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Dachau – Sat Nov 26th
We had to be in Munich to catch our flights home so we decided to arrive a day earlier to fit in a trip to Dachau. E was probably the worst he had been all trip and since it was so cold he decided to stay home. To be honest, three hours in the cold put us at our limit and it wasn’t even winter yet. I don’t know how anyone survived a winter in the camp with the meagre clothes and shelter they had. I don’t really have a lot to say. I mean, what can you say when faced with such horror? It was an important visit, but…
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In The Garden – November 2023
It’s now the 30th of November here, so the end of NaBloPoMo. I just checked my number of posts for November and there are twenty-seven, this post makes twenty-eight and I just found two that didn’t post on schedule. I think WordPress may not have liked my multiple time zone changes. So today you get this post and the two that are sitting in my scheduled folder. In the interests of keeping it real here, I now present to you my garden after a month away and no one to tend it.
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Stuttgart to Munich – Fri 25th November
This morning we had a few hours to get breakfast and wander round Stuttgart before boarding our train to Munich. We had a look around Schloss Platz in the daytime. Our train to Munich was ridiculously hot. We stripped off as many clothes as possible but it was still stifling. Then we sat stationary for a while partway through the trip and arrived late. So not the best train trip we’ve had. We walked out of the station and it was snowing! We had thought to go to the beer hall for dinner but it was a bit too much for E as he wasn’t feeling great so we went…
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I am home!
E and I arrived home late last night. G is in the UK visiting clients. One advantage of flying in late is that we could just go straight to bed, and being tired, get a decent night’s sleep. That gives a good kickstart to getting over jetlag. It’s 8:50 am here and 10:50 pm in Berlin. I’ve had my quiet time, eaten a bowl of porridge and now it’s time to start thinking about ALL. THE. THINGS. So, a little list of the things that probably need my attention: Today’s immediate priorities are to walk around to Gumtree and pick up some bread and other essentials, go for run, unpack…
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Stuttgart, Porsche and Esslingen Christmas Markets – Thurs 24th Nov
Today was our final factory tour, this one at Porsche. We were a but rushed getting there because one of the trains out there was cancelled so we had a wait for the following one but we made it just after 10 am and had time to jump into the tour.phones and bags have to be left in lockers. This tour we had booked to see the 911 production line. We saw the upholstery and engine shops but couldn’t go into the assembly because they had new prototypes on the line that need to remain secret. Instead we visited the Taycan line which is their electric car. This may have…
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Stuttgart Mercedes day – Wed 22nd Nov
I’m mainly skipping past Tuesday which was our travel day from Munich, which involved a long train trip. We did enjoy an excellent dinner at the Cube restaurant in the evening. This restaurant is on the top floor of the Kundtmuseum, with fabulous views and modern food. Our visit to Stuttgart was all about the cars. We had booked a tour of the AMG engine factory in Affelbach. This was about an hour from Stuttgart by train and bus,The AMG engines are all built by a single technician who takes on average about three and a half per engine. There is still a production line but one technician is doing…
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Hamburg Airbus Factory Tour – Mon 20th Nov
The big thing scheduled for today was a tour of the Airbus factory, but like all the factory tours, no photos were allowed. In the morning we went back to the warehouse district so we could have more of a look in the daylight. From there we caught a ferry, train and then bus out to the factory. The tour was a combination of driving round the site in a bus and hoping off at various points in the production line to see what was happening. This plant assembles the A320 and associated planes, all the way up to delivery. It was a pretty interesting tour. In the hangers they…
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Hamburg – Sun 19th Nov
Today I’d booked two tours with Experience Hamburg Tours. We started a 6:30am for the Sankt Pauli Fishmarket Tour. We walked down the banks of the river learning about Hamburg’s Maritime history stopping at various sights along the way until we got to the fish market. This runs from 7am-11am over the winter months. The wholesale market has now moved so this is now just retail sales. There is a variety of food available including fish rolls. I could not stomach that this early in the morning but we had a Franzbrötchen, a type of pastry, a bit like a failed croissant with cinnamon sugar. There are also the screamers…