Soccer UEFA EURO 2024

The biggest dream: to repeat the Summer fairytale 2006 in Stuttgart in 2024 💫

Are you ready?

Ready for the UEFA Euro 2024? The countdown is on – UEFA EURO 2024 is just around the corner.

The start: June 14th and lasting for 4 weeks.

Our bread rolls are looking like soccer balls ⚽️

Sound advice: warning the fans of a delayed Deutsche Bahn 😂

A total of five matches – four group matches and one quarter-final – will be played in Stuttgart. Yeah!

Stuttgart – The whole city will be turned into a stadium.

On June 16, 2024 at 6 pm, Denmark will face Slovenia in the Stuttgart Arena ⚽️

Ready, steady, go!

…and don’t forget:

Ein schottischer Fanverband warnt seine Mitglieder zur Fußball-EM vor Reisen auf den letzten Drücker mit der Deutschen Bahn: „Verlasst die Kneipe ein bisschen schneller, gebt euch sellost ein wenig mehr Zeit. Das Letzte, was ihr wollt, ist, erst zur Halbzeit anzukommen.”

Good news (cw23)

Weather wise this week can only be fantastic ☀️ here’s to the good news!

Die Engagement-Karte ist ein Stück Anerkennung für die über eine halbe Million Menschen, die sich in Hamburg ehrenamtlich engagieren.
Mit der
Karte sollen sie zum Beispiel günstiger Museen besuchen und Rabatte bei Sportangeboten oder in Cafés bekommen.
Wer mindestens 16 Jahre
alt und mindestens seit 100 Stunden im Jahr ehrenamtlich aktiv ist, kann die Karte bei der Sozialbehörde beantragen!

Royale Ehre für Abba: Das schwedische Konigshaus hat am Freitag den Mitgliedern der schwedischen Kultband konigliche Orden verliehen.

Ein Fischkutter hat ein in der Nordsee gelandetes Kleinflugzeug aus dem Wasser gezogen und an Land gebracht.

Over a week ago, Taquería El Califa de León was simply one of Mexico City’s nearly 11,000 registered taco shops. Then, on May 14, life changed completely for the cash-only taqueria that has barely enough room to stand, sells four kinds of tacos – three beef, one pork — and whose grill radiates intense heat. That day, it became the first Mexican taco stand to win a Michelin star.

Um die Umwelt zu schützen, haben India auf einer 16 km langen Strecke Autobahnpfeiler errichtet, damit sich Wildtiere frei in ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum bewegen können.

Donald Trump was found guilty on Thursday of all 34 felony counts in his hush-money criminal trial, making him the first American president to be declared a felon.

„Die momentane Situation in unserer Welt kann bei all den Krisen Angst machen und die Zukunft ist sicher fur viele gerade sehr ungewiss.
Aber bei allem was passiert, müssen wir nicht tatenlos zusehen, wir haben eine Stimme, um mit zu entscheiden! Für uns und für unsere Kinder! Nutzt sie, es ist wichtiger den je!“

Luckily, we are living in a country in which we are allowed to vote! Use your vote! Go voting June 9th!

Garden Party!

Sunshine all day… The party motto: asparagus, strawberries, peonies & friends. All set up in the garden and just when we were about to kick off the party… we got surprised by rain. Quite a bit of rain. Hello May!

We started my 40th birthday party in the garden…

Not a problem if you have adventurous and very flexible guests: all helping and running with tables, chairs, plates & food in their hands… under the roof and inside the house. Different than planned and still wonderful! Probably a party to not forget so quickly.

We had a super delicious dinner, all home cooked and BBQed – huge thank you to my little helpers 🫶

Moving the buffet inside into the kitchen – improvisation is all!

Saltimbocca with asparagus & strawberries 🍓

Smoking all day, thanks hubby, it was super delicious!

Thank you all for coming from far & near! I had a fabulous evening with all of you!

La Champagne 🇫🇷

Champagne, Baby! 🇫🇷

This weekend was all about champagne: growing, harvesting, producing, champagne houses, champagne tasting, champagne cellars, driving through the champagne… ✨

The village of Hautvillers is considered the cradle of champagne, because it was here that the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon invented the method wine becomes champagne 🥂

The beautiful Verzenay Lighthouse that overlooks the vineyards.

From the 13th to 19th century all French kings were crowned in La cathedrale Notre-Dame de Reims.

The champagne is beautiful, loved the scenery outside the window and couldn’t get over the stunning landscapes of vineyards that go on for as far as you can see.

Best food ever. Another reason to just be in love with France 🇫🇷

Bon Appetit 🍴

wine routes open up to the wine lover the taste of this extraordinary growing region.

First climbing up the stairs… rewarded by another glass of champagne ☺️

The impressive cellar vaults underneath add up to a length of several kilometers.

Day 5: too much champagne. Need a break 😎 (till Saturday). Time to go home!

Supporting small family business producing amazing champagne 🍾

A bus load full of champagne. We are on the way back home after a fabulous long weekend 🍾 a weekend full of champagne, great food, laughter and wonderful company! Happy birthday!

Good news (cw22)

Ukrainians expressing their gratitude in New York City to Americans for supporting Ukraine during this difficult historic time.

For those who dont know this is Andrea Cisternino… he lives in Ukraine. He is staying with his 400 rescue dogs and has stated he would rather die with them than leave them and is continuing to help those dogs that have been left behind.

1956 reiste Milli Bau mit ihrem VW-Bus alleine durch die Seidenstraße. Sie fuhr über Syrien, Nepal und Indien nach China und Japan. In dieser Zeit schlief und lebte sie im Bus. Sie dokumentierte diese und auch spatere Reisen mit ihrer Kamera.
Sie schoss über 6.000 Fotos und Dias.

Am 9. Juni wird gewählt. 30 deutsche Firmen haben nun ihre Beschäftigten aufgefordert, ihre Stimme bei der Europawahl für Vielfalt und Toleranz abzugeben. Auch Mercedes-Chef Ola Källenius hat sich in diesem Zusammenhang geäußert und wurde sehr deutlich.

Have a great week!

40 & fabulous

This is what 40 looks like!

Cheers to 40 years!

I don’t really remember my 10th or 20th birthday… but I do remember turning 30: with friends in NYC and gifted with a helicopter flight over the city! Wow!!! Definitely a day to remember.

It’s nice to remember certain personal milestones. That’s why I decided to celebrate my 40th birthday with friends in and with Champagne in France 🥂

Of course we stopped at a Champagne house and learnt about the 18th century old tradition of hand-picking the crops and hand-spinning the Champagne bottles which remains a requirement in this Region today. The tasting afterwards is the best part…

The champagne cellar stocked with millions of bottles waiting to be ready for toasting!

Stunning landscapes of vineyards that go on for as far as you can see.

That was the first party. Stay tuned for more parties to come up. And guess what the aperitif will be… 🥂

P.S.: Was I / am I afraid of being 40 now? No! Not at all! Being surrounded by so many fabulous ladies >40! Also, especially not after my mums words after sharing something about work with her the other day (feeling happy to be able to share my experience with much younger colleagues), her response: „that will be from now on always like that. You get older but smarter and more experienced“. Awwww! So, why being afraid?! Let’s go, 40! 💃

Thanks for all the birthday wishes 💋

Happy birthday, BRD!

The BRD was born on May 23 1949!

Celebrating 75 year of Bundesrepublik Deutschland! Happy birthday 🎈

What is typical German?

Birkenstock sandals!

Gendern!

Bravo magazine.

Everyone back in the 80s, 90s was reading the „bravo“ – best magazine for teenagers back then!

Eatable paper.

Steiff & Knopf im Ohr

Various colors of Mülltonnen

In Swabia: yellow (plastic), green (paper), brown (compost), black (everything else), and a basket for bottles and glass. We are recycling fanatics!

Spezi!

Bread!

Kännchen

Freibad Pommes

The best part of a summer day, if you could afford fries in the public swimming pool kiosk.

Haribo Gummibärchen

Stolpersteine

Spaghetti Eis

The sweet variant of spaghetti bolognese is spaghetti ice cream – founded by an Italian in Mannheim.

Personalausweis

Handy and mandatory for German adults to carry around. If you don’t and get stopped by the police, you usually pay a fine. We call that „Ausweispflicht“.

White socks in sandals

Bestimmt gibt es weltweit die eine oder andere Geschmacksverirrung. Aber für die weiße Socke in der luftigen Sandale dürften die überwiegend deutschen Männer weit über ihre Landesgrenzen hinaus bekannt sein. Leider sieht die aber, egal welches Label auch auf dem Riemchen stehen mag, mit der Tennissocke einfach nur sehr besch… bescheiden aus.

Schwarzbrot

Hard typical German bread. Like it or leave it!

Erster vw

First VWs in Germany, affordable for most of the Germany. Those were good times. I wonder what happened since…

Das deutsche „Sie“

Weinrömer

The style of the glass, very famous for drinking wine in Germany.

Tatort

Fußball

Funktionskleidung

Without right gear in Germany, you cannot go on a hike, motorbike, cycling trip!!!

Badetuch

›Nothing’s faster than a German towel!‹ Niemand reserviert so schnell und organisiert die besten Sonnenliegen am Pool wie wir Deutschen. Schon kurz nach Sonnenaufgang ist die erste Reihe belegt. Die bunten Badehandtücher in extra large kommen dafür mit auf jede Reise.

Mett Igel

Like it or hate it (I am hating it): it’s raw pork minced meat… a classic for a farewell party in the office.

Ahoi Brause

Milchschnitte

Claudia Schiffer

Brezel

Rotbäckchen Saft

When we were kids and sick… a bottle of red healthy juice with that label on would cure us!

Übergangsjacke…Bier…Weinschorle…Biergarten…Sonntag = Ruhetag und alle Geschäfte haben geschlossen…Mittagspause: Shops are closed…Restaurant Nordsee! 🐟

What is typical German for you?

Happy birthday, BRD!

Good news (cw21)

Japan will always be way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of education.
* This neighbor decided to paint their house and the painters put up some mesh to protect the other houses from splashes and not uncomfortable during the job.
In addition, neighbors who were not going to remove their cars while the company was working, they were covered with a tarpaulin so they wouldn’t damage them at all…
Empathy, education and respect are values I admire in this country

Die Beatsteaks gehen im Juni auf Tour und treten dabei ausschließlich in autonomen Jugendzentren im Osten auf, um “diejenigen (zu) unterstützen, die durch die (aktuellen politischen) Entwicklung starken Gegenwind erfahren, Angriffen ausgesetzt sind und Widerstand leisten”.

Tokyo, Japan ..
The Japanese have started puting floating gardens on the roof of public parking lots. Not only creates beautiful spaces but also helps bees and other polinators to survive …

Drinking on the tube might have been banned, but soon you could have an actual party in an Underground station. TfL is offering the chance to hire out tube stations for shindigs.

Linda Benson started surfing at age 11 and was the first woman to surf the great big waves of Waimea Bay on the North Shore of O’ahu.
That was at age 15. And she’s still going!

Happy Pfingsten! 🌸

„Swifties“

It’s all about „swiftie“ these days and for the last couple of months. Heard about it?

„Swiftie“ means nothing else than being a very passionate and loyal fan of the very popular musician Taylor Swift.

I mean, why else would Americans fly across the Atlantic to Paris to see one of her concerts combined with a bit of European travel & shopping? You must be a swiftie! Another reason is that tickets in Paris are apparently cheaper compared to the USA. Is that all crazy? Yes!!!

It’s cheaper to get a French vacation then it is to get one ticket back in the USA!

Can’t afford Taylor Swift concert tickets in the U.S? Not a problem! Travel to Paris to save some US$ and spend some € instead! (The EU loves the idea, thanks Taylor!)

VR Friendship bracelets at the Eiffel Tower presented by NRJ Hit Music Only in honor of The Eras Tour Paris. Awwwww 💗

Speaking of concert ticket prices. I think it’s too crazy! But Taylor is not the only one with ticket prices hard to afford… Adele, Coldplay, etc. are similarly crazy.

The media is all about Taylor Swift. She‘s American. She’s talented. She’s attractive. She’s a singer as well as a songwriter. She’s an entrepreneur. She’s in love with the famous American football player, Travis Kelce. She makes political statements. She’s successful. She’s a billionaire. In fact she is joining the ranks of the world’s wealthiest individuals. She seems to have it all.

Taylor Swift wearing Travis Kelce’s team colors (Chiefs) on her 87th The Eras Tour show. She’s a mastermind!

Yeah, that’s Taylor. The „swift-mania“ seems to continue… Even German priests started playing her songs in Sunday mass in Heidelberg: 1,200 teenagers are back in church! It’s so simple! lol.