Getting ready for Australia

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Auch diesmal habt Ihr lange nichts von mir gelesen - ich war sehr beschäftigt mit Vorbereitungen für Australien und hatte noch jede Menge Arbeit davor zu erledigen. Und ich habe einen kleinen Beitrag für die Online-Ausgabe der Zeitschrift active woman geschrieben, schaut mal hier.

I'm at Frankfurt Airport at the moment, waiting for my plane for Australia to leave. I have been quite busy for the last couple of weeks, getting everything organised for my trip and getting loads of work done. Still, I had some time to go to a couple of Christmas markets and see my friend Christiane who lives near Bonn last weekend. We go to an adventure park called Phantasialand every year around Christmas. It is very nice as they have all the Christmas decoration there, the employees are dressed up as Santa Clause or snowflakes, and they have some special Christmas shows. This year's highlight was an elk rodeo, like bull riding, just with an elk. Christiane and I were two of the few people that had a go, and we did not do too bad, acutally.

I also had time to visit Felix Rühle from A-I-R who used to be our neighbour on the camp site in Monte Cucco. Felix is the founder and owner of the rigid wing factory A-I-R. I met him again at a hanggliding and paragliding fair in Sindelfingen, not far from my place. He had invited me to the A-I-R factory, and I had promised to come and see him before Christmas. It was very nice and interesting to see the factory and talk to Felix.

On the 23rd, I met some of my former classmates. We do this every year, and it is always exciting to see what everyone is up to. We had a nice evening with lovely Italian food. And I can tell you that we are definitely getting old. None of us drank more than one beer. We stuck to hot chocolate, tea, and different juices. Amazing, really.

I spent Christmas Eve with my Mum, and yesterday, my aunt invited us for lunch. She is an American, and she had cooked a lovely turkey for us. I was happy to see my family anyway, and we had a good day. In the evening, I went to the cinema with my Mum. We watched the movie "Australia" with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. It made me look forward to my own trip to Oz even more.

I would like to thank my friends Monica and Camo who helped me a lot by getting my car ready for me. I will buy my good old Holden Commodore back off Scott, and Monica and Camo got the car ready for registration which was a lot of work. They are just great - thank you Monica, thank you Camo.

So, I'll hop onto my plane soon and then fly to Sydney via Seoul in South Korea. I'll spend eight hours in Seoul. The airline, Asiana, organized a stopover programme in Seoul this time. They take stopover passengers on a shopping tour, on a spa tour, to the suburbs, to a golf course, on a romance tour, or to a temple. I think I'll do the temple tour. I'll tell you what it was like. So, when you read from me next time, I'll be in Australia already.

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Photos

Winter in Germany
That's what it looked like about two weeks ago - snow, snow, and snow. Haven't seen that in the area for years!

Katha & Christiane
Santa & Rudy in Phantasialand

Cowgirl Katha
Riding an elk in the adventure park Phantasialand.

Cowgirl Christiane
The elk was pretty wild - look at Christiane's hair.

Christiane & Katha
... with a snowwoman in Phantasialand

Christmas market in Ludwigsburg
... baroque version...

Christmas market in Schwäbisch Gmünd
... little train for children...

Our Christmas Tree
Nice one!