-
Hurghada | beach paradise in Egypt
Egypt for us meant ancient civilizations, pharaohs, pyramids, desert, and temples. And it was always in our list of places to visit. What we did not expect was to visit it for its beaches and all-inclusive resorts, like we found in Hurghada. We discovered about Hurghada when looking for “warmest” destinations during the winter in Europe. Most places still in Europe were a bit chilly in the winter (including Greece, Croatia, Portugal). And Egypt is still close enough to Europe, but a bit warmer (although nowhere as warm as the Caribbean in the winter). If you’re looking for Caribbean destinations, see some of our other trips: Negril, Jamaica St. Thomas…
-
Highlights of a memorable year | 2019
Well, I finally decided to help Adri with the blog and post something here, and thought a retrospective of 2019 would be a good way to start. We did a lot in the year, and if we look back to New Year’s Eve 2018, we didn’t anticipate what was about to come. I guess that’s the beauty of life… In 2019 we decided to embark in a new adventure and move to Germany. It’s not that we were not happy with Canada, but I received an offer for a job in Frankfurt and we thought it was the right time to try something like that. We moved in August and…
-
School in Germany | Adaptation of our daughters
One of the questions I get the most is about how it’s being the adaptation of girls at the new school in Germany. So today is the day I am talking about how their school adaptation in Germany is going. I imagine that many people with families who decide to become an expat here in German lands have the school situation as one of the main concerns. It was no different for us a few months ago, before we set our little flag here. Well, in Canada, Alice and Diana attended a Catholic public school in Ottawa. Public schools in Canada have a great level of education and most children…
-
Heidelberg – Baden-Württemberg | Trips around Germany
In the beginning of November we visited Heidelberg here in Germany, about 78km from Frankfurt as a way to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The city has about 160 thousand people and is the 5th largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Germany’s oldest university is in Heidelberg, and students represent at least 25% of the city’s population. Our Hotel We did not have a whole lot of time to explore the city. Since we arrived late on Friday night, we went straight to the hotel. We stayed at Meininger Hotel Heidelberg, about 10 minutes from city center. The hotel was really clean, with a shared kitchen if you want to…
-
How we shipped our things across the ocean | Expat life
Since our decision to leave Canada and come to Germany, one of the first questions was how to ship our things across the ocean! Today I tell you here a little bit of our process of shipping a full 20-foot container with our whole lives in to a new life in Germany. I like the concept of comfortable minimalism. I didn’t think I had so much “stuff” until I had to find a way to pack everything inside a container. But when we are moving, even inside the same city, it’s when you really see how much excess you have. Even more with children, several things can be saved to…
-
Phantasialand | Amusement Park in Germany
This post is about our visit to Phantasialand amusement park in Germany in October 2019. The girls had their fall vacation (2 weeks) and we decided to take a couple of days to go visit the park. Phantasialand – The Park The park is about 2h from our house, and 30 minutes from Cologne. It opened in 1967 and attracts about 2 million visitors a year (source). It has 6 lands, with a total of 36 attractions. There are 6 roller coasters and 5 water rides. One of the cool things about the park is that it is pet-friendly. Therefore we were able to take our dogs with us. And…
