Cheryl on the Web

I never thought that the day my parents would come to visit me in my first house would be such a big deal. Of course, I never realised that the house would be in Germany, or that it would be the first time my parents actually saw how Tim and I live. The last time they came to visit our apartment in Leiden (Holland), they didn’t really get a good idea of our lifestyle since everything was in boxes! … when they originally booked that visit I hadn’t the faintest idea we would be moving that week.. to Germany.. This time they’re playing it safe; they booked the flight at the last minute, so there’s not a very big chance that we would be out of this house before they arrive! Particularly since we bought this one ;) (more…)

I heard from a couple of you out there that my blog had a few technical “blips” over the last couple days; I think they should be fixed now, sorry about that. This blog is my playground away from work; I try to experiment with as many new things here as I can that I don’t get to play with in my day job. It was one of these small experiments that caused the blips, a caching module… I have logged the experiment as failed test 1!

Here in Germany we are lucky enough to get Good Friday and Easter Monday off work - yes, a 4-day weekend which is pretty much a mini-vacation! Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking enough in advance when I left home on Tuesday for my business trip, and I didn’t leave my husband Tim a grocery list. Since I didn’t arrive home until Friday, when all the stores are closed, and we went away on Saturday/Sunday, that means here we are foraging for food on Monday, when all the stores are still closed. I’d love to make a comment like, WHY can’t there be any grocery stores open in Europe on holidays??! But I have to admit that perhaps it says more about our lifestyle than about the culture we live in, that here we are with no food on the last day of our 4-day weekend. (more…)

Tim is home alone. Recommended light reading! :)

This Easter weekend, according to our tradition, Tim and I got away for the weekend; actually, just one night this time, instead of a whole weekend. The destination? Not London, not Paris, not Maastricht (where Tim proposed 2 years ago), but Mespelbrunn, a whole 30 kilometer (19 miles) out of Aschaffenburg and into the adjoining nature territory called “Spessart”. When we checked into the hotel, they noticed our accent and hesitant German; we explained we were from Holland. When we checked out, our hostess noticed my ATM card is from Aschaffenburg - caught in the act! I think she thought it was funny we stayed in a hotel so relatively close to our house. But in the end, we said it felt like we’d been away forever, and traveled a long way - so in the end, it’s just a matter of perception.

Mespelbrunn was a great place for a weekend away. We hiked both yesterday and today and enjoyed being close to nature in such great weather on such a special Sunday. We highly recommend the Waldhaus hotel and the Mespelbrunn castle (”Schloss”) (go early to avoid the tourist crowds).

There haven’t been any blog posts recently because I was traveling on business this week and only arrived home on Friday morning. I was lucky enough to be in Budapest, which is a beautiful city, surrounded by sociable, interesting colleagues, in generally good weather. If I could have, I would have made this blog post after having arrived at my hotel in Budapest on Tuesday night at midnight, but hopefully I can recount my story with a similar passion this long after-the-fact.

Did you know you can drive to Budapest from Aschaffenburg (where I live) in 8 hours? It took me 6.8 hours to go there by plane and, to be honest, I would have rather driven the 8 hours. This is why flying is for birds: (more…)

There’s been a gaming breakthrough in our household this week: I found a GameCube game that I like and that I voluntarily play when I have a chance! Pretty pathetic breakthrough perhaps, considering my husband’s profession, but I am the ultra-picky gamer. (more…)