Germany

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...

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.

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?

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/

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

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….

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!

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