So, it's been a while for me here. I'm not great with this blog updating business. Anyways, we're in Steinhagen right now staying with relatives. Last week we were in Bottrop at my Aunt and Uncle's place. My dad grew up in Bottrop and therefore we spent a good while visiting many of my dad's friends from the days of old when he was young. I had some good encounters and always tried to sharpen my German language skills with every visit. If that failed, I resorted to eating cake, and then some more cake, and after that, even more cake, and when the cake was gone, bread. Okay, it wasn't quite like that. Other than visiting, we had to register our van and make sure it was running smoothly. The van is an old Red Cross van, and came with all the labels and decals. We decided to peal those off. However, we still have a large red cross and number on the roof for air traffic to single us out. We better not speed, or steal anything...they'll find us pretty fast. One of the highlights of the last week was going to a football match with my brother and Uncle. It was my first live match of such magnitude ever! Since my Uncle has season tickets, he invited Stefan and I, and we gladly accepted the invitation. Our home team (Schalke 04) played Dortmund (a huge rival team) and won. With excellent seats (6th row) in a full stadium with about 61 000 people, we cheered Schalke onto victory. So, that's about it. The girls shopped alot. They have many stores here. I bought a pair of good shoes. It wasn't easy though; the shoe store had four floors. Tomorrow we are going back to Bottrop to pick up our van that should be all fixed up (we rented two cars for the trip to Steinhagen this weekend) and then we'll hopefully be on our way south. Take care!

From Daniela...

Hi everyone, Sorry I haven't written to you lately but our internet access hasn't been so great. We left Mosbach and headed to Bottrop. We got up really early(5:30), got all our things together and headed for the train station. The train was supposed to come at 6:50 but actually came at about 7:15. When the train arrived we took all our luggage and hopped on. The train ride took about an hour before we arrived in Mannheim. In Mannheim we got on a nicer, bigger, faster train that took us to Braunschweig. There we got our VW van and after that we drove to my dad's hometown, Bottrop. Bottrop was great. We did so many interesting things and had so much fun. Everyday we got the most delicious breakfast; fresh buns from the "Franz Bergendahl" bakery, different kinds of meats and cheeses, eggs, nutella of course, and lots of different drinks. We visited many of my dad's friends and had lots of fun with my relatives. It was really nice because mostly all of them lived either in Bottrop or just outside of Bottrop. We also went to many places. Almost everyday we would go to the city centre and look around or buy some things. They've got it all. We went to my grandfather's bakery, the "Franz Bergendahl" Backerei (bakery), we went to a Schalke practise (my favourite soccer team) where we got some autographs and pictures taken with the players. It was awesome! The week went by faster than ever and before I knew it, we were leaving Bottrop and on our way to Steinhagen where we are now. Today we went to see an old castle, went to a zoo, ate some cake, and tonight we will watch Canada win the gold medal in hockey...yeehaw Canada! (it's better than Go, Canada Go!)

From Daniela...

We started off our trip with a trip to Vancouver to visit my cousins. We had a great time and before we knew it we were heading to Germany. My family and I left Vancouver on Febuary 16th. We took British Airways and flew to London and from London we flew to Frankfurt. The flight was better than I had expected and the plane was nicer than I thought. It was very nice. There were T.V's infront of every seat ,pillows and small thin blankets. The food was pretty good but I didn't have much of an appetite. The only problem was that the seats weren't too comfortable and the man in front of me had put his back. The plane ride went by quite fast and before I knew it we were in London. From Frankfurt we took our 16 bags and went to the train station. It was very hard carrying all the luggage around. The train took us to a smaller place called Mosbach where we stayed for the night and will be staying for a few nights to come. The place was very nice,actually it was an old mill that had been renovated. I am very very tired and it has taken me a while to get used to Germany but I think I will manage just fine. If you are wondering about the weather,well,it's not that great.(cloudy and rainy)

Goodbye Canada...

Well, we made it. The whole family flew out from Vancouver at 8:50 pm on Tuesday. We stopped over in London and then caught a flight to Frankfurt. After arriving in Frankfurt and gathering all of our luggage, we headed off to the bahnhof (train station) and jumped on a train. We had a short switch over at another station and then about an hour later found ourselves in the small town of Mosbach. Currently that's where we are. We're staying at the OM (Operation Mobilization) Deutschland headquarters for a few days and then will be going to Braunschweig by train to pick up our van for the trip. OM is a Christian mission organization with their base in the small town of Mosbach here and we are simply resting for a few days to get accustomed to Germany, before heading off further. The last couple days were a blur as we all were rushed to catch our flights and trains with about 20 bags of luggage and 9 people in tow. It's nice to settle down for a few days here. Mosbach is a beautiful small town, however, it's cold and wet right now because it's winter in Germany. We even arrived to snow! I thought that's why we were leaving Canada, but I guess not. I hope the pics serve you all well. Next time I'll get some video posted also. The pics include the OM base where we are staying, the planes, the trains, the bags etc. Take care!