today Chimay became grandmother...

... of 5 little bundles of joy. Chimay's daughter Chinka (Xin-Feng's Embla) got her first litter of 5, 3 females and 2 males:


The sire of these beauties is Hary-Ming Snowstar Knut.

Vacation 2013 - part 3.6 - Titisee and Freiburg

For the last day we planned a trip to the famous Titisee. Turned out to be a big diappointment, not only because it was frozen so we were unable to see the "crystal clear" water, but mainly because it was one big tourist catching place, even in winter there must be payed for parking in the whole village. We decided right away to drive on. I took this picture of the Titisee from the car.


We drove to the next big lake, the Sluchtsee, noting much going on over here...


Frank and Anita next to the Sluchtsee


So what to do? The city of Freiburg is not far away, maybe it is better there!
The views on the way to Freiburg were great:


Ou first impessions of Freiburg:


When we waited for a traffic light I noticed we could see ourselves in a mirror ;-)


First a walk along the river, appriciated by Chimay and Ari.


Then to the center of the city, where the carnival parade just had ended, here and there we saw groups in their carnival outfit.


In the middle of a small river a granite statue of a crocodile:


A bit further we walked past the oldest hotel of Germany, Hotel Bären:



Meanwhile we did long for a good cup of coffee and found a nice place on the terrase of spezerei Manna. And a "little" something with the coffee...


More people coming from the carnival parade.


Chimay was very friendly to this she-devil, she was allowed to pet her.


The last pictures: a nice church with a statue in front of it.


This was the end of a great vacation, the next day we went back home, it was sad to leave, we would have liked to stay a bit longer in the beautiful Black Forrest. Maybe one day we will go there again :-).

Vacation 2013 - part 3.5 - a walk in Gutach

After our failed trip to Austria the day before, we decided to have a quiet day. In the afternoon we walked a bit through Gutach.

The river Gutach, the village is named after the river.


Another beautiful farm in Black Forrest style:


Frank with Chimay and Ari

Vacation 2013 - part 3.4 - to Austria

The original plan for our vacation would have led us to Merano and there we would have seen Nathalie, who is a member of LibraryThing too. So we decided to give it one more try to meet eachother half way between Gutach and Merano in Austria. We left Gutch in the morning and drove to Austria.
Sadly we did not plan well, it was the first day of the spring-holliday and half Europe was on its way to the snow, so we got stuck in an enormous traffic jam just before the Austian border. We made it barely into Austria, but returned there because Nathalie stranded somewhere else in the country in a traffic jam...
Now we hope one day the third try will be the charm.

Not only Austrian number plates, also German, Belgian, Dutch, Swiss, Tsjech, Slovenian, Danish, half of Europe was in the traffic jam!.


On our way back we stopped in Hagnau to take some pictures of the Bodensee.


The German highland covered in snow and the pines of the Black Forrest.

Vacation 2013 - part 3.3 - Rottweil

The next day we went to Rottweil, an old, beautiful conserved, rich city.


My eye fell on goldsmith Holland and after that on the sign of Strauss clocks.


Many houses were colored and with paintings, We saw Saint George and the dragon on more houses.


City gate


Timbered house (fachwerk)


The Pulverturm



Chapel next to the city wall

Vacation 2013 - part 3.2 - Triberg

Our first trip was on February 5th, we went to Triberg.
On our way to Triberg it was obvious we were in cuckoo-clock country, a store full of them and the largest cuckoo clock of the world:


Hard to see through the falling snow, but this is a part of the famous Triberg waterfalls:


The water in the rivers was high, the past week it had been raining a lot. And a picture of the shopping street of Triberg.

Vacation 2013 - part 3.1 - Gutach in the Black Forrest

Monday February 4th we left Lelystad for the last part of our vacation: eight days in an appartment in Gutach, in the middle of the Black Forrest.

The journey went well and in the afternoon we reached the farm in Gutach. Our appartment was in a building next to the farm.
The Black Forrest was beautiful with dark pines and some green pastures on the lower parts. I thought to take some pictures later, but the next day it started to snow and the remaining days our view was like a winter wonderland!


We were welcomed by the farmers son and Max, the old Bernese Mountain dog (nearly 12 years old!).


Chimay loved the balcony, nice and cool with a nice view:


This is the farmhouse, the "Blumbauernhof", a big farm as seen in the Black Forrest. The farmer raises Angus cows and makes great sausages, we tasted some that were very good!.


Because of the snow in some shopping streets there were warning signs for "roof avalanches", I had at first no idea what that ment, but here a picture of the snow coming from the roof of the farm. You can see the big pile of snow on the left corner of the farm, not nice if you get that on your head!


Every hour the red train passed through the valley.


Frank with the groceries.


Ari and Chimay on the balcony.