31.Mar.07
Posted in Travels by Stefan
I was invited (more like ordered) to a business meeting in England. Since the weather in England is undoubtedly pleasant at this time of year and Mum & Dad were agreeable we went and stayed with them for a long weekend.
On Friday we visited friends Tony and his family and had a very English meal with Jenny and her family.
On Saturday we went with Mum & Dad to Greenwich to see the Greenwich Observatory, where Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) itself is defined, without which the whole world would surely slide into medieval chaos… We also saw the Greenwich Maritime Museum which is apparently the largest maritime museum in the world. On Sunday we visited my Grandmother and Aunt Dorcas in Margate. Grandmother is now 92 years old but thankfully still full of life.
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21.Mar.07
Posted in General by Leonora-Stefan
We’d like to wish all our family and friends a happy Naw-Ruz.
Naw-Rúz (literally new day) is the Bahá’í new year festival and falls at the spring equinox, although it has been fixed at March 21st. Naw-Rúz symbolises the new life of spring, the festival is usually observed with meetings for prayer and celebration. The celebration is often combined with a feast as the sunset before Naw-Rúz signals the end of a 19-day fast. Time is spent visiting friends and relatives and exchanging gifts. Naw-Rúz is one of the nine Bahá’í Holy Days of the year.
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18.Mar.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora-Stefan
Since we’re in Germany, we thought we couldn’t miss the opportunity to hop on the train to Hannover, to see the Cebit technology fair. This fair is enormous, spread out over 20 large exhibition halls and it’s worth taking several spare pairs of feet with you. The exhibits include large, impressive stands from familiar technology companies that you’ve heard of such as Samsung and Panasonic. There are also hundreds (probably thousands) of small stands from indistinct far eastern firms that you’ve definitely never heard of, selling plugs, cables or simply racks of black boxes with flashing lights.
Highlights of the show included the world’s largest plasma screen TV (probably too large to fit in the small houses of those who can’t afford it), a sleek 2007 McLaren F1 car and some rather tempting HD projectors. Lowlights included achy feet and a tedious, long long journey back to Aachen.
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15.Mar.07
Posted in Germany by Leonora
This week I started attending german classes at the Volkshochschule in Aachen, classes are every morning from 9:00 to 12:30, pretty intensive. There are about 20 students from 18 different countries (Venezuela, Korea, Romania, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Italy, Yemen, Algeria, Iran, Argentina, Egypt, China, Turkey, Japan, Spain, Portugal and Brazil !!!), I was impressed by the diversity of the group, imagine the range of languages spoken during the break .. at the end of each class my brain is pretty dead, as during the morning i end up speaking a bit of portuguese, spanish, farsi, english .. and of course german, the least spoken of all !!!! (for now, we all hope)…
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14.Mar.07
Posted in Travels by Leonora-Stefan
Another international weekend !!! Saturday we went to french speaking Verviers in Belgium, the city didn’t have any particular site to visit but it has its charm, we just walked around the city center… Sunday we went to Maastricht in Holland, the weather was wonderful, the city is beautiful, worth visiting … there we also went to the movie theater (as in Aachen the movies are all dubbed in German) and watched dreamgirls, excellent movie !!!
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07.Mar.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora-Stefan
Last weekend was quite international, friday evening we went for a potluck dinner in Maastricht (Holland) at Amelia and Shahram’s home, they were about 20 people from 10 different nationalities !!! we had a great time there … saturday, Holland again , this time to the city of Herleen for some shopping at the mall.
Sunday we went to Koln (Cologne), about an hour from Aachen by train, It’s the home of the original “Eau de Cologne”. The Cathedral is very impressive, with its two spires 157 meters tall, it has been the city’s most famous landmark for centuries and the most well-known architectural monument in Germany. It took 632 years to complete construction of the largest German cathedral.
We went up (over 500 steps) all they way to the belfry and a little higher where there is a platform and got a great view of the city as the skies were clear, … hope you enjoy our pictures.
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