Days get shorter and nights longer. Mornings start with crisp, fresh air until the first ray of sunlight. Summer officially didn’t end yet, but you can certainly feel that something is about to change. 🍃

I hope you had a fabulous summer! After the long, cold and - thanks to the pandemic - lonely winter, we all deserved a proper break, didn’t we?

The Neubauer’s household spent a lot of time outside with many long camping weekends and a proper multi-week vacation in 🇩🇰 Denmark. The whole extended family made their to Kerteminde. It’s a lovely little coastal town on the island of Funen, north of Odense. Nice beaches, high quality design stores, great restaurants and the most delicious liquorice ice cream! We rented this Airbnb and were once again super happy to use Airbnb instead of more traditional rentals. You just get so much more bang for your buck.

Our VW Bus “Kalle” ready to board the 🇩🇰 Ferry

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is far from being done, it feels like we have it under control. At least here in central Europe. Two thirds of Germans are vaccinated and pretty much everything is open again. There are strict measures of course, like social distancing, wearing masks, getting tested and so on. That’s a bit annoying but so much more better than lockdowns. Also, borders are open, giving us back our freedom to move as we please. Denmark even just dropped all Covid-19 measures!

For us, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. After maternity and parental leaves as well as “home office only”, our life as a family is changing drastically. Rike just started in her new school, as the head teacher of a new first class. Lasse goes to his Waldkindergarten and Jonte did a fantastic job at getting used to his child minder. When I drop him off, it takes a minute and he waves toward my direction. That’s his way of saying “Daddy, please leave now” 😢.

Next week will be the Grand Opening of the New Work Harbour, our fancy new office in the Hamburger HafenCity district. I couldn’t be more excited as it also means that I will return to the office for at least 50% of my time. Working with my team face-to-face is the best. We actually met last week already as I invited everyone for a 🥩BBQ in my garden. That was the first time we all saw each other since 1,5 years. Insane!

Do you spot our 4 colleagues from 🇵🇹 Porto who joined remotely?

It’s been quiet on this Blog in the past months. I could blame it on summer, family and work busyness. But that would be too easy. Truth is that Blogging on a regular basis for an infinite time is hard. Probably too hard to keep it enjoyable and creatively inspiring over the long run.

Hence I decided to go for a seasonal publishing schedule. And the first season starts now. Since I’m an 🏈 NFL fan ever since the NFL Europe came to Berlin in 1998, the NFL season will guide my Blogging schedule.

This week, Tampa Bay kicked things off against the Cowboys. And so will I. Welcome to the season. Welcome to Blog S1!

This is the next post about my parental leave during April 2021 on the beautiful Açores Islands.

Getting to Pico Island was easy. We dropped the rental car off and paid a 10€ extra cleaning fee because kids 🤷‍♂️ and boarded probably one of the smallest commercial air planes. Siting in row 9 meant that we sat in the very back. That comes with the luxury of having a middle seat. Biggest leg room ever 👌

Middle seat view in row 9

After a short 45 mins flight, we got a new rental car to make our way to Prainha - a little village on the north shore. The Airbnb we booked was one of the many reasons we decided to go to Pico instead of one of the other islands. And we weren’t let down.

Boathouse view

“The Boathouse” as the Airbnb is called is an early 20th century boathouse. Nowadays, it’s a cozy oceanfront cottage with the most amazing view. We arrived quite late in the evening, so I asked our host if there will be drinking water in the cottage if not, we would have bought a few bottles on our way there. I also asked about wine recommendations because that’s one if the island specialities. This is what came back:

Did I already say that I love Airbnb?

The village of Prainha does not have many things to offer but it was so perfect. Walking a few meters past the cows got us to the little grocery store. A few meter further, there was a local bakery and also a Tapas Place right next to the water. The place actually felt more like British pub with outside seating and delicious food. It was soooooo good to have a pint of beer by see again. The cottage was super high quality. We especially enjoyed our breakfasts and dinners on the outside terrace.

Getting ready for dinner

Pico is a small, volcanic island. Known for whale watching and wine. While we skipped on the Whales because our young kids wouldn’t yet enjoy being stuck on a small board for a long time, I made sure to discover the unique, local wines. There weren’t many tourists, so many smaller places were shut, but we still managed to eat out at a different restaurant almost every day.

My Pico recommendations

1. Get a rental car. They are a bit pricy but it’s essential to get around.

2. Try the wine. Terras de Lava is a good start.

3. Restaurants:

   1. Adega Açoriana - Our little Tapas Pub in Prainha
   2. Restaurante Faia - Good food and great ice cream, operated by a nice German couple.
   3. Cella Bar - Fancy-ish restaurant with a very inspiring architecture.
   4. Fonte Tavern - Great garden to have coffee and cake.

4. Take a swim in a natural pool. You’ll find them everywhere on the island but the one in Prainha, right next to Adega Açoriana was our favourite. Soooo refreshing!

5. Go on a hike. Since it’s a volcanic island, going up to the Pico mountain is the most famous route. We opted for easier but still challenging options so we are still able to carry the kids. Starting from Igreja de São Sebastião is a nice one.

Pico was amazing but after a week, it was time to say goodbye. We then spent another week on São Miguel, but this time, on the western part of the island. Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of Corona cases, so the island became a risk territory. That meant closed restaurants, a curfew after 20:00 on weekdays / 15:00 on the weekend and a mandatory quarantine of 5 days plus another PCR test when we get back to Germany. Not ideal, but we made the best out of it and had another lovely week in paradise.

We actually met another German family who had a boy of Lasses age. It was so much fun watching them play at the beach. They flew to the Açores in July 2020 and then simply didn’t board their return flight. Instead, they are now buying a house to permanently stay on São Miguel. I guess we are not the only ones who like this jewel of the Atlantic 😁

The flights back were pretty smooth. As we started the trip super early in the morning, the kids slept for most of the flights. So, Rike and I enjoyed a bit of quiet reading time. When we changed planes in Lisbon, we met a XING colleague. Crazy, how small the world can be.

Back to Hamburg 🇩🇪

After a 3 hour flight from Hamburg, Germany to Lisboa, Portugal, followed by another 2 hour flight, we landed in Ponta Delgada which is the capital of São Miguel, Azores.

Green and beautiful Azores

After checking-in with the authorities to present our negative PCR-Test results and scheduling our 6th and 12th day PCR-Tests, we picked-up our rental car (booked via billiger-mietwagen.de as always), met our AirBnB host for the keys and drove to Furnas.

Furnas is located in the mountains (one of the many calderas) and known for it’s geo-thermal activities. We picked this Airbnb because of the great location in town and the beautiful garden. Furnas was a great base to explore the eastern part of the island with various hikes, beaches and activities.

Green and beautiful Garden in our Azores Airbnb

Experiences we enjoyed the most:

1. Poça da Dona Beija, a thermal bath with 39’C natural swimming pools. The kids and we loved it.

2. Hiking around Furnas Lake which is the place where they place their pots underground to cook meals. I tried it the classic Cozido das Furnas. It wasn’t good (basically a mountain of meat and veggies) but it was special.

3. Fogo Beach in Ribeira Quente and Praia dos Moinhos in Moinhos. Our favourite beaches to play with sand, go with the waves and sun-bath. We had to be mindful of the Portuguese man o’ war which appears during this time of the year though.

4. Eating fresh fish (Thuna steak 🤤) at Bar Caloura. The view and the food was mind-blowing.

Bar Caloura View

Next blog post: Our week on Pico Island, our favourite.

It‘s April 2021 and I‘m on parental leave. Why this month? It is my second son‘s 14th month in this world and that‘s the last month that I can take parental leave and get Elterngeld (monetary support from the state).

Our original plan was to go to New Zealand. Then the Covid-19 pandemic kicked-in. Glad we didn‘t book anything yet!

The new plan was to take our VW California camper bus „Kalle“ and drive to some place warm, like Spain, Italy or Croatia.

Then, the so called 3rd wave of the Covid-19 pandemic kicked-in. Either countries showed astronomic infection rates or the weather forcast was full of cold temperatures and rain which makes camping aweful.

Until the very last day, we planned to pursue our one-month-living-in-our-camper-van dream. Switzerland first and then off to Istrien, Croatia actually looked super promising because borders were open and infection rates at a manageable level, especially when you plan to be in nature most times anyways. But then Istria became a „Risikogebiet“ and Switzerland was at -1‘C with rain. Urgh.

So, on Karfreitag, Rike and I had an intense all-day debate on how to spend our probably last parental leave. As a teacher, it will will take a very long time until she can take a long time off during this time of the year because she is bound to the official school breaks.

Staying at home was not an option. We have done that for more than a year now. While we can pin-point every month, every development stage of Lasses first year to a certain moment or location, Jontes first year is much harder to re-call. We mostly stayed at home.

We thought about driving somewhere anyways. Partly because I probably invested something like 4K€ into fixes and upgrades for our Kalle-bus (more on that in a separate post) and wanted to benefit from that. Also because that has been our dream for the past year.

But we reaaaaaaly want to have a special, memorable time with the boys. Outside in nature. Exploring new territories together. And for that, we need warm, at least Spring-time weather. Not this crappy, wet, continental weather at the moment.

• So, on Easter Sunday, we booked flights to the Azores!

• On Easter Monday, Rike, Lasse and I did a Covid-19 PCR test.

• On Tueday, Jonte and I went to the local authorities to get him a passport.

• On Wednesday, we boarded a plane to Lisbon with a connecting flight to Ponta Delgada, Azores.

The Azores islands are located right in the Atlantic Ocean, pretty much half way between Hamburg, Germany and Boston, US. They belong to Portugal and are therefore a part of the EU.

The Covid-19 infection rates are around 23 (per 100.000) and they have quite strict measures to keep them at that level. Rike and I have to do a PCR Test (through nose and mouth) on the 6th and 12th day. No problem for us but probably frightens other visitors which (we hope) keeps the visitor and infection rates low.

It was a spontaneous decision. There was a lot to get organized, forms to fill and traveling with a mask on for 10 hours isn‘t perfect, but it was already worth it.

We spent 1 week on Sao Miguel, the main island, and yesterday we flew to Pico island. In my next post, I will report on the first week.

Cheers from the ocean!