The Tooth Fairy has been very busy around this house. Evelina has lost so many teeth that her retainer does not stay in anymore. Today we went to see an orthodontist to get it adjusted, but just as we suspected until some new pearly whites come in, no retainer will be worn. Evelina seems quite […]
Let your voice be heard. On the anniversary of Aaron Swartz’s tragic passing, leading internet groups and online platforms announce Day of Activism Against NSA Surveillance Mobilization, dubbed “The Day We Fight Back” to honor Swartz & celebrate the anniversary of SOPA Blackout
The 3 main churches in the old town in Nuremberg are adorned by a wide range of gargoyles. Each more grotesque than the last. We have not spotted them on other buildings yet but I am sure we will in time.
There are more and more signs of Spring. Flowers are springing everywhere, buds on the trees are coming out and shrubs are starting to bloom. Also the local beavers are out of their dens and out in full force sharpening their teeth. We are up to mid teens in temperature which makes these outings […]
Massive but orderly lineups, and much excitement was caused by Nuremberg getting its own Dunkin’ Donuts. We went out to find it today. For those of you who have visited us here, the store is close to the main train station, and the 3D cinema, or a 5 min walk from our flat. Today, […]
The amazingly beautiful day with blue sky and an occasional cloud floating by provides a perfect canvas for looking at the detailed spires topping many of the buildings throughout the city. These are just a few of them from the Old Town, before my battery died in the camera.
It’s Spring. We are back to double digits with beautiful blue sky and sunshine! Birds are chirping, people are out in full force on the patios eating ice cream and having iced drinks. It is absolutely gorgeous, and warm – and we love it.
We spotted this outside our home today and there was definitely something odd about this disguise.
One of the most quaint places in Nuremberg, is the little island in the middle of the old town. It is tiny, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in charm. From one end of the island you can see a bridge and the old hospital. If you look online it is […]
I am not sure where they hide swans for the winter but today we spotted a couple of them on one of the moats, which hopefully means spring is almost here. You couldn’t tell that if you looked around at what people are wearing in town; let’s just say that fur coats have been out […]
Across the square from St. Elisabeth Church is St. Jacobs Church. The Gothic old-Franconian Church of St. James was originally the hospice church for the German Order. The original building was erected in mid to late 14th century. The Church was badly damaged during the war and was rebuilt with some alterations. The nave houses some […]
At the far end of the promenade leading away from St. Lorenz Church is a St. Jacobs Square on which two churches are built. St. Jacob and St. Elisabeth. The neo-classical church building is divided into three rooms. This is a square that is pulled apart in the middle and broken by a rotunda. The entrance and the […]
We set off South today to get to the ‘bottom’ part of the old town. We know that the German National History Museum is located there as is the installation of the Way of Human Rights, which display the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 27 pillars written in German and one other language. One day we […]
Evelina’s new title with her football team is pre – pro, and now she looks the part too.
We are slowly beginning to understand how winter works here. When it snows, you get out to take a picture of it, because by noon most of it, if not all of it is gone. We had snow here now on and off for the last two days. There are places in the city where […]
We finally got a chance to see Kasia and Volker today, we have not seen Kasia since last year. We stepped out for a coffee at a movie theatre. We also found out that the movie theatre by our house, is the new Dolby Atmos theatre. Who knew! Now we are going to have to […]
Apparently it snowed last night, not much but enough to leave residue of some white sprinkling on the roofs. I think today was the coldest day that we can remember pushing +2C maybe +3C. It was actually chilly. We did not find a lot of snow but we did find more signs of spring which […]
Our incredible Christmas cannon ball run to Warsaw was fun, our trip back to Nuremberg not so much. The traffic laws over holiday season are more strictly enforced, as it turns out, and the 20km/h over speed limit buffer does not apply. On our way home from Warsaw to Nuremberg, out of nowhere, in […]
And now for something completely different.
Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as […]
After a lovely dinner on the Prague Castle side of town, in the same restaurant we ate last year, we went for a stroll to walk off the 4 tonnes of food we consumed before heading home. Let me see if I remember the meal. Beef goulash soup in a bread bowl, fries, potato mushroom […]
Tyn Church, or The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, dominates one side of the Old Town Square in Prague. The two 80m spires of this powerful looking, Gothic church (with a Baroque interior) can be seen from all over Prague. The oldest pipe organ in Prague stands inside this church. The organ was built in 1673 by […]
I have to say that after Paris, Prague is our second favourite city so far. Copenhagen is a close third. We mainly came back here to relax and of course to eat more fried cheese, and oh boy was it ever good. I think we are going to be back here at least one more […]
This is a city of Kafka as seen from the top of the City Hall Tower. Absolutely no one there, and unlike most towers we visited so far, this one has an evaluator! Naturally we elected to take the stairs – on the way down, to save a bit of time as we had to […]
Introduction to Life 101 in the Communist Block. We drag our children around these odd places to show them how we lived when we were their age. No iPhones or iPads or laptops, no video games and no internet. However, if you were lucky you could buy a block of chocolate once a month if […]
It’s a day out. A couple of hours in the car and just like that we are in Prague having pastries at Paul. Getting here was not a lot of fun: fog, a bit of rain and generally slow going, and by slow I simply mean we took it easy.
I am not implying that winter is over, I am simply saying that spring is coming. Glorious!
The more we get around the more of these things we notice. We walk down the same path time and time again and always find something new. Nuremberg is quite amazing from that perspective, and this is just a small part of the old town.
It seems that just about every old building in the city has its own set of interesting details. Sculptures, sun clocks, reliefs, turrets and towers, caps and carvings. One of the more perplexing ones is a turret capping on St. Lorenz Church and it is that of a monkey reading a book.
Today is the day when everyone in this family can measure their age with two digits. Joining the club is the littlest one – Evelina, turning 10 today and proud of it. Happy Birthday! Thank you all for your wishes, cards and gifts, it really made her day today.
This morning, we set off to do a bit of grocery shopping at our favourite store – METRO. When we got out onto the main road, there was police on every intersection, roads were closed off as were the turn off lanes to go left or right, businesses were shut down as well. We had […]
We are slowly thinking of what our summer might look like and here is our wish list. We did not include the cities we already visited because Google Maps is very difficult to deal with when it comes to dropping pins in the same city. A quick calculation shows: 9214 km and about 99 hours […]
It is still quite warm, and there is still no snow – winter is in full swing in Nuremberg.. We continue exploring the city on foot, one street at the time. After Christmas and Paris we will need a lot of walking to work off the calories be brought back with us. With the Christmas […]
We know a guy, who knows a guy that told us to follow him to a parking lot on the outskirts of the city in an industrial area to meet this Italian guy who comes to Nuremberg once a month with a van full of goods. He drives 1100km in one day to bring fresh […]
This is a very common sight in Germany. It is true that Germans like they cars black and clean. Sometimes, you see a silver car or a white one, but mostly they are black and very, VERY clean. Can you spot the adventurous German here?
We have walked past this church many times on many walks to the old town. The kids walk by it everyday, twice a day, going to and from school. The church is considered a significant contribution to the baroque church architecture of Middle Franconia. The original medieval church was started in the early 12th Century, and was […]
In short awesome. On our way back after a bit of wondering around Paris we settled in our comfy seats in the first class. This time we were served dinner which was: pasta salad with tomatoes, goat cheese and broad green beans. Grilled beef with rice and vegetable ratatouille. For dessert lemon tart. Wine, water, […]
Paris was angry with us today, or at least that is what it seemed like to us. We got to the metro station this morning and it turned out that our 5 days metro passes have already expired. No big deal, we thought, we will just get a daily ticket. This metro station however, does […]
It is true that I can’t draw, or at least nothing more complicated than a stick figure, and I am ok with that. However, while at the Louvre, I spied this person making what appeared to be a brazen forgery of a rather famous and iconic painting, by a famous Italian artist of a famous […]
We had dinner at a local bistro, half a block away from our pad. Once again we did not get the picture of the best dish we had which was a trio of steak tartar. I will say this, and I am saying this for both of us – best steak tartar we had since […]
At first we were puzzled by what this line up was all about. Then we realized it was to the most beautiful A & F store located right on Champs-Élysées. That’s just crazy.
Old and modern, sights of Paris on a truly beautiful day.
This is our third visit to Paris, and our first visit to the Museum of Modern Art. A bit different than the Louvre but with its own merits. There was an intersting exposition of Azzedine Alaia dresses in the Matisse room as well as a whole host of other art that is just oh so very […]
Finally I got to take a picture of our little place we are staying at in Paris. It is in the Latin Quarter, Luxembourg metro stop which is one stop from Notre Dame. Very close to everything and very central. We love it here, ours is the top three windows on the top that are […]
Not far from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a little chocolate shop where they are serious about two things: chocolate and macarons. Today was the first time we managed to convince Boris and Evelina to try them and as it stands there wasn’t the time to take a picture of them as they […]
I am sure that there are a great many churches in Paris to see and explore. There are two however, that most people are familiar with. One is the famous Notre Dame and the other is the Sacré-Coeur. Most people will visit the Notre Dame and look at the Sacré-Coeur from the distance when they get to […]
We are out for a midnight stroll. It is absolutely crazy how many people are out. We decided to go towards the Eiffel Tower to ring in the New Year There were 1000’s of people and just as many Champagne bottles popping their corks at midnight. We had a nice walk along the Seine, saw […]
We just sat down to a fancy New Years Eve dinner at Auberge de Venise. We are getting a set 5 course menu with Bellini to start with, followed by fresh olives, bruschetta and fresh shrimp and we have not even ordered any food yet.
Galeries Lafayette is one of those crazy places that is: always busy, has wonderful displays and is not cheap. It is the kind of place you go to to find that perfect Dolce & Gabbana dress or coat or a suit for your 4 year old. It is a place where everything is larger than life, where you […]
Yesterday was dedicated to culture today we are going shopping. On the agenda are BHV and ‘Galeries Lafayette’. In between the two is the City Hall from which you can see the Notre Dame. There was a huge ice ring in front of the city hall and despite the fact that it was +10C it […]
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