Nice photograph

At the Villa Grisebach auction this June.

A gay collection

A funny report in Volkskrant Magazine about the collection of Frank Schallmaier of similar profile pictures on gay social websites. It seems that everybody thinks the same.

Meanwhile at the Zomoto HQ...


Warp 10! The new Star Trek

It's funny, high paced, has a great story and likeable characters: Star Trek, the movie. The actors remind you of the original cast, but then again have a magic of their on. The story about Spock is probably the best of all the Star Trek movies. I really hope that this is a fresh start of the franchise. FOr me this is one of the best movies ever...

An update from wounded knee

I have been in & out The Andreas Hospital these days. The really super friendly and helpfull staff there are taking my injury very serious indeed. I have now a plastic surgeon to look after my middle finger and the speed with which things are improving is great. It will take about 6 weeks before I can start the rehabilitation process with my already assigned nurse. In the mean time everybdoy is very suporting and helping me out. thanks! :-))

Panorama

I made this 360 pano on a mountain at Rudolf, near Weimar, Germany. I shot it just by hand (about 18 pix) and then stitched it with PS CS4.

The day I crashed with my motorbike and ended in hospital

I went to my mumm this afternoon for mothersday and on the way back thought that I could get through a traffic light. Eddie who was driving in front of my thought otherwise and stopped just in time. I tried to make an emergency stop, but blocked my front wheel and slighed with my bike a couple of meters over the (hard) asphalt.  My left leg is wounded and right hand a little bit broken. the ambulance came quickly and I was repaired in no time. Luckily I was wearing my full faced helmet and a motor jacket with protection - stupidly I was only wearing (white) jeans in stead of my special motor trousers. Bike was scratched - but was OK! It will take a week or 4 to recover...

Sundays' best: top ten paradise stories

Touring through Germany and seeing the landscape and space I wonder how it would be when we moved to this place and lived here. It reminds me of the stories I read of people who moved to their paradise, just to find that it doesn't exists... :-)Here are my favorites
1) A year in Provence
2) Under the Tuscan Sun
3) Shirley Valentine
4) The matchmaker of Perigord
5) My house in Umbria
6) A good Year
7) In Maremma
8) Tea with Mussolini
9) Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis
10) Mr. Blandings builds his dream House

I am a Liberal Democrat

With EU profiler I tried to figure out which party to vote for at the European Elections June 4. Nationally I keep my Democrat / Liberal preference with D66, but the party which most resembles my views is the Liberal Democrats of the UK.

A letter from Barack...

A couple of months ago Sandy Tsao wrote to Barack Obama that he should fulfill his election promise to change the "Don't ask - Don't Tell" policy. She wrote hime that she told her superiors she was gay. Barack sent a hand written note back (that's actually awesome knowing that he has a serious schedule each day (and night)). He writes: "It will take some time to change the current policy" - to long for Sandy, because she was dishonorably discharged last week.  Now I understand that Barack doesn't want to make the same mistake Bill Cliton made in his early weeks on this ridiculous policy, but he really have to act and set something in motion...

Statue


Wartburg Cars

The Eisenach car factory has an old history. They were part of BMW before and during WWII. After that the Russians deported all the cars and machines to Russia. After a trademark battle the factory continued as Eisenach Motor Werke (EMW) and build Wartburg cars, mostly based on ancient BMW technology. The last Wartburg 1991 model was the same as introduced in 1967 ;-)
Now they are building Opel cars in a brand new factory (as long as Opel exists that is)...

Sergio Marchionne

I really admire the style of Sergio Marchionne. While everyone is moaning he is trying to create something new. In a forceful energic optimistic manner, And what I definitely like about him is that he always wears a sweater no matter what. Even when he was talking to the German Government about taking over Opel and all the Germans were dressed up - he just drove his Maserati and ste[[ed out in a....sweater (OK: probably his sweater alone is way more expensive then all the suits of the bureaucrats he is talking with :-)) )

Wartburg

Wartburg Castle is one of the most important places in Germany. The legend of St. Elisabeth started here, Luther translated the bible in German and Wagners' Tannhauser is based in the song contest at Wartburg. And in town Bach was born. We are lucky to sleep at the hotel at the Wartburg and so have a great view from our room of the surroundings.

Radisson SAS Hotel Leipzig

The Radisson SAS hotel chain is getter better and better. Their new concept is really good and there is no better example of this then the RS in Leipzig where we stayed. It has huge designer rooms, rain showers, big flat screen tvs, free wireless high speed internet, very comfy beds and a great breakfast. The location is right in the centre of Leipzig and we paid just 90 euro. No wonder why everyone at tripadvisor is raving about this hotel.

Escape from Colditz

Colditz is just a couple of minutes away from Leipzig and so we rode to have a closer look at this famous WWII prison Castle. We got a private tour of the place and saw all the famous spots. It was good to learn that the Dutch prisoners were the most successful in escaping. Funny that the movie was made in Scotland at a complete different castle...

Sundays' best: top 10 German food



You would have thought that a hamburger or frankfurter was the national dish here in Germany - but it is the schnitzel. You simply cannot avoid it. It is served everywhere - and most of the times all other food is just a variation of the basic stuff...
So here it is: the best German food:
1. Schnitzel Natur
2.  Wiener Schnitzel - with lemon
3. Jägerschnitzel - with mushroom sauce
4. Zigeunerschnitzel - with a spicy
paprika sauce
5. Rahmschnitzel- with cream

6. Schnitzel mit spiegelei - with fried eggs
7. Schnitzel „Café de Paris


- with herb butter
8. Hawaiischnitzel - with pineapple and cheese
9. Schnitzel „Florida“ - with peach
10. Cordon Blue - folded schnitzel with cheese and ham

Weimar: the classic art city



Weimar was around 1800 the place to be. Goethe, Schiller, Liszt and countless others lived here. Luckily not a lot has changed so we could visited their homes and go back in time. Bauhaus, van der Velde, Nietzsche - the amount of famous residents seems endless. Nowadays Weimar still lives in the past - not a lot happens here ;-)

Buchenwald


Just above Weimar lies Buchenwald a concentration camp from WWII. It is very moving to walk through the camp especially the mortuary is an example of gruesome efficiency. Although it was warm and sunny - we both got a cold chill from the experience. 

The Harz


This was the one day when I saw more bikes on the road as cars; the Harz is really bikers heaven ;-) Motorbikes everywhere! Lots of curves, empty roads and nice hills are the recipe for perfect riding...