Michael and I at the Vienna Christmas Market in front of the Museum of Natural History

Our lives have been cram packed the past 7 weeks – we moved, put our lives in storage, drove 1200 miles from Florida to NY for a wedding, spent some time with family, then hopped on a plane for a European adventure!  First we tried (not so successfully) to get settled.  After all, we had three days before traveling through three countries again.  That should be enough, right? 

We sold our home and were going to relocate locally when we decided to go for a little business venture that we’ve been talking about the past two years.  You see, my 80 year old dad lives in the Black Forest in Germany.  The three of us have been tossing around the idea of starting a wine tour company in the Pfaltz region of Germany.  It’s just on the French border a little north of where we are now – Bad Wildbad (outside of Stuttgart).  So we decided to go for it to add a new division to our existing Travel Agency – Elite Travel Planners.  We plan on being here (and coming back to the states regularly during this time) for about two years. So, we had a lot to do and learn more over the past two months!

Let me tell you, there’s a ton to do when you are getting settled into a new country for a little bit.  Much more than just finding a doctor and dentist.    But things here don’t necessarily get set up as quickly as back home!  Needless to say, we’re still waiting for someone to come and install our phone and modem (it’s been four weeks now)! 

We live in Bad Wildbad, a tiny little town of 4,500 people in the Southwest corner of Germany – the Black Forest (you know where cuckoo clocks come from)  In Bad Wildbad (remember 4,500 people) we have 7 café’s and 5 bakeries (yup that’s right!) – and that’s just our little town – the next town over (2 kilometers away) has more.  The fun part for us, fun because we love it – but then realize the inconvenience of it (remember that we love it), is that everything – and I mean EVERYTHING closes at 12:30 till 2:00.  That’s lunch.  Of course one day we decided to go to lunch with my Dad – we had to go to four places because the first three were closed since they were on vacation!  Yes, things are different here.

But here’s the thing – we actually love it!  It reminds Michael and I about when we were young.  When stores were actually closed at night and on holidays, and Sundays!  Speaking of Sundays.  If you need something, you better get it by noon on Saturday, everything is shut down. 

Now major cities aren’t this bad – did I say we lived in a small town?!  But the Sunday thing is pretty much country wide.  It’s how it should be.  And not much is open late at night – maybe major stores, even our Supermarket is open until 9, not that there’s a soul in there after 8. 

So, after three days of running around getting cell phones, registering to live here, and every errand under the sun, we went on a week long river cruise down the Danube a few days after we got here.  We sailed through Austria into Budapest.  That was amazing!  I’ll write more on that tomorrow.  I took 2000 photos, and several for some inspiration for cards!  Speaking of, tune in later for a great card I made based off the sunset last night.

That’s all for today – here are a few photos for you from our River Cruise down the Danube – they’re from Vilshofen, Vienna, Melk, and Budapest.  I hope you all have been great!  Thank you so much for your patience as we re-arrange our lives drastically for a few years.  As you can see, I’m still in business – thank goodness for the internet and phones!  I’ve planned out my next few online classes and can’t wait for all my stamping stuff to arrive (hopefully this week) – I’m down to the basics – it’s like I just started!  Have a great day!