“when the blue eyed boy meets the brown eyed girl”
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 …
I made it !!! finally, after all these years i made it to Spain !!! and of course first destination was Sevilla (Seville) to visit Cassiane and family (husband Rubén, kids Álex and Azul).
I flew to Madrid (Stefan joined me a few days later), then caught the AVE (high speed train) to Sevilla, first two days I stayed all day with Cassiane and kids walking around San Juan de Aznalfarache (a town outside Sevilla where they live), we walked around, played with the kids, had coffee and ham/olive oil/tomato on bread (famous jamon !!!) I noticed many shops shut for “siesta”, some of them for 3 hours !!! They have late lunches and dinners, at 10pm people are starting to think of what to eat !!!! I had the chance of meeting Léo (from Rio Preto-BR) with wife Ana and kid Pedro, we all had lunch together at Cassiane’s….. Read the rest of this entry »
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 ……
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.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.
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.
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)…
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 !!!
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.
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