Hockley Heights Gazette

Well since my last blog our family has gone to Germany! (As you probably know) we went over for our white Christmas and we certainly got one! Also it wasn't really that cold which I know probably sounds very unlikely but most of the time the sun was out and because there was so much snow it all looked quite fake. Effectively the second day that we were there was Christmas day and we went to a spectacular concert which was short walk away in a concert hall. A few days after we saw that performance we went to the same place for a meal as it also had a restaurant which was very nice , Mitchell and I had traditional German schnitzel which was quite tasty. Also a short walk away was a great snow covered slope and the owner of the place we were renting was very nice in lending us some sleds to ride down the slope on. That entertained us for a few days but then we discovered skiing, and going down a slope on a sled was just not cutting it for us. It was my first time skiing and you could definitely pick me out in a crowd. I would be the one on the ground with my ski's in an awkward position and laughing! At first I could barely walk and also I thought it was scary going down a slope which was on the slightest angle downwards. It also took me awhile to learn how to stop so before then I had some interesting methods of slowing down! We had two skiing days and by the end Mitchell and I were going down quite a large hill very fast which was very fun! Although of course going on a trip with my parents meant going to several castles and historical places. We visited this castle which was quite an interesting structure. The Disney castle was based on its design. The castle was quite impressive but the scenery more so. We were up in these mountains with snow everywhere and a spectacular view of small towns which lay below. After our second session of skiing we decided to go to the tiny country of Liechtenstein. What a strange place that it!! We got lost for a few minutes and ended up driving around a quarter of the country! You can jog from east to west as it is only about 6 miles! We also managed to get to Austria but we didn't really spend much time in either. They both seemed like nice countries though, very scenic. On our second last day in Germany we went and saw this Russian choir which I expected to be extremely boring but was actually quite amazing. Some of the notes that they could reach was impressive and although there was only six of them they were very loud. On the last day that we were in Germany which was a Sunday ( We arrived on the Sunday a week earlier, well Monday really we arrived about 1:30 am local time) we went to the depressing and horrific concentration camp in Dachau. It was huge and we spent a few hours there looking around at all the old cells and bunker type buildings. We read about all the horrible things that happened there which was a bit of a weird thing to end our fantastic trip on but the tour was definitely historically rich in Germany's darker side in history.

So that was our great trip to Germany, An outstanding Christmas and holiday!!

Jackson