Madeira in Spring 2009

One of my favorite dishes:
Espada (fish) with bananas, potatoes and vegetables

We did a lot of hiking during our visit. Madeira has an extend watering system that is spread out across the whole island. There are hiking trails along most of the salines and you get wonderful views into the different valleys and the coast - amazing nature, wells and waterfalls! It also can get quite steep next to the trails!

Fish market in Funchal (pretty much in the afternoon, so it wasn't very busy anymore). The black long fish you see in the middle of the picture is the specialty of Madeira - Espada.

A mill where the local farmers can grate their sugar cane

Tasting of Madeira wine

Vienna in December

Between Christmas and New Year we visited friends of ours in Austria in a town close to Vienna. Of course we also spent some time in Vienna itself as well!

"Schloss Halbthurn"

The casket on the left is Sissi's...

At the treasury of the "Hofburg"

Coffee called "Einspänner" (strong coffee with wipped cream in a glas, comes with a glass of water)

Decoration of a chocolate store - deer made out of pure chocolate

"Kaiserschmarrn"

The largest and best "Wiener Schnitzel" I've ever eaten...

You need to be lucky to get tickets for the Vienna Opera House - our friend had them ordered several month ahead of time and we went to see the ballet "Nutcracker"! It was quite an experience!

Happy New Year to all of you!!!

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - Fall 2008

I took sooo many pictures in Canada and could've taken even more, so this is just a small sellection of my visit there:

On our way to Jasper...

Amazing landscape!

Lots of oil refineries! At night, they look like big cities with all the lights.

Went to a football game...

...and even took a curling class - was a lot of fun!
Have to work on my balance...

Endless sky and horizont...

Again thanks so much, Heather, for hosting me and making this such a great trip for me! I had a wonderful time!

Canadian Thanksgiving 2008

In October 2008, I was invited to a real Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner. It was marvelous!!!

Since I'm not such a great cook and didn't really know what to do here, I helped set up the table, took pictures and basically tried to stay out of the way. :)








A million thanks to Heather and her family for being such wonderful hosts!!!

Tuscany Fall 2008

Again, I will spare you pictures of the mayor sights here and instead show some of the things/sights I really enjoyed during this trip. You'll notice that food and the local kitchen is quite essential. ;)

Of course we visited all the must-see-places like Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Arezzo and San Gimignan0 (we stayed pretty close by). But even within two weeks we weren't able to see everything. There's just too much to do and see. Always a reason to come back. ;)

World Champion Ice Cream Maker of 2007
(hope I remember that right) in San Gimignano

Tuscany in Fall - be prepared to get quite some rain! :)

Visit and wine tasting at one of the wineries in the region
(www.agriturismo-sangimignano.com)