Early Autumn

I went on an early autumn trip today. There is a lot of work on the transport system in my part of the city at the moment. It took me 75 minutes to get to my destination. Normally I can do it by tram in 30 minutes!

It will get worse before it gets better :-(   I finally arrived and Oldie H. was waiting for me. We were lucky to catch the bus with one second to spare and off to the south side of Mugglesee. I have been there before and reported visits on my blog.

A short walk and we were there = lunch. It was full. We were lucky to get one of the last two tables. There was a special jazz band lunch session plus lots of birthday parties being celebrated. Even so, the service was good and quick and we had a view onto the channel connecting two water systems.

I ordered red cabbage cooked with apple and spices, served with venison gulasch in a thick gravy with Klöse which translates loosely as a potato dumpling. Mhhh..... delicious with a glass of red Bourdeaux!

After paying the bill we wandered out onto the jetty and took the ferry all of three minutes to the opposite bank. We arrived at the little village of Rahnsdorf. A nice walk through the village and gardens until  finally wandering into the centre.

Oldie H. told me to stop. I did so in front of a popular cafe. He needed ice-cream. I don't eat it so settled for home made plum cake with whipped cream and a cup of coffee. A nice dessert after the earlier lunch.

With re-filled stomachs. we resumed the walk. After walking off a small amount of calories, we arrived at the S-Bahn station and the train to our respective homes. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday. 

Marcel cooks

A strange thing happened yesterday. I got a call from Marcel on my mobile asking when I would be  home.

I said after 5:00 pm, so he said he was coming round with some food and wanted to cook. That has never happened before!

He duly arrived complete with shopping bag and unloaded the contents onto my kitchen workplace table next to the cooker. He then turned on his laptop. It went onto the internet and he quickly found the site he wanted.

It was in Hungarian and gave details of how to cook a dish complete with lots of big coloured pictures.

 Marcel followed all the instructions to the letter. My function was just to tell him where the knives, glass cooking dishes etc were.

He soon got everything ready, then into the oven. As we waited, he contacted his parents via the internet and I also had a chat with them.

 Chat over and food ready. He took it out of the oven, onto table, filled two glasses with red wine and then we tucked in.

It was delicious, as you can see from his happy face! Guess what we had for 'afters'? No fruit or ice cream for we were too full. We sipped a very cool glass of 'Opa's Home Made Palinka' :-) Na, prost!

Afternoon Tea

I recently got a postcard from cousin Barbara. She is one of the people for whom I write this blog. She is a lovely, warm-hearted, generous, intelligent, open, life-enjoying person.

She reads my blog regularly and sometimes comments, but via e-mail and not the comment section of the blog. She is also very computer savvy and can handle new technology with no problem. She took the videos about 50 years ago which you can find in the left-hand column of this blog.

I always go to Betty's Tea Room with her and my sister when I visit my 'Heimat' each summer. She clearly remembered this when she was recently on holiday in Berwick. This is a very nice town/area in the north-east of England.

Thanks for the thought and card so I can share it with others while I remember the taste of afternoon tea at Betty's in Ilkley :-)

More me!

I was just looking at the photos I collected during the last election campaign and found three posted on Facebook. As some of you know, I am NOT a fan of Facebook and do not post anything there.

They were posted by my local SPD to show campaigning activities. I gave permission so no problem there. Even so, I hear horror stories about teenagers who use the service and how naive and stupid they are about what they post.

This is my last post about the election and working locally for the SPD. I like these photos for they were not taken by me! They were taken by Genossen using cameras in mobile phones. It seems that the quality of such cameras is increasing.  

The Result.

We lost! It is as simple as that. After voting, I did some lesson preperation then a Genossen called Bert knocked on my door. We went to a bar/restaurant two S-Bahn stops away and a short walk.

We got there just before 6:00 pm. That was when the polls closed and the big TV political programmes started. It was full of local SPD activists. I was warmly greeted and settled in to watch the results as I sipped a cool Lübzer beer!

We soon got the first forecasts and it was not good. I didn't hear any cheers, but the party did increase its share of the vote nationally. It also increased its vote where I live, but came in at third place after die Linke Partie and Merkel's CDU.

Here are a few photos of my fellow party workers enjoying being together and sharing views about the results. Back to the drawing board and working for the next four years to get a better result:-)

A Voter

I have just voted in my first election for a national government in Germany. Wow -- open the champagne John :-)

It was a great feeling to walk to the primary school used as a local voting centre. Here is a photo so you can see that it really is a school. Into the entrance hall and turn right. Lots of information on the walls.

Two rooms were used for voting. I was in the first one. I had to join a queue and one of the election oganisers got talking to me about voting for the first time, and that it was nice to see 'new' Germans turning out to vote.

This evening I am going to a pub/restaurant in my district to join the rest of the 'Comrades' drinking beer and talking politics as we watch the election results come in on big TV screens.

 Enjoy your evening.

Settling in

I spent this week settling into life in Berlin after a wonderful week in the south of France. I called Hannelore and Peter. Pleased to report that they are well and Peter's health is fine.

The morning after my return = last Sunday morning, I cycled to a nearby area in my district. Yes, I know it was Sunday, but a local store in the REWE chain had got permission to open. Why on a Sunday which is not normally allowed here?

The answer is in order to celebrate 10 years since the store opened. The store's boss is the son of one of our SPD Oldies. We were allowed to have a counter from which to distribute election material. It was a really nice time, but I was very tired after my late flight and arrival the night before.

Silke turned up by chance and unknown to me took this photo - Marcel had just called me. She later sent it to me with a smile. I like the shot so decided to share it with you. I don't look tired in the photo and you can see my nice south of France tan :-)

I have to explain the photo. She deliberately took this shot because of the words behind me.  I was too busy talking to Marcel and did not notice the background. Frisch is like English fresh so no problem there. The word knackig can be translated in many ways such as crisp, crunchy, tasty for food........but as sexy for people :-) So in this photo I am fresh and sexy - oder? 

I've added another of me taken today. It was posted on Facebook on the SPD Karlshorst site. I 'pinched' it. It shows me distributing material on the last day of the election campaign. Tomorrow is voting day. A big day for me as a first time voter.

Britz Revisited

I know I posted a story about a visit to Britzer Garten a few posts ago.......there has to be a but in a sentence which starts like this .........BUT I recently got these photos.

They came from Stefan who leads our Photoshop group. He posted them to my blog e-mail, which I hardly ever look at, hence the delay between the event and me finding the photos. I selected these for they clearly show how much fun we had and I hope they make you smile.

The background story starts in summer 2012, when we had our first picnic/photo shoot there. We had  bottles of sekt as arranged, but we didn't think about glasses to drink from. We found a solution. It was to become dogs!

We had some plastic dessert plates so we improvised and used them as glasses. We had such fun and laughed such a lot that we decided to repeat this year, even though we had glasses. Sekt tastes better when you lap it up like a dog :-)

I suspect we shall have to repeat it each summer party! I open the event with a photo of me about to eat a Wurst (sausage) dipped in Bautzen Senf/mustard. The town is famous for its Senf and for its prison :-(  I have only sampled the former.

Revoir

After my visit to the market, I took my camera for a last walk on the path in the valley below Claviers. I reflected on the things I had experienced, the tastes, smells and sounds of La Var. I did not want to pack my bag and leave after lunch.

I took a shot of the village from below and even managed to take one of Peter and Hannelore's house. It is the one with the green sunshade on the roof. The house in front is home to an elderly couple from England.

We had a hearty lunch complete with the wine I had bought after visiting Mons. I then had a doze before packing my suitcase and setting off for the airport. I enjoyed my last views of La Var as we sped towards Nice and the plane.

It was full of German speakers. No surprise there for it was flying to Berlin. I opened my door at 11:00 pm and so returned to life here, but with my head still full of Claviers and the generosity of a very nice couple:-)

G&T

 On the way back to Claviers, we stopped at a well known wineyard. I wanted another example of the local wine culture. I was given a wine tasting session by a delightful lady who spoke to me in English and German.

We got on very well and that is perhaps why I got such generous amounts to taste! I bought a bottle of the best red. It was very tasty but not as full and round tasting as the bottle from the Benito family vineyard. I think I would still give them the gold medal!

On returning home from exploring the area, the first thing I did was to mix a traditional G&T then sip it on the terrace as I watched the sun go down on the hills. Mmmmmh.....delicious and just the right way to relax into the evening.

Next morning was my last so I wandered around 'The Market' on the main street. As you can see it is not very big, but it supplies the locals with all the fresh fruit and vegetables they need in addition to goodies from the butcher.

Fayence-Mons

With the sun shining and bright blue sky, we set out for Fayence last Friday. It is north-east of Claviers and a popular tourist place. I think the attraction is the old town, shops and the superb view from the ruined castle.

One turret survived and is now the place where all those with cameras head, to snip and snap the plain and distant mountains. I did the same as you can see in one shot taken by Hannelore. We had lunch there and got into conversation with a young English family.

Later we drove north to Mons. No, it is not the place where international racing takes place! It's a pretty village perched on top of a high ridge with a winding road to the top. I liked it immediately. Next to the car park was an area where old men were playing bowles.

We set out to explore the place and discovered the town hall with flags flying, the market square with a fountain and a sleepy cat. Actually it discovered Peter. He sat down on a seat and the cat jumped onto his lap, circled while purring then settled down to sleep.

When we moved to see more of the centre it followed him. I wonder why it selected him and not Hannelore or myself, but then babies always go to him to gurgle and play.

News-Flash

Jan and Arancha were in Agra at the Taj Mahal. They sent me a photo. I think it was via a phone camera. Here you can see them jumping for joy to be at one of the most famous places in the world.

They were there on Monday so they must now be on the way to Jaipur via Fatepur Sikri. I gave Jan a few tips about where to go when he was planning the trip, so I know the route.

The photo is not the best quality but I 'tuned' it up in my Photoshop programme so you can clearly see how happy they are. I hope to get some more and share with you. Enjoy your holiday, Jan and Arancha!

Frejus

Frejus in a small resort on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies south of the more famous resort of Saint Raphael, but they share the same bay Last Wednesday Peter needed to rest so Hannelore and I set off to explore it.

Of course she knew the area well, but I hadn't been there before. In bright blue skies and nearly 30°C we set off. We drove south through Callas (nothing to do with the famous singer :-)) then to La Motte, through Le Muy and picked up the road to Frejus.

We landed at a beach with lots of sand, people enjoying the sun and kids playing in the sand. It could have been anywhere in the world. I walked along the beaches, while Hannelore rested in the shade, and took a few photos.

One was of a line of palm trees on the beach. Another was of a palm tree which had two parts, like twins, and another one grew almost on the shore line. I liked the lines they created. I enjoyed walking along the beaches in the sun. I even took off my shirt to get a little more sun as I walked!

Later, as we drove home, I told Hannelore I wanted to buy a special bottle of wine for her and Peter. She said it was not necessary, but I insisted, so she drove me to the vineyard owned by the Benito family. What an experience. You must go to a family owned vineyard and sample all they have to offer before you decide which bottle you want to buy.

I have done this many times and in many countries, but the Benito vineyard was rather special. Service from the owner no less. I selected a bottle of red which had won 3 prizes at an international wine competition. Only the best for us!

Here you can see me at the vineyard with the bottle and the dinner table set by Peter to show the food he had prepared. It is called La Barigoule and has lots of delicious things including artichokes, sword-fish and Thunfish with lots of other things and spices.

We had a local rose wine with the meal, but we opened the Benito Red as we nibbled a local cheese to finish off the meal. Mmmmmh......my mouth waters again at the thought of the meal!

Claviers

I returned to Berlin at 11:00pm last Saturday. I was 'over-tired' and had difficulty to sleep. My body was in Berlin, but my head was still in Claviers.

Silsdeners may be asking where this is. Open a map of France and find Paris at the top in the middle. Go right down with your finger towards a large blue area. This is the Mediterranean Sea. Your finger should be on the coast around Montpellier. Move it to the right and you will find Nice.

Not far away is the Italian border. You may also find Cannes which is close by. Now move finger up a bit and you will see a district called La Var. Near the middle you will find a town called Draguignan. Up a bit more and Claviers is waiting for you!

It has all of 680 inhabitants and was built in the early middle ages on top of a rocky hill. Later additions were roads, water, drainage and electricity. Hannelore and Peter bought a house there in the mid-1990s and modernised it.

They retired there and I visited them four years ago. I planned to visit two years ago but had an accident and had to cancel at the last minute. It was great to see them again and enjoy seeing more of the area with them.

Here are a few photos of Claviers. One is of the market square with tables and chairs under three trees to keep you cool. One view is of the top of the hill where you can find a very old small church. It is next to a bench offering shade as you relax and look down the valley towards the coast.

Others are of the village from an approach road, and of a deep gorge a short drive away. I shall work on more photos and posts to share with you. Give me couple of days to do that.

Nice in France

Tomorrow I am flying to Nice in the south of France. 

I shall be back in one week. No blog posts until then.

Parties

I've had a party weekend after a very nice week. Yesterday was shopping then cooking with Marcel. We created an excellent meal of slices of chicken breast cooked in white wine and six different spices.

In addition we cooked three different kinds of vegetables in my wok, then added tomatoes with basilicum. This was eaten with lots of spaghetti. Mmmmh....delicious. Marcel had a second helping!

Later I went to a birthday party shared by a couple who live nearby. Lots of interesting people, conversation and drinks. I stayed until mid-night! This morning I went on a walk through my district led by the Mayor. I learnt a lot about plans for future buildings such as schools, houses, flats.

Later I cycled to Marzahn to a very attractive area with houses standing in large gardens. There was a garden party given by Drs M. and I. P. They own the language school where I sometimes teach. They gave a party for teachers. Many had other appointments so we were a small group.

The quality of the food and drink was of the highest. Real Thüringa Bratwurst!! I put these into my Fish n' Chips and Pork Pies top ten list! Interesting conversation, active grandchildren and late summer weather added to the pleasure of the event.

I am now packing my bag for the flight to Nice tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it.

Big School

Marcel has joined a big school. It is called the Technische Universität Berlin. It was created in 1879 when three colleges merged. It specialises in technological research. It has the highest proportion of foreign students at any university in Germany. They number 5,600 or 21% of all students.

In 2012, it was ranked 45th in the world for engineering and technology. In mathematics it is No.1 in Germany and 46th in world rankings. Nicht schlecht!  The uni alumni includes 10 Nobel Prize winners. Auch nicht schlecht!

It has 7 schools of study, 28,200 students in more than 50 subjects and 7,600 people work there including 323 Professors. Wow, but you certainly picked the right place, Marcel. Now I can understand his determination to study there.  His speciality is mathematics and physics.

In addition, he has been reading introductory books about philosophy and learning to play the guitar. This is in addition to playing the flute very well. I posted photos of him doing this in a cafe last Christmas. Music and logical thinking have always been linked.

I wonder if he will get a Nobel Prize for developing some super mathematical formula for revealing the mysteries of the universe and all that moves? Mmmmh....an interesting idea. Watch this space:-)

Meanwhile, have a great time as a student in Berlin doing all the crazy things that students (should) do. Well, you can't do that when you are 70, so do it all now! Welcome to a very big school, Marcel. It's great to have you here.