fantasybecher

hello all (those keeping up with my blog, that is)! as some of you know, i am traveling in Germany and Belgium for the next 3 weeks and, since my travel experience lies primarily in Asia, hope to do a better job with blogging so i actually have a written record of the sights and sounds. consistency is not my forte, unfortunately.

i arrived yesterday (7/16) afternoon after a 7-hour flight to London, 2-hour delay in Heathrow (which allowed me extra time for one of my favorite activities, people watching!), and a short jaunt over the strait to land in Frankfurt. i struck up a very interesting conversation with the girl next to me on the plane from London to Frankfurt - she is a stage & costume designer working on various operas across Europe and was an exchange student to Canada during her college days. what an unexpected warm welcome to my days here...

there is a plethora of vegetables and herbs grown in the garden at this house so i enjoyed a delicious salad with lumpia (=Filipino egg rolls) for dinner last night, all the while trying to fight off my desire to run to bed and relieve the jetlag. i woke up this morning to a hearty breakfast of pungent cheese, fresh salami and various multigrain breads - getting in touch with my German roots ;) today we drove to the little town of Bad Karlshafen where we saw a spa/wellness center with open-air jacuzzis (wow!), walked around the city center, and consumed a huge dish of fruity flavored gelato (i.e. today's title).

tomorrow we will head to Berlin for 3 days and experience life within the walls of the former Iron Curtain. hopefully they'll let me past Checkpoint Charlie on the way back... ;)