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Having previously seen how Germans celebrate on Shrove Tuesday (and the weeks before it) and compared that to our tradition of eating pancakes - I’ve been thinking about why we don’t put the same effort into celebrating events.

I still have no idea - but just before we left Germany I was lucky enough to get involved in another great holiday that is humdrum in the UK - but really made into something special in Germany (and most other European countries).

I should first explain how public holidays work in Germany. Unlike the UK, holidays are held on the day they are associated with no - the next Monday. So May the 1st in Germany is the public holiday - not the first Monday in May as it is for us. This is an interesting system and has plus points and negative points. A big negative is that when May 1st falls on a weekend - you don’t get a holiday. A even worse example is when for some reason two holidays clash on the same day. This year May 1st was on Ascension Day - which is another holiday in Germany - so rather than have two public holidays there was only 1!.

Now Ascension Day is the day that has been turned into a great celebration - this is ignored in the UK - but in Germany - the men have hijacked it - and it is Father’s day. When I say father’s day - it really is - no mucking around with cards and that sort of malarky - men get a cart  - fill it with bottles of beer and go off into the woods for a day of walking and drinking (no need to tell you which one is done the most!).

We joined the Brass band of Serrig for a 2.5 hour walk from Serrig to Saarhoelzbach - where there was festival for the day - mostly oompah music but still enjoyable food, drink and company.

So why don’t we celebrate with such enthusiasm - I still have no idea - but next bank holiday - book a flight to Germany and no matter where you go there is likely to be a good simple party! :-D

OK it is a Friday night at 10 past 11 and I am updating my blog - so not all can be good - but it is!

We now feel settled in our new flat in Valencia - it has been a hard few weeks since my last update.

Mostly spent socialising, packing and working - fun  but exhausting I shall try to put up a few posts about more things that I learnt whilst in Germany before starting on the Spanish stories!

I’ve tried with other pictures and words to describe Serrig but I think this picture captures it all:

It is lucky that the photographer (my mum) got the boat on the river as this sets a scale for the river also.

Click on the picture to get a better look. You can see that Serrig is not that large on the bend of a river and all on the side of a valley. If you look carefully at the photo you can also see in the distance along the river Saarburg the nearest town.

It is amazing how those that live here seem to miss the beauty of the place - it is just every day to them - but for me wonderful.

Am very grateful for the 2 months that I have had here - shame it will soon end.

Tennis was great yesterday, we saw two full matches in the centre court and watched the city’s best tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero practicing. He has been responsible for also creating the Valencia Open which is only 6 years old. This is the last year it will be held where it was held yesterday - next year it will move location and time of the year. The location is great as it will be only a short walk from our new flat, the time will be November. It will also become a Open 500 tournament which means that it is only behind the Grand Slam tournaments and the masters series for prize money and points, and therefore will attract the top tennis stars.

Today we are going to try and get tickets for the football this evening, but we are not sure how easy that will be. We know where the stadium is as we looked at a flat right next door to it. The strange thing here is that football matches start at 10pm - so we plan to watch the game and then go for a curry on our final night here in April.

We spent yesterday walking Valencia, not the old town and bits we had done before - but from the old town to our new neighbourhood. Along the park in the old river bed.

We saw the local places in our Barrio (I’ll explain that term another time) - the local fruit shops, butchers, bakers, bars and coffee shops.

Got a feel for the neighbourhood and walked down to the beach also.

After going to look at the flat in the evening, we decided to celebrate in true English style in a local curry house. Unfortunately we forgot that nothing serving food really opens here until at least after 8 if not later and we were a little  too early.

So we caught a bus back to the old town and headed for another place we had been recommended - a taps bar near the one of the main squares. Wonderful - fairly cheap, nice maze-like interior and a the food was quite good. It was amusing to see that yet again Nicole managed to find a place next to some Germans (this is a curse that has haunted her ever since she came to the UK, she seems to never be more than 10 metres from another German - she hates it (-: ).

Today we are off to find out about the Valencia Tennis Open (see here) we are not sure what to expect but it must be better than the Milton Keynes Open or the Serrig Open (Nicole’s village).

So we have spent the entire day looking at properties around Valencia with Mairead who has done a fantastic job of searching for properties for us.

We are now at the end of the day and faced with our decision between two properties.

One in centre of Valencia:

And one on the outskirts by but the beach - infact 8 floors up with a great view of the sea in one direction and the plains of Valencia and the mountains in the other:

What’s the problem - why not just go for the great views? well it feels like it could be quite remote and we will have to work there everyday in addition to living there. What is the problem with the city centre apartment then? It is quite small - and also it is hard to imagine living and working there.

After a sleep hopefully all will be clear to us……..

Tomorrow we fly to Valencia to start a long weekend and on Thursday we have lots of flats in and around Valencia to see.

It is quite exciting - but it will also be very rushed - it will be hard to make a decision in one day - but for this reason we hope to only sign a 6 month contract.

Will post more details once we are back next week.