Hello from Germany.  We;ve covered a lot of miles since the last entry!  We are now sitting in ba's parents house in Germany having just had a massive breakfast on the patio in the backyard.  Ah, home-mother cooking. 

The last couple of days in Singapore were a mixture of more shopping, visiting with Richard's familly and trying to escape from the heat.  On our last night we went to a great seafood restaurant where we feasted on crab and other seafood delicacies ... a great idea to eat lots of seafood just before a 12 hour flight.

Singapore's new Terminal 3 was great with telly screens showing lots of shows and a free movie theatre and tons of shops. We slept for 9 hours on the flight from singapore to frankfurt.

 From Frankfurt to Dusseldorf we caught the train and then waited for Beth-anne's parents who were late so we sat in the sun and got accosted by beggars and watched a drunken man stumble and dip his heads into fountains. beth-anne's mum appeared from the frugal masses like a saviour and her dad was not far behind. hugs all around followed by berating by the mummage about not being at the main entrance. fie on me an ba for not being able to read "main entrance" in deutsch.

And we arrived at the communal home greeted by sprite the non-spritely cat and a nice warm shower and food food food.

It was a lazy day that first day because we arrived in the morning. We went for icecream which was yummy. and played games.

it was supposed to be sumnmer but I believe that was a malicious lie. there was sun but it was a chill wind that brought us over and it stayed with us. I only had one long sleeve top, an ba had only one long legged trouser. we felt obliged to go shopping for clothes after our mammoth SHOP in singapore. but we havent gone yet. the weather has milded though it's cloudy at the moment.

beth anne is sewing my trousers for the wedding because they are too long and we're discussing cheetos and venice which is tonight ... don't step into any puddles in the dark, that's all I can say.

oh yeah, I forgot that yesterday we went for a cruise down the rhine on a paddle boat. how decadant. there were tables and it was a restaurant but we didnt eat. we shopped at a place called st goar and saw castles an shops an ate steak ... don't mention the cholestorol.  the rhine was smooth and quaint villages were touristy but quaint and quite different. Lots of knick knacky shopping involved and sitting in the sun sipping champagne and listening to the jazz band ... no wait, that was some movie I saw on the plane.

I suppose the next few days will involve getting into fights with water taxi drivers, getting sea sick, lugging suitcases into narrow bus aisles and paying 10 euros for a mini bottle of fanta. oh yeah, venice is in there somewhere ...

On reflection of that previous paragraph, I suppose the next few days will be great with lots of sight seeing and trying all the lovely foods available. there, that doesnt sound like a grump at all. i'm very pleased.

ah germany. it's so germanic. oh yeah, germans are either very loud and boisterous and every sentence is spoken as if they've just told the punchline to a very good drunken joke, or they're extremely reticent and watch and observe like lemurs at the singapore zoo.

-Richard