Walls in Germany

We are so thrilled to have a car! I swear we are like teenagers with their first car!! It has opened a whole new world for us in Germany and France! Bucky spent the entire week planning to explore the Black Forest and he did an amazing job! Our first stop was Titisee Lake which was just lovely. It is a resort town that I am sure is teeming with tourists in the summer. The walk around the lake took about an hour and we enjoyed some beautiful views.  Our next stop was Triberg Falls  and they were impressive! We found out when we got to the entrance of the falls, that you had to pay 8 Euros a piece in cash and of course, we had no cash on hand. Luckily, Bucky had cash in the car so we went back to get it. Turns out, we didn't quite have 16 Euros but the friendly lady at the desk was gracious and let us go in after paying 15,73 Euros! The falls were definitely spectacular! We then enjoyed a picnic lunch and wandered around the town that houses numerous cuckoo clock stores. ...

Bucky and I are definitely feeling fortunate to be so close to Lucie and Paris in general! In fact, our friends Ashley and Michael were visiting Paris for a few days (in between stays in London) and Bucky and I decided to take the train there to have dinner with Ashley and Michael! Lucie was kind enough to bunk with her friend, Quincy, and let us stay at her apartment. Of course, we had them both join us for dinner too! It was so nice catching up with such great friends in such an amazing location. We walked around, enjoyed a meal and lots of wine together. Of course, we took lots of pictures to document our happiness! Enjoy them below!  Lucie and Ashley doing a "promenade"! Bucky and Michael Cheers Yes, we are having fun! At a cafe for a after dinner drink bien sur! Lucie and moi! The four of us! So smiley! We are having too much fun! We appreciated Lucie being the photographer!!

Bucky and I am are settling into life in the south of Germany, on the border of France.  We recently took a big step towards really becoming local by buying a car! It was definitely a process, but worth it! Bucky says that buying a car in Germany is harder than buying a house in the States! I can attest that it sure felt that way! But we did and we are proud. We now own a 2018 Renault Clio Grandtour. I has five seats and a nice big trunk so we are ready for visitors. We set our navigation system to German so we are learning some vocabulary too! We just picked it up in Mainz on October 8th and we are going to Paris this weekend so we have to wait until NEXT weekend to take it on a getaway. Probably heading to the Black Forest for a hike! Stay tuned! When we go into the car, The Beatles' Drive My Car was playing! Bucky concentrating on the Autobahn!! Zoom zoom  

While Bucky, Lucie and I were in Greece, Lucie mentioned she was going to Croatia with friends at the end of September. Since Bucky's birthday is at the end of September (September 28 to be exact) and Lucie needed a cat sitter, we offered to come and stay! We took the TGV from Strasbourg which is a quick and easy two hour trip. Lucie had already left for Croatia, so we didn't see her, but Louise sure was happy when we arrived. We spent five nights there, but wanted to totally relax which is what we did. We ate. We drank. We walked around. And we loved on Louise! A highlight of the trip was having lunch with my friend, Maria Elena Manzoni, with whom a roomed (and worked) during my internship at NCR in Milan in 1991. It was great fun catching up! Paris is such a lovely city. It is just so nice to walk through the streets, sit at cafes and enjoy a beverage and feel the Parisian life! We are so proud that Lucie made this dream of hers come true and that we get to enjoy it with her!...

I have been remiss in posting, but have kept track of what I want to document. And this one was a good one! One day in the third week of September, Bucky and I were happily working along in our home offices in our apartment. Suddenly, we lost all internet access and of course we both had meetings and things that needed to be completed ASAP.  We couldn't even get data access on our phones, but we have French phone numbers so we had the bright idea to walk across the bridge to France to see if we could get service there. So, we packed up our laptops and walked to France.  We set ourselves up on a bench on the French side of the Rhine and went to work. Of course, I documented the experience with a few photos. We got our work done and headed back home and all was well with our internet. Nice to know we can Work From France when we need to!  Heading over to France View from work Working on a bench