PAM in London

On their way to their vacation in South Africa very good friends of ours from Germany had a stop over at Heathrow Airport in London. And Heathrow is not far away from us, so we met up up for a coffee. On the pictures you see Pammi and their cute daughter Toni.

Spring is here....

Blue sky, lots of sun and cherry tree blossom: spring in London :-)

London at 8am...

It is said that it rains only in London. This is clearly not what I have experienced since living in London. Just take a look at the picture I took this morning from our flat -- blue sky and a beautiful sunset. And it has been like this since for many days :-)

New York, Monaco, Pompeii....

We just came back from wonderful - exciting - trips.
First we were in New York City for John's graduation. Yes, he is done! The graduation ceremony was very special in the chapel on the the Columbia Business School campus -- seeing John in his Columbia Blue Cap & Gown made me even more proud! On the picture you see him with his Gown.

Afterwards we had a great dinner with John's parents who flew in from Switzerland for John's graduation at our favorite chinese restaurant Shun Lee Palace in New York -- the best chinese place! Delicious!
Then we had a big graduation party with the other students. The location was with a view to the Hudson River and of course some sky scrapers-- was a great party!

From New York we flew back to London just to get some new clothes and flew on the same day to Nice, France. There John's parents picked us up at the airport who drove from Switzerland to Nice. They flew back earlier from New York to Switzerland than us to have some time to rest before picking us up in Nice.


Now our next event started -- our yearly event the International Circus Festival in Monaco.

It was our sixt year in the row that we watched the amazing performances of the world best artists.


Following Monaco we continued our journey and drove to Pompeii in Italy to travel more than two thousands years back in history..
On August 24, 79 AD, the volcano Vesuvius errupted, covering the nearby town Pompeii in ash and soot, preserving the city in its state from that fateful day.

Pompeii is an excavation site and outdoor museum of the ancient Roman settlement. This site is considered to be one of the few sites where an ancient city has been preserved in detail - eveything from jars and tables to paintings and people were frozen in time, yielding an unprecedented opportunity to see how the people lived two thousand years ago.

The picture above shows the excavation of the Temple of Apollo in Pompeii with the vesuvius in the background.

Kiki in London

Kiki's Blog continues -- finally....

After a long pause I will start again to post what is happening in my life ... and that is a lot :-) Hope you will enjoy it!

Thought the blog needs a new look & feel to represent the new city we are living in since my last post in November 2005...

John and I won yesterday the giant frog you see on the picture at the London fair. We call him Freddie the Frog. He is already part of the family and sitting on our sofa in the living room. Freddie was a big celebrity on our way home yesterday. I carried him on my back and he was sitting next to me in the London underground. The new color of my blog is dedicated to Freddie :-)

Jerry -- we miss you, too!!!!

After losing Ben nearly two months ago, Jerry was also put to sleep this evening. He also suffered from the same Virus as Ben and got sick shortly after we had lost Ben.... it is very hard to loose them both and we will miss them very much!!!!

Find more pictures of Jerry and Ben in John's blog. Click
here.

Robbie Williams comes to Germany...

... and the hopelessness to get a ticket ... both concerts in the Olympic Stadium in Munich were sold out within hours, even minutes... and that's 130.000 tickets in total.

Ben -- we miss you!!!

Today we had to put Ben to sleep. He was almost 15 years old when he got sick. He had the feline leucosis virus, which can*t be cured.
Ben, we send you many treats to wherever you might be....

Read also in John's blog about Ben. Click here

At our favorite cheese city "gruyere"

We just spent a sunny, relaxing weekend in Switzerland staying at John's parents house enjoying their hot tub :-) But we also drove to the city Gruyere famous for its cheese and its picturesque village. The picture below is taken from the Gruyere city wall,




John at a vineyard close to his parents house.

A dream castle in front of our door....

With our guests Bella and David from Armenia we went to Schloss Neuschwanstein again. It is always worth the trip, especially if one hasn't seen it yet. King Ludwigs Castle is impressive!

Back to the past

Shortly áfter our trip in France, I flew to the Alumni Meeting of my fieldhockey team in Radford, Virginia. And it was great! To see everybody again after so many years is very special!

Also, in a surprise ceremony head coach Jeff Woods was recognized for his 20 years of coaching the Highlanders with an endowment fund in his name.




You find more pictures and a link to a news article about the event on this page: www.kiki.info/RUFH_Alumni_2005/

Mont-Saint-Michel -- breathtaking!

We finished our trip to France and drove to MONT-SAINT-MICHEL in the Normandie. Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the 'Wonder of the West', a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site.

John taking pictures at the bay which is flooded at high tide.

Castle Tour through the Loire Valley

Since we were already in the Loire Valley, we added some days to tour through the beautiful Loire Valley. The castles there are just amazing. We saw 9 castles in 2 days and haven't seen all the castles. It is nearly impossible -- there is a castle at every corner...



The château d'USSE, Sleeping Beauty's castle, is a chateau of dreams... Charles Perrault, visiting in the 17th century, took inspiration from it when writing "Sleeping Beauty".

Wedding in a kilt

Our friends Sophie and John got married! It was a wonderful multicultural wedding: John being scottish wore a kilt, Sophie wore a beautiful wedding dress. The wedding was in the Loire Valley close to Sophies home Paris. Friends and family from Scottland, France and Germany celebrated a beautiful wedding in a chateau, a backpipe player was of course also there ;-)

Boh, why do you wake me up? I was asleep... my brother still is.....

Settlers of Catan World Record

Last weekend John and I drove to Chemnitz, which is about 4 hours away from Munich, to participate in a world record record attempt: Biggest Game of the world! And we made it :-) 806 players in totals played the game "Siedler of Catan" on one board distributed over two floors. Lots of fun!



Below part of the board on the first floor, ready to start!



Klaus Teuber, the author of the Siedler-Game was of course also there to watch this event and sign Siedler boards...



Click here for more info about the Game Siedler of Catan and "our" world record!

Intel inside -- Jerry outside :-)

No further comment needed...

4 Countries in 2 Hours

We just came from a wonderful weekend in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. On our way to Liechtenstein, we had to drive through 4 countries within only 2 hours.
The picture above shows a castle in Liechtensein with a vineyard in front.

Floods....

Dozens of people have died and thousands of homes have been destroyed across central Europe after days of torrential rains caused lakes and rivers to flood their banks, prompting some evacuations by helicopter.
Fatalities were also reported in Southern Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Austria.
I took the picture above today. It shows the river "Isar", which is near our house. The photo spot is a about 5 Minute walk away from our house. As you can see, we are lucky, the "Isar" is below our house, so no danger for us.
The picture shows which is normally a peaceful river as a wild stream, that found ways to relieve pressure by spreading out. The water electricity station in the picture is being "ingnored" . The dam normally needs to be open to generate power. Now the water just goes around, no chance to control the water.

A day in Ben and Jerrys life

Tough Life! The daily schedule of Ben and Jerry is as follows: Sleeping 22 hours, eating (Ben 1 hour, Jerry 10 minutes), and toilet, cleaning, puking, playing. Oh, what a simple life...