Random Picture, Window in Bavaria

I love this photo of this little window opening into what look like a large loft space of an old house in Bavaria, Germany. What lies beyond? Why so small? Is it to keep out the heat or keep it in when the weather temperature drops to  -20 which it regularly does in this part of the country? The snow often holds people hostage in their homes when it piles up against their doors. My Sister-in-Law has a story that when she tried to enter her car one very cold winter day her key would not fit into the iced up lock, so she climbed in through the boot to get to the driving seat. A window so small as this, then, will certainly help prevent heat loss on these cold cold days and to keep in the warmth from the fire.

Would you like to see the rest of the roof from which this window peaks? Oh, go on then, here it is:

Some of the things we saw on our visit to Germany

It was last October when we went, but I feel it's ok to post some pictures of it even though it was a while back. It's such a beautiful country and has lovely things there. The main difference Germany has compared to where we live goes, without saying, is the absolute neatness and cleanliness it has. It's also so ordered. Nothing is ever out of place or it'll be commented on and set right immediately, so unlike many other Countries.

It's unusual, too, in the way it's laid out, at least in the part we visit which is Bavaria. There are many villages with house after house, all detached from each other with plenty of space in between. These villages are faily large, with a mile or so before you come to the next one - village after village. There are towns but they aren't very large, or at least most are not. Many people need to commute to work, they don't think anything of travelling long distances to work, it's just the way they do things here. So much space and so much clean fresh air, a good environment for children to grow up.

They are also very fond of cutsey things, you see these types of things around all over the place such as cute barrows of flowers. This type of thing

            I love how they let you know what's inside by the writing on the wall

                                                    How old is this barn?

                                                            And this one?

          This building is advertising it's wares outside, too. In this case it's beautiful metal rails.

A Schloss

Another cutsey thing

We're Back

We're back! Well, we've been back for a little while but have been busy busy busy since returning. At first we were busy being tired, then busy getting back into the routine of up early and off to school/work. Now just busy doing life.

Because of time difference we lost an hour going to Germany, coming back we regained it for a day then lost it again because of the time change, or something - I get confused.

We all had a lovely time out there, meeting up with the Chauffeur's family, and seeing his new niece, only 5 months old and very sweet. Although they live only 10 minutes by car outside a town they are actually in the country so we had a few walks in beautiful countryside. Have a look at where they live, in the ground floor

This is outside - quite rural and fairly secluded although there are other houses around. It's a bit too lonely for my SIL, she'd like a few more neighbours around to chat to. The vehicle is their 9 seater van which they sometimes use for travelling around in and converting into a bed at the back! E and A and the chauffeur are standing around

                                                 Still outside...

Here we are going for a walk in the beautiful countryside just by their home, the colours are gorgeous at this time of year.

You can't see clearly but the chauffeur, BIL and A are flying kites - quite successfully too, there was a wind but not a nasty one, fresh, in fact the weather while we were there was great, cold enough for jackets but not scarves and gloves, sunny and very bright as you can see. Altogether we were 9 of us as SIL's mother had come up with a 1 1/2 hr drive to see us and spent a few hours, one of which was spent on this lovely kite flying, football playing and general messing about walk

I'm sure over the next few weeks I'll post up more pictures of our Germany visit but for now -bye bye.