rory + stephs travels: July 2012

Today marks my 9^th month in Ghana. Time is flying! I often don’t realise it’s been weeks since I’ve last updated my blog. It’s a shame because all these little anecdotes happening day in and out get lost as at my age my memory unfortunately fails me a lot ;-) Something to work on!
Germany was amazing! It was great to get a full week of quality time with my family and for them to meet Rory and vice versa. I had seen my brother Alex and family last in April 2011 and it’s been even longer since I’ve seen the rest of the bunch. My niece Anna (6) has grown into a little princess, so adorable and beautiful. She will get into her first year of school after the summer. My nephew Dominik (3.5) whom I have only seen once before at the tender age of 6 months is a real joy.
    The day we landed in Frankfurt the country was hit by summer! We couldn’t have timed it better. Apart from 1 day we had nothing but sunshine and very pleasant temperatures around 22-30 degrees. No complaints!
   The first day was spent with sightseeing and indulging on way too much food in Frankfurt. The following morning we took the scenic 2 hour train journey to Andernach to visit my brother Bjoern. The train follows a beautiful valley along the Rhine river with many castle’s and wine bergs either side. The same afternoon Rory made his dream of racing in a Formula car on the famous Nuerburgring come true. Although a lot of fun he reckons there’s a reason Formula 1 racers are typically short people. Those cars are not build for tall people. He is still trying to detangle his long legs. The next day was spent BBQ-ing with Bjoern’s family and my parents who had travelled up to meet us. How I’ve missed a good dirty BBQ!
    Having soaked up the sun, filled the bellies and reminisced about the good old days we took off to my brother Alex and his family for the remainder of the week. The entertainment programme foresaw sightseeing in Aachen, grown up boys playing with RC racing cars, more BBQs and getting Rory well into the German beer drinking culture.
    On Sunday we left by train to Cologne. The most imposing thing about Cologne is probably by far the Cathedral and although I have seen it so many times before I never get tired and am still in awe of this magnificent piece of architecture and craftsmanship. Rory was equally amazed to see it, especially since it is the first thing one gets to see when leaving the train station. We checked into our hotel and right away climbed one of its towers with something between 500 and 600 stairs *uff* We had a quick coffee and caught up with one of my closest friends from school - Melek and her daughter. In my opinion you haven’t been Cologne properly if you haven’t tried a Koelsch beer. Naturally I dragged Rory into the famous “Frueh” pub near the Cathedral. Tastes like juice and you could easily drink it like juice too. There lies the danger J
   Off to Berlin the next morning for the rest of the holiday – where else?! This time not only did we get to see the inside of clubs but also some decent cultural and touristy stuff. We went to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin, we went on the Berlin Hi-Flyer (hot air balloon), rented bicycles and toured through Tiergarten, went to a Salvatore Dali exhibition, ate like Kings, did major motorbike and accessories shopping (oh dear credit card institute have mercy…) and of course met up with friends and made a heap of new friends. Awesome time altogether! We both didn’t feel much like returning to the Ghanaian bush this time but here we are and a few days later it isn’t actually all that bad anymore. Btw, my shopping included a heavy duty staple gun which means I should be able to work on the new foam and cover for Suzi’s seat soon. My behind will thank me. Stay tuned!
    The journey back to the jungle was a bit of an adventure. We had taken the motorbikes down to Accra before the break and of course we planned on riding them back from Accra to New Abirem. Rory had no luck with the battery of his KTM which caused a bit of a delay as he needed to buy a new one. Try and find the right one in Ghana! Seeing that we were running late and still had to show up for work the same day we got adventurous and tried a “shortcut”. It did turn out to be a shortcut but because my navigator decided rather on short notice to take a turn I ended up putting Suzi on the ground. Now I know how little I appreciate an audience when struggling to lift her off the ground. I didn’t manage on my own which frustrated me a lot. If I can’t even lift her without luggage strapped onto her!? Probably because of the “nerves” after having dropped Suzi, because of the bystanders and because of sweating like mad in my black (!) motorcycle trousers and jacket. However, this lifting business is something to practise! I know there are techniques and I better get them down quickly.
    We are planning on doing an off-road course and I actually got a nice package offer from ADA in South Africa. It would be training (1.5 days) followed by a tour from Johannesburg with border crossings into Swaziland and Mozambique with over night stays in a game reserve (total 8 days, incl. training). We both like the sounds of that but are currently a bit undecided. May have to postpone this to another break perhaps at the beginning of next year. Will keep you posted.
   Right… enjoy the usual selection of snaps. More to follow on FB.
Much love, Steffi

Frankfurt