June 26, 2024

Return to Hansel & Gretel Cottage Area

I returned to this cute neighborhood to take some photos, while not buzzing by on bike. I really like the neighborhood nestled between a park, school, U-ban station and the woods. The A frame style houses appeal to me with their cute inner gardens. One of the streets is completely paved with brick pavers, but I have to admit I am not loving the German ( and I saw this in Ireland too - so may be a UE thing) oh natural trend - where they leave landscape untrimmed and growing wildly, in common areas or city public spaces.


The real problem with this otherwise idyllic neighborhood; is they are right under the flight path to Hamburg International airport which is a busy place, as the second largest city in Germany. Planes flew directly overhead of me seemingly ever five minutes, while I did this walk! It is loud, but maybe one grows numb to it over time. After almost 2 weeks I hardly notice subway sounds at Tom's. Even slept with window open last night!


I used German equivalent to Zillow Immoscout24 app to find the prices in neighborhood - range from 500,000 to 1.3M Euro ( modern one, style doesn't fit but just finished and listed in last photo). 

By Patricia Patrick November 16, 2025
Another great day exploring the South Pacific ! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara , and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands . It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!
By Patricia Patrick November 14, 2025
Fun fact - Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the World! It is estimated that there are at least 826 Papuan languages. Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000. (Thanks - Basia & Wikipedia for sharing this information).
By Patricia Patrick November 12, 2025
Tully is a small sugar mill town about 2 hours south of Cairns and we traveled here with a group of about 20 other residents to go white water rafting in the Tully River at the Gorge in the National Park. It is the beginning of the wet season and the river was running at a high level, so the rapids were class 4 out of 5. We had some trepidation, but were excited for the adventure! OMG so much FUN!!