Snow

This is the view out of our kitchen window last Tuesday - SNOW!!!!!!


While the whole of Europe is moaning about this year's long and snow-rich winter, we are delighted to see finally some of the white precious flakes! It's more than a year since we last enjoyed snow...
For Easter, we are heading towards Innsbruck, so let's hope that there will still be some snow for us by then! But our spirits are high as we hear from our families that the mountains back home are still white.
So Anna is preparing for her first touch with snow:

Schloss Glienicke

We went for a walk on Sunday despite the cold and very windy weather.


Nevertheless, the light and the special clouds made it an attractive stroll across the Babelsberg Park to the park and gardens of Glienicke Palace north of the Babelsberg Castle. Here is a view towards Babelsberg Castle:


Many buildings of the Schloss Glienicke (Glienicke Palace) show a strong Italian influence with many antiques elements:




Kamil is climing exotic granite boulders that were brought from Scandinavia to here by the gigantic glaciers of the last ice age.

Fooling Around With Daddy

Sigh! - I now have TWO children...

Telegrafen Berg

Kamil started his work at the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) three weeks ago. Finally, we managed to visit him at his office together with his brother Michi. The GFZ is located in the Albert-Einstein-Science-Park on the Telegrafen Berg (amazing 94 m high!!!) in Potsdam.


Most of the buildings and observatories were built in the second half of the 19th century:


The Einstein-Tower is the most famous building in the park:


These are the buildings of the GFZ built in the 1990ies:


Kamil in his new office:

Uncle Michi

Yippie, uncle Michi came to visit us this week! Another first encounter for Anna with one of her uncles. She definitely feels comfortable with uncle Michi and sleeps very well in his arms. So we used him as Anna-holder for most of the time of his visit ;-) !


...or as baby stroller pusher...


...which he did really professionally...


...not only in the Babelsberg Park...


...but also in Park Sanssouci:




And Michi was doing the first warming-up training with Anna for her future career as professional skier!


Thanks, Michi, that you made it so far up into the north to visit us despite your deep fear of the Prussians!

Father and Daughter

A Sunday-Walk in the Park

Another grey day, but a Sunday, so Kamil and I pack our little girl into the stroller and off we go into the Babelsberg Park.


New paths and new buildings are to be discovered, like the old house of the gardener:


Or the boatman's house:


And here in the background, you can see the Neo-Gothic castle of the Babelsberg Park, built between 1835-1849:


It was build beautifully in English Gothic architecture, but today needs renovation like most of the buildings in the park:


But as it is holding the title of World Cultural Heritage (Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin), a lot of money is invested in its maintenance and repairs.

Discovering Sans Souci with Anna's uncles

This weekend, Micha's bothers Christoph and Georg came for a short visit to Potsdam. Christoph converted his Mustang into a delivery van without further ado and loaded as many boxes of our belongings as possible, which we had stored at his place. It is surprising, how much one can stuff into a sport car.


Then, they were riding this "horse" up to the north - enjoying the German "no-speed-limit"-freeways.
After arriving safely in Potsdam, it was Georg's and Anna's first time to meet each other. Anna seemed to feel a bit awkward first, but soon was enjoying her crazy but child-experienced uncle:


On Saturday, we visited the castle and park of Sans Souci, which still was radiating a rather winterly mood:


We put Anna into the cloth sling, where she feels the most comfortable - and so she was sleeping for most of the time during our walk through the park.


We were wondering why they had planted certain plants of grape-vine behind glass windows and others were not protected at all from the cold:



Georg, Anna, Christoph and me:


Georg hopes to be crowned by this angel:


The New Palais:



Sunday morning, Christoph and Georg had to leave again towards the south - snif! It was a short but really nice visit, which we all enjoyed very much!

Norwegian Baby

Here in Potsdam temperatures are finally cool enough to dress Anna in her warm cuddly Norwegian body, which she got from our friends Heike and Matthias. They live in Starvanger/Norway (and work for Statoil - for whom else?) and came to visit us in Taiwan last November. Thanks you for this cute piece of clothes!

Feeling Big

Lately I feel sooo BIG!
No, it's not the weight gained during pregnancy. (This miraculously disappeared completely in only a few weeks after the birth of Anna. Maybe thanks to breast-feeding - well, definitely not because of any reduction in my chocolate consumption...)
My feet seem to be sooo BIG, my hands are gigantic, my nose is enormous, my ears could compete with elephant's ears, my legs seem to be tree trunks...
...everything compared to the tiny feet of my daughter, her small hands, her petite nose, her delicate ears, her dwarfish legs!
That's why I feel so big!

Here is a foto a Kamil's and Anna's feet taken this moring in our bed! Maybe now you can understand why I feel so big!?

Arrival in Potsdam

Unbelievably, but we arrived in Potsdam! It seems to be so surrealistic - only a few days ago we were in busy, hot Taipei, and now we find ourselves in cool and quiet Potsdam. As quiet as the town may be, as busy we were in the last days! My parents were so kind to drive all the way from Innsbruck up to here to meet us, to bring us winter clothes and to help us (which was greatly needed!)! We found a nice flat on the very day we arrived here, rushed to Ikea to buy the most needed furniture (my dad and Kamil spending a great deal of time assembling the furniture) and moved into the place three days later. What a rush! But we seem to have a great deal of luck, as the flat is large and very nice and in a very family-friendly quarter of the town. I never seen so many baby strollers in the streets!
Here is a picture of the house we life in - it is the large yellow building on the left, and our flat is on the 3rd and 4th floor.


Here a view of our street. The whole quarter, the old weavers' quarter, is dominated by small houses. I definitely have to write a post about it, once I know more:


Cobble stones are very common on the roads and sidewalks:


And this is Anna's new limousine!


Nevertheless, after being carried around in the cloth sling in Taipei, our picky princess has to get used to it. So far, she is not as sound asleep in the stroller as she used to be in the sling, but I think she soon will feel comfortable therein as well. I love this stroller as it is very handy for our daily walks in the park. Being a three-wheeler, steering on rough terrain with one hand is no problem at all! A true geologist's baby stroller!
But instead of digressing more by highlighting all the amenities of our superb stroller, I rather come back to the park, of which I want to show you some pictures. The park's name is Park Babelsberg and is only 200 meters from our home! The park was planted in the 19th century by order of the emperor Wilhelm I and his wife Augusta. On the 114 ha wide hilly grounds of the park, magnificent old deciduous trees and bushes are growing high and higher, winding little paths lead to outlook spots with gorgeous views over the river Havel and the town of Potsdam, and fairy tale castles and towers are to be discovered here and there.
Here a view across the river Havel towards the center of Potsdam:


The old trees in the park:


A Gothic gatehouse at "our" entry to the park:


The "Gerichtslaube", a building for holding court, which once stood in Berlin, was re-erected here in the park:


And the 46 m high Flatow-Tower:


There are more buildings and enchanted places to be discovered in the park, but as I mentioned, Anna is not sleeping as long as before in her sling. So I limit our walks at the moment to one hour each day. But I am looking forward to visit all these other places in the next days. If the weather is fine, I will bring my camera and you will find more photos of the park here in our blog.