In a few minutes, we’re going to leave the house. It will take us another day and a journey via Amsterdam, Helsinki and Lappeenranta to leave civilisation behind for about ten days. Silence, nature and a lot af crystal clear water are waiting for us – like in the picture above which was taken at Kylämiemi back in 2013.

Quite a few people have requested regular updates about our journey, but I have to disappoint you: on Kyläniemi, there will be no access to the internet. But I promise to post some pictures as soon as possible when we’re back.

We might see the one or other neighbour there by occasion, but normally you don’t meet any people on that island you could speak to. So If we run out of topics between ourselves, we can only speak to the wild:

Here’s another video that shows you where Kyläniemi is and how to get there by Lossi. If your Finish is better than mine, you might even comprehend what it is about. Otherwise you can also switch it off after half a minute. Unless you liked the setting plus camera work of the Blair Witch-movie…

On Friday, after another session of chemotherapy, we’re going to leave for another holiday. The family of my father’s partner Arja owns a Mökki (cottage) on the island Kyläniemi on the Lake Saimaa and that’s where we’re heading. Kyläniemi, which is highlighted by the yellow frame in the picture above, belongs to the community of Taipalsaari and is located in the region Etelä-Karjala in the south-east of Finland. Close to the city of Lappeenranta where my father moved about 15 years ago.

The island can only be reached by a Lossi, which is a small kind of ferry, and it has no shops on it. Just some roads that become smaller and smaller the further you get and a few Mökkis. And nature. A lot of nature.

If you want to know where we will be, look on Google Maps for Pieniniemi, Taipalsaari, Finland. I don’t know what Pienieniemi stands for, but that pieni is the Finish word for small speaks volumes.  If you want to catch a glimpse of the atmosphere, watch this:

Paul and Julie, some very old friends of Nadine who currently stay in Munich, visited us this weekend and brought their son Wyatt with them. The three hadn’t seen each other since their university days in Kansas which was about twenty years ago. Julie is also the one who did a little dance for Nadine on this blog back in January.

We spent a lot of pleasant time together and made a trip to Tübingen to see Annika and little Nick. Today, we went to the Weißenhofsiedlung here in Stuttgart, which was built in the 1920’s by Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and others. The clearly functional museum house of this living area was, together with other buildings by Le Corbusier all over the world,  declared UNESCO World Heritage just about a week ago.