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...

Following King Ludwig II traces...

Bavaria once used to be a kingdom. One of their kings was Ludwig II, the "Märchenkönig". And all of his castles are not far away from us: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Herrenchiemsee. We have been to all of them.

He is known by many nicknames: the Swan King, the Mad King of Bavaria, the Dream King, and Mad Ludwig. Was “Mad King Ludwig” mad? This is only one of many mysteries that surround the former Bavarian regent to this day. Ludwig II (Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm) has become one of the most legendary figures in Bavarian and German history, a history full of legendary figures.

He managed to finish only one of them: Linderhof. John and I were there this weekennd. Like all of his castles quite impressive! Especially the artifical grotto near the castle, that was build by Ludwig as his personal opera house, but never used. The Swan boat on the picture shows one kitsch element of it.

Our "trip" around the world

I just visited my sister Heidi, my brother-in-law Uli and my nephew Luca. Main reason for my visit was Lucas birthday! One ofJohns and my gift for him was a puzzle. But not an ordinary one, but the world, round shaped out of many round shaped pieces. And it was lots of fun to see the world develop piece by piece, to discover land, to feel just like Columbus. The picture shows Luca dressed in world-fashion :-)

Lap Cats

Ben develops to also being a lap cat, just like his brother Jerry. So he took over Jerry's spot, "owned" by Jerry for many years. Confused that his spot is taken, Jerry decided to sit on John's leg to be close to "his" lap...
Old age doesn't mean that one cannot change, including cats ;-)

Poisonous Viper in our garden?

Yesterday we were informed by a local official that a poisonous viper might hang out in our garden. A garden worker from our next door neighbor was bit by it! Yikes!
According to an information page about viper poisoning, the so called "Kreuzotter" (Vipera berus) causes real pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, up to collaps and even respiratory paralysis....
Oh, by the way, we plan to have a garden party soon -- everybody is invited ;-) Maybe our special guest also shows up... (don't forget to bring your heavy boots and long trousers)

Cherry Tree Blossoms

Cherry Tree Blossom in Switzerland

In Memory of Sabrina

I just got the very sad message that Sabrina, a very good friend of mine, died Monday evening in a car accidant....
We knew each other for 20 years... I will miss her...
I want to give strength to her family and her little son, who was also in the car accidant but thankfully not injured.
Sabrina, wo auch immer Du jetzt sein magst, ich werde Dich nie vergessen! Deine Freundin Kerstin

Spring in our garden

Only 4 weeks ago they were still covered in snow, now they bloom colorful. Amazing how fast nature moves on :-)

a walk in the sunshine

What a contrast, within only 4 weeks we swapped our ski equipment with nordic walking poles. We walked for almost two hours in the bright sun and enjoyed the spring feeling...

Official start of grill season ;-)

On saturday we pulled out our barbecue out of the winter storage and officially started the grill season. It was again a nice warm spring weekend with lots of sun... John and I enjoyed it very much!

Royal Easter at the Königsee

Friends came to visit over the easter holiday and we had a great time exploring more of the beatutiful surroundings of Munich. One day we drove to the Königsee, a lake near Berchtesgarden, a very deep mountain lake. The deepest point is over 200 Meter. As you can see on the picture above, there was still Ice floating on the freezing cold water, but the air temperature was very mild and warm. A beautiful sunny spring day!

Yippieh! Spring is here...

Blue sky, 20 degree celsius in the sun and still some snow banks, though they are disappearing very fast now. I took this picture today ...

Transition winter to spring....

This picture was also taken by me today ... slowly the snow disappears. Maybe one of the last snow pictures for this year?

A blog to make you jealous ;-)

Today John and I had a gorgeous day skiing! The weather conditions can't be better. We will store this memory and are looking forward to next years' ski season as we reach the end of this season.
You can read more about our sunny day skiing in John's blog, and you will also find a prove of my excellent ski talent ;-)
Click here to view the other site of skiing!

The rest of the ski gang....

... our international ski team!

Skiing and hurt muscles...

Today we came back from a wonderful ski weekend in Garmisch. We were a mixed group: two from the U.S., one from the Ukraine, one from Armenia and me :-) We had lots of fun! Though we went only for two days, it feels like a mini ski vacation. I hadn't been skiing for 16 years and that's how I am feeling now... I wasn't aware how many muscles I have. Every movement hurts --- I am soo sore... but it was worth it!

"Brother, play with me!"

"Okay, the snow flakes were out of my reach -- but I have a brother to bother...", says Jerry and chases Ben through the house!

Kids and Jerry are having fun...

...because once again we got a load of snow! The picture above shows Jerry trying to play with the falling snow flakes.... too bad that there is a window between him and the snow flakes :-)
About half of all flights have been cancelled so far today at the Munich airport, kids have "snow-free" and don't have to go to school tomorrow, and I got once again a good work out shuffling masses of snow... well, in a way it is fun if you don't havce to use your car, like a friend of mine. He is still sitting on the A8 and nothing is moving. Hope he doesn't have to spend the night there as it happened beginning of this year...

Good Bye, Lycos!

After 6 years I moved on to discover new challenges. Last week I drove to G�tersloh to say Good-Bye to my Lycos colleagues and friends. Seeing them and my name tag on my office door made me a bit sentimantal as it made me think about all the good times at Lycos. But now I choose to discover new paths for me -- I am looking forward to it! You will be able to read about my adventures in this blog -- stay tuned :-)

Snow record!

Yep, we are still getting more snow every day. Today I had first to shuffle to be able to leave the house. Within only a few hours we got about 20 cm new snow! And it continues to snow... I have never seen that much snow in Germany before! Kids won't have school tomorrow, avalanches are blocking roads!
The picture shows our garden light covererd with snow.

Back home again

Unfortunately the time went by much too fast and we flew back home today. The flight was a brilliant end to some wonderful days in the south.... snow covered alps and the blue sky were just amazing!

Spring feelings

We stayed in a small village called Menton, which is 15 Minutes away from Monte Carlo. Here you get into the spring feeling very fast seeing the oranges on the trees....

Good smells in Grasse

It has become a tradition to stop in Grasse, which is one hour away from Monte Carlo. If you have read the book "Das Parfüm" from Patrick Süßkind, you know that Grasse is THE place to go if you like perfume. The book is very recommendable and also Fragonard, our favorite parfumerie in Grasse...

Wine testing in Barolo

In Barolo, Italy, we stoppped for a wine testing of some of the most delicious wines ... we also got a tour through the cave of the vintner and also a good insight into the wine producing business. Very interesting!

Our yearly trip to the International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo...

It is circus time again!
Today we came back from our yearly (fifth!) trip to Monte Carlo. We saw wonderful performances at the International Circus Festival!
We also spent a few days in southern France and also hopped over the nearby border to Italy...