Angkor Wat

Four years ago, Michael my husband and I got married here in Wolfenbüttel's Standesamt. That was on 4th of November 2005. But this entry is not about our wedding or maybe yes, some part of it. We decided before our wedding we will spend our honeymoon trip in some parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. I never been to Laos and Cambodia that time, but in Thailand we travelled before way back 2003. I was so excited because Michael said Angkor Wat is really an interesting temple. I will share our trip in Thailand and in Laos later.


After travelling in some places in Thailand and Laos, we are finally in Cambodia.


Cambodia - also called Kampuchea, with a population of about 14 million, Siem Reap is the capital city. The people are working mostly in farms and rice fields. Angkor Wat is the country's pride, for it is the world's most or best preserved temple and it became one of the Wonders of the World.

to be continued....

Bundesgartenschau 2009 in Schwerin

Oh, silly me i should have describe what is Deutschland or Germany in my first post ( Braunlage) about where i live, ok lessons learned ;) (teehee) so, how can i describe Germany? It's the land of cars, sausage,bread, noodles, potatoes and beer. There are about 80 millions populations here, and the country is rich of history. But hey i am not here to tell their history, but i created a label about Germany to share to everyone my stories and photos and our trips in the country.


I am now living here for 4 years and so far, got the chance to explore some part of the country. My husband wants that i fill my Deutschland's map with a black dots ;) means... he wants to show me what is his country has and for the last 4 years i think i've seen many, already ;) ok, i posted already about where i live here, Wolfenbüttel in my group in Salitype, maybe i will post another here about Wolfenbüttel later.


I want to share to you guys today about Schwerin. We went there last May of this year. They had what they called Bundesgartenschau 2009 in Schwerin of course. It's my first time to see so much beautiful flowers! and Schwerin's castle is simply breathtaking. Mecklenburg Vorpommern, (in short Meck-Pom) is the state, and Schwerin is the capital city.

It was my husband's surprise for me on Mother's Day ;) he didn't tell me about this normally we talk about where we are going or what to see when we travel, but that day he kept his secret with a smile ;) and he told me to wear my dress with flower designs because he said it will fit on the place where we're going.

"Guten Tag!" Willkommen in Meck-Pom :)

Good day! Welcome to Meck-Pom

spring is almost finish and der Raps (Canola flowers) are everywhere

perfect weather for a road trip ;)

Meck-pom is famous for it's beautiful alleys




in front of Schwerin's castle




at my back is the Schweriner Schloß (castle)





a pose in a modern art of "future garden" ;)

to be continued...

Olomouc CZ

Note: this entry is lifted from my old blog in friendster, also entitled flip-flops and backpack, a continuation of our trip to Czech Republic, March 2008.

(continuation from Kromeriz)



Next day we had been lucky this time with the weather. It was cold but at least sunny. Soon we are in OLOMOUC. We first visited the cathedral and monastery. The cathedral is called Wenzelsdom. In the city center on the main square is the Town Hall with Astronomical Clock. Also there is Pestsäule or world heritage monument. They built this monument to comemorate the victims of Plague in medieval ages in Europe.




a monument to remember the victims of plague from medieval age



the town hall with Astronomical clock









So we hit the road again after Olomouc, to reach HRADECH KRALOVE. We found at the again beautiful main square a Italian Hotel to stay for a night. As we look around the city center, it was dawn already and the sky was really colorful behind the towers of the town. Of course we took the chance to take pictures. And our dinner we had in another good Czech restaurant, with Knödel of course finished that good day.

Summer is here ;)

On with my flip-flops and sunglasses...


No thick jackets, no shawl no winter boots, wow! Summer is here ;)

One thing i like in Summer here are those beautiful flowers, they are simply wonderful. Got some pictures here from our small but fine balkon which turned into a "little jungle" when summer comes ;)

here we sit and enjoy the weather ;)

and here also we make bbq with some friends or just the two of us ;)







Fuchsia (pronounced /ˈfjuːʃə/ FEW-shə) is a genus of flowering plants, mostly shrubs, and can grow long shoots, which were identified by Charles Plumier in the late-17th century, and named by Plumier in 1703 after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566).[1] The English name fuchsias is frequently misspelled "fuschias".








Geranium is a genus of 422 species of flowering annual, biennial, and perennial plants that are commonly known as the cranesbills. It is found throughout the temperate regions of the world and the mountains of the tropics, but mostly in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. These attractive flowers will grow in any soil as long as it is not waterlogged. Propagation is by semi-ripe cuttings in summer, by seed, or by division in autumn or spring.





Impatiens (pronounced /ɪmˈpeɪʃənz/)[1] is a genus of about 850–1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and tropics. Together with the puzzling Hydrocera triflora, this genus makes up the family Balsaminaceae. Such a situation is highly unusual, and phylogenetic studies might reveal that Impatiens needs to be split up; some of its species might be closer to Hydrocera than to their presumed congeners.

Petunia is a trumpet shaped, widely-cultivated genus of flowering plants of South American origin, in the family Solanaceae. The popular flower got its name from French, which took the word petun 'tobacco' from a Tupi-Guarani language. Most of the varieties seen in gardens are hybrids (Petunia x hybrida)[1].



our tomatoes ;) soon to be tomato salad ;)

Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous, perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. There are at least 36 species of dahlia. Dahlia hybrids are commonly grown as garden plants. The Aztecs gathered and cultivated the dahlia for food, ceremony, as well as decorative purposes,[1] and the long woody stem of one variety was used for small pipes.

in this photo you can see the deco sun and moon we bought it in Italy in a terracota shop in San Gimignano



this plant is still a puzzle to me maybe somebody knows what 's it's name?










in the evening hubby and me spend most of our time here, talk about anything until midnight ;) with the lamp on from Thailand ;)

summer is here ;) what a lovely gift from above! have a wonderful summer everyone! ;)

Note: informations about the flowers are from Wikipedia.

All photos are taken in Wolfenbüttel, Germany by: maricar

Gladiolus

The genus Gladiolus contains about 260 species, of which 250 are native to sub-Saharan Africa, mostly South Africa. About 10 species are native to Eurasia. There are 160 species of Gladiolus endemic in southern Africa and 76 in tropical Africa. The species vary from very small to the spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce.
These attractive, perennial herbs are semihardy in temperate climates. They grow from rounded, symmetrical corms, that are enveloped in several layers of brownish, fibrous tunics.
Their stems are generally unbranched, producing 1 to 9 narrow, sword-shaped, longitudinal grooved leaves, enclosed in a sheath. The lowest leaf is shortened to a cataphyll. The leaf blades can be plane or cruciform in cross section.
The fragrant flower spikes are large and one-sided, with secund, bisexual flowers, each subtended by 2 leathery, green bracts. The sepals and the petals are almost identical in appearance, and are termed tepals. They are united at their base into a tube-shaped structure. The dorsal tepal is the largest, arching over the three stamens. The outer three tepals are narrower. The perianth is funnel-shaped, with the stamens attached to its base. The style has three filiform, spoon-shaped branches, each expanding towards the apex.
The ovary is 3-locular with oblong or globose capsules, containing many, winged brown, longitudinally dehiscent seeds. In their center must be noticeable the specific pellet like structure which is the real seed without the fine coat. In some seeds this structure is wrinkled and with black color. These seeds are unable to germinate.
These flowers are variously colored, pink to reddish or light purple with white, contrasting markings, or white to cream or orange to red.
The South African species were originally pollinated by long-tongued anthrophorine bees, but some changes in the pollination system have occurred, allowing pollination by sunbirds, noctuid and sphingid moths, long-tongued flies and several others. In the temperate zones of Europe many of the hybrid large flowering sorts of gladiolas can be pollinated by small well-known wasps. Actually, They are not very good pollinators because of the large flowers of the plants and the small size of the wasps. Another insect in this zone which can try some of the nectar of the gladioli is the best-known European Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum which usually pollinates many famous garden flowers like Petunia, Zinnia, Dianthus and others.




informations are from Wikipedia, photos are taken in Wolfenbüttel, Germany by: Maricar