Real Life

Some days the expat life is great. Other days it can be a struggle.

But a couple of recent days stand out as days where I have to pinch myself to be certain this is real life.

Out doing some work in our neighboring city, Tønsberg

Coffee and conversation with a local friend

Hamburg Highlights

While our focus was more on catching up than on tourism, we did manage to see a good bit of the city. It was beautiful!

So long, old friend

Last week was a tough one for our family. Zack said it well, so I will simply copy what he posted on Facebook...

Our sweet girl Adie died on Monday. She was almost 16 years old! Hard to move overseas and leave her behind and hard not to be there with her in her last days. Thankful to my folks and brother for caring for her and also to Deceased Pet Care.

And then there was Hamburg

Getting to explore so many new cities was great. But one city stood out from the others as we made our vacation plans.

Hamburg.

Not because of any certain landmarks or sightseeing or anything like that. No, it was because of some very special friends. Some of our friends from Atlanta are now living there, friends we hadn't seen in close to two years.

I have to say it was like Christmas morning for me. Watching the hours and then minutes tick off the GPS. Pulling up to their street and seeing three of them standing on the corner, waving us in. Getting out of the car and looking up on the balcony to see one of my best friends standing there (and then running down to greet us). And the hugs. It had been too long. And yet once we were back together, it was as if no time had passed.

The kids immediately fell into playing like normal. And we fell into conversations with people who know us, understand us... and still like us!

For an entire week we lived together, cooked together, ate together, explored together, laughed together, and chilled together. It was a week I will never forget, and just what we needed. I'm incredibly grateful that God has allowed our friendship to continue to grow despite the distance between us. And we look forward to them coming to visit us in Norway at some point!

Dusseldorf

On our second full day in Germany, we decided to do a little walking tour of Dusseldorf. We enjoyed exploring the churches and wandering up and down the small streets. And we did some shopping as well.

Exploring Köln/Cologne

As I mentioned in our last post (here), our first stop on our trip to Germany was Dusseldorf. We went there to visit some of our colleagues. They invited us to make the short drive with them to Cologne.

And we are so glad we did! We were only there for a few hours, but we had the chance to tour the cathedral. A giant amongst its neighboring architecture, it was hit numerous times but managed to survive the bombings of WWII. Many war experts and reports suggest that it was not specifically attacked because it served as a very visible landmarks for finding other locations that were to be hit.

We didn't see a lot more than that. We managed to get our obligatory Starbucks city mug, and had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe (wow, we sound like typical American tourists!). But it was a fun afternoon getting to see yet another beautiful part of one of our favorite countries.