pics of spain

There are some new pictures here.

just in case...

just in case anyone cares:
Finally I uploaded some of my pictures, taken on the trip from Anchorage, Alaska, USA to Vancouver, Canada. You'll find them here:

Alaska and Western Canada

good morning sun

Every once in a while the weather in Zurich is really nice. With really nice I don't just mean sunny or cloudless, but a day without fog and mist. When I go to work in the morning there is one little spot on the track where you can see the mountains from the train. When the weather is really nice you can actually see the sun rising over the mountains and it is incredibly beautiful.

Anyway, at the moment we do have some nice weather here and when I woke up this morning, I thought about taking some pictures. Now some of you might call me crazy or whatever, but I got up today (a sunday) at 6 in the morning and hiked up a mountain. In the woods it was kind of dark, but I have gone the way before a couple of times so I was pretty sure where I was going.

Unfortunately it was misty so I didn't expect to take great pictures, but when I got on top of the mountain at around 7 o'clock I experienced a wonderful sunrise. Most of the pictures look pretty much the same but the scenery was just too inviting to take photos and so I have quite a few of these. Maybe you like some of them and maybe you should think about becoming an early rising person because this was over before eight, before any tourist has crossed my way... So good morning sun!

New Years

Before I start writing about how I celebrated the beginning of 2008 I want to say "Happy New Year!" to everyone I haven't yet had the chance to say to. I don't really have a list of people that I want to greet and I kind of lost track of the people I have already seen or talked to since last year, so please don't be angry at me in case that I have "forgotten" you.

Back to the story how I arrived in 2008: The last post ended with Barbara and me arriving in Zurich and staying there for one night. The next day we got on a train and went to a city called Wädenswil, about 30 minutes outside of Zurich. There we met with Andrea, a close friend of Barbara from High School, Ines and Ian some other random friends that Barbara met while she was in Australia and that are also friends with Andrea.

Anyway, it was us five and we went to the mountains, close to the city Schwyz. Since this place is a little higher above sea level than Zurich for example, there was a lot of snow. We actually wanted to hike a little and our aim was to get to a small cabin on the mountain, but we got a little lost. Thus, we ended up in a different cabin, got some hot tea and went back to the car. After that we made a quick stop at Andrea's parents who live in Einsiedeln and then drove to Worb, a small city close to Bern, where Andrea lives.

The next few days were filled with a lot of talking, watching movies, cooking and eating, going for walks, doing some sightseeing in Bern and so on and so on. We didn't do anything spectacular, but it was really nice, just the right mixture of relaxing and actively doing something. Basically that's all we did. On New Years eve we had something typically for Germany oder Europe or I don't know, something called "Bleigießen" (translates into "lead pouring"). You basically take a piece of lead and melt it in some kind of spoon over a candle. When it's all melted you simply pour it into a bowl of cold water and voila, there we go. The shape the lead has at the end is supposed to say something about you or your life of the next year. As far as I know though, you need to have a lot of fantasy to see anything in the new shapes. To be honest my piece of lead looked a little like a huge sperm - but the pieces of the other people looked similar...

Anyway, we spent some nice days in Worb and on January 2, the vacation was already over. After exchanging all the pitures, Barbara went back to Germany from Bern because she had a doctor's appointment, Ian had to catch a flight to Great Britain from Zurich so Andrea drove him there and I was able to go along with them as well. Last but not least Ines had some more days of vacation and stayed in Worb a little longer with Andrea who also had some holidays.

I for my part had to work on January 3 and there I am again, working and having as much fun as possible.

With that my blog is up-to-date and I wish you once again a 'Happy New Year 2008!'

Winter Wonderland

Before you even know it, it's Christmas. Well, not really, the chocolate santas have been in the stores for months and at the end auf November the light pollution increases tremendously, but anyway, the last few weeks before Christmas pass like a flash.

Over Christmas I went to visit Barbara and her family. Barbara had just arrived from the US a few days before and is now Master of Science... (actually she could go and earn the money now and I would become the houseman). Anyway, since Barbara hasn't been home for about 16 months we decided to spend Christmas Eve at her family. A colleague of mine at Hocoma is Dutch and drove with his car home over Christmas and since my girlfriend lives close to the border to the Netherlands it was perfect for me.

I arrived in Bedburg-Hau some days before Christmas and tried to get used to my "jet-lagged" girlfriend. We did a lot preparation for the different Christmas dinners and I was able to help some in the kitchen with the cooking and so on, which is more an honor than anything else to me.

One day we had really nice weather and made an awesome walk in the winter wonderland. I uploaded some of the pictures and see for yourselves - even without snow this is incredibly beautiful. The day before Christmas eve, the whole family came together and we went to Bochum to see the musical Starlight Express. It was a surprise of Bärbel and Udo (Barbara's parents) and it was really really nice, even though they sang in German.

Christmas Eve was one thing and that is long. We had Raclette for dinner around six and went to church around nine. Usually the service at church is earlier than nine, but due to some church changes in the area, there was only one service and that was at nine. This is not really a bad thing, however, the service ended around midnight... After that we went home and had a Feuerzangenbowle and started to unpack the presents. There were quite a few people and thus there were a whole lot of presents which were unpacked one after another. We finished with all the presents around 3:30 am and went to bed. The next day some friends of the family came over and we had a brunch and ate and talked some more.

The next day Barbara and I went to my parents' place and after that to my grandparents before we drove with my brother and my sister in law to Stuttgart. From there we took the train to Zurich, where we stayed one night and the next day we rode the train to a friend of Barbara's -- but more about that in my next post.

Zurich, Switzerland

When you go to another country and stay there for a while there is always an issue with friends that want to come and visit you. Well, many really do want to come for a visit but most of them never will. This is not because they don't like you or they've forgotten you, no, it's because the time you spent in the country is over faster than people can imagine. Even though I've spent more than six months in Canada these six months seemed to have been over in a blink and "suddenly" I was back in Germany. Actually, I can't complain, there were three close friends of mine visiting me in Kingston and that are three more than I have expected. Janine visited for a day, which was not a lot but was really nice, Dave came for a few days and we did some fun things and when Sebastian passed through Kingston, I haven't been around but anyway, he tried.

When I came back from Canada and announced that I'll be doing an internship in Zurich, Switzerland, many people told me how nice it is and that they'll visit me and have a cheap holiday. Well first of all, there is nothing cheap in Switzerland, alomost everything is a little or a lot more expensive than in Germany (but on the other hand, people also have a higher salary).

However, I never thought that a lot of people would actually drop by, although Switzerland is much closer to Germany than Canada. Maybe when I'm still around here for the European Championship in Soccer next summer, some people might show up, especially since I live just a few blocks from the stadium where group C (the Netherlands, France, Italy and Romania) will play.

Anyway - just a week before Christmas Steffi came around for the weekend. She is doing her internship at Daimler in Stuttgart and had a colleague who lives in Zurich and drives there every weekend. So she was able to go with him and I picked her up at his place. We did some fun things, finally drank a few bottles of wine (something we wanted to do for a long time again) and talked a lot. We also took a quick glance at Zurich, walked around downtown and took a look at the Zueri See. The next day we hiked up a "little" hill called the Uetliberg and had a nice view over the city. Unfortunately it was not really clear so that we couldn't see the "big" mountains in the south. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and it was really nice to have someone visit me. Some of the pictures we took this weekend are as usual on picasa and you can check them out if you like. You can also send me an email and we can schedule a weekend for you to visit me as well, if you like...

another post

My dear diary, ...
Well it almost feels like an electronical diary. The last few nights I sat down at my computer and typed what came to my mind - at least kind of, I wanted to give you an impression about the things that happened the last few months I have spent in Canada and the US. Don't worry, I am aware that this is not a real diary so you can keep on reading, I won't reveal any secrets that you might not want to know and I try not to bother you too much with some weird feelings and dark thoughts of mine.

When I came back to Kingston in late September I just had a few more days before a plane took me back to Europe. This time I basically used to finish my thesis, pack my stuff and to say good bye to a few people. Especially the people from the DES lab, i.e., Sarah (and Ben), Lenko and Christian, and of course Karen my supervisor became really close friends to me. The day before my flight left we had our last DES Meeting and they even made a cake for me and had a present. I really enjoyed the time I spent with them, but my road made a turn again and brought me back to Germany. I remember a poem we had to learn some day in school. It is called "The road not traveled" by Robert Frost and goes something like this:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
but sorry, I could not travel both ...

Anyway, the next day, or lets say two days later, I stepped on German ground. I stayed at my parents' place for about a week and had my defense of my thesis. As soon as I was done with that I traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, to search for a place to live. That was not as easy as expected or lets say it was much harder than expected. However, after almost becoming desperate I fond a place (right on top of a sex shop...) and in November I moved to Zurich to do an intership at a company named Hocoma. On Hocoma's webpage it says:

Hocoma is the leader in robotic rehabilitation therapy for neurological movement disorders. We are a globally active medical technology company based near Zurich, Switzerland. We develop innovative therapy solutions working closely with leading clinics and research centers. Our products are applied successfully in renowned clinics and research institutes worldwide in the field of rehabilitation medicine.

The company and the people working there are great. During my intership I am working in the research and development department as a software engineer. My main tasks is to help with control issues of the Lokomat a gait orthosis that automates locomotion therapy on a treadmill and improves the efficiency of treatmill training. The work is really fun and I learned a lot since my first day at Hocoma.

More about that and maybe even some pictures from Zurich in the next post.
Good Night!

Washington D.C. and Philadelphia

After returning from eastern Canada I stayed a few days in Kingston, did my laundry, and off I were again. This time I visited Barbara once again before flying back to Germany. The first few days we spent in Terre Haute, I had some stuff to do for my and Barbara for her thesis. However, I still don’t want to talk about work so let’s get to the fun things we did while I was there.

Since Barbara had not yet been in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia we wanted to do a trip to these two cities. Besides that I always wanted to visit my former host family in Potter County (north central Pennsylvania) and it seemed to be good to combine these things. So one day before we wanted to leave for D.C. I called my host mom and she was totally excited to hear me again after what must have been two years. Through her caller ID she also knew that I was in Indiana and after I told her about our plans she was very happy to be seeing me again (and of course the girl I take along) soon. Also she told us that my host sister Dawn lives in a city very close to D.C. and that we might be able to stay at her place. So I called Dawn and asked her if it would be ok, if we would show up in 24 hours and as American are it was not the slightest problem.

The next day we started with Silent Bob (Barbara’s car) to drive. After about 650 miles we arrived in Falls Church, Virginia, and were welcomed by Dawn and her fiancé Adam. Their apartment was just 20 minutes by train to downtown D.C. and it was perfect for us. Within two days we tried to see as much of the US capitol as possible and I can tell you it was a lot of walking. But that was not too bad since we got really lucky with the weather and had sun most of the time. However, after these days we had to say good bye to our wonderful hosts and went to Philadelphia. On the way there we made a quick stop at Rehoboth beach in Delaware and arrived in Philly around eight at night.

In Philly we stayed at Sandy’s apartment. Sandy is a woman we got to know through the internet (www.globalfreeloaders.com). Her apartment was just a few blocks from the city hall and she is one of the sweetest persons Barbara and I have ever met.

The next few days we explored Philadelphia and saw pretty much everything the US has to offer in terms of “early” history. All the sights were in walking distance so that we didn’t even have to buy tickets for public transport. Altogether I have to say that I did not expect a lot of Philly, but at the end was really surprised what a nice city it is and I think it is one of my favorites in the US. Everywhere you can find streets that are so narrow that it is not possible to fit a car through there and the whole city had a very nice flair that was awesome to experience.

Nonetheless, after a few days we had to leave and went on the long way to Potter County to visit one of my homes. After about six hours driving we were there and I passed the driveway… So we turned around and I was “back”. The rest of the day we spent talking with Wanda (my host mom) and George (her husband) and with a visit at my former High School and the store I used to work in. Also we went to the house of my dear friend Ashley who just got married a few months ago and had a little baby boy. However, we didn’t find anybody at her parents’ house.

The day after we had to hit the road to get back to Terre Haute in time so I can catch my flight back to Toronto. Before we started though, we went one more time to Ashley’s parents’ house, but she was not there. However her mom and sister were there and we were all really excited to meet again after all these years. We were then able to call Ashley and decided to meet in Wellsboro, which was not really on our way, but also not too far off. So we met Ashley and her husband Randy as well as little Matt in Wellsboro and went for a walk. We talked a little about how life has treated us and decided that we will never ever loose touch. Nonetheless we had to head back to Terre Haute so we said good bye and several hundred miles later we arrived at Barbara’s apartment and fell asleep in no time.

Two days later I flew back to Toronto and took the bus back to Kingston to spend a few more days there before finally leaving the North American continent. But I will write more about that and what I’ve been doing in Europe after my return later on.

Last but not least I want to provide you with some pictures so you can see how much fun we had and get an impression of all the stuff that we have seen.

Eastern Canada

If I take a look back at all the things I’ve experienced while I was in Canada it is hard to imagine that all this happened within such a short time. Besides traveling all around the country and to the US I also did some research and wrote a thesis. When you read the last and this and maybe the next entry in my blog, you might wonder when I have done all this. To be honest I don’t know. However, since it is neither interesting to write about work nor to read about it I don’t want to extend this excursion into my research. I just want to remember that by the time Lenko and I left for our next trip which is the topic of this entry I had finished a draft of my thesis and it was the work of many endless seeming days and nights and I got seldom more than five hours of sleep.

Anyway, on August 21^st of the year 2007 Lenko and I started our trip to Eastern Canada. We rented a car (Toyota) and the plan was to drive east and see as much as possible. The final destination was St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. We traveled six different provinces of Canada and have seen and experienced so much that it is impossible to write about all of it.

First we went to Montreal and Quebec City. After a more or less glance at Quebec City we went up north to Baie-Ste-Catherine where we saw some minke whales. If we would have more time we would have gone on a whale cruise in the Parc Marin Natl Saguenay-St-Laurent where it is even possible to see blue whales.

However, we drove on through New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island (PEI). PEI is the smallest of the Canadian provinces but it is beautiful. Especially for a person like me who loves rough weather and light houses it was amazing. Due to a high percentage of iron in the soil the beaches of PEI all look kind of reddish but you can see that more clearly on the pictures. After a short stop in Charlottetown, the capital of PEI, we went on to Nova Scotia, visited Lunenburg and Halifax and a few days later we arrived in Sydney (Cape Breton) to catch the ferry to Newfoundland.

Unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation so we had to wait one night for the next available spot on a departing ferry. The ferry trip to Newfoundland was six hours and we arrived in Port aux Basques around mid day. The next day we simply drove along Highway 1 straight to St. John’s and Cape Spear the eastern most part of the North American continent. We took a few hours to do a whale cruise on the Atlantic. We didn’t see any whales on this cruise but instead thousands of puffins.

After we’ve seen everything of interest (or let’s say the most interesting things) we turned around and were on our way back to Kingston. We stopped at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, and did a hike up the highest mountain/hill there. On this hike we’ve met some caribous, a moose, and a bear and so on… We got really lucky with the ferry and left Newfoundland.

Back in Nova Scotia we drove around Cape Breton and went to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. There we met a few more moose and whales but it was just a short stop on the way back to New Brunswick. There we stopped at Hope Well Rocks, a nice rock formation created by the force of the tide. However, time was pressing so we drove on, visited Fredericton and Edmundston, NB, raced through Quebec and arrived September 1^st in Kingston.

I have tons of pictures from this trip and a few of them I published here. If you have time take a look at it and book the next flight to Canada!

Lemoine Park and Bancroft

Although the last published entry is more than five months old it doesn’t mean that nothing interesting happened in that time. Actually there is quite a lot that has to be said here to give you a glance of the road I’ve traveled.

Since I don’t want to bore you to death I try to make it a brief summery of the different things worth telling. Let’s start with July and August. After the barbecue at Paul’s place we (Lenko, Christian, and me) decided that we want to see some more of the wild-life of Canada. This in mind we started to a biking tour which wasn’t actually a tour but more a day of biking. Anyway, we went to Lemoine Park which is about an hour biking from “downtown” Kingston. Although nothing spectacular happened it was a nice day off and we saw some squirrels and a lot of chipmunks.

After that day we got “hungry” to see more and since Algonquin National Park, one of the most beautiful National Parks in Canada, is only about a three hours drive from Kingston, we wanted to go there. However, it came different. We were a little short on money so we decided to follow the invitation of Paul to go to Bancroft a town more or less close to Algonquin where his family owns a house. We rented a canoe from the outdoor club of Queen’s university and left K-Town for a weekend. It was fun and since I’m an early riser, I was able to take some pretty nice pictures of the sun rise and a lot of fog and morning dew. The pictures from Lemoine Park and the Journey to Bancroft can be found here.