Ceci's visit: Christmas in Berlin

I know it's weird to be blogging about Christmas now that January is almost over, but here I go. This was our first Christmas in Berlin, and our first Christmas not in America or Dublin. Though we were happy enough to be here it was also nice to have Eric's sister, Ceci with us then. Unfortunately Ceci's visit started off a bit rocky. Firstly her luggage didn't arrive with her and actually didn't arrive until a good few days after. Then at the airport, after queuing and filling out forms with Air France, she went to get out some money and the machine ate her card! Double whammy! Poor Ceci! One good thing did come out of it though: she ended up getting some nice clothes courtesy of Air France, including a superwarm winter coat which she made use of.

After that luckily there were no more disasters. The few days leading up to Christmas were very quiet as Germany more or less closes down a few days before and after Christmas. Luckily we got tickets to a choral event at the beautiful Berliner Dom for the night of the 23rd. Unfortunately we couldn't see that much unless we stood up but the music was wonderful (Eric says it was the best choir he had ever heard) and the setting even better. Very Christmasy!

On Christmas Day we kept it very traditional and basically ate our way through the day, bagels and smoked salmon for breakfast and roast chicken, roast vegetables and apple pie for our Christmas lunch. Our friend Joy joined us for the dinner (he's the one taking the photo) to complete the winning Christmas combo of food, friends and family.

Ceci had rented a bike for the week she was with us and once Christmas was over and the city woke up again that was basically what we spent our time doing - cycling and seeing the sights. And I think Ceci is now in agreement with us, despite the freezing temperatures we sometimes had to endure, that the best way to see Berlin is by bike. Ceci certainly enjoyed it and could be heard singing Queen's bicycle song happily to herself as she cycled through Berlin. Berlin + bicycle = spontaneous happy singing!

We went from the west side of the city...

...to the east. Above is a photo from the Fernsehturm, which Ceci brought us up as part of our Christmas present. It has an amazing 365 degree panoramic view of the city, which is pretty spectacular.

And we, of course, made sure to stock up on energy along the way. She seemed to take to the typical German breakfast (pic above), which we ate at one of our favourite cafes. Truly, the best way to start any day.

By the end of her trip after cycling the length and breadth of the city I have to say that Ceci looked pretty at home here. She even made some friends down by Brandenburg Gate!

Thanks for visiting Ceci! Berlin's cyclepaths aren't the same without you!

When computers go bad...

Forgive me blog-readers, for it has been a long, LONG, time since my last blog, or at least it feels like it. I would like to have had a great story as an excuse about a wild adventure that myself and Eric were on and how I was that busy I just couldn't muster a blog, but unfortunately I have no such story. The main reason is that a couple of weeks ago my computer crashed. Actually not only did it crash, but it basically died. Kaputt, kicked the bucket, bought the farm etc, etc. We brought it to an Apple outlet in the city and there was nothing that could be done. They just wrapped up the old harddrive in plastic and apologetically handed it back to us. I have to say that I nearly had a complete freakout to realise that everything I had on the computer was lost. Then my lovely husband reminded me that in September I had the foresight to back up my harddrive on a handy external harddrive that we have here. So I still had everything up until then. However, it was a bummer to lose all my work and photos from September till now. It was a valuable lesson in "Backing It Up". Seriously, if you have anything important on your computer, make a copy somewhere else. Technology cannot be trusted!!! It will fool you with it's lovely shiny screen and it's perky buttons and it's super quick response time until one day it just leaves without even so much as a good-bye, taking all your valuables with it. (Yes, I'm still talking about computers.) Anyway, that's all I have to say on the matter and wow, I've just realised what a boring, moany blog this is! Apologies - I'm out of practice, a proper blog on the way, I promise! In the meantime, why not share your 'when computers/technology go/es bad' stories in the comments section?