Bonjour!

It’s a beautiful 65 sunny degrees here in Gainesville Florida today and I’m feeling very thankful to be enjoying this beautiful weather and town.

The Christmas spirit is flowing through our neighborhoods and town centers with Christmas lights and music every where. No we don’t have snow capped trees and buildings but there’s something special about our beautiful Palm trees all decked out in their Christmas splendor. It’s clear I love living in the south. Shorts in the afternoons and jackets and boots in the evenings. Perfect!

The Real Estate market is conveniently,  historically slower as we move through the Holidays.  We did see a very slight increase in interest rates but they came back down shortly after and are expected to rise again. The Holiday season is a good time to find deals as most know it’s tougher to sell or rent this time of year so prices may be lower.

I recently treated myself to an early Christmas present and travelled to Europe. Wow, what an experience! We did a Viking River Boat Cruise through Germany visiting castles, vineyards, and palaces. We started with two days in Paris, France and ended it with two days in Prague in the Czech Republic. The Viking longboats are five star and have approximately 200 guests so it’s nice and quaint and you get to know most of the guests and crew. Our room had a veranda so our sliding glass door offered up one castle after another as we cruised down the Rhine and Mossell where vineyards and tourism are the main employment. I was truly impressed with Vikings Long River boat and seeing Germany through this mode. Some points of our excursions in this all inclusive trip were Paris’s Eiffel Tower, the Museé du Louvre, Cathedral Notre Dam,  Arc de Triomphe, the many shops and Cafe’s along the famous Champs-Élysées Germany; Luxembourg American Cemetery Memorial Park where we saw General Patton’s grave site amongst his fallen men. In Nuremberg, we visited the Nuremberg Castle and Palace Würzburger Residenz. In Czech, we roamed the Prague Palace, Charles Bridge, and Praha Old Town Square. It was truly amazing. I could say a once in a lifetime experience but I plan to have many more trips exploring our beautiful world. I’ve shared a lot of pictures and videos from the trip in the link below.

We were in Paris on the night of the terrorist attacks and had the blessed good fortune of leaving the cafe area where the attacks happened and were 4 miles away in our room when we heard what happened merely 30 minutes prior.  Our friends and families were anxious to know that we were ok and we were able to easily keep everyone updated through Facebook. It became a nice way to share our trip as we travelled through Europe. Since, I’ve had many people say how they felt they were able to experience these places through our posts. Facebook can be a beautiful tool in sharing (when used correctly ;). I hope you also enjoy the trip.

The morning after the attacks we were told the Borders were closed but as we took our 6:30 am bus ride to Trier, Germany to meet our boat, we passed through the border of France to Germany with nothing significant marking it besides the beautiful rolling farm land and many gazing deer. We expected the Border to be closed and have some difficulty or at least a passport check but it was open with no one in sight and we continued on our trip without out being further affected. We however will never be the same. I won’t bore you with my thoughts on our nation’s issues but I’ll just share a couple of quotes below that sums up my feelings on these complex issues.

“If religion means primarily God-consciousness, or the realization of God both within and without, and secondarily a body of beliefs, tenets and dogmas, then, strictly speaking, there is but one religion in the world, for there is but one God.”

– Paramahansa Yogananda, The Science of Religion

“Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.”

–Paramahansa Yogananda

To see pictures and video from Tanya’s trip, click here.

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Read similar blog posts from “Words From Our Broker”:

• Words From our Broker – January 2015
• Words From our Broker – November 2015