In the past years I travelled to many countries in the world. Twenty times I have visited different parts of the USA, as well as Puerto Rico, belonging to the American Commonwealth. Puerto Rico, situated in the Caribbean, differs very much from the islands of St. Lucia and Barbados which I have visited as well. The latter reminds more of the island of Mauritius off the African coast. On the American Continent I was as well in Mexico and three times in Canada (British Columbia and Québec).

I got my first impression of Oceania on Hawaii, the 50th federal state of the USA. After several trips to the Hawaiian Islands I was anxious to see the "real" Oceania and spent vacations on Fiji in Melanesia and Moorea, French Polynesia.

In Asia I visited the "classical" tourist destinations Bali/ Indonesia and Koh Samui/Thailand as well as Hua Hin/Thailand. Three times I was in Thailand's capital Bangkok. Highly interesting were the trips to Hongkong and Macau, former colonies now belonging to China. A very special country in Asia is Singapore, presenting itself brilliantly during my stay.

A unique experience was my trip to Australia. The trip through the Southeast was overwhelming.

While being a teenager I have visited about all Western European countries. Here is a listing of all these travels Nowadays I prefer destinations with less tourism like Iceland, Cyprus, Ukraine and Ireland. Nevertheless I have been also in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, die Slovakia, Austria, Denmark and Spain.

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I passed the holiday season 2011/12 in Freiburg and Southern France. Mid September I was for a short trip in Bremen. I July I was in Paderborn and in June I returned from a trip through Eastern USA and Florida..
End of April I went to an archive in the city of Würzburg. In January I returned from a second trip to Mauritius.

On my mothers side my family derives from the region of Westphalia/ Germany and the Netherlands, my fathers ancestors are out of the Bohemian-Silesian area north and south of the Giant Mountains. Until today I visited the region twice (1990 and 1999); since World War II it belongs to Poland and the Czech Republic. During my travels I had the opportunity for extended archive studies. You can read of my positive experience in my travelogue.

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Just recently I intensified the research on the Westphalian / Dutch part of the family. Because the forefathers of my Dutch great-grandfather were originally from the Franken region in Germany I went in April to Würzburg to visit the diocesan archive - and it was a full hit. I was able to trace down my "Ketzener" ancestors well into the 17th century.

Since some years I tried to find out about the fate of my mother's father, who was missed in action during WW II in Romania. In 2009 it was a sensation to get into contact with a 94-years-old gentleman in the USA, now deceased, who was in the same POW-hospital as my grandfather. The gentleman agreed to write down his experiences. Here you can read the updated results of my research.

And now I wish you a lot of fun surfing!

updated: 20 January 2012