Australia play holland today

Australia play The Netherlands today in a world cup practice match. Really looking forward to this. Games starts about 3pm here, so must be about 11pm back in Australia.

 

World Cup excitement is brewing everywhere now. First game is on Friday, Germany is Playing Costa Rica, and then the count down until Australia`s first match. 

 

Go Australia!!!!!

Der Hund Charlie

Hi Everyone. I don't really have much time today because we need to do some shopping, then get to the gym, and we have had a late start to the day because I attended my first “Over 30s” party last night at a German night club. I will tell everyone more about that in another post.

So I thought I would post a few pictures of Britta's little puppy Charlie. Before Britty came to Australia, Charlie was quite small, but since then he has grown up. Meet “Der Hund Charlie”.

This is Charlie.

Charlie Sleeping against the wall.

Me and Charlie

Charlie deciding to sit on Britty's sister Kerstin's lap

The Flat in Kiel

Kiel is a port city in the north of Germany with a population of about 250,000. Kiel is about 100kms from Hamburg, which is Germany's second largest city. Britty and myself live on a nice quite street, close to shops, markets, and in walking/riding distance to the water front. Here are some photos from Google Earth.

Germany from above. I have marked our flat. Just above Hamburg.

Getting a little closer, our place is again marked. It is about a 20 - 25 minute walk to the city centre of Kiel. There is also quite a lot of water front area, great for walking, riding, and skating!

Even closer now. The "Car Park," serves as both a car park, and a market area. Markets are mainly fruit and vegetables, with some stalls selling fresh fish, and cheese. Strawberries from these markets are just fantastic, but quite expensive. On Sunday and Wednesday nights, you can not park in the market site, making finding a park very difficult.

Close Up of our Street.

Britty and myself live in a one bedroom flat. I guess the best way to describe it is with some photos.

Outside, ours is the building painted blue at the bottom.

Our messy bed room.

My computer fits perfectly on the desk Britty bought before I arrived.

The Lounge Room, which also doubles as the spare room. Don't worry Chad it has a door!!!!

The little bath room. At one time these flats didn't even have a bathroom, and you were required to share with four other flats. Some places are still like this!

The Kitchen.

Cupboards??

Nein!! I love dishwashers!

All in all I have to say that Britty did a great job of finding us a place to live. Thanks beautiful!!

Everyone keep well. Enjoy the weekend!

Scott

Britty and Frankfurt Germany

After 14 weeks of counting down the months, days, minutes, hours, and seconds I was finally reunited with Britty in Frankfurt. This 14 week period seemed to last forever! Each day at work was like extracting teeth, no actually extracting teeth was more fun (yes I had my wisdom teeth out during March).

When I stepped off the plane in Frankfurt, my heart was beating faster. The walk from the gate to Customs seemed to take forever (I guess it was about 600 or 700m). When I finally got there I saw a huge line, but then I realised it was for EU Nationals. The other line for non EU Nationals was very short. After getting through Customs I found my way to the baggage collection section.

After about 35 minutes standing around, watching, waiting and becoming a little impatient, my bag finally appeared in front of me! I collected it (all 28kgs of it), and then headed toward the door. The sliding door opened and I could see Britty!!! There she was, beautiful, smiling, and as gorgeous as ever! It was a surreal feeling when we hugged, it was like a dream, but better than a dream because it was real. One of the reasons for traveling to Germany is of course to travel, but the number one reason for me coming here is to be with my beautiful girlfriend!

While in Frankfurt we walked around the city, and saw some of the sites. Frankfurt is a nice city, quite large, with some beautiful old buildings, green parks, as well as some high rise buildings. The weather in Frankfurt for my arrival wasn't too bad, but we did get a little rain.

I had a great weekend catching up with Britty, and seeing Frankfurt. Here are some of our photos.

Me and Britty taking a self photo!

Typical German Street, but with only 1 BMW

Frankfurt Skyline

Beautiful green park that we walked through on the way to the city.

Large Church in the distance

Britty showing off some earrings I bought for her in Singapore

Streets of Frankfurt with lots of tourists

View from our hotel room. Bit of a dodge area!

Fountain at the Frankfurt Opera House

After our 2 night stay in Frankfurt, we needed to drive to Kiel by 5pm Sunday so Britty could get to work. Britty had borrowed her Dad's Audi for the trip down, and on the way back I got to drive on the "wrong" side of the road for the first time. At first it was strange, but I am getting use to it.

I also got my first taste of the German Autobahn. On the way back I managed to crack the 200km/hour mark in an unlimited zone. You can certainly get from A to B pretty quick on those roads!!!

Keep Well. Scott

David R still up to his old tricks!

Doesn't seem to matter where I go, David is always at work, using his Photoshop skills for the good of mankind. Whether it be me with 2 heads, or just enjoying a nice friendly chat with a guy dressed in traditional German clothing, you can count on David to offer up something special.

Thanks again Dave!! Here it is!!

Singapore Stop Over

On the 10th of May I headed to Singapore for a 2 night stopover. This trip was mainly planned to help me breakup the long journey to Germany, but it also gave me the opportunity to do some exploring.

If you like shopping then Singapore is the place for you! Doesn't matter where you go or which way you walk, you are bound to find a shopping mall that suits your needs. In the 8 hours I spent walking around the city, I must have visited 10 different shopping areas, and walked past about a dozen more.

The shopping malls are very large. Hundreds of shops, in multi-level buildings, with People everywhere! I guess these malls are not only a great place to shop, but a fantastic place to get out of the hot muggy conditions ! I thought Cairns was bad!

I took many photos in Singapore, here are just a few.

Photo from an over street foot bridge on the way to the largest fountain in the world, "The Fountain of Wealth"

Me at "The Fountain of the Wealth". I was very disappointed to find it switched off!!!!

I like this idea. A count down that tells people exactly how many seconds are left before the "Green Man" changes to a "Red Man".

Very busy Orchard Road! Lots of shops and people.

One of the many shopping complexes with many levels.

Saw a few of these.

I also had to sample the Singapore Beer, "Tiger"! It was very very nice, and great after 8 hours of walking.

Going away party

I figure a good place to start this blog is at my going away party, which was at the Norman Hotel way back on the 6th of May!! I would like to thank everyone who was able to make it, and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

There are many photos from the night, and I think one very good lesson was learnt. Never ever leave your camera unattended when people are drinking.