california

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after a night in the plane and seeing baja california during the flight from houston to san diego i was ready for new adventures. bill's timing was perfect and he kindly picked me up from san diego airport. the first stop was the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel where we had lunch with fabulous view over the pacific.


the vegetation in the area reminds of the mediterranean area, but the variety of plants is different.


skinny-dipping my feet in the pacific !
recognize that palm tree in the back ?? ;-)


i could obviously not visit the US without stopping @ a proper diner.


sunday morning breakfast was an Oreo Cookie Malted Milk Shake accompanied by a Belgian Waffle with Syrup. i love the size of portions in this country ! thank you bill for the extra stop.


bill's friend jane has a fantastic santa claus collection. here is just a little part of it, luckily they have not yet been stored away into their over-summering boxes. note the one sitting on the edge of the shelve . . . . . unfortunately the clivage is invisible, but it surely is there !


on the way back from pasadena to laguna niguel we passed the skyline of los angeles. we also stopped in a fully-packed shopping centre to pick up the last few bits and pieces for myself.


we spent the last day in san diego together with michelle from korea. luckily there was a Ben&Jerry's shop in the area and i had my last full-blown ice-cream.

non-dog lovers, please see the next picture.
all others, i also got the chance to go to the first official dog off-leash area of the entire United States. details can be found on www.daisysdogs.blogspot.com


alles hat ein ende nur die wurst hat zwei . . . . . it was time to say good-bye to bill and 18 wonderful days in the americas. i will surely be back in both those places some day, as there is lots more to do there.

Argentina !

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it is at gate 13 of gatwick airport that i embarked on my trip to buenos aires and california. but i was not alone on the way to new york, as i met another inhabitant of cambridge who went to see his family in southamerica. boredom was far away as i learned how to solve those brain-teasing sudoku's . . . .


but 28hrs later after spending 22hrs in the air, stopping in new york and houston, waiting for an hour at the argentinian imigration plus finding my luguage in the southamerican chaos, i was picked up by kathy at the airport. soon we got to their quinta over an hour away from buenos aires.


there i was welcomed by a little 1.5yr old pajarito named tonique. she prooved to be a very good entertainer for the next 12 days.


i spent most of my time somewhere around the pileta lying in the sun and watching the friends of the wet having fun. kathy and andre have done so much work to the house since i last visited in 2002 and all the plants have grown a lot.


die geborene wasserratte !


the two dogs were never far away but preferred to lie in the shade away from the heat of the day.


in the village i ate lots of yummy ice creams (better than my favorite Ben and Jerry !) and visited the mercurio family with viviana and her husband 'mercurio'.


whenever it was time to go to bed tonique got her tschoeffli (little sheep) and chupete to let us know she was tired. she also was a shoe aficionada and put on any new shoes she found in the house, here elie's new havayanas size 45.

the real winter has arrived in our garden . . . .

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