The Reception in Schloss Richmond and the Autostadt in Wolfsburg.

We had a wonderful day which started at 11am with the reception in Schloss Richmond with the mayors of Bath and Braunschweig and the members of both Twinning committees.  The two Mayors can be seen signing the "Book of Friendship" between the two cities, a twinning that is 40 years old this year.  Both photos below show the reception and us sitting and enjoying a lovely lunch.  At 3pm we left for Wolfsburg and a visit to the VW Autostadt.  The exhibition of old cars was really interesting, and I saw so much that words fail me at the moment.  It was a long tiring day and I will write more later.  At 12noon tomorrow with have a Twinning Service in the Cathedral with a commemoration at the memorial to the bombing of BS in Oct 1944 and the laying of the Bath Rose for peace.  A Bath rose grows up the wall outside the Bath Portal, a sign of friendship between the two beautiful cities.  I am so very, very  lucky to be a part of this friendship association.   Good night, sleep tight, I will write more tomorrow when I am awake! 

The bottom two photos show some of the cars at the VW Autostadt, it was a really amazing place.   www.wikipedia.org Autostadt.

Flowers for Ursula and "Aufwiedersehen" Tea and Cake in the Garden.

I said another "Aufwiedersehen" until  April 2012  this afternoon to Ursula and Gerd. We sat in their lovely garden, drank tea and ate homemake plum cake with cream.  The Indian Summer sun shone and everything in the garden was rosy.  Today was an easy day with no visit to Room 101 with my passport and I also remembered to take the correct debit card with me into BS, so I was able to withdraw some cash.   This is  a short write up tonight as I need to sort my clothes for tomorrow's reception with the mayors of Bath and Braunschweig, the Petanque Group and the Twinning Group at Schloss Richmond.

My friends from Bath have arrived and we will all meet for a splendid day together.  Tomorrow afternoon we will visit the VW Autostadt in Wolfsburg and have a meal together in the evening.   I can feel my visit drawing to a close, as I keep saying so many goodbyes!   The photo below shows from left:  Monika, Gerd and Ursula enjoying  tea and cake in the garden in Harxbuettel.   It was a lovely afternoon with friends.

A Foggy Morning in the Beet Field and a Comedy of Errors.

The day started with thick fog, the first I have seen since living here.  It had cleared by 09.30 and we had yet another beautiful "Indian Summer" day.   I did the washing in too much of a hurry this morning, and failed to add any washing powder and set the wrong number for the spin cycle, so of course the door wouldn't  open. I had to reset the cycle  and go through the whole process again which made me late.  I then  rushed for the bus, and caught the M3 tram to the  Residents Office in BS, where they wanted to see my passport and some evidence of me leaving the country.  I was sent to room 101 for people whose surnames begin with MPQ FLNOR, where I got a ticket out of the "Who is next in the queue machine" and waited 40 minutes to be interviewed.  Eventually my form was stamped and signed, and I now need to leave the country on Friday 7th October.  The lowest photo shows no. 931 inside being interviewed,  I was no. 934 in the queue.

Then I needed cash, so went to withdraw some Euros, only to find that I'd bought my credit card with me instead of my debit card.  I stood outside the bank and said, "Sh*t" in English and in German, as I had only four Euros in my purse.  Janet and I had arranged to meet for lunch in "Graff" so she lent me some cash to do the shopping and I will repay her when she is in the UK the week after next.  I came home, made a cuppa and began to feel a whole lot better.  It was one of those days!

The fire brigade were in the Rathaus Square again today, so I was able to take a photo of the crane lifting brave citizens high up into the air for a view of the city.  I did not venture up, I much prefer Mother Earth.

Harvesting the Beet Field and a Missed Photo Opportunity.

Sitting quietly this morning, doing nothing, I was suddenly disturbed by the beet gathering machine that finally arrived to harvest the beetfield opposite my front window.  When I first arrived here in late April the crop was so tiny, that I didn't know what it was, I thought it was turnips.   Janet reliably informed me that it was beet, and I have watched it grow over the last five months.  I did wonder when it would be gathered, for it seems a long time in growing.  What's it used for?  A sweetner, I don't really know.  (Janet tells me that the beet produces sugar for most of the European Union countries, with Germany, France and Poland being the biggest produces.)

It was an amazing machine.  A scoop in the front dug into the earth and loosened the beet, which then rolled along an upward and onward moving band that carried it until it plopped into a large holding container.   Every so often the machine stopped in front of my window and dumped the beet in a huge pile, which you can see in the top photo.  It was a fully mechanised process and very interesting to watch.  Somebody, somewhere, sat down in a office and designed that machine, how very clever! 

I went into town this afternoon without my camera, only to find that the fire brigade had a display of their machines and equipment in the "Square of German Unity" opposite the Rathaus.  What a pity!  I missed a good photo opportunity with all the big red machines and the men in their red, high visibility garb and big black helmets.

A Walk in the Elm Forest and Other News.

My small Wolters beer.

I got up this morning and limped around the room, my ankles telling me that, for the time being, they had about enough of walking.  I made a cuppa, had some breakfast and suddenly they eased up a little, just in time for me to set off on the bus for my last sessions with the English groups.  I took two bottles of wine and some snacks with me for the "Aufwiedersehen, see you next year" party.  I felt a little weepy, but after a glass of wine and some nibbles I decided to cheer up.   We are in the middle of an Indian Summer here, it has been glorious again today. I basked in a mellow warmth and at moments on the tram, it felt like a hot summer's day.  Long may it last.

Above is yesterday's small Wolters beer, my welcome drink after the 5.5 miles I had just walked.  It was a wonderful hike, but I was glad I didn't know the distance before I went, otherwise I might not have gone.   Below sits Karl with that lovely little dog Donau, who merrily ran the whole 11.7 miles in total, darting in and out of bushes, carrying sticks twice her length and chasing the fresh air.  In the lower photo we can be seen waiting at the Gasthof to be served and the lowest picture shows a good example of a Currywurst in all its glory, complete with salad and chips.  It is a tasty dish, but I still prefer a good plate of fish and chips.

Karl and Donau.

Waiting to be served at the Gasthof.

A fine example of Currywurst, chips and salad.

Til Eulenspiegel's Birthplace in Kneitlingen and a Long Walk in the Elm Forest in Search of Beer.

After walking 11.6 miles (18.7Kms) I have returned home feeling somewhat weary.  This is a short write up tonight, which I will continue tomorrow.  The walk started in Kneitlingen with 12 walkers and one very nice little doggy! Just after the start we visited the birthplace and home of Til Eulenspiegel, the jester and joker who played tricks on poor unsuspecting souls way back in the 14th century.  I photographed and wrote about his fountain in Braunschweig  several months ago. www.wikipedia.org will give you more information.  The little church where he was christened was charming,  but no inside viewing was possible because a service was in progress.  The photo below shows Til's simple room with his bed in the corner.  The lower photos show us walking to the Gasthof and having arrived, waiting to be served.  It was a very hot day, about 24c and we were all glad to arrive back at the end of the walk, for the short drive home to Braunschweig.  More tomorrow.   "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!"

Til's bedroom.

Walking towards a distant Gasthof in search of beer.

Waiting for drinks and lunch. (more pictures tomorrow)

Autumn Arrives with Beach Volleyball at the Railway Station.

Autumn has well and truly arrived, yesterday was the autumnal equinox.  Today I took a lovely stroll through one of Braunschweig's beautiful parks to look at the falling leaves and plunging conkers!   I was on my way back from the railway station, where today I cracked the secret of the automatic ticket machines.  I hadn't realised I could buy a ticket a few days in advance and that I could get a print out of the journey, complete with platform numbers.  I travel from BS to Hannover where I change trains, and it is very useful to know the platform number for the  short journey to the airport.   The total confusion at this station comes a close second to the total confusion at Berlin's multi levelled station.  Hannover Station is based on a shopping mall, so as you step down from the platforms, you are met by rows of shops, fast food outlets and hundreds of travellers milling around.   Knowing your platform is a great advantage in the hunt for the airport, "Forewarned is forearmed,"  as the the expression goes.  Is getting lost at a station a sign of creeping old age?

  

Two photos show the park in dappled sunlight, and the lower photo shows Beach Volleyball being played outside BS station.  Over the loud speaker I could hear, "Come on Hauptbahnhof"  so one of the teams was made up of main railway station personnel. (I assume.)   I managed to get the ball in shot in this photo.  I'm glad I haven't got to sweep up the sand!   How do they clear it up, with buckets and spades or a mega sized vacuum cleaner?

Facilities for Pigeon Showering in Braunschweig.

 onI thought the mini fountains outside  the Rathaus were for the amusement of over excited   children on  very hot summer days, but NO!  Their real purpose is to provide the local pigeons with showering facilities.   I was so surprised to see the birds lifting, flapping their wings and basking in the fine spray of water, it was a real joy to watch.  The lower photo shows  the communal  showering session at 2.30pm on Thursday afternoon.    Today I made my final visit to a friend for an afternoon of English conversation, and I now have that sad feeling of doing things for the last time this year.  I am somewhat melancholy at leaving but I will return again  in  late April 2012 to continue my battle with the German language.  My best conversations are with nice little old ladies sitting at bus stops.  They have never learnt English, so I can chat away in German and enjoy myself.  It is not so easy speaking German with good English speakers, I am much too aware of how little I know!  

I arrive home on Friday October 7th.  I land at Southampton Airport at 14.30 and the first things I will need are a plate of fish and chips and a  really big cup of English tea.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, an Exhibition in Wolfsburg.

Here are two more photographs from our visit yesterday.  I was trying to be clever and show the photos in black and white, similar to Cartier-Bresson's, but it has only worked on the lower photo of Karin and Monika viewing the pictures . I edited the photos in Picassa, but for some reason my editing only worked on the one photo.   The exhibition was a life enhancing experience, a new way of looking at our world of contrasting pattern and textures, even in the simplest of scenes and all in  black and white.  It was  a day to remember. The following website: www.henricartierbresson.org   will give you more detail of his life, attitudes and work, and reproduces some of the photos we saw yesterday.   After our visit to the Art Gallery we treated ourselves to some goodies in a nearby cafe.  I had a very large black cherry ice cream sundae and Karin and Monika shared a huge pizza sized waffle with cream, which Monika washed it down with a glass of beer.   It was a wonderful day with friends in  "Autostadt Wolfsburg," home of the VW Headquarters. 

The new city was established after the last war and reminds me of the New Towns in the UK.  I did not feel as if I were in Germany, such was its similarity to Milton Keynes, Welwyn Garden City and Crawley.  Wikipedia has more information about the city which is twinned with Luton in the UK.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's Photographs at the Art Gallery in Wolfsburg.

I visited a wonderful exhibition today of Henri Cartier-Bresson's black and white photos entitled, "The Geometry of the Moment, Lanscapes."  Oh what wonderful photographs, showing textures, patterns and contrasts in the landscape.  Each photo has a black line around it, showing that it is taken directly from the negative and without any editing. 

He had such an eye for the moment and wrote, "To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart.  It's a way of life."   Monika, Karin and myself were much impressed and left the exhibition feeling we'd learnt a little more about looking at our world and life.   I will add more photos tomorrow, this Blog site is playing up at the moment and it is late and I am running out of patience!!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

A Wonderful Day in Goslar in the Harz.

The day could not have been better, a lovely warm, blue skyed autumnal day, and ideal for wandering around this lovely town of half timbered houses at the foot of the Harz Mountains.  It was an easy journey from Braunschwieg, a 50 minute ride on a regional train.  Janet and I wandered around and eventually found a nice place to eat and drink.  These photos show scenes in the town, about which, at the moment, I know nothing!  I shall read up tonight, and then I will need to visit again to see all the things I either saw and knew nothing about, or all the things I should have seen but didn't visit.  Then there's all the things I didn't visit because I didn't know they were there.  Then all the places I should have.....................  Have you lost the will to live??  There are captions under the photos, so you will know where you are. Please refer to: www.wikipedia.org  which has a good write up about the town. The old town of Goslar is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The town, of course, looks as the old Braunschweig would have looked before the last war.  Braunschweig was a city of closely packed half timbered buildings, 90% of which were destroyed by bombing in October 1944.  Some buildings did survive and are now incorporated into the city's "Traditional Historical Islands."

Market Place cafe.

Street scene with half timbered houses.

Old Town Hall.  (I think.)

The Castle

Out all day enjoying myself and not back in Timmerlah until 23.20.

Monday was very busy, I was out all day visiting friends and enjoying myself!  Here are some photos from my  walk in the park near the Inselwall.   On the right, yet another lion, this time with his ball, or is that meant to be the  world!   Below is a statue of Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was born in Braunschweig in April 1777.   The son of a poor family, he was a maths prodigy as a child.  You can read more about him on   www.wikipedia.org.  "Carl Friedrich Gauss."   He was a brilliant mathmatician and responsible for the Gaussian scale for measuring magnetic fields.  (I don't know anything about this, my non mathmatical brain is on the wrong side of my head.)

The lowest photo shows a very attractive little suspension bridge that spans the River Oker.  Braunschweig developed in the 10th century at a place where it was easy to ford the river.  The river was later diverted and manipilated to surround the city.  Together with the city walls, it was an easy place to defend against warring factions.  These photos were taken on my mobile phone and are a little fuzzy, as was my head later in the evening.

A Walk through the woods to Braunschweig Airport.

The I had a really interesting stroll today when Janet and I walked through the Querum woods to Braunschweig Airport.   We came across this interesting wooden fence, complete with little people,  near a garden which contained a  ginko tree, a very unusual sight.  As we entered the wood, two enormous stonecarved faces greeted us, one of which appears here.  There was no explanation as to their significance, and they  were  certainly not  "Green Men" the pagan men of the woods.  If anyone knows their significance, please let me know.

We walked a very straight path, which had been the former road into the Airport, went through the  car park and onto the Terrace (built  during the National Socialist era) where we watched the planes take off and land.  In the far distance gliders were being towed into the air and later the splendid Executive Jet  taxied passed  and took off.  The airport is used for private flights,  and VW use the airport to transport their staff to Moscow, Posnan, Stuttgart, Prague and Ingolstadt.  Skoda and Audi are part of the VW groups. 

We walked back with a dark,  threatening sky, but fortunately not a drop of rain fell.   A cuppa and peach cake went down well for tea, and I had a lift home to Timmerlah with Janet's younger son Simon, who lives just around the corner from me.  A smashing day, walk, plane spotting, peach cake, company, chat, cuppa and lift home!

Pictures at an Exhibition.

I took a tram ride to the station today (I do like travelling by tram) to check the fare to Goslar on Tuesday, when Janet and I pay the lovely little town a visit, it will cost us 20€ each return for a day's ticket.  The photo left shows the station's main entrance hall, which was really very busy, although I've managed to take a photo with only a pair of dismembered legs showing  below a display board.  The exhibition showed the winning pictures in the "Press Photograph of the Year" competition.   Nearby was a noticeboard carrying a warning,  that the photos were not suitable for viewing by young children. 

I am not surprised, the displays showed some of the  most disturbing photos I have ever seen, terrible, explicit scenes of trauma and death, and I found them difficult to read about and look at.  I don't think such an exhibition in a very public place could happen in the UK without mega complaints from the public. 

I later wandered into town via the old Cathedral cemetery where I found the burial place of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a famous German philosopher and those of many other notable Braunschweig dignitories.   Further on, outside St Magni, a wedding party were enjoying a drink basking in the warm autumn sunlight, it has been a beautiful day.   I did a bit more present buying, and searched  for the nice pair of earrings I'd seen a few days ago but couldn't find them, I think they must all have been sold.  The photo below shows Lessing's tombstone in the cemetery, it was a cool oasis in a busy, hot city 

For some reason I cannot get the photo to stay in the centre. Sometimes the mechanics of blog writing will not cooperate with me, it doesn't like me changing the design about too much and digs in its heels!    I'm home in three weeks time, where have six months gone?!

The Talk with Pictures.

It was a pity so few turned up to hear my excellent talk and picture show (I thought it was excellent) of the K&A Canal.  Still they were a cosy group who asked interesting questions throughout the evening, most of which I could answer. Everyone found the history, facts and figures interesting.  We talked about the management of water in the canal and also about the kinds of cargo that was carried in the barges.  The evening  was a good preparation for a number of talks I hope to give when I return to the UK.   At the moment I'm preparing two more talks,  "Six Months in Braunschweig" and "The Rebuilt Dresden."   

The "Wiltshire Ladies Group"  has asked me to talk to them sometime in the New Year about my visit to Dresden, so I'd better get my skates on.  I'm looking forward to a nice quiet weekend before the last three weeks of my stay gets really busy.  I cannot believe that six months has gone so quickly, surely I only arrived yesterday?!!

Tonight's the Night, so think of me at 19.00 GMT or 20.00 CET.

My presentation is perfect, (well I think so!)  All the spelling is correct and the grammar double checked.  I shall like the audience to ask questions as we go along. I like audience participation, but questions about, "Are you sure that's how you spell ???" will be a bit embarrassing.  Janet will take some photos of me in action and I'll post a write up tomorrow.  I'm now looking forward to the talk, although I don't know how big the audience will be.  I've some maps and information to pin up and hope to draw some diagrams on a whiteboard, explaining how the locks work.   It will be an intersting evening, hopefully with plenty of questions I can answer. 

The photos show a duck that hitched a lift on my boat way back in the summer of 2008 and the bottom one shows Pulteney Bridge in the centre of Bath, the famous bridge based on the designs of the Ponte di Rialto and Ponte Vecchio in Florence.  It was completed in 1773 by Robert Adam.  When crossing the River Avon, it is not apparent that you are on a bridge, there are rows of shops each side, and it appears as an ordinary street.

AWO-Haus, Frankfurter Strasse 18, Braunschweig.

I met Janet And Guenter today at the AWO-Haus, Frankfurter Strasse, where I will be giving my talk on Thursday evening.  I did know where the venue stood, but I have only visited before in the dark, so it came as a surprise to see this attractive outside wall frieze for the first time.  A musician seems to be playing  a ekulele to some strange  birds and animals sitting in a tree.  It looks like an illustration from a German storybook, I don't think it's  the Pied Piper of Hameln  or Till Eulenspiegel.   Perhaps someone knows what it means.  We all went for lunch later to a local Turkish restaurant and enjoyed fish with vegetables and salad followed by a cream coffee for Janet and a big dish of nutty ice cream for G and me.  I also drank a large Wolter's beer and now all I want to do is go to sleep!   The photo below shows the big reception room at the AWO-Haus, where I may be giving my talk.   I think it rather depends on how many people turn up to listen.  

I'm thinking of using my squirrel pointer during my talk, although it may make me laugh too much!

Vacuuming/Polishing/Shopping/Thinking/Projecting Pictures

Texas Instruments "Beamer"

A friend  was visiting today, so the vacuum cleaner had to be prised out of its cupboard,  a rare happening these days, as  I  get terrible backache when I do the vacuuming,  (that's my excuse.)  I cleaned the carpets, dusted and polished the furniture and was so pleased with the end result, that I wondered why I don't do the housework more often!  I later  had a good walk to Weststadt in a strong wind and bought the customary smelly cheese, nutty bread, other necessities and also some tasty butter biscuits, ahhh wonderful.  I came back on the bus with two bags of shopping and got to thinking and hoping that my PP presentation would work when my Netbook was connected to the "Beamer."   Thank goodness it did, we read the instructions, pressed fn and f4 together and "bob's your uncle" it worked first time.   We were so relieved.   I thought I had too many photos in the presentation, but we decided it is better to too many rather than too few.  My talk is this Thursday at the DEG, Frankfurter Strasse 18, fingers crossed for me.

One of my pictures is the map below, that shows the famous "Caen Hill Flight" of locks as seen on a canal map.  There are 29 locks in all, 16 of which are consecutive, a wonder of the Britishwaterway's canal system.   The flight of 16 is known as the "Devil's Backbone."  Viewed upright it looks like a spinal column with protruding discs.

Not a Lot to Report Really.

All's fairly quiet on the Timmerlah front at the moment, as the worst of the storms passed us by but dumped giant hailstones and a tornado in the Magdeburg area of Saxon-Anhalt, just a 50 minute ride on the train from here.   Roofs were tipped from their beams and cars were dented by the huge ice balls.  It is still very windy, the sky is grey and it looks as though another storm is on its way.  I do wish it would get a little cooler, it was 24c again today.    This afternoon  I tweaked both PP presentations, making sure that my spelling was correct and that the photos were in the proper order.   Friends visit tomorrow with the "Beamer," I assume they mean the projector, and we will practise beaming the photos onto a wall.  Fingers crossed that it works, as I can talk for hours on end, but a few photos will liven up my talk.  Here's the cover of a K&A brochure with Caen Hill in the background, I'm really looking forward to talking about this lovely flight of 29 locks.

I've been watching the US Open Tennis Championships on Eurosport, and was rather sad at Serena William's response at being penalised for shouting before her opponent could hit the ball.   I thought she was more dignified than that, and especially on September 11th, a date to remember.  I shall watch the men's final tonight, it starts at 10pm here and it will be late night viewing for me.  I'd like Mr Djokovic to win, he's very good looking with his jet black hair, ahhhhh.  The match will be a big power struggle against a certain Mr Nadal.