Sushi and Friends

Today, rizza prepared a japanese food sushi. I don't eat sushi, but my friends said its tastes great. I'm really very choosy with foods, i only eat selected fruits and my stomach is not used to vegetables and salads thats why i take multivitamins everyday.

With or without occasion, there's always food on the table shared by friends. In every gatherings, a mere blah blah blah with friends is not complete without foods and drinks. Truly, friendships also revolves around food.

Kim's Graduation Rites

My grandson Kim graduated in the kindergarten last tuesday. He's now ready to enter Grade I this coming June, a new chapter in his school life.. There's a big difference between the kindergarten here in Germany and Philippines. Here, the kids played a lot, unlike in the Philippines, the kids are more advanced esp. those who are enrolled in a private school. To make the summer vacation worthwhile, kim is enrolled in a taekwando class.

Weekend Treat
My brother-in-law who's vacationing from the US, treated them for a week-end stay at Manila Peninsula Hotel, a controversial 5-star hotel where Senator Trillanes staged an aborted coup last december. They have so much fun enjoying the amenities offered by the hotel.

At the lobby of Manila Pen with my sister and her children

My Köln Adventure

Part 1- Family Bonding Time

Twice or thrice a year, we always go to köln either by train or car to visit dirk's family. The weather was very bad on our way there three days ago. It's really a nice feeling to see once again mutti and her sister, tante christa. We have a wonderful lunch at a nearby chinese restaurant where we exchanges some updates on our everyday lives and future plans.

After our lunch, we proceeded to mutti's house for kaffee trinken and here, dirk is showing to tante christa our vacation pictures.
Part 2- Kölner Dom and the City
Cologne Cathedral or Kölner Dom is renowned as a monument of christianity. It is a world heritage site,being one of the best known architectural monuments in Germany. It also attracted millions of tourists every year being one of the worlds largest churches. Everytime we're there to visit dirks roots, my itinerary always includes going to the cathedral.

Me in front of the cathedral

Kölner Dom is dedicated to St. Peter and the Blessed Virgin Mother

Accross the cathedral is the shopping area of Köln where you can shop to more than 500 stores from the expensive ones to the cheaper junks

The city is very close to my heart

Köln Bound

Tomorrow we're driving to Köln for dirk's business appointment. We're also going on a side trip to Heilbronn to pick up his daughter, janine. Part of the trip is to visit Dirk's mother who is not aware that her grandaughter is coming with us, so that is our big surprise to her. I might not be able to blog in the next 2 days, but as soon as we arrive, i'm going to share my köln adventure.

Slippery Tuesday

When i looked into our window this morning, the trees and roofs of the houses were all covered with snow. There's snowfall during the night and in the morning its already in the melthing phase. On my way to work, i did drive on the usual zigzag road and faster route. In one of the street curves, i suddenly lost control of the wheel because of the melted ice. I braked hard but the car is still moving and i'm already in the opposite direction. It's good that there's no car at the back and in front of me. Thank God i was able to regained my composure and able to control the car. I have to blame myself, i should not be driving too fast, a lesson for the day.

Hotel Beds Styling

The bad weather continued today. On my way to work, it's hard to drive because of the snowfall, but thanks God i managed it. If only i can just stay home and curl up in bed, but i need to work to support the education of my children back home. Talking about beds, here are some of my favorite bed settings in the ff. hotels:
1. Hilton München- Germany
2. Mercure Hotel, Berlin, Germany
3. Le Meridien - Portugal
4. Pattaya Hotel- Thailand
5. Shiba Park Hotel- Japan
6. Ibis Hotel- Sydney, Australia
7. Mission Hills Hotel- Shenzhen, China
8. Hilton Hotel- Kuwait
9. Shangrila Hotel- Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
10.Angkor Palace & Resort Spa- Siam Reap,Cambodia
11.Marriott Hotel- Cebu City, Philippines
12.Alice Boracay Resort- Boracay, Aklan, Philippines

Happy Easter to All !!!!!!

Easter sunday is the most glorious feast of the christian world because it recalls the resurrection of Jesus Christ to eternal life after his crucifixion. Back home, the day started at dawn with a procession going to the church wherein our Lord Jesus Christ and Mama Mary reunited, it was then followed by a mass. Everywhere, the catholics celebrated the easter sunday by family gatherings wherein there is an egg hunting and gift giving. Cecille and me also received our rabbit chocolate and colored eggs as easter presents from Beate, our german colleague.

My Family Activities

My children in the Philippines also had fun-filled activities:
1. Family trip to Enchanted Kingdom
2. Astrid's educational trip at Subic, Zambales
3. Jr's Prom Night (he's a junior student at International Electronic and Technical
Institute, San Pedro, laguna campus)
4. My grandaughter's baptism (Lyka Anjanette)
5. Holy week at Paete, Laguna

Snowy Black Saturday

My friend Cecille with snowy mountain as background

This year, we have a strange weather here in Germany. During the supposed winter time, there's no snow and sometimes its sunny, now its spring time, there's snow everywhere esp. in the mountains. It's good that i have a yearly tires that can be used both in summer and winter.

Lucy invited us for lunch at their place, so even there is a heavy downpour of snow, we still drive to their house. Her husband, Eberhardt, cooked Gulasch, a traditional german soup with beef slices with matching rice, vegetable salad and strawberry chocolate mousse for dessert which tastes superb. I was really surprised that her husband is a good cook.

While eating, we also shared some jokes and even posed with alcohol drinks in our hands.

Don't get us wrong, we only used the drinks for photo purposes.

Stormy Good Friday

We're still experiencing a bad weather here in Baden Württemberg. It's very windy and i can feel its strength while driving my car. It's good that my car radio have been repaired and now i have music again while the rain poured. The road was empty of cars and because of the storm, many people just stayed at home. I started my day by praying the rosary which i'm doing religiously for the past 25 years. My devotion to Mama Mary started during my college days. She's really our Mother of Perpetual Help, she's always there during the ups and downs of my life.

Time for Reflection

This Lenten season reminds us how infinite God's love is for us. We should renew our relationship with HIM and repent for all our sins. It's a time for prayer, reflection and forgiveness. We should be thankful on all the countless blessings whether big or small and the eternal life that HE had given us.
In all our travels, we always visit some churches,my own version of Visita Iglesia, here are some:

Baclayon Church, Bohol, Philippines

Culion, Palawan, Philippines (the church structure is made of corals)

Kölner Dom, Köln, Germany

Sydney Church (Australia)

Algarve, Portugal church

Foods, Foods... Everywhere

Today the weather is not nice which make me think about carving for foods. For lunch, i did cooked big prawns with coconut milk and Ginataang Maiz for my snack. Foods are sources of energy and life. But with all the foods around us, we should not forget to put some foods for our thoughts since its lenten season.
In every country we visited, we always take pictures of their specialties, here are examples:

Vietnamese Foods (Ho Chi Minh City)

Hungarian dishes (Budapest)

Thai dishes (Bangkok)

Cambodian dishes (Siam Reap)

Japanese sushi (Tokyo, Japan)

Hongkong duck

Spanish Paella (Alicante, Spain)

Portuguese dishes (Algarve, Portugal)

Holland cheese

When we're in Cairns, Australia, we saw this menu in the restaurant. Dirk ordered Kangaroo steak and he liked it very much.

A Relax Day

Today we have a very relax day in the hotel where we work. We only have three guests so we finished early. Unlike last week which is stressful because all the rooms are occupied. The seminar room were also used and the restaurant had lots of hungry guests. The quiet atmosphere in the hotel gave us time to recharge our body and mind. When there are lots of work in the hotel, we always skipped lunch. But today, we had a mouth-watering lunch at elena's place. She did cooked chicken curry, beef sinigang and tiramisu as dessert. Any meals is enjoyable if you share it with friends.

The TGV Train

The TGV is France's high speed train. It holds the record for the fastest wheeled train having reached 574.8 km/h and the world's highest average speed for a regular passenger service. Travel by TGV has largely replaced air travel between connected european cities due to shorter travel time (especially for trips taking less than 3 hours). It also reduced check-in, security and boarding formalities and the convenient locations in the heart of cities. From our place, if you want an adventure, it is possible to go to Paris in the morning and returned in the evening, thus saving on hotel accomodations.

World's Famous Towers

I still can't believe that i've been to well-known towers in different continents. Before, i only saw these towers in the magazines and its a dream come true for me to experienced to be on top of the world's towering towers.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Note that i'm sporting a short haircut during our visit to Paris in 2002.


Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2003


Tokyo Tower, Japan, 2004. I was surprised that Tokyo Tower is higher by few centimeters than Eiffel Tower of Paris.

Kuwait Tower, 2005.


Burj Al Arab , which literally means Tower of the Arabs, is the tallest building used exclusively as a state-of-the art 7-star hotel and stands on an artificial island in Dubai.