Mexicans is a nation crazy about football. In Mexico City on the main square Zócalo "Plaza de la Constitución" there is a huge TV screen for Public Viewing (photo down) .... so fare Mexico is doing well at the Football World Championship in South Africa. Of course Mexicans love tacos a lot, cook and eat them everywhere on the streets. For us it was fun being a part of it.
Tomorrow we are leaving this nice and hectic City to the South. We are going to Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas and we will be back in Mexico City around the 10th of July. During our Mexico round trip we will have no possibility to post any news.

Today Lena and Pablo left for their honeymoon near Cancun. We decided to stay a few more days at Pablo´s parents house to see some more sights around Mexico City. In this way we had been very lucky and it was our pleasure that Pablo´s borther Jorge organized a perfect trip to Teotihuacán pyramides. On the photo you see the sun pyramide of Teotihuacán, which was built in the 2nd century.

We were waiting so long flying over to Mexico City and finally ..... It was our pleasure taking part in Lena & Pablo´s wedding. How happy they looked, it is not possible to describe it in words. Lena planned the wedding with so much love, all details had been simply perfect.

More wedding photos click here:

Our second day here in Mexico City was very relaxed. We spent some hours at the huge Anthropology Museum (44.000 m²), we were fascinated by all the Aztec and Maya exhibits and we easily could spend 2 days here. After we took a walk through the Bosque de Chapultepec "The Place of grasshoppers" where Mexican have a rest from their noisy polluted city.

16 hours flight, tired but happy, we made it ... we are in Mexico. Lena and Pablo met us at the airport and took us home. Thank you very much to both of them, they do everything they can to make us a perfect stay here. Today Petra came and we took our first walk in downtown Mexico City. Now we are fevering forwards for Saturday when finally Lena´s and Pablo´s wedding will be.

Our Latin America adventure started in Berlin (flight with Iberia to Madrid ahead to Mexico City) where Nona Lily was waiting for "Uncle Mario". The photo shows us playing at Kreuzberg playground.

Brussels, the capital of the European Union .... narrow streets in the old town, cute pubs, nice people make the soul of the town and his combination with ancient architecture and fancy skyscrapers. It was cold, rainy weather with a poor and expensive hotel we stayed.
The Atomium built in 1958 for the Expo is a very famous place in Brussels. The aluminum contraction is interesting, but 11 EUR entrance fee is definable to high, there is no much see inside.

Milan is a nice city, though hectic and crazy. It has fancy shops and fantastic museums including a lot of tourists from all over the world. Thank´s to our Italian friend Alex who took us out and showed us Milan´s night life.

On my Asia trip I got used to 35 degrees plus which I had day by day. It´s hard now for me to get used to minus 5 degrees .... even when sun and snow makes it looking nice.

Click here to see all Asia photos

Langkawi cable car is the longest cable car in the world. I would expect to meet the longest cable car in Austria or Switzerland, but what a surprise, it was in Malaysia. The total length is 2,2 km, takes 16 minutes to go up and brings you from 2 meter to 705 meter above the sea level.

It´s hard to say where beaches are the best. May be Thailand has the most exotic and spectacular beaches.

As I took a walk on rocks near the beach it suddenly became so slippery that I made a salto forward. The result was I ended up in hospital with dozens of wounds and scratches. My right knee got a deep cut which had to be injected and needled. For the next 10 days I had to go daily to a hospital (it had been 6 different once) until after 10 days in Langkawi in Malaysia finally the stitches could taken out.
I was surprised what hight standard Thailand and Malaysia hospitals are and Ko Phi Phi Hospital hospital was the best of all.

It was interesting to see in what comfort bungalows and hotels tourist live in Thailand during their holidays. Most local people live poor. On the photo (back left side) a typical Thai house, on the front a try selling drinks to tourists. Anyway, Thai people are very friendly and it was always nice talking to them ... I spent a good time there.

Eckhard and me could get today cheap AirAsia flight tickets, that why we are leaving Kuantan, Malaysia already tomorrow flying out to Thailand. There we are going to visit Ko Phi Phi (well known from Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach", Ko Lanta, and Ko Lipe. At the 6th of March we will fly Langkawi back to Kuala Lumpur.
We will see if Thailand beaches are the same as we had in Malaysia.

... this is how he feels here ... lonely beaches with exotically animal - and planting vegetation. After 12 hours flight from Amsterdam everything worked out well. We met at Kuala Lumpur airport went straight to Malcolm´s place Kuantan (4 hours bus ride) where Eckhard acclimatizes now.
The first night we went out to a fish restaurant (photo) straight by the beach recommended by Malcolm. Fresh grilled fish, very delicious and all thru cheap. We are going to stay here now for a few more days and afterwards we will hit on to Thailand islands.

.... wow, sometimes it´s hard finding words describing a place. Singapore is such a place ... the most modern city I ever have seen and a shopping paradise for everybody. Yes, I enjoyed very much being in Singapore and I could have spent some more days .... so much to see there.

Coming back to Malaysia Kuala Lumpur airport at passport control the same proceedure as always: I give my passport to the passport officer he notices place of births "Bremen" and starts telling me what great football team our "Werder Bremen" is, all thru he counts some Werder football players ... Thorsten Frings he likes most.

Kuala Lumpur has the second highest building world wide. The Kuala Lumpur City Center build in 1996 and 452 meters high it´s a brilliant architectural construction.

Since my childhood I have been dreaming to see Angkor Wat and I did not get disappointed. We could have spent easily a week there, but our tickets back to Kuala Lumpur had been booked. I enjoyed very much climbing the ruins and to see similar to Egyptian and Mexican pyramids.
Also I was quite surprised how developed Cambodia is .... I had a different association, especially after the American destruction by Nixon followed by the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) genocide.

There are lovely beaches in Cambodian South Coast with a few tourist in Sihanoukville.

Phnom Penh does not have a traffic system .... even no buses are running. Everybody gets around by car, motorbike or tuk-tuk, which ends up sometimes in a big mess and for Europeans it´s a adventure being among it. Anyway, in this big traffic crowd everybody takes care of each other and we never saw accidents. It works out!

Escaped from the cold icey European winter traveling the whole way over to Kuantan in Malaysia to give my old flatmate Malcolm a visit. I am more than suprised about the colorful country .... not because the weather or the exotic vegetation. Malyasia is a clean well developed countrty ...... with all it´s beauty and always smiling population. I enjoy it very much here and I am a bit proud that my mom Gisela is brave enough to join me for the first 2 weeks .... she never worry about anything. I will stay in Far East Asia for the next 6 weeks and take my chance traveling around.
The photo shows Malcolm and me at his new residence. See more Malaysia photos at the left hand button "Traveling".

We can call it a monkey infestation when there are monkeys all over looking for food. When we are not home the balcony has to be closed, otherwise you risk to find your apartment destroyed by monkey´s looking for something eatable. As we took a walk yesterday it happend to us a group of monkeys come up to us getting agressive trying to get some food from us.

16th-22nd December: Bremen (D) & Venice (ITA)
22nd-25th December: Kyiv (UA)
25th December -10th January: Kirovograd (Central UA)
10th-18th January: Kyiv (UA)
18th-26th January: Bremen (D) & Stockholm (SWE)
27th January - 8th March: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia
9th March - 19th March: Stockholm (SWE)
19th March - 23rd March: Milan (ITA)
from 23rd March: Kyiv (UA)

It was nice spending the end of November a few hour in Liège walking around and enjoying France atmosphere.

Actually did not see much more than Stockholm ... anyway is not worth spending vacations there. But people are nice ... yes, very helpful and kind ... may be have been there at the wrong time of the year.

As becoming our summer tradition, Malcolm and I spent our summer holidays camping in Crimea. This year we concentrated on discovering the Sevastopol area. Also we had to stop by to see our friends in Simeiz (Бумштаун) and Kerch. Some new photos we put on under "Traveling".

Even the crisis in Ukraine could not break our first Global East Festival - we succeeded, the atmosphere had been fantastic. Everything went well and Motörhead had been a real Headliner: they came, they saw, they conquered! Tarja, formerly from Nightwish, wow, what a voice ... another highlight. All the 12 groups (Kreator, My Dying Bride, Kingdom Come, Epica, Crematory, Ensiferum...) also gave their best to make the Festival for the Ukraine audience an unforgettable event.

Spending the long weekend with Oleg´s friends at Ratne lake near Kovel was more than fun. It was a bit rainy and the mosquitos had been hell, but Oleg and his friends had been just fantastic hosts and that was what counted. In this way Malcolm and me want to thank them very very much for all they have done for us. We enjoyed the company so much. Some more photos you can find as always under the button "traveling"

It was good to be home in Lilienthal for 2 days. My brother René who lives in New York had been also there with his wife and their daughter Nona Lily. In October Nona Lily gets 3 years old.

6.-7. July: Aachen (D) & Belgium
7.-10. July: Bremen (D)
11.-21. July: Kyiv (UA)
22.-26. July: Ratne/Kowel (Northwestern UA)
27.-29. July: Berlin (D)
29. July - 4. August: Kyiv (UA)
5.-19. August: Crimean (UA)
20.- 26. August: Kyiv (D)
26. August - 2. September: on Tour with Lacrimosa (Krakow-Kyiv-Minsk-Warsaw)

vom 30. Mai bis zum 10. Juni war ich mit den beiden Schweizern Dennis und Reto für eine Woche auf der Krim unterwegs. Die restlichen Tagen sind sie meiner Einladung nach Kyiv gefolgt. Wir waren mit ihren 12 Jahre alten Land Rover unterwegs, meistens off road. Es lohnt sich einen Blick auf ihre Hompepage zu werfen. Die schönsten Fotos gibt es wieder bei mir unter dem Button "Traveling" zu sehen.

Dennis und Reto`s Hompage - hier klicken

I am back in Kyiv. From the 17th of February until the 25th of February Poland, Germany and Netherlands.

I will be traveling from the 28th January until the 2nd February to the German cities Aachen, Essen and Gelsenkirchen. I won`t be able to host anyone at that time.

I had a great week traveling to Bremen, Aachen and Brussels. I met nice people - had interesting discussions - did enjoy a lot. Flying Wizzair from Kyiv to Dortmund had been a good deal and coming back to Kyiv yesterday I was happy that our heating system still works. 
In this way I want to say thank you again to everybody who took care of me. 

Meine Mutter Gisela ist heute gut in Kyiv angekommen. Somit kann heute Abend meine traditionelle Weihnachtsparty starten. Diesmal wird es bei uns Paella geben, Pablo aus Mexiko und seine Freundin Lena helfen mir bei den Vorbereitungen.
Ich wünsche Euch allen fröhliche Weihnachten und lass es Euch während der Feiertage gut gehen. 

Hier wie versprochen ein kleiner Bericht vom Drehtag: ich spielte mit Clemens, einen deutschen Journalisten der wie ich in Kiew lebt, zwei deutsche Geschäftsleute in der Ukraine. Die Dreharbeiten fanden nachts in einem Restaurant mit Tanzfläche statt. Die beiden Hauptdarsteller stammten aus Georgien (Paulina) und Polen (Alex), beide sprachen fliessend Russisch und spielten ein Liebespaar. Clemens und ich standen an der Tanzfläche mit Nelle, die unsere Übersetzerin spielte und Sergej, ein aus dem deutschen TV bekannter Schauspieler. Um uns tanzten und standen so um die 30 Statisten als Paulina und Alex nach dem Tanzen auf uns zukamen und wir mit Cognac und Sekt bewaffnet ins Gespräch kamen. Anschliessend forderte Clemens Paulina zum Tanzen auf, wobei ein Absatz von Paulina`s Stöckelschuhen abbrach. 
Ich war überrascht wie gut Clemens seine Rolle spielte, super wie er tanzte, ohne sich gross auf die Rolle vorbereitet zu haben, mein Kompliment. Der Dreharbeiten waren angenehm und enspannt, eine schöne Erfahrung in guter Atmosphäre. Die Filmcrew kümmerte sich gut um uns und besonders Sergej, der bereits an der Seite von Senta Berger und Veronica Ferres spielte, machte mich immer wieder fürsorglich auf meine Fehler aufmerksam und gab mir Tips wie ich es besser machen konnte.

Heute Abend ist so weit: der russische TV Sender RTR hat mich zum Dreh eines Spielfilmes eingeladen. Es wird bis 6.00 Uhr morgens gedreht. In einer Nebenrolle soll ich einen Deutschen (sollte kein Problem sein) spielen, dafür muss ich in einem Anzug erscheinen. Da bin ich selber gespannt und es folgt natürlich ein kleiner Bericht.

Vom 8.-14 Dezember war Herr Eckhard Hoog von der Aachener Zeitung bei mir zu Besuch in der Ukraine. Mehr unter Beutekunst Aachen-Simferopol.

A lovely sunny day in Mexico City comes to his end.