I went to visit a friend (Sandy) in Nuremberg (in German: Nürnberg, or as the locals say: Nämberch).
I spent a sunny winter day with my parents in the Allgäu, to visit a friend, Hannelore, with her sister and daughters. They own a cottage, Weber Hütte, situated in the Wertach Valley landscape conservation area near Nesselwang. In Weber Hütte, two self-contained apartments (for up to 12 respectively 8 persons) are available for rent throughout the year. In summer you can go for walks or mountain hiking, e.g. to the nearby Alpspitze. In winter the area is attractive for winter sports.
While Augsburg has no more snow at present, the Allgäu is picturesquely white. The reason is altitude: we're here at 900 m above sea level. We went for a lovely walk over snow-covered fields against the backdrop of the Alps, and alongside the rippling Wertach river. I think it is safe to say this is one of the most beautiful areas of Germany.
I have to show you another book I made, and this one was a great creative act on my side.
I made the book through a German company, Fotokasten. My insider tip is to buy a coupon from Tchibo, you can save considerably compared to the regular price. The printing and binding quality is good and they have a very friendly and fair service. The only negative I can say is that the software crashed a lot while I designed the book, probably because I had used so many big photos.
Aah, how nice it is to be home for Christmas and to celebrate it in the traditional way. In winter, with a real Christmas tree (Nordmann Fir) with real candles (in addition to electric ones), with my parents, granny, sisters and nieces.
with Schichtsalat, yum!). Time to unwrap the presents. The cat -- my parent's pet is a fat, good-natured white male with the absurd name of "Pixie" -- liked his present too, a piece of sausage. To our shock, he gulped it down with the bow (mit der Schleife) before we could stop him! But he seems all right -- it will go the normal way.
The evening ended with church. I don't usually attend church, but made an exception because my mom performed in the Gospel choir. From there we walked home in the 'silent night', with a torch (Fackel) to light the way, for the mood. Unfortunately we did not have white Christmas because it had thawed. Well, you can't have everything. Today we're going to have turkey for lunch (with potatoe dumplings and red cabbage) and then we'll celebrate with my elder sister and her family.
Today I have received a book I had ordered last month from a company in America, contents: this blog's postings from the first (18 October 2008) through to 26 November 2009.
It's good to have my diary with all my memories, experiences and thoughts of this exciting year in Australia not only online but also in printed form. The book has 163 pages, A4, hardcover, and the printing quality is good.
Es treibt der Wind im Winterwalde
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Frost has come, and it still has not thawed in my home town. This morning we had -10 degrees! Here are some photo impressions of the current winter land. Now everybody hopes we might be lucky to have a white Christmas -- but meteorologists say they still can't predict it.
This is the pine forest at the Königsbrunner Heide. In the middle of this beautiful ice covered forest, I heard voices: the local forest kindergarten "Waldwichtel". They are out here with the children playing (in warm winter clothes of course) at any season. Hats off! (I mean, kudos, Respekt!)
And this is one of the swans on the Ilsesee (Lake Ilse). I went to the lake to check if it has an ice cover, but it didn't - not yet.
Today was my granny's birthday. The 96th! We had afternoon coffee and two homebaked cakes -- yum! And of course a bottle of sparkling wine to drink to her health. My parents were there, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, his mother, and my two nieces, Sarah and Lisa. And a lot of people called on the phone to congratulate the birthday 'child'. I'm very happy and lucky to have a grandma who is still that amazingly fit at her age.
My working visa preparations are going well. I have nearly all the required documents ready to lodge the visa application. I'm very tired; I haven't caught much sleep in the past days and my days have been very busy.
While Australia swelters in summer heat, we have had the first snow in Augsburg today! I'm happy; I love snow.
I'm doing what we do here in the Advent season: baking Christmas cookies, known in Germany generally as Weihnachtsgebäck or Plätzchen, or in Swabia as Loibla. There are hundreds of traditional German varieties. One of the best known is probably Lebkuchen. Here I'm making a kind that's made of Marzipan, similar to Bethmännchen but with hazelnuts instead of almonds.
It's a small world... or so it seems. I happened to meet an Australian here in Augsburg who happened to have moved into the room my sister used to live in. Kane (from Melbourne) sent me a link to a website where I found pretty cool stop-motion videos of a miniature world version of Sydney. Or so I thought.
On Wednesday I met with the members of Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg for their annual Xmas dinner. I was the surprise guest and everyone was so happy to see me again! Lots of big hugs and hellos.
Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg is a group of volunteers who organize and run charity projects in Augsburg to popularize and raise funds for the international aid organization Plan. See plan-deutschland.de for their German and plan.org.au for their Australian office. Blue in the map: donor country, yellow in the map: project country of Plan.
I went mountain climbing today in the Bavarian Alps, together with my friend Alex.
We had beautiful weather, sunny and 8 degrees Celsius. The weather is unusually good for end of November in Germany. As you can see, there is no snow, only a tiny little bit on the peak. Most of the walk is through forest. Only the last 100 m of it is real climbing where you need your hands.
And here we are on the top! From there we had a wonderful view of the surrounding peaks, the Ammergau (the Ammer valley) with Oberammergau and Unterammergau and Ettal.
Monday: 10 hours flight from Sydney to Seoul. I arrived in Seoul in the evening; Korean Air gave me accommodation in a hotel (Best Western), 25 minutes from the airport. It was 0 degrees Celsius outside. They are building big streets, bridges and skyscrapers. Driving is on the right. Reinforced concrete (Stahlbeton) wherever you look.
Wednesday: I considered the option of doing the rest by railway instead, but then decided for the flight. After only 3 hours of sleep I had to get up and get on the bus again. There was further trouble at Frankfurt Airport. I missed one Lufthansa flight and the next one was delayed. I finally arrived in Munich on Wednesay at 11:20 am, after 60 hours of travelling. My parents and Moni had come to meet me, holding up a huge sign that said "Herzlich Willkommen Martin!" and waving a big Bavarian flag. The lost son was welcomed home like a star!
The weather in South Germany was gorgeous: sunny and not cold at all, a beautiful day. And then the next surprise waited for me: they had prepared everything for a Weisswurstfrühstück right next to the car parked outside the airport terminal. With warm Weisswurst sausages, sweet mustard, fresh pretzels and cool Weissbier in real Weissbier glasses! I was overwhelmed.
In the afternoon I saw my dear Omi (granny) and Anja with Sarah and Lisa, and we sat in my parent's conservatory (Wintergarten) and had coffee and afternoon cake, just like we had always done.
Lisa, Sarah, Moni, Mom.
I feel slightly better already, and remembered that people typically lament when they forget how blessed they are in other respects.
This is a private botanical garden situated in the Hunter Valley, which is one of Australia's most famous wine growing regions. I was not interested in tasting or buying wine, so we went to the gardens instead. They were only built recently and opened a few years ago. The landscapers and gardeners have done an impressive job as you can see.
Everything is in bloom now. This picture is the Rose Garden. We were there in the morning, but the gardens must also look fantastic at night. We saw how much effort they spend on illuminations. They probably employ as many electricians as gardeners. And they are heavily busy putting up Christmas themed decorations in the gardens right now.
This is a Chinese Moon Gate. Maybe it symbolizes my passage back to the Old World?
I'm back in Sydney for my last 4 days in Australia. And I must reveal I'm in low spirits at the moment, as time forces me to draw my conclusions. It is 4 a.m. in the morning. I need to type this off of my soul.
I have some nice kangaroo photos to share with you... they were taken this morning at Rosco Club.
They are wallabies, which is simply speaking a small type of kangaroo, and their baby is called a joey.
I followed an invitation from Peter and Toni to Rosco, the nudist resort near Toronto/Newcastle where I had been staying a couple of weeks ago.
Toni and Peter are enthusiastic birdwatchers and so I can tell you that this bird here is an Eastern Spinebill, a species of honeyeater, who feeds on nectar and small insects. There are many different types of birds here, and also kangaroos and wallabies, possums and lizards. There's even a wombat, but we only saw the hole of his burrow.
After the walk we had to pick leeches (Blutegel) from our feet! They thrive now after the rain. But they are easy to do in ("to do someone in" = ihnen den Garaus machen) with just a bit of salt.
The other Peter (from Penrith, you remember) permitted me to sleep in his and Ange's camper while I'm here. And Toni gave me a present, a beautiful blue shoulder bag which she had sewn herself and embroidered with the picture of a Crimson Rosella, which is a red parrot that lives here.
The Bee Gees ("Staying Alive", "Words", "To Love Somebody")
I wanted to share with you a few examples of Australian residential home architecture that I find beautiful, interesting and inspiring. Very different ones of course.
