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.