Flying Emirates, Walking in the Park and Celebrating a 50th Anniversary

Both our employers urged us to take our remaining vacation days until the end of the year, so we decided to spend an extended weekend in London as we felt that we lacked a bit of the buzz of a big city. So we booked one of these super cheap Ryan Air flights from Baden-Airpark (another former Canadian military base) to London Stansted from where we took a train to downtown London. We stayed in the same hotel as last time, halfway between Paddington station and Hyde Park and prepared for bad English November weather by carrying various layers of clothing, topped with rain resistant coats and an umbrella. As it turned out we had great weather, sometimes bordering at fantastic, with lots of sun, blue skies and no rain at all!

We hadn't really worked out a program, so on Saturday we decided to follow our noses, ending up in North Greenwich where we were hoping to get a good view on Canary Wharf. When we left the station we were curious what was meant with 'connection to Emirates Air Lines'... until we figured out that this is a Gondola via River Thames. Of course we hopped on and were rewarded with fantastic views over the O2-arena and the Wharf. We strolled around the old the old docks for a while: a totally different London!

After an extended walk in the fresh air we took the tube back to Canary Wharf, where we watched Ice Skaters on the rink at Canada Square Park and enjoyed awesome food at the Turkish Restaurant Hazev.

After lunch we rode to Baker Street, looking for address 221B, but we only found a very commercial 'Sherlock Holmes Museum' that rather reminded us of a tourist trap than a museum. 

So instead we decided to exploit the last sun beams of the day in Regent's Park. The autumn colours were stunning. We couldn't believe that it was a late November afternoon in London!

The only planned and pre-booked event of our visit was the 3D-screening of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode 'The Day of the Doctor' (WHO?) at one of the (smaller) London cinemas. The show was sold out, like in any of the other venues, and we enjoyed David Tennant, Matt Smith and John Hurt bantering at each other in their different incarnations and interpretations of the Doctor. And they even had Tom Baker and - for a split second - Peter Capaldi showing!

What a gorgeous day it was!

Canada's most embarrassing mayor...

Source: Tagesschau.de

...now has made it into German news, too. The article summarizes the scandal pretty well, although only starting in May (as far as we remember Ford started acting strangely a long time before that). For everybody Non-Canadian who might not know the background:

Ford, who is the mayor of the City of Toronto, supposedly
- used substances (incl a DUI charge in Miami)
- is an alcoholic
- has insulted various people with offensive language
- was driving drunk
- was reading and texting while driving
- has threatened that he would kill somebody
- and on and on

Apparently the law does not provide the possibility to fire him during his term, so the Toronto City Council removed some of the most important aspects of his power.

Many of the comments of the article draw comparisons to Italy's Berlusconi who is widely considered as the worst politician alive in the view of many Germans. Looks like he has found a worthy competitor...

It's the Law: Winter Tyres!

A few years back Germany implemented a new highway code regulation that makes the installation of winter tyres on all axles compulsory from November 1st to April 15 for all passenger vehicles and motorcycles (yes, that goes for foreigners also), that is if the vehicle is driven through wintery conditions such as snow, black ice, or frost. Note: You are good, when it's just mild and wet in winter.

The rule is simple: If you get caught driving on summer tires you will get fined, if you get stuck or delay traffic you will get fined double, if you cause an accident you will get fined big time, gather some points and likely pay for the damage caused yourself (the insurance will cover for the damage to the aggrieved party, however it will reclaim moneys from the responsible party). Also, one could lose insurance coverage for the future.

Red: Winter tryres mandatory!

Source

We had recently fitted winter tyres to our car, surprised how cheap they were compared to cost in Canada. So far we haven't seen any snow but mornings are getting a bit nippy lately. Temperatures are around 0C (32F), and aren't climbing much during the day. 

No winter tyre conditions yet, but for all we care, the white stuff doesn't have to visit, because sans snow and ice we will be good just to ride on.

Visitors from the North

Mom, Sis and son had been over for the weekend, and we offered our usual tourist package, well some of it. Actually it was very little since we were mostly busy entertaining the little guy.

It involved strolling through Gengenbach Old Town to find a toilet for him, and then a walk along the river, for a stop over at a playground he had spotted earlier. Mom had to pose quickly for the few sights we got to see, meanwhile the little guy - unattended - got his hands (and his sleeves) wet.

He is attracted to everything watery, and this might even mean volunteering doing the dishes. Really!

Walking along the old town wall.

While the sky looks threatening.

Look, a playground!

And if there wasn't a playground around, but the need to climb aroused the little guy made do with what came across his path.

We watched two cats on a roof discussing the world's problems.

More water! Gimme rocks to throw (please)!

And another playground.

And somebody just made his day: A ride on a tractor!

It had been quite a different program compared to what we usually recommend to people visiting the area. However, we pretty much know all playgrounds in the vicinity now  ;-)

A Travel and Language Comic: Second Mother Tongue

Here is a very cute comic that shows the problems of English speaking folks trying to learn German while in Germany...

Itchy Feet: A Travel and Language Comic: Second Mother Tongue

A River and a Mountain

November seems to be bringing wet weather to the Black Forest. It was pouring with rain, with strong gales around 100km/h (62 mph), hence it wasn't ideal riding weather. My Harley might have been able to fight the wind gusts but the Vespas would have been pummeled and beaten off the road.

Stormy weather is at its best when close to water, so we drove to river Rhine to take a walk on the wild side - the Nature Habitat.

The French utility company EDF operates a number of hydro stations along the river and also (have to) do their share to preserve nature.

Weirs are controlling water levels, and help channeling the water into the Grand Canal d'Alsace where the ship's traffic is headed while another arm of the Rhine can meander freely through the meadows.

The waters were quite choppy and spilled over the barrier. At the edge of the canal huge warning signs are put up. This is not a swimming pool. The water is flowing fast and is full of dangerous eddies.

A network of bicycle roads and hiking trails lead through the habitat on the right side, and the area is usually quite popular with nature lovers, however today we had it all to ourselves.

The canal.

At the border. No walls, no barbed wire, no watch towers. Roland on the German side, and Sonja on the French side.

The Rhine forest provides habitat for critters as well as all kinds of plants that only grow where the Rhine flows naturally like he had done at the time before the river was straightened out in a 19th century ship traffic improvement project.

Relaxed and reasonably hungry we turned around at one point, knowing that a lot more hiking trails wait to be discovered at another day.

After a refreshing meal we continued our journey towards Kaiserstuhl. We were too tired for another expedition on foot so we decided just to drive around a little.

Eventually (well, it was a mere 35km further) we were back in the Black Forest, and although late in the day we decided to take one more detour.

A very nice twisty road leads up to the Kandel, with 1241m (4,072ft) the highest peak in the Middle Black Forest.

It was cold and windy and we were almost at level with the clouds. At least it wasn't snowing just yet, but it can't be long now until the Black Forest will be under a blanket of white stuff. Actually we are quite curious how the winters will be in this part of Germany. 

The light was almost gone so we headed for home, but we were glad to have spent the day outside despite the adverse weather conditions.