Wonderful weekend in BCN

We stayed put this weekend and didn't go skiing y nada. And it was fab.

Picking up winds allowed us to test our new kite at the beach which was wonderful in the sunset.
Winds got worse and hurricane "Klaus" managed to take of the neighboring houses roof and throw it over onto our roof terrace!! Luckily noone was hurt and the part of the terrace hit was not "our" half. It was the wierdest storm bc it was bright and sunny - yet so crazily windy! Motos and trees were falling over in all areas, buses and trains were suspended and it was a biiig exciting mess! We're happy everyone we know is doing fine.

Regardless of the wind we took an adventurous trip to IKEA which lead to mattress testing and a new 100x70xm frame - olé!

And in the evening we took the first train to Sitges to visit Julia and Juanjo - for a wonderful evening of Fondu and drinks in town. Here's a pic of Mattes with lovely Coco :)

Sunday was sumer-like, so we headed for Vall Parc to play some tennis - or better said Mattes played tennis and I was the referee. Here also, the hurricane had done some real damage.

And we rounded off the weekend by having Davide and Fishy over for some yummy pumpkin-coconut soup on Sunday evening... Last dinner without wine! Today, Monday, is Australia Day and the alcohol-sugar-caffeine-free month is oveeeeer! :))

Have a great start to the new week, everyone!*

IESE Handball Team

Mattes has been co-coaching the IESE handball team for some months now - and everybody is getting really good! Am excited to see how we do at MBAT in Paris in May!!!

Felix' Bday Dinner

Happy belated bday again, Felix!

Had a fun dinner with a bunch of people at Wok Yutaka - and including you guys doing Saké bombs, nicely demonstrated by Marissa :)

Flowers from Julchen

Julchen - schau mal wie schööön dir Blumen aufgegangen sind! Danke nochmal :))

Besitoooos, kati*

La Molina II

On Saturday we were off to La Molina again, yet this time with a bus: cheaper aaand you get some extra sleep on the bus between 6am and 9am. They do lure you into some tourist trap somewhere along the way, which cost us an hour so we arrived at 10am, so we got right into the queue for renting skiing stuff and I had to wait another HOUR until I actually had skis and was on the slopes at 11am... But is was beauuuutiful! Aaaaand drumroll: I went alll the way to the top top top of the mountain and rode alll the way down - and didn't fall over! :) so hurrah! Red slopes here I come!

Cooking with Julchen

So our favorite Julchen came to visit for some days and it was luuurvely!
We somehow managed to not take a single picture of ourselves, we did take some pics of some of the yummy things we cooked, and i may hereby present to you some pumpkin-curry :)

Bis ganz bald, Julchen!!! Besitoooos!***

PS: Mummy, please note the red cooking wear ;))

La Molina

Hola amigos,

we were off skiing again this weekend! It is a true bliss to live only 2hrs away from the slopes, yet next to the ocean ;)
Off we went to La Molina, where Mattes had already been last year. We had a huuuge bunch of people, Fish, Davide and Jeff in our car and 8 others in a van! We paired up once we got there and hit the slopes - it was snowing like crazy and had been for days, so it was puuuure powder! Sooooo beautiful!!! I would like to thank Marissa, Enikö and Mareike, all experienced skiiers, for taking me by the hand and heading down the craziness with me. Since you saved me quite a few times I will forgive you taking me down a black slope "by mistake" ;)))
The snow was so perfect and the next day had scheduled sun, so our car decided to stay the night and enjoy another day on the mountains on Sunday. We found a little youth hostle and pretty much fell right to sleep after a long day out in the cold. And it was really worth it - There was not a cloud in the sky the next day! Mattes and I went off to discover some mountain tops with our snow boots on 2500+ meters while the boys did some more boarding. It was a bliss! Mattes later also did some final jumps with his board - maybe he'll upload some videos of the magic. Enjoy the pics - they are all from day two :)

Update part three (last part): Skiing hols over new years in Baqueira

Our Spanish friend Elena was kind enough to invite us to her family's house in the Spanish Pyrenees for great 5 days of skiing, snow fun and Spanish life. Thank you, Elena, also to your family! We had a fantastic time!!
I (kati) went skiing for basically the first time in my life (besides the times I went with the Fellenzers back in 1997/98... shout out to you all :)) and wasn't quite sure how I'd like it... but I LOVED it and now proud to master blue sloaps - wopee - thanks so some schooling in a level A class together with Martin (Elena's boyfriend and you've seen him in other posts)! Beside skiing (and Mattes snow boarding and coaching me in the afternoons) we also made use of my Christmas present: Snowboots! They are fab, you can go over the deepest snow and wander over hills and forests without seeing a soal for ages. We took a 6km hike to a formerly deserted village which now hosts a small refugio, a place where you can find shelter from the cold and had some yummy soap and then happy walked the 6km back to the car...
It was sunny skies all day but one, so lotsa luck there too. And surely lots of skiing coming up this season!

Update part two: Christmas in Germany

We were happy to got home for a few days over xmas and had a great program, starting with a firm christmas party in Frankfurt, Mattes' family and friends in Düsseldorf and NRW, Kati's familiy im Hannover... Lotsa people, lotsa travel and lotsa happy times - thanks for that everyone!!
PS: and thanx for Davide for letting us host him for Christmas - it was great fun sharing this with you! :)

PS: pics of family festivities saved for later

Black & White Xmas Party

Hello friends,

it's been a while, you know, the holidays and all...
So, I'll quickly dive into part one of the update: The IESE Black & White Xmas Party. A blast I tell you, a blast.... looking forward to lots more like this in 2009!