Once upon a time there was a prince who liked to travel and to garden. In the lovely landscape of Anhalt which is now part of the state Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, he installed an unrivalled garden kingdom with palaces, quiet lakes, little woods and gardens and it is open to the public.

One sunny fall morning we drove of to Wörlitz the little town that hosts most of the garden kingdom. It is cloce to the river Elbe and in the middle of green fields and meadows and woods. Prince Franz ruled Anhalt from 1758 until 1817. He had one son with his wife Luise and ten other children "around". He loved to travel and from a journey to Italy, England and France he brought so many great ideas that he startet to built the garden kingdom.

It is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage and dozens of gardeners and staff members maintain more than 150 square-kilometers cultural landscape including little palaces, sculptures, artificial caves and even a man-made volcano which erupts on special occasions -- and peaceful places like this pavillion.

We really like to walk here although on sunny days it is crowded by people as the entrance is free. The kids love the swans.

And we take a gondola ride on the lake and through the little canals that are crossed by little bridges -- each of a different kind. Charlotte is busy watching Mattis who is still too brave so close to the water.

Another great thing are the look-throughs that are planned by the prince. Some of them even have a political backround to show the wisdom of their builder. This is the "tolerance-view" -- from here you see the synagoge on the left for the Jewish religion and the Christian church on the right -- both should be equal in the eye of the visitor.

It is amazing to see the grown culture here. It must have been very different in the first days but the prince had this great look in the future although he knew he would never see the parc finished in his lifetime. There are also little mazes and climbing rocks and it is worth to stay close because the area is huge. I especially enjoy the water lilys.

You can rent bicycles and stay overnight in little parc houses -- it is really a little paradise, a planned one which makes it very German.

BBQ has a very strong tradition in the US and it just fits our German meat love. First we reanimated the bacon-breakfast we used to have almost every weekend.

Then Michael was looking for the best grill almost since the day we arrived. He made his mind about the advantages and disadvantages of coal and gas grills. You all know it is mostly a philosophical question but for me not of importance. So Michael was in charge and decided to invest the money.

Now we are proud owners of a gas grill and only its appearance on our balcony makes Michael very happy. So we tried all the great receipes we used in the US -- pork chops Ukrainian style, burgers American style and honey-mustard chicken Michael´s style -- and it tastes just fine.

Since we also learned that having a BBQ is double the fun with friends we invited some of our oldest. Sebastian was Michael´s classmate and is now a great cocktail mixer beside his job as an expert in economic sciences.

He, his lovely spouse Annett who is a successfull bio-chemist and daughter Johanna visited us just four weeks before we moved back to Germany and live now only some blocks away. Together we really enjoyed fine burgers the way we learnt to make them in the US.

Anyway, Michael is very keen on grilling every weekend now. But good beef is almost not affordable in Germany so there are still things we miss even if we now own a great American grill.

Since the kids and especially Mattis had almost no kontact to the rest of the family, they all had to get used to each other. Stubborn Mattis first was not very friendly but then realised that it is really great to have grand-parents around.

Michaels grand-parents were very happy to have them back. And the great-grand-children didn't let go (don`t miss Charlottes shoes).

And best of all: there are gak-gaks near the grand-parents house. Mattis loved to look at them.

Moritz hugged his grampies but found out that none of them is really keen on running around on a soccer field. None of the younger ones ... my grand-father (age 85!) kicked a good match with Moritz, impressing him with tricks from a life-long passion for soccer.

Great-grand-Ma knew another great trick how to get close to little Mattis who was still overwhelmed by all the new faces.

And here they are walking along the river.

Family United -- first and most important step back home. Check.

[if you can read this, please skip the first paragraph!]

Wir Ihr gemerkt habt, mussten wir erstmal eine Weile überlegen, was wir jetzt mit dem Blog anfangen wollen. Wir haben uns nun entschieden, den Spieß umzudrehen und ab jetzt hauptsächlich für unsere Freunde in Übersee zu schreiben. Die mussten in den vergangen zwei Jahren immer mit der Google-Übersetzung leben und sind jetzt auch mal dran. Nun da wir wieder in unserem "normalen" Leben gelandet sind, sind die Sachen die wir jetzt schreiben können, wahrscheinlich auch interessanter für jemanden der nicht auch hier wohnt. Wer trotzdem weiter reinschauen möchte, hat immer noch die Bilder... und die Google-Übersetzung. Und los gehts:

We took some time to figure out what we want to do with the blog, now that we are back to normal. As you can read this without the Google translation you have probably figured out what the change is. While living a German life it makes little sense to tell other Germans things they already know in German. Therefore, we will focus on our English reading friends that had to suffer from automated translation results over the past two years.

Let's start with some impressions of the first walk in town after weeks of unpacking boxes and filling out forms (the nasty German ones). Karoline's grand-parents came to visit and we spend the afternoon in the river valley the divides Halle in an east and a west half.

The weather is beautiful these days -- much nicer than the actual summer must have been here. We walked by the Giebichenstein castle. This is the oldest castle on the river Saale, about 1100 years old and partially ruined. This is one of two castles within the city limits of Halle. Directly opposite the castle on the eastern shore is the restaurant "Krug zum grünen Kranze" that was known all over east Germany -- for a folk music show that was recorded there and broadcasted on national television. This is were we had our wedding party.

Die "Blaue Lagune" ist das beliebteste Reiseziel Islands: ein riesiges Thermalbad mit Wellnessbereich und baden im Vulkanbecken in eisblauem, heißen Wasser. Wir haben uns dagegen entschieden, ganz einfach, weil es sehr teuer ist und kein Spaßbad, wie die Kinder es gemocht hätten. Aber wir sind mal rangefahren an die legendären Quellen.

Wir wandten uns dann in Richtung Süden, wo für diesen Tag besseres Wetter angesagt war. Über Schotterpisten ging es am Meer entlang. Rechts die Küste und links die Lava-Felder mit ihren bizarren Formen.

Viele Straßen werden gebaut, aber immer aus dem typischen schwarzen Lava-Schotter, der genug Grip hat, um bei Blitzeis und plötzlichem Regen eine rutschfeste Oberfläche zu bieten. Für manche ist der Belag aber auch richtig gemütlich.

Die wahren Helden des Tages waren aber nicht die wolligen Islandschafe, die ihr Fell für die schicken, aber völlig überteuerten Island-Pullover hergeben. Sondern die Island-Ponys. Wegen ihnen darf keine andere Pferderasse auf der Insel gehalten werden. Überall stehen sie auf großen Weiden an der Strasse, in allen Farben und es ist eine Freude sie anzusehen und eine noch größere (für gewisse Pferdefreundinnen unter uns), sie zu streicheln.

Tatsächlich schien die Sonne immer heller, je weiter südlich wir kamen. Von der Straße aus konnten wir die Vulkane schon sehen -- und die Gletscherzungen, die sich Richtung Meer schieben.

Über die Kanten rauschen unzählige Wasserfälle, an die man ganz nah herankommt.

Auf der Straße am Meer fährt man direkt an der Abbruchkante vorbei. Und kommt an den berüchtigten Eyjafjallajökull-Vulkan, der im April 2010 mit seinen Aschewolken den weltweiten Flugverkehr lahmgelegt hat.

Wie fast immer versteckte er sich im Nebel und so konnten wir das Biest nur erahnen.

Ganz nah prasselt ein weiterer berühmter Wasserfall in ein schwarzes Naturbecken und fließt als unscheinbares Flüsschen Richtung Meer: der Skogafoss -- und das in berauschender Lautstärke.

Diese Fahrt war dank mp3-Player schon deutlich entspannter und schon mal ein Vorgeschmack aufs Fahren im Deutschland-und-Halleparkplatz-kompatiblen Auto.

An der Strecke liegt außerdem noch das Skogar-Museum, das den isländischen Wohnungsbau in den Zeiten darstellen will. Tatsächlich findet man an einigen Hängen die noch vor 100 Jahren typischen grasgedeckten Häuschen, die innen unglaublich eng und dunkel sind.

Da die Isländer ihr bißchen Holz schon um 1000 n.C. komplett abgeholzt hatten, nahmen sie zum Bau der wenigen Holzhäuser am Strand herumliegendes Treibholz. Und tatsächlich haben sie erst vor wenigen Jahren damit begonnen, ein paar Wldflächen aufzuforsten, denn nicht unbedgingt das raue Klima, sondern die Erosion ist das größte Problem für das bißchen Landwirtschaft. Auf dem Rückweg gings flotter auf der Autobahn und durch einen Tunnel zurück, der unter einem riesigen Fjord entlangführt. Am nächsten Tag hieß es wieder Koffer packen -- und dann ging es heim.