The move

It is the end of March and our lease has expired on our short stay apartment so over the last couple of days I have been moving our meagre belongings up stairs to our new and much nicer apartment.  For a while I had been feeling guilty thinking that I had brought more clothes with me than Annika.  I had travelled with the larger suitcase as well as a suit bag.  Today after having moved all of Annika's clothing upstairs I have vanquished all the afore mentioned feelings of guilt and can once again stand proud.

In Germany an employee is entitled to a days paid leave, over and above one's holiday entitlement, for moving house.  So Annika took Friday off so we could move and clean the old apartment.  It was all done by midday and successfully handed back to the owners.  As our belongings from Australia have been delayed we have found that we are short some of the basics, such as plates, cutlery, bed linen, towels and pillows.  So we decided to head back to Annika's parents place to collect some of our wedding presents and beg some additional stuff from them.  It was Karina's birthday and the family met in Jena to have dinner.  Dinner was standard Deutsch but of exceptional quality and it was really pleasant to have a typical meal that was really well prepared.  After dinner we went to the Planetarium to watch a rock presentation IMAX style.  Jena is home to the oldest Planetarium in the world.  Unfortunately the long day over came me and I slept through some of it, including most of Phil Collins, which was a blessing in disguise really.  Knowing how much I dislike listening to Phil Collins my lovely wife thought it would be amusing to wake me up for a song she knew I really hated.  Luckily for me the soporific effects of Phil Collins quickly had me back in the land of nod.

Saturday had us getting up late then and sorting through the belongings we wanted to take back to München as well as a quick trip to Sömmerda to buy a set of spanners and some new sunnies for Annika.  That afternoon Tobias's parents came over for coffee and cake and we were joined by Annika's grandparents.  Oma and Opa gave me a belated birthday present.  A much appreciated bottle of 12 year old Single Speyside Malt.  It is ironic that the best scotches I have ever drunk have always been in Germany with Annika's Grandfather.  Later in the afternoon we went for a drive in Tobias's hire car.  He had requested a medium sized car but they had up graded him to an Audi A6 which he thought was too big.  There was a 3 series cabriolet in the lot so he asked if he could take that.  Why not was the answer?  So Tobias and Karina got a 3 series cabriolet for the weekend and of course we all got the chance to feel the wind in our hair and the sun on our face.
Looking at the photos you can see that there is a fundamental difference between men and women.  I would have framed the whole car in shot.


Saturday night found us playing board games with Annika's mum & dad and drinking too much.

On Sunday we heard the sound of a motor bike and looked out the window to see Annika's Uncle Ziggy starting up his old BMW R1000LT to go for a ride.  He has been unwell recently and it was good to see him up and about, especially good to see him getting out on the bike. 

The train hit 230 km/h on the way home.