HitchBot does Germany

HitchBot, the famous pint-sized Canadian robot, which bravely hitchhiked across Canada from Halifax, NS to Victoria, BC in summer 2014, has gotten itchy feet again. Its new endeavours will take it to Germany, where one of its creators originated from. The robot has learned the language and seems to be eager to travel down the Autobahn at full throttle. The journey will start in Munich February 13th and end February 22nd. (special TV coverage on PRO SIEBEN "Galileo" 19:05).

Bon voyage, HitchBot. We hope you'll have a blast!

A Sunny Winter Afternoon

It rained, and rained. A lot. All week. Around freezing temperatures. All in all no fun weather, not even much fun to drive. However, Sunday morning the clouds gave way to blue sky. After having been confined to indoors for so long we were eager to go for a hike. Above 600m the wet stuff turned into white stuff. The snow made crusty noises under our feet as we followed the trail uphill and visited our most favourite place in the Black Forest, All Saints Abbey. We even spotted wildlife! A day that compensated for all the poor weather of the last week!

Into the Woods

The other day we had the most beautiful weather and decided to go for a short walk through the forest. What a good idea, as we had the most beautiful light! Luckily I had brought my camera to capture a bit of the magic!

New Camera (Again!)

Sonja allowed me to purchase (another) new camera! I was having so much fun with my Fuji X-E1, but it was such a hassle to continuously having to change lenses, so Sonja suggested that I should get the camera I originally was going for but could not bring myself up to buy due to its quite high price. So here are the first results from my brand new Fuji X-T1! I love this camera! So intuitive and easy to use, very light weight, but still shooting fantastic photos! What a great start into 2015!

Double Exposure Feature!

A first attempt at very long exposure. Will need some practice!

Sonja likes the camera, too!

Our favorite ruin!

I seem to love trees against the sun...

I wonder if the guy noticed that he lost something?!

One of the canons the Swedish "lost" in our home town during the Thirty-Years-War

Almost Carnival time again!

Snowmen on our New Year's Day Stroll

As every year, we started this year again with the good intention of getting a bit more fresh air. So we used the beautiful first day of the year for a litte walk in the snow around our village. We were greeted by quite a few Snowmen on our way!

Blue skies, white snow and black trees

An exceptionally gorgeous Snowwoman!

... and another one!

And while I was fascinated by some very red berries...

...Sonja built her very own Snowman :-)

Happy New Year 2015!!!

Live-View from our Balcony :-)

Wet Snow, Old Beer and Cheap Gas

With Sonja's sister incapacitated thanks to a broken leg it was decided to abandon our original travel plans, and so we drove four hundred clicks north to spend the holidays with our families. But in order to get in some "us-time" we booked a very nice hotel close to the old city core of Düsseldorf.

Düsseldorf is another German city making it under the top ten of the Mercer Quality of Living survey. With a population of 600.000 it is one of the biggest cities in Germany. It is known for trade fairs and fashion shows, its international airport, its carnival, and Altbier ("old beer"), a dark regional ale.

On Christmas Day we went out for a stroll in the Medienhafen (Media Harbour), a fancy lifestyle district defined by post modern architecture, among these the twisted buildings Neuer Zollhof by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, who also created the EMP in Seattle.

Neuer Zollhof by Frank Gehry

Invasion of the coloured aliens. (Flossies)

Some made it to the roof. They seem friendly, though.

We had seen enough of the modern stuff, and ventured out to have Alt-Bier in the famous Altstadt (Old city core). When in Rome... 

Note: Never ever order a Kölsch (a blond lager from the rival city Cologne) when in Düsseldorf. 

Cheers with Schlüssel Alt

Alt goes well with potato pancakes.

Close to our hotel we found Cafe Florian, a bistro with all-day breakfast and local specialties (it's kale harvest).

Cafe Florian - highly recommended

Cheapest gas station in the region

Although the low gas prices have us worry a little due to its impact on the world economy, we were pleased to find the cheapest gas station so close to where Sonja's family lives. It only took us two fillings there and back driving almost 2,000 km in five days.