Moin Moin Frosch - finally, signs of life from the travel front. After nearly three weeks in Germany the bug bit me quite hard today, so I succumbed aaaaand... bought airline tickets, yeah! I will go on a little 3-week power trip of the Black Sea from Constanta to Varna and on to Istanbul in Turkey, before crossing down to Izmir and the Dodecanese islands of Greece. From Rhodes I will jet-cat-over to Crete, from where I will return in time for my class reunion on September 25. Two days Berlin before and two days Munich Oktoberfest after... perfectly planned, considering it will be rounded off with a three-day weekend in Madrid before jetting back to the States. Meanwhile, I have spent way too much time fumbling around with my old/new web site, which is supposed to go back online any day now. You will like it - tons of pictures! I'll keep you posted...

Grüezi Frosch - Sorry for the 2-week hiatus since I wrote my last message. The embassy dealings in Madrid provided me with yet another unsuspected twist to my travel planning, in more than one way. Left the city very quickly for a beautiful day in London, where I finally managed to take the BA Eye for a spin and walked around all day. Quite a change from my time there almost 10 years ago! Not half as boring, the people dress really cool these days, and you can even get good food, drinkable coffee and cold beer now. Continued that same evening to Iceland to be greeted by Reykjavik's weird midnight sun. Amazingly beautiful, amazingly expensive - I think that's what sums it up best when visiting the island for the first time. Went for a dip in the Blue Lagoon, of course, and started my explorations on the Golden Circle, which took in the ancient Thingvellir assembly site of Viking ages, the thundering Gullfoss waterfalls, and the famous Strokkur and Geysir hot springs. Then I just had to do it - circling the entire island following the over 1400 kilometers long Highway 1: The roaring Skogafoss waterfalls, the colorful fishing village of Vik, the Skaftafell glaciar tip at the Vatnajökull cap of eternal ice, the quiet village of Höfn with its picturesque harbor, the rough ride tracing the eastern fjords to sunny Egilsstadir, the tiring treck across the vast lunar-like volcanic ash highlands of the northeast, and finally reaching much-hyped Akureyri and the wonderland of Lake Myvatn. Bubbling mud pots and steaming hot springs are everywhere, not to mention volcano craters and freaky lava formations along this meeting point of the European and American tectonic plates. Finally returned to Reykjavik for another night of the infamous runtur, a midnight sun pub crawl by every young and fashionable soul of the nation's capital that one has to see to believe. I wouldn't be myself if I didn't top this little adventure on site: I flew to Greenland! Breathtaking floating iceberg fields and inhospitable sleet greet you upon arrival at Kulusuk, a Cold War-era dirt landing strip for the north Atlantic and Arctic radar surveillance station. I hopped aboard a helicopter and was in for the ride of my life through some pretty nasty weather to reach Angmagssalik, something of a Garden Eden for East Greenlanders, which they call Tasiilaq. Hardly a soul lives there and I stayed at the only place you could call a hotel, right at the huge Intelsat satellite relay station atop the bay there. The howling of huskies is what will stick with you forever... the call of the wild. Went aboard an old fishing vessel to see the monstrous floating icebergs up close - if the icy wet winds don't give you the chills, the sight of the deadly blue ice that forms part of the iceberg under the water surface sure will; quite a Titanic moment. Hiked out into the Valley of the Flowers, a glaciar drainage area where some miniscule flowerlike things battle the elements next to lakes and waterfalls. And always the huskies... howling everywhere, untamed and wild, yet harnessed to pull big sleighs. It was time to return into the highlife of Reykjavik! One more night there on the runtur, then back via London to Berlin, where I am currently enjoying Mama's cooking for a few days. Still thinking about what to do next but, no worries, I will come up with something!