Please, leave a comment to this post!
One alternative may be to make the German one a bilingual.
Anke
Friday, September 18, 2009
Still needed?
Hello my English speaking readers! I was just wondering how many are following the English part of the blog? It is kind of difficult to keep two blogs updated. So I would like to know how many of you want the English one?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
My mid August update
I am sorry again, but this summer I really don't have time for posting long reports here. I wrote a little bit longer Scotland one in my German blog. This is where you can also find some Scotland photos. I am sorry for not posting it here, but since so many more people are reading the German blog and most people reading the English one may have someone to translate the German one as well I decided to keep this short.
As mentioned the last time this summer we have a lot of visitors. Actually we don't have very many days without somebody staying with us. After Tori left my brother and his family arrived. Uwe could only stay for three days and had to work for most of the time, but I did trips with Silke, Nico and Alena. We went to Cambridge together and took a punting tour on the river Cam, we went to the old Anglo Saxon Village, hired a row boat in Brandon, visited Norwich and took a day trip to London. Nico learned so much about London at school that now he wanted to see the major attractions himself. Since we've been there for only one day we had to decide which attraction we wanted to have a closer look at and the kids wanted to go to the London Dungeon. That was fine with Silke and me too, until we saw the line and heard that we had to wait for almost 2 hours to get into it. But once we were there we could't tell the kids no and therefore we lined up and waited. It was okay, we spent 2 hours in the dungeon itself. After that we had the time for a short sightseeing tour on a bus so that Nico could see the other attractions like Picadilly Circus, Travalgar Square, the Tower and the Tower bridge, before we had to get to the bus station again and get on our bus home to Thetford.
The kids also enjoyed playing with Amber. Actually I think for them that was the highlight of the whole trip. They walked her (together with an adult) and played with her in the evening. Amber had a good time, too, before she had to go on the long trip to Minneapolis where she stays with Ric, Tina and their kids right now. Dave and I need to go to Maryland next week and we have no dog sitter here anymore. And we also decided having the movers here and staying in a hotel for some nights is so much easier without a doggy around. But we miss her very much and can't wait to pick her up in Kansas in 1.5 months. A big thank you from here to Tina and Ric as well as Jim and Erika for taking care of Amber during that time. It helps a lot.
But back to my visitors. After Silke and the kids left Juergen and Ingrid arrived. They spend their two weeks summer vacation here in England and we decided to go to London first. Not for a day trip, but for three days. The swine flue seems to be widely spread here in England and especially in London. It is in German newspapers almost every day. Therefore I expected it to be kind of empty there. But the opposite is the truth: I have never seen London as crowded as this time. Way too many people for me ;o) We were not able to get into any of the major attractions, the lines were just too long. We went into the Towers, but didn't see the crown jewells or the white tower because of the lines. But we spent a great afternoon in Notting Hill, went shopping at Harrods, took a bus and a boat tour and walked from one end of downtown London to the next. We had a great time. But I also enjoy being back to quiet little Thetford. Hmm, maybe I should get used to bigger towns, now that our move to the D.C. area is close.
Back to Thetford I picked up Marcus and Eva who spent a weekend with all of us. We had a lot of fun. We again went to Cambridge and the Anglo Saxon village with them. And we also visited the queens summer home in Sandringham. Now is my last week with Juergen and Ingrid. It is 10 am now and I think they are still sleeping. This is why I finally found some time for this short update. Today we will go to Newmarket and look at the national stud. I reserved a tour for 2pm, so maybe I should wake them up and make some breakfast. I am a little bit hungry, too.
On Saturday Dave and I will fly to Maryland. We want to look for a house to rent. I really hope we will find something. I will keep you updated.
As mentioned the last time this summer we have a lot of visitors. Actually we don't have very many days without somebody staying with us. After Tori left my brother and his family arrived. Uwe could only stay for three days and had to work for most of the time, but I did trips with Silke, Nico and Alena. We went to Cambridge together and took a punting tour on the river Cam, we went to the old Anglo Saxon Village, hired a row boat in Brandon, visited Norwich and took a day trip to London. Nico learned so much about London at school that now he wanted to see the major attractions himself. Since we've been there for only one day we had to decide which attraction we wanted to have a closer look at and the kids wanted to go to the London Dungeon. That was fine with Silke and me too, until we saw the line and heard that we had to wait for almost 2 hours to get into it. But once we were there we could't tell the kids no and therefore we lined up and waited. It was okay, we spent 2 hours in the dungeon itself. After that we had the time for a short sightseeing tour on a bus so that Nico could see the other attractions like Picadilly Circus, Travalgar Square, the Tower and the Tower bridge, before we had to get to the bus station again and get on our bus home to Thetford.
The kids also enjoyed playing with Amber. Actually I think for them that was the highlight of the whole trip. They walked her (together with an adult) and played with her in the evening. Amber had a good time, too, before she had to go on the long trip to Minneapolis where she stays with Ric, Tina and their kids right now. Dave and I need to go to Maryland next week and we have no dog sitter here anymore. And we also decided having the movers here and staying in a hotel for some nights is so much easier without a doggy around. But we miss her very much and can't wait to pick her up in Kansas in 1.5 months. A big thank you from here to Tina and Ric as well as Jim and Erika for taking care of Amber during that time. It helps a lot.
But back to my visitors. After Silke and the kids left Juergen and Ingrid arrived. They spend their two weeks summer vacation here in England and we decided to go to London first. Not for a day trip, but for three days. The swine flue seems to be widely spread here in England and especially in London. It is in German newspapers almost every day. Therefore I expected it to be kind of empty there. But the opposite is the truth: I have never seen London as crowded as this time. Way too many people for me ;o) We were not able to get into any of the major attractions, the lines were just too long. We went into the Towers, but didn't see the crown jewells or the white tower because of the lines. But we spent a great afternoon in Notting Hill, went shopping at Harrods, took a bus and a boat tour and walked from one end of downtown London to the next. We had a great time. But I also enjoy being back to quiet little Thetford. Hmm, maybe I should get used to bigger towns, now that our move to the D.C. area is close.
Back to Thetford I picked up Marcus and Eva who spent a weekend with all of us. We had a lot of fun. We again went to Cambridge and the Anglo Saxon village with them. And we also visited the queens summer home in Sandringham. Now is my last week with Juergen and Ingrid. It is 10 am now and I think they are still sleeping. This is why I finally found some time for this short update. Today we will go to Newmarket and look at the national stud. I reserved a tour for 2pm, so maybe I should wake them up and make some breakfast. I am a little bit hungry, too.
On Saturday Dave and I will fly to Maryland. We want to look for a house to rent. I really hope we will find something. I will keep you updated.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Back from Scotland
Yes, we are back from our trip to Scotland.... but I have to admit, the travel report will take a while. It is a very busy time here in England. But here is a very short version of our trip:
We started on July 4th, the sun was shining and we were looking forward to 13 days on the road and in Scotland. It was a wonder that everything fitted into the car. We used the roof box again and had all our camping stuff in it, the rest of the luggage on the back seat and Amber had her very own and comfortable travel compartment in the trunk. We stopped at Answick castle. As far as I understood St. Cloude State sends students there and Tina has been there through this program, right?
Our plan was to find a place to stay somewhere in that area, not too far away from the Scotish border. But everything was fully booked, even the campground. That was not what we expected and I was getting really nervous about the rest of the trip. Before we left Thetford we bought a book "pet friendly accommodation" and found a Best Western Hotel in Edinburgh, called it and stayed there for two nights. From there we explored the area around St. Andrews (golfer know what town I am talking about). The next stop was at Fort William, where we spent another two nights, well, we always spent two nights at each town. That gave us a whole day for exploring the area. From Fort William we drove to Isle of Skye. Beautiful, I loved it there! I even met a former co-worker of mine on the little campground we stayed. Funny, the world is so small. It was also our first time camping in the tent. Amber slept in the car and it worked out really well.
From Skye we drove to the north western Highlands and stayed in Big Sand, a very large but beautiful campground right at the sandy beach. Perfect for Amber, she was able to go swimming before dinner. From there we proceeded to the north coast of Scotland and stayed in a hotel in Tongue. It was very rainy when we arrived and therefore we decided to pick a hotel from our book again. Very nice, great food and a fantastic view. Amber was no problem and she behaved very well in the hotel, even staying in our room all by herself was no big deal. From Tongue we drove south again and stayed not to far away from Inverness. We picked a campground again, visited Cullodon battlefield and Loch Ness (too bad, I didn't see Nessie...) and a local brewery. The last night we stayed at the same hotel in Edinburgh. On the way there we visited some more castles and a Whiskey distillery.
That was our trip in a very very short version. But if you like you can have a look at a Scotland map before I will write a more detailed report with pictures. Right now I am preparing the house for our next guests. Tori visited us. She arrived on Monday and left today. We had such a great time together and I am so glad I met her! If you ask her, she can probably tell you more about broken shoes, waiting in the rain, getting lost while walking Amber, our trips to Bury St. Edmunds and Cambridge and her first geocache. I hope we will see her again soon. Tori, you are more than welcome to visit us in Maryland!
Now I am waiting for my brother and his family to arrive. I will pick them up at the airport tonight and they will stay until next Wednesday. Well, not all of them. Uwe had to reschedule his flight and now will fly back home on Sunday already. He just got a new project and needs to be in Switzerland next week. It is too bad, I wish I could spend more time with him, but on the other hand having a new project in times like this is really good. Business has been a little bit slow for him, too, during the first half of this year. Anyway, I have to prepare something for dinner and wait for Dave coming home with my car so that I can go to the airport. Hopefully I will be able to write more when my brother and his family left next week. So stay tuned.
We started on July 4th, the sun was shining and we were looking forward to 13 days on the road and in Scotland. It was a wonder that everything fitted into the car. We used the roof box again and had all our camping stuff in it, the rest of the luggage on the back seat and Amber had her very own and comfortable travel compartment in the trunk. We stopped at Answick castle. As far as I understood St. Cloude State sends students there and Tina has been there through this program, right?
Our plan was to find a place to stay somewhere in that area, not too far away from the Scotish border. But everything was fully booked, even the campground. That was not what we expected and I was getting really nervous about the rest of the trip. Before we left Thetford we bought a book "pet friendly accommodation" and found a Best Western Hotel in Edinburgh, called it and stayed there for two nights. From there we explored the area around St. Andrews (golfer know what town I am talking about). The next stop was at Fort William, where we spent another two nights, well, we always spent two nights at each town. That gave us a whole day for exploring the area. From Fort William we drove to Isle of Skye. Beautiful, I loved it there! I even met a former co-worker of mine on the little campground we stayed. Funny, the world is so small. It was also our first time camping in the tent. Amber slept in the car and it worked out really well.
From Skye we drove to the north western Highlands and stayed in Big Sand, a very large but beautiful campground right at the sandy beach. Perfect for Amber, she was able to go swimming before dinner. From there we proceeded to the north coast of Scotland and stayed in a hotel in Tongue. It was very rainy when we arrived and therefore we decided to pick a hotel from our book again. Very nice, great food and a fantastic view. Amber was no problem and she behaved very well in the hotel, even staying in our room all by herself was no big deal. From Tongue we drove south again and stayed not to far away from Inverness. We picked a campground again, visited Cullodon battlefield and Loch Ness (too bad, I didn't see Nessie...) and a local brewery. The last night we stayed at the same hotel in Edinburgh. On the way there we visited some more castles and a Whiskey distillery.
That was our trip in a very very short version. But if you like you can have a look at a Scotland map before I will write a more detailed report with pictures. Right now I am preparing the house for our next guests. Tori visited us. She arrived on Monday and left today. We had such a great time together and I am so glad I met her! If you ask her, she can probably tell you more about broken shoes, waiting in the rain, getting lost while walking Amber, our trips to Bury St. Edmunds and Cambridge and her first geocache. I hope we will see her again soon. Tori, you are more than welcome to visit us in Maryland!
Now I am waiting for my brother and his family to arrive. I will pick them up at the airport tonight and they will stay until next Wednesday. Well, not all of them. Uwe had to reschedule his flight and now will fly back home on Sunday already. He just got a new project and needs to be in Switzerland next week. It is too bad, I wish I could spend more time with him, but on the other hand having a new project in times like this is really good. Business has been a little bit slow for him, too, during the first half of this year. Anyway, I have to prepare something for dinner and wait for Dave coming home with my car so that I can go to the airport. Hopefully I will be able to write more when my brother and his family left next week. So stay tuned.
Friday, July 03, 2009
My Alaska Trip - Part 5: South to Seward and Goodbye
It is raining here in Thetford. Just showers, but it looks like the nice and sunny days are over. At least for now. Dave's vacation have just begun and we plan on going to Scotland tomorrow or on Sunday, depending on how much packing we can do tonight. Before we go and before I will have more travel reports to write I want to finish the Alaska one. So let me take you back south again.
Back south. I left Healy under bright sunshine and therefore I was looking forward to taking some very nice Mt. McKinley photos from the southern viewing points. But the further south I drove the more clouds and haze were there. My first stop was at the Alaskan Veteran's memorial. I stopped there to take some video for Dave. When the sky is clear this memorial also provides a great view at the mountain. But today when stopped there I could see the first clouds coming in. I continued my drive a few miles to the south to the next viewing area and decided that it isn't worth taking pictures from there now. Only a tiny little bit of the summit was visible, more clouds were coming in and I have better pictures from that spot.
But how could I drive south without another stop at our Tigger Lake lot? Right, I had to go there again. And this time I finished the geocache. And I have to tell you: it was worth it. The trail was a little bit overgrown, but once I arrived at the cache itself I had a fantastic overview over the lake. If anyone is into geocaching and happens to be in that area, please, you really should try the "Tigger Lake" one. And don't forget the hint, it really is a "Bird's eye view" ;o) First I hesitated a little bit. Didn't know, whether I really want to go to the final location without Dave. It was more a cache for him than for me, but I am glad I did go there. After that successful stop I drove to downtown Talkeetna again. This time I visited the historical museum and learned that Talkeetna once was a tent camp when the Alaska railroad was built. Well, Anchorage started that way, too ....
Talking about Anchorage. I stayed there for the next two days. The evenings I spent with Al and Jane and during the days I went geocaching in Kinkaid park, visited the Saturday Market (on Saturday ;o)) and the just recently reopened museum. It was too bad that only 50% of the new exhibitions have been opened already. The rest will open next spring. But anyway, I enjoyed it. They had a special exhibition about gold. That was really neat, they even showed a little play with really good actors. If you are interested in that museum have a look at the following link:
Back south. I left Healy under bright sunshine and therefore I was looking forward to taking some very nice Mt. McKinley photos from the southern viewing points. But the further south I drove the more clouds and haze were there. My first stop was at the Alaskan Veteran's memorial. I stopped there to take some video for Dave. When the sky is clear this memorial also provides a great view at the mountain. But today when stopped there I could see the first clouds coming in. I continued my drive a few miles to the south to the next viewing area and decided that it isn't worth taking pictures from there now. Only a tiny little bit of the summit was visible, more clouds were coming in and I have better pictures from that spot.
But how could I drive south without another stop at our Tigger Lake lot? Right, I had to go there again. And this time I finished the geocache. And I have to tell you: it was worth it. The trail was a little bit overgrown, but once I arrived at the cache itself I had a fantastic overview over the lake. If anyone is into geocaching and happens to be in that area, please, you really should try the "Tigger Lake" one. And don't forget the hint, it really is a "Bird's eye view" ;o) First I hesitated a little bit. Didn't know, whether I really want to go to the final location without Dave. It was more a cache for him than for me, but I am glad I did go there. After that successful stop I drove to downtown Talkeetna again. This time I visited the historical museum and learned that Talkeetna once was a tent camp when the Alaska railroad was built. Well, Anchorage started that way, too ....
Talking about Anchorage. I stayed there for the next two days. The evenings I spent with Al and Jane and during the days I went geocaching in Kinkaid park, visited the Saturday Market (on Saturday ;o)) and the just recently reopened museum. It was too bad that only 50% of the new exhibitions have been opened already. The rest will open next spring. But anyway, I enjoyed it. They had a special exhibition about gold. That was really neat, they even showed a little play with really good actors. If you are interested in that museum have a look at the following link:
http://www.anchoragemuseum.org/
Sunday I left Anchorage and drove to Seward on the Kenai Peninsular. It was cloudy, not really cold, but not nice. My plan was to spend one night there, visit the Sealife Center and go on a boat tour on Monday. I stopped by at Kenai Fjord Tours and had to decide which tour I wanted. Well, on the one hand there were these fixed tours on bigger ships. I did this before and got only a little bit seasick. The other option was a very flexible trip on a small boat (only 16 passengers or so), but the last time I did it I go really, really seasick. After thinking about and counting my remaining motion sickness pills (I already used most of them on the bus tours into Denali) I decided to chance it and go on a small boat tour. And it was great. Yes, there were a lot of birder on the boat, but they were also interested in the mammals we saw. And they didn't leave any place before I saw the very rare bird xy. You can imagine it going like: "Anke did you also see the xy over there?" - We were at a rookery with thousands of birds, all looking very similar to me - "Ehm, no, didn't see it yet." "Do you see the three cormorans there right above the white spot?" "Ehm, yes (the white spot is bird poop, right?)" "If you like to the right from where there are you should see 5 birds, two of them are the xy" "Ehm, they all look the same." "No, no, wait until they turn their head, then you will see the tiny little white mark on the neck!" "Ehm, oh yes, now I see them, fantastic! (Can we continue the trip now?)"
But as I said, they were all really really nice and we saw mammals like orcas, humpback whales, otter, sea lions, harbor seal and porpoise. Oh, and I forgot to mention the weather. On Sunday when I arrived it started to rain and the day was very grey. But then on Monday, right for the tour, it cleared up. Even the sun was shining, it wasn't cold and the best: the water was really calm, I only needed one seasickness pill for the whole trip ;o)
That was my last day in Alaska. After the trip I drove back to Anchorage, spent the last night with Al and Jane, packed my stuff and the next morning I drove to the airport again. The time went by too fast again, but I have to say that I really wished I could have done the trip with Dave, I missed him!
Here are some last pictures from the boat trip:
One of many Dall Porpoise. They tried to race the boat and won.
Orcas
Few percent of two humpback whales.
Sunday I left Anchorage and drove to Seward on the Kenai Peninsular. It was cloudy, not really cold, but not nice. My plan was to spend one night there, visit the Sealife Center and go on a boat tour on Monday. I stopped by at Kenai Fjord Tours and had to decide which tour I wanted. Well, on the one hand there were these fixed tours on bigger ships. I did this before and got only a little bit seasick. The other option was a very flexible trip on a small boat (only 16 passengers or so), but the last time I did it I go really, really seasick. After thinking about and counting my remaining motion sickness pills (I already used most of them on the bus tours into Denali) I decided to chance it and go on a small boat tour. And it was great. Yes, there were a lot of birder on the boat, but they were also interested in the mammals we saw. And they didn't leave any place before I saw the very rare bird xy. You can imagine it going like: "Anke did you also see the xy over there?" - We were at a rookery with thousands of birds, all looking very similar to me - "Ehm, no, didn't see it yet." "Do you see the three cormorans there right above the white spot?" "Ehm, yes (the white spot is bird poop, right?)" "If you like to the right from where there are you should see 5 birds, two of them are the xy" "Ehm, they all look the same." "No, no, wait until they turn their head, then you will see the tiny little white mark on the neck!" "Ehm, oh yes, now I see them, fantastic! (Can we continue the trip now?)"
But as I said, they were all really really nice and we saw mammals like orcas, humpback whales, otter, sea lions, harbor seal and porpoise. Oh, and I forgot to mention the weather. On Sunday when I arrived it started to rain and the day was very grey. But then on Monday, right for the tour, it cleared up. Even the sun was shining, it wasn't cold and the best: the water was really calm, I only needed one seasickness pill for the whole trip ;o) That was my last day in Alaska. After the trip I drove back to Anchorage, spent the last night with Al and Jane, packed my stuff and the next morning I drove to the airport again. The time went by too fast again, but I have to say that I really wished I could have done the trip with Dave, I missed him!
Here are some last pictures from the boat trip:
One of many Dall Porpoise. They tried to race the boat and won.
Orcas
Few percent of two humpback whales.Tuesday, June 30, 2009
My Alaska Trip - Part 4: More Denali NP and Healy
The rain came Sunday night. It rained for less than an hour and only at some places. We were our for dinner and enjoyed our pizza in Bury St. Edmunds. On the way home we found one road flooded to a degree that we had to go a detour. That was Sunday, since yesterday (Monday) the weather is beautiful again. It is amazing how beautiful our last summer here is. I hope the nice weather will last for all of our summer guest. The first ones will arrive in three weeks from now.
Talking about the weather....
... the longer I stayed in Healy the better was the weather. I went on a short trip to Fairbanks to visit Evalyn's friend Teresa. Well, she is my friend, too, but I met her through Evalyn. It was ca. 80F and we had lunch on her deck under the trees. We had a very good time talking, laughing, eating. I didn't spent a lot of time in the town itself. The only place I stopped was the gas station (gas is so much cheaper here than in Healy) and Creamer's Field, an old dairy farm. This is where you can watch cranes and geese during the summer. Since I decided to buy another bus ticket into the park I had to go back to Healy on that night.
"Did you ride the bus with me before?" Yes, Jeremy, I thing so. My tour into the park to Wonder Lake started with a 30 minutes delay. The weather was good, some clouds, but we were even able to see the mountains through them. And the bus driver was talking about the shrubs of Denali. And when he started doing that I knew for sure I went on a tour with him before. I think it was in 2005. The really amazing thing was that he remembered me. On all my trips into the park I may have had 5 bus drivers, but how many tourists did he meet on all his trips? And it wasn't that I got extremely motion sick and he had to stop or anything like that. He just remembered me. Wow.
It was a great trip again and we saw a lot of animals. Unfortunately most of them were too far away for any photo. At Sable Pass we stopped for a short tailed weazle. A few meters further on we saw some caribou at the hillside, right next to a bear mother with two cubs. On the ponds between Eilson Visitor Center and Wonder Lake was a long tailed duck swimming and Jeremy was more than excited about that. Guess it was something special.
The mosquitos at the lake were not as bad as expected. And the mountain was visible and we had a great time there. A short, great time, since we had to work on the delay from the beginning of the trip. But that was ok. Here are some pictures of the day:
On the way home, at mile 6, I finally found my moose with a calf. Too bad I was still on the bus and couldn't get out to take better photos. But anyway, I saw the calf.
As always the 11 hours on the bus just flew by.
And then, all the sudden, my last day in Denali and Healy arrived. One more day before I had to go back south. Everytime I started my car it told me to "change engine oil soon", but that had to wait for one more week.
My last day was very sunny again and the park was getting more crowded. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot at the Savage River turnaround area. After driving by 5 times I had luck and parked my car for a three hours hike along the river. I wanted a photo of the nice marmot on the rocks. And this is what I found:
I really enjoyed the last day here. And I was a little bit sad that the time was over. Vic, the moose biologist, already left a day before and more and more cars and especially RVs arrived at the park. I drove the oppite direction, back to Healy. At the intersection Otto Lake Rd - Parks Highway I hesitated for a little while, then signalled and turned into Otto Lake Rd.
For 8 years I spent all the nights I've been in that area at Evalyn's little red house on Otto Lake and I couldn't leave without going there for one more time. I passed the park hotel and the very busy Otto Lake (it was hot and a lot of people went swimming there), drove by the 9 hole golf course and stopped at the house before I turned around and decided that too many things changed and the time there now is history. And that is okay.
The evening I spent at Ann's house with dinner, talking and watching the little puppies.
The last part of the journey brought me back to Talkeetna (for a short stopp and a Geocache) and to Seward on the Kenai peninsular. But that is a different story. Now I will go and enjoy the beautiful english weather.
Talking about the weather....
... the longer I stayed in Healy the better was the weather. I went on a short trip to Fairbanks to visit Evalyn's friend Teresa. Well, she is my friend, too, but I met her through Evalyn. It was ca. 80F and we had lunch on her deck under the trees. We had a very good time talking, laughing, eating. I didn't spent a lot of time in the town itself. The only place I stopped was the gas station (gas is so much cheaper here than in Healy) and Creamer's Field, an old dairy farm. This is where you can watch cranes and geese during the summer. Since I decided to buy another bus ticket into the park I had to go back to Healy on that night. 
"Did you ride the bus with me before?" Yes, Jeremy, I thing so. My tour into the park to Wonder Lake started with a 30 minutes delay. The weather was good, some clouds, but we were even able to see the mountains through them. And the bus driver was talking about the shrubs of Denali. And when he started doing that I knew for sure I went on a tour with him before. I think it was in 2005. The really amazing thing was that he remembered me. On all my trips into the park I may have had 5 bus drivers, but how many tourists did he meet on all his trips? And it wasn't that I got extremely motion sick and he had to stop or anything like that. He just remembered me. Wow. It was a great trip again and we saw a lot of animals. Unfortunately most of them were too far away for any photo. At Sable Pass we stopped for a short tailed weazle. A few meters further on we saw some caribou at the hillside, right next to a bear mother with two cubs. On the ponds between Eilson Visitor Center and Wonder Lake was a long tailed duck swimming and Jeremy was more than excited about that. Guess it was something special.
The mosquitos at the lake were not as bad as expected. And the mountain was visible and we had a great time there. A short, great time, since we had to work on the delay from the beginning of the trip. But that was ok. Here are some pictures of the day:
On the way home, at mile 6, I finally found my moose with a calf. Too bad I was still on the bus and couldn't get out to take better photos. But anyway, I saw the calf.
As always the 11 hours on the bus just flew by.
And then, all the sudden, my last day in Denali and Healy arrived. One more day before I had to go back south. Everytime I started my car it told me to "change engine oil soon", but that had to wait for one more week.
My last day was very sunny again and the park was getting more crowded. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot at the Savage River turnaround area. After driving by 5 times I had luck and parked my car for a three hours hike along the river. I wanted a photo of the nice marmot on the rocks. And this is what I found:
I really enjoyed the last day here. And I was a little bit sad that the time was over. Vic, the moose biologist, already left a day before and more and more cars and especially RVs arrived at the park. I drove the oppite direction, back to Healy. At the intersection Otto Lake Rd - Parks Highway I hesitated for a little while, then signalled and turned into Otto Lake Rd.
For 8 years I spent all the nights I've been in that area at Evalyn's little red house on Otto Lake and I couldn't leave without going there for one more time. I passed the park hotel and the very busy Otto Lake (it was hot and a lot of people went swimming there), drove by the 9 hole golf course and stopped at the house before I turned around and decided that too many things changed and the time there now is history. And that is okay.
The evening I spent at Ann's house with dinner, talking and watching the little puppies.
The last part of the journey brought me back to Talkeetna (for a short stopp and a Geocache) and to Seward on the Kenai peninsular. But that is a different story. Now I will go and enjoy the beautiful english weather.
Friday, June 26, 2009
My Alaska Trip - Part 3: Denali NP and Healy
I am waiting for the rain. Again, the day was warm and sunny, but now there are big grey clouds in the sky. When Dave left Lakenheath it was raining there already, but here in Thetford it is still very, very dry. Too dry, we really need some rain. But I guess you don't want to read about the current weather in England. Let me take you back to Alaska again. Now that you all had a look at our lot I would like to take you a little bit further north...
North of Talkeetna the landscape changes. Very slowly, but you can tell that the trees are not as tall, the mountains look higher, there are fewer towns and people. You are approaching the Alaska range and with some luck you can see "the mountain", Denali. But as I said, you need luck. Most of the days it is hidden behind clouds.
It is a two hours drive to the nationalpark entrance and then another 30 minutes to Healy. I passed the Otto Lake Road turn off. For the first time in 8 years I didn't stay at Evalyn's little red house at Otto Lake. She moved to Montana over a year ago and I didn't expect it being that difficult for me being here in Healy without her... I miss her! Well, I had to drive a little bit further until I came to the Motel NordHaven. A very nice place, even with not very comfortable pillows. Healy welcomed me with a typical storm. Not just a high wind, no, a real Healy storm. It almost blew me away. Well, and if it was strong enough to almost blowing me away it definitely took care of all the little mosquitos. Therefore I was able to unload my car without having hundreds of them in my room.
Did I tell you already that I was travelling with some caribou antlers? No? Well, I travelled with some caribou antlers. Al gave the to me and they needed to go to Ann and Terry's place. Terry is making these wonderful Ulu knives and wanted these antlers for the handles.
I met Ann at their house. Terry was in Fairbanks and they didn't have very many guests that night. That was very nice for me since we had pizza and a lot of time to talk before I drove back to my motel room.
"Hello, excuse me. Anke?" Who's calling my name? It was the next day when I drove into the park and stopped at the Savage River turnaround area. I really needed a bathroom when I heard the above question. It was Russ, a filmmaker I first met maybe 6 years ago. I didn't expect him there and neither did he. And he immediately started telling me what happened during the last week or two. Things like an abondoned moose calve at the river, hunting lynx and three bears. bin. Well, we will see what I will see ;o)
At the afternoon, after solving the problem of filling up gas without a credit card they accept, I drove back into the park. And here I met Vic, the moose biologist, talking to Russ. Both told me that I just missed the three bears (a sow and 2 older cubs) playing. Well, I was able to see them from the Savage overlook and watched them for some days. Nothing else exciting happened on that first day in the park. I saw two more moose, but no calves.
2 foxes, 2 bears, 1 wolf, moose, golden eagle. That's what I saw on my shuttle bus trip to the Eilson Visitor Center the next day. The whole trip took 8 hours and went 66 miles into the nationalpark. You can leave the bus whenever you want and go hiking until you want to stop another bus and take a ride again. But today that wasn't really an option for me. First of all I don't like hiking for a long time all by myself. I just don't feel comfortable doing that. Further more the weather was really nasty. Even with the rain stopped it was windy and the temperatures were in the mid 40s, really not nice. That changed and further east and later that day it was nice again. After the shuttle bus tour Ann and I went to the bookstore and had some ice cream together. It was a nice day and especially nice evening.
The other thing to do in the evening is going on a short hike along the Savage river. This is especially a good thing to do after having a very good Seafood Chowder for dinner, as it happened to me the next day. And so I decided I need some excersise and went on a fast 2.5 miles walk on that round trail. It is very nice there. The path goes along the river into a narrow valley, comes to a wooden bridge, crosses the river and goes back on the other side. Since I only wanted to go there for excercise all I brought was my little video camera and no photo equipment. Which was a mistake, because I met "him" at the bridge. "Him" was a very cute an tame marmot. Well, actually there were at least three of them, but this special on posed in the sun and on the rock for me. I took some video, but no photos. Sorry.
That was my travel report for today. I also went on a short visit to Fairbanks and another shuttle bus trip to wonder lake, but that is another story for another day.
And by the way. Are you interested in how much it is to ship a car (lets say a VW Jetta) to Baltimore? Well, so am I! I looks like the cheapest way to do so costs 1200 british pounds. I jsut tried to book it and therefore scanned all available papers that we have for the car and sent it to the shipping company. Let's see what happens. We will ship Dave's car, the Mustang, via a company here in Brandon, but from their quotation they were more expensive than the one I found. Since we don't have to pay for shipping his car I don't care, but we have to pay the shipping of a second car and therefore I tried to find a cheaper way of doing it. Anyway, even being cheaper than the one in Brandon it is more expensive than flying Amber in a new kennel to Minneapolis ;o)
North of Talkeetna the landscape changes. Very slowly, but you can tell that the trees are not as tall, the mountains look higher, there are fewer towns and people. You are approaching the Alaska range and with some luck you can see "the mountain", Denali. But as I said, you need luck. Most of the days it is hidden behind clouds.
It is a two hours drive to the nationalpark entrance and then another 30 minutes to Healy. I passed the Otto Lake Road turn off. For the first time in 8 years I didn't stay at Evalyn's little red house at Otto Lake. She moved to Montana over a year ago and I didn't expect it being that difficult for me being here in Healy without her... I miss her! Well, I had to drive a little bit further until I came to the Motel NordHaven. A very nice place, even with not very comfortable pillows. Healy welcomed me with a typical storm. Not just a high wind, no, a real Healy storm. It almost blew me away. Well, and if it was strong enough to almost blowing me away it definitely took care of all the little mosquitos. Therefore I was able to unload my car without having hundreds of them in my room.
Did I tell you already that I was travelling with some caribou antlers? No? Well, I travelled with some caribou antlers. Al gave the to me and they needed to go to Ann and Terry's place. Terry is making these wonderful Ulu knives and wanted these antlers for the handles.
I met Ann at their house. Terry was in Fairbanks and they didn't have very many guests that night. That was very nice for me since we had pizza and a lot of time to talk before I drove back to my motel room.
"Hello, excuse me. Anke?" Who's calling my name? It was the next day when I drove into the park and stopped at the Savage River turnaround area. I really needed a bathroom when I heard the above question. It was Russ, a filmmaker I first met maybe 6 years ago. I didn't expect him there and neither did he. And he immediately started telling me what happened during the last week or two. Things like an abondoned moose calve at the river, hunting lynx and three bears. bin. Well, we will see what I will see ;o)At the afternoon, after solving the problem of filling up gas without a credit card they accept, I drove back into the park. And here I met Vic, the moose biologist, talking to Russ. Both told me that I just missed the three bears (a sow and 2 older cubs) playing. Well, I was able to see them from the Savage overlook and watched them for some days. Nothing else exciting happened on that first day in the park. I saw two more moose, but no calves.
2 foxes, 2 bears, 1 wolf, moose, golden eagle. That's what I saw on my shuttle bus trip to the Eilson Visitor Center the next day. The whole trip took 8 hours and went 66 miles into the nationalpark. You can leave the bus whenever you want and go hiking until you want to stop another bus and take a ride again. But today that wasn't really an option for me. First of all I don't like hiking for a long time all by myself. I just don't feel comfortable doing that. Further more the weather was really nasty. Even with the rain stopped it was windy and the temperatures were in the mid 40s, really not nice. That changed and further east and later that day it was nice again. After the shuttle bus tour Ann and I went to the bookstore and had some ice cream together. It was a nice day and especially nice evening.
The other thing to do in the evening is going on a short hike along the Savage river. This is especially a good thing to do after having a very good Seafood Chowder for dinner, as it happened to me the next day. And so I decided I need some excersise and went on a fast 2.5 miles walk on that round trail. It is very nice there. The path goes along the river into a narrow valley, comes to a wooden bridge, crosses the river and goes back on the other side. Since I only wanted to go there for excercise all I brought was my little video camera and no photo equipment. Which was a mistake, because I met "him" at the bridge. "Him" was a very cute an tame marmot. Well, actually there were at least three of them, but this special on posed in the sun and on the rock for me. I took some video, but no photos. Sorry.That was my travel report for today. I also went on a short visit to Fairbanks and another shuttle bus trip to wonder lake, but that is another story for another day.
And by the way. Are you interested in how much it is to ship a car (lets say a VW Jetta) to Baltimore? Well, so am I! I looks like the cheapest way to do so costs 1200 british pounds. I jsut tried to book it and therefore scanned all available papers that we have for the car and sent it to the shipping company. Let's see what happens. We will ship Dave's car, the Mustang, via a company here in Brandon, but from their quotation they were more expensive than the one I found. Since we don't have to pay for shipping his car I don't care, but we have to pay the shipping of a second car and therefore I tried to find a cheaper way of doing it. Anyway, even being cheaper than the one in Brandon it is more expensive than flying Amber in a new kennel to Minneapolis ;o)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
My Alaska Trip - Part 2: Our little wilderness
It is warm and sunny in England. The third day in a row. Nevertheless I decided to spend some time at the computer and write the second part of my little Alaska travel journal. But it will be a short one.
Tigger Lake. On Thursday, June 4th, I started my trip north. The destination for today and the next week was Healy, 12 miles north of the entrance to the Denali Nationalpark. But on the way there I had to stop at "our little wilderness" at Tigger Lake in Talkeetna. Approximately 2 hours north of Anchorage (by car) on the George Parks Highway you'll come to a juction. Turning right here will bring you to Talkeetna. After ca. 10 Miles on that Talkeetna spur road you need to turn right into the non-paved Whigmi Rd which will make another right turn into S Tigger Lake Rod. And here you are, the corner lot is our wilderness.
Our plan is to build our B&B and some little cabins for further guests there. Yes, we have visions and we need them ;o) If you look the address up on google earth or google maps you won't be able to find neither Tigger Lake Road nor the lake itself. Whigmi is a path without name. By the way, do you know what Whigmi stands for? What Have I Got Myself Into!
The gravel pit on google earth is starting to overgrow with trees and bushes. If you want a closer look just click on the pictures below.
5 out of the 8 lots are already sold. But non of the other owners started to build a house there. These are difficult times, also here in Alaska.
It was very quite there at the lake. I saw a lot of moose droppings and mosquitos. Two families stopped by and used the puplic access for there day trip to the lake. It is stocked with rainbow trout and they went fishing there. And there is also a very nice and unusual geocache hidden somewhere.
I spent some time there walking around, looking at the lake and the lot and imagined our future home. In my mind I already made plans for the house, the driveway and a path to the public lake access. As I said: it is a challenge, but also a great opportunity for our visions.
After three more miles you'll come to beautiful downtown Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is a very small, charming and busy little town. In the summer it is a real tourist attraction. This is where all the Mt. McKinley expeditions start. The normal tourist can go on a boot tour on the three rivers there or take a flightseeing trip around the mountain. What we really like about it is that most people living there during the summer also stay during the winter. All the little stores are open, there is a very active artist community which organises exhibitions and festivals. Further there is enough snow in the winter, but the temperatures are not as extreme as north of the Alaska range. And if we want to go shopping: Wasilla with all necessary stores is only a little bit more than 1 hour away.
So, hopefully one day we will live there, too. Until then we will visit as often as possible.
Tigger Lake. On Thursday, June 4th, I started my trip north. The destination for today and the next week was Healy, 12 miles north of the entrance to the Denali Nationalpark. But on the way there I had to stop at "our little wilderness" at Tigger Lake in Talkeetna. Approximately 2 hours north of Anchorage (by car) on the George Parks Highway you'll come to a juction. Turning right here will bring you to Talkeetna. After ca. 10 Miles on that Talkeetna spur road you need to turn right into the non-paved Whigmi Rd which will make another right turn into S Tigger Lake Rod. And here you are, the corner lot is our wilderness.
Our plan is to build our B&B and some little cabins for further guests there. Yes, we have visions and we need them ;o) If you look the address up on google earth or google maps you won't be able to find neither Tigger Lake Road nor the lake itself. Whigmi is a path without name. By the way, do you know what Whigmi stands for? What Have I Got Myself Into!
The gravel pit on google earth is starting to overgrow with trees and bushes. If you want a closer look just click on the pictures below.
5 out of the 8 lots are already sold. But non of the other owners started to build a house there. These are difficult times, also here in Alaska.
It was very quite there at the lake. I saw a lot of moose droppings and mosquitos. Two families stopped by and used the puplic access for there day trip to the lake. It is stocked with rainbow trout and they went fishing there. And there is also a very nice and unusual geocache hidden somewhere.
I spent some time there walking around, looking at the lake and the lot and imagined our future home. In my mind I already made plans for the house, the driveway and a path to the public lake access. As I said: it is a challenge, but also a great opportunity for our visions.
After three more miles you'll come to beautiful downtown Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is a very small, charming and busy little town. In the summer it is a real tourist attraction. This is where all the Mt. McKinley expeditions start. The normal tourist can go on a boot tour on the three rivers there or take a flightseeing trip around the mountain. What we really like about it is that most people living there during the summer also stay during the winter. All the little stores are open, there is a very active artist community which organises exhibitions and festivals. Further there is enough snow in the winter, but the temperatures are not as extreme as north of the Alaska range. And if we want to go shopping: Wasilla with all necessary stores is only a little bit more than 1 hour away.So, hopefully one day we will live there, too. Until then we will visit as often as possible.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My Alaska Trip - Part 1: Flight and Anchorage
Actually I am back in England. The sun is shining, Amber is back from the kennel and watching me typing this and I decided to spend this afternoon writing at least the first part of my travel report. So here it is:
The whole trip started on Monday, June 1st. I decided to drive my car to Harwich, take the ferry from there to Hook-of-Holland and spend one night in Essen. And it was a very short night. At 4:30am on Tuesday morning the airport taxi was already waiting for me. For "just" 70 Euros it gave me a ride to Duesseldorf airport from where I had a connecting flight to Frankfurt/Main. After arriving there it felt like it was my first trip. Seriously, it took me at least 1.5 hours to figure out where to go. No Condor transfer counter, too early for the flight being posted on the departure board and no working information terminal. But finally I held my boarding pass in my hand and was on my way to gate B60. But wait a minute! B60 is not where I usually flew from. No second security check, but even more important: no McDonald's for breakfast or any shopping possibilities. So the only thing to do was watching my co-travellers.
Many years ago when I first took the Condor to Alaska, 80% of the passengers were men in their maybe late 40s, early 50s. They were hunter, wanted to go fishing or on a canoe trip or maybe spend some a couple of weeks in a remote cabin. Adventure-Men. This changed a lot. There are always some Americans on board. Maybe coming home from a trip to Europe, maybe living in Germany and going on vacation to Alaska. Of course there are the above mentioned men. You can easily identify them by two things: First of all they are already dressed for their adventure and second they don't wait at the same areas as all the other passengers do, they want to be different, going to the wilderness, they know all this very well and pretend that they are not excited anymore. They are not like the young couples with their kids in Spiderman dresses, or the excited older couples on the way to their RV adventure driving the "8" (the most popular roadtrip through the Yukon and Alaska). Well, as mentioned above, it was a very mixture.
I was very lucky finding the guy sitting next to me neither being one of the above mentioned adventurer nor a young dad with a screaming and crying baby. No, it was a biologist on his way to Barrow to do some research on birds, especially sandpiper.
When flying on Tuesdays there is always a stop over in Whitehorse, YT, Canada. The majority of the RV tourists usually leave the plane here. For them it doesn't really matter where to start the "8" and usually, if you book the RV from Germany it is cheaper to start the trip in Canada. For maybe one hour we all had to get off the plane and wait in a designated area. After a 9 hours flight it felt very good standing or sitting there in the sun. It was warm, in the 70s already and nice outside. It was really good to spend that time there before going on another 1.5 hours flight to the final destination, Anchorage.
The immigration process was much shorter than expected. I was a little bit nervous waiting in line with my big, sealed envelope in my hands. At the usual passport control point everything was done withing a few minutes, nothing special here. After that I had to follow another officer to a separate room. Here she opened the envelope, showed me my photo and waited for me to tell her that it is really me. After that all I had to do is give two finger prints and signatures. That's it. Now my green card will be on the way to Dave's parents in Kansas and in the meantime a stamp on my visa in my passport will do the job.
Jane waited for me in her house in Anchorage. And shortly after my arrival Al came home from work. The sun was shining, we were sitting outside on the deck, had wine and steak and I felt at home. At 7pm, 25 hours after I got up that morning in Essen, I was too tired for any further conversation and went to be.
The next morning was warm and sunny again. I drove down to Potter's Marsh, a bird nesting area south of Anchorage, to meet with Marcus and Eva. They arrived in Alaska a few days ago and were on a big RV trip. We wanted to spend that day together. First we watched a joung moose at Potter's Marsh, after that I showed them a spot from where we had a good view into a bald eagle's next. Too bad I didn't bring my 400mm lenses. But that would have been way to much for me to carry.
From the eagle's nest we started our 2 hours trip north to the Matanuska glacier. With three guides from Mica tours we started our 3 hours glacier hike. And that was really fascinating. We saw lakes with ice beaches, little streams and holes where a grown man could disappear. Our main guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of new and detailed informatino about glaciers in general.
At 5:30pm I said good bye to Marcus and Eva. I drove back to Anchorage to start my trip to Talkeetna and Healy the next morning while they wanted to go to Valdez and then further on to the Yukon Territory.
The whole trip started on Monday, June 1st. I decided to drive my car to Harwich, take the ferry from there to Hook-of-Holland and spend one night in Essen. And it was a very short night. At 4:30am on Tuesday morning the airport taxi was already waiting for me. For "just" 70 Euros it gave me a ride to Duesseldorf airport from where I had a connecting flight to Frankfurt/Main. After arriving there it felt like it was my first trip. Seriously, it took me at least 1.5 hours to figure out where to go. No Condor transfer counter, too early for the flight being posted on the departure board and no working information terminal. But finally I held my boarding pass in my hand and was on my way to gate B60. But wait a minute! B60 is not where I usually flew from. No second security check, but even more important: no McDonald's for breakfast or any shopping possibilities. So the only thing to do was watching my co-travellers.
Many years ago when I first took the Condor to Alaska, 80% of the passengers were men in their maybe late 40s, early 50s. They were hunter, wanted to go fishing or on a canoe trip or maybe spend some a couple of weeks in a remote cabin. Adventure-Men. This changed a lot. There are always some Americans on board. Maybe coming home from a trip to Europe, maybe living in Germany and going on vacation to Alaska. Of course there are the above mentioned men. You can easily identify them by two things: First of all they are already dressed for their adventure and second they don't wait at the same areas as all the other passengers do, they want to be different, going to the wilderness, they know all this very well and pretend that they are not excited anymore. They are not like the young couples with their kids in Spiderman dresses, or the excited older couples on the way to their RV adventure driving the "8" (the most popular roadtrip through the Yukon and Alaska). Well, as mentioned above, it was a very mixture.
I was very lucky finding the guy sitting next to me neither being one of the above mentioned adventurer nor a young dad with a screaming and crying baby. No, it was a biologist on his way to Barrow to do some research on birds, especially sandpiper.
When flying on Tuesdays there is always a stop over in Whitehorse, YT, Canada. The majority of the RV tourists usually leave the plane here. For them it doesn't really matter where to start the "8" and usually, if you book the RV from Germany it is cheaper to start the trip in Canada. For maybe one hour we all had to get off the plane and wait in a designated area. After a 9 hours flight it felt very good standing or sitting there in the sun. It was warm, in the 70s already and nice outside. It was really good to spend that time there before going on another 1.5 hours flight to the final destination, Anchorage.The immigration process was much shorter than expected. I was a little bit nervous waiting in line with my big, sealed envelope in my hands. At the usual passport control point everything was done withing a few minutes, nothing special here. After that I had to follow another officer to a separate room. Here she opened the envelope, showed me my photo and waited for me to tell her that it is really me. After that all I had to do is give two finger prints and signatures. That's it. Now my green card will be on the way to Dave's parents in Kansas and in the meantime a stamp on my visa in my passport will do the job.
Jane waited for me in her house in Anchorage. And shortly after my arrival Al came home from work. The sun was shining, we were sitting outside on the deck, had wine and steak and I felt at home. At 7pm, 25 hours after I got up that morning in Essen, I was too tired for any further conversation and went to be.
The next morning was warm and sunny again. I drove down to Potter's Marsh, a bird nesting area south of Anchorage, to meet with Marcus and Eva. They arrived in Alaska a few days ago and were on a big RV trip. We wanted to spend that day together. First we watched a joung moose at Potter's Marsh, after that I showed them a spot from where we had a good view into a bald eagle's next. Too bad I didn't bring my 400mm lenses. But that would have been way to much for me to carry. 
From the eagle's nest we started our 2 hours trip north to the Matanuska glacier. With three guides from Mica tours we started our 3 hours glacier hike. And that was really fascinating. We saw lakes with ice beaches, little streams and holes where a grown man could disappear. Our main guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of new and detailed informatino about glaciers in general.At 5:30pm I said good bye to Marcus and Eva. I drove back to Anchorage to start my trip to Talkeetna and Healy the next morning while they wanted to go to Valdez and then further on to the Yukon Territory.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Up to Alaska!
It is a beautiful blue sky day here in England. And it is warm. So why am I sitting here and update all my blogs? Well, the answer is easy: I won't be able to do so for the next three weeks again. I am going to Alaska! Without my laptop ;o)
Tomorrow I will take the ferry from England to Germany and on Tuesday I will fly to Anchorage. Having the car in Germany will give us the change to move more of my stuff to England on the way back. But right now I am just looking forward to the Alaska trip. I am a little bit sad that Dave can't come with me, but we plan on going to Scotland later this summer. So what are my plans for two weeks up north?
Well, first of all I have to activate my visa. The next thing is picking up the title of Dave's Mustang at the DMV in Palmer and while I am there I will also try to register our two cars from England there, too. I'm not sure whether it will work, but at least I can give it a try.
I also want to go and have a look at our lot at Tigger Lake in Talkeetna. We haven't seen it without snow and we never took a picture of it. I hope it is not a big swamp.
Beside all these things I plan to spend a good amount of time in Healy and the Denali National Park. It will be very different from the last times when I was able to spend the time at Evalyn's house, which was home to me, but I hope I will enjoy it anyway. I also plan on going to Fairbanks and visit some friends there. And maybe I can go on a boat trip out of Seward or Valdez. We will see.
I will write a detailed report after I come home. And hopefully you can expect some nice pictures then too.
Tomorrow I will take the ferry from England to Germany and on Tuesday I will fly to Anchorage. Having the car in Germany will give us the change to move more of my stuff to England on the way back. But right now I am just looking forward to the Alaska trip. I am a little bit sad that Dave can't come with me, but we plan on going to Scotland later this summer. So what are my plans for two weeks up north?
Well, first of all I have to activate my visa. The next thing is picking up the title of Dave's Mustang at the DMV in Palmer and while I am there I will also try to register our two cars from England there, too. I'm not sure whether it will work, but at least I can give it a try.
I also want to go and have a look at our lot at Tigger Lake in Talkeetna. We haven't seen it without snow and we never took a picture of it. I hope it is not a big swamp.
Beside all these things I plan to spend a good amount of time in Healy and the Denali National Park. It will be very different from the last times when I was able to spend the time at Evalyn's house, which was home to me, but I hope I will enjoy it anyway. I also plan on going to Fairbanks and visit some friends there. And maybe I can go on a boat trip out of Seward or Valdez. We will see.
I will write a detailed report after I come home. And hopefully you can expect some nice pictures then too.
More moving boxes...
... are filling our garage here in England. Almost all my stuff is here now. All, except of maybe 3 boxes, my diving gear, roller blades and running shoes. That's it. Wow. My brother and I rented a moving van couple of weeks ago and within 3 days I flew to Germany, we packed the van on the same day, drove to my brother's house, spend a night there, took the ferry to England and unloaded everything the next day. It was kind of busy, but now the first move is done and we are waiting for the second one this year.
The whole moving procedure went well. I was a little bit worried about my brother driving that van here in England, but he did very well. When we arrived the weather turned into what everybody considers a typical English one: grey sky, light rain and fog. We arrived late in the evening and it was almost dark outside. The bad thing was that our exit of the main roundabout at the ferry terminal was closed and the police men standing there didn't tell us where to go. But eventually we found our way and made it to Thetford. Unloading everything went very well and fast. We also had a chance to use the big van to bring some of Dave's old furniture to the recycling center. As a thank you my brother got a real American steak for dinner on that day. And he loved it. If it is not for the English weather it is for the steak that he wants to come back in July. And I am so much looking forward to all the people visiting us this summer.
The whole moving procedure went well. I was a little bit worried about my brother driving that van here in England, but he did very well. When we arrived the weather turned into what everybody considers a typical English one: grey sky, light rain and fog. We arrived late in the evening and it was almost dark outside. The bad thing was that our exit of the main roundabout at the ferry terminal was closed and the police men standing there didn't tell us where to go. But eventually we found our way and made it to Thetford. Unloading everything went very well and fast. We also had a chance to use the big van to bring some of Dave's old furniture to the recycling center. As a thank you my brother got a real American steak for dinner on that day. And he loved it. If it is not for the English weather it is for the steak that he wants to come back in July. And I am so much looking forward to all the people visiting us this summer.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Medieval Fayre
From my German blog I got the first complaints about not writing for more than 10 days. So I asked myself what to tell you. It is not that so many exciting things happened here during the last weeks. I walked Amber, but that is not really something to write about. What else? Well, I finished my B&B management class with a 100% score. Yeah! I was really happy about that and it was fun to study again. Now that I am done with this class I need to think about the next project. But this won't fill pages and pages here.
Well, okay. Maybe I will take you with us on a quick trip into the past. Let's go to an Medieval Fair in Snailwell (and I hope the snails are doing well). This fair takes place once a year. The set up all kind of tents around an open place for shows. You can find all kind of different people dressed in medieval costumes, music and a big pig grilling over an open fire (no, the poor creature didn't die from swine flu, I guess).
So if you want to you can join us now. And the best thing is, you don't have to pay the 5 pounds entrance fee...
As soon as we arrive this knight jumped into our way: "Stop! You are looking not like people from here? Where are you from and why are you dressed in that funny way?".
Well, yes, he was right. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt was not what most people were wearing. But I was able to convince him about our good intentions and he let us pass.
For a long time we could still hear the people whispering and pointing with their fingers at us.
But as soon as we went a little bit further the knight started practice fighting with one of his friends and they didn't pay any attention to us anymore.
Can you smell it? Oh, we were so hungry. There were open fire places with stuff cooking in pots everywhere. But we learnt prett y fast that those delicious things were not for stranges. We had to line up in a long queue for the above mentioned pig. And I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was really good.
So we walked a little bit further. We didn't plan on buying anything. Oh, can you hear it.... what a lovely sound...
Aren't that... the who...ehm, who are they? Oh wait, maybe their names are Peter, Paul and Mary. No, that's wrong. But they are travelling a lot, so maybe they are the Wilburys. Or are there mor than just three?
Well, whoever they were, we enjoyed their music and slowly moved on.
And then we met this nice gentleman. Dave almost immediately thought of potential new patients. But we were not here for business, just for pleasure....
But who was that? I think we should try to get away from here as fast and careful as possible. This guy really looked very skinny...and pale....and cold... and not really alive....scary.
Oh, thank god, the tournament starts. Let's get there as quick as possible and leave this guy behind.
May I introduce you: The Red Knight and the White Knight. What unique names. The didn't really fight against each other. All they did is picking up rings and fight agains sime white cabbage with their axes. But it was fun anyhow. And the White Knight won... and he was a she.
But someone was missing on this whole event and we had to wait until the end before we finally saw him: the jester. Well, Dave tried to be one all the time, but it wasn't really the same. But then, just when we were ready to leave, we saw him standing right by the exit:
I had a hard time pulling Dave away from him. He was just fascinated ;o)
But there is an end to everything and finally we took our Mustnag for the right home.
Oh, by the way. It was a really big event and as you can imagine there are a lot of possible hazards there. Especially with all the open fire places. But we felt pretty save after we've seen the three buckets a the fire point. Especially since all of them were filled with water.
Have a great week!
Well, okay. Maybe I will take you with us on a quick trip into the past. Let's go to an Medieval Fair in Snailwell (and I hope the snails are doing well). This fair takes place once a year. The set up all kind of tents around an open place for shows. You can find all kind of different people dressed in medieval costumes, music and a big pig grilling over an open fire (no, the poor creature didn't die from swine flu, I guess).
So if you want to you can join us now. And the best thing is, you don't have to pay the 5 pounds entrance fee...
As soon as we arrive this knight jumped into our way: "Stop! You are looking not like people from here? Where are you from and why are you dressed in that funny way?".Well, yes, he was right. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt was not what most people were wearing. But I was able to convince him about our good intentions and he let us pass.
For a long time we could still hear the people whispering and pointing with their fingers at us.But as soon as we went a little bit further the knight started practice fighting with one of his friends and they didn't pay any attention to us anymore.
Can you smell it? Oh, we were so hungry. There were open fire places with stuff cooking in pots everywhere. But we learnt prett y fast that those delicious things were not for stranges. We had to line up in a long queue for the above mentioned pig. And I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was really good.So we walked a little bit further. We didn't plan on buying anything. Oh, can you hear it.... what a lovely sound...
Aren't that... the who...ehm, who are they? Oh wait, maybe their names are Peter, Paul and Mary. No, that's wrong. But they are travelling a lot, so maybe they are the Wilburys. Or are there mor than just three?Well, whoever they were, we enjoyed their music and slowly moved on.
And then we met this nice gentleman. Dave almost immediately thought of potential new patients. But we were not here for business, just for pleasure....
But who was that? I think we should try to get away from here as fast and careful as possible. This guy really looked very skinny...and pale....and cold... and not really alive....scary.Oh, thank god, the tournament starts. Let's get there as quick as possible and leave this guy behind.
May I introduce you: The Red Knight and the White Knight. What unique names. The didn't really fight against each other. All they did is picking up rings and fight agains sime white cabbage with their axes. But it was fun anyhow. And the White Knight won... and he was a she.But someone was missing on this whole event and we had to wait until the end before we finally saw him: the jester. Well, Dave tried to be one all the time, but it wasn't really the same. But then, just when we were ready to leave, we saw him standing right by the exit:
I had a hard time pulling Dave away from him. He was just fascinated ;o)But there is an end to everything and finally we took our Mustnag for the right home.
Oh, by the way. It was a really big event and as you can imagine there are a lot of possible hazards there. Especially with all the open fire places. But we felt pretty save after we've seen the three buckets a the fire point. Especially since all of them were filled with water.
Have a great week!
Friday, May 01, 2009
Time is flying...
Hi, I am still alive ;o) April was a great and very busy month. But today (ehm, yes, it is already May) I decided to take some time and give you a quick review.
First of all:
I want to leave this cake without a comment. You know what it means.... but I am still happy:
But that great event took place in the middle of the months. Before that very good friends of mine from Germany came visiting. Frank, Tine and their two sons Rainer and Manfred stayed with us for almost a week and we explored the area here. And you know what: I never took my camera with me. Don't ask me why. Mainly because the weather wasn't sunny. No, it didn't rain, but while in Germany my friends were able to use the pool, in England it was cloudy and not very warm.But we enjoyed the time together anyway. On the first day there was a miniture steam engine rally going on in Thetford. Almost 30 functional steam engine models made their way through town. We had fun watching them and exploring Thetford after that.
We also went on day trips to Cambridge (yes, we do this with everyone), Lavenham, Norwich, we visited the flint mines at Grime's Grave, the Anglo Saxon Village and of course the base. In the evening the boys had fun finishing my Madagasca Wii game (I only got to 6%) while the rest of us tried different wines and talked, talked, talked. I love having guests here!
They also stayed over my birthday. And it was a very fun day. Dave had a present for me almost every two hours. It went like "honey, it is noon, time for the next present!" I loved it, we had fun. We went out for dinner and this is where I got my last present (handed to me by the waiter) and a candle on my desert. All in all I can say that turning 40 isn't as bad as I expected.
My birthday was on a Thursday and I took the ferry to Germany on Friday. My friends in Germany organized a birthday party for me on Saturday, so Dave and I wanted to be there ;o) It was only a small party since we will have a really big one as a farewell party in September. But we had fun. Everybody brought some food, Marcus made some music and we just enjoyed our time.
While Dave had to leave on Sunday I stayed for another week. Most of the time I spent with sorting out things I want to bring to the US and those things that can go to the garbage. It was kind of living the last 40 years again. I found old journals, photos, letters and postcards, packed all my books (I won't leave one of them in Germany, I love books.... as much as I love stuffed animals) and cleaned out some paper work. Now almost everything is ready to go to England first before it will be shipped to Maryland. The plan is to rent a little truck and move the stuff mid of May. My brother will help me with it.
I also had some non packing times. For example I had coffee with Marcus' parents, lunch with two of my former colleagues and a day in the zoo with a friend of mine. And Dave flew in again for the next weekend. We finally did some shopping. The main thing we wanted to buy was the silverware (well, not real silver, but very, very nice) that Dave's parents got us for our wedding.
We spend the Saturday moring downtown Essen for all these shopping activities, in the afternoon we did a looooong geocache in my neighborhood and finally we had sushi for dinner with Marcus and Eva before the four of us watched "Into the wild".
Sunday we went to Juergen and Ingrid's place. It was Ingrid's birthday and we were invited for a brunch. Yammy.
Dave flew home on that evening and I took the ferry on Monday.
Now I am back to England, the weather is beautful, Amber is waiting for going for a walk in the woods and we are planning our summer. We are really looking forward to our trip to Scotland (with Amber) and all the people who plan on visiting us before we'll leave. Only 5 months left...
First of all:
I want to leave this cake without a comment. You know what it means.... but I am still happy:
But that great event took place in the middle of the months. Before that very good friends of mine from Germany came visiting. Frank, Tine and their two sons Rainer and Manfred stayed with us for almost a week and we explored the area here. And you know what: I never took my camera with me. Don't ask me why. Mainly because the weather wasn't sunny. No, it didn't rain, but while in Germany my friends were able to use the pool, in England it was cloudy and not very warm.But we enjoyed the time together anyway. On the first day there was a miniture steam engine rally going on in Thetford. Almost 30 functional steam engine models made their way through town. We had fun watching them and exploring Thetford after that.We also went on day trips to Cambridge (yes, we do this with everyone), Lavenham, Norwich, we visited the flint mines at Grime's Grave, the Anglo Saxon Village and of course the base. In the evening the boys had fun finishing my Madagasca Wii game (I only got to 6%) while the rest of us tried different wines and talked, talked, talked. I love having guests here!
They also stayed over my birthday. And it was a very fun day. Dave had a present for me almost every two hours. It went like "honey, it is noon, time for the next present!" I loved it, we had fun. We went out for dinner and this is where I got my last present (handed to me by the waiter) and a candle on my desert. All in all I can say that turning 40 isn't as bad as I expected.
My birthday was on a Thursday and I took the ferry to Germany on Friday. My friends in Germany organized a birthday party for me on Saturday, so Dave and I wanted to be there ;o) It was only a small party since we will have a really big one as a farewell party in September. But we had fun. Everybody brought some food, Marcus made some music and we just enjoyed our time.
While Dave had to leave on Sunday I stayed for another week. Most of the time I spent with sorting out things I want to bring to the US and those things that can go to the garbage. It was kind of living the last 40 years again. I found old journals, photos, letters and postcards, packed all my books (I won't leave one of them in Germany, I love books.... as much as I love stuffed animals) and cleaned out some paper work. Now almost everything is ready to go to England first before it will be shipped to Maryland. The plan is to rent a little truck and move the stuff mid of May. My brother will help me with it.
I also had some non packing times. For example I had coffee with Marcus' parents, lunch with two of my former colleagues and a day in the zoo with a friend of mine. And Dave flew in again for the next weekend. We finally did some shopping. The main thing we wanted to buy was the silverware (well, not real silver, but very, very nice) that Dave's parents got us for our wedding.
We spend the Saturday moring downtown Essen for all these shopping activities, in the afternoon we did a looooong geocache in my neighborhood and finally we had sushi for dinner with Marcus and Eva before the four of us watched "Into the wild".
Sunday we went to Juergen and Ingrid's place. It was Ingrid's birthday and we were invited for a brunch. Yammy.
Dave flew home on that evening and I took the ferry on Monday.
Now I am back to England, the weather is beautful, Amber is waiting for going for a walk in the woods and we are planning our summer. We are really looking forward to our trip to Scotland (with Amber) and all the people who plan on visiting us before we'll leave. Only 5 months left...
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Munich
We've been to Germany again, well, as far as Bavaria is counted as Germany. Some of the people there wish it wasn't.
Dave's friend Tony came there for a conference and we met in Munich to spend the weekend together. And we had a great time. We walked until our feet didn't want to go one step further, we got a good overview about Munich beer and the food was great, too.
The weather was okay. Saturday was a very beautiful day. Blue sky, warm, perfect for sightseeing. So we went to the most popular places around the city center and the old town. We visited the Stachus with the old gate, the town hall with the Glockenspiel, the Frauenkirche (church) and the Residenz (palace). And we looked at all the little shops at the Viktualienmarkt (market). Here are some impressions:
As mentioned above we tasted one or two beer, too. And right when we started to discuss the different ways of brewing beer and non of us knew exactly the differences, we met three young men who were experts on that area.... and no, they were not from Germany, they were Americans! I had to travel to Munich to get a lecture on German beer by Americans! But we had fun. They were sitting at the same table with us while we had dinner and we started talking. They were kind of exchange students from a brewery school and on a trip through Germany for learning everything about beer there. No, I am serious, they were real experts. Their plan is to open a little brewery in American when they are done with their classes. I very much appreciate that ;o)
On Sunday it rained all day long. And we decided to do the same thing that 80% of all visitors did on that day: we visited the German Museum (Deutsches Museum). It is renowned as the oldest and largest museum of science and technology in the world. And really, we could have spent another couple of days there without seeing everything. It was very interesting.
Late that night we took the plane to England. Tony joined us there for three more days and we loved to show him around. Dave and he had time to talk about all kind of optometry stuff, we had sushi and went to our favorite pub. We showed him Cambridge and Wells-Next-The-Sea and just had fun. On Thursday he had to leave to take the 10 am plane back to the states. Well, he wanted to take the shuttle bus at 5:30am, but then at 6am Dave called me and said the bus won't come due to technical problems and whether I could give him a ride to Heathrow. I got up, got dressed, filled up gas and drove to the meeting point within 25 minutes. We really had to speed to get to the airport on time and honestly, I didn't believe we'll make it. The traffic around London during rush hour is just terrible...not moving at all. But somehow I managed to drop him off at 9:10 and he talked the people at the check in counter to re-open the flight again for him. I have no idea how he did it, but he made it home on time and that is everything that counts.
This weekend it is just the two (or three including Amber) of us and we enjoyed a nice and sunny Saturday. Dave was working hard cooking some steak for us and Amber hoped that the second one on the grill is for her and not for me (she was wrong).
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