http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Katha-Turbostern/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Katha Turbostern en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 12:59:01 +0000 Tue, 21 May 2013 12:59:01 +0000 Last weekend my mum was here to visit. I had given her a helicopter flight over Hamburg and the river Elbe for Christmas and she was here to redeem her voucher. Of course I had bought myself a voucher too. Otherwise she would have been scared and lonely on the flight .The airstrip was not far from Pinneberg northwest of the city centre. Getting there was kind of adventurous because we had pic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-783172.html Two weeks ago right after my weekend in Oslo I flew to Munich to spend the weekend with my friend Hetty and her husband Stefan. After a very cold March and a cold Easter even in Stuttgart in the south of Germany where I had flown for the Easter holidays spring was just about to arrive. So on Saturday we hiked around one of the lakes not far from Munich the Schliersee. It was a beautiful ni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-783167.html Our Norwegian business partner had invited me to speak at their client event in Oslo on the 5th of April. The event took place in the Grand Hotel in the city centre. I arrived there the night before stayed the night in the beautiful art nouveau hotel and was thrilled to be part of this event. My 45 minute talk was on Fair Testing in Web 2.0 and I was happy to present some of the ideas we h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Eastern-Norway/Oslo/blog-781004.html On Thursday afternoon we arrived in Mandawa. The town in the north of Rajasthan is not as touristy as many cities in the South and East of the province yet which I quite liked. A tour guide took us to some of the havelis merchants39 houses there. They are 100 to 120 years old and used to be beautifully painted and decorated. However they are not wellmaintained and thus rapidly declining. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/Delhi/blog-776409.html Jaisalmer is in the very west of Rajasthan in the Thar Desert. There is once more a fort on a hill above the city this time all in yellow the same colour as most houses have. So while Jodhpur is the Blue City Jaisalmer is the Golden City.On Tuesday morning Mizzi and I visited the fort that dates from the 17th century. What makes it different from all the other forts we had seen so far is th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaisalmer/blog-775775.html We arrived in Udaipur in the afternoon. After a short walk through the Sahelion ki Bari Park where there are nice fountains and a lot of colourful flowers we drove into the city. Our hotel was close to the city palace so first we took a walk through some of the streets and into two temples one of them offering a wonderful view of Lake Pichola on which the city is located. Then we took an even http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Udaipur/blog-775525.html We arrived in Jaipur on Wednesday afternoon. Our hotel there had a nice and quiet garden so we first had a cup of tea there. Then we wanted to to what we usually do when we get to a new city walk around explore and get a first impression of the city. However we soon realised that this was not enjoyable at all. There was no pavement that would deserve the name it was noisy and dirty and not e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaipur/blog-774820.html On Monday morning we were picked up by our driver and started off for the 250 km from Agra to Sawai Mandhopur the city close to Ranthambore National Park where we were going to go on a safari and hopefully see some tigers. The journey would take us six hours altogether. Driving in a car in India usually takes really long you do an average of 50 kmh because many roads are in a really bad condi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Ranthambhore-National-Park/blog-774587.html I have come out of hibernation and there are new stories and adventures coming up. At the moment I am in Agra India the city where the famous Taj Mahal is located. I am on a two and a half week trip through Rajasthan with my friend Mizzi. We only arrived here the day before yesterday but it already feels like weeks because so much has happened.We left Hamburg on Thursday and flew from there th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-773946.html I just returned from a one week retreat in Plum Village near Bordeaux in France. I flew into Bordeaux where I had some time for sightseeing but thats another story I will write more on that soon and caught a train from there to Ste Foy la Grande about an hour from Bordeaux where I was welcomed by two nuns.Plum Village was founded in 1992 by the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh calle http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Aquitaine/Bordeaux/blog-751229.html Last time I told you that it took me a while to write about my triathlon because I had been so busy travelling. Let me tell you where my September travelling took me.On September the 5th I flew to Munich for Hetty and Stefans wedding. It was going to be a meticulously planned weekend into which Hetty and Stefan but also family and friends including myself as I was going to be Hettys http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-747572.html Three weeks ago I participated in my fourth triathlon. I am sorry it took me so long to write this story. Right after it I was simply too busy helping with the preparations for two weddings Hetty and Stefans in Garmisch near Munich and Marie and Matthias in Schorndorf near Stuttgart a congress in Berlin and a week of further training in Cologne. But here you go.My end of season triathl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Schleswig-Holstein/Lauenburg-Elbe/blog-745212.html When I walked into the office of our Managing Director Andreas right the day after returning from Amsterdam he asked me whether I wanted to go to Cape Town South Africa for a business trip in two weeks time because he could not go himself. We had together with our South African business partners submitted a symposium at the International Congress of Psychology to be held in Cape Town fro http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-733567.html Not even 48 hours after arriving back home from Moscow I left for another conference in Amsterdam the 8th Conference of the International Test Commission. I arrived in the city in the late morning which gave me just enough time to get into town from Schiphol Airport and check into my hotel. From there it was not even a ten minute walk to the conference venue the wonderful Koninklijk Instit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-730524.html I just returned from an extraordinarily inspiring and intense stay in Moscow. I went there for the European Conference on Positive Psychology.I left on Monday morning and flew into one of the international airports in Moscow Vnukuvo. Arrival there was very pleasant. The airport is pretty new getting through passport control was not a big deal although obtaining the visa had been but I think th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-727294.html Some months ago I received a message from Hadi asking me whether I would allow him to translate my blog post on Istanbul into Persian and post it on his blog. I felt honoured and of course I said yes and here is the result httpjahangard.blogsky.com13901217post4. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-725680.html Last weekend Christiane and I went to the island of Langeoog one of the East Frisian islands about a three hour drive from Hamburg. The island is small only about 15 km long and 5 km wide. There is a little village in its north western corner some scattered houses and farms to the south of the village and almost nothing to the east of the village. There are no cars allowed on the island whi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Lower-Saxony/Langeoog/blog-724210.html Yesterday was a perfect day for a triathlon. It was dry and sunny but not too hot and there was some wind but not too much. I had signed up for the Waltriathlon in Brunsbttel a little more than an hour northwest of Hamburg. I felt well prepared for the triathlon basic endurance and muscle formation training during the winter followed by interval training many intense training units during http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Schleswig-Holstein/Itzehoe/blog-719458.html Las Vegas is probably the craziest place Ive ever been to. But leaving the city can be even crazier. I arrived there on Monday afternoon but let me start this post with my leaving the city on Tuesday. It was a nightmare.The whole day had been extremely windy. The palm trees were anything but straight various objects were blown around and the whole city was underneath a canopy of sand. When I http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Las-Vegas/blog-695062.html When I arrived in Flagstaff from Phoenix I went straight to the Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill right above the town. It was founded in the 19thcentury by Perceval Lowell an astronomer because there was not hardly any pollution by light in the area and it was at a high altitude. A number of important research projects have been going on at the observatory during the last century. When the obs http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Flagstaff/blog-694768.html