June 9 - start of the world cup: Germany - Costa Rica

On June 9 the highly anticipated world cup started. For 4.5 weeks Munich and all of Germany would be a big party. The first game we watched on our friends's patio.
Here Munich about 2 hours before the opening game-packed with people. Nathan rode his bike around town in order to catch some of the pre-world cup atmosphere.

People from all over the world.

Excitement after "we" won "our" first game- one of many.

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There was also some betting going on.

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getting the bbq started

here again, the patio.#

Nathan proud to wear "his" colors.

Patriotic attire was mandatory. Here from right to left the German flag.

some more deco.

Our private opening game party (Germany-Costa Rica) took place on Uli and Barbara's patio- nicely decorated with German accessoires. As it was in the afternoon and very light, the TV was covered by Bavarian Beer umbrellas (right).

England - Paraguai

In the Munich Olympic center they had put up a huge flat screen TV. Around the shore of the lake there was space for about 20.000 people. That's where we spent the second day of the world cup.

Crazy English fans.

Nathan and the girls.

South of France

From June 16-19 we visited our friends Steve and Sabrina in the South of France. As always when we are there, we had such a good time. They are the best about organizing day trips and chosing restaurants. Though short, the three days felt like a small vacation.

nice square

after dinner we just walked around for a bit.

We spent the night at Sabrina's parents' house (picture). As always her parents prepared a huge meal with aperitif, different barbecued meat, provence-style veggies, fresh bread, olives, 4 different sorts of ice cream for dessert and in the end a big cheese platter. That all combined with nice ros� wine. Staying at their house is always very relaxing. Taking your time haveing the courses of lunch, sitting around talking, hanging out at the pool.

When we first met Matisse last year, he was almost 4 months old. Now a year later he is running around and has his own little head.
Sabrina's parents kept him over the weekend so that the four of us would have "undisturbed time".

We really had to laugh when Sabrina was dressing Matisse in a plastic shirt and a big plastic bib for lunch. We learned really quickly why: he eats with spoon and fork but also with his hands and smears food all over himself.

Matisse eats everything. In this picture he is eating the strongest and stinkiest cheese you can imagine. We like strong cheese but this one was a bit too much for us. This little boy ate it like it was chocolate!

chillin' at the pool.

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For dinner we walked to the center of Montpellier, which is about 15 minutes to walk from Steve and Sabrina's appartment. The old town is really pretty with cool old buildings.

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This was the cutest little restaurant. It was in a very small alley with very few table. Their specialty is a huge pizza and all drinks served in baby bottles. At first it was a bit weird having wine out of a baby bottle but you got used to it very quickly. And the wine tasted just the same...

On Sunday we packed a lunch and headed to the beach. The weather was pretty and the we just relaxed- although the beach was packed with people.

Actually, Sabrina and I were better than Nathan playing the paddle ball game!

After our beach day we just spend the evening sitting on the balcony, having dinner and chatting.

For our last day Sabrina had planned a drive through Provence, ending at the airport. Our flight was not leaving until 9pm, so we had a full day.

For yet another tasty lunch, with lots of goat cheese and some more ros�, we stopped in the really cute town "Fontain de Vaucluse", which means "Spring of the (river) Vaucluse".

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After lunch we decided to take a walk up to the spring of the rive-although it was very hot and humid. The water was so clear but ice cold.

castle.

The actual spring.

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The village "Gordes". Really nice view.

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Finally! Lavender! All day had waited to see some. Lavender usually is in full bloom around July, so we were a few weeks early and the fields were not as purple. But it still smelled nicely and was nice to look at.

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One more pretty village. I forgot the name. As you can see, the soil is very red in this area.

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Our next stop after this one was the airport in Marseille...