Howdy
Well, after my time in Bangkok I snuck in a quick visit to Perth. Flew in Saturday morning and straight away started on my big list of to do's I had for Australia; new shoes, haircut, suitcase, passport photos for German Visa and catching up with friends and family. Saturday avo/evening I dropped in on my friend Catherine’s wedding reception, surprising her up in the bridal suite. Was a great surprise and it was really nice to be able to be part of it, albeit only briefly. Saturday night headed to Yunderup for Nick’s 25th also much to the surprise of many of my friends. Sunday did the family thing with a big bbq at my parents house and not much else. Monday dropped by work, caught up with more friends and shopped. Tuesday more catch ups and a little more shopping. Flew out for Stuttgart Wednesday just after lunch. Whirlwind visit but in my eyes, simply great.
Unsure when i'll next visit my fair home so in the meantime, more european adventures!!
Cheers!
Dave
Hi
This weekend is slightly different to my other European jaunts. This weekend, I’m flying to Bangkok for work. My flight wasn’t due to leave Stuttgart until 8:55pm Saturday night which gave me Saturday day to explore a bit. After spending an eternity packing my many, many kilos of clothes into about four different bags, I decided on what I could leave here in Stuttgart and what I need to bring with me.
With that task behind me, I set out for my first destination for the day, the “old” Mercedes museum. I’ve actually visiting on the last day of it being open, as the massive profits that DaimlerChrysler are making has actually left them with enough coin to build a massive new museum. Over the next month and a bit, they will transition out of the old and into the new. The museum was very interesting with lots of really old cars, the oldest dating back to 1885. Also a couple of really nice cars in their such as their Le Mans Cars, their F1 car and a few other modern day super cars.
The next stop for the day was Konigstrasse as I needed to shop for a new mobile phone. For those of you that don’t know, mine fell out of my pocket in a cab and was officially gone 30 mins later when I called. Oh well. I quickly concluded that buying a phone in Germany is just expensive and gave up on that pretty quickly.
I had set myself a task of going to a train station, Weinsteiger, which I pass everyday and think to myself that it has a great view of Stuttgart so that was my next stop. I trained out here, took a few snaps then proceeded to walk about 40mins back into Stuttgart, stopping to take photos if I felt like it. I eventually walked all the way to the Stuttgart Art Museum, Staatsgalarie, where I went in and had a look around the various pieces for another couple of hours.
This saw enough time for me to get back to the hotel, grab a bite and a few beers before heading to the airport. Flight was Stuttgart to Zurich (40mins) then Zurich to Bangkok (nearly 11hrs) where I landed at 3pm Sunday afternoon local time. Understandably I was pretty exhausted and melting in the heat so Sunday night was a voyage to my pillow. I’ve got a week here then I’m going “via” Perth on my way back to Stuttgart.
See you all soon.
Dave
Hi
Well, I've just got back from Austria where I spent the weekend skiing. Friday I left Stuttgart and flew to Vienna with one of my colleagues from Vienna that i'm working with here in Stuttgart (Siegfried or Sigi) where we picked up his car and drove a few hours to Radstadt. Here we joined about 20odd other members of the Vienna audit team who's ski trip I was tagging along on. Dinner was had and I didn't say much as they all spoke German. The occasionally changed to English and had brief conversations with me.
Saturday we got up early and headed to the ski hire shop which I picked up some ski's, poles and shoes for a total of 27 euros for two days hire. We then headed in a group to the first mountain Flachau/Reitdorf. I joined the "slow" group and we headed up the mountain. Weather wasn't too flash and visibility wasn't the greatest. Sigi stayed with the slow group while we found our feet but tells me I was better than he thought I would be. Nice to hear from someone who can probably ski backwards faster than i can forwards.
Went straight to Intermediate slopes, good powder coverage and we got a few good runs in before lunch. I fell a few times but most of those, it was quite slow and I was up again after a few seconds in the snow. Just before lunch, in order to get to the lodge where we agreed to meet the others, we were "forced" to ski a black run (expert). At this point the weather was god aweful and I seriously couldn't see much except the fact that the slope was very steep. Unbelievably, I did good and made it down. However, Sigi and I went the wrong way and had to go up and do it again and turn the right way for the 2nd time! Again I made it down and had a great time.
More skiing saturday afternoon with a few more crashes but overall, I was having an amazing time. Saturday night, we grabbed dinner then headed to a pub which has a toboggan track. We all started on few beers but more importantly, the partner of audit Vienna and Sigi quickly made sure I was sampling proper Austrian drinks. This meant I was drinking Jagermeister + Redbull, as well as a selection of Schnappes. After the whole group was politely drunk, we headed for the toboggan (Rodelbahn). Sigi and I teamed up and we quickly set the pace as the fastest pair out there. However, we also earnt the reputation as most crazy as we didn't break til it was way too late and only ever made it around 1 corner out of about 15 successfully. The other 14, we crashed, sometimes in spectacular fashion. Laughed our butts off though. We had a great time.
Sunday I woke up sore, particularly my left knee but I toughed it out and pushed through. We again met early and headed to another field Reiteralm. Again, I joined the slow group. Sigi left us to join the fast group for the day. Most of the runs on this mountain were Red, meaning intermediate but a lack of overnight snow and good piste preparation made this runs hard and fast. At one point, I was literally belting along, almost not turning at all, passing lots of other people on the mountain, then all of a sudden, Sigi and the "fast group" came booming past us, almost a blur. Put me in my place but felt ok given my 10 days experience vs their 20+ years.
Sunday afternoon, we left about 3pm, headed back to Vienna. Stayed on Sigi's couch overnight, where I was exhausted then took a flight back to Stuttgart Monday morning. Straight to the office, a little tired, a little sore but happy in the fact that I'd just done some of the best skiing in my life. Was truely excellent.
That's all the news from Stuttgart at present.
Hope you are all well.
Take it easy.
Dave
Howdy
Well, this weekend was supposed to be a roadtrip with one of the girls, Dawn, from the Chicago office to Switzerland by hiring a car and seeing the sights as we drive around. Well, Dawn arrived, the car hire was fine, we whacked in Zurich as our first destination into the Sat Nav and set off. Problem: It was snowing like a champion outside which made visibility poor and pretty much rendered any sight seeing as we headed south out of Stuttgart useless.
However, the drive was not without its charms. I will state loudly and clearly right now, that German Autobahns are the best roads ever. My car, a diesel, yes, diesel E90 BMW 330d was awesome. Came with heated leather seats, sat nav (in english!!), panaromic sunroof and I got the wagon so loads of space. Let me tell you, that car, cruises nicely at 140km/h, brilliantly at 160km/h, rock solid at 180km/h and is a blast at 200km/h. Weather conditions, traffic and the desire to live stopped me from going any faster...this time. The trip back, from the border of Germany to Stuttgart, I would slow to 140 and cruise between 160-180km/h for over 200km's. Awesome. Did I use a lot of fuel at that speed? Nope, averaged 7.5L/100km. Love it.
In case I didn't tell you, i love the autobahns. The fact we don't have any in australia is a joke. Anyway, yeah, it snowed almost the entire drive down to our first stop, Zurich. We went out and had dinner, few drinks at a few pubs then called it a night friday. Saturday we got up to, you guessed it, snow. Not letting that bother us, we set out to explore Zurich, umbrella's getting used the whole day. Still ended up soaked and cold. Zurich has some great shopping from what i could see, few historic churches/art galleries, Lake Zurich is nice and that's about it.
Next stop for saturday night - Interlaken, a little ski resort nestled on the edge of the alps, between two lakes. Drive there was horrendous. Snow everywhere, roads were slippery and snow again reduced visability of taking in the scenery. Averaged probably 30km/h for a very long time. Trip that should have taken say 2 hours, took 4. Got there and found a nice little hotel after visiting a couple that were way too expensive then went had dinner, few more drinks in a few more bars, then again turned in. It actually stopped snowing by dinner but was at it again by the time we walked back to the hotel.
Sunday I got up and headed for the Jungfrau railway (bahnen). After, get this, 2.5 hours and three trains, I arrived at the stop of the highest railway station in Europe, Jungfraujoch, at 3454m above sea level. Of course, it was snowing again all day and i got up there only to find my views were limited to about 3 feet and everything in my camera lens was white. Result, i have maybe two photos that will be crap, but another experience. I guess I'll just have to go back in the summer when it's a clear day. Another 2.5hrs down the mountain and it was time to head home to Stuttgart.
We dropped quickly via Bern on the way home and drove around for about 30mins but conscious of time, pressed on. I let Dawn drive to the border (where our passports weren't even checked) before I took over for the german autobahn leg :D --> she wasn't nominated as a driver so she really shouldn't have driven for all those reading this thinking that was incredibly chauvinistic on my behalf. I'm sure my thoughts on the drive home on the autobahns have been documented enough but just in case, the german autobahns rock.
Another fridge magnet collected (i'm getting one from everywhere i go), another country visited. Next week, i'm joining some members of the austrian office on a ski tour so i'm off to Vienna.
Stay tuned, pics have been updated.
Cheers!
Dave
