Berlin, 26.04.2020 Takeshi

I was against having any pets any more. Too much to feed, too difficult to organize during holidays. But then we had a cat, and then there was Corona. Takeshi seems to be satisfied, because there is almost always someone home looking after him, willing to feed him or tickling him right under his chin. And Mia seems to be the happy, too, because there is someone there to hang out with.

Woerlitz, 03.05.2020 Falconry

This was Moritz Christmas present: a training course in falconry, right next to the famous park of Woerlitz. Here, he met with a golden eagle, a barn owl, a snowy owl, a falcon, an eagle owl, a vulture and a burrowing owl. In German, the last one is called Kanincheneule 'rabbit owl' because it is so tiny. It was especially lovely!

Berlin, 26.05.2020 Auerhahnbalz

The view of the opposite houses was so beautiful tonight, I had to take a picture!

Hydrangeas meanwhile in full bloom...

Berlin, 05.06.2020 Salt

We`ve been watching 'Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat' by Samin Nosrat and it has been such a pleasure. Right after the first episode, we just had to try her focaccia recipe. The special part is that you roll out the yeast dough, press holes in it and put it in salt water afterwards to avoid the dough growing out the holes inside. Afterwards, you cover it in olive oil and bake it. By that, the whole focaccia gets an oily extra salty extremely tasty crust. We had tomatoes with it and it was simply great.

Berlin, 19.06.2020 Steps

For the last two years, I studied at the Steps, close to Friedrichstr. Who would have thought I wouldn`t be able to meet with my whole class again due to Corona? I am missing the lot, and I already miss eating at Ishin every Friday...

Berlin, 22.06.2020 Goodbye 2b

I was lucky to teach those cuties for the last one-and-a-half years, and I will surely miss them. As a farewell present, I got 27 goodbye notes, and it was funny and sad and wonderful to read them all. I never got so many love letters at once and I am overwhelmed.

Berlin, 24.06.2020 Vud

A couple of years ago, we spent some beautiful days in the city of Triest and we bought a wooden board made from walnut which we used ever since. It is thinner than our other cutting boards, but it has aged well - it is still comparatively just. I just remembered the Vud-shop when Tobis sourdough bread spilled over our cutting board AGAIN, and searched the internet for a website. And then I simply ordered a custommade board, again in walnut, and it was delivered quickly. It worked, even without Amazon as a trader. I recommend it to everyone looking for a beautiful and long-lasting kitchen board.

Berlin, 29.06.2020 Cat or dog?

Takeshi likes it all: joining us in taking a walk. Hide and seek behind the trees. Dirt and rain. Sometimes he is more of a dog than a cat!

Paffrath, 03.07.2020 Westerwald

All my childhood, we frequently visited our relatives in the 'Westerwald' - a mountainous region in western Germany with lots of forest. After moving to China, we only visited once, and it is already 13 years ago. So we were extremely excited when my mom invited us to celebrate her birthday right there.

Wissen, 04.07.2020 Birthday walks

Happy birthday, mom/grandmom!

My grandmother started working as a housemaid after moving out her former home in Nauroth, and the next picture shows her work place. A doctor Philipps practised medicine and my grandmother helped doing the chores and watching his four children - three girls and one little boy. Even after she herself married, they stayed in contact.

My mothers first home in the Bergfeldstrasse 20. Those houses were given to the employees of the roller plant nearby, where my grandfather worked as a clerk.

Rosi Stricker is my moms oldest friend and our families have been close ever since. She and her granddaughters welcomed us in her garden for coffee and cake.

Nauroth, 05.07.2020

We started by exploring all the animals at the farm. Lennart and Uta even tried riding.

Then we met with my aunt Maria, Rüdiger, my uncle Paul and Anne - Maria and Paul are cousins of my mom. Their mother Anna was the sister of my grandma who lived in their parents home all her life. We used to visit her, her sister Angela and her brother Victor often, taking pictures in front of an old apple tree, which still grows there.

Finally, a visit to the place where my grandmother was born and raised. We used to take family pictures below an old apple tree in front of the house, and we were happy to see that the tree is still there, even if it is already more than 100 years old.

Monschau, 07.07.2020

Always worth a trip. Not just for the local mustard.

Rouen, 08.07.2020

The best thing when travelling in France: the smell of the local bakery selling croissants and baguette.

Courléon, 09.07.2020

Our destination to lay low. We rented a gite in the middle of nowhere, with a private pool and surrounded by sunfower fields.

Fontevraud, 10.07.2020

The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud was a monastery founded in 1101. It became a prison in 1804 and was used as such till 1963. It was obviously very displeasing to be locked-in here, with special punishments such as the ban of speech or movement. Lucky for us, it is now a cultural center.

Angers, 11.07.2020

Courléon, 12.07.2020

I guess I managed quite OK putting up some pictures on our website regularly, but I haven`t managed well writing on our daily life. Living in Berlin even with Corona doesn`t offer so many special occasions to write about as the years in China did. With little kids, every other day brought a surprise (they learned to smile! they started teething! they started rolling over, sitting up, walking....) and living abroad offered various situations that made us wonder: There was just a lot to reflect about.

2020 has been different from all those years past. I felt my kids are much more grown up, so I went to visit friends out of Berlin on my own this february twice - as if I`d known this would be forbidden just a couple of weeks later. I had heard about the virus but had never expected it to have such an impact all over the world, neither did I expect it to have such an impact on my life. We had to cancel our Easter trip to the Amalfi coast, and I had to cancel my long awaited business trip to Helsinki. A couple of festivities were cancelled, too. And even though I learned to cherish our beautiful home and especially our well equipped kitchen and our garden even more than before, I was yearning for a different country, a different landscape, different food and different people speaking a different language. France did help with that yearning, and I am thouroughly enjoying myself sitting outside our gite in La Touche listening to the wind and the birds. Surrounded by fields, all sorts of summer flowers and hordes of insects, I feel relaxed enough to contemplate anew on our tiny little world.

Going on holiday with two teenagers actually also offers all kinds of situations that make us (Tobi and me) wonder, but until now, it makes us wonder only, without any clever outcome or worldly wisdom to share. So instead of moaning, I want to share an amusing moment of our summer holiday:

Two days ago, we left here after breakfast to stroll through some tiny nearby village. Tobi was driving and took a turn as he usually does - fast. I had just gotten into the seat behind him. Usually that is Mias seat, but the two of us take turns, since it is the least comfortable seat in the whole car only suitable for short legged people. So I complained right then and there being stuck behind him not able to move at all, and asked him to drive decently to avoid me throwing up. My husband slowed down immediately, but since he really likes to exaggerate, he went on driving in walking speed, even though there was not a turn or even a twist in sight. All of us others whined and complained again. But unlike me, my husband is a very patient person, so he simply went on lamely, pointing out that he would just do as I told him right before. We could have picked mushrooms from our windows while ríding along. Only after what felt like eternal ten minutes, he speeded up again and we all broke into laughter. It was one of the moments that are only truly funny while you are undergoing them, but I realized how rarely I take the chance to try and keep those memories like I did when Mia and Moritz were much younger.

Dijon, 15.07.2020 No expectations

A good basis to have a great travel experience is to have no expectation of any sort in advance. We chose Dijon as a stop because it split our way back in half. We were as positively surprised about the accomodation (it had a huge cellar with brick walls prepared to drink wine or even have a party in) as we were about the city itself. Exciting shops, beautiful buildings, a good choice of restaurants, lots of people (especially compared to last week). Mia said it was the best place we ever stayed - the most stylish apartment, the best city. So we will definitely be back!