Time for exploring...

Well with my Exam and studies finally over for another year, yesterday Sonja and I decided to explore a part of the city we hadn't been to before. It's a little funny though, because this part of the city is actually one of the first parts you see when coming from the Airport. So we've been meaning to visit it for a while. The place is called the monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad. It's located on a round-a-bout in the middle of the main road to the Airport, but really needs a visit to appreciate the monument. St Petersburg in World War II was surrounded for 900 days by the Germans, and nearly a third of the population died from the war or starvation. The museum was rather interesting and a nice break from the weather on this gray dreary day. As you can see from the photos...

Bratwurst, lederhosen and the wrong train!

I (Sonja) traveled to Germany, Kandern and Giessen, for training in my new position at work. The town of Kandern (pronounced Kon-dern) is so charming and quaint that I want to bottle it up and take it home with me. Kandern is the birthplace of John Sutter who later moved to California and was one of the first to strike it rich and find gold. Everything about Kandern is clean, all the houses are clean and freshly painted, the streets, the cars, even the kids faces are clean. Some buildings are hundreds of years old yet hold a classic modern charm that only well-kept buildings could possess.

When I was leaving from Giessen (pronounced Gee-son) to catch the plane in Frankfurt I traveled by train. I had to make a transfer and I got onto the wrong train! It was going in the direction that I wanted to go but it by-passed the Frankfurt airport that I was headed for! I ended up in some town and had to wait 30 minutes for another train going back to the main station and then had to get another train to the airport. I arrived only an hour before my plane left and had to wait 45 minutes in line at the security check; I made it to the gate right when the plane was supposed to leave and found out that the plane was delayed a few minutes. I made it home just fine!