Say hello to Pippa

Say hello to Philippa Blossom Locke, born 20th April 2007, 6lbs 9oz. Many congratulations to my brother Julian and his wife Jenny. She's beautiful!

Love Jo x

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Last weekend we visited the legendary Neuschwanstein castle, in deepest darkest Bavaria. It was absolutely incredible, set in the Bavarian Alps amongst snow capped mountains and alpine lakes.

People had recommended it to us before, and then we saw it in the book "1001 Places to see Before you Die". So we thought that we would just have to see it for ourselves. Especially as we could get there on the "Bayern train ticket" for only €27!

Just like Herren Chiemsee, the castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and was also never finished. But the outside was completed and it's really, really amazing! It kind of looks like the famous Disney Castle, with lots of OTT spires etc... It's set quite a way above the town, a good 30 mins steep walk. So we cheated and took the horse and cart, which only cost us €5 each (and €2.50 to get down!). Glad we did though, because it was about 26 degrees and the people who had walked up looked rather worse for wear by the time they had reached the top!

We arrived on the Sunday afternoon, and stayed in a small guesthouse overnight. When we arrived we had a look around the nearby town of Füssen, which is very pretty and similar in style to Bamberg. But much more touristy and pretty, although quite a lot smaller. Then on the Monday we headed up to the castle. This was probably a wise decision because it was reasonably quiet up there, but I should imagine that on the Sunday it would have been absolutely heaving with tourists!

So all in all a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Can happily recommend it to anyone!

Love Ross x

I've got an interview in Paris!

Well, unfortunately our time in Germany is rapidly coming to an end, so I've been using my spare time over the previous weeks to look for a job in France. I've mostly been looking for English-teaching jobs, although we did consider the idea of becoming tourguides/waiters on a barge for a while!

Anyway, I applied for a job at NDS in Paris (they are something to do with TV encryption) which is owned by Fox Media. They phoned me up and gave me a telephone interview, and then gave me the fantastic news that they would pay for me to go to Paris for a proper interview!!

Naturally, this is a real chore. Obviously I have much better things to do than go on a free trip to Paris, but they managed to twist my arm, so I accepted! (I am of course joking and was very very happy to oblige!). So now I'm just waiting for them to give me an exact date.

Jo and I are planning to make the most of this, and throw in some extra money to get her a ticket, and also to pay for a hostel for a couple of nights. So we'll get to spend the weekend in Paris for next to nothing! Naturally we're very excited!

So that's the good news of this week anyway!

Ross x

Our new address

So moving day's been and gone. The move itself went OK, although we realised that we have managed to accumulate so much stuff that we will need to have a serious sort-out before we leave in May. If it hadn't been for Harald helping us with his van, we would probably still be ferrying things to and fro in my car!

Our new place is in a suburb of Erlangen called Buchenbach and is very nice. A lot more densely populated than Bubenreuth, but nevertheless nice. About 1 min walk away we have the bus stop, a bakery, a bank, and a supermarket. Busses to town are every 20 mins and don't take very long, so it is much more convenient than Bubenreuth.

Above is a piccy of the new house. We are living with an English teacher from my school, called Katrin, her husband Mirko, their six year son old called Pascal, and their ginger cat Garfield. We feel very comfortable here and already it feels like home.

As promised, here is our new address:

Rhönstrasse 32, 91056 Erlangen, Germany.

Tel: 0049 9131 9083186

Ross x