Bomber Harris was a bastard

........and that's all I have to say on the matter. Anyway the Juniorette was on a school trip for a few days this week, so Mrs H and I headed east to Dresden. We really enjoyed our short break there, and would like to visit again sometime. We stayed in a hotel on the Sächsen Weinstrasse, which is Germany's easternmost and smallest wine making region. We were particularly taken by the kötzschenbroda area of Radebeul, and enjoyed a rather tasty Indian curry there.

We decided to do the sightseeing bus tour rather than just wander round Dresden as we were short of time. I was quite surprised, the tour was really good and informative. The bus driver was quite a laugh as well. Overall we were really impressed with Dresden and found the Baroque style architecture of the restored older buildings to be outstanding.

Before heading home we drove to the Czech Republic. We started to drive to Prague but turned around about half way. The lure of the sofa at home and a nice hot cup of tea were too great. I found the contrast between Germany and the Czech Republic quite startling in terms of landscape and housing. I found it quite weird that the grass was brown there, whereas just over the border in Germany, it was green.

We are planning to return to the area again sometime with the Juniorette, and then we will visit Prague properly.

Luxembourg of the south

We spent the last weekend in Switzerland visiting friends in Bern. They have recently moved to Bern from Marburg and seemed to have settled in very well. We had a wonderful time with them and we were very impressed with the city of Bern. You could definitely see that the Swiss were not involved in the world wars as there was an impressive amount of old buildings. I particularly like the river Aar that flows through as the city. It flows quite fast and is green in colour. I was surprised to see people swimming in it – or rather getting carried along by the current. Drownings are not unknown. Due to its geography, Bern reminded both Mrs H and I of Luxembourg.

We also visited the little zoo, which the Juniorette rather liked, the Bärengruben, which housed a couple of sorry looking bears, and the Rosengarten which over looks the city. Here we managed to find 2 types of rose that we have in our garden at home. The dialect of the Bernese I found interesting and very hard to understand. It was a bit like what the Wurzels would sound like if they tried to speak German.

The weather was very good for our stay and that meant we were able to see the Alps from Bern which really impressed the Juniorette. She has a thing about mountains. I think perhaps she may have watched too many episodes of Heidi on kids TV.

Technorati Tags: Switzerland, Bern, Juniorette

Ascension Day

Today it is Ascension Day, the day when Christ allegedly ascended to heaven. In Germany it is known as Christi Himmelfahrt and is a public holiday. It is also the day that Germans celebrate Fathers day, where groups of men go into the woods and drink copious amounts of beer. I am stuck here in work. It’s not so bad really as shift workers here in Germany are paid a tax free allowance, which is quite generous on a public holiday. I also haven’t drunk any alcohol in over 4 months so I won’t be missing the beer either. I’ve not quit drinking, it’s that I just can’t be bothered with it at the moment.

The best place to be celebrating Ascension Day would of course be Ascension Island which is situated just south of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. It was named after the recorded date of its discovery. I spent 3 years working there in the 1980’s at a Satellite Earth Station which handled the Island’s international telecommunications and NASA circuits for the islands shuttle tracking station. I had good time. I did a lot of scuba diving, played a lot of golf (quite badly), fished as often as I could and drank rather a lot of beer.

It wasn’t all plain sailing as the island was rather small and quite often the small town mentality prevailed. I had my moments on the island, including crashing the company car whilst heavily under the influence, which later ended up with me spending the night in jail after assaulting the Chief of Police. Not something I’m proud of but it happened. Incidentally I learned my lesson and I have not driven a car after drinking since. But at the time on the island it was ok to do so unless you had an accident. Weird I know but that’s how it was. Time I think now for a nice cup of tea!

Technorati Tags: Ascension Island, Beer, Fathers Day