Blogs from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Europe

Live from a Starbucks in Cologne, gotta make it quick they are closing soon. no Wi-Fi on the ship. We only really have one thing to say, THE DOM!!!! We are in AWE, no words can describe it, no picture can do it justice, you have go to see this..... Steve and I had an incredible spiritual experience being here, and we lit a candle in memory of my Dad, four years today, and in memory of Jim, four years on May 18 here are the pics! Stay tuned for the next Starbucks update... read more

Kristin generously gave me the login and password to her travel blog so that I could practice my hand at blogging without having to create my own profile. What a good sister. :) Let me begin by saying that I thought I would write a couple of blogs about where I was and what I was doing and have pictures to both illustrate and make you all jealous...but like a dumb dumb I can't seem to figure out Carly's MacBook Pro. Apparently when trying to import photos you have to add them to a drop box. Unfortunately I am one of those people who takes a million photos, so of course there is not enough space to import the photos to Carly's computer :( This of course means that you will just have to picture in ... read more

A small, medieval city in the West of Germany. Worth visiting for a few days. My personal highlight was the Cuperella Cafe.:) It was the Abitur time and the young people in the city were crazily happy, screaming and singing in the streets. There is also a good university in Aachen, focused more on technology and science. The Cathedral and the Rathaus in the city center are definitely on the "must" list.... read more

Well after to-ing and fro-ing from Germany to England I decided I needed a break , I was still in the throws of deciding where to live . After living in Germany for 20 plis years I really wanted to try my luck in the UK , my native country. I was made redundant from my job in Germany and was prepared to move to the UK to be with a girl I had just met there .So I sold up , my son moved out and I was ready to go .. then the girl turned out to be miss super bitch lol so that was that . I had rented an appartment in Germany and decided to stay put for the time being . But I got itchy feet and went through SE Asia ... read more

Kann man eine Weltreise auf nur einige wenige Zahlen zusammen fassen? Ein Versuch: 480 Tage unterwegs, das entspricht 1 Jahr und 114 Tagen oder auch 15 Monate und 23 Tage Besuchte Länder: 15 Länder (ohne Transit- oder Visarun-Länder) Höchster Punkt: 5550 Meter auf dem Kala Pattar in Nepal Niedrigster Punkt: -30 Meter beim Tauchen in Honduras und Malaysia Längste Busfahrt: 23 Stunden in Vietnam von Hoi An nach Saigon Längster Non-Stop Flug: 13 1/2 Stunden von Phuket nach Frankfurt Günstige Unterkunft: 100 Nepalesische Rupia (ca. 1 Euro) für ein Doppelzimmer in Lobuche (Everest Trek) Teuerste Unterkunft: ca. 120 € für das Doppelzimmer über Silvester in Singapur Sinnloseste Geldverschwendung: 250 Dollar für das Working Holiday Visum für Australien Tollste Geldverschwendung: hmm....ich denke es waren die 300 NZ Dollar für den Fallschirmsp... read more

Alright so we're gonna play a little catch up here. So been about a week since I put some words down here. I was particularly inspired today though and thought I would come back and talk about whats happened since then. So lets start with Karneval. During this festival I ended up meeting this girl from America by total accident because I was lost looking for a certain place a friend of mine I had just met was. This friend I met on a carpool from Berlin. Everything has been spontaneous since I've been here. No shit... Like stuff just happens.. I meet people... and it has me questioning daily. Is it fate or coicindence that guides our lives? Either or I'm cool with it all. I'm in the right spots at the right time. So ... read more

Today was tough. Long flight with little sleep although I did have the whole row of seats to myself which I made into a mini bed thing. Still I couldn't sleep well. Once I arrived in Dusseldorf the brother of my exchange sister Marten met me in the lobby. Immediately my german was put the test. I didn't do so bad but I know it could be better but my mind was little frazzled at that point. So then we wait for my exchange sister (Svea) to come pick us both up and she began to speak to me in english which for me was a glass of water in the desert. It felt good to be able to speak with ease again. But I made the tough decision to implore them that I wanted to ... read more

I have to admit. Krefeld (Germany) looked like a god forsaken place. It looked like the kind of place where people can be sent as a punishment. I have a habit of taking long walks every night around the place where I am staying. I go out and talk to random people about casual things. In the three nights that I stayed in Mercure Krefeld, I realized that you can only have those conversations with either a windmill or a horse. Those were the only things I came across. url=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3m9QPTJTYms/UNNLcY8_BeI/AAAAAAAABNo/OH91BIDSxkY/s1600/250789_10151210112600630_715837107_n.jpgimg=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3m9QPTJTYms/UNNLcY8_BeI/AAAAAAAABNo/OH91BIDSxkY/s320/250789_10151210112600630_715837107_n.jpg center Because of this boredom, it was totally natural to say yes when Tommaso announced that he was going for a jog and asked if anyone wanted to accompany him. Tommas... read more