Status report!

All right, so for want of things to do last night I decided to annotate a map of Europe with the places I've been to and the places I am intending to go to. It follows below: Black lines indicate places I've been, red indicate places I will be going to (already planned and stuff, pretty much 100% sure) and blue indicates places that I would like to go if I still have time/money.

Cologne!

So! This weekend I headed up to Köln (Cologne) (again -- last weekend I was there with my parents for a day on our way up to Paris). So this time I took fewer pictures and such. The above was actually from the first time I went; Cologne probably has one of the cooler night skylines out of the German cities.

It turns out that there was a mussel festival on during the weekend! So for the two days, our lunch consisted of Kölsch (the local beer), and a thing of mussels. They were done in a broth that was really tasty!

The main reason I went though, was for a concert featuring the WDR Big Band. Maria Schneider guest-conducted a program of her own compositions. I have to say that it was one of the best big band shows I have ever been to. The WDR Big Band was great, and Schneider's compositions are simply awesome -- I'm not typically the kind of person to be persuaded to buy an album after hearing an artist in concert, but it's what I did this time! There's something about her compositions that stir something emotionally in the listener -- great horn harmonies and moving motifs. It was great stuff!

Dresden!

The previous weekend we took a quick excursion to Dresden. A former East German town, Dresden was bombed heavily by the Allies at the conclusion of the Second World War, but decades of restoration (particularly after Reunification) have led to this place having lots of really nice architecture. Here's a shot of the approach to the Altstadt along the Elbe river.

This is the Dresdner Staatoper, the State Opera House of Dresden. In addition to it being a really nice example of Baroque architecture, it is said to be one of the best opera houses in the world. I was a little disappointed, they had productions of Wagner's Ring Cycle on during the time while we were there, but it was a production of Siegfried on Friday night and Götterdämmerung on Sunday night -- in terms of evenings, the only evening that was free for me was Saturday night, when they were doing Falstaff, which I am slightly less interested in hearing. Nevertheless it's a sweet building!

Next we headed out of the city center a little bit to the Großes Garten (Big Garden), which is a massive piece of green space, as well as the location of VW's Phaeton factory, pictured below. The Phaeton is VW's luxury car (approximately on par with the Audi A8 or the BMW 7-series). They had a little museum there, where you could see the production line (it was Saturday so it wasn't running, it was nevertheless cool), and also a simulator where you could 'drive' it, as well as a floor model to hop in and have a look. Everything in there is really nicely done; the UI on the driver computer was okay but I thought that the feedback wheel was kinda primitive and not so intuitive. Nevertheless -- really nice car, and cool factory to boot!

Walking back to the city, we pass by the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), illuminated by the setting sun. Dresden is a beautiful city (also the home of the best Döner I have ever had, but that's another story I suppose.)

P.S. I finally buckled and joined this here facebook...so now my blog posts will be RSS-synced to the news feed on there. If you're on it, feel free to add me...

England!

Okay, Paris can wait...I was in England for 9 days most recently, and it was a blast!

We arrived first in London. It's a great town, lots of character I found. (Of course, I could possibily have found it to have more character because I can understand the language more easily...but either way. This is a picture of Charing Cross Station, taken from the base of the London Eye across the Thames.

After a couple of days in London we went on to Southampton, where we stayed at a friend's place and ventured out on day trips to various places. First stop was Salisbury -- the whole Stonehenge thing, and an obligatory picture of course.

Bath is another ridiculously nice place -- full of 'older' history, more to the Roman times and such. The thermal baths are really quite something, and at the end they let you sample some spring water (treated and everything of course). Warm and tasting like iron, it definitely wasn't too appetizing...but very cool.

After a day at Oxford, we spent the last day outside of London going to Portsmouth, an old Royal Navy port town and home of the Naval History Museum and things like that. Most interesting were the two ships, HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's ship, and Warriorthe first ironclad. This is a shot of the Victory...truly impressive!

We still had stuff to do in London before flying back to Germany -- We caught the Natural History museum, which was really interesting and fun. Only thing I regret is not spending enough time there, we were rushed for the schedule so we had to hurry through a lot of stuff, especially the inorganic Earth Science stuff, which interested me a mite more than the bio stuff that we tackled first. This is a shot of the main hall, bathed in midday light. I just really liked how this picture turned out...

All in all, it was a great trip and an awesome way to end the summer. Though by no means is the travelling over; I've still got a ton of places to go!