Next place.

As Heather blogs, we've travelled almost 30,000 miles in search of work and home in the past 18 months. Strange that I find myself in Germany at this time, sitting in weird business-related hotel in Köln West, about 10 kilometres from the centre.

I was very pleased when one of my cab drivers told me my German was good! (Ich bin Auslaenderin, und spreche nicht gut Deutsch - danke schoen, Dr. Zimmerman! Ich hab Deutsch in der Schule gelernt... um ungefaehr fuenfzehn Jahre... etc). I found myself wanting to practice with my various cabbies... one was ganz nett.)

Europe, eh? Doesn't get much better! Take you as you are, good food, real people, all shapes and sizes... those Dutch people sure are tall.

Anyhoo. Whirlwind trip through Köln, and then back home. Photokina is simply cameratastic. And now that I know a few more camera brands, I actually enjoyed looking through a few lenses and thinking about the best camera bag to suit my needs. That said, I did find myself migrating to the analogue stands, contemplating a Lomo LCA+ purchase.

Strangely enough or no, I'm looking forward to getting "home" now. (Reason for the inverted commas is a conversation I had with Ben, Souris, Julian and Silvio at the Blue Pepper in Amsterdam... "What do you call Home?")

Etc.