Family Blog

Last week we returned from one week vacation on Malta. Malta is the smallest country of the EU and a very historic island. Although it has only 400,000 inhabitants it has many churches - one for each day, as our neighbour told us. And some of them are really old.

In Rabat we were in an underground chapel of the 4th century. And there were also graves in the Catacombs of St Agatha's. In other cities (e.g. in Mellieħa) there were catacombs which were used as shelter in the 2nd World War.

We also visited Popeye Village where 1980 the Walt Disney movie "Popeye" was shot. The village was built only for the movie and is now a little attraction - if you are a child.

There are only a few beaches with sands on Malta. Most of the coast are rocks and beautiful cliffs where you can walk (or dive if you like). And you can reach nearly each part of the island by bus.

Unusually for us was the left-hand traffic (Malta was a part of the British Empire till 1964). Each time I want to cross the road we look to the wrong side. And sometimes we started to enter the bus on the wrong side.

“Youth is when you are allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you are forced to.”
(Bill Vaughn)

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

(Charles Dickens)

This year we decided to visit our own country Germany. I have never been in Dresden so this goal should be one of the first. But before we visited Eisenach with the Wartburg, where Martin Luther translated the bible into the German language.

Our next stop was Erfurt, the Capital of Thüringen. But before we took a trip to Weimar, where we want to visit the Anna Amalia Library, which was destroyed by fire 10 years before. But you must stay early in the morning to get one of the limited tickets. So we visit the Goethe House and other buildings.

The 3rd day we did sightseeing in Erfurt. There are many old buildings, an impressive cathedral and a very old synagogue which was detected some years ago.

The 4th day we left Thüringen and entered Sachsen and the capital Dresden. Dresden was and is one of the cultural center of Europe. There is the Semper Opera, the Zwinger, the Frauenkirche (which were reconstructed some years ago) and many other buildings and museums. And you have the Elbe River where you can walk.

Near Dresden is Meißen with an old cathedral and the Europe's first porcelain manufactory. Leipzig, our next station, is about 100km westwards. You find the Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, many old villas and the St. Nicolas Church, where the prayers for peace started 25 years ago which ended in the reunion of Germany.

Last stop of our trip was Quedlinburg, where we lived in a 400-year old half-timbered house with a crooked floor. There were many such houses in Quedlinburg.

Day One

A few years ago we started the "Westweg" (Black Forest Trail), a 100-year old path thru the Black Forest from Pforzheim in the north of the Black Forest till Basel, Switzerland. This year we continue this path and start on Sunday at the Mummelsee. First we had to climb up from 900 m to over 1100 m. At the top we had a good view and could see the Rhine Valley and the Vosges in France. We pass Schliffkopf (1055 m) and reached the Alexanderschanze in the evening. This day we stayed at night in Kniebis.

Day Two

We started at 9:00 AM at the Alexanderschanze. We had luck with the weather and had again a good view. Near Bad Griesbach we pass an airfield for hang gliders. But today is Monday and we see no gliders and nearly no persons today.

Normally this tour would end at the Harkhof, where you could stay over night. But today is Monday and the inn is closed. So we continue with the next stage.

At Kreuzsattel there is a hut where we took a break and eat something. After 34 km we reach a hotel in Housach at about 7:00 PM and ate something, before we went to bed - very tired and exhausted.

Day Three

Today there are some steep climbs and descents. The trail is mostly very narrow and again you are alone in the forest - we met almost anyone.

One highlight of the stage is the Karlstein (964m) with a 25-meter-high granite block. From there you have a good view over the Black Forest.

Our trip ended at Wilhelmshöhe, a inn near Schonach. We ate a Black Forest Cake while we waited on Manuel who took us back at home.

Wow - what an exiting and intensive final of the #WorldCup yesterday - Argentina against Germany. It was not a game for the faint of heart and Argentina was a very strong opponent. But now the game and the last night is over and we are all still tired but happy.

Simply beautiful!! #Weltmeister #GERARG #FifaWorldCup pic.twitter.com/FYv70DyExG

— Marc A. Brinkmann (@marcbrinkmann) 13. Juli 2014

Last month there was a hard disk crash on blogger.de. Whereas the data could be restored images and PDF files are still missing. With a little luck the missing files can be restored from the crashed disk - but this will take some time. I hope that this will happen in July.

In the meantime you can use the Internet Archive or Google to find the missing images.

Yesterday I was with my children at the soccer game "Germany - Chile" which was a birthday present of them. Although the Germans played not so good it was a great atmosphere in the stadium. We had luck and were behind that goal where the most actions were. In the first half the German team was stronger and led 1-0 whereas in the 2nd half the Chilean team was stronger. But it remained 1-0.

Since March my first app is now available at the Appstore - CashClock. It's a simple stopp watch which measures not the time but the money.

Time is Money (Benjamin Franklin)

Last week we visited our son in Istanbul. It is said that there are two cities which never sleeps: New York and Istanbul. And it's true: we arrived very early in the morning at about 4 o'clock and there was already so much life in the city...

The public transportation is very good in Istanbul. You have not only busses but also several Metro lines, trams and ferries. And you can reach with them even till the Black Sea as we tried one day. But the busses and lines are always full although the go very often.

The Marmary Metro was opened one week before where you can from the Asia side of Istanbul (here our son lives) to the European side. Not all is finished and you do not have to pay a ticket for that line.

We were six days in Istanbul and enjoyed next the metro the food, the culture and the many attractions Istanbul has. And we were happy to see our son again although he had not so much time - he had to write two testimonials in this week.

Yesterday we went to the canyon of Itaimbezinho, one of the canyons in the south of Brazil. The road to the national park of "Aparados da Serra" where this canyon is placed was mostly unfortified. We had rent a VW Gol and the way the national park was a little bit exhausting for us because we can't drive fast. The Brazilian driver seems to ignore the condition of the road - we were passed several times.

The walk around the canyon was beautiful. You walk through rain forest (the Mata Atlântica) which were covered with moss and kind of grass (it seems to very humid most of the time). After 3 km of walking you have a good view down the canyon, about 700 meters deep.

On the way back we saw some skateboard driver on the road (some parts of the road were asphalted). Some minutes later a car comes up the hill with the skateboard drivers in tow. And the next downhill race starts. One skateboard driver we tried to follow but had some problems because he was too fast for us. But on the end of the asphalted road we got him.

We used the intercity bus from Curitiba to Florianopolis and arrived the day before yesterday in the late afternoon. Yesterday we explored the north of the island. Floripa has many, many beautiful beaches but unfortunately it was too cold for us to go into the water (it is winter here in Brazil). But the sun was shining and we walked along some beaches.

Today we went to Praia do Rosa and Imbituba to watch the whales. But the weather was cloudy and the sea a little bit stormy and no whales in sight. So we went back to Florianopolis. This time we went to the South of the island.

We used the Tourism Line to visit Curitiba. With this bus line you have the choice of 5 places of interest. One of our choice was the Oscar Niemeyer Museum - a great architecture.

One of the other attractions for us were the bus station - they look like a docking station for the next trip to the moon. Curitiba has a very good bus infrastructure and got the Globe Sustainable City Award in 2010.