Travels

Although I'm a little bit of a stay-at-home at the moment I love travelling. When we came here we encountered so many new things: The house and the DIY, the gardening and now the two silly cat who can't stay with anybody else but us. But it's okay for now - I will travel again, and I had my share. I was in Brazil and in the USA several times, well and I travelled to England ...

Brazil

Sweet 17! And off I went ... Oh, it was brilliant!

When I was 16 we got a new girl at school who turned out to be the daughter of a former school friend of my mum, who had left Germany to live in Brazil. Now the kid stayed at grandma's to get to know the family and the culture. At one point of the one year stay the parents came over, met my family and invited me. I never thought I would go - it's expensive - and, come on! Brazil!

And then grandma chipped in and I went. 8 weeks of sunshine, beach and me being the most beautiful girl. Hehe, at home I was average with my white skin and dark blond hair. In Brazil I was special. From the sun I got much blonder very quickly and from the humidity I got a lot of curls. I only can recommend: If you need a boost, go some place where they don't have your type.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures because it was the fashion to take transparencies. I don't even have a projector anymore. Shame, really!

USA

We have been in America three times. Whenever Detlef had a conference I joined him and we attached a bit of holidays to it.

1991 - LA and New York

I learned from my lack of photos from Brazil and created huge albums from this trip. It was our first travel overseas and although we enjoyed visiting all the sightseeing bits and had a car rented we were a bit tense all the time. I don't actually recall a lot of things - except of the 'Spruce Goose'. I just learned from searching the link that it is not next to the Queen Mary anymore in LA. So I got lucky there. We actually wanted to see the Queen Mary - I love ships. And then there was this huge round building next to it. I've never seen something like it when I went in. Whenever you should be able to see the Spruce Goose - whether you are into airplanes or not - Go for it!

1996 - San Francisco

Oh, San Francisco is brilliant. It is the most European city, and so many things can be done walking. But take warm clothes, we didn't know of San Francisco's special climate and had to go for clothes shopping the first day.

1999 - San Francisco - Sequoia National Park - Yosemite National Park - Las Vegas - New York

5 blissful weeks and when we came home we moved to England immediately after. I have no idea from where I took the energy, but 1999 was a brilliant year. This was the trip we enjoyed most because we knew our ways. From San Francisco we hired a car to do the trips through the parks. For a short trip like ours I preferred Sequoia. These trees are mind-blowing and we hiked the trails almost alone, even saw a bear mum with cups. While at Yosemite the main area is rather overcrowded. I guess that it is the perfect location for a hike deeper into the park, but we didn't have the time for that.