Before I share pictures and videos of our holiday there I want to thank my in-laws for their generosity in taking our family with them to visit Balingen. We had an amazing week and it was so lovely to meet their friends and to see the strong friendships that have lasted so long.
Although I have heard from others that Germany is very formal, we kind of had a different first impression of the people there, having "snuck in the back door" really - no formality was displayed to us, only the warmth of time-worn friendships as Grant's parents picked up where they left off with the welcoming, kind and generous people they'd met all those years ago and have seen only sporadically since. Everyone was so lovely to us.
So last week Wednesday we woke super early and drove just over an hour to the airport (I slept in the car). Our flight with Lufthansa was mid-morning and took around 1h45min to Stuttgart. We picked up our hire car, which was an enormous VW bus with loads of room for all of us - poor Grant had the job of maneuvering it all week AND driving on the right hand side of the road (we drive on the left in the UK):
(No, he doesn't routinely wear a belt-bag, this was taken right before we returned to the airport at the end of our holiday and he had the passports and boarding passes handy!)
We drove to our holiday apartment which took a couple of hours (I slept in the car again). This is where we stayed - the top floor of this beautiful house:
You come up the stairs on the left and then the boys' bedroom is behind me in this picture; first door to the right is the bedroom Grant and I shared; our bathroom is first door to the left; straight ahead is the central hallway with Grant's parents room ahead to the right, their bathroom first door on the right, living room ahead on the left and kitchen to the left.
Central hallway - kitchen to the left, then living room, then bedroom:
Dining kitchen:
Living room:
Balcony running along from of the house outside the living room and kitchen:
Front garden and view from the front balcony:
Grant's parents' bedroom:
Their bathroom (there's a shower behind the door):
The bedroom Grant and I shared:
The bedroom the boys shared:
Our family's shower room:
Balcony outside our room - the window on the left is to in-laws' bathroom and then door to their bedroom:
View from bedroom balcony - you can see a corner of the shed and neat little vegetable patch and you can see a church tower - the bells would ring at 6am and 6pm:
The whole apartment was spotlessly clean - you could probably have licked the floors and come to no harm. In fact, my impression of Germany is of cleanliness indoors and out, with everything so neat and tidy and people taking a real pride in their homes.
