Sunday Walk

The cold weather with temperatures below freezing even during the day finally has stopped. So we thought we use the milder temperatures for a little Sunday walk starting in the hills above Heidelberg at a farm that has a nice beer garden during the summer.

Then it went down towards Kirchheim which is in the south of Heidelberg

There is a nice playground with some climbing rocks at a school yard that Mia likes

We also stopped at a colleagues place to exchange same stickers with his son who is also in second grade

Frozen

After more than a week of really cold weather the river Neclar starts to freeze over.

Unfortunately the ice ice not thick enough for skating and only holds sticks or ducks right niw

Karlsruhe

After visiting an old friend in Karlsruhe - a city 50 km south of Heidelberg - we decided to check out the ice skating rink in front of the castle there. It's one of the biggest in south west Germany and is run by the city so it offers reasonable ticket prices

It was a nice size and not too crowded. We even had some snow flurries in between

The main shopping street was only a few steps away and Mia picked a shirt with the picture of a cat on it as her reward for getting the sea horse badge a week earlier

First snow

It turned cold on in the first days of the new year and we even got some snow.

 
Mia and a friend built a first snowman in the backyard

The cold weather was also good fro ice skating

 Mia found another girl to talkwith

 

 We stayed until it turned dark

On Sunday morning there was even a bit more snow

Instead of going up the mountains for sledding like thousands others we just went to a little hill at the river which we had for our self's

There was also enough snow for a  another snowman

We walked back along the river

In the evening some friends from DC that just moved back came over

The Seahorse

Mia can swim for many years now but her style needs some refinement and so we signed her up for lessons in the city pool. Its close by and the water is really warm with 30 C and the teacher was very nice. Only one other child in her class passed the test for the sea horse badge at the end

Luckily Mia will have the same teacher for the follow on class - and the sea horse badge will be stitched to her swimsuit.

Walk on New Years Eve

Foggy weather created some frost on the trees in the mountains around Heidelberg. It looked really beautiful from the distance so we took the bus on top the Königsstuhl to see this close up - and also hoped to see some sun on top of the mountain above the fog.
The first orchards we passed on the way up already looked very beautiful

On top we really saw the sun - and a colleague from work with his family

 The we started to hike down into the fog

It became more and more white and the frost was glowing in the evening sun

Mia found a stick for "cigaretting" - as she calls it

With the fog it also looked beautiful

The needles created by the frost were really long

The last part down when it got almost darkwe took the funicular to the old town

A great way to end the year. Stayed up till midnight and watched the fireworks from our living room window

Brühl

On our way back to Heidelberg we stopped in Brühl to meet our old friend and colleague from the Washington DC who was spending the holidays with his family and friends in his hometown
We met in the center of the town and walked to the baroque castle which has a nice park

It was pretty cold but sunny

Some of the water was frozen and of course Mia had to play with the ice

Then it was time to warm up in a cafe before continuing our drive back home

On the drive back the Autobahn A61 crossed a few river valleys that were covered in fog - a beautiful sight