Blogs from Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany, Europe

On 9th May we fly to Perth to see our son and daughter-in-law Adam and Ange for 4 days before flying to Frankfurt, Germany to see our friends Kevin & Julia who we met in Africa. Kevin has been most helpful with the issue of us buying a motor home in Germany. He found that as foreigners, we cannot register and insure a vehicle in Germay/Europe so we have had to go to Plan "B".... and that is buy a vehicle through Turner Cars and Campers in The Netherlands where they find vehicles for us and check them out mechanically and negotiate a good price for us. They have found a way so that we can register and insure a vehicle as foreigners in Europe. We will be going by train from Frankfurt to Utrecht which ... read more

Arrived in Frankfurt at around 5.30 in the morning and made it to our hotel at around 7am. Decided to stay awake all day so we could minimise jetlag and so launched straight into breakfast at the hotel. Spent the day walking around Frankfurt and found the christmas markets which seem to be set up in all the major towns and cities in Europe. Had our first taste of Gluwein (hot mulled wine) and will probably be our last as I think it is an acquired taste! Connor is going quite well with his German speaking. Very proud to see him talking in the local lingo although almost everyone here seems to have a good grasp of English so it's not really a problem. Sussed out train station which is huge and booked tomorrows train transfers ... read more

ASTEP = Artists Striving to End Poverty ASTEP is a program dedicated to bringing the arts to disadvantaged children throughout the world. They have programs in India, Africa, New York, and Florida. Each program is a little different, with different partners and different target groups. Whatever the target population, though, ASTEP’s belief is that children can gain important life skills through the arts, and that these life skills are especially valuable for students who were born into an impoverished situation. TGF = The George Foundation TGF was started by a man named Abraham George. In short, he spent his early years in India, became very successful in America, and upon a return trip to India realized that he wanted to help the rural people in some way. He has several non-profit projects in the rural areas ... read more

Note: This post was written on a plane somewhere between Frankfurt and Bangalore. More on Bangalore and SB later :-D I have this tendency to read my horoscope in the newspaper. Not because I’m deeply connected to that stuff, but more out of a general interest in what some stranger has to say about me. (For those who are interested, I’m a Taurus, which means I’m stubborn and vain. Go figure.) If it were confession time, I’d tell you that at the state fair this year, I even laid down two dollars (and a dollar-off coupon) to have my signature analyzed against my horoscope. But it isn’t confession time, so you didn’t read that on my blog. In any case, I picked up the newspaper on September 10, 2012, the morning of my departure, ... read more

Cheguei em Frankfurt as 11pm mas num aerporto longe do centro. Peguei um onibus e cheguei as 2am no hostel, em frente a estacao de trem central. Ainda bem que vim com a minha sombrinha, pois foi soh descer do onibus que a chuva comecou a cair. Ainda bem que era uma caminhada de 5min ateh o hostel. Fiz o check in e direto para a cama, estava tao cansada que nao conseguia ficar de peh. Acordei no dia seguinte, tomei cafeh e fiquei pelo hostel. Nao trouxe nenhum casaco e claro que o frio estava pegando, e a chuva tambem. A noite conheci o Khalid, da Tunisia, que me convidou para comer com ele e o Peter aqui no hostel mesmo. Ele cozinhou para nos. Uma delicia!!! Depois de umas cervejas, era hora de ir ... read more

We took photos and said our goodbyes to our friends at home base after lunch. We said goodbye to Kilimanjaro on our way to the airport but once airborne we flew directly in front of the mountain. We know two people who are climbing now so it was fun to imagine them hiking up as we flew past. My seat mate was a young man going to school in Dubai who had just summated Kili. It was a much tougher endeavor than he had imagined. His climbing companion had to turn back and go down so my seat mate summated with his guide. Last week someone died of altitude sickness below base camp. Our guides on the coffee tours said people die every year because they don’t pay attention to the early symptoms of altitude sickness. ... read more

Well the adventure has begun! We arrived at Calgary Airport still nervous about whether they were 'really' going to take our Trike whole. We were just thrilled when the Air Transat fellow walked up to us and said, "so there is the infamous trike"! Air Transat was just fantastic, they welcomed us, chatted with us, reassured us that they were prepped for the trike and readily checked us in via the First Class line up! (It was a straight roll in for the Trike). It was quick and painless in the end. Our bags weighed in at 26 & 33 pounds & then about 6 pounds carry on. It all fits great on the trike and we don't expect any issues around this part of the trip. We are now happily sitting in the Chinook Lounge ... read more

Josh and I (Paul) have decided to have a boys week (or so) in Europe. I recently bought a new car and the opportunity presented itself to pick it up at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. It seemed like an ideal opportunity for a road trip. We plan to pick up the car and drive it on the roads it was built for - the german autobahn. We will ultimately hook up with a Porsche group on an organized driving tour of the south of Germany. Ever once and a while, I expect, we will stop to check out the local environs. We started off our trip on an early evening flight from Toronto. An unexpected upgrade to business class had josh thrilled. This is the first time he has flown in the rarified air at ... read more