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Published: October 23rd 2006
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Greetings from Ulm in Southern Germany!!!
We arrived here on Friday the 13th and have been staying with my brother Warren and his (LOVELY) girlfriend Christine. Warren has been living and working as an English teacher here for the past year and Christine is currently studying medicine. They've both been pretty busy during the week, which has given us time to just chill out here and take it all in.
Before the chilling out began, we had a jam-packed, fun-filled weekend when we first arrived. Saturday (14th) we drove down to Christine's hometown, Oberstaufen in the Allgau. We got to meet her wonderful parents and her two brothers. After quick introductions we were off to wedding!!
A school friend of Christine's, Carmen got married to Bernd and the celebrations were fantastic. We were fortunate to be part of a traditional Allgau wedding custom, called the "stealing of the bride". Basically, after the ceremony we all sit down and enjoy coffee and cake and then the bride gets stolen away to another place to celebrate more, whilst the groom and his friends have to find her. All the guests were transported via bus to a kind
of guest house up in the
mountains where we celebrated with the bride, drinking copious amounts of white wine and singing along to the very talented Christine on the piano accordian. It was an amazing experience! (so amazing Cam was passed out in bed at 10pm after indulging a little too much!)
The next morning we enjoyed brunch with Christine's parents, Doris and Hugo before exploring the little town of Oberstaufen. It's such a beautiful place and we'll definitely be heading back there at the end of our time here in Europe.
In the afternoon we climbed a (small-ish) mountain to catch a view of Oberstaufen up high. Cam and I realised how embarrassingly unfit we were as we crawled up the mountain. Was a beautiful, if not a little hazy view from the top. Well worth the exhausting climb.
During the next week, while Warren was mostly working and Christine was at University, we explored the very beautiful city of Ulm. It has an incredible cathedral in the centre of town and so many awesome shops.
Wednesday the 18th we caught a train up to Stuttgart for the afternoon. Was a beautiful
day and actually quite warm.
I think we walked around most of the main pedestrian zone and climbed up a small hill, which overlooked part of the city. Was just lovely.
When we went shopping in Ulm on Monday, Cam discovered a "geek" shop and found out through the store owner that there was a huge Games Exhibition in Essen this past weekend. So, Thursday (19th) morning he caught the 5am train for a four hour trip up to Essen. There, he got to take part in THE biggest Games Exhibition in the world, called SPIEL 2006. He had a fantastic day and said he was in "geek heaven". Meanwhile, I had a relaxing day at home and did some shoppig with Christine.
This past weekend we've had gorgeous weather. Saturday we went to Munich to watch Warren play Rugby, with the Ulm Rugby team playing the Munich team. Was an excellent game and they won 47 - 0 !!!! Warren (captain of the team) actually got sent off right towards the end of the game for giving the ref some lip!! Go Warren!! Afterwards we headed into Munich. WOW! What a fantastic city.
Meg and Warren
Spot the family resemblence!! Just beautiful. We walked around for a couple of hours before having a delicious meal near the famous Frauenkirche.
Yesterday we awoke to bright, clear blue skies. Warren and Christine took us for a drive around the mountains near Ulm. We went to a little town called Blaubeuren to see the "Blautopf" - the start of the Blau river, which runs through Ulm. It was so beautiful especially with all the trees showing their best Autumn colours. I've never seen so many different shades of oranges, reds and yellows!!
We then drove to Lichtenstein Castle - an absolutely beautiful castle right at the top of the hills overlooking the small town of Lichtenstein. We were so incredible lucky with the weather. The sky was so clear and so blue and the Autumn colours in all the trees were just incredible.
We've spent today re-packing our bags and sorting through things before we set off for about 5 weeks visiting other parts of Germany, Holland, England and Spain before coming back to Ulm at the end of November. Tomorrow we fly to Berlin, where we'll meet my school friend Tina and her partner Rob.
Mountain Climbing
Cam, Warren, Christine and Anna (Christine's friend)
Will write another update soon. Hope this finds you all doing really well.
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Jan, Cam's Mum
non-member comment
getting excited now!
Hi you two - thanks for the great blogs and for the great pictures- you have just answered my quetions about how 'cool' it is getting over there' - am just about to pack my suitcase and now I will have to put a heavier sweater in!! Only 2 weeks and 3 days till we are all together in London - I am sooooo excited - have a ball travel safely love you both always Mum xxx