Good morning!  Last time I mentioned that we were gearing up for our first trip, but in the meantime a cold front arrived.  It's 7 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this this morning, and the high for the next few days is around 18 and lows as low as 3.  We had some snow last weekend which is still around, and the nearby ponds are frozen!  Just what we had been waiting for, so we decided to hang around in Ansbach for another week or so ;-).  We've been sledding several times this week and yesterday we were finally able to go ice skating on a pond.  The kids loved it, sore bottoms and all, and are looking forward to going again this afternoon.  Robert and I have gotten to be kids again too and have taken a few turns at sledding (molehills are a little tougher on grown up bones, I think) and I borrowed some ice skates from a friend and I had as much fun as the kids yesterday.  It's been 18 years for me, and it was fun to brush up.  Robert's going to get some skates today, so we'll hopefully all be skating this afternoon.

Kocher River in Schwaebisch Hall (in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg)

Schools here have a shorter day than back home, so there's a little more time in the afternoon for kids to play, do homework, etc. Younger kids go from 8 to 11 or 12, and most of the rest are finished by 1pm.  The school kids go home for lunch, and then have free time.  We got to the pond around 1, and by the time we left around 3 or so, the pond was full of kids and families with young children taking advantage of a perfectly sunny day and nature's ice rink. It was a great experience.

Michaelskirche in Schwaebisch Hall (we're those tiny people on the steps)

Between sledding and waiting for the ponds to freeze, we finally took some pics of downtown Ansbach and took a day trip to Schwaebisch Hall, another picturesque little town that's about a 45 minute drive from here. The pictures from Ansbach and Schwaebisch Hall are sprinkled here, and we'll hopefully get some sledding and skating pictures up soon too.

Altstadt (old town) Schwaebisch Hall

Michaelskirche portal of the Rathouse (courthouse) from the top of the steps

Altar Sculpture

Schwaebisch Hall shops etc.

View from the other side of the Kocher River

Monastery Fortress outside of Schwaebisch Hall, COMBURG, oldest parts (Romanesque) dating bach to around 1100)

600 ft high Autobahn bridge over the Kocher valley

Schloss Langenburg (near Bavarian and Baden-Wuerttemberg border)

ANSBACH (our home city in the state of Bavaria, Bayern, region of Frankonia, Franken)

Jumping over the MANY molehills

View of Ansbach's Johanniskirche 

Remnats of Ansbach's Medieval City Wall

Johanniskirche up close

Ansbach Rathaus and Gumbertuskirche

Inside the Johanniskirche

Beringerhof

Checking out the partially frozen Rezat River in Ansbach

Ch

Markgrafen (Margrave/Duke) fountain

Aside from all of this, the kids have gotten German passports (they have dual citizenship), and I have gotten the German equivalent of a Green Card so that we're all "legal" for the duration of our stay.  There's a 3 month limit, and now we're all good to go for the full 6 months.

Herrieder Tor (Tower), official entry to the pedestrian zone


'Till next time....