Family Blog

“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
(Mark Twain)

It's true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.

(Caroline Kennedy)

Stage Seven

Three years ago we started the Black Forest Trail in Pforzheim with stage 1 till 3. This week we continue the "Westweg" with stage 7 and started our hike at Wilhemshöhe, near Schonach. The weather was a little bit misty, but dry. And the whole trail we meet only one pair of hikers. We pass several upland moors and after 34 km we reach our goal at Thurner. We stay over night in an old farm which was run by an 80-year-old and very nice woman.

Stage Eight

Next day the weather was sunny - till Titisee. We took a break at the lake and watched the tourists from different parts of the world. When we continued our hike you could see the first clouds over the mountains. Half an hour later it was raining cats and dogs. We stopped at a cafe at the camping place and waited for the end of the rain. At Bärental there is a railway station and we decided to go back to Freiburg to our son - just before it started raining again.

Stage Nine

Next day the weather forecast promised sun till the late afternoon. So we decided to go back to Bärental to start the next stage. We pass the Feldberg (the highest mountain of the Black Forest) and climb on top of the Herzogenhorn (1415m). The trip today was an up and down (9400m up, 9300 down) through the forest. Althoug the sky was getting dark we continued the trail because we had no chance to call Manuel (no net). On a higher place where we had reception we call him but we had till 4 km to walk to reach the next road. At Weißenbachsattel near Todtmoos we waited on him with a Black Forest cake at a restaurant.

Yesterday Philip was one of the students of the SimTech course who got his Bachelor's degree.

Yesterday we get post from Poland. Sylwia, who was a host pupil some years ago, sent us a selfmade egg and easter chicken. Thank you, Sylwia and happy Easter to Poland and the rest of the world!

Yesterday was Long Night of the Museums in Stuttgart. One of the highlights were the Porsche Museum and the Daimler Museum. But there were also locations opened where you cannot get in normally. One of such museums was the one at Alcatel Lucent, where I work 20 years ago (not at the museum, but at some machines you could see there). You see i.a. a PBX from the beginning of the 20th century in action (ok, this machine was devoloped before my time at Alcatel Lucent) and an old phone booth with coin slots which remembered me at my youth.

At the harbour of Stuttgart you could take a boat tour but there were so many people and you have to wait about 30 minutes. So we decided to take one of the buses labeled with "Wine Tour" and to visit an old wine press and a wine cellar in Untertürkheim, which was a bunker in former times.

To go back home we used an old tram to get to the train station. All in all it was a great night which was too short.

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.