From one cold place to another cold place. People thought we were nuts for wanting to explore a colder place but there were plenty more pros to a low-season jaunt across the sea, which was discovered during a month-long sabbatical to snowy German a few weeks ago. After a crazy year of non-stop shooting, editing and all things related to running a business, we needed to recharge and do something different since it’ll be my only vacation for 2014. As tempting as a sunny paradise seemed, we were drawn more to the castles set up high in the mountains and the giant snow-sprinkle trees in the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps.

The trip started with an exhausting 25 hour flight, which left me passed out face down at a Turkish Kaffehaus in Berlin shortly after we landed. I was told there were some local students who were filming a skit the entire time my head was in the clouds. To my surprise it was only about 30 degrees Celsius outside, which was a lot warmer than some negative degree Celsius we were expecting it to be. Our itinerary included a day or few spent in each of the following places: Berlin, Cologne, a cliff located near Honau on the Swabian Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Füssen, Berchtesgaden, and back up to Berlin. No matter what part of the country we visited, there were thick layers of history everywhere: from gothic cathedrals to medieval castles and from Baroque palaces to communist-era apartment blocks. We’ll spare the rest of the details and encounters we accumulated for another time, but, despite all the tradition, Germany is a modern country and we managed to finagle invitations everywhere we went to get the real experience.

But now, it’s back to the reality of tight schedules and long nights of editing. To be honest, it has taken several days to recover from the jet lag and  settle back into the daily grind for the remainder of this year. We just wanted to take a quick minute to apologize for not remembering to put up our vacation responder during the entire month for those who have tried to reach out to us. We meant no lack of consideration or gratefulness for your inquiries and just wanted to make that clear.