.h's Travelblog

A single event can have infinitely many interpretations

2007-02-03T10:09:15Z

It is quite unbelievable to think that I was in London last weekend this time, getting quite cold, when I'm now sitting in Cape Town after a (half-a-)week's work behind me and dying of heat. In all honesty, this is just not cricket - arriving from 5 or 6 degrees in London to 38 degrees on Wednesday!

I haven't flown through Heathrow for a very long time so I didn't know what an absolutely plainful experience it had become! I really don't understand the security measures which they take in London with the liquids being in seperate plastic bags, etc... Especially as "medical" liquids are excluded from the 100ml upper limit maximum as one can just put the "naughty" liquid (whatever could it be even?!) in a contact lense fluid bottle (mine is 355ml and they let it through) or medicine syrup bottle, etc.

Then, having to basically undress at the scanners is just as silly: putting everything from shoes to hats (belts, jackets, what not) into various plastic bins, with hand luggage, laptops and liquids going in other bins through the scanners while one waits in basically only on'e socks, jeans and shirt to be able to re-dress again (no mean feat in winter with all the coats, etc!).

I think that in future I will try and avoid flying into and out of Heathrow and rather take the Eurotunnel train - it is much more convenient in terms of the station being centrally located and with all the security checks, takes just as long (if not shorter!) than a short distance flight in europe.

The flight itself from London to Frankfurt was quite ok but the long-distance flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town was not very impressive (service-wise)! This was the 4th time that I've flown with Lufthansa and I've now made a conscious decision to avoid ever flying with Lufthansa if it is possible... The air hostesses are actually not only unfriendly but straight out rude! I had a 60+ year old english gentleman (literally and figuratively) sitting next to me who (after the "in-flight entertainment system", if one could could a miniature screen in the front of the cabin that, was down for an hour) asked from the air hostess what is wrong with the system and was told basically to shut up and stop bother her as the more he bothers her the longer it will take to fix (ie, no, sorry sir, we're trying our best, or anything like that).

She later came past again while I was having one of those typical long-haul-flight-chats with the man, leaned into our personal space in the middle of our conversation and, in a very rude manner (nearly child-like) told the man that "see you should just have been patient". Unfortunately for the poor man, he indicated to her that he was busy with a conversation by holding his open and in her direction when when went through a bit of a bump and he touched her without meaning to. The resultant scene was actually extremely embarassing with the air hostess going on about how she wouldn't stand for "dirty old men" to touch her and what not...

Normally I would have intervened but in the current day and age it is actually quite risky to make scenes on planes as one could possibly quite easily be locked up under some stupid terrorist type law for unruly behaviour or something.

Luckily the old man was quite tame and just meekly kept quiet and the air hostess (actually, now that I think of it - it was the "Purser") finally lost her steam.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, the food the normal airline kind (although having dinner at 2:30am SA time and breakfast at 10:00am SA time is a little bit weird) and passed quickly thanks to the help of my drug dealers (med-student friends) who supplied me with a sleeping pill (the only way in which I can catch some shut-eye in the cramped quarters of an economy class seat).

I had a very warm (pun intended!) welcome in Cape Town with Dirk and Judy coming to fetch me at CPT International (dankie julle twee!! ).... Now, but 4 days later it is really hard to think that I was running around in London a week ago this time. All in all I would call the holiday a great success, I had a great time with all my friends all over euope (thanks to all of you who might read this!!!!!!) and have come back to SA revived and refreshed for the next 6 months of work before I head off to Sweden to do my master's degree (August 2007).

This blog will die down now for quite some time again (nobody wants to read boring lawyer stories in any case, even less than boring holiday stories!), maybe only every now and again reporting on my Sweden plans.

Thanks for reading the blog up to now!

Till next time!!!
/hs

A single event can have infinitely many interpretations remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The final chapter

2007-02-03T13:03:34Z

My last days in Sheffield passed extremely quickly, with a really nice and relaxed chinese dinner at Louby's place, philosophising over a bottle of wine on the Wednesday evening. Thursday was actually quite a busy day - I did all my washing, started packing, went for a walk in Sheffield to collect photo evidence that Sheffield is not as ugly as everybody made it out to be, had dinner at Rachel's place (her mom made us another traditional english roast - YUMMY!) and finally a quick drink Louby's local pub the Thursday evening, before catching the coach on Friday 19 Jan, back to London. Before I knew it I sat back in Victoria station with the Sheffield trip all behind me.

(Chinese dinner - sitting on the floor just like the Chinese do)

(Photo evidence 1 - Aldred Lane)

(Photo evidence 2 - Peace fountains)

(Photo evidence 3 - Winter gardens)

As Jacques works during the day I had some two hours to kill before going to meet him at the Blackfriars tube station. I spent my time in a nice little Italian restaurant where I, for the second time in London (the other time being when I went from Victoria station to Sheffield), I was quite embarrassed to see how young South Africans (obviously on a working holiday visa in London) being being rude, arrogant little brats. They were openly discussing how stupid the person working behind the counter was (it was in Afirkaans but it was very obvious with them pointing and laughing at the poor guy behind the counter, who just trying to earn his living) in a very rowdy and loud way. I must say that if I was a Londoner or Englishman I would've been severely irritated by these "foreigners" invading London.

Ok, that was my rant - back to the actual travel blog. I met up with Jacques and we went to his apartment in Putney, opposite the Putney common, to drop off my stuff. I must say that he did a really good job in finding that apartment - it has a view over the Putney Common (open area park), a garage (!!!! yes, a garage in London!), on-suite bathroom, is furnished, 4mbps broadband internet, etc etc.
As 19 Jan was Jacques birthday we went out on a walk in Putney to explore (he only moved in in his apartment on the Sunday), where we had a really nice dinner in a very cute little Italian restaurant (one really can't do burgers on a birthday!), after which we went and checked out the Eight Bells pub close to the Putney tube station. I had a really great time catching up with Jacques as we were working quite hard at the end of 2006, trying to finish everything off in inte and never got round to seeing each other in either November or December.

Saturday was again a busy day as I helped Jacques with some household goods shopping (it is quite a procedure to buy all these house things of which you never thing, from dishclothes to bath mats to microwaves) and then met Louby at Paddington station. Louise and I have had this "discussion" about the crown jewels in the Tower of London which England "stole" from South Africa back in the days when SA was a colony of England - and the deal was that if I ever would get to London that we would go visit the Tower of London together. So, we set off to the Tower of London by black (blue actually, but who would ever know!) cab, courtesy of Louise, past the Buckingham palace and the Houses of Parliament. After paying the wopping entrance fee of 15 pounds (we actually only wanted to see the diamond, not buy it!), we made our way over to the jewel colleciton. I think all the other tourists there probably thought that we are quite weird tourists, racing past all the antiquties just to see the sceptre with the Cullinan diamond in it (see the wiki on it here - by the way Louby, according to Wikipedia the value is over two million pounds sterling for the diamond!).

(Tower of London of course!)

(And proof that I was there......)

From the Tower of London we met up with Jacques in Oxford street, had some drinks and then dropped Louise off at the station for her trip back to Sheffield before visiting some colleagues of Jacques for the evening. Jacques' apartment is really well located with bus 22 and N22 (which starts at Picadilly Square) stopping right in front of his house, which avoids the whole issue of the tube closing down at 11o'clock-ish. The nightlife in London seems amazing, although obviously something which one should not try to experience with rands earned on a tiny salary! We walked around for a while in the area of Picadilly square, did some midnight shopping at the Virgin Megastore and then took the scenic bus ride back to Putney. A very nice day filled to the brim with events indeed!

It was not as if Sunday was much more of a rest day however as Jacques and I spent the Sunday investigating the sales in Oxford Street (Harrods, etc) and also did some more household shopping (bedside lamps, etc). By 16h00 we were both completely exhausted and went back for a nice relaxed evening at Jacques' place before the start of the week.

And so my last day arrived, raining, wet and grey in London - just as it should be! I lugged all my stuff over to the left luggage storage, booked it in for a rest at Victoria Rail station (for future ref, 6 pounds per item per 24 hours) and then went to the Tate Modern, my favourite museum in the world. I spent about 4 hours in the Tate Modern, took a leisurely walk over the Millenium Bridge, to St. Paul's cathedral (past the very impressive international headquarters of the Salvation Army and interestingly enough the headquarters of Old Mutual in the UK).

(The Tate Modern from Millenium Bridge)

(The Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern with the current Unilever exhibition)

(Millenium Bridge in direction of St. Paul's)

After some gadget-browsing in Tottenham Court Road, I went and collected my luggage and headed for Heathrow - my month-long holiday had come to its end, much faster than I wanted it to...

ps- Sorry for the absence of photos... all the photos are on my laptop at work, so check back later this week for the photos

The final chapter remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Peak district and more

2007-02-03T13:04:16Z

And for those of you who thought that the visits to Germany and Belgium would be hard to beat I have some news - Louise and Rachel did just great doing just that!

I am in Sheffield now, thoroughly enjoying my real holiday - sleeping late (10 hours per day, I can't even think of when last I managed to do that! must say the darkness here makes it very easy to sleep so much!!), lounging about, reading loads, channel surfing, web browsing, running at least an hour every day, etc. All those time-wasting things which you never get round to doing in "real life". (No photos of that!)

Anyway, also some about my actual doing stuff here....

I arrived on Thursday night at the Sheffield bus station where Rachel was so kind to pick me up... After spending some unplanned time at the local petrol station and discussing the benefits of a RAC subscription, we were off to the West Street Live pub where we met up with Lou to watch some friends of Rach playing a gig at the pub. It was nice to see the two of them again, although a little surreal maybe - felt like I could just step out the door and be back in Leuven.

Friday itself was an introduction to Sheffield; met with Louise and Rachel for lunch and after that spent the afternoon exploring Sheffield centre. I don't know why everybody back in SA warned me against Sheffield being ugly and dirty - in my opinion, although the city centre is not very large, it is actually quite nice with the peace fountains and the winter-garden and the walking-streets. Unfortunately the weather was not so good so not many photos were taken, will probably do that tomorrow, so might then add a photo or two here.

The evening we went to two bars/clubs (I think Rachel's locals? Is that right Rach?) called Reflex and Flares (80's and 70's styled music respectively). I must say - the english women are a lot more "forward" than the SA'n version... I have never before been approached (read "groped") by three women in one evening. Interesting experience to say the very least...

The next morning I was surprised to actually find in-bed service of coffee in Palace d'Aldred after which we set off for a tour of the Peak District.

The first stop was Chatsworth - the estate of the Duke of Devonshire. We tried to walk a bit closer to the house to take some photos but the grounds were very muddy and skwishy (well, nothing compared to our countryside walk probably).

(House of the Duke of Devonshire)

With that we headed for Bakewell, a very picturesque little village in the Peak District, known for its traditional "Bakewell Puddings". After our afternoon tea Lou invested in some Bakewell pudding for me - it has a very amaretto type flavour and is very sweet, probably not my favourite pudding but, as they say - when in Rome...

(Bakewell town centre)

We then made our way to the Middleton where Lou's mom lives and where we were going to spend the night. The scenary on the way there was really unbelievable (gotta see it to believe it kind of scenery) - I really don't understand why the English wanted to leave that all behind, get on a bunch of ships and try and conquer the world whilst they have all that beauty right in their back yards.

Lou's mom lives in this really idyllic setting, with stone cottages set against beautiful green rolling hills. Lou's mom received us very warmly (literally and figuratively ) with nice tea in front of the fireplace and then later some red wine (actually quite interesting, it was a sparkling australian shiraz, something I have never tried before and it was surprisingly nice, even though it was australian!).

For dinner we went to "Ye Olde Gate Inn" in Brassington - this really quaint little pub with candles and fireplaces and old exposed timber beams which started somewhere in the early 1600's (I can't remember the date now, can only remember it was BEFORE 1652, ie, before SA was even found by the european explorers). Louise and I have been talking about going to this specific pub way back in 2004 and so it was really cool to finally get to go there.

(Ye Olde Gate Inn - Lou and her mom)

The next morning Lou and I went for a walk through the english countryside like proper Englishmen (yes, that's me!)... It was really great to see the countryside by foot, walking over fields lined with holly and bramble like I've always read in the Enid Blyton books when I was younger. It was very wet though and extremely muddy at places - think ankle-deep mud... (my shoes are still not the same after that). Despite Lou's best efforts to get us lost (my african explorer instincs saved they day!) we found our way to the little village of Wirksworth, had some tea at a teahouse and explored around the village in the churches and windy old lanes around the town.

(The views from "Black Rocks" - our starting point)

(Lou getting her feet wet)

(And me getting stuck some holly)

And still it didn't stop (see what I mean with it topping my other visits in the events department ) - when we got back to Lou's mom she had prepared a proper english roast for us for dinner with yorkshire pudding, roast beef, roast potatoes, gravy, etc. It was a shame that my camera's batteries were dead as describing the meal in words doesn't really do it justice...

That basically brings me to the end of the really eventful weekend...

The rest of the week was really nice and relaxing as I said above, with Monday night having dinner with Lou and a colleague of her's at Nando's (yes, Nando's! really cool that they have Nando's here as well I thought, so we went there for dinner to inject some SA'n culture into the evening). After dinner I wanted to take the two of them for coffee but interestingly enough that is impossible here in England. It seems that all coffeeshops close their doors at latest 7pm and after that all english only go for alcoholic drinks...

(Can you believe it - a Nando's!)

Last night was an easy evening - I made dinner for Louise and Rachel (bacon-cheese filled chicken fillets, with no recipe.... quite pleased with the result seeing that I did it all by myself) and then went with Rachel to a very gothy rock pub in Sheffield to watch some friends of hers who play in a band called Highway Child (playing music of the Blues Brothers). I must say, I was really impressed with them - they are very talented...

And that brings me to today.... So, finally up to date with my blog for a change... From here I go to London to meet one of my best friends Jacques (who moved there at the beginning of this year), don’t know if I’ll write much again till then– the last bit might only be from SA, who knows…

Till soon

Peak district and more remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Lovely Leuven

2007-01-15T13:50:53Z

Belgium started off with a bang... I arrived in Leuven at around 16h30, had a quick coffee and croissant at my "local" coffeeshop close to my old house before I met up with Eddy (of my old running club in Belgium which I joined 2 years ago when I stayed in Leuven - for those of you who don't know the history) for a run with my old running group.

(Video of the Leuven Grootte Markt on the day that I arrived with real nativity scene).

Although the starting place of the club changed, their friendliness did not. We had an hour's run and then we went off to the Goude Carolus brasserie (called Het Anker) where we had dinner and I told them all more about Cape Town and the Two Oceans Marathon as they are all very keen in going to Cape Town in 2008 to do the Two Oceans. The brasserie was very nice (and I learnt that it was one of the only Belgian breweries still in the hands of a family business and not Interbev) and everything there was made with the beer. We had beer-based apperitifs (beer with some sweet liquor mixed, I can't really describe it) and "Mechelse Koe-koe", which is chicken baked in a beer-based sauce.
(See the club's site for a their version of the events at Het Anker, here).

It was only at around 1am that morning when I finally got to meet up with Regi (my kot-baas / house-boss in Leuven in 2004).

The next day Regi and Kirsten (a friend of his which also visited Cape Town in November) took me out touring. We started with a trip to Gent which, despite all the rain, was a really nice city - basically as nice as Brugge in my opinion, just minus all the american and japanese tourists.

(Raining in Gent)

From Gent we drove to Brugge where Regi's dad lives. Here again I was very warmly received and entertained by Regi's dad. We started out with snacks and apperitifs in "Cookie's Bar" (Regi's dad's neigbour's bar) in Garrestraat, then had some dinner and then, after a walk around Brugge, ended back at the "De Garre" pub in Garrestraat. Regi's dad was very friendly and it was really nice to be taken around Brugge with somebody who knows the place.

(Drinks at Cookie's)

(Sights in Brugge)

We said our goodbyes to Regi's dad and stepmother and then headed off quite late that evening to Westende (Middelkerke) where Regi's dad has an apartment on the Belgian coast. It is not really the best time of the year probably to visit the coast but Regi and I was always speaking of going to the coast when I stayed in Belgium back in 2004, so this time round we just had to do it.

(View from promenade in front of the apartment)

One would have thought that after the busy weekend that the week would end up quite relaxing... It did not however and I also fitted the following things in:

- a few dinners / drinks with Regi after work during the week

- met with my insurance law prof in Leuven, whom took me on a day trip to Brussels

(Heinrich in front of the Belgian Royal Palace)

(View of square at the Museum of Musical Instruments where we had lunch)

(The said lunch)

- walked around Brussels

(Of course that includes the Manneken Pis)

(Niewstraat - the shopping street in Brussels)

- went for a day trip to Maastricht where I met a dutch friend of mine, Sophie for lunch.

- had another run with the club

- went to Kirsten's sister's birthday party where I had "real belgian food", other than frites and waffles (witloof en ham gebak in kaassous).

And with that my time in Belgium ran out, quite fast and it also felt too quick... It was onto the Eurostar and onto England...

Lovely Leuven remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The last days in Gemany

2007-01-15T13:08:10Z

It has been quite a while since I made a posting on this blog (well, except for the irritated postings from Belgium), so I hope that I can still remember everything and not end up in the seriously irritating then-i-did-this-and-then-that reporting style...

After my very nice run next to the Main rivier I put off to the MMK after a short detour through the most historic part of Frankfurt called the Romerplatz (I can only remember this because of the name of the u-bahn stop at the museum). The museum was quite interesting, with the most interesting exhibition being (in my opinion) the peacock's egg which was smashed against a wall in this huge white room of nothing... Yes, very modern styled art [My dad always says that it is a bit of senseless art ]

(Romerplatz)

Some walking around in the shopping street of Frankfurt later, I met up with Nik again for dinner. It is always great fun to go out with Nik as we have quite similiar tastes in places and things to do.

(The Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt as seen from the main shopping street)

I left Frankfurt only late on the Thursday evening as Karin had some work still to do in Koln. As I had the whole day still in Frankfurt, I met Nik again for lunch at his work canteen, whereafter he showed me the offices and trading floors of Dresdner Kleinwort, where he works. It was really facinating to see all the trader guys with their 4 or 5 computer screens, following the news and the markets and so on.

Just after peak-traffic I set off in the direction of Koln. Unfortunately the weather was quite bad (rain) and so it seems that the peak-traffic took a bit longer to disperse and I ended up in Koln only around 8:30pm. Here I met up with Karin and we had a very nice tapas dinner with a colleague of hers, whom I have also previously met in Cape Town. After dinner Karin took me on a short walking tour of Koln where we stopped at the Marriot in Koln to have the "Winner of the World Cocktail Championships 2003" cocktail in the hotel bar. It is a shame that I can't remember the name because it was a really magnificent cocktail - one which I would've liked to try and recreate.

Both Karin and I had to get up early the next morning, me luckily only to play tourist whereas she had to work. For my Koln trip I did the Dom and then popped over to Bonn to see the "Best of Guggenheim" exhibition there (ie, a selection of works from the various Guggenheim museums all over the world). The exhibition was really impressive with inter alia Van Goghs, Picassos, Roy Lichtensteins and Warhols.

(The Dom in Koln)

With that I was done with Germany and finally got to go "back" to Belgium...

The last days in Gemany remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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And quick goodbye

2007-01-10T17:56:17Z

Leaving Belgium tomorrow for the UK - again I won't write too much now as the keybords here are really crap (too much effort to write anything more than 5 lines of text).

Expect a full update report soon!

And quick goodbye remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Quick hello!

2007-01-07T13:18:52Z

Just a short note from Leuven - having a really great time here and have been received reeeally well by Regi. Unfortunately I can't write much more because these damn belgian keybords DRIVE ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY, which is obviously no good on a Sunday afternoon....

to give you an idea: here is the alphabet as if typed on a normal english keybord...

qbcdefghijkl,noparstuvzxyw

AND worst is to have to use shift to type a full stop, otherwise it is a ; or shift to get to the numbers otherwise it ends up as
&é"'(§è!çà in stead of 1234567890

Enough.... till later....

Quick hello! remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Goodbye Munchen...

2007-01-03T11:26:44Z

Just a short note that after having said my goodbyes in Munchen I arrived safely in Frankfurt (thank you Karin for the use of your car!).

Had a very nice and fun dinner with Nik and a friend of his (who I have met previously on a visit of his to Cape Town), Michael, and some nightcaps in a very stylish bar here in Frankfurt called Diamonds and Pearls (http://www.dp-frankfurt.de/) before retiring.

Now sitting at Nik's place after a run next to the Main rivier and planning to go to the museum of modern art in a few minutes, but more about that later.

Goodbye Munchen... remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Happy Happy Happy

2007-01-04T08:40:26Z

The New Year's celebrations kicked off with 'Dinner for one' on tv at Claudia's place whilst making some pizza. It is quite interesting that all over the world it is the same tv show that is being shown on New Year's Eve.

Claudia and I got on a tram where we met a number of other guests of the same party (friends of Claudia) which was held at yet another friend's place (Andi). It was really well organised (well, what would you expect!) With beers, snacks and a bar table with all the mixers (and recipes laminated against the wall) to make various cocktails.

The fireworks show in Munchen was really really awesome, especially as we are not so used to fireworks in Cape Town (it was basically banned a few years back). I'll still see if I can figure out how to use the video posting thingy on this blog and try to post a video clip I made of the fireworks.

The evening was in the end really nice and I had a great time. In this I have to thank Claudia and her friends (Moni, Kathi, Ina, Ludwig, Florian, Mathias, et al) for making me feel welcome (and not minding to speak english a lot, as it probably was quite a pain to have to switch to english every time I joined the conversation).

As the public transport only started running just before 6am again we made full use of the night and partied till late... I was quite tired by the time that I finally got on the train, so much so that I ended up falling asleep and only waking up in a place called Zorneding. Having to wait for 24 minutes for the return train, although not so funny at the time, was in hindsight quite humourous as it was obvious that I wasn't the only one who fell asleep when 3 other people also got off and joined me for the return journey in the direction of Munchen.

All in all a very enjoyable and fun night!

ps: Louby, does this put even more pressure on you for my entertainment plans next week?

Happy Happy Happy remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Munchen spaziergang

2007-01-03T09:19:30Z

As the 31st was a Sunday and Germany very strictly observes the resting days, there was not much to do leading up to the time of News Years party later on the 31st.

I thus decided (as it was a beautiful day outside) to take a walk in the city centre, doing the tourist thing and taking a bit of photos in the city centre. It was also obvious that at least 3000 other tourists had the same idea as all in all the city centre was quite full considering that none of the shops were open (not even the souvenier shops!).

Herewith then an extract:

(Bayerischer Staatskanselei)

(Funf Hofe)

(City hall in flemish building style on Marienplatz)

(The Opera building)

MARIENPLATZ WEBCAM: http://www.marienplatz-muenchen.de/

Munchen spaziergang remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Schnitzels the size of pizzas

2007-01-03T08:56:06Z

Sometimes only a picture can explain what I mean....

Schnitzels the size of pizzas remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Apres ski

2007-01-03T08:55:30Z

(Some filling up to do after all that hard work!)

(Probably one of the very few africans with his own skiing equipment )

(Who's the hotshot?)

(Sitting pretty)

(What a great view!)

(I am no stranger to sun!)

And so the fay finally arrived where I could once again put my ski's into action - after about 2 years of inactivity. Karin, Claudia and I left Munchen at just after 6am the morning in the direction of the Austrian alps. With 230km behind us we finally arrived just in time for the slopes to open at 9am. It was a quick investment in a day ski card and then to the slopes.

Initially I had a little trouble to get my rythm back, but didn't fall, even on the hard red slopes we went on. The Obertauern resort is really huge - with tons of slopes to really satisfy my skiing needs. A further bonus was the weather - a very pleasant 7 degrees with only a very light wind, which made for easy skiing conditions(no need to stop after every 2 runs because of the cold as in Sweden) - although this also meant that a lot of "fake" snow (or snow made by snow machines for the SA'ns out there).

Pre-lunch I didn't have one single accident but I must be honest that by the end of the day (and one black slope later) I had clocked up 3 quite spectacular falls. I'll blame it on being out of skiing shape - nothing which some practising cannot fix. I don't know whether Claudia was just being nice or whether she really meant it (I believe she meant it) but she said that I really impressed her with my skiing abilities ("for an african", whatever that means!). I'll just take it that at least I didn't look a complete fool

And so, after 7 hours of skiing, we were tired but happy and headed home. This day would definately rank as one of the highlights of my tour!!!!!

OBERTAUERN WEBSITE: http://www.obertauern.com/

Apres ski remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Executive summary

2007-01-01T15:42:15Z

Just checking in quickly to contribute a bit to the general worldwide information overload… Had quite a busy time the past few days with which details I won’t unnecessarily bore you… You are most welcome to just skip to the end of this post

The short summary of it all is that I had done the following things in the past few days then scooting off to the city centre again with Karin to her place to do some admin stuff (post my application for Stockholm university!!!!):

- ran on my own on Wednesday from Karin’s flat, without getting lost, a route of just over 10km to an through the gardens of Schloss Nymphenburg (what an incredible route it was: running through these stately gardens with a number of small castles hidden away all over and then the grande finale, the Nymphenburg castle itself)

- had dinner on Wednesday with Karin and a friend of hers, Stephi (whom I have met previously)

- on Thursday traveled to the Bavarian countryside with Karin’s mom (area of Fischbacchau) where we went for another unbelievable excursion (I can’t honestly understand why would Bavarians want to visit SA with its brown veld landscape if one sees the beautiful lush green forests here) – walking up the mountain (actually more climbing as it was quite icy and hard to walk at a number of places) with the most unbelievable views (I’ll post a photo online when I have a bit more time). It took us all of Thursday to walk to the top (1266m) and back down (stopping at a mountain hut with a small restaurant service – only Bavarian foods though, like Kaisersman, Strammer Max, Leberkase, etc). For all our hard work we went to a (apparently one of the most famous) coffeeshop(s) “Winkelstuberl” on our way back, filling ourselves with some real Apfelstrudel and Schwartzwaldkuche [black forest cake for the illiterate people in the vicinity]. When I asked why the place is famous I learnt that it had the biggest portions (think Mugg & Bean portions) for EUR5 per piece and that the place belongs to a famous Bavarian actress.

(Beautiful views)

(Made it to the top!)

- Did some work yesterday at the San Francisco Coffee Company (SFCC) on Odeonsplatz where they have wifi internet access – checking on bond instructions for our firm while the firm is closed. It is actually quite amazing to be able to do that from here – perhaps something to consider when they really bring the “home office” concept to the legal profession

- Had quick McD’s dinner with Claudia and then going for some drinks in Munchen somewhere with Karin and a friend of hers.

- Met some drunk South Africans on Roserheimerplatz (coming from the Hofbrauhaus) who were very happy to hear some Afrikaans...

- Did some work again today at SFCC (some procedure, getting better at it now). That being said, I really am getting into this holiday thing – didn’t realize today is Friday until checking my calendar a few minutes ago (sorry Julia for that dumb sms!)

OK, boring stuff done, here comes some promise of exciting stuff: TOMORROW WE ARE GOING SKIING IN OBERTAUERN!! More reports to follow….

Executive summary remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Frohe weinachten

2006-12-26T18:06:29Z

Today was, as it is known in Germany, the second christmas holiday - where I joined Karin's family to go to the little town of Oberpframmern, where Karin's mother's family comes from and still lives.

After a church service (about St. Stefan - to the best of my understanding from the german, the first person to have died after the birth of Jesus and thus reaching the heaven through the "new" way which Jesus made possible... but don't quote me on this as the service was in bavarian German and at some times quite hard to follow) we went from house to house of Karin's family (uncles, brothers, etc), having schnapps to drive away the cold and then some christmas cakes.

It all ended in a restaurant where all the various family members met for lunch. I had "tafelspitz", which is actually an Austrian speciality but as we are quite close to Austria here, it is quite a well-known dish in this area as well. Tafelspitz is basically meat which has been cooked very very long in a type of minestrone soup until it is dried out - in effect basically cooked biltong. This was served with a type of cabbage and fried potatoes, all really excellent!

After the big lunch a nap was called for which was very welcome indeed (it is the time to rest after all!). With a lazy afternoon and some TV we now face a light dinner, nice german breads, cold meats and sausages. Tomorrow I will definately have to go for at least an hour's run after the nice eating that I've done the past 3 days!

Frohe weinachten remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Stille nacht

2006-12-31T16:14:56Z

And so I finally made it to München! After quite some travelling I reached Haar (suburb in München where Karin's parents live) where it seems I'll be for the next few days at the very least.

I've had very warm reception here, which is very nice. The traditional thing for Karin's family is to have trout and potatoes for lunch on the 24th and fondue for dinner, as we did this year as well. This is actually the 3rd Christmas I am spending in München and in all fairness, Christmas in the cold just makes so much more sense than Christmas in the blazing SA heat.

To get back to the point - we decorated the Christmas tree yesterday, had the trout lunch which Karin's grandmother prepared for us after which I had a long overdue nap (I can never really manage to sleep on a plane - despite having sleeping pills and all). At around 18h00 we exchanged presents and moved over to the fondue. Having a fondue for Christmas is in my opinion a really excellent idea: it is very sociable and, since one eats for so long, one rarely overeats as much as one would do with the typical Christmas meal in SA.

At around ten-thirty we set off to the local church for the Christmas service. The catholic way is quite a long affair compared to the protestant way to which I am used. It really was great to take a walk in the -2 outside, reach the warm, cosy church, filled with beautifully decorated christmas trees and tons of candles. Having to partake in the german songs and prayers (Onse Vader, or: Vater Unser) is, although a bit difficult, very "romantic" experience (at a lack of a better word - any suggestions?).

Today is a nice and lazy day, with a run planned a bit later.

As parting words I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS

Stille nacht remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I've deserved my title

2006-12-25T12:14:49Z

For those of you that don't know yet - I won the award of Erkel at our end-of-year office party... Yep, I'm your regular gadget-boy gone lawyer in the day... but just give me half a chance and I'll jump at the chance to play with any gadget around (or, as my one friend puts it - if it has a screen and buttons, heinrich's happy). I mean, look - I even have a blog which I now also keep updated!

Anyway, just couldn't resist posting a blog from mid-air. Yep! You read it! I'm currently somewhere over the bunch of islands in the middle of the Mediterranean (Ligurian according to the map, wherever that is!), cruising at 39'000ft and at 909km/h. Temp outside is -45 degrees C. All while updating my itunes (hey, way not take advantage of the broadband connection while we're at it! For the other IT junkies out there: I'm downloading at 11.2kb/s from the itunes servers whils browsing and listening to streaming audio) and listening to 5FM on streaming audio. Probably it is only I that am impressed with the fact that I can do all of this while flying....

We'll be landing in just over an hour in 809km's time

Laters.

/hs

Ps: I just want to place on record that I also won two other awards at the end of year office party - the "Fast and Furious" award and the "Gunther the barista" award...

I've deserved my title remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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And off we (I) go!

2007-01-01T15:43:27Z

Thanks to the very kind assistance of Karin, who did a pre-checkin for me, all the admin stuff went quite fast. I was done with check-in, passport control, security within 15 minutes (with pre-checkin one can skip the queues and go to the business class counter to collect one's boarding pass - what a bonus!!!). Definately the most relaxed way of flying ever!

Now I'm sitting on the plane and writing my last blog from SA for a while. And what a relief it is! The last month (and the last week) was incredibly high pressure at work, so I am looking forward tremendously to this holiday. The only sad thing is that I will miss my family and friends (ja Dirk, ja De Klerk, dis nou julle!) over this next month, of that I'm quite sure. I am of course looking forward to seeing all my european friends (Regi, Louise, Rach, Nik, Sophie, Karin, Claudia, et al) this next month.

Although the seats are quite tight (smaller than SAA it seems, but I might not remember it all too clearly) I think this flight will be quite ok- I had my dealer get me some fixes to while the time (read, my med student friens get me some sleeping pills) and I got (thank you again Karin!) a prebooked aisle seat far away from the toilets. As good as it gets here in cattle class

We'll have to switch our phones off soon, so siging off from the tarmac of CPT.

Sent by Nokia Mobile Mail.

And off we (I) go! remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

2006-12-24T01:39:52Z

This blog should come with a health warning. A warning against terrible boredom which might lead to death. But, despair not faithful readers - I'm off in less than a week. 5 Days to be exact. I've been throwing my stuff together (it's not that I really ever need my skiing stuff and thermal underwear here in sunny SA), have done my Christmas shopping for my hosts in Germany (where I'm going to spend Christmas day) and have booked all my inner european travels (do you know of www.megabus.com?? it's like ryanair for buses in the UK - £2.50 return London to Sheffield).

Now all that is left to do is the find my darn skiing socks (any suggestions can be placed in the suggestion box - your anonymity is gauranteed).

By the way, just a short moan quickly. Does anybody know (or should that be does anybody care?!) how many power plug adapters one needs for travelling!! Especially with the 3-pronged SA plugs! It's a SA-euro adapter, SA-UK adapter and euro-UK adapter (for the cellphone chargers). They should allow an extra kg for SA'ns to take along adapters, just as they now make allowance for fat americans flying (I'm sure you've heard of the bigger seats story...)

Okies, before I face serious lawsuits for libel and defamatory statements (or causing pain and suffering!), I'll sign off. Probably till next time from the airport!

/hs

Sent by Nokia Mobile Mail.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6... remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Got my visa!

2006-11-22T15:29:59Z

After battling through the tons of humanity hanging around in the german consulate of Cape Town I managed to collect my passport. Happy days, I have a visa!

Sent by Nokia Mobile Mail.

Got my visa! remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Not all mouth and trousers

2006-11-19T20:31:27Z

It took a month but finally my preparations are now falling into place. I got my tickets (arrive the morning of 24 Dec '06 at 5h45 in Frankfurt directly from CPT), applied for my visa on Friday (will be ready for collection on Wednesday), sorted my travelling plans, sorted my accomodation, ie all set!

Now all I need to do is wait for the days to pass, finish up the last few matters at work these next 5 weeks (yes, only 5 weeks left! I'm very excited!) and then I'm off!

Only have a last bit of admin to do with having my phone opened up for roaming, getting all my winter gear together (here in SA i never use it, so it's all stored away) and getting some pounds and euros...

During the next few weeks I'll be arranging the final open gaps in my itinerary and after that the quality of posts on this site should be picking up dramatically (no longer boring prep talk, only boring "vacation snaps").

Till soon!

Not all mouth and trousers remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Time for another one

2006-10-19T18:50:05Z

The whole point to a blog is posting to the darn thing as far as I understand it (yes, spot the n00b), so therefore, here's an update: not entirely an update for an update's sake since some things did happen worthy of my blog, but still excuse the boring bits for now (it'll get better towards the end of the year, I promise!)...

First off I am happy to report that I passed my Stellenbosch language skills test (a prerequisite for my application to Stockholm university) on the highest level (level 9, being an expert user of the english language, having an excellent command of the language). Congratulations can be sent to theh@can-u-believe-this-idiot.com.

Then I am also very excited about my England plans coming together slowly but surely: I have had very positive conversations with my English friends (please note, they insist that they are English, not British, not from the UK, but English - funny bunch these Poms I tell you) and have thus far already been invited to a real proper english roast in the english countryside (very very cool!) as well as having been offered accomodation at the Palace de Aldred (although apparently neither breakfast nor room service is included with this offer).

One outstanding issue of a very substantial diamond currently being held captive in London is also due to be settled shortly. Watch this space!

I haven't been to England since 1997 (I hear from reputable sources that London doesn't count as England, therefore the date of 1997), so it is probably about time that I just check up on the Poms again.

Now all that is left in respect of my England plans are to finalise the dates and book my eurostar ticket from Leuven, making it one (visit organised) down, two to go.

Enough rambling for one reader to digest, so off I go for now.

Till we meet again!

ps - Herewith a pic of the Peak District (area where I'll be treated to a proper english roast):

Time for another one remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Opening up shop

2006-10-15T12:01:09Z

After a number of people having asked me "Do you have a blog, you seem like somebody that would have one?", a number of my friends having 'myspaces' and now my dad starting up a blog, I actually didn't have any choice about starting this blog (it's a matter of pride!).

Why this site? Well, except for showing the people out there that I CAN actually have a blog....? I'm planning some trips in the next 18 months and the "lets-email-everybody-in-one-big-spam" is old hat, sooooo: here we go.

First up is a planned trip to Germany, Belgium and the UK. Maybe even fit in another country in there if I'm lucky (hopefully Sweden!). Will see. Also planning to go and do a year's studying in Stockholm in August 2007, which would then probably end up as the most important subject matter of this blog.

This site will thus be about capturing these trips, probably more for my own sake than for my friends - like we all know, nobody is actually really interested in your holiday snap shots. In any event, the boring stuff will initially be posted here, all from applying for visums, getting stuff sorted and then actually getting round to visit the places. The juicy (?!) stuff will hopefully come later on, so hang in there for the time being.

The first part of the battle for my first trip has been won already: my ticket has been reserved (and what a battle it was - tickets in Dec/Jan is terribly hard to come by this late in the game) albeit not yet bought for 23 Dec - 23 Jan and my "extra" leave from my job has been negotiated with my boss. I should, if all goes according to plan, have my ticket in hand by approx 24 Oct 2006 after which I will be starting the most tedious process of applying for a Shengen Visa (yes, us poor Africans still get discriminated against when it comes to access to Europe).

Other than that I don't think I have much more for opening words (and it is already past 1am), so I'll (abrubtly?!) end right here.

Till next time.

Opening up shop remains copyright of the author heinrich, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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