Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday I went to Basel, while Hanspeter and Katrin went parasailing.

Link below to a bit of the Tinguely fountain at work

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Mainz -> Hattersheim-> Aarau -> Solothurn.

Left Hamburg on a cool morning with trees looking like puffs of smoke. Not great through the train Window.

The to the Landschaftspark in Duisburg, there are concert areas, climbing walls, scuba diving and probably more, I didn’t have lots of time to check it out fully.

Would be a great place to go in summer with events on.

 

In Hamburg with Oliver from Laos. A chilly steely blue day to get shown around a bit on.

Mulled wine then into the new Elbphilharmonie, a new 900 million € concert hall.

From the 37 Meter high level of the concert hall the views below.

The off to the beach for more mulled wine and viewing the river.

The to a part of the town where some of the anarchist squats still exist.

Wandered along the river and then to the Reeperbahn

Pic below from the bar Heaven 23 floor at Reeperbahn 1

Then  to the Dom, which in Hamburg is a carnival

I agree with Finley that Currywurst is a pretty good invention.

 

When they built the Flevoland Polder they got some artists to create land on it for the occasion.

Yesterday Judith, Christian and I went and checked out a few of the pieces.

I shall add my pix later.

That water was mostly solid

The negative

The positive

The one below “garden of love and fire” was partly missing, maintenance I guess, but the aluminum wall parts were not there.

In some ways you need a drone view for some of them, but Judith says the Observatorium draws a crowd at the solstices and equinox.

Some time less wintery would make quite a difference too.

I am really glad I accidentally became aware these were around me.

Tried to get to the Robert Morris Observatorium but failed, I only noticed that this iconic piece of land art was in the area today, hope to get there tomorrow.

Went for a run in the cold, felt cold and old afterwards. A bit out of practice I guess not having run since leaving home in October.

Yes there is a layer of ice on the water in the pix below

 

Cold and clear day in Amsterdam yesterday.

Amsterdam caters for a variety of tastes

Industrial scale Nutella

And extreme

Sort of conventional

More sort of Amsterdam

Hmm mm!

There is heaps more to see there, all I did was a canal tour and then walked around for a while.

Just some pix from near Nijmegen

Short days here, and a watery place.

Rosemary, Daniel and Jeroen.

Managed to hang in there to 3am and get on the 747, I was worried it would be old and tired like the last one I was on, but no it was in great nick, go KLM.

The checkin person said she had given me a good seat because I looked tired, and indeed it was, at the back where there are 2 seats on the side not 3, so space to hang legs out the Window side, without the aisle traffic hassles.

Managed a few hours of sleep, so not in too bad shape getting to Holland.

Took the EU queue cos it was shorter and faster.

Amsterdam and Lelystad had foggy news and cold to offer this morning.

Finley found his way up to Daniel and Judiths place too, so good to see him.

Now the jet lag and coming up with a European plan.

I am now in Delhi, enjoying the hospitality of Mark, with whom I attended primary school.

Lovely place

If a little overdone in places like the power supply for the 2  bedroom house

Went to the Indira Gandhi Museum, and to the Mahatma Gandhi Smriti,  which are both sited where they were respectively assassinated.  pics from the Mahatma site

Then to Khan Market, for my coffee fix and to buy some shirts and shoes that are not to the taste of some i have asked.  it is a relatively upmarket area aimed at westerners a bit.

Then today I went into Chandni Chowk in old Delhi, and hired a Rickshaw, more about that later, but if you don’t they just keep hassling you.

Anyway on with the show

Up to the spice market first

The up on top of a building to look around

On the stairway

Views moving about

So then comes the crunch, where I get to pay him what I think it is worth for his services, at his starting point I could have hired a car and driver for 5 days, anyway get down to 500 rupees and he has done very well out of me, Mark says it should have been around 200. Hate the guilt feeling and all that they lay on you, but hey…. I’ll survive and i am not broke, nor he below

So now walking to the metro station I did not buy this

Hmm maybe it would have matched the shoes.

The train to Hauz Khaz and walked back from there passing the fellows below along the way.

Dinner tonight is at the Italian cultural center, with a Michelin star chef, fundraising for the Italian earthquake.

Another day of Delhi tomorrow, then effectively leaving the following day for Amsterdam.