2021

Winter into 2021 was a pretty intense lockdown in Germany. We didn't do much the first few months other than cook and walk around in the woods. Some of the surrounding areas we did check out were Frankenstein, Bad Dürkheim, and the suburbs of Frankfurt. We also moved to a nearby, slightly bigger city called Kaiserslautern. 

In May, we had a surprise trip to the USA because that was the only way I could get a COVID vaccine (I was too low of a priority in Germany being young, healthy, and working from home). 

Back in Europe, we took a day to explore Luxembourg and a few days were spent in Brussels, Belgium. We also had a romantic getaway to a castle along the Rhein and walked around some surrounding villages: Rüdesheim am Rhein, Kamp-Bornhofen, Boppard, Sankt Goar, and finally Koblenz. 

In August, we met some friends from Philly in Iceland. Driving around that country, we saw some of the most intensely unique and beautiful topography ever. But I did want to spend more time that we had in Reykjavík.

My parents visited in September so we drove to the Champagne region of France, staying in Épernay and drinking all the champagne we could. 

A friend of mine, Peppe, was living in Capri, Italy, around this time so in October we flew down to Naples, took a ferry to the island, and spent in a weekend in his house. He's a chef so we mostly drank and cooked but we couldn't have asked for a more special weekend. Heading back to the airport, we quickly stopped at Pompeii to see the ruins.

Halie's parents visited in December, spending most of our time around Kaiserslautern. We did take the train over to Paris for one weekend.