Usually I don't update my journal whilst in Stuttgart cause it's just boring work day in and out but today was different. Last Wednesday, I officially overstayed my "free" welcome of 90 days without visa which meant if I went anywhere near customs, I would have been deported. Today however, I officially became a temporary resident of Germany! This means I hvae a rather large visa in my passport and i'm free to live and work here until it expires (End of September). Crazy stuff.
Buon Giourno
Last weekend I headed to Venice, Italy with three of my colleagues, Kian, Lisa and Raja from Singapore, Singapore and UK respectively. Flights via Frankfurt meant we got in quite late and the lack of street signs from Pizzale Roma meant we wandered around for a little while before actually heading in the right direction of the hotel. Eventually we hit the right street (if you can call it that) and found the hotel. First shock. The hotel had no signage barring a placque on the door. Then when you walk inside, it's the really old 15th century palace or half a palace or something that looks run down. Once you've gone up the millions stairs though, it was very nice inside and we settled in. We had a quick walk around to get first impressions but retired early to rise Saturday at a respectable time.
Saturday we ventured out through the maze of streets in the general direction of the Rialto Bridge. Whilst getting there, we crossed numerous canals, saw lots of old churches and market squares, and generally felt lost for quite some time. There are heaps of little stores selling all sorts of trinkets as well as outlets selling some very nice, brand name clothing. Lisa was having a great time window shopping. Finally found Rialto bridge which crosses the Canal Grande. We then continued to head in the general direction of Piazza San Marco where we visited the Basilica of San Marco and had lunch on the waterfront overlooking Bacino Di San Marco.
After lunch we headed off towards one of the only other bridges crossing the Grand Canal, Ponte Accademia and then proceeded towards the Church of Santa Maria della Salute. More shopping/browsing on the way back and we headed for the hotel for a bit of rest and freshen up for dinner. That night we headed to Margherita Square we we took in a nice meal and enjoyed some of the outdoor pubs/crowds.
Sunday we checked out and headed for the nearby island of Lido to go to the beach and look around. We went via boat "bus" i guess as it's a large shuttle ferry that goes between Venezia and Lido. We kicked back on the beach and soaked up the warm 21 degree day (trust me, that's hot compared to what I've seen). We bought a crap frisbee and tried to play a bit on the beach but wind was too strong. Raja and I gave in and headed for the water which was a little chilly but nice once you were in (typical beach). After we were sufficiently burnt, we headed back to Venezia and took in the back roads and shops one more time before heading to the hotel to return to Stuttgart.
Hope all is well and thank you to all those still reading these things.
Cheers!
Dave
Guten Tag
This weekend we had a long weekend due to a German public holiday so I decided to try and get a bit further away from Germany. Currently, VISA issues do no permit me to leave countries deemed to be Schengen states, ie, those with no border patrol, so I couldn't get over to see Hayley in Edinburgh as I had previously planned for this weekend. Instead, I decided to go to Stockholm in Sweden. Amazing that I can go to Sweden with no issues but can't go to the UK, Scotland or Ireland.
I flew out saturday morning again at a shockingly early 6:30am and fly KLM via Amsterdam. I arrived just before lunch where I took the train into the city and checked in. I then went about walking around, camera in hand but without a map, and tried to orientate myself to the city. I inadvertently found city hall, which is apparently one of the main tourist stops in Stockholm. Unfortunately the tower was closed but I figured I had enough time to come back later.
Unbeknown to me, a whole bunch of Skadden guys (lawyers) had also booked Stockholm for this weekend so we ended up meeting up for dinner on Saturday night before hitting a few clubs. A couple of Vodka's were had (as you do) and a few beers. Fun was had by all.
Sunday I got up and headed to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is an old ship that sunk on her maiden voyage in stockholm harbour and there she lay until 333 years or something like that later when they raised her and put her in a museum. The water is apparently that good in Sweden that it didn't degregate the ship like it usually would and the ship itself remains in amazing condition. Truely a site to behold. After the Vasa, I headed to Skansen, which is a very famous, open air museum in Stockholm. I spent a few hours looking around there before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday night I joined in the celebrations of the Kings birthday which saw lots of bonfires lit around the city and general partying. I just floated around through some of the celebrations and soaked it all up but didn't really get into it and retired to bed after a couple of hours looking around and taking a few night photos. Monday I got up and chilled out in my room for a while before I had to check out. I then headed for the harbour to take a replica shot of one my parents had taken whilst in Sweden just for a laugh before heading to the "old city" on Gamla Stan island and wandering around through there. I then made tracks for City hall again for a climb to the top of the tower. 256 steps later, I was at the top and freezing as it was blowing a gale but the view of Stockholm was very rewarding.
I then returned to the hotel, took a train back to the airport and flew via Amsterdam again, back to Stuttgart. I've been put back in the same room that I have been in for over a month now and i'm convinced it's the David Wylde room as far as the hotel is concerned.
That's all for now!
Ciao
Dave
Howdy
This weekend I headed to Vienna, or Wien as it's written in German. I was joined by two colleagues from Shanghai, Man-Him and Lau. We couldn't get a decently priced friday afternoon flight so we instead flew out early Saturday morning at some ungodly hour. We went straight to another colleagues house, Sigfried who is also working in Stuttgart but flew home on Friday. He also thought our flight time was ungodly and wasn't exactly awake so much when we knocked on his door around 8am. We later learnt he hadn't got to bed until 5am(ish).
Our first stop was brekky just near Sigi's then off via U-Bahn to Schonbrunn (needs those funny dots over the 'o') Castle. We did a tour of the inside and then walked around the gardens. Very impressive. Next stop was to Belvedere, another castle like structure that also hosted a museum with art by Spiele. Man-Him and Lau wanted to check that out more so they went in while Sigi and I just chilled out in the garden and soaked up the glorius sunny day we were having. We both even got lightly sunburnt which may not seem that big of a deal but given we've just come out of a long cold winter, it was a stark change.
We then went into the main city centre and checked out St Stephen's church and then stopped for ice cream at what seemed to be a very famous ice cream shop judging but the large crowd. Another train saw us back at Sigi's where we grabbed our stuff, left for hotel and got ready for night. We then re-grouped and headed to a wine tavern and drank some wine and got a good feed. We then hit one of Sigi's current favourite spots, the red room and partied the night away.
Sunday was a little slower due to saturday's partying and we headed to the inner circle of Vienna and explored some of the buildings, museums, parks, city hall, opera house and theatres in the area. Given we had a Sunday afternoon flight and that it quickly went from a bright sunny day to raining, we mainly browsed past/through most of these places without really stopping into any to further explore.
Uneventful flight back. Next flight in #30 since I left Perth on February 3rd!
Catchya's
Dave
Happy Easter!
Well, for my weekend, I headed to Paris. Took a Thursday night flight out of Stuttgart direct to Charles de Gaulle airport where I took a train to Gare du Nord then taxi'd to my hotel. My hotel, Hotel Louvre Saint Honore, was, funnily enough, located on Rue de Saint Honore right near the Louvre. Great location and my room was actually pretty large which was a bonus. This weekend I was actually joined by Hayley from A&A Perth who is on secondment to Reading, just outside of London who I went and got at nearly midnight from Gare du Nord.
Friday was our first day in Paris and it was quite a nice day out so we ventured off in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. After taking in brunch and the sights on the way, we joined a truely massive queue to WALK up the tower. The queue to use the lift was even bigger. We estimated it to be 3hrs long, ours was only 1.5hrs long. After 701 steps we were at level 2, about 1/3rd of the way up. Fortunately for us, they didn't have the stairs open to walk the whole way so we joined a queue to buy more tickets then another to take the lift to the top. 3hrs after we started, we were atop the eiffel tower and rewarded with sensational views of the city. More queues and the same 701 stairs saw us back down. We grabbed a very late lunch/early dinner, headed to the hotel, rested for was seemd like 5mins but was more like 1hr before we headed back to the eiffel tower to meet our tour.
We had pre-organised a night tour of Paris by bike, run by Fat Tire Bike Tours. We had a young bloke from Austin, Texas take us for a tour around Paris centre passing all the major sites, stopping for ice-cream and finishing with a cruise up the Seine with a glass of red. Was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone. It's not strenuous and you feel very European cycling on the old school style push bikes through the streets of Paris.
Saturday we slept in a little then headed to the Louvre. Surprisingly, we were in within 30mins of queueing. Walked around there for a few hours although could have done a whole day easily. It's huge. Saw Mona Lisa in her glass covered glory after pushing my way through the tourists to the front of the pack in front of her. We then grabbed a quick bite and headed for Notre Dame. Walking in and around that, kicked through a few shops then headed back to freshen up. We dolled ourselves up, went up Monematre by Cab and visited Sacre Coeur then had a nice dinner and headed to the highlight of the night, Moulin Rouge. We managed some kick-arse seats, got stuck into the Champagne and took in the show. Spectacular, spectacular is an understatement. Colours, sets, costumes and all the performers, especially the lovely ladies, were just brilliant. Even the fill in acts while the performers takes a 5min break from the show were excellent.
Sunday we again slept in (we didn't get home from Moulin Rouge til nearly 2am due to going to an 11pm show) and then headed out toward the Hotel des Invalidies and the Rodin Jardins. We first visited the Rodin Gardens where we saw the famous statue, "The Thinker" among a few others. We then headed to Hotel des Invalides and took in Napoleon's Tomb and the War Museum. After, we headed to Arc de Triomph and the Champs Elysee. We sat at the Arc for a while and took it all in before strolling back down the Champs Elysee for dinner. We then walked back to the hotel via the Louvre to get some night shots of the city. I should mention that from 8pm, the eiffel tower lights up on the hour for 10mins each hour with lots of glittering lights, like a christmas tree, in addition to its normal lighting. Looks very cool.
Monday, we didn't sleep in as much, packed up, checked out and headed to Musee d'Orsay but didn't go in but rather took the train to Versailles. 35mins later, we arrived a Versailles and made our way to the Chateau de Versailles where we toured the the Chateaux which is rather large. Versailles is actually the political capital of France and the Chateau, the largest palace in Europe. We grabbed lunch after touring the chateau then headed back to Paris, chilled out a bit, walked around for one last time before heading back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and heading to Gard du Nord. Hayles left me here for the queue for the Eurostar back to London while I headed back to Charles de Gaulle airport for my flight back to Stuttgart.
All in all, a fabulous weekend. Thanks to Hayley for the company, and Paris for being a great host city!
Hope you all had a wonderful easter.
Cheers!
Dave
G'day
Well, Friday night I took off for Monaco which was a journey in itself. Flight to Zurich, layover, flight to Nice, cab to train station, wait, train to Monte-Carlo. Got in around 1:15am and passed out.
Saturday got up, saw 5 Ferrari's in the space of about 15mins and realised this was no ordinary destination. As I approached the main harbour, it became infintely clear that I was the poorest person in the principality by about $5m odd. The yachts, cars, shops, food, cabs, etc are just super expensive and everywhere. If you don't drive your Ferrari/Porsche/Aston Martin/Rolls/Bently/Maseratti down to your yacht which could double as a 500 room hotel, then you don't deserve to be in Monaco. I spent most of my time drooling and picking my jaw up off the pavement.
There isn't a whole lot to actually do in Monaco but what they recommend is going and seeing the Prince's castle, which I did, where I watched the changing of the guard, then I headed to the Aquarium which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe and it was impressive. I then just browsed around past a few museums, througha few parks, up and down the various hills of Monaco and just generally took in the place. Saturday night I headed out for a nice dinner at Lorenzo's which wasn't too bad - 50 Euro then I headed to the Casino. 10 Euro cover charge followed by a 15 Euro Jack's and Coke followed by a 20 Euro series of bets at Roulette and nearly another 50 euro was gone. I actually won the first spin and doubled my money but felt ripped off about stopping there so continued to bet and lost the lot. Oh well.
On the way back to the hotel, I again past an assortment of nice cars. One nightclub has a little car park with the following all parked next to each other: Porsche, porsche, lambo, ferrari, porsche, aston martin, aston martin. Crazy. Accross the road was another lambo, another aston, and two bentlys. Damn.
Sunday I slept in, got up, wandered down to the hotel's private beach (I wasn't exactly slumming it hotel wise) and after a few minutes of mentally building up to it, i through myself into the ocean. It was freezing and I was out within 5 mins of getting in. I then layed on the beach chairs and soaked in the lovely 18 degree sunshine. Not exactly warm but bear in mind, I've had no warmer than 8 odd degrees in the last 2 and a bit months.
Wasted the rest of Sunday walking around, some the Exotic Gardens which was cool then headed back, checked out, and got picked up and taken to my departure location - the Monaco helipad. That's right, I left Monaco the way the players leave, by Helicopter. 80 Euros saw a 6/7 min flight back to Nice airport. Very VIP and very cool.
Countless hours of layovers later and I'm back here in Stuttgart.
Hope you are all well.
Speak to you soon!
Dave
After arriving in Stuttgart on Thursday at 11am local time, I barely got settled/adjusted to the time zone and I soon found myself again in the air. Actually, it started on a train. This weekend I was joined by a senior analyst from Boston named Liz and she and I trained to Frankfurt before taking a flight to Budapest in Hungary. Train was uneventful and the countryside not as pretty as I would have expected. Flight was also uneventful.
Friday night we went and had a nice dinner at Baroka where Liz revealed one of her more unusual habits, she photographs her food. Each to their own but I found it a little weird. We were both quite tired, me particularly so we called an early night and resolved for a big day Saturday. Saturday we got up and basically went about exploring and walking around Budapest. The city is huge and divided into Buda and Pest, a division defined by the Danube river. Buda is the older section and a lot more interesting in my opinion. We hiked up and down hills to see monuments, castles, and other sites of interest. We covered a lot of ground and were both quite tired by the end of the day. Probably the highlights here were the view over the city from the Citadel, Mattias Church, Parliament House and St Stephen’s Basilica.
Saturday night we again headed out for a nice meal, this time at a restaurant called Mokka and we had another great meal but not before more photos were taken. After dinner we decided to check out some of the nightlife in Budapest, well, actually, the Pest side of Budapest and started at a bar called Negro and then migrated to Cactus Juice. Cactus juice was the better of the two bars but the music was circa 1993 which I guess had it charm and a few drinks later, didn’t stop us dancing to it but something a little more modern wouldn’t have gone astray.
Sunday we were again up early and hit the town with the intention of doing a tour of Parliament. Unfortunately the people of Budapest decided to stage some massive political rally of some description and Parliament was closed to the public and there was a massive police presence around the area. Plan B, nice slow brekky, then hit the Jewish Synagogue where I was made, like all males, to wear that silly little hat on my head. The synagogue itself was very nice though.
We then wandered around and took in a few little shops and pedestrian malls. Lunch was eaten in a little sidewalk café and after lunch, we headed to Hero’s square to have a look around that area. There was a nice castle and gardens behind Hero’s square which we also had a bit of a look around before heading back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and heading out to the airport. Lufthansa actually managed to leave on time and soon we were back in Frankfurt, transferring to the train and heading back to Stuttgart.
As usual, pics have been updated so take a look.
Cheers!
Dave
