Nürnberg 0 - 2 Hamburg

On Saturday, we managed to get to our first FC Nürnberg home game (never mind that it was the last of the season!). It was something which we had never really got round to before, but one of the teachers from my school very kindly offered us 2 free tickets, so naturally we jumped at the chance!

Nürnberg play in the German Bundesliga (Premiership) and are 6th in the table. Luckily, they didn't need the points from this game, as they lost 2-0 to a much more dominant Hamburg. But it was still a great experience, as the stadium is fantastic, and there was a sell out crowd of 47,000.

But best of all was the free beer at the end of the match! The sponsors said that for every home goal scored since Christmas, they would give 100 free litres of beer to the fans. Only in Germany!!

So many thanks to Christa for the tickets!

Ross x

Parental visit #3

Recently, we managed to prove how popular we are with our 3rd set of visitors in just over a month! Dad and Les flew over on the 3rd of May to pay us a visit, and we had a really great time with them.

They were here for about 4 days, and we did the standard "visitors' tour", which we are now experts at giving, this being the 3rd time! This included Nürnberg, Bamberg, and obviously Erlangen. However, with Dad and Les being the fitness freaks that they are, their visit also included a jolly jaunt in Fränkische Schweiz. But this was really just to counter the huge amount of alcohol and food that we consumed while they were here!

All in all, a thoroughly good time was had by all - just hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!

Ross x

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

Sorry it's been so long!

Firstly, many apologies for not writing anything sooner. Since "snow day" we've got into a rountine of working (both of our hours seem to have increased), weekends away and family visits.

The big news at the moment is that we are having to move from Bubenreuth to Buchenbach. Basically, the guy we live with, Harald, has the ex-wife from hell. She lives near Dresden with their 3 children and phoned Harald a few days ago to tell him that she wants to be more "free" and travel around Europe. So she is sending the kids to live with him for at least 6 months, maybe more if they want to stay! So he has to collect them this weekend, and we have to move out! Harald loves his kids very much and doesn't get to see much of them, so we understood his excitement. We think he's worried that if he doesn't pick them up now, he'll never get them. But it's still a bit of a pain in the behind for us though.

So after the inital shock and anger had subsided, Ross went to his school to sort out where we could move to. One option was to come home early and then head straight to France. But luckily another teacher Ross works with offered us a room in her house for similar rent. She lives in a suburb of Erlangen called Buchenbach and it's close to the town centre. She has a lovely house which she shares with her husband and 6 year old son. They also have a cat, which I thought was the most exciting part!!! So the packing begins tonight...

Unfortunately, the move means that we won't have our own landline anymore, but I'm sure we will be able to accept incoming calls at our new place. We will try to keep in touch more by email, this page and Skype from now on. We will also let you know our new address which will be valid until we leave at the end of May. We're really glad this has been sorted so quickly as neither of us were ready to leave Deutschland just yet!


In February we went to Munich for the weekend to celebrate Laura's (the other Erlangen language assistant) 20th birthday. This picture was taken in the Hofbrauhaus which is a very German bar/restaurant, like a Bierkeller. It has loads of long wooden tables and benches and the beer is served in massive tankards. After this picture was taken we all went to a nightclub.

The next day we welcomed Laura's friend Anna who travelled from Vienna. We took a long walk around the sites, took lots of photos and spent that evening drinking even more!

A few weeks later, in early March, we visited the above-mentioned Anna in Vienna. Unfortuantely it rained most of the time as you can see from this picture of (l-r) Ross, Anna, Lorna and Laura. We stayed in an amazing hostel and because there were no double rooms left, we got a free upgrade. So Ross and I had our own room with private bathroom and kitchen!

Anna's friend Lorna had been taken on a tour of the city when she arrived last year and so was able to tell us what everything was, give a little history of the city, and point out some interesting sites.

If you look at our pictures on webshots you will see a statue of a man on a horse. This is the only statue in the world to have only two points touching the base (the hind legs of the horse), as normally there must be at least three (e.g. hind legs and tail). Apparently it drove the creator mad as he could never recreate his design.

Vienna certainly had a lot to offer, and some parts seemed to be stuck in the 1940's. We went to a lovely, all be it run down, cafe on our last day. The waiters wore tuxedos and the chairs & tables were very old, probably never replaced since the place opened, I'm guessing sometime shortly after the war! We ordered croissants and ate 3 out of the 4 they gave us. We watched the waiter curiously as he proceeded to take our remaining croissant, put it in a basket with 3 others left-over from another table, and then serve them to someone else!

We also had coffee & cake at a cafe Lorna had recommended called Demel. Vienna is famous for it's cakes, and apparantly this place serves the best selection in the city, so is fairly well known and a big tourist attraction. They had a wonderful selection of indulgent cakes & pastries but unfortunately were let down by their service. The waitress took ages to serve us, and after dumping the bill on our table she never came back for the money. We left the exact amount on the table (no tip!) and went to the front desk to speak to a manger. After praising the extremely good food we informed her of our disappointment with the service. As you can imagine, if you pay nearly €20 for coffee and cake, you expect service to match! As an apology we were given two slices of cake worth almost €10, so we were happy!

Our journey home from Vienna was 5 hours long, but luckily the train we caught was like Hogwarts Express (Harry Potter fans will appreciate this)! Ross, Laura and I had our own compartment with door, and the seats reclined. But we were told off by the ticket inspector as we had pulled all 6 seats out to make 3 beds and this was apparantly "not allowed" - bloody Austrians!

Late March was also family visiting time with my mum, brother & sister-in-law coming one weekend and Ross' mum and her partner, Russell, the next.

My famliy arrived on Thursday evening and my sister-in-law Maddy had booked an apartment in Nuremberg for us all to stay in. We took them to our house in Bubenreuth & Erlangen on Friday, Bamberg on Saturday and Nuremberg on Sunday & Monday. We visited the Doku-Zentrum where Hitler's unfinished congress hall is located, and the Palace of Justice, courtroom 600, which is where the Nuremberg trials took place.
It was so nice to be with them again, and I really enjoyed their visit.


A few days later Ross' mum Julie arrived with Russell. They drove over and took in some of the sights on the way, stopping in Brugges, Cologne, and Heidelberg. They stayed in a nice hotel in Bubenreuth. As with my family the weekend before, we showed them where we live and took them to Bamberg and Nuremberg. As they drove over it meant they could bring all the things we've missed from back home like Robinson's squash, Ross's hair stuff, and Easter Eggs! Russell also showed Ross how to make lovely pancakes, which I like to put Nutella in! Just like the crepes we had last year in St Malo, France!!

That's about all of our news at the moment, so keep watching this space and we will post our new contact details here, along with some pictures of our new residence!

Check out more photos from our recent trips at http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079

Jo xx

We've got snow!

Tuesday evening the snow started, just as we had finished a little shopping at Kaufland. Soon, there was enough coverage to make that crunchy sound when you walk. We were so excited that we got our coats on at 11pm and went for a walk.

They next day, Ross got up early to go to school and I lay in bed trying to get some sleep before a 7pm start at Wheelers. Ross insisted I get up (at 8am!) to at least look at the snow. We'd had at least 4 inches in the night and it was covering everything. It looked really beautiful. Although I had a long night ahead of me, I got dressed immediately and plodded around in the back garden. It was so thick, it was reaching my ankles and storing itself in my upturned jeans. I shovelled the front steps and path like a proper Bubenreuth resident and then took the plough to the back garden and proceeded to make a snow mountain, which I was hoping would turn into a snowman.

Coming from Bournemouth, where we get little to no snow, I forgot how difficult and tiring snowman making is. Unfortunately the snow was too fluffy so I gave up and retreated back to the warmth of the house.

Now that everyone has been out in the snow, either by car, foot, bike or sledge, it has made it extremely slushy and brown. It has also remained cold with a regular minus 2 temperature so it's also created icy roads. My hiking boots were comfortable for the first day of snow but I also wore them to work and now my skin in sore. Without them I am stuck with trainers which don't provide any warmth or have a great non-slip sole. Getting to work has also been hard, and I've been late for two shifts in a row now because Deutche Bahn can't run their trains on time or provide informative notices.

So I think the overall view for this weather is, it makes everything pretty and you feel like you're in a winter wonderland, but when is the damn stuff gonna melt!

Loads of new photos now on webshots!

Go to: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079, and you'll find Duncan's 50th, Registry Xmas Party, New Years, and lots more!

As Ross' previous post states, I have a job now. Wheelers is a British Pub in town, and I'm really enjoying it. All the staff are great and I've been given a great welcome. At the moment I am part time but they are looking to take me on full time soon.

We had a great Xmas, and we were really lucky to get home because of the fog in England. Out of 9 flights from Munich to Heathrow on the 21st December we were on 1 of the 2 that actually made it. We had a few hours delay in Munich Airport but we killed time in their Christmas Market which even had an ice rink.

Other than a great Christmas & New Year, we haven't been up to much since we came back to Germany. We've both been working and still take the odd trip to Nurnberg. We're off to Furth tomorrow which is on the way to Nurnberg.

Love Jo x

Jo has a new job!

Wow- a long time since we updated this! But before we write an update about all we've been up to, I just want to take this opportunity to say congratulations to Jo, who has found herself a new job.

She is working as a barmaid in a British pub in Erlangen town centre called "Wheelers". She's had the job about a week or so now and appears to be enjoying herself there. The Germans seem to tip fairly generously so it makes standing all day worthwhile for her!

If you want to see where she's working for yourself, check out http://www.wheelers-pub.com/.

Well done darling, I knew you'd find something and I hope you really enjoy working there!

Ross x

General update

Hi all,

Computer has been playing up recently so we haven't been able to do much since our Berlin post. We also came home the weekend after we went to Berlin for Ross's Dad's 50th birthday party. It was really great to see everyone!

We are coming home again on 21st Dec and stay until 6th Jan. Hope to see everyone while we are back. There just wasn't enough time this trip.

We are meeting up with the other assistants Laura & Louise tomorrow to have our own Xmas party. Laura is cooking up a feast of various dishes, and we also arranged a Secret Santa between us. I'm really looking forward to it.

Went to the Nuremberg Xmas market on Monday, and it was ok but slightly disappointing. Most of the stalls sold tree decorations, or extra small household objects like kettles or garden rakes but they were only big enough for the Borrowers! I don't know why they were popular.

Other than that, we've just been getting ready for Xmas. We have two christmas concerts coming up that Harald (the guy we live with) is conducting. One is the kids from Ross's School and the other is a gospel one.

I will post some pics of the 50th birthday party and xmas party once the computer is sorted.

J x

Weekend in Berlin

So we got back from Berlin late on Sunday, very tired after a long journey. We left Berlin at 3.55pm and arrived home at about 9pm. It's amazing how tired you can get from just sitting down for 5 hours!

My friend Oli, from uni, flew over from his placement in Vienna and joined us there and the 3 of us had a great weekend. It was nice to catch up with people from home too.

Berlin is a really beautiful city and the word of the weekend very quickly became "Ooh look!". It's a very modern place, totally different to the Berlin of 20 years ago that you see in all the pictures. Right in the centre of Berlin in what was once wasteland running on along either side of the wall is now Potsdamer Platz, an ultra-modern area with skyscrapers and the new "Sony Centre" which is kind of like a large tent with a glass roof.

The path that the wall took is marked by a line of bricks sunk into the ground that runs right through the city, and we had great fun jumping from East to West in a rather childlike manner! However, apart from this, and the odd sections of wall that still remain as a memorial, there is no sign whatsoever that of most of the history from the mid 20th centuary took place right here.

The 3 of us basically acted like tourists for the weekend, doing all the touristy things with cameras stuck to our faces. I even had the video camera over my shoulder the whole time! But we were quite efficient with the little time we had there and so managed to see the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and the cathedral, not to mention the countless monuments to victims of war, the holocaust, terrorism and anything else you can think of.

The most interesting thing was the Reichstag, which is the German government building. On top of it they have built a huge glass dome, and visitors can go up on to the roof and then climb the dome. (picture above). It gave great views of the city and was free too! I just keep laughing at the prospect of thousands of tourists wandering around the roof of the Houses of Parliament!

Checkpoint Charlie was also very interesting and there is a museum there with lots of memorabelia from escape attempts (mostly successful) from East Berlin. It also had the famous original sign from the border "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR" which was good to see.

So all in all a really enjoyable weekend. We have Oli to thank for being able to see so many things as he had us up at 7am both mornings (regardless of the amount of alcohol consumed the night before!) and much as we protested it certainly meant that we made good use of the time.

Ross x

See updated photos online: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079 . Sorry for the huge amount of Berlin!

Computer fixed

Ross fixed the computer! He bought an external hard drive and removed everything and is still in the process of putting it all back on again but we at least have the internet. I was also introduced to Spider Solitaire which I have become so addicted to. I played for so long the other evening that when I went to bed and Ross put his arm around me I was convinced his arm was the 10 of hearts and I needed a 9 of hearts to move it (?)

We are off to Berlin this Friday and I am so excited. I will have my ipod charged and ready to entertain me for the 4 or so hours it takes on the train. Not that bad really I thought it would've been nearer 6. I am also excited about going home in less than 2 weeks. I can't wait to see everyone.

Happy 50th Birthday to Duncan, hope you had a great day! I look forward to joining in the celebrations for your birthday on the 25th Nov.

Jo

Computer is down!

Unfortunately the computer is unwell and we cant log on to the internet. We only just got it to switch on after alot of fiddling around and help from Harald.

We used it over a week ago to check emails before we went to bed and it hasn't worked since. We have found a nice internet cafe so will come here as often as poss. Its very frustrating, but hopefully we will figure out the problem soon.

The keyboard for this internet cafe PC is different than the UK or US version. The Y is on the bottom row, and the @ sign isn't in the handy little place by my right pinky. My hands are actually starting to hurt as I am straining them to press the right keys. There are also a few unsavouries about so I will ask Ross if we can go now.

SEND EMAILS AND MAKE MY VISIT TO THE CAFE WORTHWHILE!!!!!!

Love Jo xxxx

So what does €27 buy you?

Jo - Well not much in the British Empire store in Nürnberg. Our shopping list consisted of

Sharwoods Balti Sauce - €3.89
Sharwoods Korma Sauce - €4.35
2x Kia Ora Squash - €2.90 each
McVitities Digestives - €1.89
Heinz Lentil Soup - €2.19
Heinz Baked Beans - €1.98
HP Sauce - €2.50
Marmite - a whopping €4.48 for a tiny 125 g jar!

We got so excited in the shop when we saw all this British food, I was like a little child in a sweet shop.

We really only went in for Baked Beans as we've really missed them - they go with everything!


Ross - But that's not all we've been up to recently. Today we went to the "Doku-Zentrum", also in Nürnberg. The city itself was pretty much the home of the Nazi party and as such they held all their big rallies there. Many of the grand buildings that Hitler designed for these rallies are still there (although only one was actually finished as something or other apparently got in the way of construction between 1939-1945).

The Doku-Zentrum is housed in one of the wings of Hitler's Congress Hall (picture) and is a museum of Nürnberg and its connection with the Third Reich. It's very interesting and only €7.50 for us both which offered us at least 3 hrs entertainment. To be honest we could have spent plenty more time there, but it was full of waffle so we skipped most of the last part!

The building itself is unfinished but was meant to be double the size of the Coluseum in Rome, and Hitler's pride and joy. The picture shows what was meant to be the main hall with space for 50,000 people and a huge roof. The outer shell was as far as they got, but nevertheless it's still pretty impressive. Nowadays it's just home to the museum, the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, and lots and lots of storage. I like to think of it as the World's most expensive shed. If only Hitler was alive to see it today...!

There's a 2 hr walk round the lake which takes you past all the other buildings but the Doku-Zentrum was quite enough fascism for one day so that can be done another time.

Love Jo and Ross x

No beer at Oktoberfest

Well we thought it would be rude to come all the way here and not pay a visit to the World famous Oktoberfest, especially as it's only about 100 miles away in Munich. So that's exactly what we did, nearly 2 weeks ago now.

As expected, it was incredibly busy and very very large (the picture just doesn't do it justice) but the first thing surprised us was the amount of funfair rides that there were. These took up a large proportion of the area, and whilst they certainly provided plently of entertainment, it seemed wrong to us that the main focus of the event seemed to be around these and not the beer.

This abundance of spinning, twirling, and flashing attractions seemed at first to be a pleasant surprise. Afterall, they're always good for a laugh. However, we very quickly realised that perhaps they weren't such a great idea for 2 good reasons.

Firstly, far too many people seemed incapable of making this simple calculation:

copious amounts of booze + rides that simulate washing machines = large amounts of regurgitation.

Add into this equasion the fact that 6.5 million people visited Oktoberfest this year, and that the facilities consisted of scarsely scattered chemical toilets and the answer is not pretty. Needless to say, the capacities of these toilets were not nearly enough to meet the reqirements and I'll leave the rest up to your imagination...

The second (and much more serious) problem was the fact that with all these rides, there was not enough drinking space left! The beer tents were all crammed into the back corner of the festival, and by the time we arrived they were already at capacity. Hense the title of this blog. We waited an hour at the doors of one of these tents and only 3 people were let in. So no beer for us and we left feeling cheated. And thristy. (To be fair though, we were there on it's final Saturday at about 3pm so couldn't have really picked a worse time).

However, it wasn't all bad. Oktoberfest did certainly have one redeeming feature. With the amount of people and alcohol, this was definately a recipe for a mass brawl. However, I can honesly say that we never saw any sign of trouble. I don't know why but it's certainly worth pointing out.

Miss you all. Ross x

More photos of Oktoberfest will soon be added to http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079 so keep checking!

Visit to Herrenchiemsee

We left the house at 6.30am yesterday & Harald drove us to the Chiemsee (a lake in lower Bavaria) where we took a boat to a small island for the morning. It was very beautiful and quiet. Didn't take us long to walk around the island. After lunch we took another boat to Herrenchiemsee to see the Royal Palace owned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

The castle was never finished as the King ran out of money. He also didn't spend alot of time in this castle and only slept for 8 nights in his bedroom. We had a guided tour around the castle and each room was amazing. So much detail into every inch of the room. The King died in 1886 and the tour guide told us that his death is a mystery. However, Harald informed us that King Ludwig is still very much loved in Bavaria and they don't like to admit that he committed suicide. He walked down to the lake to kill himself and his doctor followed to try to stop him and Ludwig killed the doctor then himself.

His Palace was to be a replica of Versailles as he loved and admired Louis XIV whose palace he had visited in 1867 and 1874.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace but I took lots of pictures of the outside as well as the surrounding areas, and island we had visited in the morning.

Very long day and everyone was early to bed that night.

Take a look at the photos of Herrenchiemsee at http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079

As promised

Here is a link to my webshots album that has the Nurnberg photos I promised to add once Ross returned - http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079

There is also a file called Germany so far and I have added some more into this one. I will create a new folder each month for photos.

Will definitely have some pictures after this weekend as hopefully taking Ross to Nurnberg on Saturday and then Sunday Harald is driving us to an island in a lake near Munich and we will be visiting a nunnery and they might put on a concert! Sounds fantastic, we're both very excited.

I'll post again after the weekend to let you know what we did.

xx

Happy Birthday Ross!

Its Ross's 22nd birthday today. So I just wanted to post to say.......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET, HOPE YOU HAVE A LOVELY DAY!

Love Jo xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A little home sick already!

Well Ross is still away, and Harald is out alot so the feelings of homesickness have come sooner than planned.

I visited Nuremberg today and it was beautiful. I cant upload any pictures til Ross gets back though. It only took about 25 minutes on a slow train, if I took a train from Erlangen it would be quicker but I get the slower one as it means I can leave straight from Bubenreuth. It was really busy as Nurnerg FC were playing. Their football shirts actually look similar to Bournemouth. I heard alot of English/American accents which was a sight for sore, um ears?

The temperature hasn't really gone below 20c yet. Its mid to late 20's most days and it hasn't properly rained yet either. Our sitting room is coming together. I'll put some photos of our pad on the site soon. I have moved alot of stuff into the sitting room to try and make it look homely. We've got our TV and DVD up and running, I just really miss British TV. I tried to go to Channel 4 on the internet to watch Lost but they wont let me because they only transmit in the UK!!!

So HMV vouchers for Xmas then and I can buy the whole season!!

J xxx