Happy birthday!!!!!

Hallo ihr Lieben, hier schon mal ein visueller Eindruck von meinem "Big Date" im "Big Apple". Morgen kommt noch etwas Text dazu, jetzt muss ich erstmal ins Bett (hier ist es jetzt 2.00 morgens, haben jetzt endlich Internetanschluss gefunden, aber meine nun 50 jährigen grauen Zellen wollen nicht mehr arbeiten!!)
So, nach einem erholsamen Schlaf und ausgiebigem Frühstück sind meine grauen Zellen nun bereit für die Wiedergabe meiner Geburtstagserlebnisse.
Wenn man in der Ferne seinen Geburtstag erlebt, dann ist NY schon ein cooles Plätzchen dafür. Aber auch ein chaotisches, hektisches, unübersichtliches...... doch Jörg hat mir einen bunten und vielseitigen Strauß aus den schönsten Blumen dieser Stadt zusammengestellt ... und ich brauchte nur von Blüte zu Blüte mitzufliegen!
Heimatliche, vertraute Klänge weckten mich am Morgen. Der in unserer Familie traditionsreiche Kanon"Wir bringen dir nach alter Weis" wurde mir mit melodischer Untermalung auf dem Xylophon von Jörg und Stefan vorgetragen. Nach einem Frühstück bei Rosenduft, Öffnen und Lesen vieler Geburtstagskarten (danke!) und Schokoladenkuchengenuss, gefolgt von der ersten Anstrengung des Morgens- dem Auspusten der 50 Kerzen- ging es hoch hinaus. Aus den Fenstern eines Helikopters hatten wir eine beeindruckende Sicht auf Manhattan Island und die aus dieser Perspektive klein wirkende Freiheitsstatue. Man konnte allerdings auch sehen, warum die Augen hier vermehrt tränen und die Atemwege gereizt sind - Gott sei Dank keine Folge des Alters, sondern des Smogs! Der hielt uns aber nicht von der nächsten Unternehmung ab, einer Fahrradtour durch den Central Park. Wusstet ihr, dass man bereits für eine Umrundung dieser "grünen Lunge" 11 km fährt, dass eine Karusselfahrt auch mit 50 Jahren Spass machen kann und dass die Steigung des Rodelberges nichts ist im Vergleich zu einigen Abschnitten des Parkes? Ich war also froh, dass ich die abgeradelten Kalorien anschließend im Boathouse am großen See in Form eines exquisiten Dinners wieder zu mir nehmen konnte.
In der Abenddämmerung brachte uns ein Taxi in eine der berühmten Jazzkneipen in Harlem, wo wir Stefan Bauer, vielen als Bruder von Frank und begnadeter Vibraphonist aus RE bekannt, live mit seiner Band erleben durften. Die letzte Blume duftete nach Eis auf einer Terasse am East River, mit Blick auf die Brooklyn Bridge und die tausend Lichter des nächtlichen Manhattans.
Glücklich und berauscht ging ich ins Bett und der Spruch von Artur Schnitzler, der auf einer meiner Geburtstagskarten stand, fiel mir wieder ein:
"Willst du wissen, wie alt du bist, so frage nicht die Jahre, die du gelebt hast, sondern den Augenblick, den du genießt!"
Eine Anmerkung noch zum Schluss: Familie und Freunde mit dabei wären das I-Tüpfelchen gewesen!

Good bye Sue!

Hi folks,
yesterday was a sad and on the same time a lucky moment when we sold our car with the license plate 4 SUE 855. Sue took us from the West Coast of California to NY City without any problems. She ran 10 500 miles for us. Calculated an average speed of 50 mph we spent around 210 hours behind her windshield mostly having a nice view on beautiful landscapes and listening to groovy music.
Her new owner is a decent young man from Woodstock. At the latter some might think on the summer of love in 69. Yesterday the crazy California spirit which surrounded Sue for the last seven years met the love and spirituality of Woodstock (beside many esoteric shops there are a bunch of monks from Tibet living in a monastery on top of a nearby hill).
Like most people we were thinking that there are no such things like emotions in machines made of steel. But how can we explain what happened yesterday? Listen, a few weeks ago Sue decided that her right switch would not open the right window. We got used to it and it was no big deal for us as the left switch was still working. When we yesterday told Sue that a wonderful new owner would be waiting for her and that we would like her to work fine for him the right switch ... guess!
Right, it suddenly started working again.
We wish Josiah all the best with his new touchy car named Sue!

Pond, poplars, painting, peace

Hello folks,
you might be surprised reading this, because I told you in our last posting that we would go ahead without our little laptop. This is still true, but fortunately we know some people here who were so nice to offer us their computer.
We have already spent a few days in the crazy town called the 'Big Apple'. It is a big, busy and exciting city. Andy, who became our friend during the theater festival in our home town, told us that you will definitely love it above all when you own enough of the two different things that only businessmen call equivalent: time and money. We will try to find out at the end of October if the Big Apple will still be luscious without an abundance of cash in our wallets. More detailed information may be given in a few days.
I think you can easily imagine that traveling around is much fun but after a long period of time also a little exhausting. So, when Andy and Olga offered us to stay one week in their cozy house, located a two hours drive north of NY City and absolutely off the beaten track, it was just the right thing to happen at the right time.
Next to the house we found a tiny pond where we could have a short swim after our running exercise. Birches, beeches (Buchen), maple trees and poplars (Pappeln) reside in the surroundings. Their beautiful colors make our day. Next to their roots thrive bunches of different mushrooms. Many of them hitch hiked in Sabine's basket and ended up on our table as a delicious dinner.
Andy, Olga, her daughter Zoya and her son Max, who stayed with us for a couple of days, are very lovely people. Andy, who works as a composer and professor for music, introduced us to some interesting Jewish rituals and Olga, who works as a visual artist, showed us her latest paintings. Their creative power inspired me to paint a picture with water color about my latest impressions.
After this week of nature and peace we feel rejuvenated and we are looking forward with excitement to the hootenanny (fröhlicher, lauter Liederabend) kicking off tomorrow night in Manhattan.

Some more pictures

Howdy,
unfortunately the order of the latest posts is a little confused. These pictures are actually supposed to appear right after the next post. We think you are smart enough to get it sorted. Enjoy!

Cool Cape Cod

Hi you guys,
Cape Cod is known as a wonderful location in Massachusetts. It reminded us very much of the shoreline of the Netherlands. We met Zach last year on a canoe trip in Germany and he invited us to stay with his parents in Falmouth. He is currently in Milano visiting a school for studying ancient languages and other interesting subjects. Zach, if you are reading this, enjoy your time in Italy!
Our son Janis showed up in Connecticut and he accompanied us on our journey for ten days. In Falmouth we had a wonderful time. Although Pamela, Steve and Ansel had been very busy before we showed up (they are trying to sell their house) they accommodated us with great hospitality and generosity. They are wonderful people and we hope their move will work out for them!
Boston is not far away from Falmouth, so we visited the famous Boston Science Museum. Inside the Museum, Sabine used the opportunity to get a new hairstyle. I presume Tina Turner would get jealous seeing it. What do you think?
The next day Sabine tried to find out if her new headdress would resist the strong wind of the sea. For this experiment, we took the easiest way and bought three tickets for a whale watching trip. The wind was really very strong and the waves were high like the top of our house. Sabine did not dare to go outside, but Janis and I were standing in the wind near the bow of the boat. The mighty ups and downs felt like a ride on a roller coaster and we had so much fun. After a while, I wanted to know how Sabine was doing and went inside again. It was just the right moment for me to appear. Sabine was about to be seriously seasick, staring absentmindedly out the window, clenching the seat in front of her and her hair hanging down cheerlessly. I persuaded her to follow me outside and to take a second pill of the strong medicine designed for being aboard a wobbly ship. A few minutes later she was fine and we had a great time watching humpback whales swimming and playing next to the ship.
After having stayed more than three hours out on a rough sea, it was a relief to feel solid ground under our feet. While strolling through the little village of Provincetown, with upcoming cold rain, and without being able to decide where to go for a little snack and a warming coffee, our serene mood was changing. But actually, I think it was mostly the strong medicine still working in our bodies. When we drove to the beach waiting for the rain to stop the medicine's aftermath, we found ourselves very tired. Fortunately, the sun came out again and we had a good time on the beach and in the following hours.
The next day we spent bicycling and kayaking. Thanks Ron, for supporting and accompanying us. Cape Cod is really a wonderful place on earth.
Please note above more pictures and a second posting below. And please do not be surprised, as this post will be the last one for the next four months. We will be traveling across Guatemala, Mexico and Rarotonga and due, most likely, to unavailable internet access and a heavy backpack, we will not take our little laptop with us.
Our adventure has just begun :-)

Big River

Hi folks,
every year from May until June there is a great theater festival going on in our home town, called Ruhrfestspiele. This year you might have seen a musical about Woody Guthrie ("Woody Sez"). Andy and David, who performed in this musical, stayed in our house for a couple of days. We shared a great time with them and they invited us to their homes in the US. David is currently working as a musician and actor in a musical called "Big River". The show is based on Mark Twain's incredible story of Huckleberry Finn, who all of you surely know. The gorgeous music played live (composed by Roger Miller), excellent actors and the old Goodspeed Opera House itself guarantee a wonderful evening. I would recommend you order a drink for the break, so you can sit outside on the porch and enjoy a wonderful view of the Connecticut River and the old swing bridge.
Only a few miles away you will find another old building. It is a creepy Castle, built circa a hundred years ago by William Gillette. Acting and directing at the Broadway Theater, he developed the image of a literary character who was originally invented by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle. This character has become very famous for his smart, fearless and handsome behavior. I think you all can guess who I am talking about. If you can not, please have a closer look at the pictures.
But I still have not told you the most interesting part of our visit to the castle. William Gillette played the famous inspector so intense and real, that nobody was surprised that he built a creepy castle, ideal to the most famous role of his life. Unlike most adults Gillette was able to save the child in the man. When he led his guests upstairs in his house he managed to be the last in the row, vanishing into a secret stairway and then reappearing all of a sudden in front of the group. Is there anyone of you who would not also love to do the same?

Iceman, Madman, Lobsters, AT

Howdy,
when I was hiking with Rudolf B. and Rudi K. in the Austrian Alps last summer I met Dan (Iceman) and his son Madison (Madman) on a little refuge called Jamtalhütte. We gathered the whole afternoon around a wooden table, had dinner and talked vividly. The two are extraordinary persons.
After our latest little own experience in hiking ca 15 mi of the Appalachian Trail (AT) it seems even more cool and mad to me that both already had hiked the most part of the Via Alpina when we met them. You should know that the Via Alpina is a famous long distance trail across the European Alps (It is more than 2000 km long. If you are interested in more informations or pictures: http://home.maine.rr.com/maineiceman/index2.html
www.via-alpina.com)
Last week we visited Dan and Madison in Maine and had a wonderful stay. I will never forget the lobster dinner and the support of Dan in planing and outfitting our little adventure of hiking a part of the AT.
In autumn the northern part of the AT is exceptional beautiful. The foliage shows colors you won't see in Europe. And also you won't hardly find such a challenge in hiking. Huge boulders, roots, moss, and steep, swampy and narrow passages form natural obstacles to be conquered. Take your time. Sometimes you won't be faster than 1mi/h. And most important of all: Do not ignore the view points. They reward your efforts with spectacular views.