Valdez

In order to see a bit more of Alasks natural treasures and beauties we went to Valdez and Prince Williams Sound for a little trip of 3 days. One way in the car takes about 5-6 hours and this time we had wonderful sunshine all the way.
The picture above shows a part of the Alaskan Pipeline - an oil pipeline about 900 miles long from Prudhoe Bay in the very North of Alaska till Valdez a souther port town where the oil is pumped onto large oil tankers. If you have a closer look you might see a well-known guy in the pic ;-))


On our way we stopped at the strangest little restaurant I have ever been to (the chef who was standing near the bar replied "I cannot be bothered now", when I tried to find out where the restrooms in that really strangely built place were) - I was a bit scared of rat gift in my food ...

We also stopped at the Worthington Glacier that is really easily accessable. You can even touch the ice masses and climb on them. To be seen on the right (above) are the Horseshoe Falls.

We stayed in a nice little pension and the next day we went on a 9 hours cruise through the fjords of Prince William Sounds.

We saw a lot of sea otters, who float most of the times on there back. Again, I could see some bald eagles. We saw sea lions and seals, some dolphins and puffins- very cute little birds, but almost to small to really see them. I m glad my zoom is working...



On our way with the boat we saw to Glaciers (text t.b.c.)

Having arrived in Fairbanks, Alaska

.... we had temperatures that were really nice (around 20° C), but also we had to adjust to another time difference (4hrs) and I experienced for the first time "eternal daylight" in Northern hemisphere summer.
One of the things I noticed immediately: the tab water smells. People there usually have their own pump but there are a lot of salts and chemicals like quicksilver in it. Every house has filtering and puriyfing stations between pump and tab, so water is not toxic anymore but I guess its sulphate that makes it still a bit smelly.

Friday was very relaxed, we booked the tours for the next days, went to Santa Claus’ House in Northpole, Alaska (pics will follow at the right time of the year ;-) ...) and to an art gallery in Fairbanks.We even saw some Moose in Steves backyard. Saturday we had our kayaking trip and I saw a big bald eagle for the first time.



Sunday we went to Denali National Park. Thats where Mount McKinely (highest Mountain of North America) is. The wether wasnt with us and so we only did a little walk and climbed up some little rocky hills.



Denali (= Mt. McKinely) was hidden under a coat of clouds... Here a photo from a clear day...

Beach 'n' Rides

After the day of practising being a shopping queen on Monday, we drove to Virginia Beach on Tuesday. And it happened that I shopped some more. Cause unfortunately I wasnt feeling so good in my first week and I took some antibiotics witha potential triggering effect on sun allergy - so I had to use sun blocker and try to stay out of the direct sunlight most of the time...
In the evening Mikes gave his birthday dinner.

It was already time to say good-bye to Virginia the next day and we proceeded to Paramounts Kings Dominion on Wednesday and further up to Washington from where we flew to Alaska the next day. As fan of adrenaline boosting rides I like Kings Dominion: a lot of roller coasters and very little people (less queuing *hehe)!!

However, a lot of rides were quite bumpy and it was the peak of Americas heatwave (temperature shield of about 112° F)…

s w e a t some m o r e

Back from the States

.... and I am already in my second week of my rotation in internal medicine.

It is a bit weird to be back in Heidelberg/ Mannheim - back to kinda all-day life after having had a blast in Zürich and so much fun in America.

I ll try to summarize my last three weeks with the upcoming messages and pictures.

Special XXXs to Charlotta and Katha.

We flew to Washington DC on Thursday (7-27) and arrived at Marks in the evening after picking up our red Mustang convertible and getting (finally) through DC rush hour. Dinner was with Mark, Dine, Paula and Kim.

The next day (Friday) we continued to Newport News, Virginia and saw "Superman returns" that night. Saturday Mike had a little dinner party at his house for us. Sunday we went to see Laura, Eric and little Landon – they just moved from Germany to Virginia in March, it was very great to see them again. Monday was day of the Shopping - huuuuuge shoppings … ;-)