You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...

Ok, so I wrote a post about a month ago, about how spring had sprung.

Well, with hindsight, that was wishful thinking.

It appears Mother Nature wasn't quite ready to unleash spring on us way back in March. But now it seems she is ready to play ball, has thawed the big freeze that has covered most of western Europe for the last month and has finally graced us with appropriate weather. Life just seems so much more manageable when the sun is shining. People walk around, quite literally, with a spring in their step!

Anyway, back to reality. The last couple of weeks have been fairly calm, as is generally the case after the holidays. People need a little time to ease themselves back into the routine of walking up at the crack of dawn every day. One exciting change this time, however, was that I had my lovely friend Katie to fly back with me at the end of the holidays. Not only was I excited to show her Bensheim (she's doing her year abroad next year, so it was a little taster of what's to come for her,) it was also really nice not to have to do the journey back to Germany all on my lonesome. We had a lovely few days, visiting the sights that Hessen has to offer, and of course no visit would be complete without a visit to my beloved Heidelberg!

I think I've seen Heidelberg in pretty much all the seasons now. I do love that place!

We gorged our way through a Schneeball - basically a ball of biscuit with whatever filling or coating you choose. We were sold!

Then off to a slightly chillier Frankfurt and Wiesbaden to get the most out of our Hessen ticket. 

The Natural History Museum in Frankfurt

Cathedral in Wiesbaden. Pretty impressive, non?

Where the Hessen parliament sits

And then it was back to Bensheim for a cocktail oder zwei...

I even got to show her how the Germans party, when we headed up into the hills surrounding Heppenheim (the town nextdoor) for Steffen's birthday party. An evening of great food, great music and great company. All in all a terrific way to round off a lovely visit from my lovely friend! 

Why do I always feel the need to be the weird one?!

Until next time

Emily