Hotel Burgund Mönchengladbach

Just a quick note to have a little pin in my last (which was also my first) city of my excellent European trip :)

I had a really nice evening with Alwin and Stephanie (my original hosts in Europe), walking through the old town, having some nice hot red wine, and then some beers at a local brewery. Nice night, and then slept really well to go take my train to the airport in the morning...

I had a nice 10 hour flight from Dusseldorf to Fort Myers, Florida...

Вот уж не думал, что в Дюссе 83;ьдорф& #1077; - самый крупн 99;й рынок! Даже не так: один рыно ...

... during the holidays, it's basically warm red wine with spices, I have yet to try it though. I found out that Germany DOES have egg nog and that was a great discovery. They also have Jaeger Tea...weird? so I have a few more things I must try before the season ends. There is seriously so much food being served that it's impossible to try all of it. They have a lot of spiced nuts and these things they make from mashed potatoes where they basically take some meat and pack mashed potatoes around ...

... Karnival songs. The main squares were turned into stages with speeches and live music. Vendors everywhere sold beer and tasty treats and every bar in the city was full.
Tragically, I had school the next day, so I could not fully celebrate as I'd have liked to, but I did attempt an impromptu dress-up and went to meet friends in the city. I had just gotten off the train and stepped into the throng. I was stone-cold sober. I took out my camera to take a ...

... to "have a talk" with another man on the train. Next thing I knew the police were in the back talking to a man who worked for the train. When they came back out they told everyone that they needed to evacuate the train immediately, all I could understand was "hepatitis C... blood everywhere... get off" The man who had been a few rows back talking to them before was speaking to them in English and asking what the mess was about, 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 ...

... into Maastricht to look around. We caught the train and then walked over the bridge to the old city centre. There were heaps of shops and a few beautiful squares. We managed to stay out of the rain by ducking into a little pub for a warm lunch.
We were sad to say goodbye but school break for the kids was over and we had to continue on our journey with lots more still to see. We had a great time with the Strous family and hope they will come and visit us soon!

... Saint-Gobain is the main body, separated in different divisions. One Chinese branch deals with abrasives, another in Russia makes glass for groceries, yet another plant is producing solar panels and Saint-Gobain Glasswork in Herzogenrath produces glass for car windshields. This glass is then transported to Saint-Gobain Sekurit in Herzogenrath (across the train tracks), where I work! It is actually this diversity that lessened the impact of the financial ...

... tell who the prince was...
The dancing involved too much bended knee and sticking bums out, hardly a beautiful dance move and they couldn't even keep in time with each other, let alone create straight lines. The one thing I was looking forward to seeing was that one dance where they line the stage and dance as one. They wouldn't have had a chance in hell! So, needless to say I was a little disappointed with my first ballet. I think that I would have much preferred a ...

... breakup took place in Prague where naturally she was feeling a bit upset and alone and needing her own bed and a lot more than my company to comfort her. So, a few nights in Prague were attempted DVD nights (stupid DVD zones!!) and long talks until the wee hours. But the rest was sweet. A beautiful city that we walked around day after day, marvelling at the old and colourful buildings and the arched bridges. It was tourism to the extrememe, but still really gorgeous ...