Cornerman

Storm and travel

Last official day of our holiday, travelling back. Not the ideal day to be doing a lot of driving as the weather forecasts was very very bad. Storm warnings and wind speeds of about 120 km an hour. We checked it before departure and in Germany the bad weather was expected in the afternoon. Off we go, it was a very smooth ride with little traffic and the weather wasn’t all that bad.

It got a bit worse once we passed the border but we were almost at our stop on route. We visited my girlfriends sister and her husband and the 2 little nephews. Which is always a lot of fun.
They had made all sorts of healthy snacks and we had a very relaxing afternoon. The last stretch home was very relaxed and once we got home the sun started to appear.

Frankfurt – day two

Our second day in Frankfurt, again a pretty hot day. So today we started out early. We got breakfast at Matilda’s Kitchen in the Westend which is a residential area. Where most of the residents seem to have retired. Pretty early in life.

After a nice breakfast we walked around and got on the subway to the museum riverbank. Which proved to be a very good choice. We visited the Städel.
There was an exhibition on 80’s artists from the BRD. Not entirely our cup of tea, but some nice pieces. The modern art exhibit had a few very cool art works. Would have been great to have just one on your own wall. A poster just isn’t enough. Also some very nice paintings from painters like Max Beckmann. Also some works from old masters like Vermeer, Rembrandt etc.
They advertise with them as well but that doesn’t reflect the overall collection. Which has a lot more to offer. I really liked the 19th and 20th century exhibit a lot.

There was also a photography exhibition with work from Barbara Klemm. which was very cool. She made pictures of people watching art and artist portraits. As well as some nice street photography.
We had read about it but didn’t realize it was at the Städel.

It’s a very big museum and it took up lot’s of time. Very worthwhile if you get the chance. The other 33 museums will have to wait for another time.
After the Städel , we got hungry and visited the first place nearby. A burger joint which wasn’t bad. After refuelling we headed back to the city centre. I wanted a jacket which was nowhere to be found. So off to the Nordend again. For our last night in Frankfurt and the final night of our holiday, which is always a bit sad.

We again made use of the excellent and fast public transport network and ended up at the Weinstube. Which is absolutely great. Nice wines and also nice small dishes to go with the wine. A very good way to end the day. Back at the hotel we went for a swim on the 18th floor of the building, normally nobody is around especially at a late Friday night. Not so much this time. Lot’s of people. So after a quick swim and looking at the view we left again. We had one last drink at the bar and headed up to our room. The thunderstorms had started and we had first row seats. Floor to ceiling glass rocks. After watching for a bit I fell asleep.

Frankfurt has been a very nice surprise with a lot of very cool places and neighbourhoods to visit. It’s worth a visit , take a few days and just wander around you will enjoy it.

Frankfurt – day one

Today is our first day in Frankfurt, not your typical city for a citytrip. But mostly big city’s are cool one way or the other, Frankfurt being no exception. The opposite to our surprise.

We started our day pretty late, first stop was breakfast or should I say brunch or even lunch in Nordend. A very cool neighborhood, with lot’s of bars and restaurants. After breakfast we just strolled around and took some pictures.

After the Nordend we decided to check out the city center. Which is a lot busier with all the shops and restaurant chains being there. Not as much fun. Frankfurt was bombed heavily in the war and most of the old city is gone. A bit of it is still there, and partly rebuild which is full of cheap bars and restaurants. Everything is aimed at getting drunk very fast for as little money as possible.

After buying some records we decided it was time to go for dinner. We went to Oostend restaurant which is near the new ECB headquarters at the river. A very nice part of town, except for the ECB building and surrounding perimeter. Which is really out of tune with the rest of the neighborhood.

After a nice meal we walked along the river and there was a nice summer theater and music festival going on. So we stayed there for a while and enjoyed the scenery. Lot’s of people just hanging around and enjoying summer.A very nice place in a surprisingly fun city.Wish we had more of this in the Netherlands.

Walking down the river to the next subway station. With a train every 6 minutes , which is great. We went back to our hotel and had a drink at the bar.

Heidelberg

It’s time to leave the black forest and head for Frankfurt, on the road to Frankfurt there is a nice University city, Heidelberg. Which is a nice break from driving. It was pretty busy on the road today.

So after little over 2 hours we reached Heidelberg. It’s a small city and has a nice vibe. Apart from the bus loads of tourists which remain mostly in the Hauptstrabe and the main square , which is good for the the city population and people like us.

I wonder if they see anything at all, just staring at their Ipads , Iphones and whatever device they are attached to. And don’t forget to wear your headphones at all times. Ow and when you take a picture, make sure that you are on 99,9 % of the picture with a landmark in the background, preferably making some sort of peace sign. Well now you have an idea which type of tourist discovered Heidelberg.

We spotted a nice Moroccan restaurant with really good and cheap food. Very busy place. We then just wandered the streets a bit and stopped for a drink here and there.

It was getting late quickly so we decided to grab a burger at die kuh die lacht and head for Frankfurt. The traffic was mostly gone now and after little under an hour we reached our hotel. Now it’s time for a quick shower and a drink. Tomorrow we will explore Frankfurt.

Schwimmbad

Yes back in the schwimmbad again, got there around 11:15 and just relaxed, swimming a bit and enjoying the shade and the sun. Ate a plate of fries and currywurst, and had a relaxing day. The temperature was about 36 around 15:00. Pretty warm indeed.

So not much action, although I did manage to run to the nearby waterfall and back, pretty early in the morning and the sun was already there in full force. So just an easy run and enjoying the scenery.

They hold a yearly trailrun event here as well, maybe something I would like to do next year.

Tomorrow it’s time for a drive to our next stop Frankfurt. Which promises a little less heat.

Panoramic views

Another hike today, near Freiburg there is a hike along some very nice panoramic views and a ruin. We got up early, and started the hike around 10:30. It was already very hot near 29 degrees.

The first part of the hike was from the monastery to the higher parts, not too steep fortunatly. We took a few pictures and continued. The hike was very pleasent but it got very hot.

After lunch at the ruin we decided to shorten our remaining hike. We cut a climb which saved us 1,2 km and got back to the car.

A very nice hike with cool views and no other people around, except for some Mtb’ers and some people with campervans.
Hippies mostly 😉

As it’s the resting day for the people at the guesthouse we bought some bread cheese and meats, the plan was to have dinner at the balcony but some persistent wasps and the blistering heat forced us inside. Sort of camping in the room , which was nice.

Tomorrow promises to be even warmer than today , so most likely we will head to the schwimmbad once more.

Learning Linux

Well , since I have a very very old laptop which used to run windows 7 and got extremely slow, I now installed Ubuntu on it.

Which is easy, simply next next next and yout there.

A bit of a travel companion, doing some browsing , editing pics and creating docs and that was it. Now I have decided to use it as a programming tool as well. Using phyton, which is free and very good, apparently.

The thing is I never had to use all the different Linux commands until now. Learning again , which thanks to the good old internet is fun :).

Hiking im Schwarzwald.

Today we hiked around the town we are staying in, luckily it rained early in the morning so the temperature was nice. We started from our guesthouse and made our way up. We first followed a trail which led us too different water mills, which have been restored in recent years.

The walk was very nice. Great views. After a while we got back to the town from where the second part of the hike started. But first a coffee. From here on it was up a hill and back down again, we only made the error to go down too soon and we ended up back in the town. Not what we had in mind. So we had to do a few extra kilometers to get back. All in all a very nice hike and great wheather.

Now I will get a much deserved beer. And some food.

Freiburg

Today we decided to head for Freiburg, a city nearby. It rained until 12:30 which was good for the temperature. Freiburg is a nice small city. It has a university. After some walking around and shopping had lunch. After lunch we visited the cathedral on the main square, which was very beautifull. All in all a relaxing day. We had hoped for a bigger drop in the temperature, but as the sun started to appear from behind the clouds the temperature quickly rose above 30 degrees.

Hopefully it will rain this night so we can hike in lower temperatures tomorrow. We’ll see.