Mercure Hotel Bonn Hardtberg Ex-Novotel

... So viel ist schon passiert, so wenig habe ich bisher erlebt. Neue Freunde, eine 2te Familie und ein ganz anderes Leben erwarten mich hier. New York, meine neue Liebe! <br><br>Jetzt, mit mehr Zeit und Muse widme ich mich dem langersehnten Lebenszeichen. :) <br><br>Viel Spaß beim lesen!<br><br>

... was also amazing. The five towns are connected by wonderful walking paths, and traversing them is the highlight of any Cinque Terre trip. You walk along cliffs falling down into the most turquoise ocean I've ever seen, surrounded by prickly pear, olive groves, and grape vines. At each town we felt obliged to sample their version of pizza, gelato, or cappuccinos. When the sun went down, we crawled onto the big rocks in the harbor to watch the sky ...

... this about one of my favourite cities so we continued to show them around the city and told them all of the interesting facts we could remember from our walking tour. <br>The next day we travelled to Milan, then to Briggs, then Basel, then up to Freiburg, Germany. We got lost trying to find the hostel in the dark so it took us about an hour of walking to find it. It was a cool hostel though- huge common area and nice kitchen and beds that were not bunkbeds ...

... some writing when I have free time, and will maybe attach a short story or something. But seeing how long it takes me to post blogs, that's an event that will have to be seen to be believed.<br> I have arrived safely back in Cologne after my trip, surprisingly delighted to be "back at home" in my apartment and surrounded by German. My language skills are slowly improving and last night I was astounded by understanding almost everything in a long conversation between ...

... started in 1248 but not finished until 1880. At that time it was the tallest building in the world.<br>It was awesome inside with the high vaulted ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows. It has a golden alter which contains their relics, supposedly some of the bones of the Three Wise Men.<br>This afternoon was the time to pack as we arrive in Amsterdam tonight. We&#8217;re in the first group to leave tomorrow for the airport and have to be ready by 5:45 a.m.<br><br>

... awed. The church did have a 'sanctified' feeling, and I was asked to remove my hat inside the building.<br><br>We took a few tasty and large pretzels and apfel strudels for lunch, once again enjoying the delights of German pastry shops. Unfortunately we did not have the time to visit the German-Roman museum, but we did manage to buy a few things at their gift shop.

This is not a great adventure, more a welcome back.<br><br>It is great to be back in Villiprott to visit our old friends since the 70ies. Now I have been staying with them for two weeks and we have done a lot of different things. This part of Germany have many interesting places to visit, both nature and culture.<br>

... 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.

... and delicious - cheese, bread and gherkins (and, if I wasn't a vegetarian - dried sausages). There should be a sign at the airport, "all ye with notions of weight loss, turn back here". The ridiculously huge selection of conserves and spreads was enough beg the question "who put the acid in my tee?" Of which there was over a hundred ...

We will be leaving Bonn in about an hour. Had a really full two days. As soon as we arrived we went on a three hour boat ride down the Rhine River. It was a gorgous day. The weather is perfect. We stopped at a small village and, of course, I had a beer just to get in the German spirit. Yesterday we went to hear the Minister of Education speak ...