We are back from our Thanksgiving trip to Colorado! It was a wonderful time, and though it was very very busy, we got an enormous amount done. It was sad to say goodbye, but we look forward to being in Colorado next summer. It took us a few days to get over the jet-lag, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We had pizza and beer, delicious Mexican food (many times) and I think the most wonderful thing was just to enjoy the sunny nice weather. Thanksgiving was a wonderful time, and we got to spend it with Winter, Jeff, Nick, Grandma Franson, Aunt Ardell and of course my parents. We had a good-sized turkey and it was a very nice day.


As a taste for what is yet to come, we decided on a location for the Colorado Reception. I think it will be a nice place, and we are very excited about it.

We had a wonderful time in Manitou Springs. Manitou is historically a very different place than Colorado Springs, and it strives on being unique (let's just say weird).

More Manitou.


We had a huge and wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything was very very tasty. I think I gained a few pounds - but I stayed away from the scale just to make sure I was kept in the dark about that. mmm mmm thanksgiving.






Dad was very busy during this time picking out the appropriate wine for everyone. In this photo, Dad is giving Winter a little tour of his wine collection.

















Thanksgiving evening, we had a great time playing cards. We managed to continue eating good things - even into the evening.


We got a bit of snow, and a bit of sun. It made the mountains look quite nice.


_________Back in Frankfurt

We arrived back in Frankfurt safe and sound, although quite tired. It has been quite cloudy and rainy since we got back. Today has really been the first day that the sun has been out. So, I took a ride around on my bike and took a few photos. While I was riding along the river, I saw an old coal powered train going along the river. That was really cool to see.


















I had seen these tracks for quite a long time, but until today I had never seen a train there.




It was so nice to see the sun out. I think alot of my fellow Frankfurters (so much fun say "fellow Frankfurters" ) agreed with me and were out enjoying the weather too.




Carola and I went shopping yesterday. Perhaps Germans have not heard the news yet about an economic recession, because they were out shopping like crazy on Saturday. This department store was packed, we could hardly get around.





This is for dad: I thought you might find it interesting that this headline that was shown in the Frankfurt subway says: "John Fogerty may finally sing his own songs".


That is it for me.

All the best for the holidays.

Well, now comes the latest installment of my blog. Things have been getting colder here in Frankfurt, and I hear that November is gray and overcast. So far they are right. The weather has been pretty depressing. This country is fully excited about solar energy – the problem is that it happens to be one of the cloudiest nations on earth. One still gets points for trying, however. The good news is that the weather is temperate and it rarely snows here. This means that it is nicer for Carola and I to ride our bikes around town. We ride everywhere – rarely taking the subway. The subway is rather expensive, 2.50 ($3.14) for a one way journey. It makes you think twice about where you go on the subway. Besides, we can get most places faster with our bikes anyway. I know gas prices have come down, but it is still nice not to have to fill up a tank all the time. Gas prices will probably go up again in the next few years once demand in Asia picks up again.

Wedding preparations are underway, and there are a lot of things to organize. I had to go to the US Consulate a few weeks ago and get an affidavit that said I have never been married before. I will now have to do the same thing for the German authorities. I also need to remember to get my birth certificate when I am in the US for Thanksgiving. The photo on the left is near where the reception will be held.

We will be in Colorado for Thanksgiving!!! Our plane leaves Frankfurt on Friday and after a layover in Chicago we will arrive in Colorado Springs!! I am looking forward to seeing family and friends, and also just feeling the intense sun press on my face the way does in Colorado. We are still debating whether or not to go skiing on Monday or not. If we do then I will let all my loyal blog fan(s) know about it.

Last weekend Carola and I were visited by Carola’s Aunt Renate and Carola’s Goddaughter, Ruth. We went to the Frankfurt zoo. Carola and I had already been there, but this time we got to see new areas that we hadn’t been to before. We saw penguins, alligators and a whole range of nocturnal animals. It was very relaxing and very nice. Later, Renate went to see a play that was being performed at the church where Carola works. While they were doing that Ruth and I went and saw a 3D movie about whales and dolphins. It was cool to see a movie in 3D, but the way the film was produced was not so entertaining. In any event, we had a good time and it was a good weekend.



This weekend we had a visit from Jakob. Jakob’s mother tore her Achilles tendon, and so Jakob was on his way back from visiting her, offering his love and support, and relieving her of the stress of operating her new car (which means he took it). So after Jakob found a parking space, we went to Leonie’s birthday party. Leonie is a friend of Carola’s who also happens to live quite close to us here in Frankfurt. Carola made a (delicious) cake and we had a great time last night. This morning Jakob left, and now it is time to do chores and update my blog.


When I was coming back from a multi-day workshop for my work, I stopped in this small little town down the river from Frankfurt. It was amazingly pretty and for once the sun was actually shining. Luckily I had my camera and was able to take some nice photos. One house had an American flag hanging out of it. I was surprised. Never outside the US have I ever seen a US flag hanging outside someone's private residence (I don't count the Ambassador's house). judging by the timing, my conclusion is that it is most likely that this person was quite happy about the election of Obama. To be honest the whole of Germany is quite excited to see a president Obama. People I barely know have come up to me and shook my hand in congratulations. If you know anything about Germans, you know that this doesn't happen everyday.

Hello everyone!

Autumn has come to Germany. The temperatures have dropped off significantly, and it rains alot. However, when the rain clears away and the sun comes out, then it is really nice. The deep orange sunlight makes everything glow like it was made of gold and the trees turn a wide variety of colours. With this backdrop, we headed to Heidelberg a couple of weeks ago. Carola's family was meeting there for a ball. A few of Carola's friends came too, which was nice (one I had previously met in St Louis).

Heidelberg has be almost completly preserved as it was spared from widespread boming during the war. The story is that an American pilot had been to Heidelberg before and absolutley forbid that it be bombed because he knew how pretty it was. It still is.




After our busy weekend in Heidelberg, we had a couple of weekends to our own devices here in Frankfurt. It has been nice to just relax and get to know the city. Last Sunday it was so nice out that we just had to get out in the sun and go for a walk along the river Main.


There was a guy out in his row boat and it looked like he was having a wonderful time. I could see myself enjoying rowing. There are a couple of rowing clubs along the river and they have races in the summer.

We walked north up to the river, as we live on the south side of Frankfurt. Then we crossed the river and walked on the north bank. It was very nice there as the sun was shining intensely and also reflecting off the river. There were many people out enjoying the sun, lying on the park benches and playing with their kids. Right before we headed back to the south side of the river, I found a point where the tree leaves framed the tower of the Dom Church quite well. The Dom church is one of the oldest churches in Frankfurt.










I was really missing seeing the leaves change in Colorado, so it was nice to get out and get some kind of a fall experience.











The Book Fair

The day before our walk along the river, we went to the world's largest book fair. I had imagined something like rows and rows of old books with rows and rows of boring quiet Germans. It turned out the opposite was true. All the proof I need is the picture below:


There were all kind of people dressed up like their favourite book characters. It was a real party atmosphere. They had 78,218 people come over the weekend that we were there. We visited the hall that held the publishers of english langauge books. It was about the size of 5 football fields. And everywhere everyone was speaking english. It was strange for me. We also ended up finding the Estonian section, and had a wonderful time looking at all the Estonian books. The Estonians had a good laugh at my now very rusty Estonian.

Last weekend, the weather was wonderful and Carola and I had a wonderful time just wondering around and exploring the city a little bit. The weather was a bit cool, but it was very sunny and the air was full of fall smells. We decided that it would be a crime to be indoors on such a weekend, so we decided to go to the zoo.







The zoo is rather small, but it has a good selection of animals, and it is under renovation, and should be quite nice in a few years. I brought my new camera with the long lens so I could get some good photos of the animals. This was particularly true for the tigers.



Carola and I ate lunch near the monkeys they liked to run around and always look what is going on.

























The baby monkeys were very very cute and swinging around everywhere.








The past few days have not been nearly so nice - at least with the weather. But the other morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, came a huge double-rainbow outside our window. Carola noticed it, and I ran to get my camera. Here is the photo.








A few weeks ago, Carola and I went to go check out hotels in the town where our wedding reception will be, Chieming. Below is the reception hall.




We also got to look at the church were we want to get married. The church has yet to answer as to whether or not they are free that weekend, but we hope that this will be the place.

Well, I know it has been a long time since I have updated this blog, but they say better late than never. Things have been going along quite nicely here since I last wrote. Now Carola and I are settled here in Frankfurt. We have a very comfortable one-bedroom apartment here on the south side of the river in Sachsenhausen. I have about a 6-7 minute commute to work every morning on my bike. I ride over the Main River and get to see the morning sun shining on the skyline of Frankfurt. All and all it is quite nice.

Work is going quite well. I have always had the temperament to want to know everything as soon as I can. But at work, there is so much to get to know, this process is just going to take a while, and I have to sometimes take a deep breath and take things in little steps. But it is all quite normal for a first “real” job. The good news is that I enjoy what I am doing, and I am learning a lot. That is all I can really ask. Oh, and I am getting paid, that is also something that is really good. Yesterday I moved from a cubicle into an office that I share with Marco. We both work on Market Intelligence stuff. Given the craziness of the economy in the USA, I am glad to have a job, wherever I end up living. Plus it is a job I enjoy. I am not sure that I could find that in America right now.

Things have been a bit crazy the past few weeks with getting settled into a new job and a new apartment. However, I think now that things have calmed down a bit, I can have a bit more time to update this blog and make it into something quite nice. That is my hope anyway; sometimes life has a way of getting crazy again.

I miss Colorado. I think fall might be the hardest time to be away. I cant wait to stand again on a fence-rail or a mountain top and see so far it seems like I can see half the world. I miss that, and a million other things. I guess the hardest thing to get used to here is the density of the population. There are people everywhere, and anywhere in public it is hard to excape people. But part of the problem is that I have not had the time or the knowledge about how to get out of Frankfurt. I am looking forward to finding some hiking trails or national parks where Carola and I can go hiking on the weekends. What I do like about Frankfurt is that it is surrounded by what they call a „green belt“ of forest area. A few weeks ago Carola and I rode our bike through it and it was really nice.

As for the next few weeks, wedding preparations continue. Also I am going to try and get my German drivers license. Normally the license costs around $2,000. And I will get it for much less because they recognize the validity of my Colorado license.

In a rare moment during the preparations for out engagement party, I was able to take a break and just relax for a minute.


Grandma couldn't help but lend a hand cleaning up the dishes after our 'hangover breakfast' after our engagement party. Fortunately, I got a little bit of her spirit in me, because I also can't seem to stay away where there are things to be done. It was really nice to have her and my parents there. I know Carola's family really really enjoyed getting to know them. And they were very impressed with Grandma's determination, courage and fitness with regard to coming all the way to Germany to visit them.



The photo above shows Carola in front of our apartment this morning. I know, this is really recent for this blog, but here it is! Carola normally locks her bike on this post. The main door to our apartment is behind the white wall next to the green trash cans. To the right is the cafe that operates below us.


Today was a really sunny and great day. This is the street where we live. Affentorplatz. I means Monkey Tower Square in German. Everything here is kept really clean, as the city cleaners come by every morning and sweep up all the trash. It is very nice to see.


Carola and I went into the city proper to get some things this morning and as we were crossing the bridge to head back to our apartment, I took this photo from the bridge that crosses the river. The tallest building is the Commerzbank building.



Our shower. Enough said.


We were lucky and had a washing machine come with the apartment. I had to fix the plug so that it could actually plug into the wall, but then it works just fine.



This is our living room. It is not much, but it quite comfortable and it is very comfortable and really nice to come home to after a long day at work.


This is our dining room/kitchen. It is small and cozy, but it is quite nice. We both worked hard on refurbishing this round kitchen table.


The view outside our bedroom (and kitchen) window is quite nice for Frankfurt. We can see the sun set, which I like. I love being able to see so far.


This is my new bike. It sits out in the stairwell, locked of course. It is amazingly comfortable to ride, and the best thing is that it had no gas tank. Also, it is super light which is good carrying up the stairs.


Another cool thing about my bike is that, you may notice, it does not have any reflectors in the spokes of the wheels. Instead, the tires have built-in reflectors in them. I love my bike!



And for our last photo, we have the picture of Colorado. This was painted by Carola's grandpa in Colorado in 1944-ish. He was a POW down in Trinidad. Home of the Trinidadio Blues Festival.


Well, I don't have anything more right now, but I hope to be able to update this more often. Time for me to sign off and say goodbye. I hope to see you all in Colorado for Thanksgiving!