max und Katinka Aranowski, who spoilt us rotten despite the thunderous noises we generated above their ceiling

- our Aussie mates, the Doleys, who also experienced 6 wonderful months exploring das Vaterland

- our Italian friends Cristina, Salah and Miriam, who jumped on a train to travel 300km to Toskana with 3 days notice to be with us

- the Hermann/Lamprechts who cooked amazing food, fixed Stephanie's ears and invited us to BVB09 football games

- the delightful and supportive new friends at the Volkshochschule (Hilmi, Lilia, Magda, Beate, Ivona etc etc)

- Samantha's very patient German teacher, Heike

- The Ahaeusers of Bad Vilbel, who we stayed with when casting our vote in the Australian Federal Election, and who were with us in Essen when Sebastian Vettel became world champion

- the lovely new families we met through the Badelebenschule (parents of Anna, Milena, Maria, Lena, Catharina, Silvia and Sara)

- the very patient teachers Frau Gersmeier and Frau Ritter who taught both girls to speak fantastic Deutsch

- the incredible Kleine Malschule run by Wanda, which helped both girls generate artistic masterpieces

- a handful of lovely friends who visited (Fraser, Linda, Marie, Mick, Petra, Rina, Clement and Alex); and

- our stoic friend Isabelle, who capped off Samantha's 'German-Experience' with a Gutschein to Claudia Thermal where nakedness was mandatory!

DANKE! Es war echt wunderbar!

p.s. the last few photos show our acclimatization process via Singapore and a hands-on visit to the zoo.

Xmas at Kronplatz in Sued Tirol

In the days leading up to our journey south, Essen was increasingly blanketed in snow. With each day forecast to have even more snow than the previous, our plans to drive 860km to Sued Tirol on the 24th December, started looking as bleak as the views from our bedroom windows. Despite grave fears of being stranded at some isolated Autobahn petrol station, with nothing but automatic cleaning loos for entertainment - we set off. The first hour of our journey was spent sliding in the one usable lane at 30km/hr with the other crazy drivers on the Autobahn. At that speed I calculated we'd be at our destination around 2am!

Eventually our average speed grew steadily to almost 100km/hr, as the further south we got, the less snow we encountered. Very odd. And by the time we hit Austria then Italy, the trees were green and the roads completely clear from snow. Oh no! Had we driven almost 10 hours to ski fields devoid of snow?

We arrived in Kronplatz at 10:45pm, after 13 hours behind the wheel. It was almost as bad as flying to Australia, except one's ankles don't seem to swell up as much. Our lovely hosts had placed a Christmas tree in our apartment, and had even decorated it.

The following day we hired our skies and hit the slopes. The concentration of snow canons dotted up the piste reminded us of Australia, but the snow was good.

Mia and Steph spent Day 1 telling Hubertus he was the worst teacher ever to have lived. So we booked the girls into the local ski school where tuition was a mixture of Italian and German. Despite this they soon learnt to master the snow plough. The teachers had a cute habit of calling parallel skiing "pommes" and the snow-plough "pizza". By Day 6 both girls participated in the mandatory slalom downhill race in their groups. Mia scored a bronze medal and Steph a silver. Steph was over-joyed and Mia said it was the worst day in her life!!!

Kronplatz is a very pretty place. Early in the week, the weather started off at minus 15C then rapidly warmed up to a pleasant minus 3C, during which we enjoyed most of the week under beautiful blue skies. The mountain is literally littered with scrumptious restaurants you can ski to, then sunbath outdoors whilst enjoying a beer or Italian aperitif with a yummy pasta.

A lovely week of snow, sunshine, Christmas presents, gluehwein, slalom medals, cousins and aching legs in Sued Tirol was a fantastic way to spend one's last days in Europe. We completed the visit with a New Year's Eve family tradition - Doris and Kristine baked home-made Berliner buns - I think I ate FIVE!!!