A Visit from France

Mia's school has organized an exchange with a french school at the Atlantic coast and the French students came to Heidelberg first. We were hosting one student and picked her up from the bus on Thursday.ehrn they arrived after a 1000 km trip

 On Friday the French students explore the old town - unfortunately the weather was not so nice

In the evening we watched a movie in French with German subtitles- this helped break the ice a bit

Saturday it was raining in the morning but in the afternoon the girls went to the zoo.
Sunday the visitor wanted to go to Stuttgart to see the Mercedes Bez museum there:

Then we found a nice German resturant with local food for dinner

 
Monday the students explore the nature together and walked with alpakas

At home the girls finished the insect hotel which was part of the project

We put it in our community garden

On the last day they went kayaking - unfortunatley Mia and her partner captized and ended up in the cold water

On a rainy Friday morning the bus headed back to the French Atlantic coast

Mia will do the return visit in May

Papa's Birthday

After a week in Hamburg to help Ji's friensd we stopped in Cologne for a little birthday get together.
First we stopped in Bensberg for coffee and cake

We left at sunset to join a party at Stefan's place

When we left the next morning there was time for a selfie in fron of the cathedral

Our train took the scenic route along the Rhine:

Unpacking a package back home

Kleinfischlingen

Stefan came for a short visit to see some friends from Finland who were in the area to participate in an exchange with a school in Wiesloch only 16 km south if Heidelberg. It turned out that part of the program on this Sunday was a tour of a winery in Kleinfischlingen - is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinata across the Rhine. One of the local teachers had grown up at the winery and had organized a private tour where we could join.

A lot of wine was stored in huge stainless steel tanks

A wine tasting was part of the tour but Mia of course had some grape juice -it had wone a gold medal at some competition. Luckily she had  brought a book

Konstanz

 The ladies made day trip to Constance by train

A few steps to the Swiss border

The animal park in Kreuzlingen just across the border in Switzerland
 

Old Town in Constance

 

 
On the train back to Heidelberg

Fourth Day in Lisbon

On our last full day in Lisbon we headed back to the Oceanário de Lisboa - the largest indoor aquarium in Europe.
It was a great place to visit

A sea anemon

Jelly fish

A sea dragon

The actic section

Another jelly fish

Mia and the mascot of the aquarium:

The aquarium building from the cable car when we took short ride along the shore

In the evening we discovered a large Christmas market at the Parque Eduardo VII

Entering the Wonderland

Pina Colada

Mia liked the apple fritter

Decoration for the new year at the the Marquês de Pombalsquare