Snow of Yesterday

Two days ago it was -4°C/28°F, today we had a balmy 11°C/52°F and almost all of the snow had melted. At least on the roads and bike paths, and that was good enough for me.

View to Schloss Blutenburg from the bike path

Fast Forward to Munich

I never managed to get caught up on my blog in India and I think I will just have to live with the black hole between my last post from our trip and daily life in Munich. I have caught up with my pictures, though, so if you are interested in Indian art, have a look at my extensive photos of the Ellora and Ajanta caves.

Yesterday was the last day of Carneval, Faschingsdienstag. It was bitter cold but a bright sun lit up the colorful scenes of young and old out in costumes celebrating. Some wore elaborate costumes, others just a token moustache or hat, and plenty of people came as onlookers with no costume at all, just dressed warmly (me).

There was plenty to take pictures of but my favorite subjects were my two teen-age granddaughters and their girlfriends.

Here are a few more pictures of the girls.

Overwhelmed by India

India is overwhelming. I’m having a hard time thinking how to make a cheery little blog about our experiences. That just won’t work. There are so many facets to everything I see, I would hate to reduce it all with uninspired words. So I will just trace our steps so far.

From Kochin we traveled a bit further south to Alappuzha, jumping off point for boat trips on Kerals’s backwaters. I have posted some pictures with captions to give an impression of this unique place.

From Kerala we flew to Goa where we are now. Here I am often confused as to where I am. It feels like another country, very reminiscent of Portugal but definitely not Portugal, but not  quite the India we were in before.

I am sure I wouldn’t do well traveling by bike in India, but I do find myself longing for that feeling of independance and freedom that we have on bicycle tours when we can stop when and where we want and observe the life on the roadside. For the time being, I’ll enjoy taking pictures of bikes.