Ein Winterspaziergang

like last year I spent a short visit in the North of Germany.

and like last year there is a lot of snow so we went for a beautiful little walk in the countryside adoring the frozen world around us.

happy holidays!

our beloved locally-grown Christmas tree, decorated in beautiful Bavarian colors

hope you all have a wonderful time

merry X-mas!

let it snow

it is snowing and snowing and snowing. and it's cold. like real winter.

everything is covered in white and all the trees and shrubs have big snowy caps.
when the sun comes out and the snow is sparkling it truly feels like a winterwonderland!
looks like we'll have a white X-mas!

in the kitchen

Ever since I made it to my parents' place I've been busy baking (and eating) X-mas biscuits. Outside it is freezing and it has been snowing for the past days, but in our kitchen it is warm and cosy, and this is where I am spending a lot of time these days, watching the snow fall and enjoying a hot cup of tea. It's good to be home for Christmas!

today

- is supposed to be the final day of COP16
- the last page in my passport was stamped
- I got to go online for the first time in the air

A day in Maya land

On my day off I took a bus to Chichen Itza, where the most famous Mayan temple in Mexico is situated. The journey took us through the jungle to an underground waterhole and finally to the big pyramid in Chichen Itza.

It was fascinating to see how perfectly the Mayas modeled this temple to match their beliefs! They were truly extraordinary architects and mathematicians with a quirky mind and a lot of fantasy - imagine what amazing projects they would come up with in today's world!?

Thanks to our fantastic tourguides Edgar and Jorge for this super interesting tour!

the beach

this pretty beach has been in front of my nose for the past days but so far I haven't had a chance to really enjoy it! the week has been quite busy, but now it is almost weekend (and no meetings scheduled). so hopefully this will be a good opportunity to explore a little bit of the area....

stopover in winter wonderland

On my journey to Cancun I got to spend one day in Bavaria. And guess what: I was just in time for the first snow! Hurra!
Everything was covered with a nice white blanket and the snow was sparkling in the pale sunshine.

I must say (despite all the troubles winter is causing these days) I am looking forward to some more snow, powder and winter sunshine!

the unexpected beer fest

Last Friday I was asked to cover an event for the magazine I am working for. I didn't have any information except the time and place, so I just asked my sister to come along and we went to see what Gaborone's party scene has to offer. Imagine our surprised faces when we got to the venue and the party turned out to be a German beer fest! Ha!
Of course, if I'd known this before I would have dressed differently, but anyway it was lots of fun and we even enjoyed some special Bavarian food. The only thing missing was the German beer, but I guess the well staged party made up for this!

An early Christmas Party

The charity project that I've been involved in for a while was organising a Christmas party on Saturday. Already the week before we were busy preparing everything, including gift bags for more than 2oo children.

On Saturday morning everyone gathered for a Christmas party and it was such a great experience to join the kids singing and celebrating.

With big eyes and huge smiles on their faces they received their gifts after a long wait and then were treated to a warm meal and some cake.

Some of the kids were totally speechless and seemed to have forgotten the world around them for a while.

It was a very moving event and the kids were incredibly to watch.
I am so thankful and proud to have the opportunity to work with the children and the awesome team at Happy Home!

Thanks to my sister for coming with me & taking all the beautiful pictures!

falls & friends

In late October I went for a weekend in VicFalls (but I only got the pictures now) where we celebrated my best friend's birthday with hightea on the terrace of the famous Victoria Falls hotel, had a sip (or two) of Zambesi and a real African party for Halloween.

All the time, we could hear the thundering of the water and even see the spray high in the sky. Of course, we also went close to take a look (and some pictures) of the falls and the beautiful rainbows.

It's been my second visit to the falls and it's quite different when the water is low, but magic nonetheless. I'm hoping to see the falls again soon, preferably next time together with my favorite man!

All pictures taken with my sister's camera.

the day we found a bunny

when we got home on Friday, we saw a little angora bunny being chased by one of our neighbor's cats. without thinking too much, we got out of the car and lured the bunny with a carrot. it was very tame and definitely someone's pet, so we put it up in our garage for the night and let it out in the garden the next morning, feeding it with more carrots & apples, and cuddling this cute furry animal while discussing what to do with it. the problem was solved when we realised that the bunny had escaped when we didn't watch it for a moment...apparently some bunnies do have a sense of adventure and do not like to be kept as pets.

in the dark

last night when we got home the power was gone, so we sat in the dark with a glass of wine, talked and listened to the thunderstorm outside.


when we got hungry we decided to order pizza from the wood-fired pizza-place and have a real candle-light dinner :)


sadly, the pizza never arrived and we ended up eating a little salad made from everything we found in the fridge that didn't need to be cooked.


we knew the power was back when the alarms in the neighourhood went off and the dogs started barking like crazy in the middle of the night -
and this meant that there was much-needed fresh, hot coffee in the morning!

finally: rain!

everyone has been waiting for rain over here and today it finally came!
it has been dripping a little bit here and there in the past few weeks but nothing that could really count as 'rain'.

the rain started quite slow and then was pouring down with some ferocious thundering around us.

it was a warm, heavy rainshower that was over again after something like 15 minutes but it was enough to leave everything soaked and wet!

oh, and next time I will make sure that my car is outside to get rid of all that dust!!!

alone at home

I was alone in the big house for some time this week.
It wasn't that I was bored (with all the work I'm involved in now) but it still felt weird to have all that space to myself.

I had a little fun sleeping in a different bed each night and sitting on different chairs for each meal....things you do as a lonely lady :)

Can you imagine how happy I am to have my favorite man back now?!
And we look forward to a fun weekend with lots of time in the pool to cool off from these insanely hot temperatures...

Guest Posting: tales from the front

I have been featured on the Go!Overseas blog!
Check it out here.

wo die elefanten spazieren gehen

A little video from our trip to the Okavango Delta. We took a Mokoro to an island where we spent the night and walked with elephants. It was pretty amazing!

some more days around the Cape

Even though we had a full week in Cape Town, it seemed like time was flying too fast.
There is just so much to do there!

We managed to visit Stellenbosch and some of the nearby vinyards,

went down to another end of the world at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope,

spent a lovely day at the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens,

and finally went up Table Mountain with what felt like a million other people and all the way down almost by ourselves on a very long, steep downhill hike.

After all these activities there was just enough time left to enjoy the fantastic views for a last time before heading back to Gabs.

It was a fabulous week (despite both of us having an ugly cold for a couple of days) and makes me wish I could live there for a while...

A big thank you to our friend Jan for hosting us and showing us around!