Well, I decided to just write about it – as I have been doing it for the past 1,5 years now with all of theses things…

First of all THANK YOU very much for all these individual and great birthday messages – photos, videos, stories and joint memories from our times from all over the world! It was really great to hear from all of you and to see that even though you might be far away physically you are not completely forgotten 😉

So how was my day? Last year I celebrated alone in a backcountry hut in New Zealand with rainy weather and no contact to the outside world. The first two people who I met and wished me happy birthday were Tony and Belinda who I met on the only hill with a view in three days. It was a great encounter and I am glad we kept this friendship up over the distance…

This year was a bit different. My friend good Annabel had requested a flight (that’s what you do when you are a flight attendant) to Panama to bring me some of my new outdoor equipment for the trail which I had ordered in Germany. And she will also take some of my stuff back home which I won’t take on the trail. And it also brought me in the amazing situation of living in a bad-ass hotel for free with all the comfort that I won’t have for the next month: showers, toilets, beds, pillows, room-serive (YEAH!!!!), pool, breakfast buffet, fast and stable wifi and so much more… THANK YOU Annabel for being my personal courier service 😘 And on top of course Panama is the home of Natalia, Scott and Barry I already had a blast last time I was in Panama – so perfect setting for this day.

13.04.2017 – probably about half time until retirement!!!! 😎🤘

After having a coulple of beers sliding into the birthday the day started out with a little surprise birthday cake at 12h.

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And then it continued with breakfast buffet – all you can eat! Free and unlimited coffee. Hikers-Heaven!!!!

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Well and then we decided to go to Taboga Island for the day. No day – especially not my birthday – without hiking or climbing on top of something…

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And then we started with the relaxing part of the day. Thanks to Arne for bringing up this quote from the famous Harald Juhnke a couple of days earlier – so this became a bit of the motto for the rest of the day…22c2352ed9a9713be20e39848687017c

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My wish for the night was to back to B-Dubs where Barry and I had tackled the hottest level of wings – the Blazin Wings – during my last visit. It was amazingly spicy, fun and let to the one or other loss of mother tounge. So we went again for a great evening and some nice “Blazers”…

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Warm up – this time we were smarter and worked our way up…
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And we survived!

Scott made us go back to his place under a very false and tricky reason to present this – a home made cake just for me! You are the man, Scotty!!! Thank you for the surprise!

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Since it is the “semana santa” there was a stop of serving alcohol at 12 o’clock in the night. The great thing about being in South America there are always very simple solutions for certain problems. So at 12 the doors were closed and the blinds were shut and with this drinking was basically non existent 😂 The night ended like most nights – at one point of time also the happiest and most active king is tired and has to go to bed. But can you fall asleep happier than this – with a crown and a beer…

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Thank you all for an amazing day in civilisation with great food, drinks and amazing company! You rock!!! 🤘