Back in time








Along the road we pass medieval towns like Tauberbischofheim, Lauda, Bad Mergentheim, Weikersheim and Creglingen. Everything here is from the 1300's or earlier it seems. With a (barock) castle or palace thrown in between. You think that not a lot happened during the last centuries, until you notice that that super high tech company that makes a single essential part for all the man made satellites in the universe is actually based in Lauda. So many high tech small firms are based here it's like a silicon valley - without the internet that is.
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Würzburg - the start of our Romantic Road trip


Tiepolo ceiling

Original Röntgen laboratory


Fränkische tapas

Photosynth pano
In Würzburg our trip really starts and wow: there is so much to see... We had to concentrate of the main attractions, like the Residenz, the Cloister and such. Because it is still very early in the vacation season we have the places almost to our selves, which is super! The Tiepolo cieling in the Residez is magnificent (and one of the few things that is still original after the "fire" (as the Germans call it) of March 16th 1945. ) Eddie is a huge fan of the photosynth app on his iphone and everywhere we go he takes a panorama. With excellent results I must admit. On live.com you can see the 3D versions. The food in this part of Germany is great and I never stop to be amazed about the prizes - about 50% of what you would pay in Holland: How do they do that?
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Aschaffenburg





Aschaffenburg is a small town on the border of the Main. It has a castle of course (like all the towns here) on a hill and something special: the pompejanum (a rebuild villa from Pompeii). All with all a great start of our trip back into history.
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Spessart (the forest mountains)



Every village has its own May Tree (mai baum)

Off road through the forest with lots of thieves

I found a round trip through the (thick) forests of Spessart - a region east of Aschaffenburg and it was really awesome. Spessart is famous in Germany because of the story "Das Wirtshaus im Spessart" by Wilhelm Hauff (and the movie of the 50's of that same story with Liselotte Pulver). The "Wasserschloss Mespelbrunn" is very good preserved and the town of Wertheim has a great castle on top of the mountain.
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Nyenrode in Aschaffenburg

Nyenrode on the Vecht
I found this old painting with a view of Nyenrode in the Aschaffenburg Castle. Maybe it belonged one time to Onnes? Anyway, this view is rather difficult from land, so it must have been from a boat on the Vecht I guess.
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Along the Rhine

After our first stop in Siegburg, we rode along the Rhine (here a nice view on top of the Lorelei) all the way to Mainz and from there to Aschaffenburg. The Rhine is a river with many faces: some terrible with heavy industry and some real pretty with ancient landscapes and little towns. Riding along on the bike is great and we are not the only ones: on a Saturday like this thousands of bikes are on the road and we have to wave back constantly...
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Back on the road and back on blogger...

It's spring - so it's time for an other long motor trip. This time we will be heading to Bavaria along the "Romantische Strasse - Romantic Road" The weather predictions are perfect for the next week or so, so we packed light.
I have tried to keep up a blog through facebook/twitter but I still don't like the way everything is presented (it seems a bit of a mess) - hence my return to blogger. (tried blogpress for iPad too, but that app still misses some nice features)
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Bye bye Blogger?

After almost 3000 posts and 8 years I am thinking of saying goodbye to blogger...
It was very nice to (b)log the things I like, found surprising and new - but facebook and twitter have caught up and it is getting more and more easier to share/like things straight out of an app or website then it used to be. I like the more permanent feel of blogger thought - facebook seems more volatile (not to mention twitter). The O so nice thing about a log is to read back what you found important a couple of years ago - or just to look up when something happened. Also it is nice to be able to turn blogger into books (I know: very old fashioned :-))
But now with my blogger post merged into my facebook feed and (starting from today) my facebook / twitter feeds into my blog it seems inevitable that someday I move completely to facebook. Until that time I"ll try to feed them both. 
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Vin is back - Fast 5

I already was a little bit worried: what ever happened with Vin? But it turned out he was making an other movie: fast furious number 5.To bad, I was hoping for something really new - but hey: as long Vin is in it I like it :-)
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Hmmm..

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Happy birthday iPad!

Amazing that we only have the iPad for just one whole year in our lives... I cannot imagine my life without it anymore.
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Nya sedlarna

Dag Hammarskjöld kommer pryda de nya 1.000 konorssedlarna, naturmotivet på dessa sedlar hämtas från Lappland.

Birgit Nilsson kommer pryda de nya 500 kronorssedlarna. Naturmotivet på Birgit Nilssons sedel hämtas från hennes uppväxtmiljö i Skåne.

Ingmar Bergman hamnar på nya 200-kronors sedeln och naturmotiven på Bergman-sedlarna blir från Gotland.

Greta Garbo får vi på våra nya 100-kronorsedlar och naturmotivet på denna sedel hämtas från Stockholm.

Evert Taube hamnar på de nya 50-kronors sedlarna. Naturmotiven på Evert Taubes sedlar hämtas från Bohuslän.

Astrid Lindgren kommer pryda den nya tjugolappen och naturmotivet hämtas från Småland.
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Little Lambs - yummie

On the first summer day of the year I had a great motor ride with Roland around Utrecht. Lots of other bikes and lambs...
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Namntoppen 2010

Se vilka namn som har flest bärare i landets alla hörn ock se placering din namn i Sverige.
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The (not) so secret life of Gandhi

Gandhi is to the left and Kallenbach to the right. Gandhi's secrerary, Sonia Schlesin, is in the center.
In his new biography Joseph Lelyveld revealed some "new" truths about Gandhi that shines a whole new light on his carefull constructed mythical figure...

Gandhi's  love of his life was a German-Jewish architect and bodybuilder, Hermann Kallenbach, for whom Gandhi left his wife in 1908. "Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in my bedroom," he wrote to Kallenbach. "The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed." For some ­reason, cotton wool and Vaseline were "a constant reminder" of Kallenbach, which  might ­relate to the enemas Gandhi gave ­himself, although there could be other, less generous, explanations.
Gandhi wrote to Kallenbach about "how completely you have taken ­possession of my body. This is slavery with a vengeance." Gandhi nicknamed himself "Upper House" and Kallenbach "Lower House," and he made Lower House promise not to "look lustfully upon any woman." The two then pledged "more love, and yet more love . . . such love as they hope the world has not yet seen."
They were parted when Gandhi ­returned to India in 1914, since the German national could not get permission to travel to India during ­wartime—though Gandhi never gave up the dream of having him back, writing him in 1933 that "you are always ­before my mind's eye." Later, on his ashram, where even married "inmates" had to swear celibacy, Gandhi said: "I cannot imagine a thing as ugly as the intercourse of men and women."
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nice bod - wrong head

He looks a bit of a psycho doesn't he? But wait: TIP! - just put your hand in front of his face and everything looks a lot better!
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Goodbye - for now


Our last lunch in Frisco we spend in Lafayette with Karen & Tom. The weather was picture perfect and it was a very nice and happy last couple of hours of our quick visit to the states. We took the BART back to SFO and had a very smooth and swift flight back home.
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Olmec - masterworks of ancient Mexico


At The Young museum there were a couple of interesting exhibitions: one of the work of Balenciaga and the other about the Olmec - an ancient civilization, famous for their colossal heads.
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Sunday in sunny Frisco

Calder @ SFMOMA - notice the color coordination...

view from the The Young tower

Sunday Lindy Free Swing Dancing party @ the GG park

the conservatory
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meanwhile in the latest issue of l'officiel hommes...


Dmitriy-Tanner
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Bicycles in San Francisco







I never saw so many bicycles in San Francisco as now. They are not on the streets though... no they are at the window of almost every fashion label. What's going on? Is a bicycle suddenly a fashion statement?
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