Mar 16, 2012 - Bon Voyage

Four weeks have come and gone. On March 17th I make the 16 hour flight from Frankfurt to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This will be the first time that I'm truly on the other side of the world. It's another adventure into the unknown, but if it's even half as rewarding as my time in Africa it will be wonderful. I'll start a new trip journal as soon as I'm settled. Hope you all can still follow along!

Mar 9, 2012 - Houston, TX to Frankfurt, Germany

We left Hawaii for Houston to sponge off #2 daughter, Kimi, and her partner, John for a few days. They are the only ones of my three daughters that have an extra room, that is, until school breaks. Then her whole house is full and we’ll need to camp out with the other homeless folks. The morning we were to leave for the airport, Moochie (Kimi’s dog) decided that Julieann needed to stay to continue feeding and spoiling him, but I took her away to Houston International Airport (Bush) anyway. We spent the next week picking doggie hairs out of...

Feb 15, 2012 - All Good Things Must End

Well faithful Readers, five amazing weeks have come to an end as we await to board AC 875 Frankfurt to Montreal. Aleenta Resort in north part of Phuket was a fabulous private beach and exactly designed to recharge the batteries of iPads, iPhones and human bones. As a consequence we did very little but enjoy the sun and the beach but since it was jelly fish season, we stayed out of the surf. Big wedding and honeymoon destination with more and more patrons coming from fast growing wealthy Asia. Attachez vos tuques, le Tigers are hungry! Had...

Jan 4, 2012 - Trip to Frankfurt

Well I made it safely to Frankfurt but it was a long and tiring day. The day began with my alarm going off at 6 am. I got up, brushed my teeth, and got dressed. I then proceeded to quickly and quietly leave the house. Unfortunantly, it snowed last night and traffic in Pittsburgh was nuts! I drove to mom and dad's and mom drove me to get the bus to the airport. The bus was crowded and got stuck in traffic getting me to the airport 40 minutes later than expected. Luckily, there were no lines in security and I got to the gate as it was...

Nov 9, 2011 - Departure from Vancouver

My flight today was not until 15:20 so it was quite pleasant to be able to pack my suitcase in the daytime compared to my usual packing in the middle of the night for early morning flights. The flight on Lufthansa to Frankfurt was comfortable enough though I think the service is not what it used to be in business class. The next day now November 10th: I had more than three hours wait in Frankfurt and stayed in the lounge. Very busy in the middle of the day but I did have a light lunch. My next stop was Lisbon and since the last flight of...

Oct 30, 2011 - Rudesheim

Similar day to yesterday, we are sailing in the morning to Rudesheim where our tour starts at 12:30pm. Daylight saving finished during the night so we got an extra hour of sleep, much appreciated. The tour starts with tourist tram ride to Siegfried’s self-playing musical instrument museum. They have the best collection and the guided tour lets you listen to some of them. They ranged from giant music boxes to machines that played piano, violins, banjos, accordions, drums etc. The video was working so we should have some good footage so you...

Oct 28, 2011 - Wurzburg

Today we visited the Residenz in Wurzburg. It was the palace of the Price Bishops and was beautiful with the painted ceilings stucco decorations. Some time the stucco and painting melded together to give a 3D realistic feeling to the works. We toured through the rooms of one wing and as you went from room to room they became grander and grander. The final room had 2kg of gilding and was really a jaw dropper. We also got to see the servant’s hallways behind the main rooms. The gardens were nice but this is not the time of year for gardens...

Oct 28, 2011 - Rudesheim

Cruising down the Rhine Gorge and Rudesheim. Today is Castle Day. It is a scenic cruise through the most famous stretch of the Rhine River. We saw the Marksburg Castle and the Loreley Rock along with many other castles and beautiful trees dressed in autumn colours. Stunning. We were not game enough to take our eyes off the scenery. Hard to put into words just how pretty - you will have to come and have a look for yourself!! In the afternoon the ship docked in the town of Rudesheim, famous for Riesling, taverns and Siegfried’s Musical...

Oct 20, 2011 - Farewell....Frankfurt brings us full circle

Last stop on the tour! You can imagine our joy as we pulled into our hotel street well after 11pm, and the grumpy German taxi driver told us it was “not a nice hotel, in not a nice area”. This while the red lights of the “Sex Kino” flashed across the streets, as well as the police car lights as they sorted out a few brawls in the streets. Fabulous. Thankfully the driver meant to say it was a nice hotel in a bad district, so we were pretty happy to find we had a very nice room in a nice modern hotel! We close our windows at night to cut out...

Oct 19, 2011 - fly to Frankfurt

As usual, the things within our control went smoothly. We rented a car at the tiny aviation school airport nearby, loaded it up and drove to O'Hare on a cold, rainy day that did not entice us to stay home. The time to board the plane came and went and no plane. Eventually a Teutonic tinged voice came on the PA and announced that our Lufthansa plane had mechanical issues. Everyone around us groaned quietly. After about half an hour she came back on to clarify that the tow bar that gets attached to the plane's nose when it is moved around on...

Oct 7, 2011 - Ready for Take-off!

Noch einmal schlafen, dann geht es los! Wir fliegen am Freitag um 23.50 Uhr in Frankfurt ab. Der Flug geht via Singapur und Sydney, Zielort ist Christchurch, Neuseeland. Gleich nach der Ankunft fahren wir mit dem Mietwagen nach Akaroa (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaroa) ins Maison de la Mer (http://www.maisondelamer.co.nz), wo wir für 2 Tage ein wenig relaxen werden.

Sep 20, 2011 - Rudesheim

Grosse family took us to old town called Rudesheim which is a starting point for a lot of the Rhine River tours. Cute and old so mom loved it. Took a ski lift up to the top of the mountain for a great view and lunch at the top. Then drove along the Rhine to see the castles that dot the river, and to a location called the Lorely. Apparently its a narrow spot on the Rhine where many boats have capsized, and legend has it that the Lorely (mermaid) distracted the captains with their beauty which is why they crashed. Had "cafe schtunda" (sp??)...