Soon to be written by Maicke

Da ist jemand der immer Zeit für uns hat.Jemand bei dem wir wissen,was auch geschieht, er liebt uns.Jemand, der es mag wenn wir in der Nähe sind.Jemand, der uns verwöhnt weil es seine größte Freude ist.Jemand der keine Forderugnen stellt, weil erdas was er tut für selbstverstädlich hält.Dieser Jemand ist etwas ganz besonderes,jeden Tag ein bischen mehr.Dieser Jemand ist unsere Mutter Annemarie.Wir lieben sie sehr!

Welcome Friends!!!!! December 11th, 2016Annemarie and Maicke’s 7th annual Merry Christmas Gathering! May your Christmas be warm and magical! Enjoy your time in our home. Meet some old friends and make some new ones! Today, your fabulous and forever good looking hosts have prepared a never changing yet exciting menu. It is pretty much the same as the last six years, so most of you will have it memorized. • Not so German Pea Soup with Peas and Pork• Cauliflower Soup with Nutmeg and German Meatballs• Backofen Suppe with Beef, Chicken and Pork, sorry no Backofen• Grave Lox• Frikadellen• Selection of Cheese• Leberwurst Schnitten• Barbecue, Bacon Cheese dip• Almond Cake• Apricot Cake with Apricots or maybe peaches• Apple Cake• Zwiebelbrot• Variety of Annemarie’s Cookies Enjoy your day!!!! Please do not hesitate to enjoy our festive construction zone!!!!

From our home to yours, wishing you the brightest of Christmases and a warm and healthy 2017! A quiet beginning to the year 2016 was followed by an unexpected trip. With a heavy heart Annemarie travelled back to Europe as her sister had suddenly passed away. A last minute flight booking, resulted in a car trip to Seattle, a flight to Chicago, followed by a flight to Copenhagen and a final flight to Hamburg. After a family reunion, a funeral followed and Annemarie returned to Vancouver via Stockholm, Chicago, Seattle and another drive back to Vancouver! Despite some health challenges, Annemarie and I managed to complete the 10km (6.3 miles) Vancouver Sun Run. An annual tradition, we joined almost 50,000 people in Downtown Vancouver and enjoyed some great views, music and ambience along the way. A true family event, the Front runners completed the run in under 29 minutes, others took up to three hours! A great day was enjoyed by all, or at least most. After a couple of quiet months, my brother Jes arrived for a visit from his home in the Philippines. For Annemarie’s birthday on April 22nd, we travelled to the beautiful West Coast of Vancouver Island. We stayed Cox Bay Beach Resort near Tofino and enjoyed lovely views of the Pacific Ocean, some lovely walks and of course the hot tub.We also travelled to Harrison Hot Springs, a two hour drive from Vancouver. Visited Hell’s Gate, where a tram crosses over the mighty Fraser River and enjoyed a visit to a lovely Gold Rush themed Museum in the town of Yale. Of course the Hot Springs were a special treat as well. At the end of May, our good friend Henri returned to Vancouver with a group from Switzerland. I was able to tour with the guests not only on a very rainy day in Vancouver, but also on a day trip to Whistler, where we were treated to 30+ degrees Celsius/90+Fahrenheit and beautiful views and a great lunch at the Brew House Pub. Henri joined us for dinner at our home and our good friend Mary Lynn was there to share some special memories. Henri also invited us to join him and his group at the lovely Boathouse Restaurant for a lovely dinner and some excellent wine.In early June a Annemarie, myself and a group of friends from the Needle Art Guild travelled to a Resort on the East Coast of Vancouver Island called Yellow Point. This is a place right out of an old movie, which many people have visited for more than 50 years. Small and large Cabins, very rustic and a big lodge where meals were enjoyed and everyone met in the common room for reading or board games. The outdoors offered free Kayak and Bike rentals. We enjoyed two trips in a double Kayak. At the end of June Annemarie left for an enhanced Art Class in the town of La Conner, USA. This town is a three hour drive from Vancouver and very famous for its tulips in the spring. Annemarie dyed her own threads fabric, silk and felt. Techniques included Kantha and Sashiko. After another class in October, more will take place in January, April and July 2017.After a visit from Annemarie’s brother Andreas and family, we welcomed my cousin Stefanie and her children Andreas and Helena. They stayed with us for a few days before going on a Road trip around our gorgeous Province, including a visit to Vancouver Island. At the same time we discovered that the chimney in our house had been rotting for years and needed a major repair. Before that could be completed, the contractors who were conducting the repairs collapsed the entire chimney, which resulted in a gas leak and evacuation of our and our neighbours’ home. Five months later the repairs are ongoing and we lived with a hole in our house wall for most of this time as well as our gas fireplace settled in our living room.A late summer trip to Osoyoos in the Okanogan wine region was a real highlight! A five hour car trip from Vancouver we visited wineries, stayed at a quaint resort right on Osoyoos lake and were once again able to enjoy a great day Kayaking. We took about an hour crossing one part of the lake and encountered less than 6 other boaters. After a nice lunch at a resort there, we went back and enjoyed the very warm pool. This area is the only desert in all of Canada an you can even encounter Rattlesnakes. My brother Jes also spent a lot of time doing renovations in our home; we are most grateful. He painted, repaired and renovated; upgraded our TV and phone systems and we were introduced to Bluetooth! My favourite reno was the shelf he built which replaced the closet door! Now, Christmas is almost here and just a few days ago we invited close to 30 friends to our home for warm soup, cookies and wine. It was a great afternoon. We hope you enjoyed reading about our life in 2016!Sending you hugs and love. Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases and a happy and healthy 2017!

As we are getting ready to celebrate another Christmas we would like to write a few words and share all of our adventures, celebrations and happenings with you.​ At the end of April we travelled to Quebec City and spend a few great days in old town Quebec. We had a lovely private room at the hostel which is located in a series of historical old buildings. We then rented a car and drove to Montreal where I was attending my yearly work conference. Annemarie was happy to enjoy the hotel and walk around and explore the city. We celebrated Annemarie’s birthday in a wonderful seafood Restaurant and also visited a Sucrerie (sugar Shack) where they make the famous Canadian Maple Syrup. We went on a city tour and drove by the house of Justin Trudeau, who as of last month, is Canada’s Prime Minister. After Montreal we also decided to visit Canada’s Capital Ottawa. The hostel there is the old jail and some of the rooms are in the old jail cells. We visited the Parliament buildings, enjoyed a few brisk walks and some good food and wine! In May, Maicke accompanied members of the Bavarian Parliament to our provinces capital Victoria, where we visited the Provincial Legislatures and met some of our politicians including the Speaker of the house. At the end of the same month Annemarie and Maicke spent a week with a German group visiting Canada. We stayed at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel which the company had bought out. The evening of their Gala dinner, Annemarie and I enjoyed the five outdoor pools and it was just the two of us! In June our good friend Henri and his wife Debbie were in Vancouver with a group from Switzerland. It was nice getting together for a glass of wine or two and a lovely dinner with the group at the Boathouse Restaurant. In early July Maicke travelled with yet another group and spent a few days at an exclusive fishing resort about an hour flight north of Vancouver. Although it was “work” it really felt like a vacation. There were dozens of bald Eagles in the trees and porpoises swimming past the boat/plane dock. The food was delicious and it was all inclusive, so the wine tasted even better! On July 15th Annemarie and Maicke left for Europe and Maicke took a well deserved vacation from my full time job with Hostelling International. We flew Iceland Air from Vancouver to Hamburg. With a short layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. Arriving in Hamburg, Evi and Arno (Sister and brother in law/aunt and uncle) met us at the airport and we drove to their home a short distance from the beautiful beaches on the Baltic Sea.My brother Jes joined us a day later and we celebrated my cousins wedding on the weekend. Beautiful outdoor ceremony a reception with barbecue! We stayed at my uncle’s house in Kiel for a few days before leaving for the very north western region of Germany right on the Danish Border. There we reunited with more family and spent time at my other aunt’s house. We explored some of the small picturesque towns, enjoyed some good wine and food and had some good laughs. We were also lucky enough to walk to the tiny Island of Oland (our almost annual ritual), had breakfast and enjoyed a Pharisaer (coffee, rum and whipped cream). A day trip to the Island of Sylt was a fun adventure, swimming in the warm waters of the North Sea. Back on the Baltic Sea we spent a few days at the Beaches and found time to visit with my cousin and his family. We then travelled by train to Frankfurt and met up with our friend Nina whom we met on a program this year. She toured us around Frankfurt and we had a fabulous outdoor meal in the old town. The next day we gathered at an old brew pub in the city of Darmstadt, where on the following day, our good friend Gerd would be celebrating his 70th birthday. At the pub we enjoyed some hardy German food, good beer and reunited with some of Gerd’s friends whom I met 10 years earlier at his 60th birthday party. The birthday Gala was attended by 100+ people and we enjoyed cocktails a lovely dinner, life band and dancing until the early morning hours. After another day visiting with Gerd’s sister Ruth and her husband Detlev, whom we had met in Vancouver, and a daytrip out into the countryside it was time to say good bye to Germany and we flew back to Iceland.We spent two days in and around Reykjavik and stayed at the wonderful Loft Hostel in the Centre of town. We went to the famous Blue Lagoon and Annemarie enjoyed a massage in the pool and we swam the warm natural spring waters and of course enjoyed a glass of wine at the swim up bar. We went on a day trip to visit some of the Geysers Iceland is known for and enjoyed the beautiful countryside. Our final dinner was at a well known Restaurant, called the Fish Market (Fiskmarkaðurinn). Back in Vancouver in the middle of August we had some time to enjoy some more of Vancouver’s great summer weather and outdoor activities.  At the end of August we travelled to Vancouver Island to celebrate my nephew/grandson’s wedding to Amber! A beautiful outdoor ceremony was enjoyed on a very windy day, followed by a lovely dinner. My birthday in September passed with little fanfare, just a nice little get together. Annemarie attended another Gail Harker Seminar in La Conner, Washington. This class a four day seminar called “Free Machine Embroidery.” Most recently we both took a class and made a quilt “the Heron”. We are still working on it!! Now it is time to celebrate this special time of the year! Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases and a happy and healthy

Ein Philosophieprofessor stand vor seinen Studenten und hatte ein paar Dinge vor sich liegen. Als der Unterricht begann, nahm er ein grosses leeres Mayonnaiseglas und füllte es bis zum Rand mit grossen Steinen.Anschliessend fragte er seine Studenten, ob das Glas voll sei. Sie stimmten ihm zu. Der Professor nahm eine Schachtel mit Kieselsteinen, schüttete sie in das Glas und schüttelte es leicht. Die Kieselsteine rollten natürlich in die Zwischenräume der grösseren Steine. Dann fragte er seine Studenten erneut, ob das Glas jetzt voll sei. Sie stimmten wieder zu und lachten. Der Professor seinerseits nahm eine Schachtel mit Sand und schüttete ihn in das Glas. Natürlich füllte der Sand die letzten Zwischenräume im Glas aus. “Nun”, sagte der Professor zu seinen Studenten, “Ich möchte, daß Sie erkennen, daß dieses Glas wie Ihr Leben ist! Die Steine sind die wichtigen Dinge im Leben: Ihre Familie, Ihr Partner, Ihre Gesundheit, Ihre Kinder. Dinge, die – wenn alles andere wegfiele und nur sie übrig blieben – Ihr Leben immer noch erfüllen würden. Die Kieselsteine sind andere, weniger wichtige Dinge wie z.B. Ihre Arbeit, Ihre Wohnung, Ihr Haus oder Ihr Auto. Der Sand symbolisiert die ganz kleinen Dinge im Leben. Wenn Sie den Sand zuerst in das Glas füllen, bleibt kein Raum für die Kieselsteine oder die grossen Steine.  So ist es auch in ihrem Leben, wenn Sie all ihre Energie für die kleinen Dinge in Ihrem Leben aufwenden, haben Sie für die grossen keine mehr. Achten Sie auf die wichtigen Dinge, nehmen Sie sich Zeit für Ihre Kinder oder Ihren Partner, achten Sie auf Ihre Gesundheit. Es wird noch genug Zeit für Arbeit, Haushalt, Partys usw. geben. Achten Sie zuerst auf die grossen Steine, sie sind es, die wirklich zählen. Der Rest ist nur Sand.” Nach dem Unterricht nahm einer der Studenten das Glas mit den grossen Steinen, den Kieseln und dem Sand – bei dem mittlerweile sogar der Professor zustimmte, daß es voll war – und schüttete ein Glas Bier hinein. Das Bier füllte den noch verbliebenen Raum im Glas aus; dann war es wirklich voll. Die Moral von der Geschichte … Wie viel es im Leben zu tun gibt – es ist immer noch Platz für ein Bier!

Der Zauber von Guete und Liebe, den du ausgestrahlt hast und der jeden, der Dich traf, beruehrte, wird uns simmer begleiten.

Welcome to Maicke’s site. This WordPress installation exists mainly because we wanted access to the home behind the Shaw cable modem… Since ‘Shaw’ may change the IP address this is done using “dynamic DNS” service and running the $35 RaspberryPI SBC (version 3B for the technically inclined). This is the default post for a new WordPress site…