Berlin

Went for a weekend trip to Berlin.  Last time I was in Berlin was something over 10 years ago when I went there for a business trip to visit a customer.  Back then the city was just a massive construction site and everything was being redone.  There’s still a lot of things that are being worked on now, but most of the city is finished being rebuilt.

I was impressed how big Berlin is.  Compared to London where everything is small and cramped, Berlin has wide streets with new sidewalks.  I hope that the city will continue being a place where things improve (if they just manage getting BER airport done!)

Evening takeoff from London

Hackescher Markt

Großer Tiergarten

Großer Tiergarten

Brompton!

My dinner, love this stuff

The new VW T6, my dream van (for touring)

BER airport, note it's still not open

Heidelberg Sunset Photos

Here's the processed high-res photos from the Heidelberg Sunset timelapse (click to open):

Heidelberg Sunset - Paraglider Edition

A great remix of a timelapse I shoot a while back.

Now I just need to dust off my camera and get back to shooting :)

Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle

One of the hidden gems of Frankfurt - the Kleinmarkthalle (Small market hall).  A perfect place to get fresh produce, livestock and goodies from all over the world.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Flying

At the end of summer I thought it would be a cool idea to get my private's pilots license.  It was a bit of stupid thinking doing it in Germany.  Should have gone to Florida and get it there.  Needless to say I dropped out two flights into the program.

End the end, getting a PPL is a bit useless as flying is quite expensive and the extra costs in maintenance, rental, fuel, etc are quite high.

Taunus air show

Hidden in the Taunus is a small airstrip and one day in the summer they had a little airshow.  What was cool is seeing a flying Junkers and Russian Yak's.

Cycling in the Taunus

At this point I was living in Taunus, near my office and was cycling almost daily in the hills.  Here my Dad comes and visits to the Roman Fortress that's near by.

Wank

Hiking the Wank in Garmisch.

Camping in Garmisch

In the summer I went down to Garmisch for a weekend trip.  Always liked going to the Bavarian city and for this trip I camped under the Zugspitz on the Austrian side of the border.