Summer Vacation / Happy Anniversary

Hello all! I know I've been away for a while - I was on a little summer break : ) Now it's "Back to School." The Summer was very short and inconsistent here unfortunately - and also very early. We had lots of sunshine and hot and humid conditions in April. ...and that was basically it. There were some nice days sprinkled in between, also many thunderstorms, and then the cooler, rainer conditions came at the end of July, and have basically stayed. Oh well...maybe we'll have a wonderfully warm "golden October" like we did last year. In any event, I have enjoyed the Summer, managing to squeeze in some local trips as well as a trip to Portugal.

1) Bodensee /Lake of Constance This is a wonderful area to the southwest of Germany, bordering Austria and Switzerland. The in-laws have an apartment here and everytime we spend the weekend it is like a mini-vacation. The Lake with the sailboats, and the view to Switzerland on the other side is so relaxing and beautiful that I could stare for hours.

2) Duesseldorf, Germany Duesseldorf is a picturesque city on the Rhine that was first founded in 1288. In July, the city celebrated a huge festival that is larger than Oktoberfest. With my intrepid globetrotting friend Iyana, we took in the action. We didn't count on though, that there would be dozens of bachelor and bachelorette parties. The reason - many weddings were scheduled for the following weeked because it would be the 20th of 07, 2007 (European date order, you know) --> meaning 2007 2007. And you thought only 07.07.07 was the special date!

3) Portugal - Algarve Located in the south of Portugal, along the Atlantic, the Algarve region's red earth, rugged cliffs and Moorish history captivated us during our one week vacation there in August. With the warm temps and laid back lifestyle, it was a perfect way for us to end our summer. ...And begin our second year in Germany! Hard to believe that we landed here one year ago on September 2, 2006. We're looking forward to finding out what the second year brings - for sure, Oktoberfest! The festival starts up again in two weeks - and Munich will be welcoming the world to its doors. Servus! (Typical Bavarian greeting Happy Fall and Mach's Gut!