20.Oct.07
Posted in Germany by Leonora-Stefan
After 8 months living in Germany and doing a bit of travelling around europe, we’re back
in Brasil!!! and yes … we missed the coffee!! and few other things … hehehe. We’ll miss our friends in Aachen and also the city, simple pleasures such as exploring the shops and Cafés near Markt, walking up to the Belvedere rotating Café, having a Doner at Sultans of Kebap!!! running to catch buses and trains (cause they do leave on time, sometimes earlier!!!), getting really stressed after the end of each German class 
(then heading out to Sultans!!!), enjoying the various music events during summer, taking every visitor for a bit of shopping at the Lindt factory store!!! (we should have asked Lindt for commission), travelling around (Germany is such a beautiful country) … we had such a busy life and loved it, we look forward for a future visit to Aachen. Enjoy pictures at our photo gallery.
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13.Jul.07
Posted in Germany by Stefan
My parents came over to stay with us for what turned out to be a rainy week in Germany.
Undaunted by the wintery weather, they set off on a mission to Aachen’s cherished Lindt Chocolate factory…Unfortunately there are no tours of the factory itself, only a heavenly Chocolate-Supermarket where coach loads Chocoholics from seemingly everywhere fight over chocolate bargains! Of course, if there was a tour of the factory then people like me would simply dive into the chocolate vats… Anyway, apart from topping up on choco-supplies they enjoyed trips to Cologne, Maastricht as well as Aachen. They were also here during my birthday which we enjoyed in Monschau - a very quaint little town and a favourite place of mine, since it appears to have what may well be Germany’s very finest Apfelstrudel 
Bags bulging, they have returned to Blighty and will probably return when the choco supplies start running low once more…
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30.Jun.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora
Munirih came to visit us for a week, we did a tour in Aachen and around, on the weekend went to the Bahá’í Temple near Frankfurt, where every year is held the Sommerfest, a big event with about 3.000 people from all over europe. We also went on a day trip to Luxembourg (a very pleasant and charming city) and Trier (a roman city in Germany). Of course she paid a visit to the Lindt factory shop and left loaded with yummy chocolate.
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05.May.07
Posted in Germany by Leonora-Stefan
Marta came to visit us from Spain, she stayed for 5 days and apparently loved it !!!! especially our B&B !!!
We had quite a busy schedule, everyday a different place (Köln, Dreiländerpunkt (three country point), Maastricht, Monschau, Düsseldorf and of course Aachen).
We had lots of fun together …
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11.Apr.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora-Stefan
During Easter holiday we went on a trip, with our friends Emilce and Ernesto from Argentina, through the Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) all the way south to the german alps, a total of 1.600 km !!! This route goes through various medieval towns in the state of Bavaria.
We started with a quick stop at the Bahá’í Temple near Frankfurt then headed for Würzburg, the first city of the route, we were all impressed by the beauty of the “Residenz” building and gardens, we stayed overnight at etap hotel (€43) in Würzburg, good hotel for those travelling by car in need of a clean place to sleep, fast check in, fast check out. In Röttingen we had a quick stop at the main square, then straight to Rothenburg ob der Tauber with its impressive medieval town wall from the 14th century and large old town. Next stop was Nördlingen with another impressive town wall all around the old town, we also went up the 90m high bell tower of the church and had a good view of the city, next destination: Augsburg, founded by the Roman Emperor Augustus more than 2,000 years ago ……
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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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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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25.Feb.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora-Stefan
Monschau is a beautiful small town about an hour away by bus from Aachen, located in the hills of the Eifel, in the narrow valley of the Rur river. The historic city center wasn’t destroyed in World War II, many half-timbered houses and narrow streets nearly haven’t changed for 300 years. Above the city is the Burg Monschau, a castle that started being built in the 13th century.
The city is full of cozy restaurants and cafes, very pleasant to walk around and take photographs.
We’ll definitely go back there to explore more … enjoy our pictures on our photo gallery
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19.Feb.07
Posted in Travels, Germany by Leonora-Stefan
Last sunday was our favorite day so far in Germany, we visited the Baha’i House of Worship of the European continent, just outside Frankfurt. We started the day by taking the train to Anne and Nuri’s home near Köln (Cologne), had a delicious brunch and left by car to Langenhain. The weather wasn’t promising, but as we were approaching Hofheim it cleared out and we had beautiful blue skies. Our visit started by having tea at the visitors center, where everyone was very kind, then we headed to the gardens and the temple.
Bahá’í Houses of Worship are gathering places for prayer and meditation and are open to people of every religion, they all have nine sides and a central dome. There are at the moment a total of 7 Baha’i Temples in the world: United States, Panama, Germany, Uganda, Australia, Samoa and India, more will be built in time and in the future each will become the focus of community life, as well as a center for social, scientific, educational, and humanitarian services.
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