20 Days in Deutschland!

Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe we’ve been in Germany for 20 days! It feels like we’ve been here for several weeks and yet it also feels like we just arrived. There have been ups and downs and a few days when we’ve wondered what in the world we got ourselves into, but overall, we’re settling in to this new life. The sun keeps rising and setting and we keep trekking along.

We had a fairly quiet weekend, laying low in Dusseldorf. We thought about traveling to a Christmas market in the Netherlands or one an hour train ride away, however, we woke up to pouring rain and decided we would rather stay inside. So, instead of being wet and cold, we took another trip to a different IKEA. We had a couple things to return and a few more things to pick up, plus it was a warm and dry place to walk around. We took the train to IKEA and on the way home found ourselves stuck on the train platform, missing our train four different times… Once, we were standing on the wrong side of the train and our doors didn’t open, so for the next one we walked to the other side of the platform only to find that again we were on the wrong side of the train and our doors still did not open… the third train arrived at a different platform just down the way so we watched that one drive off without us, and finally, somehow we figured out how to get on the fourth train. Once we arrived back at the main train depot, we decided to catch a bus so we didn’t have to walk home in the rain. It was perfect, our bus was right there so we hopped on only to find out that it was indeed the right bus number, but it was going the wrong direction… so our 20-minute ride home turned into an hour ride filled with laughter and more memories we won’t forget. In the midst of all this, a lady came up to us and we think asked for directions (she was talking in German). She quickly realized she was as lost as we were and decided to ask someone else for directions… Good idea lady!

Over the weekend we finished putting up our Christmas tree! Yay! It has been a simple yet wonderful reminder of home, family and the holidays. We also took a stroll around the Christmas markets (shocker I know… we go ALL the time). But this time was a little different, we decided to enjoy the markets from up above and took a ride on the giant Ferris Wheel that’s up for the holiday season. So, 20 days into this adventure and it still feels bizarre that we’re living in Europe. I frequently find myself walking down our neighborhood street thinking about how these cute houses and shops are our new neighborhood and the downtown, cobbled streets, ducks with German accents (funny sounding quacks), bakeries, coffee shops, chocolate shops, tourists from the Rhine river boats, funny sounding ambulance and fire truck sirens, and of course our adorable flat are all ours to enjoy for the next two years! Oh yeah!