Archive for December 10th, 2008

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Slight interruption

December 10, 2008

There be furniture here! Yeah!


And to give perspective so you can see just how big my sewing table is:
The legs of the table are made of 4x4s and the top is made with 2x6s — all hardwood.

Both the loveseat and the chairs have storage compartments.

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Koln – Hotel and General sights

December 10, 2008

These are the views out our hotel window. We were right next the train station, as you can see. It was very convenient, since we didn’t have to deal with taxis, buses or trams to get to and from the hotel. We slept with the window open. Since I had lived as a child next to a train track, the thump, thump, thump of the trains was familiar and kind of soothing.

In the hotel, there is a vine that begins on the sixth floor and travels down the stairwell all the way to the bottom.

Beautiful houses down along the river. Below is a statue of some heroic fellow, I know not who.
Below is proof of high culture in Germany.
Below is the other side of the train station, rather pretty architecture.
Below, just a general picture of the river (Rhine) and Germans out for a walk on the weekend.
We arrived in Koln late Friday night. Unfortunately, I was already feeling sick. Saturday, we went out for a little while, but I was clearly not well, so went back to the hotel and Paul went out on his own for that afternoon. After throwing up and getting a nap, I felt better and was able to get on with sight seeing. Sunday night the same ailment hit Paul hard. We were to spend all day Monday in travel back to Dubai — which meant a train ride to Frankfurt and a plane ride after that. It was a very hard day for Paul and I was worried we wouldn’t make it, but we did. He is still sick, poor thing. We attempted to upgrade our flight to business class, but were not able to do that. Luckily, there were empty seats next to us, so Paul could lay down and get a little sleep. We are too old and decrepit for travelling economy class anymore. We have vowed to travel business class in the future, but that may cut back on how much travel we can afford.

Despite our illness, we did still manage to do a few things, so more pictures will follow. It is a challenge to organize and post pictures because my camera stores them in completely random order. I usually take two of everything because the first picture tends to be too blurry to use. Even the two identical pictures are separated, so it takes a while to figure out what I have and what order they should go in.

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Heidelberg Miscellaneous

December 10, 2008

Here are some miscellaneous images to wrap up before we move on to Koln.

Here we can see that they are capable of providing soft facial tissues, however, the toilet paper is capable of standing up on it’s own. That is not a roll of t.p., but just four sheets. I think it was brawnier than Brawny paper towels.
Below we have evidence that not all the construction cranes are in Dubai. We saw about 4 cranes during our trip. It’s funny how they stick out to us now.
Unfortunately, all the night time pictures I took were blurry, but I thought you should see how pretty it is all lit up.
Below is the big frying pan where they cook up steak and onions and serve them in a sandwich. Paul loves this pan. He loved the steak, too, but I think he loves the pan more.

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Heidelberg Castle

December 10, 2008

Unfortunately, my camera became uncooperative while we were at the castle and claimed that the memory was full, so I did not get very many pictures.
We took the guided tour. Below is a model of how the castle looked at it’s peak.
This is a model of how it looks now, after years of war and neglect. They have done some restorative work, but some areas are hollowed out shells or not even that.
Below is one of the walls in the restored section. I thought it was interesting to see a mounted head with a painted on body.
If you want more info on the castle, Wikipedia has a lengthy entry (but you didn’t hear it from me.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_Castle