Hotel zum Adler Bonn

... the enormitity of this building.

Our next destination today is the Nurburgring race track(in Nurburg), then Koblenz

The public are allowed to drive the race track, so we paid our money and off we went for 1 lap. the track is around 18 ks long.
Unfortunatley for us the track was wet and the temperature was only 3 degrees C. After about 10 corners we nearly lost control. 3 more ...

... that if you point to any piece of furniture or home accessory in a German's possession, it's from Ikea.

Now I shall tell a little bit about my daily life in Germany. I'm now getting Tuesdays off as well as Fridays, bringing my days-worked-in-a-week total to three. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. On Mondays I get to go in late, but also stay late because of the conversation class I teach. This is a new and exciting development for me, because I ...

... er hier einmal erwaehnt. Ansonsten war es auch mal wieder nett ins Kino gehen zu können, russischsprachige Filme sehe ich mir ja in Kasachstan nicht unbedingt an.

Dann wieder zurück in Almaty beziehungsweise Astana. Was gibt's Neues? Der Benzinpreis liegt jetzt bei KZT 101 pro Liter 96 Oktan. Statt über Währungsabwertung gegen den USD wird mittlerweile über eine Währungsaufwertung ...

Es ist seltsam, wie schnell die Zeit vergeht.. Wie oft habe ich euch versprochen zu schreiben, anzurufen oder einen blog zu verfassen. Ich denke oft an euch und es ist schön zu wissen, dass es euch genauso geht.

Schon seit fast einem halben Jahr lebe, wohne und atme ich diesen wundervollen ...

... and often erotic) replicas of the tower out of cardboard boxes. Resteraunts waving nearly identical English-printed menus competed for business. And tourists of all races, religions, and languages took funny pictures with the leaning tower. Katie and I were no exception.
After a flight, a high-speed train trip (costing 28 Euro EACH), and a very heated German debate with an evil, soulless, hateful train employee who couldn't seem to grasp the ...

We went towards Cologne because we wanted to make our way towards Amsterdam and the weather was supposed to be decent. The weather was wonderful and the sights were amazing. It was nice to just walk…and walk…and walk. There wasn't too much to do but the few main attractions were spectacular and just walking across the bridge made you feel good. Breathing in the fresh air and feeling the sun (which had eluded us for weeks) was incredibly refreshing!
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ktchris

... and Amsterdam in Netherlands. Philip and Lawrence both took their cars over for the tour, with highlight of the Nürbergring racetrack. As they say, what happens on tour stays on tour, but we had a brilliant time. Here's a few pictures and video's from the Germany part of the trip, courtesy of Elias, who had the commonsense to bring a camera.

... worldy possessions and thinks "Oh thank God for my toiletry kit! I couldn't live out the remainder of the day without this nail file?!?" (And do ponder that question as long and as thorougly as I have, and let me know if you come up with something insightful. It's been bothering me.) No, the toiletry kit's main purpose is to momentarily distract the distrungtled or even irate traveler, allowing the airline representative to escape to safety or ...

... they reminded me I had paid $900. for it and should possible hang it around my neck. Sad thing is it was in one of the holders for around your neck, but I had slid it into my pocketbook. Now in Koln, Germany I have to change trains to get into sleeper car. I can hardly wait. CHANGED TRAINS, I thought European train system was efficient, well my first transfer was delayed. Not only delayed but at the last minute moved to another platform. Which I wouldn't have known ...

... again "oh, lord." I had a suspicion that he was right. The way that I saw it was two and a half weeks of rest and relaxation in Western Europe where we had a friend and things were for the most part secure and easy, followed by almost a month and a half of travel through Eastern Europe, a place that was foreign to both of us, a little off the beaten trail, but still relatively easy to travel around. Then two weeks in Egypt with friends and an indulgent cruise up the Nile. Then ...