Crisis or not - as soon as the temperatures rise, the first people ask: Where are you going on vacation?

In the media, tourism experts give forecasts about hotspots and tips for the best summer vacation.

We aimlessly navigate through the tourism pages and stumble upon “trending destinations” and “best in travel rankings”.

Overwhelmed by the flood of information, we still haven't booked anything.

The stress increases.

Not that we end up having to spend our free summer days in Fulda!

But first some basic decisions have to be made: Hiking with a tent or a hotel on the beach?

Climate-neutral by train or by low-cost airline to the south?

Visiting family abroad or rather going where nobody knows us?

Our ideas keep diverging.

“For us, vacation meant visiting relatives: first and foremost in Gelsenkirchen or Hamburg.

But I also went to Pakistan and Canada.

You make yourself comfortable on mattresses in your third cousin's living room and go to the unforgettable Ruhr Park or to Phantasialand for the umpteenth time.

At the age of seven I visited my grandparents in Pakistan for the first and only time.

The combination of heat and mosquitoes shapes my memory of the holiday.

Because of the heat, my mother decided to cut my hair very short.

When I came back with the new haircut, one of my class asked if I was a new student.

During my school days I kept thinking about what it would be like to go on holiday to the North Sea or to Tuscany like the Germans do.”

Travel abroad for adults only

“Only adults were allowed to vacation abroad on the kibbutz – it was your turn every seven years.

When the time came, every minute had to be planned.

Two weeks, six countries, don't miss a highlight and photograph everything.

After all, it was part of the tradition for travelers to invite the kibbutz to a slide show after their vacation.

The Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower and pictures of the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace: we children tried to imagine the world 'out there' with the help of the photos on the wall.

No trip went to Germany.

At that time it was still taboo to spend holidays in the 'land of the perpetrators'.

Children were allowed to go to adventurous holiday camps in the desert or occasionally for a short trip to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.”

We both experienced holidays differently than in Germany, but we try to adapt to the holiday culture of the Germans.

Admittedly, there are limits: We will not wear tennis socks with sandals and we will not reserve loungers with towels.

But what we've managed to do quite well in the meantime: constantly talking about the holiday!

how was the last one

Where is the next one going?

In this way, every embarrassingly silent conversation can be saved.

Not that they kick me out

“Holidays weren’t really a topic of conversation at home.

We weren't planning annual family vacations.

Since only my father worked, there was always a financial question as to whether and what was possible with four children.

My father based his annual holiday application on Muslim holidays and events of the religious community, which only occasionally fell during the school holidays.

He left a few vacation days free – for emergencies, he always said.

This was the case, for example, when my grandparents became ill and he had to travel to Pakistan more often.

For my father, who drove to work every day at three in the morning and never called in sick, vacation was always associated with a guilty conscience: 'Not that they'll throw me out,' he often said."

Getting fired for vacation?

Sounds exaggerated.

But that can even happen to a Minister of the Environment who, of all things, is going on family vacation shortly after the flood disaster.

When criticism of Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) and Anne Spiegel (Greens) became loud, both had to resign.

We wondered if the public outrage was overdone.

Heinen-Esser went to Mallorca to celebrate her husband's birthday.

At almost the same time, Spiegel was on a family vacation in France.

As she later reported, her husband had previously suffered a stroke.

It is currently about the family vacation of Defense Minister Lambrecht (SPD).