Fall in the Black Forest

We've hit mid-November already. Here some updates on our newly-resettled life.

Schönberg mountain hike. This is the one that sits right across the Merzhausen valley from us.

Grab the hiking poles and walk out your door..what a concept!

Hiking gets you even better sunsets.

Local fundraiser is the "EntenRennen" (Duck Race). Buy a duckie and if your's finishes in the top 20 you will something. With great ceremony, a dump truck tips the load of duckies off one of the city bridges into the Dreisam River.

Duckies proceeding happily down the river towards the finish line, about 2km away.

The kids went on a Scouts overnighter, so we took a ride down to Staufen to find a Weingarten. 

Staufen is a small town sitting at the mouth of the Munstertal Valley stretching down from the mtns. It has a picture-book castle ruin on a steep hill next to town. All around stretch the vineyards.

Castel ruins on top of the hill if you want to walk up through the steep vineyard to explore it.

A canopy walkway (Germans LOVE forest canopy walkways) looking over the town of Waldkirch. We rented a car and ran up there for the day.

Ropes-Course, with walkway in background.

Jay got out for a few longer bike rides. Here's an entrance to the church in the tiny village of Ehrenkirchen.

The view east from the top of Tuniberg, a low ridgeline that separates the Rhine River floodplain and the Freiburg foothills on the east. Predictably, the Tuniberg is also full terraced with wine grapes.

And while those rides are scenic, it is still relaxing to come back to our house to have dinner to views like this.

Jay's Quixotic project of plastering/painting/lighting the wine cellar finally reaches its conclusion.

Dear friend Lisa from Berlin came down on a surprise visit to celebrate Cassandra's b-day.

Cassandra's Birthday Celebration! We held a birthday breakfast downstairs. In the back, Cody prepares the foot bath station.

Putting our fish pond basin to good use: Cody filled it with hot water and bubbles for a relaxing foot massage. We spare no effort for Mama.

Later on that afternoon however, Jasper fell off his bike on the way to a friend's party and sustained a compound fracture on his left forearm. Surgery and two nights in the hospital resulted.

He's in good spirits, but not due to the hospital food!

The post-school hike up the Bergleweg trail.

Quick trip on the train over to Strasbourg, France.

Strasbourg Oldtown.

And of course you have to climb the cathedral tower.

Meanwhile, the construction of our next-door house continues briskly.

One morning we had some great fog up on Lorettoberg, illuminating the Hildaturm and other scenic bits of our neighborhood.

And with this we suddenly arrived at the fall break (one week). The idea of leaving Berlin was to inject some uncertainty and adventure back into our lives, which we've largely succeeded in doing. 

School, as we expected, is still the biggest variable since the kids seem to alternate on how well they are adjusting to it and/or missing friends from Berlin. So far they've done amazing things with what we are giving them these days, and we are proud and gracious they can roll with some of these punches.

We still have no idea what winter looks like in Freiburg: how much it snows, how cold it might be, if it is like Berlin and you simply don't see the sun for months in a row...Hopefully it'll be brighter and more manageable. Or else we'll be spending lots of time in Jay's new wine cellar.