Flight Fail

Today, after the gate opened, we walked to the gate B23 to wait to board. There we got one announcement after the other: Flight is delayed by 20 minutes, flight is delayed by another 30 minutes, and finally, flight is cancelled due to technical problems. Turns out that the pressure stabiliser had a fault and we couldn't fly. But, luckily, after a battle of opinions, we managed to "win" a spot in Cathay Pacific, flight CX 288. This path will take us to Hong Kong and then to Sydney in flight CX 139.

Frankfurt

I am finally back in Frankfurt, to fly away today with Thai Airways. Currently I  have a 5-hour waiting time ahead.

Karlsruhe Zoological Gardens

This morning, we didn't eat breakfast. We ate brunch in Tante Emma's with my Mum's cousin Torsten. Afterwards we went into the nearby Karlsruhe Zoological Gardens, the Karlsruhe zoo, with his three year old daughter Ella. We visited the petting zoo, the giraffes, the meerkats, the penguins and the wallabies. They even had an albino Wallaby!

The Schremmer family. (Plus two Kappelmanns. Intruders!)

After we showed Torsten the awesome park behind our house, we walked through the University of Karlsruhe to meet our old Friends in Germany, Julia Hetterich and her brother Jan. We played on a playground near the university and then walked to Julia's house to Play there as well. Mum decided to leave us there for another two hours, and so we played Ligretto, Gruselino, Halli Galli and Chess, and only left at about 8:15. It was a great day!

Group selfie with the Hetterich family.

Europa-Park

I had an awesome day today. My first time in an amusement park, and I go to this one: the Europa-Park in Germany, which is the largest amusement park in Europe. We bought a day ticket and enjoyed a massive array of rides and shows: from train rides to rollercoasters and from boat tours to rides up a scenic tower, this park had everything! And everything was sorted in country themes (every country in Europe, in fact!) What we did:

First we rode on a train from "Germany" to "Portugal" where we took part on a watery rollercoaster, even going backwards on one bit, and then a quick walk to "Skandinavia" for a wild water Rafting experience. A stop in "Russia" for some snacks, then off to "Greece". There we spent the most time. A Pegasus rollercoaster and a "slightly" wetter Poseidon coaster took up most of our time there. Afterwards we visited a "very intense haunted house (recommended age: 12)" and once we needed a rest, we attended a wonderful ice-skating show.

All in all, we had a great day that we won't forget.

The M.S. Swiss Diamond

Yesterday we boarded our river cruise ship, the M.S. Swiss Diamond, after having to travel in a bus for about one and a half hours -- although, I have to admit, it was quite luxurious, for a bus -- and then we didn,t even eat on board! We ate in a fancy restaurant and then, when everyone was finished, we drove to the ship. Today we took a tour of Regensburg, which houses the largest free-standing organ in the world. There we listened to a melodic organ concert.

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Rammelsberg Mine

Yesterday we drove to Goslar, a small town in the Harz, which is a mountain range in central Germany, and today we visited the Rammelsberg Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What's special: the ore contains about 30% metals. That's (according to the guide) the highest percentage worldwide. We took three guided tours there, which were: Fire and Water: The Roeder Gallery, From Ore Lump to Concentrate: The Ore Dressing Plant and Mining in the 20th Century: With the Mine Train on Site. My favourite tour was the second one: From Ore Lump to Concentrate: The Ore Dressing Plant, where we were shown the individual process of breaking down the ore, and finally extracting the minerals, as soon as it came out of the mine. First we were shown how the mining cart was emptied then how the ore was broken from football-size to fist-size, from fist-size to nut-size, and finally from nut-size to a watery mass. This watery mass then went through a series of machines to extract the minerals, and then the process was finished. After the tours, we checked out a minerals exhibition, and an exhibition of seemingly 3D paintings that depicted different mining scenes.

Wow! 1020 years of action!

Chalcopyrite

Slate

Pyrite tuber

Banding ore

Mixed ore

Carbonate-concretion

Gypsum crystals

Chalcanthite

Zinc vitriol

An old scene: manually carving the rock.

Boom!

Caution! Radioactive material!

Sieving gold in the old America.

Still mining, but above ground.

At the end of the day: a hot shower, and then nothing but home!