Month: July 2018

Early yesterday morning we packed our rental car to the brim and hit the road from Leipzig to München. We fly home from München today (Sunday) so figured it would be fun to spend some time exploring the city before we left Germany. On our drive we were able to see more of the German countryside and experience driving on the Autobahn. As we approached München we saw fields full of crops we’d never seen before. We started to think what München was known for…beer! They were hops crops growing all along the road.

After checking into our hotel, we set off to Taxisgarten; a beer garden with canteen-style traditional Bavarian dishes and Maß of beer! Locals were dressed in lederhosen. For our last dinner we ordered the biggest pretzel I’ve ever seen, sausages and ribs. A fitting feast for dinner in Germany. We decided against the half hen and leberkase;) The garden had a playground and was dog friendly. We are really going to miss how much Germany love their hunds and how there are always places for kids to play so the adults can eat and drink.

Our walk to the beer garden was through the Olympic Park. We were able to see many of the Olympic venues from the 1972 München Games; it was amazing! The park and many venues are being used today which is always nice to see. Spending time in München was a great way to end off the sabbatical. Now it’s off to the airport for our long flight home.

It’s hard to believe that yesterday was our last day in Leipzig. 182 days have never gone by so quickly! Today we are off to Munich and tomorrow we fly back to Vermont! What an adventure it has been! A good part of our last day here was spent packing, saying goodbye to our trusty steeds, cleaning and picking up the rental car, but we did manage to fit in some fun:) By 3pm we were packed and ready to go so Adrian, Sabrina, Cooper and I went to our favorite bier garten one last time and sat on the patio. We did a little shopping at the RB Leipzig store and had friends over for dinner in the backyard. The adults enjoyed pizza, German Heffs, and Adrian’s favorite pils, Ur Kostrizer, while the girls ran around and played for 3 hours. Cooper did his best to clean up all the pizza crumbs.

I am so thankful for this wonderful adventure our family has had together. We are looking forward to spending a day exploring Munich and a week in Vermont seeing family and friends. Then it’s off to Irvine for the next chapter!

 

Last night Adrian and I went out on our last date in Leipzig. Early on in the sabbatical, we were very fortunate to find a wonderful babysitter who was great with Sabrina and Cooper. Having Teresa come watch the kids,  allowed Adrian and I to explore the city child-free:)

Adrian decided that for our last night out,  it was necessary to go out with a bang so he made a reservation at the Panorama Tower Restaurant. It’s a beautiful restaurant located on the 29th floor of the tallest building in Leipzig which offers a spectacular view of the city. The cocktails and mocktails were thirst quenching, the food was delicious and company top notch:) It was a great way to celebrate the end of our time in Leipzig.

Tonight we had a lovely farewell dinner with our good friends/hosts Bernd, Dagmar, Katharina and Lovis! We went to one of our favorite local Bier Gartens, Mückenschlösschensat (also known as the mosquito palace, not for the bugs, but for the history behind its construction). We sat on the patio and enjoyed some delicious German fare. Both Adrian and I have enjoyed tasting all sorts of German food but agree, that we are set for a while. Some Mexican and farm to table food sounds pretty good right now:)

The kids ran around and played in the playground, Coop ate bugs and almost knocked over a table and the adults ate, talked and enjoyed the sunset. The night ended with an eis sundae. I think it’s safe to say that Sabrina enjoyed it. We are busy packing and enjoying our last few days in Leipzig. I can’t believe we only have 4 days to go!

I figured it was about time that I make a post about Adrian and the work he has done, and is currently doing, that allowed our family to come on this amazing adventure in Leipzig. Today, a paper was published in Nature Physics about pair breaking and superconductivity in nanowires.  This is work that Adrian started during his Ph.D at Harvard over 10 years ago, that has recently been verified in a lab in Utah and France. Pretty cool!

Here’s the link to the press release and paper. Enjoy!

It’s hard to believe that this is our last weekend in Leipzig; 6 months have gone by so quickly! For our last Saturday in the city, we thought it appropriate to do some of our favorite and traditional Leipzig activities.

The day started off with an early morning trip to the local bakery where Sabrina and I bought our traditional order: drei croissants and eins pflannkuchen! We then spent the morning at the Schreber Garden and walked through the beautiful allotment gardens which are famous from GDR times. We learned about the rich history of allotment gardens and the Schreber Movement which started in Leipzig. We walked through a gardening shed exposition, played at the historical speilplatz, had lunch at their Biergarten and even got to sample some delicious, but so sour, cherries from a plot. After lunch we ventured downtown for ice cream sundaes at Milchbar Pinguin; an ice cream shop that has been in Leipzig since 1964. I don’t think Sabrina has ever had so much eis in one sitting! Adrian and I got in on the eis action too:)

To end off our last Saturday in the city, we had a picnic in our backyard, eating  pizza and listening to Guns’N Roses! They are in town playing in the stadium at the end of our street. Tickets to see Axl in action were going for 400 Euros. We opted for the free seats in our backyard with pizza and beer.

It was another beautiful day in Leipzig! Sabrina and I met up with some friends for a trip to the zoo! I believe this marks our 16th, and likely final trip to the zoo since our arrival in February (our season pass which cost 74 Euros, was the best money I’ve spent in Germany given that one visit is 21 Euros)! Sabrina got her face painted and bought a new stuffie, Meera the Meerkat, as a token of our time at the zoo. There were days when I felt like the zoo was my second home:)

Coop had another great day at Adventure Pack. He went to the beach and tried to catch a fish. He definitely had the right idea being in water as it was another scorcher, with temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius. Here in Leipzig the concept of A/C and fans don’t really exist. Fortunately it’s more of a dry heat. I much prefer these days to those days back in February when we were biking in -28 degree Celsius weather.

It’s hard to believe that we only have 10 days left in Leipzig. The first half of Adrian’s sabbatical has been wonderful! It’s been an amazing opportunity for our family. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to call Leipzig home for  the past 6 months. Getting to explore this great city and everything it has to offer, has been an adventure we’ll never forget. I was saying to Adrian this past weekend that I feel settled; we have a routine, have made some good friends and are all feeling comfortable. That’s our queue to throw things on their head and move again! Here we come Irvine!

I’m going to do a short blog post each day to commemorate our last week and half in Leipzig. I hope you enjoy!

Today was a scorcher; the temperature reached to 34 degrees Celsius. Sabrina indulged in her almost daily eis (this will definitely need to change once we’re back in the US)! As you can see from the photo below, she got some eis with a side of sass:)

As a part of the Leipzig Open-Air Music festival Adrian, with some colleagues and friends, went to Rosental Park to enjoy music by Gewandhaus Orchestra and famous pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. We were told that the Orchestra is rated as one of the top 7 in the world. They were performing piano works of G.Gershwin. Star Wars, Jurassic park and other famous movie theme songs were played. Over 60,000 people attended the concert. The weather was perfect, the music amazing, cold beers were served and no bugs! The only downside was the ratio of people to port-a-potties – 60,000 : 15! You do the math!

For the first time in months, it rained on the weekend. We have been SO lucky with amazing weather every weekend. Despite the rain, we ventured out and had a fun weekend. It started on Friday afternoon with Sabrina’s end of school picnic followed by drinks on one of our favorite local patios with Adrian and Roger. After cooking dinner at home, the boys (Cooper included) decided to check out the pub at the end of our street. They expected to sit outside with Coop. Not only was Coop allowed inside the bar, he charmed the patrons and staff so much that the boys bar billed was covered. Germany love their hunds!

Saturday was spent visiting Clara-Zetkin park, watching World Cup Soccer, getting attacked by birds while eating pretzels and drinking beer, and eating schnitzel. We took Roger to a favorite restaurant, Schnitzel Culture, where we were able to enjoy some delicious German fare and cheer along with fellow Germans as they beat Sweden in a super exciting game. This win sets Germany up for a big game on Wednesday. Given that neither Canada nor the USA made the tournament, we figured we should cheer for German. When in Rome, right?!