Tuesday, July 7, 2009

An email from Germany



We got an email from Thorsten; our German friend we kept running into all over the Bahamas. He and Dieter were cruising a Nordhavn 40 named Sand Piper 2

We hope he doesn't mind our sharing his very eloquent email but we find him quite interesting. His home and cruising areas are some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.

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Guten Tag Melanie, Bob, and Radar,

It is great fun to read about your Istaboa trip and to look at the photos. It feels like yesterday.
Here in Kiel at the Baltic Sea it is just after midsummer, the sun rises at about 0500 and sunset is at approx 2200.
Long beautiful days.
The famous "Kieler Woche" - an international sail week for about 4700 sailors and 1200 boats, dinghis and yachts just ended in its 125th year.
It is the biggest event with approx 3 million visitors.
Every summer about 125 cruise vessels are calling Kiel to change passengers, who then visit Hamburg or even Berlin.
They continue their trip into the Baltic and to Norway.
I am happy to be at home, to do some work in the garden, to walk our Dachshund together with my wife Henriette, and to meet our friends.

Dieter will coach his grandson, sailing 29er in the European Champion Races on a lake in Italy.

I will sail with two of my oldest friends in an old wooden boat to Sweden for about two weeks.
After that, my wife Henriette, our dog Carlotta and I will travel in our small "Winnebago" to the South of Germany, where the famous wine is growing.

I wish you all the best and I am looking forward to seeing you again on the other side of the ocean next year.
Take care.

Danke und Auf Wiedersehen, alles Gute
 
Henriette, Thorsten und Carlotta
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The Kieler Woche sounds like a lot of fun.

Cut and pasted from Wikipedia:


Kiel Week (German: Kieler Woche) is an annual sailing event in Kiel, Germany. It is the largest sailing event in the world, and also one of the largest Volksfeste in Europe.
Click here for more info on Kieler Woche.

Good to hear from Thorsten. He's a funny guy as well as a very nice fellow. It does seem like he is enjoying life.
Danke, Thorsten.

So for now...

Auf Wiedersehen


Istaboa