Travelog for: Willy W.

Hi mom, this weekend we went back at the beach at the beautiful prefecture of Chalkidiki.
We are at the small village called Metamorfosis, which has mainly summer residences but luckily it's not crowded.

Here I am with my friends just playing at the sand







My hosts just bought a new aquaglide for the kids, it converts easily from sailboat to windsurfer, towable or even kayak. So the kids will be able to learn easily all these sports! SO MUCH FUN!

Here we are by the box



and can you see it in the sea?!

Hi mom,

here are a couple of photos from Thessaloniki. The town is build by the sea so the deck by the sea is a favorite place for all the citizens.
They usually come here early in the morning or at the sunset for walking, jogging, biking... there are also tennis and basketball courts, playgrounds and so many events going on by the sea.

This is the Music Hall

Hi mom,

I am staying at a summer residence of my hosts! I am so lucky enjoying the sun and sea all day, considering there is a heat wave at the moment here!

Here are some more views of the place

A typical backyard door with plants and flowers on top





On top of a tractor we found on one of our walks



and overlooking the sunset form a gazebo with my friends

Hi Mom!
From warm and sunny Greece I traveled via airmail to Switzerland.
I arrived to some rain and a dramatic sky over Mt. Pilatus, the 'Hausberg' of Luzern. I am hoping for some better weather and maybe a hike this weekend.
Love,
Willy W.

Another tv, Annie, arrived in Switzerland and was greeted with a snack of local products like Ovomaltine (a malt/chocolate like pwoder to dissolve in milk), mint sirup and local produce.

We had a quick look at the neighborhood before retiring for an exhausting weekend ahead.

There was a big article in the newspaper about hiking in Switzerland and how it has become very popular again. Well, we agree. We drove to Niederrickenbach and took the cableway up to Maria-Rickenbach.

There's a monastery of Benedictine nuns up there which is a place of pilgrimage. No road leads up, so the mail, groceries etc. are also brought up by cableway.

Maria-Rickenbach is a bit above 1000m high. Our destination was the Brisenhaus at 1753m.

After walking a gravel road with some incline for a while, the way got really steep and was more a path through the cow pastures.


It got colder when we got closer to the tree border and the clouds were hanging low.


Up there behind me is the Brisenhaus. The way up there is scheduled for another 30min because it's so steep.

On the way back down we had a look at the garden of the monastery. It was beautiful, very peaceful and had a great view.

Hi Mom!
We were off on another hike, taking advantage of the (still) good weather here in Central Switzerland. This time we took a small ropeway from Oberrickenbach to the Bannalp, Chrüzhütte and walked from there over mountains calles Walnstöcke to Engelberg.
Here they are:

Zoomed in, these made a very nice picture, the way they lay there like ying and yang or something similar.

I was fascinated by how nature worked those very artistic lines into the rock. The way was very steep in this part and the drop to the side was scary, so we walked very slowly.


Form the highest point of our hike, at 1943m we had this view of Mt. Brisen, on the other side of which we walked last time.


And here I am looking out over Oberdorf.

The higher of these two outcrops was the highest point of our tour.

After 2 more hours of walking, first down and then up again (how annoying!), we thought we deserved a little rest with view of the Titlis glacier and Engelberg.


We enjoyed the barefoot path at Brunni and made the steep descent to Ristis, where we took a big cableway to Engelberg. We had to hurry to the station to catch out train back to the car.

The train switches to kind of a cog railway for the very steep passages.
I was happy when I was home and coudl rest my poor feet.

I woke up to another foggy day. Can you believe there's a big and normally very visible mountain there?


On Saturday mornings there's a small famer's market on the town square. We went there and could see the boyscouts and a few people of the guard all dressed up. It was quite busy.


After we were done with our shopping we went to Hergiswil to look at the glass ware that's produced there.

Directly at the lake there are some big properties atht we could barely see from the road.


We continued on the the supermarket...


and then to Lucerne via the motorway (green sign).

Then we drove on to Luzern.We were fascinated by the many bicycles parked outside the main station. But traffic in Lucerne is bad and one needs private parking spaces when living there.


We made our way to the former bank building that now houses the Rosengart collection, a museum for Picasso, Klee and some other painters of the late 19th - early 20th century. (the building in the back, behind the IMPORT sign)


TVs weren't allowed inside but we took some pics with the information and postcards of some of the paitings later on:


A particular favourite of our host's is also Klee's drawing of 'The governess' previously entitled 'Das artige und das bösartige Kind' (The good and the mean child) seen on the lower left.

Here we are in front of the famous chapel bridge:


and the many swans.



And with some of the old houses along the Reuss river.

(the city hall)

(Gutsch castle in the background)

(the Jesuit church)

In the old town:

Today I witnessed the Alpabzug(Swiss), Almabtrieb(German) from the window. This is where the cows are led from the mountain pastures to the barns in the valleys. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go down and see it from close-up. But you can see how the cows have extra big and festive bells, that don't allow them to eat and are decorated with flags of Switzerland and the cantons. Traditionally there are also flower-decorations on the cows.

This is our goodbye-Switzerland dinner on the roof with lots of bread, cheese, fruit and veggies, a colorful cactus etc. We did have a great time here.

We are back in Germany and it's really autumn now, moreso than it was farther south.

We stopped by a farm that's in the city to buy some eggs and bread and produce.

We visited Düsseldorf today to go shopping.

Here's the art museum,

the court house,



At the promenade along the Rhine river

you can see that it's autumn now.

Some nice old houses are directly at the main roads. They are usaully used as offices now.

Here's a newly finished office building.


Here's one of the government buildings. Düsseldorf is the capital of Northrhine-Westfalia, one of the German states.


It has quite interesting door nobs.

The townhall and market place:




We came upon a band playing songs to lots of people drinking beer. The typical beer in this city is "Alt". Many people were sitting outside or stopping to watch the band, even though it raind on and off.



Düsseldorf is also a big carnival city. It starts on 11-11 at 11.11 o'clock, another high time is in the late winter. The processions are traditionally with a political message. Here's one of the shops selling costumes and accessories:

And here's a legendary figure fo the Düsseldorfer Carnival, the Hoppeditz, who awakes on the aforementioned date to start up the "5th season" of the year.

Hi Mom!
Today we had the day off and visited the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, or Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg (as the local dialect, a kind of Moselfränkisch, calls it) or Großherzogtum Luxemburg (German one of the 3 official languages, along with French and Luxembourgish).
We walked through the streets and had a look at the shops, some lunch and of course he had to visit the Grand Ducal Palace, the official residence of the Grand Duke, where his offices are located and which is used to house foreign dignitaries and different official functions. They even have a guard up front but I was a bit dissappointed that he just wore a regular uniform, nothing special like the guards in London.