Oh me oh my! It's been such a long time since I wrote this blog. Sorry, peeps. But at least I've been doing other exciting online things in the meantime, like getting myself totally up to date on the uploading of photos. I just LOVE my Australia pictures! They bring back such vivid memories for me of my recent fantastic trip.
But I have been doing lots of offline things in recent weeks too. Here's a round-up:
- Carnival! Mardi Gras! (Or Faschingsdienstag, as they call it here.) Lots of silly costumes, lots of beer, and thankfully lots of sunshine too, even if it was a bit bloody freezing. The photos tell their own story...
- Another marvellous weekend in Leipzig. This time, we did some more sightseeing, including the Memorial to the Battle of the Nations (Europe's largest monument, which was built in 1913 to commemmorate the victory of a coalition of forces against Napoleon there a hundred years earlier) and the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum - try saying that when you're pissed! - (the museum of the key points in the history of the so-called German Democratic Republic, otherwise known as East Germany).
- Me & Veronika went to see our mate Rocky's band "Hetoro" play in Moosach, just to the northeast of Munich. And they were BRILLIANT! I pretty much knew every single song they played, and the singer was great, and the atmosphere was marvellous.
- I visited delightful Landshut, a small town northeast of Munich further downstream on the Isar. There's a castle, some cute pastel-coloured houses, and some great bars & restaurants, not to mention the churches, the waterfront and the coffees...
- Starkbierfest!! Oh my God, the strong beer festival is not for the faint-hearted. It's proper Bavarian: litres of extra-strength lager, brown and sticky-sweet. Supposedly it's what got the monks through Lent. I suspect it helped them SLEEP through Lent. You certainly don't enjoy waking up after a night on that stuff!
- A weekend's skiing in Austria with friends from the EPO. I've never stayed overnight on top of a mountain at a ski resort before. That was cool. And the hazelnut schnapps was truly memorable! Bénédicte & I drank far too much of the stuff...
And of course I've been having lunch & dinner with a whole host of people, as is my wont. The long, long, long winter seems finally to have drawn to a close. It was teeshirt weather this afternoon, and I was out bouncing on the trampoline with my nephew Charlie. Not bad, considering the trampoline has been shrouded in snow for months...
Tomorrow we're off to Austria to see our rellies there. I can't wait to tell you all about it.
posted by Rich at
Friday, March 19, 2010
