I have been offline for a while, and I did (!) read Die Enden der Welt since then. It is a little better than Deutschlandreise, has its nice stretches, but is not impressive. Fair enough, it is written by a young Roger Willemsen, who has not seen much. It is more that for him travel is a medium to explore himself, than to explore the place he actually goes to. For those who don't know him, perhaps it is fair to say that he is more an Alain de Botton than a Paul Theroux. I have a third book of Roger Willemsen which I brought from Germany. It is Momentum. But given the first two I read, I will put it aside for a while.

The reason for not posting was that we moved into our new home in Kalkara, and that there was quite a bit of construction work to be finished off, utilities to be installed, and Internet came very much at the end. The result is very nice, and I enjoy to start the days with the view over the harbor and Valletta on its other side. I can already put aside the power drill for some times, but there are still a lot of things waiting to be screwed up. We also explore our neighborhood. It is a very nice little community, and just a ferry trip from Valletta. A swimming bay in the crystal clear Mediterranean water is just a short walk away. Now it just needs to become a little warmer and the swimming season will begin.

As I am on a trip to Germany, I took Roger Willemsen's "Deutschlandreise" as my pocket book of the week. Roger Willemsen, passed away recently and far too early. This is why the publisher, reprinting in a haste, forgot to print the title on some of the book covers and fixed this in the post production with a sticker (I bought them as paper versions for reasons of nostalgia and even overcame my aversion to contemporary bookshops for half an hour). I really like the author for his interviews and other productions. But "Deutschlandreise" I found shallow. Perhaps it is, because his observations in Germany were too common for me. Two more of his books I have in my bag though: "Die Enden der Welt" (The ends of the world) and "Momentum".