After leaving behind a rainy weekend, the sun comes to the River Main and invites us for a canoe trip. Today is a summer day with the blue sky and cumulus clouds in Germany’s region of Franconia.

Our bicycle tour in the little part of the River Main Cycle Route along the Main river gave us fresh ideas and we desired to discover the River Main with a canoe this time. We watched the people that paddling along the Main and thought about doing the same activity one day. Today was the day for it and we quickly started to search on the internet. When it became evening, we already made our reservation. Unfortunately, the reservation was not sufficient because we stuck to the weather conditions. The weather looked like there were going to be a storm or rain, but this was only a guess.

We were in the city of Kitzingen that located in the Franconia region of Germany. The River Main, which is the longest river of Germany, passes in the middle of this little city. It has 527 km length, continues its path by adding an extra beauty to the cities and flows into the Rhine River.

On the Kuki New-Stage, the last day of the festival began with the performance of the band MBN from Regensburg. The band, who has a colorful blend of rock and blues songs, presented a marvelous music performance, including the songs of Clapton, Steve Ray Vaughan and Rio Reiser.

The Arena Open-Air stage started the day with the band “Seven Nails” from the south of Germany. The genre of the band is progressive metal with symphonic elements that it is the blend of heavy metal and progressive rock music. Seven Nails displayed extremely successful performance by adding symphonic vocal interpretations to this music genre.

The trio of Cobario participated in the festival from Vienna. The band attained the honor of carrying the title “Kings of Street Music” after winning the first prize of a festival competition in the city of Salzgitter, which is located in Germany’s province of Lower Saxony. “Gypsy Classic”  is the best description of the band’s passionate and deliberate music.

Grenzenlos Festival is organized in an old gas factory. The gas tank, which is about 84 meters height, does not only present a visual quality, conversely, it is used for the music and outdoor activities. The company of “Chameleon-Adventures” provides adventure enthusiast visitors of the festival the opportunity of climbing the gas tank and landing with the rope. 

On the fourth day of the Grenzenlos Festival, while we were touring around the area, various caricatures drew our attention. They enlivened the festival area. With regard to freedom of the press and expression, Grenzenlos (Borderless) Festival fits the expression of “as the name implies” with either caricature exhibitions or graffiti works. The term of “borderless” does not mean that individuals can do whatever they desire. The festival reflects in a good way that tolerance for the different cultures is gained by the freedom of expression in music and art.

Grenzenlos Festival keeps on at full steam in Germany’s city of Ausburg. We were together with a band that formed by the combination of two terms. The mask dance, which is performed for solving crisis, is called Kinyago in Africa. The double bell, which is used in South African music, is called Agogo. The band Kinyagogô brings different side-drum movements together with us.

After our Vienna trip, in order to meet our caravan sponsor and make some modifications to the caravan, we passed in the town of Mertingen in Germany. In the afternoon, we arrived in the Fendt-Caravan manufacturing and servicing area and after delivering the caravan to the service, we went to lunch. When all the works had been done, our destination was Grenzenlos Festival in Augsburg.

Before passing to Germany, we would like to visit Vienna because of Detlef’s communication with Susanne Baertele. Our anticipation was to participate in the panel discussion, which was going to be organized early on the Gezi Concert. The location was the famous public theater of Vienna and the performers were Fazıl Say and the piano duo Ferzan & Ferhan Önder. Susanne Baertele, who welcomed us gracefully at the theater entrance, works as the public relations and press manager at the theater.

One of the most beautiful experiences of passing Macedonia by vehicle was the visit of Stobi Ancient City near the highway. Goce Pavlovski, who is an archeologist of excavation staff and a representative of the National Institution Stobi, welcomed us at the entrance of the ancient city that we arrived in the afternoon.

The exchange students from the Osnabrück city of Germany and the students of the Private Antalya College had a project on “Germans in Antalya and Alanya”. After a discussion and forum program on this subject, Detlef made a successful presentation of the project and mentioned why and how the ruins should be protected.

Mytilene – the Lesbos Island is the place where a poet and an author were born since the Ancient Greek civilization and with its cultural inheritance, natural beauties and vivacious lifestyle, it is still an inspiring island to the poets and authors. The island presents the natural and historic beauties together and it is an ideal choice for the weekend destination with its traditional Greek villages and awarded turquoise beaches.

We drove towards the Würzburg city center along the Main River against the view of one of the Würzburg symbols, the grand Fortress Marienberg.

For months, we were intending to visit Bamberg, one of the most beautiful towns of Germany. It is the town of  ancient empires and bishopric that is accepted as one of the most beautiful towns belongs to Medieval-Baroque period of Germany and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage in 1993.

We were in Vienna, where is the capital of Europe and the native land of Austria. Our time was limited and we had interviews. Even so, we took a walk in the city and stopped by at the Schönbrunn Palace after our first interview.

For the 60th anniversary celebration of Goethe-Institut Izmir and project presentation, we were in Izmir, The Pearl of Aegean. The idea of spending the weekend at the Pottery Factory in Menemen, took place due to the president of the Menemen Potters Association Ertan Saruhan. We spent our Saturday with Master Taner and Mehmet in one of the oldest pottery factories of Menemen.

With our arrival at the Museum of Antalya we have been awaited from the museum stuff to be adviced into suitable location in front of Museum. After a short organisation of table and chairs, some flyers about the project soon first visitors appear next to the caravan. Some were really interested in the project, other, just to be honest, more in the caravan.

Our journey of culture and intimacy along the Roman roads, started by receiving a caravan from our sponsor for livable conditions during the trip. Fendt-Caravan company introduced the latest models at an event in Germany’s Rain town and the delivery ceremony was conducted. The first step of our intimacy journey along the Roman roads was Vienna. For the interview with Mrs. Mohapp and Dr. Krikil about the project, we had to stay two nights in a town called Hutteldorf. We did not experience any difficulty in finding the travel and camping site, only wasted a little time while searching  the camping site entrance because of the darkness.