Vancouver is very quiet

We are still doing well, mostly staying at home. Vancouver is under an emergency status, schools, restaurants and bars are closed, but no lock down (yet). The weather continues to be nice and sunny, and we can walk on the beach. The city is very quiet though and most people seem to abide by the rules for social distancing.

English Bay beach

Back home, virus free

We made it back to Vancouver, just in time as it looks like. Canada now recommends against any non essential travels. We are feeling fine and had no contact with anybody infected with the Corona virus as far as we know. The weather here is cold, but sunny and should warm up over the next few days. The magnolia bush on our patio is starting to blossom and there are flowers on the ornamental fruit trees in our street, feels like spring is coming.

View from our patio

Trier

We are meeting with friends from our time in Heidelberg this weekend. We picked Trier to meet as a convenient location for all. This is Germany’s oldest city, founded by the Romans over 2,000 years ago and for some time was the largest city North of the Alps. The river Mosel has very high water right now, and the weather is a bit chilly, but we are enjoying our time together and catching up with news.

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Porta Nigra, the Roman city gate

Viewing the Mosel from our temporary home

Andrea joined us in Madeira

We are doing a lot of hiking here in Madeira, just great. Yesterday Andrea came to join us and today we went on another 10km hike. The afternoons we spend at the hotel pool with a great view of the ocean. The weather continues to be warm and sunny.

Madeira

We are spending a week in Madeira, nice and warm and full of flowers. Today we hiked 12 km up the mountain to Monte, but took the arial tram down. Now it’s time to enjoy a cold beer at the harbour and watch the local carnival activities.

Eltville

We are spending a few days in Germany and took my parents for an excursion to Eltville, a cute little town on the Rhine. I had organized this to spend time with Heidi, but she fell off a horse on Thursday and could not come. Bärbel and Siegbert joined us and we spent a nice evening with a good dinner and a quiet night in this medieval town.

Eltville has many houses from the middle ages

Breakfast before leaving again

Goodbye Mallorca

We have packed our stuff here in Mallorca and shifted it to the locker we rent. Tomorrow we fly to Germany. The time here was great and the weather especially nice during the last few weeks. We plan to return in November.

As I was in Palma today, I visited the Galleon Andalucia, which is docked in the harbour this week. This replica of a 17th century Spanish Galleon goes back to a time when Spain ruled the high seas, a bit of sailing nostalgia for me.

Galleon Andalucia completed more than 50,000 nautical miles

Grandchildren (and their parents) visit

Jessica and family are spending a few days with us and we are having great fun spending time in, on and at the water. We are also exploring some of the playgrounds in the area.

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Port de Pollenca beach

Hiking in the wilderness

Sheila was in the UK for a few days, including spending a special weekend with Oliver in London. She came back yesterday and today we went for a hike in the wilderness behind the Mortitx winery. Some of the area is closed from February to June because of vultures nesting there. We saw some vultures, but far away. We were probably walking too fast.

Weiterhin schön!

Ulrike und Klaus besuchen uns diese Woche, wir wandern, Klaus fährt e bike. Das Wetter ist weiterhin sehr schön und die Mandelbäume blühen.