Home trip to San Francisco

Recently we made a trip back to San Francisco to ensure that we stay connected and have an easier transition back into our surroundings. We had fantastic time, although I am sure Nicole will come up with a much more eloquent and critical description. For me it was a reminder not only of all we love in the Bay Area - visit from grandparents, our friends, running on Mt. Tam, fishing, my motorbike, but also a realization about many great aspect of living in Europe that we will miss once we return. Both places are incredibly beautiful and here are few pictures from this trip.

Nicole on Crissy Field

in Stinson with grandpa

moon rise over Bay Bridge

on top of Mt. Tamalpais

San Francisco Bay panorama

Vltava Grayling with Jan Šiman

grayling underwater

Last year, in early October I fulfilled my dream and fished the headwaters of the Vltava river. Since this was my first time fishing for greyling I enlisted the services of a great fly fishing innovator and guide Jan Šiman. His expert advice put me into fish right of the bat and I had fantastic 2 days in the most beautiful

Here are few pictures of Vltava river, the glorious grayling living there and even a short video produced by Jan.

Jan's video

brown trout

czech trout flies

More to come...

Steelhead on the Trinity

virgin no more

While in San Francisco I sneaked off with Mitch and Bruce for a quick trip up to the Trinity. We timed it perfectly and had two outstanding days between two storms. The fish were relatively fresh, the river was in a great shape and best of all the action was non stop (well almost). Oh, and I landed my very first steelhead! A beautiful chrome hen that made a fisherman of me...

mitch

bruce

silver bullet

a very happy man

winter

Coming Home...

When you are an expat, the feeling of "coming home " is usually reserved for the place you grew up. That moment when you see the small creek you swam in as a kid, or your feet hit the sand that was once the material for many a sandcastle. I love that feeling - and normally only get it when I go back to Vancouver Island.

It took relocating to Germany for the past 9months to let me have that feeling here, in Marin. Jakub let me take part in the Saturday morning run yesterday, very generous on his part as I am sure he was also dying to run with our regular group. As I got hugs and kisses of greeting, saw the familiar smiles, and the began moving my feet up Mt. Tam I realized I was home. For those of you that know us well you will realize this a momentous realization for me. I am always struggling with the idea of moving back to Canada closer to family, never really feeling at home here in California. Maybe more, never wanting to feel at home here? Either way, it sure feels like home now!

Planet Geneva

On the way to Chamonix we stopped for a morning in Geneva. Here is a picture of the lake by the outflow of Le Rhone.

Ski Week in Chamonix

Last week we managed to take some time off skiing in the French Alps. We absolutely lucked out on the conditions: after a 100 mph storm the week before we got 2+ feet of dry powder and sunny skies later in the week. The highlight was without a doubt a run down Vallée Blanche starting at 3700 m. We did not take the tourist route and instead skied steep and deep. Our guide Mark skied first on a mono ski which was very impressive. Nicole held up her own and I managed to stay out of trouble. Despite the fresh snow on top of some older ice we did not experience any avalanches and only a fool could fall into the giant crevasses on the Mer de Glace glacier. Definitely the best day of skiing for both of us despite the fact that the gondola to the train was busted and we had to hike out from the valley.


While we were skiing at altitude, the boys were learning to make turns at the ski school. After a day or two Sasha was taking the Poma lift and skiing all by himself on the easy slope in La Tour. Jonas got also the hang of it and would chase a pole while skiing downhill all by himself. And when we wanted to make few runs by ourselves, our friend Jirka Schmiedt graciously stepped in and played the role of “babicka/granny” – as Jonas called him.


Bummer to be back, I think we all could get used to the lifestyle.

New Years Resolutions

I know that a great deal has happened since we last wrote in our blog. Since it is the New Year I thought perhaps I could write once a week - even saying that I am listening to Sasha complain that I am not baking banana bread as promised, thinking about the German homework that needs to be done, laundry to be hung, dinner to be cooked, house to be cleaned and, worst of all, ironing that needs to be done. That said, it has been a fun New Year.

We decided to take the train to Wien (Vienna) for god only knows what reason. It is a 9hr train ride that required Jakun taking 2 days of holiday. Had we factored that into the budget we would have quickly realized that it did not pay, in any way, to take the train. Jakub had the boys mostly for himself for both legs of the trip due to me vomiting on the ride their and having a migraine on the ride back(both due to some weird health thing that we are trying to clear up, no worries).Once home, we were glad to be in our own flat but sad to be back in the land of no smiles and "No kids please!".

That said, we are back! Sasha and I did our yearly ritual last night and saw the Nutcracker or "Der Nussknacker" at the Hamburg Ballet. He and I were both looking forward to Christmas trees, mice and lots of snow. Unfortunately,John Neumeier decided to update the ballet and it instead featured Claire at her 12th birthday. Drosselmeier the head of a ballet school and her dream involving seeing the inner workings of how a ballet comes to life. It was a ballet in 2 Acts, the first of which I found rather weak, the second I loved.

Jakub and I have also joined a gym here, with free child care. Given that it is dark out here as late as 08:00 and it only light till 16:00 we felt a gym would be a good investement. We just don't have the motivation to run although, Jakub did buy himself a Christmas gift that is helping a little to get us out the door. Check it out at: http://www.jplichta.motionbased.com and click on the runs listed on the right hand side.

Both boys are up so that is it for me today....bis Nexte Woche

A late fall afternoon...15:32 Golden Hour

It is 15:30 on a Sunday which means I should be cleaning our house and getting ready for the craziness of the week to come. Instead I am listening to Sara McLachlan, feeling nostalgic and a little homesick. The sky is a beautiful fall blue, the oak trees fire orange leaves carpet the ground and the view from our apartment. It makes me want to move back to Vancouver, that is when the time comes to move again.

I had thought when we started the blog that it would serve as a bit of a diary but we just can not find time to sit down and post. Life seems to busy no matter what part of the globe you inhabit. Here, with darkness hitting at 16:00, sunlight is a real commodity not to be squandered clicking at a keyboard. The early darkness also makes you feel a little sleepier in the early afternoon, and a little happier to see the sunrise at 07:30.

Sunday at 15:40 and the Golden Hour has just passed. Sigh. Well, here is a point form of what we have been up to since our trip to Paris:

Jakub made it to his class reunion in Praha, all alone. He was going to bed around th same time I was getting up here in the mornings. Facts like that make you realize it was a really good idea to stay home with the kids

Jonas and I have been attending a Kids Play Group with the American Women’s Club and one Kind – Mutti Gruppe at the local church. We get our hit of German and English and eat a ton of sweets at both!

I am still doing my German class a couple of mornings a week. It is going well, though the amount of study time I should be investing is not something I can manage with the kids.

Jakub and I have a babysitter for Friday nights, yipppppeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going out now to enjoy the last half hour of daylight....

Impressions from Paris

Click the link below to see some more pictures.
Few days in the most romantic city...

Visit from Bratislava

Back in August we had a first in series of visitors – Igor, Luba, Marketa and Richard drove up from Bratislava to spend few days with us. It was the first opportunity for us to present Hamburg as well as an occasion for a pilgrimage to Lübeck, the birthplace of marzipan. Here are few pictures from Igor.

August 21st.....First Day of Kindergarten

Sasha had his first day of school today and it was hard. There were tears and regrets... Jakub pulled himself together in time to say good-bye to Sasha tear free.

Sasha seemed to be ok as his Birthday Gnome (thanks Bibi) came to visit him and brought along two little helpers that were to make his first week at school a little easier. Jonas got the big brother gnome, so he would not miss Sasha, and Sasha got the smaller one, so he would not miss Jonas. The day went well so let’s hope...

Our little trip...

Our vacation was supposed to be 2 weeks this year so we thought we would take consecutive weeks on break – one week to visit family and one week in Greece. A quick look at vacation sites quickly showed us that Greece is not a good option this time of year, that is unless your idea of a good time is sitting on a small beach, shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of drunk, sun-burned tourists. That left us with a plan to visit family by train...Sadly trains were all booked up so we were forced to drive.

Here is an overview of our driving tour:

We had taken along “Germany’s best-loved driving tours” (thanks Filip and Misa) and had hoped to find a nice side-trip from the book. Obviously an entire driving tour was not possible but we figured we could certainly manage a good chunk We picked Goslar and spent a nice, relaxed afternoon there. It was a huge hit with Sasha as it had a real knight and probably the last Panini stickers anywhere in Germany!

We made it to Praha that same night, coming in through Teplice. Teplice, once a nice small town, now seems more like the Red Light District of Czech. As you come down from the mountains you are greeted with women “waiting” at bus stops, little huts along the side of the road that are open for business and finally girls dancing in windows in the main part of town. An entire town built on prostitution – a very disturbing feeling to say the least. (sorry no pics of this)

Jakub found his way quite easily to Mirek’s apartment – always an impressive feat given he learned to drive after leaving Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). Mirek was happily waiting with his super home-cooked food for us and presents for his boys (Sasha, Jonas and Jakub). We were carrying our usual package of English books for him and a bottle of wine to share. We stayed up that night till 4:00am and Jonas woke up at 6:00am. Mirek took the boys so that Jakub and I could sleep in - I actually slept until 9:00 and Mirek had coffee and breakfast waiting. Ah, what a great start to a vacation.

We spent Sunday exploring parts of Praha Jakub had never seen - Vitkov (see pics below) - before heading out to Bratislava.

Bratislava for us always has a pretty familiar rhythm: fancy lunches with Babicka, lots of time spent around meals at Igor and Luba’s and the nightly swim in the lake with Igor. I think it is one of the times I really feel like I have come back to family. This is something I really appreciate right now given my parents and brothers are so far from us. After only a couple of days we had to head to Latky, one of our favourite places in the world (for a few weeks that is).




Life in Latky is simple. You go to bed early, a few hours after dark after all the wine and slivovice has been drunk and all the spec eaten - in our case after a glass of Grand Cru wine that was intended as a gift for someone that does not like wine. Get up early as the sun is bright and the crickets the most beautiful alarm clock in the world. Spend the day hunting for mushrooms, getting milk from cows, and resting in the grass.








Jakub and I both got to go for our first real runs since leaving Mill Valley - trees, hills and solitude! Heaven. The best part was there were meals waiting for both of us at the end of our jonts. I ran to meet everyone at Marta's for lunch and Jakub ran home to a great meal made by Jana, his aunt. Even got a great recipe out of it...

Babovka (Czech Bundt Cake)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
¾ cup oil
¾ cup milk
2 eggs
1 packet of baking powder

Mix the ingredients well, beating air into it for fluffiness
Pour most of mixture into bundt form, set aside small amount of dough
Add cocoa to remaining dough, pour in to form in circle as well
Bake 180C for about an hour

After only a few short days it was time for us to head back to Hamburg. We are always sad to leave this part of the country and often talk about buying something here, a small cabin is only $10, 000 USD. Just when I get really romantic visions about living here for a year friends are quick to bring me back to reality...

A neighbour of our good friends put an axe through his mothers head. His blood alcohol level was 2.5, hers was 3.0! No one wanted to press charges as there were sure the mother would not want this, the police therefore let it be. When the mother came home from the hospital, after being in a coma for a month, she desperately wanted to see her son. Unfortunately his brother had beaten him so badly he had run into the hills and was believed to be tending sheep somewhere.

Another classic....an extremely poor family sent their son off to the US to make some money. Things only got worse for them in their small town. One night a wealthy looking man came and asked if he could stay the night. The couple gave him shelter and decided they would kill and rob him. They did kill him only to discover it was there own son, returned from the US to surprise them with their new wealth.

So, real estate is cheap but.....

Copenhagen August 5-7th

We went to Copenhagen for the weekend to celebrate my birthday – Amsterdam was our first choice but a gay pride weekend in town made hotels 340euro or more per night. I love Copenhagen so that was an easy second choice. We found a great hotel on the water (Nyhaven 71) and fortunately got a room upgrade since the port-a-crib would not fit in our initial room.; yup, rooms are small!

Our first afternoon was spent exploring the Royal Residence. The guards were great, sweating like crazy in the full sun, walking around like they were hiking. Fortunately, we could make our way to the nearest water fountain and soak our feet to cool off.

We woke early the next morning and explored the old canal in Nyhaven. This was a bustlling disrtict in Hans Christian Anderson's time - full of tatoo parlors, brothels and pubs. These days it is more of a tourist destination, with higher end cafes and pubs. Though we did see many drunk men peeing on telephone poles, sleeping on the sidewalk or having "a bit of the hair of the dog that bit you" with their young female friends.

On our final day we took a boat tour, compliments of our hotel. THis was super since we have wanted to take a canal tour in most of the cities we have travelled to and thus far have only managed it in Hamburg.


After much searching, we finally found a bakery with birthday worthy treats ( a day late but better late than never). We enjoyed them here in the court yard, outside one of the stores of a great Scandinavian Design team. Jakub treated me to one of their pieces for my birthday too!

A last look at the canal before heading home....

A last look at the canal before we headed home to Hamburg...