Hamburg
After a short week at school and a few good byes it was time to leave Hamburg. On Wednesday evening I enjoyed a meal with Sarah and Philip. The last time we met in Freiburg they prepared Crepes. We reenacted this crepe session in their new apartment in Eimbuettel. It was great to then sit out on their balcony and enjoy the balmy evening over a glass of wine after before venturing into the Gruen Jaeger to meet Sabrina. On Thursday it turned out to be terrible weather so I spent most of the day at the apartment getting things organised. I promised Sabrina and Oli a cooking lesson before I left so we went together to do some shopping and then prepared a roast pork fillet dish. They were very good students! We ate like kings, including Sabrinas friend Sari and Olivers girlfriend Eliza. For dessert I surprised them with a dark chocolate parfait ala Table of Champions! Great fun...
Nice
After a very early start in Hamburg to get to the airport and heading via Copenhagen I arrived in Nice to meet James x2. Hay has out done himself and rented a spectacular apartment on the Promenade des Anglais. In typical European fashion the place looks very run down but inside it's very comfortable and provides superb access to the beach, to the markets in Old Nice and a great base for our adventures. Not being able to speak the language is really bugging me. My three words of French don't get me very far at the moment...
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ajoest/NiceMontVenouxAndMonaco#
Mont Ventoux
The original plan was to meet James Hannam and his brother in Caillavon on Saturday morning. Hannam had organised bikes but that had fallen through meaning he decided to come straight to Nice. I was still determined to head to the Tour and up Ventoux. With the car I had hired, my bike and supplies I left very late on Friday night and headed towards Sault. Aside from the massive mountain passes and unknown roads I managed to get there ready for the morning. I parked my car on the western side of Sault and began my ride very early in the morning. I had no idea what was in store, if the roads would be closed, if the climb was going to break me, if I could get supplied on the mountain or even really where I was (other than in the middle of the Provence). Being the pinnacle experience of bike riders, there were thousands of people thinking the same thing so by the time I got into Sault I was riding alongside people from all over the world. It was a lovely morning, sun shining and warm weather. The smell of lavender was wafting around the landscape. The Provence is a very baron area. It's dry everywhere. It's also very old. The buildings look very worn and are probably all older than white settlement in Australia! I could see Ventoux in the distance so headed off towards it with my pack of food and water.
The people management was a tribute to relaxed French authority. Cars were driving up the climbs and parking on the side of the roads and people walking / riding / mono-cycling up the roads! Campervans had been on the mountain presumably for some days. I rode up as steadily as I could. The road wasn't very steep and was constant. I had heard horror stories of the steepness and how tough it was. I found the climb quite comfortable. Half way up I met a British guy - Steve, who I ended up spending the rest of the day with. We climbed and climbed until getting above the tree line. Still people were everywhere. There were cars everywhere and there were campervans as far as the eye could see. The higher parts of Ventoux are like a moon crater with little vegetation. This is probably a function of how much wind is around and it was no different for us. While climbing we were warm enough but as soon as we stopped the wind cut straight through us. We climbed as far as we could to the top but weren't allowed right to very top as it was closed for the preparation of the tour. After a few photos it was time to head back down as it was just too cold and windy. We rolled down about 5km and found a spot in the sun out of the wind. This spot would be ours for the rest of the day pretty much.
Still people rolled up the mountain. Cars were being stopped earlier in the day but bikes and walkers streamed up the hill. Many coming down again because of the cold. It became a people watching game seeing what bikes people were riding and how they were handling the climb. There was the odd struggler pushing their bike and the odd trooper who was pulling a trailer with two kids in it and pushing the other son on his bike all while riding himself!
Promotional gear was being thrown out everywhere. Most of it was junk but got people excited. Unfortunately we had no idea what had been happening earlier in the stage so simply had to wait. Because I had started relatively early I slept for a little while and just hung out for the 6 hours before the cyclists were scheduled to come through. To keep us occupied a bush fire started in the valley below so we got to watch the fire bombers put it out. It was quite impressive watching five fire bombers strategically attack this fire.
As the cyclists got closer and closer the atmosphere got more and more exciting. More promo cars, more music and more people up on the mountain. We could see in the distance the helicopters following the riders so knew when things were about to happen. It wasn't long before we could see the cavalcade higher on the mountain. The choppers were all getting closer and the sounds of the car horns and people increased. Then came the lead riders who had attacked and were leading a second bunch which includes Contador and Armstrong. They were punching up this mountain. It was most impressive. Everyone was cheering and supporting. It was an amazing atmosphere. There were the odd groups of riders coming up. Then finally the peleton. It seemed as though the peleton was pretty tired and so were taking it pretty easy. Before you knew it, the riders had gone past and it was all over! The stupidity of the day - we spent hours preparing only to see them come through within minutes! But that's what it's all about!!
The chaos began going back. There is only one road on the top half of the mountain and two for the rest. I would estimate a couple of hundred thousand people were on the mountain all trying to get off it! People on bikes were wrestling with cars who were wrestling with campervans and people in between. We were moving at a snails pace. It became a bit of a game weaving in and around others and it wasn't until a third of the way down that everything freed up and were able to get some speed downhilling as a reward for climbing the mountain! I let rip and with Steve we flew down the last few kilometres! He headed off to his car and then back towards London and I made my way back to Nice. It was an incredibly exhausting day but equally memorable.
Monaco
After a giant sleep and taking the car back to the airport we (James Hay, James Hannam, Travis Hannam and I) went around to Monaco. The coast line is simple spectacular. All very old and yet somehow so beautiful. The roads here are pretty frantic but if you give as much aggression back as you get from the others you make it through ok. Monaco, is a place of lavish exhuberance like i've never seen. Every second car is a super car. All the boats out in the harbour end up looking normal. The photos don't give justice the scale of everything. It make us all feel very insignificant it! We wandered up to the casino and had a look around the city before heading back to Nice. The boys are out swimming and i'm about to catch up on emails and few things before joining them.
Week 4 - Hamburg and Surrounds
After a couple of weeks touring around the north of Germany the last two weeks are focused on Hamburg.
Goethe
Studying German continues to go well. We were discussing as a class whether we felt we had been improving I found it hard to come up with answer. To me it all sounds the same and I still make millions of mistakes! However, I think we have all improved and I certainly feel more confident having basic conversations with people. I found myself in a random conversation at the bike shop last week, I think he thought I worked there but we were able to discuss bikes and I was able to handball him onto the actual shop owner!
For anyone thinking of a reason to go on holiday, learning a language at a language school is a great way to quickly integrate into a new culture, meet new people and also feel as though you've accomplished something. For many of my class mates they will go home this weekend and not speak German for some time. I have another year to practice!
Bike Riding
The highlights during the week last week were two large bike rides. This was in light of the realisation that I am planning to climb Mont Ventoux on the 25th and also because the weather was sensational!
On Tuesday I rode to Luebeck. I have already written about this http://ajoest.blogspot.com/2009/07/lubeck.html and then on Thursday I hopped back on the bike after school and rode to Ratzeburg. I hadn't heard anything about Ratzeburg but after looking at the map and judging that the distance was manageable and that it was surrounded by a lake and forests I decided it was a worthy goal. Again I rode along the main roads. They are not the fast Autobahns and not the Schnellstrasses but still major roads. Unfortunately I was still getting heckled by the odd riding but i'm getting used to that now.
It was a lovely 28 degrees with blue skies and no wind. Riding through the forests and over gentle hills was hugely enjoyable. Then Ratzeburg appeared! Ratzeburg is picture perfect. You climb a gentle hill and once you reach the top and get over the other side the Ratzeburg Dom (cathedral) appears behind a beautiful blue lake. I have a photo of it in my web album. Ratzeburg is located on an island in the middle of a pretty large lake. There were numerous boats out on the water including sailing boats, kayaks and I even saw the German National Team out training before the World Champs coming up over the next couple of weeks. I rode around the island over many cobbled stone roads! The old buildings are all in great condition with people taking real pride in growing flowers along the footpaths. Because I had arrived around 6pm I could see a few business men arrive at the marina, get on their small timber sailing boats and head out! What a life. After a coke and a red (cherry flavour in Germany!) powerade rode home. It's harvest time at the moment so I got to see plenty of harvesters working the paddocks. A very memorable ride. Here is the route: http://tinyurl.com/mshh4y and photos on picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.de/ajoest/RatzeburgByBike#
Airbus
Being the engineer at heart I took a tour of the Airbus Factory on the other side of the Elbe. This is actually a very popular excursion and it wasn't easy to get a spot.
The tour was of the facility at Hamburg and also explained how Airbus works across Europe. Airbus was actually formed over the past 30 years by initially combining German and French aircraft manufacturing companies and later British and Spanish companies. Each division was run separately as a state run company manufacturing parts that were then sent to Toulouse for assembly. Now Airbus is a fully integrated company taking on Boeing (US) and Embraer (Brazil) and is a leader in the manufacture of aircraft.
We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the A380 however most are manufactured in Toulouse. Only A380's purchased for the Middle East and Europe are commissioned in Hamburg but to date mainly Asian and Australian airlines have received A380's. Nonetheless A380 fuselage sections are made in Hamburg and ferried to the UK for further work before being ferried to Toulouse for fit out and commissioning. The logistics involved here are just as impressive as the actual manufacture. They have dedicated ferries shipping whole aircraft sections. They have modified A380's that are able to carry sections of the other planes. These 5 modified A380's make three (and sometimes 5) regular deliveries a day with parts between Germany, France, Spain and the UK. The whole manufacturing process is based around the Just In Time manufacturing methodology developed by Toyota meaning parts are made available at exactly the right time when they are required for the next manufacturing step. There is no inventory! Each country has various manufacturing responsibilities and within each country there are various plants. I think Germany has 5 or 6 plants. It's just incredible / impressive.
Sadly I couldn't take any photos of the Airbus facility. I don't think my camera would have given justice to the enormity of the facility. The sheds in which these planes were being built were each holding 8 or 9 planes and making the planes look small! They had a spray booth shed that could allow two planes to be painted simultaneously!
We are used to the A320's in Australia but they also build the long range A330 and A340s that are used in the US and Asia.
It takes 21 days for a plane to be built. However they have slowed the production process down due to the GFC so they finish a plane -from Go to Wo- in 25 days. However, if you want one and order it today you won't get one for 6 years they have such a long waiting list.
In each of the sheds, each manufacturing step is stationary however the plane gets moved along the assembly. Each manufacturing process is mounted onto hover platforms that are moved in and out of the way as required. Again each of these platforms are serious pieces of engineering alone. The last things to be installed before testing are the engines. We were told they cost roughly 20% of the plane!
Everywhere you look you see how much pride Airbus takes on quality. Each bolt has a method of being checked. Each hydraulic pipe is pressure tested. Every cable is tested. They are very rigorous. But at the same time they spend considerable effort on R&D and have developed many technologies that keep them ahead of Boeing. It's most impressive manufacture considering they expect a working life of each plane to be 30 years. 10years in Europe then sold to Eastern Europe and Asia before being sold onto South Africa and South America!
The three hours walking around Airbus was well worth the time.
Reeperbahn
Friday night was spent at a music and beer festival sponsored by Duckstein Bier. It was another lovely evening to watch a Spanish band on a floating barge stage and sink a few beers. It reminded me very much of the Fringe. We then met the others from the Goethe course and tackled the Reeperbahn. We found a few cool places and had a really great night. One of the other girls has met a guy with quite a loud mouth on him which inevitably meant he kept getting into fights. But just like going out anywhere else in the world!
Aussenalster
Imagine yourself sailing in a light breeze on a 4m restored timber boat in the sunshine! You are on a lake that is about 4km long and 2km wide. Surrounding the lake are trees and lawn areas and behind that architecturally significant buildings. In the background you can see oxidised copper (aqua green) roofs. You are on the Aussenalster in central Hamburg! It's just stunning. I ran around it on Saturday and upon getting home went back around with my bike to continue to enjoy it. On the water there are people sailing and paddling. On the banks there are people in restaurants, people sitting on the grass and on the paths plenty of people walking dogs, families walking around or punters running laps. The Aussenalster makes Hamburg a very beautiful and liveable city indeed.
Fischmarkt
The world famous Hamburg Fischmarkt is certainly a great establishment. Held from 5am every Sunday morning it attracts thousands of people. Its clientele include everyone coming in from the Reeperbahn after a big night to those coming in for their weekly shopping a little later. I met Megan, one of the Goethe students at 7 and followed the masses around the markets. One of the highlights is their system of selling goods off the back of a truck. It's quite a spectacle. The sellers are all very good entertainers and often through free stuff out into the large crowds that surround the trucks. You can also buy a bag and stand at the front at which point the sellers load up your bag with produce. For 10Euro people were getting a life time supply of pasta, or a week’s worth of fruit and veg or a year’s worth of chocolate! It was great. The other stands offered normal selling of fish, fruit and veg, niknaks and the other usual stuff. There is also an undercover section where bands play and people are sucking down beers! Fantastic. If I ever live in Hamburg the Fischmarkt would be a regular visit i'm sure.
Elbe Dyke
After the Fischmarkt and after taking my produce home, I hopped on the bike and headed along my favourite road, the Elbchausee. I was chased down by some guys and we ended up riding 100kms together to the west of Hamburg. It was great riding with them as they knew all the back roads. We also rode along the Elbe Dyke which was beautiful track alongside where sheep graze and people walk their dogs. The guys I met up could speak English which also made it a good meeting up. In fact i'm meeting them tonight to do a 60km training ride to the south. Pictures are up on picasa.
Dinner
On Sunday I invited Sarah and Philip to dinner. Sarah was on exchange at Saints back in 2001 while Philip, Sarah's boyfriends I met in Freiburg last year. Sabrina (my flatmate) also joined the festivities. I cooked up a storm! We had Broccoli soup with pistachio and feta. Main was a Lamb Shank Ragu while Dessert was a Bread and Butter pudding. It was great to sit down and enjoy a meal altogether. It was a long day but one of my favourite to date.
This week is my last in Hamburg. We finish school tomorrow and I will meet Sarah and Philip for Dinner before meeting the Goethe kids out later on. Sabrina has Thursday off and I promised to cook for her and Oliver (our other flat mate) on Thursday night. Friday I fly to Nice via Copenhagen before meeting James Hay again. Then the assault on Mont Ventoux begins!
http://picasaweb.google.de/ajoest/WeekendInHamburg#
Goethe
Studying German continues to go well. We were discussing as a class whether we felt we had been improving I found it hard to come up with answer. To me it all sounds the same and I still make millions of mistakes! However, I think we have all improved and I certainly feel more confident having basic conversations with people. I found myself in a random conversation at the bike shop last week, I think he thought I worked there but we were able to discuss bikes and I was able to handball him onto the actual shop owner!
For anyone thinking of a reason to go on holiday, learning a language at a language school is a great way to quickly integrate into a new culture, meet new people and also feel as though you've accomplished something. For many of my class mates they will go home this weekend and not speak German for some time. I have another year to practice!
Bike Riding
The highlights during the week last week were two large bike rides. This was in light of the realisation that I am planning to climb Mont Ventoux on the 25th and also because the weather was sensational!
On Tuesday I rode to Luebeck. I have already written about this http://ajoest.blogspot.com/2009/07/lubeck.html and then on Thursday I hopped back on the bike after school and rode to Ratzeburg. I hadn't heard anything about Ratzeburg but after looking at the map and judging that the distance was manageable and that it was surrounded by a lake and forests I decided it was a worthy goal. Again I rode along the main roads. They are not the fast Autobahns and not the Schnellstrasses but still major roads. Unfortunately I was still getting heckled by the odd riding but i'm getting used to that now.
It was a lovely 28 degrees with blue skies and no wind. Riding through the forests and over gentle hills was hugely enjoyable. Then Ratzeburg appeared! Ratzeburg is picture perfect. You climb a gentle hill and once you reach the top and get over the other side the Ratzeburg Dom (cathedral) appears behind a beautiful blue lake. I have a photo of it in my web album. Ratzeburg is located on an island in the middle of a pretty large lake. There were numerous boats out on the water including sailing boats, kayaks and I even saw the German National Team out training before the World Champs coming up over the next couple of weeks. I rode around the island over many cobbled stone roads! The old buildings are all in great condition with people taking real pride in growing flowers along the footpaths. Because I had arrived around 6pm I could see a few business men arrive at the marina, get on their small timber sailing boats and head out! What a life. After a coke and a red (cherry flavour in Germany!) powerade rode home. It's harvest time at the moment so I got to see plenty of harvesters working the paddocks. A very memorable ride. Here is the route: http://tinyurl.com/mshh4y and photos on picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.de/ajoest/RatzeburgByBike#
Airbus
Being the engineer at heart I took a tour of the Airbus Factory on the other side of the Elbe. This is actually a very popular excursion and it wasn't easy to get a spot.
The tour was of the facility at Hamburg and also explained how Airbus works across Europe. Airbus was actually formed over the past 30 years by initially combining German and French aircraft manufacturing companies and later British and Spanish companies. Each division was run separately as a state run company manufacturing parts that were then sent to Toulouse for assembly. Now Airbus is a fully integrated company taking on Boeing (US) and Embraer (Brazil) and is a leader in the manufacture of aircraft.
We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the A380 however most are manufactured in Toulouse. Only A380's purchased for the Middle East and Europe are commissioned in Hamburg but to date mainly Asian and Australian airlines have received A380's. Nonetheless A380 fuselage sections are made in Hamburg and ferried to the UK for further work before being ferried to Toulouse for fit out and commissioning. The logistics involved here are just as impressive as the actual manufacture. They have dedicated ferries shipping whole aircraft sections. They have modified A380's that are able to carry sections of the other planes. These 5 modified A380's make three (and sometimes 5) regular deliveries a day with parts between Germany, France, Spain and the UK. The whole manufacturing process is based around the Just In Time manufacturing methodology developed by Toyota meaning parts are made available at exactly the right time when they are required for the next manufacturing step. There is no inventory! Each country has various manufacturing responsibilities and within each country there are various plants. I think Germany has 5 or 6 plants. It's just incredible / impressive.
Sadly I couldn't take any photos of the Airbus facility. I don't think my camera would have given justice to the enormity of the facility. The sheds in which these planes were being built were each holding 8 or 9 planes and making the planes look small! They had a spray booth shed that could allow two planes to be painted simultaneously!
We are used to the A320's in Australia but they also build the long range A330 and A340s that are used in the US and Asia.
It takes 21 days for a plane to be built. However they have slowed the production process down due to the GFC so they finish a plane -from Go to Wo- in 25 days. However, if you want one and order it today you won't get one for 6 years they have such a long waiting list.
In each of the sheds, each manufacturing step is stationary however the plane gets moved along the assembly. Each manufacturing process is mounted onto hover platforms that are moved in and out of the way as required. Again each of these platforms are serious pieces of engineering alone. The last things to be installed before testing are the engines. We were told they cost roughly 20% of the plane!
Everywhere you look you see how much pride Airbus takes on quality. Each bolt has a method of being checked. Each hydraulic pipe is pressure tested. Every cable is tested. They are very rigorous. But at the same time they spend considerable effort on R&D and have developed many technologies that keep them ahead of Boeing. It's most impressive manufacture considering they expect a working life of each plane to be 30 years. 10years in Europe then sold to Eastern Europe and Asia before being sold onto South Africa and South America!
The three hours walking around Airbus was well worth the time.
Reeperbahn
Friday night was spent at a music and beer festival sponsored by Duckstein Bier. It was another lovely evening to watch a Spanish band on a floating barge stage and sink a few beers. It reminded me very much of the Fringe. We then met the others from the Goethe course and tackled the Reeperbahn. We found a few cool places and had a really great night. One of the other girls has met a guy with quite a loud mouth on him which inevitably meant he kept getting into fights. But just like going out anywhere else in the world!
Aussenalster
Imagine yourself sailing in a light breeze on a 4m restored timber boat in the sunshine! You are on a lake that is about 4km long and 2km wide. Surrounding the lake are trees and lawn areas and behind that architecturally significant buildings. In the background you can see oxidised copper (aqua green) roofs. You are on the Aussenalster in central Hamburg! It's just stunning. I ran around it on Saturday and upon getting home went back around with my bike to continue to enjoy it. On the water there are people sailing and paddling. On the banks there are people in restaurants, people sitting on the grass and on the paths plenty of people walking dogs, families walking around or punters running laps. The Aussenalster makes Hamburg a very beautiful and liveable city indeed.
Fischmarkt
The world famous Hamburg Fischmarkt is certainly a great establishment. Held from 5am every Sunday morning it attracts thousands of people. Its clientele include everyone coming in from the Reeperbahn after a big night to those coming in for their weekly shopping a little later. I met Megan, one of the Goethe students at 7 and followed the masses around the markets. One of the highlights is their system of selling goods off the back of a truck. It's quite a spectacle. The sellers are all very good entertainers and often through free stuff out into the large crowds that surround the trucks. You can also buy a bag and stand at the front at which point the sellers load up your bag with produce. For 10Euro people were getting a life time supply of pasta, or a week’s worth of fruit and veg or a year’s worth of chocolate! It was great. The other stands offered normal selling of fish, fruit and veg, niknaks and the other usual stuff. There is also an undercover section where bands play and people are sucking down beers! Fantastic. If I ever live in Hamburg the Fischmarkt would be a regular visit i'm sure.
Elbe Dyke
After the Fischmarkt and after taking my produce home, I hopped on the bike and headed along my favourite road, the Elbchausee. I was chased down by some guys and we ended up riding 100kms together to the west of Hamburg. It was great riding with them as they knew all the back roads. We also rode along the Elbe Dyke which was beautiful track alongside where sheep graze and people walk their dogs. The guys I met up could speak English which also made it a good meeting up. In fact i'm meeting them tonight to do a 60km training ride to the south. Pictures are up on picasa.
Dinner
On Sunday I invited Sarah and Philip to dinner. Sarah was on exchange at Saints back in 2001 while Philip, Sarah's boyfriends I met in Freiburg last year. Sabrina (my flatmate) also joined the festivities. I cooked up a storm! We had Broccoli soup with pistachio and feta. Main was a Lamb Shank Ragu while Dessert was a Bread and Butter pudding. It was great to sit down and enjoy a meal altogether. It was a long day but one of my favourite to date.
This week is my last in Hamburg. We finish school tomorrow and I will meet Sarah and Philip for Dinner before meeting the Goethe kids out later on. Sabrina has Thursday off and I promised to cook for her and Oliver (our other flat mate) on Thursday night. Friday I fly to Nice via Copenhagen before meeting James Hay again. Then the assault on Mont Ventoux begins!
http://picasaweb.google.de/ajoest/WeekendInHamburg#
Lübeck
I decided that today I would ride to Lübeck as small city 66kms north of Hamburg. It was a gorgous day in the north of Germany!
I'm still not sure how to take the motorists here. Most are great giving road cyclists plenty of room. Others have a real problem with cyclists on the road. I've been yelled at and shunted off the road a few times now. Was Amy Gillet riding in Germany when she was killed? I think the gripe is that there is a bike track nearly everywhere and bikes are meant to use them, however going considerably faster on a road bike than a town bike across rough roads, some gravel, I will stick to the road.
I'm learning what the native animals of German are. I accidently ran over a small snake, probably 30cm long. Oops. I saw plenty of flat squirrels and porcupines as well. I felt like dumb&dumber for parts of the trip as there are millions of flies and bugs when you ride past the fields. I was annoyed I forgot my sunglasses not so much because of the sun but from protecting me from being blinded.
Lübeck is absolutely beautiful in an old quaint kind of way. I was told that the council provides money to the building owners to restore their fachwerk houses. Although Lübeck was probably also bombed during the war, the buildings are in good repair and really give a great feeling. The cobble stone roads were a bit rough of the bike! The thought of the Paris-Roubaix kept me riding. I met up with Sarah and Philip briefly. I interrupted them this afternoon as they are currently madly moving house. I will hopefully catch them again on the weekend.
I'm still sure riding around is the best way to see plenty more of this great land. Perhaps I will ride to the Ost-See sometime this week also. A little longer but I definitely need the kms in the legs!
Photos are up on picasa!
I'm still not sure how to take the motorists here. Most are great giving road cyclists plenty of room. Others have a real problem with cyclists on the road. I've been yelled at and shunted off the road a few times now. Was Amy Gillet riding in Germany when she was killed? I think the gripe is that there is a bike track nearly everywhere and bikes are meant to use them, however going considerably faster on a road bike than a town bike across rough roads, some gravel, I will stick to the road.
I'm learning what the native animals of German are. I accidently ran over a small snake, probably 30cm long. Oops. I saw plenty of flat squirrels and porcupines as well. I felt like dumb&dumber for parts of the trip as there are millions of flies and bugs when you ride past the fields. I was annoyed I forgot my sunglasses not so much because of the sun but from protecting me from being blinded.
Lübeck is absolutely beautiful in an old quaint kind of way. I was told that the council provides money to the building owners to restore their fachwerk houses. Although Lübeck was probably also bombed during the war, the buildings are in good repair and really give a great feeling. The cobble stone roads were a bit rough of the bike! The thought of the Paris-Roubaix kept me riding. I met up with Sarah and Philip briefly. I interrupted them this afternoon as they are currently madly moving house. I will hopefully catch them again on the weekend.
I'm still sure riding around is the best way to see plenty more of this great land. Perhaps I will ride to the Ost-See sometime this week also. A little longer but I definitely need the kms in the legs!
Photos are up on picasa!
Week 3
As I come into my fourth week in Europe I have fewer stories to tell. Perhaps this is because I'm getting the hang of the place, perhaps I'm getting lazy.
Goethe
My German is improving! Slowly. However it has been really great meeting all the new people in the class. We all battle through our German. Often we lapse into English to get our stories across and add some humour to the discussion but everyone does their best to get back into the German groove where possible. Last week we all visited the local brewery - Groninger Beer- and had a meal. The beer was good and the meal, fantasticly German with lots of meat, sauerkraut and mustard! A litre beer is also a novelty and definitely required to help hydrate after all the salt in the meat! As I mentioned in my last email, we have people from all over the world so everyone has a good story to tell.
Hamburg
We had great weather in my first week here but last week it was pretty miserable. Luckily it wasn't too cold. This morning back in Hamburg it's a lovely 24 degrees and getting warmer through the week. I'll be able to get back on the bike again to keep my training going for Mont Ventoux!
Living in a share house has been brilliant. For starters Sabrina and Oliver are great value. Oliver is studying (History) at the moment and has his last exam of the semester tomorrow. Sabrina is a lawyer for Tesa (sticky tape and also owns Nivea). Whenever she heads out she lets me know and I can join her and meet her friends. Although I sometimes then forgoe doing my german homework, speaking with people teaches me far more anyway!
Germans
I'm developing a hypothesis that Germans are actually relatively lazy and this drives their appearance of efficiency. Very few shops are open on a Sunday. Banks and supermarkets have random opening times so that they can do stocktakes and maintenance in their work time not over-time. Due to continued pressure in the economy many companies are reducing the working week to 4day working weeks and reducing pay. The employees are surprisingly happy about this!
After a weekend at the Schutzenfest I am starting to develop a good knowledge of the cross section of people here. The contrast is not dissimilar to Australia: from the rich investment bankers who dine on the Aussenalster in Hamburg to the Double Denim wearers at the schutzenfest. It's great having time for people watching!
Hannover
Once again a visit to Hannover including catching up with Crissi, Gabor and Gunni. This time, although delayed by one day, James Hay came to visit. I played tour guide through the old part of the city before heading into the Schuetzenplatz. Although our photos don't do it justice (it had been raining and it was the last day) the Schuetzenfest is the biggest in the world and this year they broke their own record by have 1.6 million people come through the gates in 10 days!
The great bit about the Schuetzenfest is that there is a mix of people just there to drink beer. Grandmothers cruise around in groups of 4 or 5 going into each tent to drink beer. The Schuetzen-Vereins or Schuetzen clubs were also a novelty. Groups get together, organise uniforms and then luanch into the booze. Some uniforms look very formal with jackets and bling! Sadly we didn't see any lederhosen. They are probably more famous in the south of Germany. German genius organises things such that the kids would be off playing on the show rides while the parents are sucking down half litre beers with their mates.
When in Rome...
For James and I, there the games began! Our assault on the Schuetzenfest was really a tent crawl trying all the Franzikaner, Herrenhaueser, Astra, Gilde beers. In one tent we discovered a Hannover speciality the Dark Beer + shot of Corn spirit. There is a fine art to drinking this drink. You need to hold both in one hand and as you pour the beer into your mouth you have to pour the spirit into the beer such that is cascades down into the beer and into your mouth. Hay and I become professionals at this. It helped that we had made friends with the barstaff who ensured our table was never empty of drinks. Constantly we were being stood up by oldies smashing these beer shots or half litre beers around us. Hay and I were not game to tackle the show rides. They looked as though they could do some serious damage to a stomach full of beer.
Doing everything in traditional style, we ate Schnitzel and numerous wursts. A standard order of wurst gets you a sausage and a piece of cardboard to hold your sausage with. Mostly you get a piece of bread and some mustard but these are optional. I came hugely unstuck trying to tackle the many Wurst shops. The half metre wurst at the end of the night really put me in my place. Eyes were clearly bigger than my stomach. My poor stomach suffered all the way home and in class on Monday! James headed off to eastern Europe while I hopped on the train back to Hamburg for school. Bloody good fun and great to hang out with Jimmy.
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajoest/Hannover_Weekend#
Food:
I've found a back street along which there are numerous turkish shops. The bread is magnificent, the meat is cheap and the fruit and veg is very good. So I usually am able to get once a week a good load of food for 15 Euro and have enough to last me the week. I'm getting the hang of cooking in a small kitchen but because Sabrina and Oliver don't really cook I have it mostly to myself. They eat their 'warm' meals for lunch and then snack in the evening. I'm still on the Australian eating regime!
This week will be relatively low key. I'm keen to ride to Luebeck and see the Ost See perhaps later this week.
Hope everything is going well wherever you all are around the globe!
Oest
Goethe
My German is improving! Slowly. However it has been really great meeting all the new people in the class. We all battle through our German. Often we lapse into English to get our stories across and add some humour to the discussion but everyone does their best to get back into the German groove where possible. Last week we all visited the local brewery - Groninger Beer- and had a meal. The beer was good and the meal, fantasticly German with lots of meat, sauerkraut and mustard! A litre beer is also a novelty and definitely required to help hydrate after all the salt in the meat! As I mentioned in my last email, we have people from all over the world so everyone has a good story to tell.
Hamburg
We had great weather in my first week here but last week it was pretty miserable. Luckily it wasn't too cold. This morning back in Hamburg it's a lovely 24 degrees and getting warmer through the week. I'll be able to get back on the bike again to keep my training going for Mont Ventoux!
Living in a share house has been brilliant. For starters Sabrina and Oliver are great value. Oliver is studying (History) at the moment and has his last exam of the semester tomorrow. Sabrina is a lawyer for Tesa (sticky tape and also owns Nivea). Whenever she heads out she lets me know and I can join her and meet her friends. Although I sometimes then forgoe doing my german homework, speaking with people teaches me far more anyway!
Germans
I'm developing a hypothesis that Germans are actually relatively lazy and this drives their appearance of efficiency. Very few shops are open on a Sunday. Banks and supermarkets have random opening times so that they can do stocktakes and maintenance in their work time not over-time. Due to continued pressure in the economy many companies are reducing the working week to 4day working weeks and reducing pay. The employees are surprisingly happy about this!
After a weekend at the Schutzenfest I am starting to develop a good knowledge of the cross section of people here. The contrast is not dissimilar to Australia: from the rich investment bankers who dine on the Aussenalster in Hamburg to the Double Denim wearers at the schutzenfest. It's great having time for people watching!
Hannover
Once again a visit to Hannover including catching up with Crissi, Gabor and Gunni. This time, although delayed by one day, James Hay came to visit. I played tour guide through the old part of the city before heading into the Schuetzenplatz. Although our photos don't do it justice (it had been raining and it was the last day) the Schuetzenfest is the biggest in the world and this year they broke their own record by have 1.6 million people come through the gates in 10 days!
The great bit about the Schuetzenfest is that there is a mix of people just there to drink beer. Grandmothers cruise around in groups of 4 or 5 going into each tent to drink beer. The Schuetzen-Vereins or Schuetzen clubs were also a novelty. Groups get together, organise uniforms and then luanch into the booze. Some uniforms look very formal with jackets and bling! Sadly we didn't see any lederhosen. They are probably more famous in the south of Germany. German genius organises things such that the kids would be off playing on the show rides while the parents are sucking down half litre beers with their mates.
When in Rome...
For James and I, there the games began! Our assault on the Schuetzenfest was really a tent crawl trying all the Franzikaner, Herrenhaueser, Astra, Gilde beers. In one tent we discovered a Hannover speciality the Dark Beer + shot of Corn spirit. There is a fine art to drinking this drink. You need to hold both in one hand and as you pour the beer into your mouth you have to pour the spirit into the beer such that is cascades down into the beer and into your mouth. Hay and I become professionals at this. It helped that we had made friends with the barstaff who ensured our table was never empty of drinks. Constantly we were being stood up by oldies smashing these beer shots or half litre beers around us. Hay and I were not game to tackle the show rides. They looked as though they could do some serious damage to a stomach full of beer.
Doing everything in traditional style, we ate Schnitzel and numerous wursts. A standard order of wurst gets you a sausage and a piece of cardboard to hold your sausage with. Mostly you get a piece of bread and some mustard but these are optional. I came hugely unstuck trying to tackle the many Wurst shops. The half metre wurst at the end of the night really put me in my place. Eyes were clearly bigger than my stomach. My poor stomach suffered all the way home and in class on Monday! James headed off to eastern Europe while I hopped on the train back to Hamburg for school. Bloody good fun and great to hang out with Jimmy.
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ajoest/Hannover_Weekend#
Food:
I've found a back street along which there are numerous turkish shops. The bread is magnificent, the meat is cheap and the fruit and veg is very good. So I usually am able to get once a week a good load of food for 15 Euro and have enough to last me the week. I'm getting the hang of cooking in a small kitchen but because Sabrina and Oliver don't really cook I have it mostly to myself. They eat their 'warm' meals for lunch and then snack in the evening. I'm still on the Australian eating regime!
This week will be relatively low key. I'm keen to ride to Luebeck and see the Ost See perhaps later this week.
Hope everything is going well wherever you all are around the globe!
Oest
Week 2 - Hamburg / Bremen
Weather:
Just to make everyone jealous, the weather in the North of Germany has been a lovely warm 28 - 30degrees all week. It's a little humid but happy to live with that.
Geothe Course:
I've been studying German for five hours a day at the German language and culture school. People from around the world are studying German here. There are people in my class who have lived in Germany for 10 years and still don't know the grammar! The group is diverse to say the least. There is a Korean elderly man who I found out is a Professor of International Law teaching in Korea. There is a Turkish school teacher who until now, aged nearly 40, had never been on a plane before. He had been teaching German in Turkey for 20 years but never formally learnt German so the Turkish government sent him. We have some Russian girls who seem to be collecting languages presumably to take over the world. Some can speak 6 languages! Then there is me struggling along trying to fix bad habits.
Hamburg:
Hamburg is beautiful and strikingly hugely diverse. Hamburg has everything from the rich suburbs of the bankers and merchants to the more alternative areas such as St. Pauli (The famous Reppebahn is like a super charged Kings Cross - also where the Beatles were first uncovered!). Walking the streets of the city you will see the finely dressed business men in sharp looking suits walking alongside punks that look as though they hadn't changed out of their clothes in months. The drunks that lie begging on the streets also like to take it to the next level by ensuring that they piss their pants to highlight their misfortunes. Hamburg has a certain energy that you won't find in Adelaide!
Photos:
As always my photos are posted here on my Picasa Album or on Facebook.
Reppebahn:
Worthy of a special mention, the Reppebahn really pushes the boundaries of vulgarity. Clearly i've lived a pretty sheltered life! After you have walked past the 50th sex shop and the 100th filthy bar along the Reppebahn, you can find a side street that allows only men to walk down it. Any female seen will be spat on, shouted at and promptly escorted away! Being a harbour city, the sailors wanted their private space away from the hustle and bustle of a male/female community!
Suellberg:
I'm not sure when i'll get tired of riding through tight knit fachwerk villages but again I was riding along the Elbe and found myself in such a village - Suellberg. It is home to Hamburg's biggest mountain; about 100m high! I climbed it a couple of times in training for Mont Ventoux! Suellberg is to Hamburg, what Victor harbour is to Adelaide; only probably twice as old as Australia!
Bremen:
This weekend I visited my Godfather David in Ottersberg, just out of Bremen. He had a busy weekend already planned so it was great to follow him around to see his folk band play (he plays the accordian), help him renovate his cellar and take his goats into the fields to feed. A very wholesome and typically German weekend!
Just to make everyone jealous, the weather in the North of Germany has been a lovely warm 28 - 30degrees all week. It's a little humid but happy to live with that.
Geothe Course:
I've been studying German for five hours a day at the German language and culture school. People from around the world are studying German here. There are people in my class who have lived in Germany for 10 years and still don't know the grammar! The group is diverse to say the least. There is a Korean elderly man who I found out is a Professor of International Law teaching in Korea. There is a Turkish school teacher who until now, aged nearly 40, had never been on a plane before. He had been teaching German in Turkey for 20 years but never formally learnt German so the Turkish government sent him. We have some Russian girls who seem to be collecting languages presumably to take over the world. Some can speak 6 languages! Then there is me struggling along trying to fix bad habits.
Hamburg:
Hamburg is beautiful and strikingly hugely diverse. Hamburg has everything from the rich suburbs of the bankers and merchants to the more alternative areas such as St. Pauli (The famous Reppebahn is like a super charged Kings Cross - also where the Beatles were first uncovered!). Walking the streets of the city you will see the finely dressed business men in sharp looking suits walking alongside punks that look as though they hadn't changed out of their clothes in months. The drunks that lie begging on the streets also like to take it to the next level by ensuring that they piss their pants to highlight their misfortunes. Hamburg has a certain energy that you won't find in Adelaide!
Photos:
As always my photos are posted here on my Picasa Album or on Facebook.
Reppebahn:
Worthy of a special mention, the Reppebahn really pushes the boundaries of vulgarity. Clearly i've lived a pretty sheltered life! After you have walked past the 50th sex shop and the 100th filthy bar along the Reppebahn, you can find a side street that allows only men to walk down it. Any female seen will be spat on, shouted at and promptly escorted away! Being a harbour city, the sailors wanted their private space away from the hustle and bustle of a male/female community!
Suellberg:
I'm not sure when i'll get tired of riding through tight knit fachwerk villages but again I was riding along the Elbe and found myself in such a village - Suellberg. It is home to Hamburg's biggest mountain; about 100m high! I climbed it a couple of times in training for Mont Ventoux! Suellberg is to Hamburg, what Victor harbour is to Adelaide; only probably twice as old as Australia!
Bremen:
This weekend I visited my Godfather David in Ottersberg, just out of Bremen. He had a busy weekend already planned so it was great to follow him around to see his folk band play (he plays the accordian), help him renovate his cellar and take his goats into the fields to feed. A very wholesome and typically German weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)