Tall Ship's Race in Liverpool

Last weekend John and I went to Liverpool to watch the start of the worldwide known Tall Ship's Race. It includes a dazzling array of vessels, from 30 foot yachts to square-rigged ships over 300 feet long.


The picture above shows crew members all the way on the top of the masts setting sails. They look like Ants on the picture! But they are humans -- amazing!

The race will head for Norway before ending in the Netherlands. It will bring almost 100 tall ships with more than 3,000 crew members.

Blustery winds meant few of the Tall Ships were actually in full sail at the Tall Ship Parade.

And we were able to go on board of the amazing Tall Ships. Highlight for us was to be on board of Alexander of Humboldt -- or better known from the Becks' commercial. Unfortunately Becks is not a sponsor of the ship anymore. But it still has the green sails.


Last year we met the Becks' ship the Baltic Sea and were sailing right next to it.
Watch my video

The ships are from more than 18 countries, like from Brazil, Poland, Oman and Germany.

And since we were in Liverpool we went by the birthplace of the Beatles -- the Cavern Pub.

MS Society Walk in Windsor Great Park

Our sponsors are great! Over the last few weeks, John and I have been searching for sponsors for the MS Society Wheel & Walk. Our goal was £1000 and with a late flurry of action, we nearly made it to £1600! It's great to see the generosity of friends and family.


After the great showing from our sponsors, Kerstin and I headed this morning to the Queen's weekend residence - Windsor. The Queen has a rather nice little house there.

From there, a rather long taxi ride to Virginia Water at the very southern end of the Windsor Great Park. While listening to start briefing for the 180 participants, I was ready to go and getting impatient!

The wait wasn't long and we were off. After a few hours, here I am crawling across the finish line after setting a pace that was perhaps a bit too quick.

Okay, in reality it was a great day - cool, mostly sunny. The 7km walk wound around the Virginia Water area led through forest and meadows - all with great views of the lake.

And at the finish line, everyone was cheered and those who finished the course were given a medal as proof of completion.

Many thanks to all of our sponsors and well-wishers! You guys are the best!

Germany came in 2nd and I won a prize from Webjam

What an exciting tournament the EURO2008 was! I really get addicted to soccer when European championships or even better World championships are on. This Euro2008 was especially exciting for me to watch as Germany was sooo close to win it. Only beaten be one team, Spain, in the Finals. Germany stand still during the games.
School kids in Berlin got free from school earlier on Monday to welcome the team.

Since Germany came in 2nd at the Euro2008 after a good game, I got the 2nd prize from the Webjam Euro2008 pool...
This means that I got a) 10 GBP in cash and b) the two keychains as shown in the pictures ;.)I think I will spend the cash on a massage to recover from the EURO2008 :-)

Read more about the good performance of Germany in my Euro2008 - Germany Webjam

Thanks to the German team and to Webjam!

Wimbledon...

John and I were yesterday in Wimbledon...not to watch the Championship that is going on right now. But we would have been interested to go in to take a look. But the waiting time was still almost two hours -- and it was 6pm! We were only able to have a peek on the courts when we were driving by with the double-decker bus ...
Only in Winbledon the phone boots are decorated with a tennis ball :-)
Roger Feder won at Wimbledon 5 times and is heading for the sixth time. Quite impressive!