St Patrick's College

Ireland is known as a Catholic country, and nowhere more so in Ireland this can be said than St Patrick's College in Maynooth.

Walking around is an amazing experience in the tranquility and tradition for a institution that was established in 1795.

BMW Welt

Munich is known for many things and one of them is BMW.  In fact, the BMW logo is the Bavarian flag.  Oddly many Germans consider Munich to be a village in comparison to Frankfurt, the Rhein Valley and Berlin.

What's really cool is when you buy a BMW, you have the option of picking it up at the specially built receiving center where people give you a tour of your new car and the option of getting export plates to have fun on the Autobahn before heading home.

Also is included a ticket to the BMW museum, where they have a nice collection of the older and future prototypes.

View from Deutsches Museum

The view from the observation floor on top of Deutsches Museum is quite nice view of Munich.

I like the weather instruments on the tower

View of Munich altstadt

The English gardens in the distance

Partnach Gorge

The gorge in Garmisch is not the biggest, but it's quite accessible and once you pass it, it's an amazing hike!

Irish Road Traffic

Driving out in western Ireland, you often run into these traffic jams.

Largest Alpine Fortress in Europe

Not many people know about this fort, in fact try searching for the "largest fort in Europe" and it takes you a few minutes to find it.  But the Fenestrelle Fortress is the largest in Europe.

Built and upgraded in the past hundreds of years, the fortress was originally French and then later fell into Italian hands.  This is one reason not many people know about it, but what's interesting is that it's Europe's version of the Chinees Great Wall.

Next time I'm in the area I'll try to get some photos and compare it to the Chinees version.  Inside is also a nice little museum showing how life was like for the soldiers in the 19th century stationed here.

Irish Wine

This must be one of the funniest things I've seen in Ireland - Irish wine!

Romeo and Juliet Balcony

The famous balcony in Verona, Italy.  Millions of tourists come to visit and scribble love notes on the gates and walls.

Dutch Klomp

In Holland one can find these Klomp wooden clogs everywhere in tourist shops.  According to wikipedia, they are still worn today by farmers and considered safer than steel toe boots as the wood will  protect your foot, and not just the toes.

Giant Camera

Just behind the famous Cliff House in San Francisco is this Giant Camera.  It's one of the few remaining items from the fun park that use to be along Ocean Beach.

The pyramid structure on top rotates and reflects the image to a large table inside, where you can see the image of the works around.

Middle of Nowhere

One really begins to appreciate how big the US is when you drive though states like New Mexico and Texas.

This photo was taken when we were driving back from Ohio to California along Route 66.  Note the gunshot holes in the sign, there isn't even a tree to shoot at for miles!

Little Italy in San Francisco

San Francisco has a little Italian quater with a few little stores.  At Molinari's you can get all the goodies and remind you that you may be in a little village back in the 1950's.

Frankfurt Bahnhof

Frankfurt's station is quite big.  The city has a central location in Europe and many long-distance trains pass though there.

I also like the big "Frankfurter Allgemine" ad, reminds be of the Bruno clip.

Coffee and Books

Enjoying a nice Sunday at home with coffee, books and a little Belgium chocolate.

Surfing Dog

Here's a funny picture I took down in Monterey.

History of English

Here's an interesting post about the history of the English language.  The argument is that English comes from Scandinavian languages and thus many words are interlinked with German.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/12/language-families

I thought it interesting how the word store has many meanings in several languages.  For example in Polish, sklep is where items are kept for safekeeping and also where items are sold.  The safekeeping word is a bit dated and I learned it though my grandfather who told me it's where they kept food outside the house for storage (usually underground where it was cool).

English has the same with store (as in a file on a hard disk) and store (where you sell things).  German too with lager.

Seattle

I was really impressed with Seattle.  I thought it was going to be a small town, but turned out to be quite a nice city.

Last Flight

The last flight for the Shuttle.  When I was a kid I remember seeing this plane in Edwards.  It's ironic to see the last flight over San Francisco, like the end of a era.

Printing Press

At the Mannheim technology museum they have this old and amazing printing press.

Winter

Living in California you end up missing a proper winter.

Photography with Binoculars

This was really fun, I took a old pair of Russian-Made binoculars and just put my point-and-shoot camera up to the eyepiece.

I really like the movie look of the vignetting.  I'm also amazing how sharp the image is.

Venice at Night

Visiting Venice is a amazing experience.  Visiting it at night is even better.

The best attractions are packed during the day, but what many people don't relise is that night the city is near a ghost town.  Only a few local and die-hard tourists remain.  And you get to enjoy the glamor all to yourself.

Guinness

There's no doubt, that when someone mentions Ireland, Guinness will flow.

Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain

Polish pilots played a important role in the Battle of Britain.  Before the Americans' entered the European war, the Poles were flying British Spitfires with small "Poland" insignia's on their fuselages.

The US Air Force brought in a much bigger force, their own planes and pilots.  After that, Polish contribution was mostly forgotten.  These planes are at the Duxford airport and museum where one can buy a ticket and fly in one.

Concorde

At the Sinsheim Technical Museum in Germany, one can visit the Concorde and also the Soviet version, the TU-144, also known as the Concordsky.

Both are amazing planes, both flew and both carried passengers   Even thought both programs were criticized for being too costly, it's still amazing to think that the US never have a super-sonic passenger aircraft.

Network installation for Commerzbank

I think this was one of the coolest networking projects I've worked on.  These new switches were undergoing firmware testing for the new Commerzbank tower in Frankfurt.  There were 100 Cisco 6500 switches and my job was to install firmware and software to do QA testings.  Basically a lot of scripting with multiple CF cards.

This was back in 2008, I'm sure these modules are sold as scrap on ebay now.