Christmas is coming...

... and I still do not know what to buy for some members of my family.

At least I've already found presents for my parents. I went to one of the bigger towns this morning. It is always easy to find something for my mother as she is interested in a lot of things. With my father, it is more difficult. He is always so busy and doesn't have much time for anything else than his work. Nevertheless, I did find a book he'll like.

Because of all the hecticness and chaos on the streets and because of being tired of standing in line in every single shop I didn't stay in the town very long. Which means I still need some presents for my aunt, uncle and cousins. Which means I'll have to go shopping in this pre-Christmas chaos again.

Delicious!

Last Sunday, my family invited some friends and family. It was kind of a late birthday party for my Dad. As always on such occasions, we (my Mom and I) cooked the dinner. As always, it was much work. But the result can only be described as delicious!

We had bread


and cheese and jam as a starter,


followed by Quiche Lorraine


and, finally, lamb from the oven.


The lamb was wonderful! And very easy and fast to prepare, actually. We just added some garlic, salt, pepper, wine and olive oil, and put it in the oven.

Our guests liked it very very much. Especially my Dad's tennis friends.

Memories

Three years ago around this time of the year I visited one of my Dad's cousins for a weekend. She lives in the North of Germany, very close to the coast. It's such a lovely landscape there, especially in fall. Most of the tourists are gone (except for one or two weeks in October, during the fall vacation in Germany). It can be very rainy and windy and cold but on some days it is wonderful! Just look at the photo above.

Becoming a doctor?

This question haunted me during my last high school years. And the answer was really difficult though I have always had a keen interest in medicine and science in general.

My father is a doctor. For as long as I can remember medicine was (and still is) a central part of my family’s life. I liked to listen to my dad’s stories about his studies, his work, his experiences with patients. I liked to visit him in his office.

Therefore it might seem natural that I went into medicine as well. But in contrast to many of my friends who knew not much more about medicine and doctors than the image that was/is created in the newspapers and TV, I knew from firsthand experience that being a doctor has not much to do with this image. Weekends were often spent only with my mother because my dad was on call, at conferences or finishing things he didn’t manage to get done during the week.

It took quite a long time for me to figure out whether I should go into medicine as well. My dad was not of much help. He probably didn’t want to influence me – in one way or the other. The decision was made only days before the end of the application period. Until then I was thinking more about other opportunities - like biology or law or maths – than about going to med school.

Well, now I am glad I decided to become a doctor. Even though it takes away a lot of my free time, it feels like the right thing.

Sweet kitten

The young couple who lives near my family's appartment in Italy found a kitten in June. I have seen the kitten the for the first time during my recent stay in Italy. It is such a sweet kitten!

When I was younger, I wanted to have a cat. But we already had a dog, so my parents did not allow it. Actually, my parents don't like cats that much, so even without a dog in our household there probably wouldn't have been a chance for me to get a cat!

I have never owned a cat in my life and my love for cats has diminished during the years but I still like them. It's just that I like dogs much better.

But let's get back to the Italian kitten. It loves to be pet and it loves to play hide-and-seek. I really had to fight the urge to take it home with me!

Another try

During my recent trip to Italy, I tried to hike up the mountain shown below. It's Monte Penna in Northern Italy.



I already wanted to go up there last year but didn't find the time. So I postponed it. In March this year I was in Italy again but it was impossible to get up there because the road leading to the start point of the hike was still closed because of snow.

Well, this summer I got up early, drove to the start point, started the hike and even made it to one of the neighboring mountain tops. And took the photo shown above. It is the closest I have ever been to Monte Penna. Because shortly after the picture was taken, big dark clouds rolled in and a thunderstorm was getting nearer and nearer.



So I decided to turn around and go back to my car. It would have been to dangerous to go on. I was told that the view from the top is amazing. Guess I'll have to wait another year...

I'm back!

Nearly one month has passed since my last post. So much has happened, I can't even remember a lot of the things. And unfortunately I didn't have the time to write something for this blog. I'll try to update it more often again. I promise!

A short version of the last weeks:
- my dad's birthday
- vacation in Italy
- my birthday
- remodeling
- working
- and much more

Mobile blogging

Well, this is just a nonsense post. I am trying to post from my new mobile phone. Wondering if it is going to work out.

Things to say

1) I love my family. They are wonderful folks.

2) Sorry to hear that the fat cyclist's wife Susan passed away last week. To read more about her/their battle with cancer, visit his website.

3) The weather is great at the moment. And I don't have time to spend as much time outside as I would like to. That leads to frustration...

4) I have bought myself a new mobile phone today. An iPhone.

5) I like it when things finally work out in the way I want them to. Especially if it took very long to plan them.

6) Dinner tonight will probably be pasta with lemon sauce.

7) This is my father's aunt. She celebrated her 100th birthday in March this year. I want to be as happy and healthy as she is when I am old.

Finally home

It's 11:14 pm and I am finally home after a very long day. I had to leave the house early in the morning to go to work. One of my colleagues is on vacation, one is sick and one went home at 10 am because she was on call yesterday. So there were only two other residents besides me at work today - for 60 in-patients and a more than full emergency room. Great, especially on a Friday. All the more because it is my grandfather's 80th birthday today and I wanted to leave early (around 2 pm).
Well, I left the hospital at 4:30 pm and went straight to the restaurant where my whole family was already eating loads of cake. I was so tired when I arrived but after a while I felt better and could enjoy it. It was so great to see them all! The party went on and we had a lot of fun. I realized once again how much I love my family!

The Tour de France 2009 - a look back

More than one week has passed since the end of this year’s Tour de France. Time for me to look back and name some of the tops and flops of the race (as seen by me and in no particular order).

Tops:
Kenny van Hummel – for not stopping until a crash forced him to abandon
Armstrong – for a great comeback and third place
Heinrich Haussler – for his stage win in the rain
Andy Schleck – for his strength and maturity despite his young age
Wiggins – for finishing fourth overall and suddenly being a GC contender
Cavendish – for incredible 6 stage wins
Nocentini – for several days in yellow
Contador – for his second TDF win
B. Feillu, Le Mevel and the French riders in general – is it just me or are they getting better again?
Tony Martin – for his superb ride on the Ventoux stage

Flops:
Astarloza – for failing a drug test, even if it wasn’t during the tour
Evans – what has happened to him? Not sure if his performance is a flop or a sign of whatever
Sastre – same as Evans
Boonen – why did he even sue the organizers to be there?
the route

August

The greatest month of the year starts today!

You're wondering why I think August is the best?

Well, I was born in August. My Dad was born in August. My grandfather and my grandmother were born in August. That makes four (three since my grandma's death a few years ago) birthday parties in just one month. That's reason enough to like it.

Another thing I really like about August is that the weather tends to be stable and warm. Often better than in June or July when we get a lot of thunderstorms in the evenings.

And it is that time of the year when a lot of fruits and vegetables in the garden can be harvested.

So there are many reasons to like August. But I have to admit that I like the fact about my birthday the best!

In a few weeks...

... I'll be there again:

Italy!



I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm already making plans for each day of my vacation. Cannot wait. I feel like I never needed some days off more than now.

Up and down

There was not much to do at work today so I could leave early and was home at 3 pm. With the weather being kind of nice today (I don't think we'll get a "real" summer this year, hot summer days seem to be non-existent at the moment in my area), I got on my bike and went down to the river valley first.


It's always a good opportunity to warm up. I followed the river for about 20 kilometers, then I went up to the hills you see in the background of the picture below.


It goes up and down all the time. On paved streets, unpaved streets and small forest trails. After two hours I returned home. Just a few minutes before the next thunderstorm arrived.

I'm sooo tired of this weather.

Today is the day

Remember my last post? Especially the part about my favorite senior physician leaving the hospital?
Today was her last day. During lunch time all of the physicians and a lot of the nurses of our department met in one of the doctor offices for a farewell party. We ate huge amounts of cake and a delicious salad. Though we had a lot of fun at the party (like always, it is such a great team) it's so sad to see her go. I knew it would be hard but when we said goodbye after work today we couldn't keep ourselves from crying.
The good thing is that we decided to meet for dinner next month.

Happy and sad

I can't decide if I am happy or sad right now.

Happy because the whole remodeling thing of my appartment is nearly done. There are some things that still need to be finished, but when I compare it to some weeks ago it is awesome. Now it looks like an appartment, not like some old dirty place...

Sad because I'll have to find something else to spend my evenings with. Wait, no, that's not what I wanted to say.

Let's try it again:

Sad because one of the senior physicians at the hospital where I work is leaving on Friday. She moved to another city and found a new job there. Sure, for her it is much better as she won't have to spend so much time in the car each day. She's my favorite "teacher", you can ask her everything every time. Though I've spend only four months working with her, she's become a good friend and I'm really going to miss her.

Where's the sun?

While I am looking forward to the first weekend in four weeks without work, I miss something that would make for a much better weekend: the sun! It is the middle of July and it is cold. Not cool and comfortable, no, really COLD. I had to turn on the heating in my appartment last night. What has happened to global warming?

Nevertheless, I'm going to enjoy the next two days. Going shopping tomorrow morning, watching the Tour de France in the afternoon, spending some time with my family, making plans for my next vacation(s), and so on.

Summer sky

Surprise

When I switched on the TV this afternoon to watch the third stage of this year's Tour de France I was expecting to see one of those long flat boring sprint stages: an early escape that is caught some kilometers before the finisch line and a bunch sprint.
Well, there was an early escape, it ended with a sprint, but it wasn't boring at all: approximately 30 kilometers before the finish Team Columbia split the field into two halfs and suddenly there was some excitement. Most of the contenders for the general classification were in the second half. Armstrong and two of his team mates (Popovych and Zubeldia) were in the first group, the rest of his Astana team were in the second one. Interesting to see how they (in the first group) behaved. At first they didn't ride in the front but finally they took some turns and helped to keep the lead - and helped Armstrong to gain some time on other contenders, including his team mate and official team leader Contador. So at the end of the day he suddenly became the best Astana rider in the classification.
Some might say it was unfair to Contador but I think that Astana has improved their chances (more riders closer to the front of the general classification). There are still so many stages and mountains to come!

Looking forward to the Tour de France

Yep, the world’s biggest bike race begins in just a few days. I’ve followed it since the early 90’s. And despite all of the doping scandals of the last years I still love it. I’ll try to watch as many stages live on TV as possible.

There are so many open questions:

- who is going to win?
- which German will be the best? And on which place of the general classification will he finish the race?
- who’s going to be the leader of the Astana team?
- how will Armstrong do?
- who will be the first convicted doper?
- how long will it take before the first doping case is announced?

Looking forward to an interesting July!

Jonathan

This is Jonathan, the bird. He has been in my life since, hm, since when? I don't know. I can't recall the day he stepped - or flew - into my life. He's always been there, as long as I can remember. It's fun to pull on the string that is connected to his body. Then his wings move up and down and he really seems to fly.

Nature and industry combined

This pic was taken last winter. It shows the river that runs through my hometown and a steel mill. I like the contrast of it: the industry in the back and the peaceful river in the front. It perfectly sums up what it's like in this area. When I grew up, there was a lot of steel industry in my hometown. A lot has changed since then. Some factories had to close, others had to cut down their production.
Fortunately, my town is surrounded by a beautiful landscape, so it is trying to get some profit (and new jobs) out of it. Seems to work as far as I can tell.

A busy weekend

I'm so glad the weekend is over! That might sound a bit strange because weekends are normally a time where one can relax and recover from the stress of the week.

Well, my weekend was busy, too busy. I was on call Saturday, fortunately only during the day. When I got home at nearly 10 pm, I was so tired that I went straight to bed.

Sunday morning was spent remodeling the kitchen in my new appartment. It's still far from finished but at least I've reached a point where one can imagine what it's going to look like some day. I'm going to post pictures soon.

After lunch with my parents I went biking. The summer is finally here and I don't know how long the good weather is going to last. So I just had to go - despite feeling already exhausted before my ride.


Seeing these cows was one of the positive moments of the tour. Apart from that, it wasn't a pleasure at all. My legs were too tired and the hills felt like mountains.
I'll give it another try next weekend.

Sunshine!

Yeah! It finally stopped raining today.

At first I didn't recognize this big round yellow thing in the sky. Then I remembered what it is: the sun. Long time no see.

So what did I do today? Right. I went mountainbiking. It felt sooo good to be back on the bike.

I have to say it again:

Whoever is in charge of the weather right now in Germany - it is enough. I do not want any more rain at the moment. Thank you.

I guess I'll spend the day cleaning up the house. Cooking. Washing my clothes. Cleaning out junk drawers.

Hoping for better times.

I could get used to that kind of view

Well, once again a picture I took in Italy some months ago. Actually nearly one year ago. I can't get enough. It's such a great landscape there! The wind turbines are a little bit, but really only a little bit, interfering with the overall impression of the landscape. And they are definitively loud. You can already hear them at the point where the photo was taken. It becomes ear-shattering once you've reached them. On the other hand, they are a good source of alternative energy. So I guess I'll put up with them.

Side note: Whoever is in charge of the weather right now in Germany - it is enough. I do not want any more rain at the moment. Thank you.

Memories

With the weather being so awful during the last few days (rainy and unusual cold for the beginning of June) I didn't feel like spending much time outside. Therefore, I haven't been on my bike for at least a week now, which is really uncommon for me.

I used the time for scanning and editing some old photos.

Like this one:


It shows my grandmother, one of my cousins and me in my grandma's appartment in February 1983. When I was a kid and teenager, my parents and I used to visit my grandma nearly every weekend for lunch. Very often my relatives were there, too. My cousin is some years older than I am, but nevertheless we had a lot of fun on those days. Sometimes we would just play some kind of parlor game, sometimes we would play house together with my younger cousin and on other days we'd just watch some stupid show on TV.
Our grandma died some years ago and so did our weekly meetings. It's too bad we don't see each other more often.

Where to go?

I'm not very good at making decisions. I normally spend too much time thinking about nearly everything. Sure, sometimes that's okay, some things need a lot of thinking. But sometimes I wish I were more spontaneous.

To make a long story short: I still have nearly three weeks of vacation left this year and I have absolutely no idea when and where I want to go. There's only one thing I know for sure: I do not intend to stay at home for the whole time.

Any suggestions?

Flowers

I like to take pictures. I like flowers. So there’s only one logical consequence: taking photos of flowers! That’s what I did in the last weeks. Here are some of the results:


I took another/better pic of this but somehow it got lost on my computer. If I ever find it again, I'll post it.


Beautiful, isn't it? I've got absolutely no idea what the name of this flower is but I like it.

Once more:



A close look into one of the many flower pots:



And a not so close look:

Italy once again

Last summer I was on vacation in Italy - for the umpteenth time. I normally don't spend much time at the coast, I use to stay in the rural areas where I find it even more beautiful. There are fewer tourists, better food (= not only pizza and pasta) and great landscapes to discover! And you might even meet some original Italians.

Like this one:


The lonely cow on a hill. Well, not really lonely, there were much more. But this one has found a great place to look around.

Or you might see this one:


Near our appartment is a river where you can go swimming in the summer. Lizards like it there, too.

I am not sure if I like the next Italian I'm going to show you:


Found on our back porch.

You always have to be careful when you go somewhere:


Wild horses might show up right in front of you car.

Sunset

The picture below was taken just five minutes ago. It's the view out of my bedroom window. I took it with my oldest (and worst) digital camera and though it is far from perfect it is much better than I expected!

Spring weather

There were a lot of thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rain today and the way home was quite difficult - so much water on the streets! Glad I arrived home safe.

Now the weather has calmed down and the air is fresh and clear again. I like the smell right after a spring or early summer rain. Don't know how to describe it, but the ones of you who live in the country (I still doubt that someone is actually reading this stuff) probably know what I mean.

There are days

when everything goes right. And then there are days when everything goes wrong and nothing can save the day. Today belongs to the last category. At least that was what I thought when I got home from work. There had been so much trouble, especially for a Friday, that everyone was already stressed by noon.

But a few minutes after I had arrived home something happened that totally saved me from falling into deep despair: my best friend from university whom I hadn't met or even spoken to since March called! I really really like her, she's one of the people I share so many memories with that I can't imagine what life would be without her. We lived in different parts of Germany for more than one year, until I moved back here some weeks ago, so stopping by for a short visit was impossible for a long time. I am so glad about having the opportunity to see her more often again!

Now I'm editing some photos taken in the last months.

This one is from Italy (once again), taken in the beautiful area of Cinqueterre.

Look what I've found today

I was on call again last night. It was a quiet night, there was not much to do. So when I got home this morning, I felt really relaxed and not tired at all.

After a quick early lunch - leftovers from Sunday - I decided to go biking. There were a lot of things in the house that needed (and still need) to be done, but biking felt just right. The weather is great at the moment and free afternoons during the week are so rare in my life that I had to use this opportunity. Had my camera with me, so some of the time wasn't spent on the bike but off the bike ;)

As I've told you before, I live near fields and forests. Here are some of the photos I took this afternoon:

Seems like the farmer has already been busy this year.

One of the many, many horses in this area. When I was younger, I used to go horseback riding at least 3-4 days each week.

On the way back home.


Well, this was taken in front of my door. More flower pictures following soon!

Every time I think things have settled down and every time I've made up my mind, something happens that makes me reconsider my decisions. I don't like that. Maybe it's just a sign that I don't know what I really want ;)

Badlands, South Dakota

Taken during a stay in South Dakota some years ago. You won't find anything like this in Europe... I really hope to have the opportunity to go there again!

Being on call

One of the disadvantages of my job (which I generally like very much) is being on call at least 4-5 days – let’s better call it nights - a month. You never know what’s going to happen. You might have a really quiet night where you can sleep 7 or 8 hours. You might have a night where you are awakened by radio every time you’ve just fallen asleep (like the terrible night I had last week). Or you might have a night where there’s no chance to go to bed and try to sleep at all. I don’t mind being alone, being the only one responsible, you get used to that. But what I mind is not being able to get a good night’s rest.

Where would I like to live?

That’s a question I keep asking myself. I don’t know the answer to it (yet), maybe I never will. But I know of some places where I definetively do NOT want to live. Take big cities, for example. Or flat landscapes. Or a place with no river or lake nearby.
I could never imagine living in a huge city with millions of people. I like to see the sky when I look out of the window. Another thing that I find important is to have at least some hills around me. Mountains would be better, of course, but you can’t have everything.
I grew up in a town with not more than 100,000 people. The suburb where I lived as a child (and where I am living again now) has only a few thousand people, is some km away from the „city“, is more like a village and is vey close to fields, forests and a lake. Some might call it boring, but I really like it here. But I am not sure if I want to stay here for the rest of my life.

Italy

Some pictures from different trips to Italy. Such a great country! Especially for cyclists. If you ever have the chance to go there, do it.

HAPPY EASTER!

I said last week that I need more days of riding my bike in the morning and watching TV (i.e. bike races) in the afternoon. Today was such a day. Yes, I know it is Easter and yes, I know that days like that should be spent with the family. But what should one do if the family in question is on vacation? At least most of them are.

So I spent some hours on the bike this morning. Beautiful weather and great landscape. My form isn’t too bad for this time of the year, a fact that I noticed while riding up some of the hills in this area.


I love it when the first new grass of the year appears on the fields! Look at this green!



In the afternoon I watched Paris-Roubaix, one of the most exciting and important spring classics in professional cycling. Great race again by Quickstep and Tom Boonen!

Childhood memories

When I look back on my childhood, a lot of memories come up. One special thing is my "afternoon meal“ which was my mother’s solution to dealing with a hungry kid (= me) in a time-saving way.

My mother worked part-time, so she didn’t have much time (or energy) to cook a meal when I came home from school in the afternoon. My school didn’t have a cafeteria, which meant that I was always very hungry when I got home. My father used to come home at 7 or 8 pm, so our family dinner didn’t take place before 8:30pm or so.

So my mom thought about little meals that didn’t take much time and that satisfied my hunger in a way that I could still eat dinner with my parents in the evening.

Most of these recipes were easy to cook, cheap, and consisted of ingredients most people have at home.
When I left home to live on my own, I rediscovered many of them, changed some of them, came up with new ideas, got better and better in cooking, tried other (more difficult) recipes...

Spring fun

What a great day today. I need more of this, definitively. I was so sick of remodeling that I got on my bike this morning and rode about two hours in wonderful spring weather. Ok, it wasn’t warm enough to ride in short sleeves (as I had hoped) but at least the sun was out and it didn’t rain. I always enjoy riding early in the morning because there are very few people/cars on the roads, at least on Sundays.
The afternoon was spent in front of the TV – watching the Tour of Flanders. Despite the recent decline of interest in procycling in Germany , we’re lucky that a lot of races are still shown live on TV. One of the good things about living here! The race itself was not as interesting and exciting as some of the previous editions, Quickstep was simply too strong (having Boonen, Devolder and Chavanel there). Devolder's attack on the Muur was perfect. Then he just hammered and kept the legs turning until the finish. Great attack by him and a worthy winner, followed by Haussler and Gilbert on second and third.

Being busy

Well, some time has passed since my last entry. I didn’t have much time during the last weeks as I am moving back to my old hometown after having spent the last 15 months working in another part of Germany. So the last weeks were filled with packing things and at the moment I’m still busy remodeling the apartment where I’m living now.
Not much has changed here since I moved away last year. It will be great to ride my bike on “old” roads and see some friends from school and university days again.
Looking forward to ride my bike again – maybe tomorrow if the weather stays as warm and sunny as it was today!

My Transalp experience - or how I began to love cycling

Transalp without preparation? Not possible you might say. And that's what I had thought, too, until I found myself doing exactly that - crossing the Alps with a mountainbike and with a less than sufficient preparation. Let's start at the beginning...

In 2004 I read an article in a magazine (in a women's magazine, not a sports magazine...) about a travel agency specialized in organizing mtb tours across the Alps. It sounded very interesting to me: All of the tours were guided, not more than 10-15 people in one group, duration 7-8 days, different routes, starting in Austria or Switzerland, ending in Northern Italy at Lake Garda, one of the European centers of mountain biking.
After thinking about it until late 2004, I decided to go on a trip with them in May 2005.

I just forgot some things:
1) I didn't ride my bike much at that time, and even that is an exaggeration. The last time I had done a bike tour that lasted longer than one hour was in 1999, on vacation with my dad in France.
2) The only bike I owned in 2004 was old and everything else but a mountainbike.
3) I still went to university and the first months of 2005 were packed with tests.
4) Generally, the weather in Germany in the spring tends to be rainy which made the preparation even more difficult.

The months passed and May came much faster than I had thought. By the time I had to leave for the trip, I had spent only about 500kms on my old and shabby bike and I still didn't own a mtb (fortunately it was possible to rent a bike in Austria, in a shop near our first hotel). My friends and family thought I was crazy but I insisted on going on the tour. After all, I had already paid for it and no company would give you the money back if you canceled just a week before.

On a cold Saturday morning I got on a train which should take me first to Munich and then to a small Austrian village where the meeting point of the group and the hotel for the first night were. After getting to know the others I began to feel a little bit more confident - all of them, especially our guide, seemed to be very nice. But of course they had much more experience!

The next morning we got up early, packed our stuff and hit the road. Our daily distance varied from 40 - 90 kilometers. After some initial problems with my rented bike (the bike was ok, it was me who was the problem, having no experience with disc brakes and stuff like that..) I got used to it. The first day was hard but on the following days I began to enjoy it more and more. Of course I was the slowest one, particularly on the uphill parts. I was amazed by the fact that the others never complained and even helped me by going slower themselves! At the end of the week I noticed that I felt more comfortable on the mountains than in the flat. Finally, after 8 hard days, we arrived at Lake Garda. I had never thought that I would actually make it. During this week I realized that even if you feel like you can't go any further it is possible to bike on. Despite being exhausted and feeling pain in muscles unknown to me before, I was happy and glad that I had not listened to the people who had been trying to talk me out of it.

One week later I went to the local bike shop and bought a mountainbike! I started to bike regularly and got another bike (a road bike) last year.