Happy Xmas & Seasons Greetings to all

Hello & Happy Xmas

Apologies again - taking time to sit & blog just hasn't been easy recently. Anyhow, things are looking up with possible change in my life soon.

I recently auditioned for the Rich List & if I'm lucky will be on in late January (don't know when it would go to air - I'll let you know).

Most especially I would like to send out warm wishes to all my new friends overseas, who all hosted me during my (brief) world tour.


Rebecca,


& Matt in Naples.


Victor & Cat in Milan.


Anna & partner in Nuremberg.

The girls (Sunny & partner) in Berlin - I still have no photos of you guys.


Duncan & Sarah in Edinburgh


Axle & Eyda in Koblenz


Saunouke (s?),


Micah,


& son in North Carolina.


And last but not least Kuno & Irma in Vancouver

Now back to blogging my trip - Berlin

Berlin was awesome. Just the feel & friendliness on the streets (after Italy which had been very stand-offish).

Also just being in such an important city of recent (modern) history felt really good.

This first photo is of the Brandenberg Tor [s?] (gate). This was the built to be the primary entrance gate into the city of Berlin - and it was here that the Cold War kicked off with the Berlin wall being constructed in front of it (the gate was isolated in the no-mans land for the duration of the cold war. Those cars in front of it are all taxis - and all mercedes (sigh). This view is looking West from what was East Berlin.

This statue on top is very famous - having being placed here, then stolen by Napolean, then returned later.

This is the re-creation of Checkpoint Charlie - the most famous of the Berlin Wall crossing points. The really interesting thing is that they have marked the location of the former wall with a double line of cobblestones around the city.

This is another set of famous buildings in Berlin - it has a wonderful collection of old and made to look old buildings around it. The girl in the foreground is our guide for the day - from New-Europe tours (New-Berlin specifically). She was absolutely brilliant - really knew her stuff. This photo shows her as she was - hands constantly emphasising the information she was providing - part of the reason she was so good was she obviously enjoyed her work & sharing the history of this great city.

This photo was taken from the taxi as I was heading to the train station (to catch a bus to the airport - don't go there). This is the TV tower - built by the East Berlin government to be a land mark of their greatness (similar but smaller version of the one in Moscow). Unfortunately for the East Berlin government (who had banned all signs of religion from being displayed) - when the sun reflects off the dome, it highlights a golden cross (just a natural occurance). Just another fact of Berlin for your information.

I didn't take a lot of photos in Berlin - not sure why. Anyhow - I am back at it & will have some more photos up soon (York, Edinburgh & London coming next).

So then I went to Germany - First stop was Nuremberg

This message was started when I was in Koblenz, but I was interrupted before I finished and never got around to it till now.

For those who've been waiting I'm starting to catch up and will hopefully have some more stuff up soon.

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Hello again. I'm trying to catch up a little before I go to Pennsic tomorrow (yes, tomorrow - it hardly seems true). Okay -

So I'd been to Venice, now I had to go to Nuremberg. Caught a train to historic Verona (keeping eyes out for star-crossed lovers) and changed to a north running train to Munich (running through Austria). Travelling north from Verona I started travelling through mountains that

are the eastern extension of the Alps. With some glorious vistas like this one.

Then from Munich, I changed over to another train that took me to Nuremberg where I was met by Anna & Agilmar. We stowed my gear in a locker at the train station (on to Berlin the next day) and then headed out for a good old fashioned German dinner, via a number of important landmarks (dinner was pork shoulder with potato dumplings, lots of gravy and a very large beer (Anna please provide me with the correct German name for this meal if you could).

Before I went there, all I knew about Nuremberg was that it was the headquarters for the Nazi propaganda machine and that they held the trials there afterwards.

However, it was a very important medieval city, has lots of medieval structures still around including some wonderful fountains (including this one with a nice Pelican, doing what we know best (helping others)).

The next day I went out and looked around the town - starting with the castle at the top of the hill. Its a very impressive structure, with extra walls added in the 15th century to deal with the threat of cannons. The castle (and town) were very important within the empire of Charlemagne and then later through most of the medieval times.

It also hosts the German National Museum which I also attended (and have the book of, and I guarantee has something of interest in it for everybody). The cannon is fairly special because it is a wooden barrel (double click on the picture and have a close up look - there is a steel piece in the mouth of the gun, but this is only a few centremetres deep then it is just wooden barrel. They have a nice collection of armour and weaponry there (not huge but still nice as you can see).

The postcards from Germany (see earlier post) are all from Nuremberg.

I eventually dragged myself away and headed off to the train station, and Berlin (where Swanhild met me at her local train station - very convenient).

More on Berlin soon.

Cheers

Hanbal

Postcards from Germany and now in Berlin

So, I'm now in Berlin, and heading out to see some sights shortly.

For those who wanted some postcards from overseas, here they are. Again, I'll be doing up some more detailed city by city reports later.

I saw some of Nuremberg yesterday and got some good photos (this one from the night I arrived)

This of the river.

And this. And this of the Castle.More to follow later - bye for now.