Tatanka, Bonn, Germany

Yosemite Posted Nov 30, 2011, 8:17 pm	Coooooooooooooooool! Now I will soon be ready for takeoff! Just in this moment my ID arrived! Maybe I will dream of my exciting adventures I will experience in the future. Hope I can sleep! Yours, Tatanka
Yosemite Posted Nov 30, 2011, 8:46 pm	Woooooooooooooooooow, I got my first invitation! Go weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeest *sing* I try to sleep... a little bit ;o)
Yosemite Posted Dec 3, 2011, 3:14 pm	Yesterday my mentor bought a comfortable envelope for my journey. I hope it will keep me warm on my way to the west I put on my nicest feathers to look like an indian  Now we are waiting everyday for the postman, who brings my passport, but it wasn´t in the postbox yet. I am pawing with my hooves to start my travel!
Yosemite Posted Dec 9, 2011, 8:13 pm	Finally my passport arrived! Today we have a big goodbye party with all plushys. My old friend Erol the Pirat will leave Lichtenfels tomorrow, too. He will travel with LittleLuzi to the south, I will travel to the west. I am very excited, what I will experience in the world. My mission is to go west an d I start my journey in North- Rhine Westphalia.  Byebye, Lichtenfels, Byebye, dear Yosi! I will write as soon as I arrive! Love you, Tatanka
Yosemite Posted Dec 9, 2011, 8:43 pm	Here you see me and my friends giving me a hug Trudi Baerle Fussel Baerbel and her son Joschka and the big mouse Knabber
Yosemite Posted Dec 10, 2011, 10:07 am	So, world, I am coming! Go weeeeeeeeeeest *sing* Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 13, 2011, 12:16 pm	Hi Mummy, I arrived in Remscheid today. The postman brought me to my host Katja's workplace, so I will not have to wait on the stairs the whole day until Katja's finishing time at 6.00 p.m. I was welcomed by Katja and four ToyVoyagers, Aslan, Clyde, Franz-Ferdinand and Krystal. I took a quick look outside - just to close the window immediately. It is extremely stormy and rainy. Instead I helped Katja to  do her work. Later we had another coffee and enjoyed the chocolate I brought with me. Bye for now Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 13, 2011, 7:32 pm	Hi Mummy, when we came home there was an envelope from Great Britain waiting for us. Katja thought it might be another guest, but it was a present from LittleBlogFrog She sent a lovely photo and a cute Santa. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 16, 2011, 10:28 am	Hi Mummy, we were busy in the kitchen today. The weather is really ugly, so nobody wanted to go outside. We made delicious cookies today, they are called "Hausfreunde"in German, whichs means "paramours". Who knows why they are called like this .... We prepared the ingredients: Eggs, sugar, flour and baking soda, raisins, nuts, chocolate - that's all. Nuts and chocolate had to be chopped ... ... eggs were mixed with sugar until the mass was quite stiff ... ... than nuts, raisins and chocolate had to be kneaded into the mass. We formed three bread-shaped things. They were coated with egg yolk. Than they had to be baked and cut into slices antil they were still hot. Yummy! Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 17, 2011, 8:28 pm	Hi Mummy, today my host wanted to make some more Christmas cookies or something like that. I decided to tell her a secret family receipe, the one with tons of chocolate, butter, nuts and marshmallows. What a fortunate coincidence - all ingredients were on hand. Snakey helped me. We melted butter and couverture and added chopped nuts. In the meantime we cut the marshmallow into small pieces. The chocolate mass had to cool down, we put it close to the open window to cool it down faster. We added the marshmallows and filled the whole mass into a cake setting frame. We decorated the chocolate mass with white couverture and brought the it to the really cold attic. Hopefully tomorrow everything is set and we will be able to cut in into pieces. I can't wait to taste it! Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 18, 2011, 9:28 am	Good morning Mummy, it's the fourth Advent Sunday! We tasted the wonderful chocolate stuff we made yesterday. It is simply wonderful! It snowed a bit during the night. Have a pleasant Sunday Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 19, 2011, 8:18 pm	Hi Mummy, the weather was still ugly today, although we tried to walk around in Katja's lunch break. First she showed us the water tower which is visible even from a larger distance, because the city centre of Remscheid is situated on a hill. The public library is situated in the brown building on the left side, an art gallery in the house on the right side. Here you can see the central bus station - and the first raindrops. It was raining more and we hurried back to "our" work place along the shopping street. Bye for now Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 19, 2011, 8:28 pm	Hi Mummy, we went to buy the Christmas tree today. We went with Katja's brother-in-law, like every year, she told me. We drove to a farm in one of the rural outskirts of Remscheid. Here you can drive into the forest and look vor your tree in a tree farm. You can even fell it on your own. Those trees are not large, about 1,50 m . You can go with your own car here or you can go with the farmer, on the trailer of his tractor. We took a short walk around. To pay for the tree we had to drive back to the farm. In the meantime the sun came out, but only for a short moment. I also went to say Hello to the horses on the farm. It was time than to disappear into Katja's bag. I was a bit wet and afraid to get a cold. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Dec 27, 2011, 8:01 am	Hi Mummy, today we helped to decorate the Christmas tree. Katja got this cute Santa from the host of one of her TVs in England. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 1, 2012, 10:19 am	Hi Mummy, today is Christmas Eve! First we had a fantastic dinner with fish, homemade hash brown and savoy cabbage with porcini. Yummy! Afterwards we helped to open the Christmas presents. I even got an own present! Yummy chocolate! Bye for now Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 1, 2012, 10:24 am	Hi Mummy, today we thought we had to go for a walk, although the weather is still horrible. There is fog and drizzling rain, but nontheless we went outside. We went to the municipal park to the district Hasten. Hasten is one of the oldest districts of the city, with a lot of lovely old houses. You can find those typical houses which are covered with slate, also half-timbered houses. The German Tool Museum is situated in Remscheid-Hasten. Its outdoor facility with large machines is freely accessible. This is "Haus Cleff", also a museum. It is a Patrician Villa, built in late 18th century. We were glad when Katja told us that we had suffered enough rain than On our way home ... Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 1, 2012, 11:47 am	Hi Mummy, after work we went to Katja's friend Kerstin today, to take a walk with her dog in Scharpenacken, a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas. In the background you can see a housing area in Wuppertal, famous for its exquisite villas built by factory owners. Not long since we started our walk it began to rain again. On these signs you can find information about this area. It will be renatured in the coming years. In the middle of the forest you can find a lovely landscape park, built by the former owner of the Vorwerk Company. Katja told us that this would be a lovely place in spring time, summer and autumn, but now it is a only muddy place. When we went back to the car on a more rarely frequented path we found one of the old warning signs No need to be afraid nowadays, you only might drown here today. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 15, 2012, 5:48 pm	Hi Mummy, we went to Katja's sister-in-law's family today to celebrate the last day of the year. When we arrived, there already was everything prepared for Raclette. There were lots of vegetables like sweet pepper, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, than there was beef and chicken meat, salmon, bread, potatoes and much more. Of course there was a lot of cheese Later we called a card game called "Dominion". At midnight we all had a glass of sparkling wine. Happy New Year! Love Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 15, 2012, 5:56 pm	Hi Mummy, we visited friends in Wuppertal today, Katja is knowing them for ages. They also have ferrets as pets. Although the weather is still really bad we took a short walk in the city centre before we went to the friend's apartment. Here you can see the "Schwebebahn", a suspension railway. It travels along a route of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi), at a height of about 12 metres (39 ft 4 in) above the river Wupper. At some places it is crossing streets, even the motorway A 46. Due to the not ending rain the river Wupper is carrying much more water than usual. One of the shopping malls is overspanning the street. In the background you can see the historical city hall of Wuppertal. A train was leaving the station. This is the station you could already see on the last picture. Each of the 20 stations is built in a different style, this one in a modern style. We hurried to visit the friends than, we already sere soaking wet and were afraid that we might catch a cold. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 15, 2012, 6:06 pm	Hi Mummy, every update starts with the words "the weather is still a mess", so also today. Nothing changed so far. Although we took a short walk today. First we went to the municipal park to the district Hasten. In Hasten you can often find dwellings and historical company buildings close together. In the background you can see the outskirts of Wuppertal. Along the main street in the valley between Wuppertal and Remscheid you can find a lot of industrial sites. Along the creeks in the valley industrialization started in middle ages here, even nowadays there are still a lot of companies which exist for centuries. In the background you can see Hasten now, from here we had to walk straight uphill to get home. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 15, 2012, 6:09 pm	Hi Mummy, a miracle happened today - the sun came out!!! In the afternoon we went to the shopping mall because Katja wanted to buy a new hiking jacket. We could not believe what we saw when we left the house - NO rain! You have to walk only a few minutes to get to the city centre with the shopping mall from my current home. Katja showed us the water tower, visible from many places around. The city centre of Remscheid is situated on top of a hill. The water tower and the tower of the city hall, which is 48 m high, make a characteristic view. This is one side of the city hall. Katja will take a photo of the main side another time. Today the ice rink which was installed here since November was dismounted today, not a great view with all those piles of material. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 15, 2012, 6:19 pm	Hi Mummy, this is my first day here with fantastic weather, a great reason to take a hiking trip, so we took a long walk along the river Wupper today, in Solingen, the neighbour city. We started our trip in Balkhausen, a small hamlet in this rural area. Here we saw a lot of those typical half-timbered houses. We also saw cattle, I don't know which sort of them. Aren't these lovely girls? Finally we reached river Wupper, it is flowing towards river Rhine. We reached a hamlet with a funny name: It is called "Rüden" because of the tale of one of the formerly reigns of this region (eventually in middle ages) who met with a riding accident and was saved by his dog. What a lovely place, I could sit here for hours and enjoy the sunshine. We decided to walk back. We found an old machine. Unfortunately we had no more sunshine on the other side of the valley. We crossed the river here. Bye Tatanla
olgamaus Posted Jan 22, 2012, 3:46 pm	Hi Mummy, when Katja came home from work we decided to take a walk - who knows how long we'd have such great weather. We went to the municipal park first, only a few minutes to walk. There is a pond in the park, ducks and turtles are living here. The observatory is situated in the municipal park. We enjoyed the sunshine We walked to the district Hasten than. Bye Tatanka
olgamaus Posted Jan 22, 2012, 3:57 pm	Hi Mummy, the weather is still ugly here with lots of rain. Nontheless my host Katja decided that we would take a walk. We went to a woodland area. There is a creek in the valley, usually a really narrow one.  It is carrying much more water than usual. These rain detention basins are usually empty, now they are filled. (It is raining for about six weeks now.) We were happy when we reached our home. Later we watched Katja's daughter prepare a torte. Her boyfriend is celebrating his birthday today, she is going to take it to the birthday party. She made a torte with cream, chocolate cream and strawberries. She prepared the chocolate cream with egg yolk, butter and melted chocolate. (This stuff will have at least 1.000.000 calories) First the layers of the torte were filled with strawberry jam, than there is a layer of whipped cream and finally the chocolate cream. Than the torte was decorated with more cream, strawberries and chocolate hearts. It's looking good, isn't it? Maybe I will manage to hide in her bag, so I could also go to the birthday party and taste the torte. Bye Tatanka
kessalia Posted Feb 7, 2012, 10:00 pm	Hello!  I made it to the USA and Michigan!  It was a cold day, but the toys already here decide to come out and meet me right out of the mailbox!  Mel was very excited by my candy, she loves that kind, and everyone thought that my postcard, with my own photo on it, was the neatest thing ever!   Einstein, Batty, Willy W and Alex_Lion all want their own postcards now. Willy and I had so much to talk about, since I had just come from his home!  He showed me around the front of the yard.  Look, there are spring bulbs growing already!  In February!  This is very very odd for Michigan.  Mel worries that snow will come late and kill them and there will be no spring flowers, but we will have to wait and see. Willy W was excited to read my postcard, once we got back into the warm house.  He gets to go home!  I will miss getting to know him better, but he was very happy to hear from his mum that she wants him back soon! Mel had declared today "Catch up on postcrossing day" before I even arrived, so we helped!  She had two cards to register for herself, and one for Madison.  I haven't met the kids yet, maybe tomorrow. Then we helped Mel pick out cards to send to 5 other people.  I picked one of the Canadian Mountains!  I am still going there someday, right?  Then we watched Ghost Hunters on TV while Mel wrote notes on the cards.  In this episode they heard a little girl ghost say that she liked toys!  I would be scared, but if she likes toys, she wouldn't hurt them. Then Mel helped us make a salmon cheese spread, and we got to eat it with crackers.  Yum!  It was a good lunch.  Now we are enjoying time to relax and chat and get to know each other!  You will hopefully hear from me soon!
kessalia Posted Mar 22, 2012, 3:39 pm	Hello finally!  Mel took Madison on an overnight trip for her birthday, and we got to come along!  We drove all the way to Chicago!  It was a big city compared to Grand Haven, we rode trains and buses and drove on way too crowded roads. *L*  We started the day with a musical for children!  It was called "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Really Bad Day."  It wasn't on Broadway, but it was fun!  We got to yell things to the actors sometimes and ask questions at the end.  There were a lot of kids there because some schools brought them for a field trip.  And then rode back downtown.  We had lunch and then walked towards the museum campus.  We found these strange sculptures in a park.  What funny looking people! Chicago is famous for its skyscrapers.  We stopped on a bridge over the railroad tracks to view the skyline. Just over my head is the Sear's Tower.  It was the tallest building in the world for many years! Of all of the museums, Madison chose to go to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was too dark for pictures in most places but we saw so many neat things!  Mel's favorites are always the sea dragons.  Madison's was a HUGE black fish that lives in rivers in Africa. MY favorite was the Beluga Whales!  Batty and I didn't want to leave, they were so pretty to watch swimming. Then we slept all the way home.  Fun trip!
kessalia Posted Mar 22, 2012, 3:52 pm	Mel was SURE she already made this update, but when we added the Chicago trip, it wasn't there!  So sorry!  But here it is now!  Mel's mom invited us all out for dinner in downtown Grand Haven, so we got to see some of the city!  Right near where we parked was the city Museum.  In the windows were the winners of a local Photography contest.  It was fun seeing the winners! From the same corner we could see down the main street towards the river.  Not many people out today, it was a cold and windy winter day! At the restaurant, we were right on the river!  This is the harbor looking out towards the Lake Michigan.  The pier and lighthouses are far away in the background.  We didn't stay here long, it was cold! The next day was St. Valentine's Day but Mel had to work.  The day after that though, Mel said, was Cheap Chocolate Day and Discount Flower Day.  So she went to the store and took us along. So many pretty roses, and all only half price!  Which should we pick?  We chose pretty pink ones with green ruffles, because Mel likes green. All of the candy was also half price.  We were good and only got one bag, though. I guess Fat Tuesday is coming up soon?  Not many people here celebrate it, but the stores sell Paczkis anyway.  Have you ever had them? Then we helped Mel get the real food.  It's a shame she doesn't like peppers, since they are so pretty and colorful!  We got lettuce and tomatoes instead, what are the same colors but not as bright. Until next time!  I am being a good guest and learning a lot!
Jess Roqs Posted May 15, 2012, 8:11 am	Wow I have been really busy running all around. I have been to an Anime Convention, a Comic Book Convention, a Video Game Convention, A baseball game, A soccer game, A brewery tour, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant; The famous Pike Place Market, The very first Statbucks store,  the Space Needle, and a ton of other Seattle sights. We even went to Portland Oregon and the Volcanos Mount Rainier and Mt St Helens and the very pretty tulip festival. Here are a few of the pics we took on my adventure. The rest can be found here with descriptions.
smaug Posted Jun 2, 2012, 8:12 pm	Hi Mum, I’m in Canada ! And not just in Canada, but in the prairies too, where my relatives from North America used to roam at their pleasure and leisure . So, when today I felt activity around my travelling quarters I wondered if it was a herd of native buffalos thundering down the plain to greet me . As it turned out, it was a herd indeed , but of toyvoyagers staying here in Calgary who all welcomed me in Canada . They are Sweetsy, Melek, Greeny delMonte and Elisa from Germany too , Cherry Lola from the US, Commodore Quack from Wales and sammino, a stay-at-home TV who introduced himself as my host here in Calgary . They were very impressed when I showed them the wonderful presents that I brought along and later we spent the evening chatting about our travels .
smaug Posted Jun 14, 2012, 4:40 am	Hi Mum, These days neither the weather (always bad in the weekend) nor smaug (always at work) are helping much in keeping us entertained , but luckily, as for yesterday, we have some distraction: football ! The Euro Cup 2012 has started and we have plenty of matches to watch on TV . Of course I am supporting Germany, and having our own “German outpost” here in Calgary we were super-excited when today Germany were ready to take on Portugal (not sure why, but sammino said it was OK to wave the wrong colours while smaug wasn’t around, but otherwise it could have been unhealthy )... ...so we started watching the game all together. We got even more excited when Germany scored .... ...and when the match was eventually over. Just too bad that smaug didn’t leave any appropriate victory-party food supplies...maybe for the next match .
smaug Posted Jun 18, 2012, 3:44 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, a new a guest arrived in Calgary today . smaug came home with a parcel... ...and, when me managed to open it, a TV jumped out of it, Tucker a nice turtle from Germany . He brought with him a lovely card and some delicious chocolate . Of course we spent the evening chatting and occasionally having a bite of that chocolate .
smaug Posted Jun 18, 2012, 4:59 am	Hi Mum, Today, I went for the first time up to the mountains. As apparently it often happens, the first part of the morning was spent between trees...a wonderful excuse to let smaug do the walking, take a little nap in his bag and make up for the sleep lost due to the early wake up . Eventually we reached a spot with a bit of view where we could look at both the mountains around us... ...and the prairies far away in the east . The weather didn’t look very nice so we thought it was time to head back and maybe enjoy a nice hot chocolate , but smaug said there was no reason not to try reach our target of the day, that peak up there . So, off we went. Listening to the wind howling outside the rucksack was a bit concerning , but somehow we reached the top and managed to take a few photos in the wind before hiding back inside. From up there we could see the Nakiska ski area... ...mountains both south and north... ...and again the prairies in the distance .
smaug Posted Jun 23, 2012, 5:04 am	Hi Mum, Today we all gathered together to say goodbye and wish a safe trip to Cherry Lola and Greeny delMonte who are travelling to their next hosts in Germany and the US .
smaug Posted Jun 23, 2012, 8:03 pm	Hi Mum, Today sammino told us to get ready to go for a trip . He didn’t really give us any detail, other than the fact that it will be many long hours before we find out our destination .
smaug Posted Jun 30, 2012, 11:47 am	Hi Mum, Guess what!? I’m back in Europe ! After an awfully long trip including a missed connection I eventually fell asleep and this morning I woke up in northern Italy....and with a lovely breakfast ready in front of me . Refreshed and with a full belly , we were ready for sammino to introduce us to some of the local residents. There’s even a twin of sammino...although a tad bigger . As it is quite hot, we decided to finish recovering from the trip and spend the day chitchatting on the window sill, where we can enjoy  a bit of breeze .
smaug Posted Jun 30, 2012, 9:16 pm	Hi Mum, It’s freaking hot here , and having just arrived from Canada it feels even hotter . So I guess it’s no surprise that we are spending most of the time sheltered indoor . Today, to keep ourselves entertained, we decided to play some roulette. The professional skills of our feathered croupier appeared to be at the very least questionable , but generally luck seemed to ignore me, so I am afraid I can't come back home in a private jet yet . After that we decided to do something more challenging and organised a chess tournament . It was a real battle of minds and, of course, I was the best . Later we explored a bit the bookshelves and found this old atlas, which seemed a bit strange: I didn’t remember Germany to be so big when I left .
smaug Posted Jul 9, 2012, 2:06 am	Hi Mum, Today another guest arrived, Orpheus , one of smaug’s TVs who will spend a few days with us.
smaug Posted Jul 9, 2012, 2:46 am	Hi Mum, Today we had a very important football match to watch: the Euro Cup semifinal between Germany and Italy . Having to watch the match behind enemy lines I had to camouflage myself before it ... ...but, as soon as the teams came on the pitch, there were easily identifiable German and Italian camps in front of the TV, and emotions were running high. Unfortunately Italy swept Germany away ... ...and, as if the result wasn’t disappointing enough, we had to look at sammino going a bit wild on the celebrations .
smaug Posted Jul 9, 2012, 3:51 am	Hi Mum, After just a few days, today we had to say goodbye to Orpheus and Sigfrido who are travelling to Rome...lucky them .
smaug Posted Jul 18, 2012, 4:53 am	Hi Mum, Today we headed into the heart of the dolomites , where early in the morning we were welcomed by pouring rain , and as we left the parking lot there were limited signs of improvement. Still, we started walking up a narrow valley and when we came out of the trees things got better . We were following a very nice trail... ...with lovely peaks surrounding us all the time . As we gained elevation, the view improved further... ...and we eventually saw the highest point of our day, a narrow pass at the top of the valley. Once we got up there we saw a plateau that apparently we had to cross... ...and more mountains around us . A few hours later , we were looking at the same plateau from the opposite side... ...before diving down this wonderful valley and go back to the car, where we arrived just minutes before the rain came back, perfect timing .
smaug Posted Jul 24, 2012, 4:39 am	Hi Mum, I’m back in Canada ! Alas, the holiday ended soon , but when we arrived in Calgary we found a surprise: an envelope that looked like there was a new guest inside . And yes, there was actually a new guest , Shooga, a nice TV from Germany and she brought a wonderful card with her . But today it was also goodbye time as we wished a safe trip to Melek who jumped in his envelope and started travelling to his next host.
smaug Posted Jul 30, 2012, 2:26 am	Hi Mum, Today the weather didn’t look too good, but it was actually quite warm, so we headed to the mountains for a little hike...hoping not to get drenched by rain . The first part of the day wasn’t too exciting, until we started to see something between the trees. Eventually we reached a ridge were the view was much better : we had some nice rock walls in front of us... ...and could see the Bow valley far in the distance. We asked sammino if that peak was our destination, but he told us that it was just a little hump along the ridge . On the way we got distracted looking at the many flowers, we really like these little ones . At last we reached the top where the view was a bit of a disappointment . It was so foggy that the only thing we could barely see was the ridge that we had just walked up from. Interesting enough, despite the elevation, it was full of mosquitoes...and fairly vicious ones too. So we hastily found cover in the bag and left the blood thirsty bugs to feast on smaug .
smaug Posted Jul 30, 2012, 4:25 am	Hi Mum, For once the weather was gorgeous during the weekend so, of course, we headed to the mountains. After a bit of walking we reached our first view point, where we had the side of Mt. Glasgow just in front of us . From here our path followed this nice valley... ...that soon became very wide. At this point we had Mt. Fullerton towering above us. From here the valley started getting narrower... ...and then even narrower and narrower . But the view improved: we had a good look at the back of Mt. Fullerton... ...and some glimpses of the top of Mt. Howard. Eventually we reached a nice little cirque where we had a great view... ...and could also see the headwater of the creek that we followed the whole day, with Mt. Howard slopes on he right. As we were ready to start heading home sammino told us that we were going to be bold and push for the summit of Mt. Howard. We were not that convinced about this being bold business , but once we reached the top the view was wonderful in every direction . What a day !
smaug Posted Jul 31, 2012, 4:02 am	Hi Mum, Today I said goodbye to all my friends here in Calgary and started getting readyfor new adventures . Before I left sammino gave me a big hug and wished me a safe journey . He also said that he had a feeling we might meet again ...I wonder what did he mean . See you soon !
orangesunshine Posted Aug 4, 2012, 3:56 am	oh mommy ... i was so bored. i was criss-crossing through north america a couple of days. everytime i left the airplane, i still was in america. i tried everything, what airports offer. went shopping. met strange poeple that live in airports. but after all it was boring. suddenly these blue guys appeared. i told them that i was kind of lost in travel loop. when the big one of these guys told me where they are heading for, i saw my chance and asked them if i could join them. and: they said YES!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 4, 2012, 4:00 am	so, together we travelled to ... ... denver in colorado. denver is the capitol city of colorado, hence it has got a state capitol. on the stairs of the capitol we were standing one mile above sea level. wow! then we walked a bit through the city. later this evening we went into a pub for some beer. hey, these are good guys! see you later mommy - your tatanka
orangesunshine Posted Aug 6, 2012, 5:50 am	hello mommy. today we wre at a very special place. but first i want to tell you about the last two days: after a breakfast in the forest ... ... we discovered a strange thing in the middle of the mountains: a great sand dune! whereever you look to: sand, sand, sand ... yesterday, we went to durango. on our way we saw this nice church. like three pilgrims we went nearer. a very nice church - one of the oldest in colorado, built as the northernmost outpost of the spanish. later we reached durango and made a sightseeing walk. a nice town, really. in the evening we had a good beer ... ... and some carrot cake. today we saw a really spectacular place. but of course we started the day with a good breakfast! then we went to the four corners, where 4 u.s.-states come together at one point: utah, colorado, arizona and new mexico. hey look mommy: i am lying in 4 states at the same time!!! then we moved on: at the horizon we saw these strange hills and decided to go closer. we entered the navajo park of the monument valley. see the pictures we made. here we piled up our own hills. when it started to rain heavily we went back to our hotel. we were not sad since we have seen a lot today! hope you enjoy my photos, mommy - your tatanka
orangesunshine Posted Aug 8, 2012, 6:00 am	hello mommy. yesterday i was in a national park, the mesa verde. that means green table in english. it is a plateau with some canyons inside. and in the canyons people had built their houses some hundred years ago. now nobody is living there anymore. back on top of the green table plateau i saw a fast flying bird. the elephants said it surely was an eagle. the bird was away very quick. isn't this a fantastic view? look how flat the country is here beneath the mountains. eagle? in the evening we were in a restaurant. look what they had on the menu: "tatanka burger"! mommy, would people really like to eat me? today we observed an old railroad train. first i had to put my ear on the rail to hear the train coming. strange sound, i tell you. and then it arrived ... ... did not stop. so we went on by car. nice view. down there is silverton, a very cute town in the mountains at an elevation of more than 9000 feet. that means thin air. look, the train had arrived here too. then we went to another national park: grand canyon of the gunison. see, the emplem of the national park service show a buffalo. and this is the black canyon. this is us resting on a tree trunk. very deep canyon. this is the gunison river entering the canyon. it got late and we still had to drive some miles today. more in the next days. tatanka loves you mommy!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 12, 2012, 2:24 am	hello mommy. yesterday i was in another national park, canyonlands. it has two very large canyons where green river flow into colorado river. it was so sunny and hot, i needed a rest in the shadow. what is better as a refreshment than a piece of good blackforest cherry cake? this was a very interesting park but! today we visited arches national park. this was amazing!!! it is named after his many rock arches: this is delicate arch, the symbol of utah. they have more than arches: this looks like a group of stone people. and: another arch ... arches, arches arches ... at the end we piled up some stones to mark that we have been here! later in the evening i had a tasty wheat beer with my dinner. bye bye mommy! your tatanka!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 14, 2012, 2:53 pm	how you doin' mommy. after all those rocky national parks i found myself in a big city. salt lake city: it has a very strange building, looks like a cathedral, but it isn't. in salt lake city is the headquarters of the church of jesus christ of the latter-day saints - what a bulky name! and this is their main temple, inaccessible for non-believers ... salt lake city is more: it is the capitol city of the state of utah. we went into the capitol. it is almost a huge hall with staircases. good morning, my name is tatanka, senator tatanka. hey is this an eagle? or what? the mormons can cook a good beer. next day, after breakfast ... we went to the great salt desert ... ... and the great salt lake. the smell of it is beyond words. but it is impossible to drown. the lake has five to six times more salt than the oceans. i have seen one!!!! at the end of this day we went to a small shopping mall. i tried to get some chewing gum. come out you pretty cowards! have i told you that they make a good beer here? see you later! your tatanka!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 16, 2012, 5:25 am	oh mommy, the last three days we have been into the world's most famous national park: the yellowstone park. i have seen lots of lakes, waterfalls, much landscape, many hot springs and real geysers. the hot springs look beautiful but smell awfully! i also have seen many animals, even some real big buffalos! this really was a fantastic visit. your tatanka.
orangesunshine Posted Aug 20, 2012, 4:53 am	hi mommy, after the great yellowstone park we moved eastward. we stopped at the canyon of bighorn river ... ... i first saw the plains (hey it's a life mission of mine!!!) .. ... i nearly got caught by an eagle ... ... nearly ... ... at the end of the day i found myself very happy somewhere in wyoming. bye bye mom, your little happy tatanka!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 20, 2012, 5:16 am	yesterday we left wyoming early in the morning ... ... after visiting this closed gas station in spotted horse ... ... and the devils tower national monument. in south dakota we visited ... ... hey isn't this an eagle? ... ... badlands national park. it has very interesting rock formationes and lies in the middle of ... ... the plains ... in the gift shop i found this book about my ancestor and how he came to the indians and brought them food and warmth. what a nice guy. hey mommy, have i told you ... ... that i have seen the plains? i liked those rocks. and this little trading post. where? in the plains! see you mommy - your tatanka.
orangesunshine Posted Aug 21, 2012, 6:11 am	how you doing, mommy? in the morning we were visiting a national monument at mount rushmore. someone had carved 4 huge faces of u.s. presidents into the rock. you cannot get close to thoses faces. after this visit we left south dakota and entered nebraska. we were driving on long roads through THE PLAINS! this is scotts bluff. 170 years ago the trails to oregon passed this point. then we drove on. and finally reached cheyenne, the capital city of wyoming. in front of the capitol they placed a sculpture of a huge buffalo. and an indian. ouch! i hate flash photography! this is the old railroad station. where we had a fresh glass of beer ... bye bye mommy - your tatanka.
orangesunshine Posted Aug 21, 2012, 6:37 am	well, the last part of our round trip has started this morning. after a good breakfast we left cheyenne and wyoming to head south. back in colorado we visited another national park: the rocky mountains park. first we had to driv up high mountains. here more than 2 miles above sea level they have little glaciers. on top of the mountain (the highest point of our round trip) was a gift shop. look what book i found. i don't know the answer of its question. but i know, i haven't done it! then we drove back down. at this lake we made a break. later we came back to denver. we made a little walk through the city, rested in the capitol gardens. we even made a walk on the broadway. what a pitty, no musical theatres at all! finally we reached the place where our tour began three weeks ago. i asked the elephants what to do now. they said they would accompany me home back to good old germany. it's good to know there are buddies you can count on. mommy, your tatanka will soon be home again! cheerio!
orangesunshine Posted Aug 25, 2012, 6:22 pm	hello mommy! it's me again! the last three days have been very special. we have been in NEW YORK!!! i have brought some photos with me. unfortunately they have lost their order somehow. me in front of rockefeller center me on THE BROADWAY in front of a musical theater the new world trade center on the broadway again flat iron building inside grand cntral station broadway!!! coffe break with friends brooklyn bridge chrysler building view from the empire state building through the morning mist a gift shop on broadway metropolitan opera strawberry fields and dakota building wall street broadway wall street lady liberty view from rockefeller center in central park hotel room window times square this really was an exciting journey through the u.s.a. - i have fulfilled nearly all of my life missions. here i had to say good bye to my new friends. it is time to travel further. the elephants invited me to visit them in berlin. of course i will! now i am tired. your tatanka
smaug Posted Sep 10, 2012, 5:24 am	Hi Mum, After saying goodbye to my great friends blue elephants, I decided to explore a bit more North America. My instinct was telling me to go west, so I decided to cross the Rocky Mountains and reach the Pacific Ocean . But for some reason I just couldn’t find my way out of the mountains. I saw wonderful valleys... and even glaciers,... ...but I kept feeling like I was going in circles . Today I was getting ready for another night in the wild (luckily I brought some handy tool to help me even when far away from civilization ),... ... when I saw an eagle approaching my camp. As my last meeting with an eagle had been a bit scary, I decided to keep a respectful distance and held some sort of defensive weapon . He introduced himself as a Canadian eagle and since I told him that I thought I was in the US, he showed me his maple leaf tattoo to convince me. As he asked me if I was lost, I told him that I wasn’t lost, I am a travelling toyvoyager (I love that line ), but, at present, I was a bit unsure of my whereabouts . He said that I was in the middle of the Canadian Rockies and that he knew someone who might help me, so he flew away telling me to stay here and that he was going to be back tomorrow. Hopefully he won’t come back with a full convocation of eagles to hunt me down .
smaug Posted Sep 17, 2012, 3:44 am	Hi Mum, Today I was enjoying the sun and wondering if that eagle was going to come back... ...when I saw two eagles flying down to me. And guess what, one of them was my friend sammino ! He told me that I was going to spend some more time with him in Calgary , so we said goodbye to the other eagle and started walking home. I asked if we were going to fly, but sammino politely told me that despite eagles (and bald eagles in particular ) being the mightiest of all birds, they are not long haul cargo planes , so we were going to walk most of the way.
smaug Posted Oct 1, 2012, 4:03 am	Hi Mum, Today was another lovely sunny day, so we went hiking around Lake Louise . As we emerged from the trees we had the first glimpse of Mount Richardson, our destination today,... ...and of Mt Temple in the opposite direction. Later on we reached the lovely Hidden Lake . As we gained elevation we had a better view of Hidden Lake, not so hidden from up here . We could also see Kicking Horse Pass... ...and the summit of Mount Richardson, getting closer and closer. Eventually we reached the top from where we had a great view of Merlin Lake and valley (but no round table knights ),... ...of Mount Hector in the north, ... ...and of Lake Louise and Mt Victoria . We could also see the backbowls of the Lake Louise ski area. According to sammino, the area just behind my head has the best runs in the whole western Canada and it’s called, of course, Eagle Ridge . On the way back we stopped to take a final photo of Mount Richardson from Hidden Lake and then headed back to the car .
smaug Posted Oct 11, 2012, 4:30 am	Hi Mum, Today we went hiking again around Lake Louise. Our destination was a nice little lake called O’Brien Lake . As we were feeling energetic we went up the slope at the far end of the lake and found a couple of lovely little tarns . We asked sammino if we were going all the way up the valley  but he explained that, despite the blue sky, the forecast called for rain and we didn’t want to get soaked higher up the valley...and guessed what, we were not even halfway back to the car when it started pouring down .
smaug Posted Oct 15, 2012, 5:07 am	Hi Mum, Old man winter might arrive at any time so sammino said that we have to make the most of every decent day while we still can and this morning we found ourselves at a trailhead near Lake Minnewanka at a very ungodly hour of the day. So after taking that photo we decided to get another short nap (just over a couple of hours ) and woke up when it was time to leave the trail and follow this gully. As it turned out, the gully was way steeper than we first thought... ...but once we reached the top we could see the lake again, this time far below us . From here we could see two peaks that seemed easily accessible and asked sammino which one was our destination... ...but he told us that we were actually aiming for the bigger one covered by the clouds . So we started walking again and after a few more long hours we reached the top and the clouds had been kind enough to open up for us . Of course, it was freezing cold and the wind was almost gale-force , but the view was incredible . We could see Banff,... ...Lake Minnewanka,... ...the Ghost River valley and even the prairies in the distance ,... ...and some very dark and concerning clouds in the north. So we decided not to linger and quickly headed back. We reached the shore of the lake just when the sun was setting over the trees in their fall colours ... ...and by the time smaug brought us back to the car, the night had fallen and we were deeply asleep . What a day !
smaug Posted Nov 5, 2012, 1:09 am	Hi Mum, The weather is turning cold at an alarming speed , but today we were very brave and decided to go hiking anyway. Early in the morning it was a bit dark, but we still had a good view of the Three Sisters... ...and of Mt. Lougheed and Mt. Allan in the south . As we gained elevation we started seeing Canmore... ...and the Bow River below us . Once we reached the summit the wind strong enough to chill us to the bone . Still,  before strategically retreating to more a sheltered spot along the summit ridge , we managed to take a few shots. We could see almost as far as Banff in the west... ...and countless peaks in the south . On the opposite side we had a great view over more piles of rubble ... ...and we could even see the prairies in the east .
smaug Posted Nov 5, 2012, 1:35 am	Hi Mum, smaug has been a bit too busy at work over the last couple of weeks and has almost abandoned us , but over the last few days we entertained ourselves watching the first snowfall of the season . Hopefully we’ll soon be out there playing snowballs battles .
smaug Posted Nov 14, 2012, 5:23 am	Hi Mum, It did snow most of the week, but just in the time for the weekend the weather was kind enough to get better and we were able to go for a short walk on the mountains . This side of the ridge was well exposed to the sun and the wind so the snow had already mostly gone . On the way we stopped to check where we were on this map. Eventually we reached the nicest panoramic point of the day from where we enjoyed the view of the Rockies in the west . As we crossed to the opposite side of the ridge, it got colder and the trail was still covered with snow...a good time to go back in the backpack and find something to eat .
smaug Posted Nov 18, 2012, 4:49 am	Hi Mum, It’s been snowing again this week, and quite a bit, so when today we went to the mountains we were not surprised to walk between trees loaded with snow . And the mountains in the distance were clad in white too . As we moved on, it looked like the snow was getting even deeper making progress slower and slower... ...so we decided to rest a bit under this tree . Eventually we reached the summit . From there we could see the prairies,... ...the ridge that we just climbed... ...and beautiful mountains covered by snow in every other direction .
smaug Posted Nov 26, 2012, 4:00 am	Hi Mum, After a few freezing, very freezing days, today it was suddenly well above zero degrees, so we made the most of it and headed to the mountains . After a bit of walking in the trees we reached our first viewpoint from where we could see Powderface Ridge (where we were just less than a week ago),... ...Nihahi Ridge... ...and the Rockies in the west . With another little effort we reached the summit. From there we could see the Elbow Valley making its way north-east,... ...the prairies in the distance,... ...and the Big Elbow and Little Elbow valleys . Near the top we found this impressive cairn . As it happens nobody told the wind that it was supposed to be a warm day and up there it was actual freezing cold . So when sammino suggested that the cairn was probably taller than smaug, we took his word for that and, rather than engaging in a proper survey to find out if he was right, we quickly found some shelter .
smaug Posted Dec 3, 2012, 3:55 am	Hi Mum, Today the other TVs behaved a bit strangely as I couldn’t understand why they blindfolded me ... ...but when they let me see what was going on, it was a great surprise: they had arranged a birthday party for me ...and there was even a delicious cake .
smaug Posted Dec 3, 2012, 4:11 am	Hi Mum, Today we got excited as a smaug came home with a little package saying it was for us . And as we opened it, a nice turtle came out of it: Pepita , one of smaug’s TVs who has come back to spend some time at home. She showed us the lovely card that her last host gave her and then we spent the night up listening about her travels , it’s been over two years since she last was in Canada .
smaug Posted Dec 9, 2012, 4:05 am	Hi Mum, We got even more snow today ! So we went for a walk around the river where all the trees were covered in frost . Later we found this nice trail... ...that took us close to the Peace Bridge, where the river was mostly frozen . On the other side of the bridge there was open water. sammino explained to us that it has not been cold enough yet for everything to be frozen solid . At that point we decided that maybe the river wasn’t going to freeze completely very soon, but we were about to , so we quickly went home where we enjoyed the afternoon looking at the snowfall from the window and sipping a delicious cup of hot chocolate .
smaug Posted Dec 11, 2012, 4:39 am	Hi Mum, We were getting a bit bored of being stuck in town by the weather , so today we convinced smaug to take us to the mountains even if it was freezing cold . We walked for some time at the bottom of a nice and snow covered little valley . Even the map seemed to be a bit frozen . Eventually we reached a nice viewpoint . From there it looked like the sun was trying to show up, but the wind was turning my nose in a block of ice, so I quickly went back in smaug’s pack and stayed safely in there until we made it back to the car .
smaug Posted Dec 16, 2012, 7:32 pm	Hi Mum, Great news, I’m going on holiday ! smaug and sammino have been very cagey when I enquired about our destination , but, based on previous experience, I think I have an idea of where we might be going .
smaug Posted Dec 23, 2012, 3:44 pm	Hi Mum, Guess what, as I expected , I am back in Italy ! And it’s just like being still in Canada, there’s snow everywhere . As soon as we arrived we met some of the local residents...a group of fairly imposing fellas, but they are very friendly . Anyway, now I urgently need some sleep , so I’ll explore around tomorrow.
smaug Posted Dec 23, 2012, 4:23 pm	Hi Mum, We didn’t have much time to explore around as today we went skiing . First, of course, we got a proper sugar-loaded breakfast . Later we drove to Selva di Valgardena where we started a round trip that took us over 4 passes and into 4 different valleys . We had some lovely views of the small valleys carving their way into the Sella Group . From one of the gondolas that we used during the day we could see the Saslong Group... ...and the mountains lining Val di Fassa. As we reached Passo Pordoi we had an even better view of the Saslong... ...and on the opposite side we could see as far as the Tofane Group, looming over Cortina d’Ampezzo . All the way we had the imposing walls of the Sella Group looking down at us. Later we reached Passo di Campolongo, where we entered Val Badia. Eventually we reached the last pass of the day, Passo Gardena. From here the view opened on to the west... ...and eventually we saw the other side of our friend Saslong . And from here it was all downhill back to Selva, what a day !
smaug Posted Dec 24, 2012, 2:35 pm	Hi Mum, A few more guests arrived here today: Orpheus, Landroval and Sigfrido have come home to spend the holidays with us . And they even brought along some delicious TV-made sweets , so we spent the evening chatting and, mostly, eating .
smaug Posted Dec 24, 2012, 3:14 pm	Hi Mum, Today we went for a short hike on a mountain just next to Trento . After trudging along a narrow and shadowed trail we reached a nice ridge from where we had a great view of the valley both north... ...and south. Some passage along the trail looks a bit scary , but fun too . Eventually we reached the top, from where the view to the north opened up a bit more. And we could see the whole Trento just below us .
smaug Posted Jan 14, 2013, 2:13 am	Hi Mum, Tonight there was a lot of action going on under the Christmas tree, but our attention was mostly focused on how to open the pandoro . It was a bit of work ... ...but we eventually managed to get our well deserved slice . Merry Christmas !!
smaug Posted Jan 14, 2013, 2:40 am	Hi Mum, Today is our last day in Italy so we went for a short walk on the side of the valley next to town . The path was a bit steep so we occasionally stopped to get some rest. Eventually, just before the sun started setting, we reached a nice spot from where we could see the mountains to the north... ...and east of town .
smaug Posted Jan 14, 2013, 3:12 am	Hi Mum, Today, in the wee hour of the morning sammino waked us all up and said it was time for travelling again so we said goodbye to all our friends here in Italy . Eventually it was really time to leave and sammino showed up with what was supposed to be the bus to the airport . It seemed a bit undersized, but somehow we all managed to "comfortably" cram ourselves on it, it could be a long trip to the airport .
smaug Posted Jan 14, 2013, 3:42 am	Hi Mum, I’m back on native German soil ! Well, only for a stop on the way to Canada . The stop is actually a bit of a long one, so smaug told us to watch the planes and behave like well mannered TVs . Actually watching planes turned out to be freaking boring, so we decided to spend the time in a slightly more entertaining fashion by sampling some local delicacies .
smaug Posted Jan 14, 2013, 4:01 am	Hi Mum, I’m back in Canada ! We arrived just before midnight in time to celebrate the new year . Actually we were so tired after the trip, that we quickly took advantage of what we picked up at the duty free and went straight to bed .
smaug Posted Jan 23, 2013, 4:09 am	Hi Mum, Happy New Year!! This morning we were so jet-lagged that we were up very early in the morning , so smaug decided to take us for a quick trip to the mountains . It was a bit dark when we started walking, but soon we saw that the day was going to be gorgeous . And our destination was already basking in the early morning sun. Eventually we reached the summit where, with not a single cloud in the sky, the view was great . We could see the prairies almost all the way to Calgary... ...and the Rockies on the other side .
smaug Posted Feb 18, 2013, 1:05 am	Hi Mum, Today we all gathered together to say goodbye and wish a safe trip to Chino who is travelling south to the US .
smaug Posted Mar 4, 2013, 4:39 am	Hi Mum, Today it was unusually warm, so, after spending weeks stuck at home tending smaug’s ankle , we convinced him to put on some very stiff boots and try to take us out for an easy walk. The weather was quite cloudy, but the sun was kind enough to suddenly show up when we reached a nice viewpoint . Later we spent some time under this imposing ridge... ...and had to cross the stream down in this large valley . For some reason, during the crossing over the half broken ice, smaug used adjectives that I don’t feel comfortable repeating in my blog . Eventually we reached the back side of Prairie Mt and we knew that we made it almost all the way back to the car .
smaug Posted Mar 11, 2013, 2:40 am	Hi Mum, Today we all gathered together to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Landroval who is travelling to his next host .
smaug Posted Mar 11, 2013, 3:56 am	Hi Mum, This morning we got a big snowfall , so, as soon as the snow started falling, smaug took us out to take some photos along the river . The snowfall was so heavy that from the north bank you couldn’t even see downtown . Later we crossed the river to take a look at the Peace Bridge... ...and noticed that there was a narrow channel of open water. Even from here downtown was invisible. Eventually we started feeling a bit cold, so we decided to watch the snowfall from a location where we could both stay warm and chit chat at pleasure ...back home on the window sill, of course .
smaug Posted Mar 25, 2013, 2:07 am	Hi Mum, Today we said goodbye and wished a safe journey to Shooga who is travelling to her next host in the US .
smaug Posted Apr 3, 2013, 5:17 am	Hi Mum, Today eventually smaug was fit enough to take us out again , so we went hiking on the shore of Lake Minewanka. Soon after leaving the car we had some lovely views of the frozen (very frozen ) lake . On the way we crossed this little canyon, also packed with ice . Then we dived into the trees, until we reached another nice viewpoint . Later we found this very concerning sign about grizzly bears , but sammino said that they are still mostly asleep, so there were few chances of meeting one . Luckily we met no bear, but just reached a slightly higher viewpoint from where we took a few more shots of the lake before the clouds moved in and covered the sun for the rest of the day .
smaug Posted Apr 18, 2013, 5:05 am	Hi Mum, Happy Easter! Look at that, we got a TV-sized chocolate egg ! I have a feeling that sammino was hoping for something bigger , but it was big enough for me .
smaug Posted Apr 25, 2013, 4:55 am	Hi Mum, Spring has arrived here in Calgary too, or so they say. We didn’t really notice as, again, this morning we woke up to be greeted by the snow falling in large flakes . In order to kill time we decided to watch a bit of the Formula 1 grand prix . These days smaug is busy studying, so later we decided to check out one of his books. It was so interesting ... ...that even spending the day watching more snow falling down seemed a much more exciting idea .
smaug Posted Apr 28, 2013, 5:46 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug took us out for a short trip . We went to Barrier Lake, that was still frozen solid . From the lake we could see the ridge that we wanted to reach . As we actually reached the ridge, the clouds came down low and it started snowing a bit, so we could just about get a faint view of the lake under the clouds. Smaug decided to go back using a different route in a nice little valley sheltered from the wind, but unfortunately, not sheltered from the snow at all. The snowfall became fairly heavy and us little TVs were getting covered within seconds each time we ventured out of smaug backpack ... ...so we just decided to stay safely in the backpack until we were back at the car .
smaug Posted May 6, 2013, 3:50 am	Hi Mum, Today we tried once again if we can have a walk in the mountains without getting buried by the snow . The first view was encouraging and we could even see some blue sky ... ...but that storm over the Nakiska ski area was a bit concerning. As we walked up we saw Barrier Lake... ...and a nice mountain in front of us . We could also see the ridge that we were supposed to follow...with some very scary clouds in the distance. Slowly, despite some attempt from the sun to show up, the clouds got closer... ...until it started snowing , again, and we decided to take cover after taking a last photo.
smaug Posted May 13, 2013, 4:13 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, we had a sunny week end ! And some of the snow was gone from the lower sections of some trails. Well, the lack of snow didn’t last long and soon we were trudging along a very snowy trail . But when we reached the top, for once the view wasn't only of grey clouds . We could almost even see Calgary between the hilltops behind us .
smaug Posted May 19, 2013, 4:55 am	Hi Mum, It was sunny and warm again today , so we went back to Lake Minnewanka. Remember how when we were here last time everything was completely frozen? Well, it isn’t anymore . This time, with a bit less snow on the trail, we managed to reach Aylmer Lookout .  From up there we had a great view over the lake and we saw that there was still some ice on the surface. Those rock walls were shedding snow in the form of avalanches (very, noisy avalanches) the whole day . Those foundations are all that is left of the old fire lookout. Ant that one is Mt. Aylmer, that we climbed last year . One the way back we stopped to take a few more photos of the lake .
smaug Posted May 26, 2013, 4:33 am	Hi Mum, It has been raining the whole weekend, but luckily this is a long weekend and the weather was nice enough to improve just about enough to allow us to go for a short hike today . The views were, as always , great... ...although some very dark clouds were lingering right in the direction we wanted to take . Later on, the view improved further. Still, those clouds were getting closer... ...so we decided to relax and enjoy a lovely bar of chocolate before the rain could reach and drench us .
smaug Posted May 26, 2013, 5:02 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug came back home with a very interesting parcel.... ...that turned out to be hiding a new guest, ThomasHH, a nice giraffe from Germany like me . A very nice new guest indeed , he brought with him a lovely postcard and some delicious sweets . After tasting the sweets , we showed him the view from the window and the heavy rainfall outside . We explained that rain was actually very exciting as only a few weeks ago this would have been a blizzard .
smaug Posted Jun 4, 2013, 4:32 am	Hi Mum, The weather is a bit wet (to say the least) here these days , but today smaug decided to take us hiking anyway . Soon after leaving the car we had a lovely view over this meander of the Elbow river... ...and over the valley heading west. As we gained elevation we could see that the Rockies were covered in clouds . Moving on the rain started turning into snow ... ...and we ended up being right in the clouds. For some reason smaug did not consider either of these developments as an improvement of the weather conditions and decided to do an about-turn and go back to the car...where we arrived thoroughly drenched.
smaug Posted Jun 10, 2013, 4:00 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug took us out for a bike ride to Highwood pass, the highest paved road in Canada . Until we reached the pass smaug was not really inclined to take photos of us, but once at the top we had great views over Kananaskis Valley (from where we just came)... ...and of the area around the pass . The greatest part of the day was that this section of highway was still under winter closure to motorized vehicles, so there were only bikes around. As we were feeling bold we decided to dive on the other side of the pass into the Highwood River Valley. There we enjoyed more lovely views . Eventually it was time to turn around, face the headwind and head back to the pass. For some reason, during the climb, smaug became grumpier and grumpier , so we deemed safe to keep a low profile until we were back to the car.
smaug Posted Jun 20, 2013, 5:35 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug brought home a suspicious parcel  . ...that happened to hold a new guest inside, Mr. Blubber ! Of course, we wanted to hear everything about his recent travels, so we spent the night up chatting .
smaug Posted Jun 23, 2013, 9:31 pm	Hi Mum, Today we celebrated ThomasHH’s birthday . smaug has disappeared for days for work, but sammino had everything under control . First we sang Happy Birthday and feasted on a lovely cake . Later we kept the celebrations going by enjoying some lively drinks in this funny shot glasses made of ice . The challenge was to drink as much as possible before the glasses melted out , but before they were totally useless we were all very cheerful and a bit weak on the legs . After a nap we recovered enough to surf internet for the rest of the afternoon .
smaug Posted Jun 23, 2013, 9:55 pm	Hi Mum, Exciting news! smaug’s back , it’s the first day of summer and Calgary is in state of emergency . It has rained for over two days over the mountains west of the city and last night the rivers has started going all over the place. Most of downtown is under water... ...and almost 100,000 people are being evacuated in town alone . We were wondering if we were going to be swept away by the raging waters , but smaug said that we are reasonably safe up here .
smaug Posted Jul 12, 2013, 5:31 am	Hi Mum, This weekend the weather was gorgeous, perfect for going to the mountains . Too bad that most of the roads and almost all trails were still closed after the flooding , so smaug took us out for a bike ride south of Calgary . On the way we could barely see the mountains in the distance... ...and the rolling foothills on the opposite side. From another hill the view was even better . On the way back we had a glimpse of downtown Calgary (just beside my head ). Later smaug decided to rest a bit and we stretched our legs running in the fields , but we had to keep smaug’s rest short as I was a bit too excited and accidentally nudged into a couple of sheds . And guess what, just before we reached the car we even met a herd of buffalos !! As a fence was preventing me from reaching them , I asked sammino what kind of uncivilized people were keeping my friends tatankas behind a fence and he explained that it was just a precaution to prevent them from accidentally knocking down all the buildings in the province .
smaug Posted Jul 21, 2013, 8:16 pm	Hi Mum As the roads are becoming passable again, today we went for a hike up the mountains . First we reached Baldy Pass, where the view over the foothills was very nice. From there we could also see our destination for the day, Midnight Peak....hopefully it won’t take until midnight to get there . It was actually a fairly quick ascent, and from the top we could see Baldy Pass far below us,... ...the Nakiska ski area... ...and more mountains both north and south. That storm was a bit concerning , but luckily it steered clear of us. Before leaving we all signed the summit register . On the way back to the car we took a closer look to the damage caused by the flood. There wasn’t much trail left, but finding a way around the erosion channels and sinkholes was easy enough.
smaug Posted Jul 28, 2013, 5:19 am	Hi Mum, Once again, today we went to the mountains, near Banff this time. We gained elevation very quickly and had a lovely view over the Bow Valley . That one is the valley that leads to Sunshine Village. The road there is still closed to flood damage . Later we reached a higher point from where we saw the Bow Valley heading north... ...and Castle Mountain in the background. A bit further on we stopped to rest at this lovely little meadow forming a balcony over the valley below . The last push to the summit seemed a bit challenging... ...but, somehow, smaug managed to get us to the top. The view from there was great as we were surrounded by mountains in all directions . It was also freezing cold , so we didn’t linger and quickly retreated down to warmer elevations .
smaug Posted Jul 29, 2013, 4:29 am	Hi Mum, Today a new friend arrived in Calgary . Smaug came back home with a very interesting parcel... ...and when we opened it a TV came out of it, Benno, a nice bear from Germany . Of course we wanted to know everything about his recent trips, so we spent the evening chatting .
smaug Posted Aug 5, 2013, 4:59 am	Hi Mum, Today we managed again to go for a nice hike . The start of the day was a bit boring, but eventually we reached a ridge that should have had a nice view. Well, the view of those clouds wasn’t really very promising . Funny enough, on the other side we could see the sun shining in the Bow Valley . Still, we pressed on and, according to smaug, we reached the summit. Not that we could really tell, as the view was consistently like this for well over one hour . On the way back we decided to make up for the disappointing sightseeing by feasting on smaug’s chocolate supply . And, guess what? Eating chocolate actually helped as the clouds opened up enough to let us see Mt. Lougheed for a bit . Before reaching the car we stopped to see some more of the damage caused by the floods in June. This used to be a little harmless-looking creek. Now it looked like the Urubamba had flowed here .
smaug Posted Aug 18, 2013, 8:00 pm	Hi Mum, The weather was, again, not so good, but good enough for a short hike in the morning. From  the parking lot, things actually looked very promising as we took a look at Barrier Lake . As we moved up we could see Kananaskis Valley.... ...and again Barrier Lake from further up. Some stretches were quite steep ... ...but slowly we got closed to the summit. Just before reaching the top we stopped to take a few more photos of Kananaskis Valley,... ...the mountains in the west,... ...and of the prairies in the east . It was actually good that we took those photos, since as soon as we reached the summit the clouds moved in and visibility was a bit reduced . So we quickly turned around and managed to get back to the car before a big a downpour.
smaug Posted Aug 28, 2013, 4:39 am	Hi Mum, Today, even if the weather wasn’t really that good we went for a bike ride at Bow Pass, along the Icefields Parkway. In between showers , we managed to take a few photos. That is Observation Peak from Bow Pass . While this is Bow Lake with Bow Glacier and falls (a lot of things are Bow something around here ) in the distance. Here, in between trees, you can see Hector Lake with the peaks along the continental divide in the background. And that’s it for photos of the day. Apparently the camera enjoys being wet even less than we do .
smaug Posted Sep 1, 2013, 1:07 am	Hi Mum, Today a new friend arrived . smaug came back with an interesting envelope... ...and when we managed to open it a new TV came out, Shakespeare, a nice turtle from Germany . He showed us the delicious sweets and lovely card that he brought from Switzerland . O fcourse we spent the evening chatting...and eating .
smaug Posted Sep 2, 2013, 4:28 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug had a day off, so, despite another flimsy weather forecast , we went out for a hike . We started from Barrier Lake... ...from where we could see our destination at the top of that ridge. Once we got there we had a great view over the east side of Barrier Lake,... ...Mt Baldy... ...and Kananaskis Valley . We decided to go further up and reach the fire lookout. From there we could see the Bow Valley where heavy rain was heading straight for us . We took the hint, hastily retreated and managed to get back to the car without getting too drenched .
smaug Posted Sep 3, 2013, 12:47 am	Hi Mum, Today, for once, the weather was gorgeous, so we had all we needed for a good trip to the mountains. After some times in the trees the view opened up over the Elbow River valley . Further up we could see the prairies in the distance. On the way, we boosted our sugars with some chocolate . Eventually we reached our destination, a gorgeous ridge, with an even more gorgeous view over the Rockies in almost every direction .
smaug Posted Sep 7, 2013, 4:30 am	Hi Mum, Today we went exploring a trail in Yoho National Park . After a bit of walking in the trees we emerged on a ridge with a great view of Takakkaw falls ... ...and of the peaks on the east side of Yoho Valley. As we moved up we realized that we were surrounded by majestic peaks and glaciers . One of those glaciers was looming almost directly above our heads for most of the way . We kept going until the view opened up over the north side of the valley . We also noticed the clouds building up in the south, so we decided to head back and for once we made it to the car without getting drenched .
smaug Posted Sep 16, 2013, 4:37 am	Hi Mum, Today we said goodbye and wished a safe journey to ThomasHH who will take a plane to Japan tomorrow .
smaug Posted Sep 22, 2013, 6:18 am	Hi Mum, Today we went for another hike, this time in the area of Highwood Pass, where the road has been closed for more than two months after, guess what, all the floods in early summer. We walked a bit in this lovely meadow ... ...before the trail dived under the tress as usual . After a bit the view improved... ...and improved even further as we came out of the trees . Eventually we reached Grizzly Col, from where we had a lovely view of the valley heading south. From here we could also see Mt. Tyrwhitt, that would was our planned destination. Unfortunately a few gentlemen were already hiking up the mountain and clumsily dislodging tons of rocks in the process, and smaug decided that he didn’t fancy playing the target, so we just enjoyed a bit more the sun before heading back to the car.
smaug Posted Oct 7, 2013, 11:15 pm	Hi Mum, It’s very boring here this days . smaug is always out of town for work and comes back very occasionally just to make sure we have enough water and food . Today he actually came home with a surprise too, a nice little package. When we opened it a TV popped out of it: Krystal, one of smaug’s TVs who has come home to spend some time with us. And she brought some delicious sweets with her . At least we’ll have some new story to hear to help us killing time .
smaug Posted Oct 28, 2013, 1:38 am	Hi Mum, Yesterday smaug made one of his rare apparitions and today we went to the mountains . One thing that has change since the last time we were out and about is the main colour of the landscape as we could see from the parking lot that there is way more white around these days . After walking along a frigid and shadowy trail for some time we eventually had a nice view of the top of the valley with the Rockwall glittering in the morning sun . The Rockwall is an almost completely uninterrupted 35 km long and 900 m high rock face and it is, needless to say ,  spectacularly impressive. As we approached Floe Lake we could see a bit more of it . Floe Lake is nested under the rock and does not see much sun at this time of the year... ...but the reflection in the still water was almost as nice as the mountains around it . On the way back we had a chance to take a better look at Floe Creek valley... ...and at some of the other snow-covered peaks around it .
smaug Posted Nov 3, 2013, 1:26 am	Hi Mum, Today we were up to the mountains again . As usual it was some time before we enjoyed a bit of a view, but as soon as we were out of the trees we could see the mountains around the Little Elbow river... ...and Nihahi Ridge. From a bit further up we could see the Elbow river valley disappearing in the mountains too . As it happens, we were already high enough for our trail to be covered in snow . But, with a little extra effort, we eventually reached a lovely (and incredibly windy ) viewpoint from where we could see mountains in one direction,... ...foothills in the other,... ...and even the prairies in the east .
smaug Posted Nov 4, 2013, 4:37 am	Hi Mum, Today we gathered to say goodbye to Benno who is travelling to his next host tomorrow .
smaug Posted Nov 24, 2013, 5:39 am	Hi Mum, Once again we are all alone at home. Not that it makes much difference as the weather is very wintery most of the time . The fact that sammino insists in leaving the window open because Landroval could be home any time does not really help . We tried to no avail to convince him that Landroval sure was not going to have any problem in using the door bell, so the window is still open. So, in a freezing house, and with food supplies running out, today we decided to decide who was going to have the last piece of the last chocolate bar with a card game. With so much at stake, emotions were running high and arguments about alleged cheating were endless. We were so busy yelling at each other, that we almost didn’t notice that someone had entered the house and was eating out all the chocolate left . As it happens it was Landroval and he brought back lot of presents, including tons of chocolate with him . It seems we are not going to starve for a few more days .
smaug Posted Nov 24, 2013, 5:34 pm	Hi Mum, Today we gathered to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Mr. Blubber who is ready to travel back home .
smaug Posted Dec 1, 2013, 11:41 pm	Hi Mum, Happy Birthday to me ! Today the other TVs surprised me by singing happy birthday, and they even had a cake ready !
smaug Posted Dec 2, 2013, 12:01 am	Hi Mum, Today the weather wasn’t very good, but we were tired to be home and smaug was tired of working, so it was quite easy to convince him to go for a short hike near Calgary . Despite the dark clouds it was kind of warm (Canadian warm , of course) and we had a nice view of the mountains .
smaug Posted Dec 26, 2013, 3:48 pm	Hi Mum, Today smaug showed up with a parcel and said it was likely to be of interest to us . Of course, we started working to open it and when we succeeded, a TV popped out, Pepita one of smaug’s TV coming home for the holidays !  And she brought some delicious sweets and a beautiful card with her. Of course we wanted to know everything about her recent trips and spent the night up chatting .
smaug Posted Dec 26, 2013, 4:17 pm	Hi Mum, We are on holiday ! Yesterday sammino told us to jump in the luggage... ...and today, very late at night, after an horrendously long and boring trip, we found ourselves in Italy ! It was a bit late for exploring around, so we got a delicious midnight snack and went straight to bed .
smaug Posted Dec 26, 2013, 5:10 pm	Hi Mum, Today we went for our first trip on a small mountain next to the town . Some sections of the trail were a bit craggy, but you could get glimpses of the valley below. Later we found a summit log . That was a bit strange as we were not even remotely close to the summit, but, of course, we signed it anyway . A bit further up the trail offered some nice views over Trento . Then things took quite a steep turn . Eventually, we reached the summit. There was no summit log here , but we had stunning views over Trento and the Val d’Adige . The place was so nice that we decided to enjoy the sun a bit and rest on this bench . On the way back we crossed a ridge to take a look at the valley on the opposite side of the mountain ... ...before ducking back under the trees on the way home, where, hopefully, a nice hot chocolate was waiting for us .
smaug Posted Dec 27, 2013, 9:22 pm	Hi Mum, Today we went for a ski trip on the dolomites . We went over 4 passes around a big mountain group. Over the first pass smaug was a bit distracted so we have no photographic evidence of being there, but once we crossed Passo Pordoi we could see the Tofane Group in the distance . Later we crossed Passo di Campolongo and entered Alta Badia. The last pass we crossed is called Passo Gardena. From there we could see the Saslong... ...and more mountains in the west . We also noticed the sky was getting cloudy and sammino recommended that we made the most of every single ray of sun still visible as, according to the weather forecast, we were not likely to see any more of it for a good week .
smaug Posted Dec 28, 2013, 2:11 pm	Hi Mum, As the weather forecast predicted, it turned rainy and we are spending most of the time chit-chatting. But today sammino abandoned us for a few hours and when he came back he was with two new friends who came home for Christmas:  Orpheus and Sigfrido . I guess there will be even more chatting and storytelling in the next few days .
smaug Posted Dec 28, 2013, 2:50 pm	Hi Mum, Merry Christmas ! Here in Trento we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so this evening there was a lot of fumbling with presents under the tree. Taking advantage of the fatc that everybody was distracted, we decided to help ourselves with the Pandoro ahead of everybody else . Getting it out was hard work. But eventually we managed to access it and ... ...cut a delicious slice just for us !
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2014, 7:47 pm	Hi Mum, After a few very relaxing days, mostly due to endless rain , it is time for us to get ready to leave, so today we said goodbye to all the locals who kept us company over the last couple of weeks . We also said good bye to Sigfrido, Pepita and Orpheus who will hang around a bit longer .
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2014, 8:21 pm	Hi Mum, This morning, a bit too early morning as far as I am concerned , we went to the airport, where we explored a bit around . Since Sigfrido, Orpheus and Pepita had decided to accompany us, we had a final round of farewells before going through the security checks .
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2014, 8:42 pm	Hi Mum, Guess what, I spent a few hours on home German soil ! I even tried to wave at you from the plane window while we were doing some loops around Frankfurt , but it was a bit cloudy and I am not sure where I was waving to , so you probably didn’t see me. Anyway, on the way back to Canada we had a bit of a long layover in Frankfurt, so we took the chance to have a look at some of the planes... ...and, most important, to find something yummy to fill our bellies .
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2014, 8:54 pm	Hi Mum, We are back in Canada ! After some disappointing delays, we eventually arrived in Calgary in wee hours of the morning. As we were a bit too tired to do anything else, we quickly munched on some of the delicious things that we collected on way and headed straight to bed .
smaug Posted Jan 20, 2014, 1:40 am	Hi Mum, Happy new Year ! Today we were still a bit jet lagged and inevitably we were up very early in the morning , so we convinced smaug to go for a morning hike. After leaving the car we quickly got to a nice view spot over the Elbow River. As we gained elevation the sky got brighter and we started seeing the Rockies in the west . Eventually we reached the summit where the wind was freezing cold, but the view was great . We could almost even see Calgary. Before leaving for (hopefully) some warmer location , we took a final customary photo with the summit cairn.
smaug Posted Jan 20, 2014, 1:57 am	Hi Mum, Today we decided that we wanted to go outdoor , but, after a quick check of the weather... ...we decided that I nice day indoor was probably a better idea . Hopefully it’s going to get warmer sometime soon .
smaug Posted Feb 2, 2014, 6:49 pm	Hi Mum, Today smaug was being lazy, as usual , but even if the weather wasn’t that great we convinced him to go for a hike near Calgary. Most of the way we were on a nice snow covered trail in the trees . At one point the view opened up a bit, but the clouds didn’t allow to take in much of the landscape. As we moved on and gained elevation, we noticed snowflakes falling around us and quickly they turned almost into a blizzard . Eventually we reached the top of the trail where usually there is a wonderful view of the Rockies . Apparently today we were not going to enjoy it as all we could see were clouds and snow , so we quickly turned around and hastily made it back to the warmth of the car .
smaug Posted Mar 3, 2014, 3:23 am	Hi Mum, This weekend, again, temperatures were low enough to discourage smaug from engaging in any significant outdoor activity , but at least we managed to convince him to take us out for a walk along the river . Lesser beings would have quailed at the sight of what was waiting for us, but not, of course, a seasoned toyvoyager . So we headed out and reached a point where the river is moving too fast to freeze even with this cold . As a result, the open water is creating a bit of a fog. Further downstream the river slows down and it was frozen solid. Even, under the Peace Bridge there was no visible sign of open water. At this point we decided that, rather than visiting downtown, it was wise to head straight home and deal with the first few signs of frostbite .
smaug Posted Mar 24, 2014, 3:09 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug came home with a parcel for us TVs, which got us very excited . As we managed to open it a new guest popped out, Lotta, a nice sheep who travelled all the way from Australia . And she brought some lovely Aussie sweets with her . Of course, a late night of travel chatting followed .
smaug Posted Mar 31, 2014, 3:11 am	Hi Mum, We are in spring ! Not that we really noticed, as it has been relentlessly snowing over the last few days . But today it was sunny enough to try going for a quick trip to the mountains . The trees were covered with nice fresh snow... ...so we decided to stop playing into one of them . Sometimes a nice viewed opened up along the trail. Eventually we reached the highest point of our hike. We were thinking to reach the top of that ridge,... ...but looking west we noticed the it was probably snowing heavy over the mountains and it looked like the storm was coming towards us . With temperatures deep in the minus teens, we were not really keen on having to deal with a blizzard too , so we urged smaug to turn around and walk fast back to the car.
smaug Posted Apr 21, 2014, 2:13 am	Hi Mum, Not sure if we will ever see something resembling spring here . It’s getting warmer, but it’s also snowing more often. Today, for instance, it wasn’t very nice, but we went for a short hike anyway. As soon as we reached the parking lot, it was clear that lack of fresh snow was not going to be an issue . The trail was actually very nice with the trees all covered in snow ... ...but the view left a bit to be desired as the snowfall was clouding everything around us. So we decided to hide in the backpack and helped ourselves with smaug’s supplies until it was time to go back home.
smaug Posted Apr 22, 2014, 4:20 am	Hi Mum, After more snow yesterday, this morning the weather was gorgeous , so we went for a walk close to Banff...and we walked in the sunshine . After a short time we started having lovey views over Lake Minnewanka . Later we reached a nice viewpoint where we could enjoy more views of the lake... ...and of the mountains surrounding it. As we started gaining elevation the trail was getting very snowbound, to the point that we worried we were going to have to turn back soon . But, for once, smaug was prepared , so we put on the snowshoes he carried up here and we were soon back on the move . Eventually the snow became too soft and deep to keep going even with snowshoes , so we took a final couple of photos of the lake before heading back to the car.
smaug Posted May 4, 2014, 7:36 pm	Hi Mum, Happy Easter ! Today we were hoping to get a gigantic chocolate egg each , but we had to settle for something more TV-size . Luckily, there was enough for everybody .
smaug Posted May 4, 2014, 7:50 pm	Hi Mum, Today it was sammino’s birthday . We were planning to sing Happy Birthday for him and party all day , but we all agreed that, at his age ,  the best way to party was to cut to the chase and going straight after the cake .
smaug Posted May 19, 2014, 10:47 pm	Hi Mum, Look a that! This is getting ridiculous ! We are in May and still are getting another fresh dump of snow . I guess this is going to be another boring weekend .
smaug Posted May 20, 2014, 12:45 am	Hi Mum, Today we managed to go for a short walk near Calgary. After a bit we started having a nice view over the River Elbow . We were hoping to reach the top of that ridge,... ...but going through the trees the snow was getting deeper and deeper, to the point that even smaug was sinking up to his waist , so we eventually opted to follow a more exposed and less snowy path up to a nice viewpoint. We could see Moose Mountain in the north... ...prairies and foothills to the east... ...and again the mountains around the Elbow Valley to the south and west .
smaug Posted Jun 2, 2014, 4:41 am	Hi Mum, Today we went for another short trip to the mountains . The first part of the trip was fairly boring in the middle of the trees, but after some time we reached a nice viewpoint from where we had a lovely view over Barrier Lake ,... ...the Prairies... ...and Kananaskis Valley. As we move further up we could see the Bow Valley heading deep into the mountains... ...and the front face of the Rockies in the north. The view of the Prairies got better too, but the sky was also getting a bit darker , so we quickly got on our way down .
smaug Posted Jan 5, 2015, 2:57 am	Hi Mum, Today was a beautiful day, so we went for a bike ride in the Elbow valley and took a few pictures .
smaug Posted Jan 6, 2015, 2:57 am	Hi Mum, Today smaug came home with a very interesting parcel, so we all gathered to open it . And guess what? A new friend came out of it, GustavHH ! Of course, we wanted to hear everything about his adventures, so we spent the whole night up chatting .
smaug Posted Jan 11, 2015, 9:42 pm	Hi Mum, today we went for a nice hike within Banff National Park . First we walked a bit along Lake Minnewanka... ...before making our way up to the site of a former fire lookout, where the view was great . It was also cold and windy, so we chose to quickly move down and walk a bit on the lake shore. Down there it was actually so nice that we decided to cap the day with a few hours of relax and sunbathing .
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2015, 12:03 am	Hi Mum, today we went for another nice hike . It must have been fairly early since the parking lot was empty when we left the car. After a bit of walking we started having some nice view over the Rockies in the west . Eventually we reached the summit, where the view was great, but the clouds looked quite bad, and the wind was blasting cold too (so much for the first day of summer ),  so we took some photos and headed back.
smaug Posted Jan 12, 2015, 12:31 am	Hi Mum, a new friend arrived today . smaug brought home a little parcel... ...and when we opened it Stoker came out ! Of course, we wanted to hear all about his travels, so he didn't have a chance to rest for a while .
smaug Posted Jan 19, 2015, 2:46 am	Hi Mum, It seems it’s time to go on holiday ! Today, we closed our bags and got ready to drive to the airport .
smaug Posted Jan 19, 2015, 3:17 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, I was in Germany today . We had a stopover in Frankfurt where one of smaug’s TV came over to say hello for a few hours. Of course there was lot of chatting involved .
smaug Posted Jan 26, 2015, 3:15 am	Hi Mum, I am back in Italy ! Today we were a bit tired and jet lagged, so we got a lovely breakfast, where we met one of smaug's TV, Pepita , who is staying here for a bit... ...and then went back to sleep .
smaug Posted Jan 26, 2015, 3:45 am	Hi Mum, today we went for a bike ride just out of town . After a long climb we reached the top of the road to Monte Bondone, one of the hardest and more prestigious mountain of race when the Giro d'Italia comes around here, so we were very proud with our effort . As we moved on the other side of the mountain we could see the Brenta dolomites... ...and the Adige Valley in the distance . Further on we could see another nice valley. At that point we launched ourselves downhill , so we decided that it was better for smaug to put away the camera and focus on the handlebar .
smaug Posted Jan 29, 2015, 4:04 am	Hi Mum, today we went for a nice hike in the Dolomites . After a bit of walking in the trees we started having a nice view... ...although it looked like we had still quite a way to go to reach the top of this valley . Eventually we reached the highest point of the day, where the view was very "rocky" , but unfortunately the weather seemed to be ready for turning wet. As it happens we managed to cross all this plateau without getting drenched... ...and later we headed into this nicely U-shaped valley that took us back to the car .
smaug Posted Feb 2, 2015, 3:41 am	Hi Mum, today the weather was not great, but it was warm , so smaug took us for a little hike close to town. After a bit of walking we started having a nice view... ...and we had a glimpse of our destination: apparently we were aiming first for the peak on the right, and then we were going to follow the ridge heading left . From the summit the view was great in every direction . After following a bit of the ridge, we could even see a bit of Trento in the distance. To give a bit of cultural tone to the trip and in true commemoration spirit of the centenary of the start of WWI, sammino explained to us that those abandoned barracks next to my head were actually built when this corner of Italy was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire .
smaug Posted Feb 2, 2015, 4:08 am	Hi Mum, We are soon heading back to Canada, so today it was time to say goodbye to Pepita and to all the other friends we met here in Italy .
smaug Posted Feb 3, 2015, 4:03 am	Hi Mum, On the way back to Canada we had another long stopover in Frankfurt, so Orpheus and Sigfrido came to spend some time with us at the airport . Luckily it was a lovely day, so we could stay outside chatting in the sun .
smaug Posted Feb 8, 2015, 9:46 pm	Hi Mum, today it was World Cup final day and with Germany in the final , we got very excited in our little Deutsch expats colony . Luckily yesterday in Frankfurt we had managed to put our hands on smaug's wallet and acquire something appropriate for the occasion . As the game was about to start the excitement grew even further... ...and it burst when Germany scored ... ...and lifted the cup . We decided to celebrate with whatever we could find ...and, of course, our hosts were more than happy to join in .
smaug Posted Feb 8, 2015, 10:20 pm	Hi Mum, today we went out for our first short hike since coming back to Canada . After the usual walking under the cover of the trees, we come out at Baldy Pass where we had a nice view over the foothills . Pressing on, we reached the summit of Midnight Peak, where the view was great in all directions . Interesting enough, sammino explained to us that it appears to be a tradition (a rather unpleasant one ) to get drenched, or nearly so, whenever smaug comes up here . Since those dark clouds seemed to herald the upcoming rain, we hastily moved down the mountain and luckily only got a bit wet .
smaug Posted Feb 15, 2015, 6:26 pm	Hi Mum, today we went over to the Rockies for a nice hike . After the usual time spent in the trees, we started having a nice view over the Bow Valley... ...and some of the peaks surrounding us. We also were able to look for the first time at our destination, which looked a bit more snowy than we expected for this time of the year . A bit later we reached a ridge just over this little lake... ...where the view opened up even more. From here the peak did not seem that far away . So, with a final effort we reached the top, where the view was great in all directions . It was also bitter cold , so we quickly moved down. On the way we noticed, with a bit of disappointment, that the sun had eventually decided to properly come out, warming the air and melting the snow on the top in the process . At least we managed to take a final nice photo before heading back home .
smaug Posted Feb 23, 2015, 1:25 am	Hi Mum, today we went again out to the mountains . After a bit of walking we started having a nice view of Mt Glasgow, and the weather looked great too . Later we headed up the narrow Nihahi Creek Valley... ...that soon became just a large gravel creek bed . Pushing on, we climbed halfway on the ridge heading to Mt Fullerton... ...where we noticed some very concerning clouds speeding toward us . So, instead of trying to reach the summit, we hastily performed an about turn and reached the safety of the valley bottom just before lightning started brightening up the afternoon .
smaug Posted Feb 23, 2015, 2:23 am	Hi Mum, This weekend the weather was again gorgeous, so as usual we headed to the mountains . sammino explained us that we were going to take a different route to reach a destination where he goes at least once a year . The first part of the day was the usual tedious slog through the forest, but soon we started having a nice view of the Bow Valley. On the way we always had in sight the typical ridge used to reach Mt Allan, with the rock walls of Mt Lougheed behind it ... ...and of the summit of Mt Allan. Still, before getting there we had to tackle the summit of Mt Collembola... ...and the false summit too . On the way we passed just over the Nakiska ski area, that hosted the alpine skiing competitions during the 1988 winter Olympics. Eventually we reached the summit of Mt Allan , from where we could look back at the last bit of the trail that we just followed... ...and where we took a final shot of the Bow Valley before starting to head back home.
smaug Posted Mar 1, 2015, 11:52 pm	Hi Mum, Today the weather in town was quite nice , although it turned out that in the mountains it was slightly different, and after walking a bit on the trail things did not look very promising. By the time we reached our destination visibility was kind of limited . We decided to wait a bit hoping for the fog to clear up and helped us with some of the provisions in the backpack . As it happens things got even worse... ...so all we could do was pack up and go home .
smaug Posted Mar 2, 2015, 1:23 am	Hi Mum, today we headed again to the mountains for a short walk. After a bit, we had nice views along the Elbow River valley ... ...and of Powderface Ridge, where we were engulfed by fog a week ago . Later we just spent the morning walking along this lovely ridge... ...all the time having a great view over the Rockies .
smaug Posted Mar 8, 2015, 2:34 am	Hi Mum, guess what, today was another gorgeous day, and of course we went over to the mountains . After a bit we emerged from the trees and started having a nice view. It took a bit longer to eventually see our destination. From the summit of Wind Ridge, which wasn't really that windy , we could see Canmore in the distance... ...and rocky peaks all around us . We could also see the snow covered peak of Mt Allan, where we were just a few weeks ago. Before leaving the summit and heading back home we took a final look at the valley that we followed in the morning .
smaug Posted Mar 8, 2015, 3:06 am	Hi Mum, look at that! You know what it is? Snow ! A full foot of heavy wet snow . How cool is that ?! Well, smaug seemed very much unimpressed to say the least , so we have to keep our enthusiasm in check when he's around .
smaug Posted Mar 16, 2015, 12:07 am	Hi Mum, it has been only a few days since the snow storm, so today we decided to check the conditions of the trails around Calgary. Not surprisingly everything looked very white from the very start of the day . As we approached the summit of Cox Hill smaug decided that he had enough of plodding through waist deep snow and just let us take a few photos of the mountains before turning back. It looked like full winter . Even the prairies in the distance where completely white .
smaug Posted Mar 16, 2015, 1:15 am	Hi Mum, today we went for another hike, and just one week and less that 100 km away from where we went last week, conditions where a bit different . After a bit we passed by this gully, but sammino explained that we were not going up there. Later we found this lovely sofa and decided to rest and enjoy the sun chitchatting for a while . As we kept going we started seeing the southern part of the Rockwall . Further on we reached the gorgeous Floe Lake with its crown of rocky walls . A final effort took us up to Numa Pass.  From there we could see the trail we had just followed,... ..., Floe Lake and Floe Peak,... ...and on the opposite side Numa Creek Valley... ...and the Rockwall heading north . What a day !
smaug Posted Mar 22, 2015, 12:48 am	Hi Mum, although the weather wasn't exactly great, today we headed again to the mountains and spent the day passing by lakes . The first one we found was Vista Lake...where, despite the encouraging name, the view was just OK . Things improved once we reached Arnica Lake... ...and Upper Twin Lake, tucked under Storm Mountain . Finally we reached Lower Twin Lake, possibly the nicest of all the lakes with reached, although the weather did not really help in appreciating that. Later on, we reached our destination, Gibbon Pass. Obviously that plaque is quite old, since Canada has been a metric country for a few decades . We took a quick look around the pass before jumping back in smaug's backpack just in time before the snow started to fall .
smaug Posted Mar 22, 2015, 2:10 am	Hi Mum, There's been some more snow falling on the mountains, so today we checked out how deep it is . It was soon obvious that white was going to be the main colour of the day . At some point we passed by this lovely creek which is not fully frozen yet . Once we reached Healy Pass we had confirmation that winter is indeed here . Time to get the snow shoes out .
smaug Posted Mar 28, 2015, 10:30 pm	Hi Mum, the weather is quite strange lately: most of the snow seems to be gone , so today we went to check how things are in the mountains. It looked like that around both Elbow and Little Elbow Valleys there was snow left only at the higher elevations. On the other side, there was no trace of white whatsoever. Maybe winter is not ready to come after all .
smaug Posted Mar 28, 2015, 10:53 pm	Hi Mum, the snow is back ! Lot of it. Today we decided to go downstairs and play a bit . On second thought, looking at the temperature, we decided that it was probably a good day to stay nice and comfortable at home .
smaug Posted Apr 5, 2015, 9:29 pm	Hi Mum, it' been snowing again this week, but this morning the weather seemed inclined to improve , so we went for a short hike. The atmosphere was great . But by the time we reached the nicest viewpoint the day had turned really dark , so we decided not to linger, took some photos and headed back.
smaug Posted Apr 5, 2015, 9:59 pm	Hi Mum, guess what? We are back in Italy . smaug was so busy and so late in packing up that he even forgot to report our departure from Calgary yesterday . But today the gang of locals was as always ready to welcome us .
smaug Posted Apr 5, 2015, 10:35 pm	Hi Mum, after a few days of rest, today we went up to a nice view point on the side of the valley. The sun was warm, the sky was blue and the view was great . There was even a nice bench where we could sit and chat while enjoying the sun .
smaug Posted Apr 6, 2015, 12:38 am	Hi Mum, the weather is quite spectacular, it's almost like summer . So today we took advantage of the sun and went for another short hike near town. The view over the valley was great . And so was the ridge that we followed... ...and the valley on the other side of the mountain . There was even a big metal map showing the direction of all the peaks that you can see from up here .
smaug Posted Apr 11, 2015, 10:19 pm	Hi Mum, today some new guests arrived home. Orpheus, Pepita and Sigfrido came home to celebrate Christmas . Of, course, with so many TVs in one room, lot of chatting followed .
smaug Posted Apr 11, 2015, 10:39 pm	Merry Christmas Mum ! Tonight, as usual we celebrated Christmas eve . Of course, as soon as the big people moved away from the table to deal with presents, we took control of proceedings in the dessert area .
smaug Posted Apr 11, 2015, 11:11 pm	Hi Mum, today we spent the day travelling around the German motorways . It's not exactly exciting to just look out of the windshield for over 10 hours, but it was nice to be on home soil for a bit . And tomorrow it sounds like it's going to be the same on the way back .
smaug Posted Apr 11, 2015, 11:40 pm	Hi Mum, it's time to go back to Canada , so today, before heading to the airport, we said goodbye to our friends who will stay in Italy a bit longer .
smaug Posted Apr 25, 2015, 11:56 pm	Hi Mum, today the weather was great . It was so warm that it felt almost like summer...almost , so we decided to pay a visit to the mountains. After the usual long bit of walking under trees we started having a nice view . Going further up, the view opened on the Prairies in the distance,... ...and became great over the Rockies . At that point the wind was picking up and it didn't really feel like summer anymore , so we hastily moved back under the protection of the trees.
smaug Posted Apr 26, 2015, 12:14 am	Hi Mum, today we gathered to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Lotta who is travelling back home to Germany .
smaug Posted Apr 26, 2015, 12:31 am	Hi Mum, today we welcomed to Calgary two old friends, Orpheus and Sigfrido, who will stay a few days with us . And they brought some delicious gifts with them .
smaug Posted Apr 26, 2015, 1:23 am	Hi Mum, the weather is not that good these days, so it's been a bit boring recently . So today we decided that we were going spice up things by checking out Calgary's nightlife . For whatever reason smaug was not inclined to let us go out by ourselves , so we ended up organizing a little chess tournament. It was a real battle of minds...and, of course, I was the best . After the tournament, instead of giving out prizes, sammino used a box to give us a lesson about Canadian wildlife . As it turned out, it was a box full of chocolate, so the day definitely finished on a high .
smaug Posted Apr 26, 2015, 1:48 am	Hi Mum, today we took a short walk in Calgary . Well, we just passed through a nice glass-covered mall ... ...and spent some time relaxing in these lovely indoor gardens . Later this evening it was time to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Orpheus and Sigfrido who are moving on to another destination in North America .
smaug Posted May 7, 2015, 4:29 am	Hi Mum, after a few quiet days today we headed out again to the mountains . The temperature when we reached the parking lot was far from ideal ... ...but the weather looked great so we marched on anyway. It had snowed recently, so everything looked very white . Moving on we reached a nice view spot where we enjoyed the view of a fairly frozen landscape. As it happens we were getting frozen too , so we encouraged smaug to hastily go back to the car.
smaug Posted May 11, 2015, 3:21 am	Hi Mum, today it was another gorgeous day so we headed west to the mountains again . As usual, early in the day we only had the occasional nice view. But, as we gained elevation, things improved . When we reached the highest point of the day the wind started really picking up, so we enjoyed the view which was spectacular in pretty much every direction and then quickly dived for cover .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 3:21 am	Hi Mum, today it was really foggy , be we tried our luck and went over to the mountains anyway. When we reached Barrier Lake things did not look great . But, later on, the fog started to clear and we had some lovely view of the lake... ...and Kananaskis Valley . On the other side, the prairies were still covered by a thick fog. Moving further up we reached a fire lookout, which at this time of the year is closed. From there the view opened up over the Rockies to the west .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 3:41 am	Hi Mum, today we said goodbye and wished a safe journey to Krystal and GustavHH that are travelling to Europe .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 4:06 am	Hi Mum, today smaug came home saying that there was a parcel for us , so we quickly set to work to open it . And, guess what, a TV came out: Batyr, a nice mouse from Russia . And he brought some lovely gifts . Of course, a long night of storytelling followed .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 4:21 am	Happy Easter! Today we celebrated with some lovely TV-sized chocolate eggs . Not the gigantic chocolate egg  that sammino has been lobbying for over the whole week , but they were delicious .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 4:28 am	Hi Mum, today we said goodbye and wished a safe journey to Landroval and Stoker that are travelling to Europe .
smaug Posted May 18, 2015, 11:40 pm	Hi Mum, today smaug came back home with a very interesting envelope . And when we opened it a new TV came out, Aura a nice ladybird from Finland . And she brought some lovely gifts with her . Of course, the chatting that folllowed went on and on and on....
smaug Posted May 19, 2015, 12:16 am	Hi Mum, it looks like spring is reluctant to show up . Today we went for a short hike, but from the start we had to deal with fresh snow . Nevertheless, after a bit we had nice views of Kananaskis Valley ... ...and of the mountains around us. The ridge we were following seemed to go on a long way,... ...but, after a bit, smaug decided that he had enough of breaking the trail and we headed back .
smaug Posted May 19, 2015, 3:05 am	Hi Mum, today a new TV arrived. Pepita one of smaug's own TVs has come home for a few days .
smaug Posted May 26, 2015, 5:11 am	Hi Mum, today it was sammino's birthday, so we made him a surprise and had a cake ready for him . We even managed to sing happy birthday before wolfing down the cake .
smaug Posted May 30, 2015, 4:44 am	Hi Mum, today we did a quick visit to Banff , where we were mostly kept wet by a series of showers all day . We don't mind the rain much , but smaug insisted that the camera does not like water at all, so we just managed to get a lonely photo of the mountains during one of the few dry moments of the day .
smaug Posted May 30, 2015, 4:54 am	Hi Mum, today we gathered to say goodbye and wish a safe journey to Shakespeare and Pepita who are both travelling to Germany .
smaug Posted Jun 8, 2015, 2:37 am	Hi Mum, today was a lovely day, so we went for a hike near Banff. Since early in the morning we had a nice view over Lake Minnewanka and Mt Rundle . Further on the view of the lake improved... ...and got even better when we reached Aylmer Lookout . It looked like there was still some snow over the mountains around us. Later we stopped by the lake shore where we planned to lay down in the sun . Too bad it was a bit too windy, so we just took a few pictures before heading home .
smaug Posted Jun 14, 2015, 2:29 am	Hi Mum, today we went over to the mountains where we were welcomed by some nice fresh snow and a thick fog . That made a for lovely mid-winter atmosphere , but visibility was somehow less than ideal . We tried to keep going hoping that things would improve, but we were just treated with more fog and some shadowy tree. So we decided to hide back in the backpack and let smaug wander in the fog at his pleasure and leisure .
smaug Posted Jun 14, 2015, 10:04 pm	Hi Mum, today smaug had to be in Vancouver and we managed to tag along , so early this morning we found ourselves at Calgary airport. Once in Vancouver we spent most time locked indoor , but around lunch time we were allowed to take a walk to Stanely Park . There we had a great view of downtown . As we kept exploring the park we approached Lions Gate Bridge. However the lions were not available to come greeting us . Moving on we reached the other side of the park were we walked along the seawall... ...and enjoy the view over the bay . Eventually smaug clearly indicated that recess was over, and so we headed back indoor .
smaug Posted Jun 19, 2015, 3:26 am	Hi Mum, today we went for bike a ride to Highwood Pass . During the first part of the day we enjoyed riding along Kananaskis Valley . With a little effort we eventually reached the pass... ...and moved on the opposite side into the Highwood River Valley . For some reason, after we turned around, smaug became less and less amenable to the idea of stopping just to take photos , so we just had to stay in his backpack and scavenge whatever food we could find in there .
smaug Posted Jun 21, 2015, 4:13 am	Hi Mum, this morning the weather was great so we headed to the mountains for a quick hike . Most of the trail was below treeline, but we got the occasional nice view of the Elbow River in the distance. Eventually we reached the top of Powderface Ridge, where the view was great . And we even made it back to the car before the afternoon thunderstorms moved in .
smaug Posted Jul 2, 2015, 2:52 am	Hi Mum, in the afternoon, when we got back to Calgary, we were very busy in one of our favourite activities, helping ourselves with whatever we found in the fridge. In this case it was a lovely ice-cream . As it happens, this was proving to be a tough nut to crack open , and we were arguing about the best approach to use to take the damn cover off when we heard a loud crashing sound coming from the balcony . As we went to the window to investigate, we met a TV who had just hopped inside, Squab a nice chicken from Germany who flew all the way here . We were very impressed, of course, but we were even more impressed with all the lovely presents that he brought over ...and lot of chatting and eating followed .
smaug Posted Jul 12, 2015, 3:12 am	Hi Mum, today the weather was gorgeous again, so, of course, we went for a shot hike in the morning . After the usual plodding in the forest we were treated with a nice view of the prairies... ...and of Moose Mountain. Our destination was not too far... ...so, with a final effort, we swiftly reached the summit of Cox Hill where the view was great in every direction .
smaug Posted Jul 20, 2015, 2:34 am	Hi Mum, it's very hot in Calgary these days , so today we tried to find some cooler weather in the mountains . As it happens, most of our hike was within the trees where the air felt even warmer than in town , so smaug was not really inclined to stop for photos until we reached the summit of Midnight Peak. Over there the wind was very pleasant and we could see the Nakiska ski area,... ...Mount Baldy in the north,... ...the prairies in the east... and more mountains in the south .
smaug Posted Aug 4, 2015, 3:29 am	Hi Mum, July is proving to be a fairly boring month since we are hardly seeing smaug at all . But it does not mean that we are not entertaining ourselves . We spend time reading,... ...playing... ...and planning future trips. However the biggest fun is checking out hailstorms from the window . This was a big one and left a massive white blanket all over town .
smaug Posted Aug 4, 2015, 3:54 am	Hi Mum, today, at last, we headed back to mountains again . The drive was a bit long so we decided not to disturb smaug and took a couple of hours long nap . When we woke up, we found ourselves facing the first challenge of the day, wading across the Bow River at the outlet of Bow Lake . The water seemed way too deep and fast for little TVs so we decided to let smaug get wet up to his knees and retired inside the backpack . The fact that all our flying friends opted to use their wings instead was a bit concerning, but somehow we made it to the other side . And the view of the lake was really nice . Later we reached the lovely Crowfoot pass... ...where sammino told us that real TVs are not satisfied with just reaching a pass, so we were heading for the summit of Bow Peak up there . With a little effort, we reached the summit safely, and the view was spectacular . We could see Bow Lake,... ...the valley heading up Mosquito Creek,... ...Mt Hector,... ...Hector Lake... ...and the glaciers along the continental divide. On the way down we took a look from above to the lovely meadows of Crowfoot Pass . What a day !
smaug Posted Aug 24, 2015, 1:51 am	Hi Mum, Today the weather was gorgeous again, so we went for a lovely hike near Banff . After a bit of walking in the trees we started having a nice view of the Monarch (that big mountain, not the queen )… …and of the mountains in the south. With a little extra effort we reached Healy Pass where we could see Scarab and Egypt lakes in the north,… …and more mountains to the south . That ridge leading to the Monarch is called the Monarch Ramparts, and sammino told us that we were going to walk along it. From the Ramparts we could see Healy Pass behind us,… …the little tarns dotting Healy Meadows … …and the forested valley that we followed this morning. Eventually we got off the Ramparts and reached beautiful Eohippus Lake. Later on we passed by another nice small lake … …before diving back into the forest.
smaug Posted Aug 24, 2015, 2:21 am	Hi Mum, Today we gathered to say goodbye and wish a safe trip to Batyr, who is travelling back home to Russia .
smaug Posted Aug 24, 2015, 2:50 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, I’m in the States ! I’m not sure how it happened. This morning, as usual for a Saturday, smaug tried to wake us up at fairly ungodly hour and threw us in the backpack, where we continued sleeping assuming that we were going to the mountains. A few hours later we woke up driving on a highway in the Rockies, but we were in Colorado rather than west of Calgary as we expected . smaug was busy driving and was not inclined to stop often for taking photos, so we just snapped a few shots of the lovely surrounding … …before arriving at our accommodation for the week where we found a lovely spot where we could analyse the situation and question sammino about it .
smaug Posted Aug 24, 2015, 3:29 am	Hi Mum, It appears we will be spending the week here in Colorado road cycling in smaug’s backpack . Today, to start getting used to the altitude, we went for a ride out of Dillon up to Loveland Pass and we spent most time riding in a very nice valley . Eventually we reached the pass, which sits at 3655 m above sea level on the Continental Divide . This means that on this side, the north side, water drains towards the Atlantic Ocean (by the way, the view was great ),… …while on this side water drains in the Pacific Ocean. Whichever way the water goes, those dark clouds were about to drop a lot of it , with hail and lighting as sides , so we hastily made our way back into the valley.
smaug Posted Aug 26, 2015, 4:44 am	Hi Mum, Today we were on the road very, very early to ride up Mt Evans. Since it was a tad cold , smaug was reluctant to stop and take photos and when we eventually had a chance to look around we were surrounded by a treeless landscape . From there we could already see the summit . Later we reached Summit Lake, which, as it happens, is still well below the summit . The view there was great … …and the summit was getting closer and closer. Nevertheless, as we gained altitude, we were starting to be short of breath, so we let sammino go outside scouting the route while we stayed comfortable in the backpack . And after some time we eventually reached the end of the road which, at an elevation of 4307 m above sea level, is the highest paved road in North America …smaug pointed out this was very likely as high as he will ever ride a bycicle . The view, of course, was great …a bit hazy maybe .
smaug Posted Aug 28, 2015, 3:42 am	Hi Mum, Today we hit the road again and after some time we could see the in the distance Hoosier Pass’s saddle. On the way we also had nice views over Quandary Peak . Some km later… …we reached Hoosier Pass, which sits on the Continental Divide , just like Loveland Pass that we visited a couple of days ago. As you might have noticed on the sign, here everything is measured in strange units like feet and miles . Since none of us is very familiar with the imperial system we were a bit confused . Luckily sammino had anticipated the problem and installed on smaug’s phone a conversion app, so we spent a lot of time checking it out . Anyway, feet or meters, from the pass we had a lovely view over the Mosquito Range and the South Platte River valley .
smaug Posted Aug 30, 2015, 4:31 am	Hi Mum, Today we rode a nice loop between Copper Mountain, Leadville and Vail . The first thing we saw in the morning were these big ponds. Apparently they are part of a giant molybdenum mine . Further on we reached Fremont Pass, which sits on the Continental Divide, a feature that we started believing applies to all mountain passes around here . At the pass we saw the actual mine. The photo does not do justice to its size (and the sun in our eyes did not help ), but it looked like half mountain had been already mined out . Later on we skirted Leadville and turned on US Route 24 just before entering town. The road took us through this wide and beautiful valley … ….which eventually lead us to Tenessee Pass. And guess what, this pass is also on the Continental Divide . Going down from the pass we had beautiful views… …and crossed this lovely bridge. I better remember to mention that the bridge crosses the Eagle River, or sammino will never talk to me again . Later we turned again and had our first look at the valley that leads to Vail Pass… …that we reached a bit later…and, believe it or not, this pass is not part of the Continental Divide . We decided to take a break and stopped at this rest area at the pass. Eventually we reached Copper Mountain from where we took a final look at the valley leading back to the pass… …before heading back home for a well deserved hearty supper .
smaug Posted Aug 31, 2015, 2:12 am	Hi Mum, Today we went for a short ride near Dillon. The first part of the day we were riding in the Blue River valley . FYI, whenever we saw it, the river did not seem to be any bluer than most other rivers . Anyway, after a bit we turned right and got on the road leading to Ute Pass, and the view soon improved . At last, we reached the actual pass which was not really such an exciting place ,… …so we just headed back home .
smaug Posted Aug 31, 2015, 2:36 am	Hi Mum, Since we came back home early, this afternoon we had time to spare . We tried to strike up a conversation with the living room's "resident-eagle", but she did not really pay any attention to us . So we decided to go out for a walk on the lakeside instead . We passed by the marina… …and enjoyed the view over the other side of the lake . Eventually we came back home where we patiently waited for dinner time to come .
smaug Posted Sep 6, 2015, 10:34 pm	Hi Mum, Today was our last day of riding, but luckily it was a gorgeous day . Early in the day we were down in the valley in the middle of the trees, but soon we gained elevation and the view improved … …and it improved even further later on . Eventually we reached Independence Pass which (it goes without saying ) sits on the Continental Divide and where we had lovely views of the surrounding mountains . On the way back, we stopped at Twin Lakes to take a look at one of the lakes and at the valley leading to the pass that we had just left.
smaug Posted Sep 13, 2015, 5:28 am	Hi Mum, Today was our last day in Colorado. Before leaving we found a nice panoramic spot over Dillon Reservoir . As we moved to another spot a big eagle came down towards us. She seemed a bit aggressive … … so we sent sammino ahead to handle communications ...and he quickly shoved us back into the backpack . After what sounded like a rather unfriendly discussion (not that we really understand eaglish ) we didn’t hear anything for a while, and when we came out we had come close to the lake shore . Eventually we really had to leave and a few hours later we found ourselves at Denver airport, where we killed time watching planes… …and enjoying a few snacks .
smaug Posted Oct 18, 2015, 2:01 am	Hi Mum, this week after coming back from the holiday we were stuck at home since wildfires in the US sent a lot of smoke up here and there were air quality warnings in Calgary every single day of the week . Today it seemed the worst was over so we went over to the mountains for a short hike. To the west things looked OK ... ...and there was only a bit of haze in the east. Nevertheless the air smelled still very foul , so we did not linger and quickly headed back home.
smaug Posted Oct 18, 2015, 2:22 am	Hi Mum, September has been frightfully boring since smaug was too busy at work to take us anywhere . At least October seems to be starting with some excitement . Tonight smaug came home very late, but he had parcel with him, a very TV-like parcel . Of course we were very interested and jumped over it ttrying to open it . And guess what, as soon as we opened it Hansi Hü, a nice horse from Germany, came out . Of course we wanted to hear everything about his previous trips, so a lot of chatting followed late into the night .
smaug Posted Oct 18, 2015, 9:26 pm	Hi Mum, today it was a nice day so we tried to go for a short hike . Early on we had to cross the Elbow River, which at this time of the year flows mostly within the gravel of its large bed ...so there wasn't really much water to cross . As we gained elevation we reached Forgetmenot Ridge, where the wind was blowing at gale force . Nevertheless we managed to take some photos . However, after a couple of near misses, smaug said that he was not risking to spend afternoon searching for us down the slopes of the mountain , so he shoved us back in the bag and said that for today there were not going to be any more photos .
smaug Posted Oct 18, 2015, 9:44 pm	Hi Mum, today we went for lunch in Banff . First we had a lovely and big steak . And for dessert we treated ourselves with delicious ice cream and melted chocolate ...that's what I call a proper lunch . With a full belly we got on our way home, but we decided to stop a bit at Lake Minnewanka, where the reflections in the lake were beautiful .
smaug Posted Nov 9, 2015, 1:33 am	Hi Mum, the weather was not so good this weekend, but today we tried to go for a quick hike in the morning anyway. While we were in the trees we could occasionally see the sun, so we took it as a good sign . Nevertheless, once we reached the summit, the clouds were closing in from all directions . Only in the east and in the south it seemed to be still a bit clearer... ...but since it was starting to snow very lightly we decided not to linger and headed back down the trail.
smaug Posted Nov 9, 2015, 1:53 am	Hi Mum, guess what? Today we had the first proper snowfall of the season . However when smaug came back from work it was too dark to take any photos , so the main reason for this update is that we have a new guest here in Calgary . smaug came back with an interesting envelope... ...and when we cracked it open a new TV came out, Arn Wes Wilde, a nice tiger from China . As it always happens when someone new arrives, story telling went deep into the night .
smaug Posted Nov 15, 2015, 9:32 pm	Hi Mum, After a week of fairly inconsistent weather, today we headed to the mountains keen to find out how much snow , if any, we were going to find. As it happens we found it from the very start and the first hour went by walking on a large snow-covered trail in the trees. Eventually we came out of the tree cover and started enjoying the wind . Once we reached the top of Pigeon Mountain the view was great in most directions . Only in the west the clouds were very dark. Anyway, smaug was having a hard time taking photos while making sure that we did not accidentally fly away in the gale force wind . So he eventually shoved us back securely in the backpack and we did not see the outside world again until we were back in the car later in the day .
smaug Posted Nov 23, 2015, 3:21 am	Hi Mum, We had a new arrival in Calgary today . smaug came home with a new envelope and, as usual, we were tasked with opening it . And a new TV came out, Matcha a nice frog from Japan . And he brought some lovely chocolate with him . As it always happens in this cases, the night went by chatting and eating .
smaug Posted Dec 1, 2015, 2:31 am	Hi Mum, winter is definitely here and today we went checking out the fresh snow outside of Calgary . When we parked the car it was obvious that there was no shortage of it. As we moved up the trail all the forest was clad in white ... ...and occasionally we could see that the it looked pretty much the same all around us. When we reached the highest point of the day the clouds were really nice and opened up to let us enjoy the view . However they were not nice for long , and soon we could not seen 10 m away, so we slowly headed back home.
smaug Posted Dec 20, 2015, 3:25 pm	Hi Mum, We had a bit more snow this week, but today it was quite clear, so we went for a nice walk in the foothills . Well, actually there was a bit more snow than we expected during the first part of the walk, which caused smaug to be a bit grumpy . Anyway, eventually we reached the top of Eagle Hill, where we had a great view of the valley we just followed… …and of the Bow Valley gap into the Rockies . As it happens, the wind was pretty much gale force , so smaug was having some trouble keeping us from taking off and after a couple of near misses, we decided that the inside of the backpack was the place to be in these conditions .
smaug Posted Dec 20, 2015, 3:41 pm	Hi Mum, Guess what, we are going on holiday ! Today we finished packing our suitecase and headed for the airport . See you soon from somewhere else !
smaug Posted Jan 3, 2016, 2:27 am	Hi Mum, I’m in Italy ! Well, at least so I have been told . Anyway, time to have a hearty breakfast and when I recover from the jetlag I will investigate further .
smaug Posted Jan 3, 2016, 3:01 am	Hi Mum, OK, sammino explained us that we were planning to do some skiing , but not a single flake of snow (or drop of water for what it matters) has appeared around here in almost two months . As a result, skiing, despite a lot of artificial snow been prepared and a good number of runs available, does not sound as great as it normally would , so, to avoid those breakfasts turning us in little barrels , we are doing a bit of hiking instead . Today we went close to town and we soon stumbled in what seemed to be a pit with stone walls. As it happens, it appears that in the past it was an oven used to make lime that could eventually be turned into quicklime . After that it was mostly uphill going without any “cultural” excuse for catching our breath , but at last we reached the summit from where we could enjoy great views west ,… …, north… …and east. We assumed the south looked great too, but the sun is a bit low this time of the year and it was parked just there. So looking south just ended in a few burned retinas .
smaug Posted Jan 5, 2016, 9:24 pm	Hi Mum, Today we went to a nice peak close to town . Early on we found this lovely tiny house . We knocked at the door and peeped through the windows to see if someone was home, but no one answered so eventually we moved on. Much, much later we reached the summit where the view was, of course, great . We could also see this lovely lake… …and Trento in the distance . We found a summit log too! It was kind of hard to get it out of its case … …but we eventually managed to take it out and left a sign of our presence here . On the way down we even found a lovely and quiet spot where we could enjoy a little snack .
smaug Posted Jan 6, 2016, 3:32 am	Hi Mum, Today we went out for another short walk near town . As we were walking in the forest we came by this boulder. As it happens, it is not just a boulder sitting in the forest . Well technically it is , but it is also an erratic boulder, that has nothing to do with the rocks found in this area and that was probably dropped here by a glacier at the end of the last ice age . Later on we found another interesting item. This was a rain shelter used by shepherds working in this area a long time ago . It looked frightfully uncomfortable, so we decided against waiting for a rain shower to test how waterproof it is . On the way we found a summit log, despite the fact that we were barely over halfway to the summit (this is a strange trail indeed ). Nevertheless we decided that, of course,  we should sign it . At last we reached the actual summit. There was no summit log here, but we found a lovely spot to rest and enjoy the sunshine while eating a little treat . Back home in the afternoon we had a surprise: Landroval and Sigfrido had just arrived home for the holidays . As usual, a long night of chatting followed .
smaug Posted Jan 18, 2016, 2:31 am	Hi Mum, Merry Christmas ! Tonight we are celebrating Christmas Eve . There was quite a lot of food on the table , but our attention focused mostly on dessert .
smaug Posted Jan 18, 2016, 2:51 am	Hi Mum, Today I said goodbye to sammino and all my other TV friends as they are flying back to Canada while I will stay here in Europe with Sigfrido . After so much time spent together it was really hard to say goodbye to sammino but he gave me a huge hug and wished me safe and fun future travelling .
smaug Posted Jan 25, 2016, 2:49 am	Hi Mum, With sammino and the others flying to Canada today, Sigfrido and I decided to do a bit of travelling of our own and took a day-trip to Verona . The first thing I saw, when I woke up , was this old gate . Later I passed by Christmas tree… …before reaching Piazza delle Erbe with the famous tower . Since we were not in tower-climbing mood, we moved into Piazza dei Signori… …and stopped to take a look at these famous stairs. At that point Sigfrido pointed out that it was already quite a long time since we had breakfast, so we decided to stop for gas, a very delicious type of gas . Full of energy again, we reached Piazza Bra. Of course, the most famous building in the square is the Arena, the roman amphitheater . As it happens, there seemed to be a Christmas star sticking out of it , probably a seasonal phenomenon . Anyway, it was starting to get late, so we headed for the station where we caught our train home.
smaug Posted Jan 25, 2016, 2:56 am	Hi Mum, The celebrations for the new year are starting in style . It is still early afternoon and Sigfrido has showed up with a very interesting package . A “package” that turns out to be full of delicious cupcakes . That’s what I call proper food for New Year’s Eve .
smaug Posted Feb 11, 2016, 2:57 am	Hi Mum, Happy New Year! As it turned out, we indulged a bit too much on the cupcakes and ended up with indigestion , so we are starting the new year with a very light recovery diet . Therefore we decided to just spend some time watching the new year concert from Vienna . It was kind of strange to look at TV upside down , but, of course, we cared about the music .
smaug Posted Feb 11, 2016, 3:07 am	Hi Mum, Today we went out for short walk in town , a walk very much focused on food . First we stopped for a drink. While drinking we enjoyed some kind of band playing just outside of the bar . Later we changed location and went for a full meal . The steak looked great but, now that sammino is not here, I admitted to Sigfrido that my normal diet is a bit more on the veggie side . Luckily he shares my same attitude and manged to materialise something a bit less meaty .
smaug Posted Feb 11, 2016, 3:11 am	Hi Mum, Today is my last day in Trento, but I was in time to try some typical carnival sweets . Sigfrido explained to me that every town in northern Italy has a different name for them , so I did not bother finding out what they are called, but they were delicious . With a full belly we finished packing and got ready to leave first thing tomorrow morning .
smaug Posted Feb 18, 2016, 2:48 am	Hi Mum, Today we went to the airport to head back to Germany. It was actually so foggy that we wondered if we were going to be stuck on holiday for another day . While we were waiting for news we explored a bit the airport. Eventually, even if the visibility did not seem to improve , they let us board the plane. And soon we were up in the air enjoying the view from the window .
smaug Posted Feb 18, 2016, 2:54 am	Hi Mum, The last few days have been fairly uneventful, but today we had something different to do: watching the snow falling . It wasn’t exactly a blizzard , but still looked nice .
smaug Posted Feb 18, 2016, 3:06 am	Hi Mum, Today we are travelling again . In the morning we stopped at Frankfurt Airport where, as Sigfrido explained to me, he and sammino have a tradition of loading up with sweets . Of course, traditions can’t be broken , so the wait for our plane was very pleasant . Later we had a connection at Amsterdam airport. Since we had time we decided to get some food, something typically Dutch: pizza . At this point I was so full that I didn’t care about where we were going and just decided to take a long nap .
smaug Posted Feb 29, 2016, 2:20 am	Hi Mum, Guess what? This morning I woke up in Bristol, UK in a hotel room with very fashionably arranged towels . Luckily there was also a corner catering to more mundane needs where we could fix ourselves a hot drink to start the day properly . Most of the day Sigfrido was busy at work , but at lunch time we sneaked out for a little walk . We roamed a bit the streets… …and found some strangely painted building… …and some tall one too. Eventually we reached a museum, but the title of the main exhibition sounded anything but cheerful … …so rather than walking in we just went back to work.
smaug Posted Feb 29, 2016, 2:45 am	Hi Mum, Today we went for another little tour in town. To avoid roaming blindly like yesterday , we decided to do some planning before leaving the hotel. Of course, we forgot the map in the room, so we were quickly lost roaming randomly again … …until we found a nice park where we could rest a bit . As we moved on we reached the harbour. And leaving the harbour we found a map that helped us finding our bearings. Further on we passed by what looked like a very fancy hotel . I recommended Sigfrido to book a hotel like this next time , it seems an appropriate place for toyvoyager celebrities .
smaug Posted Feb 29, 2016, 2:52 am	Hi Mum, Today it was time to go to the airport and fly back to Germany . After checking the information panel,… …we realized that luckily we had enough time for little snack before boarding the plane .
smaug Posted Mar 7, 2016, 1:43 am	Hi Mum, It’s carnival time ! So today we watched a parade in TV. There were many strange floats . This last one made us a bit hungry ,… …so we decided to get a little snack, Canadian style .
smaug Posted Mar 21, 2016, 12:14 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, I came to Paris for a leisure weekend ! Of course, our first need in the morning was to get a proper breakfast . Later we roamed a bit around… …until we reached Saint-Sulpice. Given the time of the year I elected against taking a swim in the fountain . Moving on we reached Boulevard Saint-Michel. We walked around a bit longer before jumping on the underground, where the camera flash refused to work and so marked the end of the photos for the day .
smaug Posted Mar 21, 2016, 12:34 am	Hi Mum, Today We took the underground and went visiting Place de la Bastille . Of course there is nothing left of the old Bastille, so all that is left to see is the square and a big column. On one side of the square there is the fairly new Opéra Bastille, however there are no prisoners confined in there . Later we moved into the Marais… …and reached Place des Vosges . We were staring to get hungry and, luckily, walking around the district we found some very interesting shop .
smaug Posted Mar 21, 2016, 12:39 am	Hi Mum, Alas, it’s time to go back home, so today Sigfrido and I went down to the breakfast room … …and made sure we had enough energy for the trip .
smaug Posted Mar 28, 2016, 12:30 am	Hi Mum, It was another rainy day here ,… …we even had some hail . To cheer ourselves up we decided to do some baking . The result looked somehow suspicious , but it seemed eatable. As it often happens, Sigfrido’s slice sizing was on the small side… …so I decided it was fair for me to leave the whole slice for him and helped myself with whatever was left on the main plate .
smaug Posted Apr 4, 2016, 12:21 am	Hi Mum, Today I came with Sigfrido to a nice town, Braunschweig . The view from the hotel window was promising. Since we did not have much time we just quickly visited the main square. There seemed to be a very strange building on the side of the square, but we did not investigate. We concentrated our attention on this imposing palace … …and on this slightly more modern building . Alas, work was calling , so we did not have any more time to explore around.
smaug Posted Apr 4, 2016, 12:29 am	Hi Mum, We are again on the move , so today we passed through Frankfurt airport. We spent some time looking out for planes at the window… …but we soon decided that there are more interesting ways to kill time while waiting for a flight .
smaug Posted Apr 23, 2016, 9:59 pm	Hi Mum, I came back to Italy for a quick Easter trip and, of course, I has the chance to try a typical Easter cake called colomba…which I believe means dove in English. Cutting was a bit challenging and the slice we obtained was rather tiny, … …so, for once, Sigfrido agreed with me that it was best to eat directly from the cake .
smaug Posted Apr 23, 2016, 10:11 pm	Hi Mum, Today we went for a walk in town and found a market dealing only with chocolate and sweets from various parts of Italy . There was chocolate made up in strange shapes…at least for a piece of chocolate … …and chocolate arranged in a more traditional fashion . Of course, I paid some limited attention to the lovely historic center too . But rather than doing sightseeing, we were keen to go home and taste some of the “few” samples with collected. Here we were calming our hunger with some Sicilian cannoli , …with some not so chocolaty, but delicious sweets,… …and, of course, with a limited assortment of chocolate of all kinds .
smaug Posted Apr 23, 2016, 10:21 pm	Hi Mum, Happy Easter! Given how much we ate yesterday , today we thought we should stay light and only have a small chocolate egg. Nevertheless, during the day we started feeling much better and were able to enjoy something slightly more fit for the occasion with our host here in Italy . Cracking open the egg required some work… …and the surprise was rather disappointing. However, the chocolate was delicious .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 2:55 am	Hi Mum, It’s time to leave Italy so this morning I was at Verona airport. On the runaway there wasn’t much traffic … …so we just explored around a bit looking for food . Eventually it was time to take off and for a bit we had a great view over the Alps . But soon the clouds covered everything . Luckily we found some other way to spend the time . And when we landed I even had some nice view of downtown Frankfurt .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 3:08 am	Hi Mum, Guess what? I am back in Bristol . We arrived quite late, but found out something that my friend sammino would have loved: our room at the hotel was called “Canada” . Of course our more pressing need was finding dinner. Luckily we saved some of the snacks provided on the plane . As we were flying with a Dutch airline they also had given us some chocolate to celebrate king’s Day . We found some complimentary food in the room too . Of course you can’t put an “Eat me” sign and expect two hungry TVs to ignore it .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 3:27 am	Hi Mum, Today we checked out of the window in the morning, and seeing the lovely weather … …I convinced Sigfrido to walk a bit around town before going to work. We even found a lovely park where we could rest . Later, after some occasionally steep walking ,… …we reached one of Bristol’s landmarks, the Clifton Suspension Bridge . Quite impressive for a bridge that is over 150 years old . As it happens, when you cross the bridge you enter a different county, but Sigfrido pointed out that it was getting late, so we hastily headed back to work .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 3:32 am	Hi Mum, Today it was time to fly back to Germany and we had quite a long and boring stopover in Amsterdam…well, we made sure it wasn’t too boring .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 10:50 pm	Hi Mum, I’m jumping a bit from one side of Europe to the other one these days. This morning I was again at Frankfurt airport wondering where I was going to end up this time…and having breakfast, of course . As it happens I was not going to fly too far away, just as far as Switzerland . And, in proper Swiss fashion, our hotel had a slightly bovine/alpine oriented interior decor . There were also, of course, some more chocolate oriented features… …which reminded us that we had stopped on the way from the airport to grab something. As Sigfrido explained to me, he thought it was very important to self-welcome ourselves in the country .
smaug Posted May 23, 2016, 11:05 pm	Hi Mum, Today I had a chance to take a quick look at Zürich . First, of course we had to get out of the hotel. Strange people were lurking in the hallways ,… …but we managed to safely reach the breakfast room . So, with a full belly, we were ready to brave the weather and headed out. On the way we found some interesting shops. This one was showing chocolate shaped into bugs . I am not really big into the business of eating insects, but I guess I could deal with these ones . Moving on we found a nice quiet place with a lovely view over the river… …and eventually reached the lake. Since the weather was not showing any sign of improvement we walked a bit longer until we found a shop that we deemed worth spending some time and money into .
smaug Posted Jun 11, 2016, 10:44 pm	Hi Mum, This week I accompanied Sigfrido to the Black Forest for work , and spent most of the time working and working . But today I had a chance to snatch a few photos. The view from the building was quite nice . We spent a lot of time working on the blackboard… …so I decided to personalize it a bit . Apparently the German team was training for the Math Olympics in one of the adjacent rooms, but their mascot did not seem interested in chatting with us...what a diva . Exploring a bit the building we found evidence of someone having enjoyed a good time last night . I asked why we were not joining in this type of activities , but Sigfrido just shoved me to the library. All the books in here looked frightfully boring… ...so I insisted for trying some other forms of entertainment . And, at last, we found a place worth spending some time in .
smaug Posted Aug 8, 2016, 2:57 am	Hi Mum, today I am again travelling . Well, I was really just exploring a new hotel in the morning . But it was an interesting hotel… …where we met some funny characters . Luckily, and more crucially, we also found the breakfast room .
smaug Posted Aug 8, 2016, 3:08 am	Hi Mum, Today an old friend came back to Bonn . Sigfrido showed me a new envelope that has just arrived… …and when we opened it Krystal came out . She showed us the beautiful card that she brought with her … …and was very keen to make sure that we checked out her latest updates .
smaug Posted Sep 5, 2016, 1:00 am	Hi Mum, Today we went for a short day trip visiting the Augustusburg Palace in Brühl. The palace looks really beautiful … …and has a lovely garden around it. We wanted to walk in the middle of the flower beds , but apparently it is forbidden . So we decided to just find a nice spot where we could rest and enjoy the sunshine .
smaug Posted Nov 13, 2016, 3:38 am	Hi Mum, Guess what, we are about to go on another trip . Sigfrido said it’s going to be a long one, so we decided to get a hearty meal before jumping on the plane .
smaug Posted Nov 13, 2016, 4:11 am	Hi Mum, I’m back in Canada . Not in Calgary this time, but a bit further east . After a few days recovering from the jet-lag, this morning we felt strong enough to explore a bit around. We checked if the weather was OK… …and off we went to take a look at the streets around our hotel. We even learnt something about Toronto highways . Later we had to go back as Sigfrido was supposed to be working. But we soon got bored and we decided to distract ourselves with a big jigsaw .
smaug Posted Nov 13, 2016, 4:25 am	Hi Mum, We had to cut our trip a bit short , so today we were back at the airport. Luckily there was no shortage of food outlets . There were also tablet available to passengers for free to surf internet and to order food . Eventually it was time to leave, so we checked our gate and went boarding the plane.
smaug Posted Nov 13, 2016, 4:35 am	Hi Mum, We came back to Germany and headed back to the airport in less than a day . Of course all this travelling was making us hungry . As it happens our flight was very late, so we really had to go for breakfast number two . Eventually the plane took off, and we had a lovely view when passing over the Alps .
smaug Posted Dec 5, 2016, 3:08 am	Hi Mum, We have been in Italy for a few days without doing too many interesting things , but today we went visiting Verona . First we stopped in Piazza Bra… …where we took a look at the Arena, the famous Roman amphitheater . Then we moved to Piazza delle Erbe… …with the big medieval Torre dei Lamberti . Our last stop was the church of Santa Anastasia. Later, of course, we spent the afternoon going after food , but we were too busy eating to take photos .
smaug Posted Dec 5, 2016, 3:25 am	Hi Mum, Today I said goodbye to Sigfrido and Krystal and prepared to come home . Before I left, Sigfrido gave me a big hug and wished me a safe journey . I did a final check to ensure my travelling quarters were comfortable enough and off I went. See you soon !

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