Short trip to Dubai

I have been on a business trip to Dubai. Amazing city. Everywhere they build anything giant. And all the things they make have at least to be twice as big as the biggest that was the biggest so far. The biggest skyscraper, the biggest airport, the biggest amusement park, the biggest hotel,...



One of the biggest construction sets in the world. The skyscrapers pop off the ground like mushrooms in a windy and wet forrest.



A nice 5 star hotel with a venizian style. Bars and restaurants along an artificial water way. To go to your hotel room, you have to take a boat (dhow). In the background there is this fmous so called 7 star hotel burj al arab.



The tallest building of the world. The burj tower. It will be between 800 and 900m tall. They do not say how big it will be, so nobody can be faster in building the biggest one.



The gold shouq, which means the gold market. Jewellery is sold per kilograms. This old Dubai area was the most beautiful. Not those airconditioned shopping malls that look the same like in Germany, USA or whereever else.

Hurricane Kyrill over Nachrodt

On January 18th there was one of thebiggest hurricanes ever. Trees were crushed and trucks were blown from the highway. All roads to Nachrodt were blocked. Here are some pictures how it looked like on January 19th



As you can see, there is no tree left on this hill. Only trunks are left.



A closer look to the former forrest. It is now an open area. It was very dangerous the day after because it was still windy and there were still some trees falling down.



That's the road up the hill to Frederics school. On the 19th it was not possible to drive, the road was closed and a lot of the children had a free day. The guard railing is damaged from all the trees that crashed on it. It took two days to get the road free and it will take weeks to repair everything.



This is a farm in Wiblinwerde. More than ten trees were still laying on the house, but more than that were already taken away. These people must realy had a horror night.



In this part of the forrest there is an area of about 1000m long and 250m wide where no tree is left. This has been a totally coverred forrest.

Some more pictures can be seen here:
http://diashow.westfaelische-rundschau.de/wr/westfalen.diashow.kyrill2007/wr.westfalen.diashow.kyrill2007.frameset.php

Short trip to my cousin in switzerland

In December 2006 we spent 3 days in Grone at my cousine Vesna and her family. It was a very nice trip and we enjoyed it  very much.



This is my nephew Damian together with Frederic. They met the first time but directly became friends.


Up the hill in 1300m above sea level. The sun was shining and glases were necessary.



Skiing was possible, snow canons made some snow to ski on.



Fantastic view. Also in the background.



This was really great fun. On rubber tires in a bob sliding track. Fast and fun.



Thats Lucienne and me. She was not frightend at all.



The alps are really impressive. You get a total different feeling for the nature.