Summer chronicles

August - September 2023

Josh und Renée in Deutschland (und Europa) für zwei Wochen 🌻 Read more

18footprints
4countries
22days
171photos
0videos
20.5kkilometers
18.5kkilometers

Follow Calendar Share Bucket list

Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 13, 2023, 11:18pm
- ☁️ 10 °C
- Altitude: 21 m
- New Zealand Canterbury Christchurch Cathedral Square -43.533128, 172.63529343°31’59” S 172°38’7” E
CHC-FRA
August 13, 2023 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
The day has arrived!!! Our first flight was from Christchurch to Sydney at around 6pm on Sunday. We didn’t have much time when we got to Sydney and we quickly boarded our second flight - hoping to stay awake for the first half of the flight and sleeping in the second half was the plan…except we weren’t able to sleep pretty much the entire 14 hours 😅 however we enjoyed watching movies (my favourite was the breakfast club) and we found all of our flight meals very yummy and filling. We tiredly turned up in the 34 degree heat in Dubai, by this point we were homesick and ready to sleep. Last flight went smoothly and all of our luggage arrived with us - yay! We felt very happy to be warmly welcomed by Oma Brigitte and Opa Werner 🇩🇪🌻Read more
Traveler Welcome to Europe. The adventure begins...
8/17/23Reply
3 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 15, 2023, 4:19pm
- ☁️ 25 °C
- Altitude: 119 m
- Germany Hesse Frankfurt Altstadt Schirn Kunsthalle 50.110687, 8.68399550°6’38” N 8°41’2” E
Day 2
Exploring Frankfurt
August 15, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
After our 8 hours of sleep we had the best breakfast this morning 🫐🥚🍅 sehr lecker!
Oma Brigitte and Opa Werner took us into central Frankfurt where we did a lot of historical sightseeing - see captions on photos for all the different places we visited today ☺️☺️ I (Renée) was very overwhelmed by how big this city is and how busy it is too, nothing like little old Christchurch in New Zealand 🇳🇿 but one thing for sure is that it’s sehr schön und wunderbar im Sommer ☀️Read more
Traveler It looks like Brigitte is added via paintshop, because of the different size..
8/17/23Reply
Traveler Hahaha 😆 this is something I could do…but I didn’t 😁😁
8/18/23Reply
5 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 17, 2023, 8:18am
- ☁️ 20 °C
- Altitude: 108 m
- Germany Hesse Maintal Bischofsheim 50.151066, 8.79511350°9’4” N 8°47’42” E
Day 4
Hochstadt Altstadt
August 17, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
Today we had a more relaxed day ☀️ We borrowed the bikes so we could check out Hochstadt Altstadt, the cobble roads are so beautiful but very bumpy to bike on 😆 We were invited to join Brigitte and Werner for dinner with the BSVF (Bischofsheimer Schmalfilm und Video Freunde)! The food was lecker, and it seems like the wasps thought so too, as they kept wanting to join in 🐝 On our way back we did some more sightseeing around Hanuau which I really enjoyed 🏰 I especially liked the fact that this is where the Grimm Brothers lived.Read more
4 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 17, 2023, 8:53pm
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 272 m
- Germany Free State of Bavaria Mespelbrunn Neudorf Schloß Mespelbrunn 49.905403, 9.30722549°54’19” N 9°18’26” E
Day 4
Tour with Oma Helga
August 17, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Oma Helga took us on the best road trip today!! Our first stop was at the mysterious and charming Schloss Mespelbrunn. Here we were very impressed by the vast history and old legendary artefacts. I wish I was born into a family with a big castle 👀 next we went to Aschaffenburg where Schloss Johannisberg was waiting to greet us with its late Renaissance grandeur. Great views over the Main river and a very cute Altstadt too. To end the day we had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Landhaus Fernblick where we were spoiled with sublime Mediterranean tastes and a fresh sunset 🐝🌅 (and we saw a squirrel!!!!!)Read more
Traveler looks like a fairytale 💗
8/18/23Reply
Traveler It really is 🥹🌷
8/18/23Reply
5 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 18, 2023, 9:04pm
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- Netherlands Provincie Utrecht Gemeente De Ronde Venen Amstelhoek 52.234953, 4.83917252°14’6” N 4°50’21” E
Day 5
Moving to Amstelhoek
August 18, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Awoken by 4 alarms at 3:30am we made our way to the train station 🚉 (a big thanks to Oma Brigitte and Opa Werner for dropping us off, we are so grateful for the warm welcome here in Europe and for providing us with everything we needed and more💛)

We arrived at Utrecht station at around 9am, we got some nice views on the train as well and it was interesting to see the contrast in landscape/culture as we crossed the border 🌅🌾

Ben and Christine (our landlords) have been so friendly and welcoming to us, we have really struck it lucky here. We’ve moved in all of our things and enjoyed wandering through our new local town here by the Amstel river…🛶🌤️Read more
Traveler Wow, das sieht ja richtig nett aus. Ich bin gespannt, was ihr nächste Woch berichten werdet.
8/18/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler It is so cool, that you two enjoying every single stop you make. Anyway, it looks very much like it. Have fun discovering your new home. 🤪
8/18/23Reply
3 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 19, 2023, 8:36pm
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- Netherlands Provincie Utrecht Gemeente De Ronde Venen Amstelhoek 52.234911, 4.83922852°14’6” N 4°50’21” E
Day 6
Amsterdam!!!
August 19, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
We made it to Amsterdam! This morning we took a nice 20 minute walk to the bus station in Uilthoorn. We were able to figure out how to get on the bus (we thought we needed to get OV Chipkaarts which we now have, yay) but you can also use any eftpos card it’s just not as efficient and is more expensive 🤨

Amsterdam was amazing! We truely enjoyed walking around the narrow streets, dodging bikers from left to right and mostly feeling at ease with hearing all different languages being spoken 😆😅

After a long day of walking, we arrived back to join in on Ben and Christine’s evening BBQ 🍗🥩🥗🥒 we really enjoyed meeting their friends, neighbours and family and getting the best advice from Amsterdam locals 😁Read more
5 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 20, 2023, 8:45pm
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 8 m
- Netherlands North Holland Gemeente Amsterdam De Pijp Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 52.359978, 4.88598752°21’36” N 4°53’10” E
Day 7
Rijksmuseum
August 20, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Another day of getting to see more of Amsterdam! Today we started the day with a morning run around the neighbourhood 🌻 then we headed into the central city to check out the Rijksmuseum. We spent 3 hours wandering the walls of the museum, intrigued by all of the art and history on display 🤩 it was honestly quite overwhelming with how much stuff there was (didn’t help that we forgot our drink bottles - so we started feeling tired quickly) so we grabbed lunch at the markets outside the museum. We then headed towards De Pijp where we got to listen to the end of an outdoor jazz duo. They were students studying at CVA (where Josh will study) so that was cool to listen to!! Afterwards we met up with Amelie who is a friend of joshes from Christchurch, and her kiwi friend from Auckland who is also studying music at CVA.
There was something so nice about being surrounded by kiwis here 🥝 all experiencing the same process of moving abroad.Read more
Traveler Be careful not to overdose on culture.
8/21/23Reply
7 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 21, 2023, 6:57pm
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 9 m
- Netherlands North Holland Amsterdam Dam Square 52.373147, 4.89289752°22’23” N 4°53’34” E
Day 8
another day
August 21, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Today we went into Amsterdam later in the morning so we arrived for lunch - we had to try some Dutch pancakes, which did not disappoint 😋😋 I had my biometrics appointment today for my visa, so now that’s ticked off the list and in about 2 weeks everything will be confirmed!! ✅
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting lost in the busy streets…🌷Read more
6 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 22, 2023, 7:48pm
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
- Netherlands North Holland Gemeente Amsterdam De Wallen Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder 52.375595, 4.90004752°22’32” N 4°54’0” E
Day 9
food&shop
August 22, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Today was our final day of heading into central Amsterdam before we head back to Germany for the last of summer ☀️
We decided to do some shopping (mostly window shopping). We ended up with a book each, which we will probably read on the 8 hour bus ride to Kiel tomorrow night. We had pasta for lunch but the lack of meat in the Penne Bolognese was sadly underwhelming 🍝 but at least the lunch spot had a good view of the canals. We also decided to try the famous Dutch Stroopwafels which were a nice sweet treat 😋 We’ve managed to get our heads around the public transport here, finding the best connects and ways to get around the city - but man is it expensive 🥲🥲Read more
Traveler For your Kieltrip: Don't forget your swimsuit for the jump in the Baltic Sea to enjoy the end of summer at the beach! 🏖️🧜🧜‍♀️
8/23/23Reply
Traveler I'm missing the german "Untertitel" under your Fotos.. 🤪
8/23/23Reply
Traveler I ran out of German words…🥲 need to learn some new ones
8/23/23Reply
Traveler And Josh stopped helping me
8/23/23Reply
5 likes
Traveler Summer chronicles
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Aug 24, 2023
- ☁️ 22 °C
- Altitude: 17 m
- Germany Schleswig-Holstein Dänischenhagen 54.425262, 10.12747454°25’31” N 10°7’39” E
1
Day 11
On the road to Kiel
August 24, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
After a long journey on the overnight FlixBus we arrived to smiley faces and warm sun in Kiel (Deutschland). Sabine and Bjerke took us to the morning Markt where we got to experience delicious apricot pastries 🥐 and coffee. In the afternoon we had a lovely walk to the garden 🪴 where lots of fruit and vegetables thrive - and tonight we got to have homegrown tomatoes and potatoes from the garden!! Sabine, Matze, Josh and I took the bikes to the beach here. Our very first summer swim, and our first time swimming in the Baltic Sea. The water was calm and warm enough to be enjoyed. After all the fun we had on the beach we had to try the best Fishbrötchen and topped it off with Spaghettieis (my new favourite way to eat ice cream!) We feel so lucky to be here and to be surrounded by Joshes very welcoming family 🌟Read more
Traveler yummmmy
8/24/23Reply
Traveler Endlich Matjes????
8/25/23ReplyTranslate
Traveler And there's still more of Josh's family to meet and visit. 🖖🤙👊🤝
8/25/23Reply
7 likes