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
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Heidelberg Castle
December 10, 2008More Heidelberg
December 9, 2008Welcome to Heidelberg. This is the Galeria Kaufhof, a major department store with a tram and bus transit area in front of it. Notice all the bicycles. They are everywhere.
A closer view showing some of the Christmas market booths. Great sausages, mulled wine and sweets.
The Galeria Kaufhof has a glass elevator and these are shots from there.
Here is the Hauptstrasse. A main street primarily for pedestrians (vehicles venture here only to make deliveries). It is a long and pleasant walk and the Germans do walk a lot.
Street musician playing Christmas music on steel drums.
Proof that sushi is everywhere. This was one of three or four sushi restaurants we saw.
Paul and Professor Bunsen, of bunsen burner fame.
Heidelberg is a very pleasant, low key town. We highly recommend it. The food is great. The weather was exactly what we were hoping (although a little snow would have been nice). It hovered around 40F and was rainy.
History is all around you everywhere you go in this city. The buidlings are hundreds of years old (the ones that survived WWII, anyway). We went to one of the museums. There was a Roman settlement here and the Romans built a massive bridge across the Neckar river. The museum has several of the timbers from that bridge on display. It amazes me to see something biodegradable like that that has survived and to be able to touch it.
Heidelberg
December 7, 2008
Here is Happy Paul, happy to be in Germany. This is the Frankfurt train station and we are waiting for our train to Heidelberg. Notice that he is wearing two coats. The temperature hovered around 40F and rainy, so was not as cold as we had expected. Only needed my gloves when the wind came up.
If you are wondering where the Marlboro man has gone. He has moved to Germany.
Here is Happy Paul in Heidelberg. The Holy Ghost Church is to the left. Markt Platz with it’s Christmas market is ahead.
Christmas market, one of many.
Holy Ghost Church and Christmas market.
Our hotel – Hotel Zum Ritter, built in 1592.
The views out our hotel windows. The Heidelberg Schloss (castle) up the hill and red roofs as far as the eye can see.
We ate at Vetters restaurant (more than once). Above is the view out the restaurant window and below is the 1/2 pig order Paul ordered and ate. Two large pork snitzels.
For R.N.C.
December 7, 2008These photos are specifically for R.N.C. The rest of you can look at them, but they won’t mean nearly as much to you as they do to her.
Above, the tram stop, below the Penny Markt (sorry it’s fuzzy).
Former residence and former school.
Church across the street from school.
Castle across the street from school.
Hail storm in Dubai
December 6, 2008http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10265223.html
And we missed it!
More answers – keep the questions coming
December 6, 2008Yes, many of the buildings in Dubai are currently under construction. Word has it that 35% of the world’s construction cranes are in Dubai. As for the pointy things on top of buildings, we do have lightning here (apparently with every rain storm), so my best guess is that they serve as lightning rods and as a secondary use, it may be an attempt to make the building a little bit taller than the existing buildings around it. It is all about bigger and better, baby!
The current world financial crisis may slow them down a bit, but not much.
Answers to questions
December 2, 2008Yes, English is an official language here. So everyone speaks it to some degree, although with one of our security guards (in the apartment building) if you get beyond “hello, sir” and “goodbye, sir” he’s lost. The other security guard is from Nepal and was delighted when Paul said hello to him in Nepalese. His English is better, so Paul talks with him sometimes. At the college, all instruction is done in English, although the ladies (as the students are called) come in with varying levels of English and much of the instruction is to get them up to speed in the language.
The standard work week is Sunday through Thursday. Friday is the holy day. Most people have Friday off, except for the construction workers, service workers, retail clerks. The malls open in the afternoon on Friday. Some people work 7 days a week, but it may be by choice. They are here to make money to support their family back home.
Germany will be appearing in future blog entries. I won’t be taking my computer, but Paul will have his and we are supposed to have internet access in our hotels. I will be whipping my camera out frequently. It is supposed to be 39-44F in Heidelberg, so we may not have pictures of snow.
Back by a popular demand of one
December 1, 2008
We got off the beaten path and into a busy neighborhood. You can see how the pedestrians just walk freely out into the street. No one here knows about “look both ways before crossing the street.”
The woman above is wearing distinctive clothing that is not local, but is definitely Muslim. I have not found out, yet, what nationality this style of dress indicates. Notice the Hardee’s advertisement with the juicy burger.
Here we have a Wimpy burger joint. The woman in yellow and her companions are in African style dresses. Notice the guy with a box on a handcart. Before I took this picture he was actually out in the middle of the road. And by the way, where’s Waldo?
Above is the sandlot, now empty, that had an untold number of cricket games going just yesterday.
I tried to take this picture to show the woman with the beautiful shayla with blue beading and sequins on it. She is in the center of the picture, just heading into a door. This neighborhood is predominantly East Indian, so it is rare to see an Emirati here.
Yes, this is a TGI Thursdays restaurant. There are also TGI Fridays restaurants here, but Thursday is the end of the week, so someone took advantage of that fact. Kinda like the Southern Fried Chicken restaurants that look suspciously like Kentucky Fried Chicken, right down to using SFC in their signage.
Here we have the Tourist Star trading company. There was also a Tourist Cafeteria in the neighborhood with hamburgers and fries on the menu. There were a lot of little hole in the wall food joints, most of which looked pretty questionable. I don’t think they have invented the Food Inspector here, yet.
Someone was kind enough to feed the pigeons.
We ventured into this neighborhood for a reason — the search for sewing supplies. Our efforts did not go unrewarded. We found a tailor supply shop and I bought a bunch of stuff and we chatted with the owner. I will definitely be going back as a loyal customer.
We often see public service type advertisements around town. Things like “UV rays can harm your eyes.” I particularly liked this one – Say no to Obesity. If I had only known it was that easy. “NO!” and the pounds just drop away.
Even better, I should fight obesity. Just haul off and let it have one right in the kisser! Just like any bully, it will turn tail and run away.
I took this picture of this mosque just because it is beautiful. Mosques are usually white, so to see one with a little color and interesting decoration was a pleasant change.
Here is a better, closer shot of the Burg Dubai, world’s tallest building for the moment.
And, one last shot showing several buildings and how each one has to be unique. They definitely don’t do the same thing twice.
So long and thanks for all the fish
November 28, 2008I am afraid that I will have to stop writing this blog. It was fun while it lasted, but it must stop. Because, if I continue to tell you how freaking happy we are here and how cheap things are here and how interesting things are here and how freaking happy we are here, there might be unfortunate consequences. Dubai should be kept our little secret. Shhhh.
So, if you are tired of hearing us rave about how much fun we are having, stop reading and never come back. If you stick around to hear more, you must swear to keep it a secret.
Tonight we ventured out to find an out of the way furniture store that we had been told about and wanting to get to, but it’s not the kind of place you can get to by taxi. Now that we are mobile, we went in search of Pinky’s and after a few wrong turns, found it.
A warehouse full of lovely hardwood furniture from India.
This is the set we bought. Sorry that the picture is blurry. The seats lift up and there are storage compartments underneath. We (read I) will add cushions to make them more comfy. We got all three pieces for Dhs 3200 (approx. $800.00).
The table on the bottom we purchased to be my sewing table. It is 160 cm X 160 cm, which is just over 5 ft X 5 ft and it cost us Dhs 1400 (approx. $380.00).
And here’s the corker, all prices are negotiable and we did not dicker. We paid top dollar.
They will deliver on December 10th, after we get back from Germany. The delivery charge is a whopping Dhs 100 ($27). That is for delivery from a different city and they will bring the pieces all the way up to the 8th floor (I hope the table fits in the elevator!) — all for $27.
Other things we saw today:
The brown arch above the rearview mirror on the white SUV is a boat spraying sand/dirt to create an island.
Again – brown arch = island in the making.
Most of my pictures are devoid of people, because it is considered rude to take pictures of people without their permission, but that makes it seem like no one lives here, but us. So, I snuck a few pictures to prove that there are MANY people living here.
This is a pedestrian overpass with crowds coming and going.
Where there is a sandlot (and there are many), there’s a cricket game or ten.
In the picture below, above the bus, between the stop light and the round sign, way in the distance is the world’s tallest building, the Burg Dubai. At least it will be the world’s tallest until the next one is built, which will be a kilometer high. It must be disappointing to be building the world’s tallest building and have someone else start a bigger one before it is even finished.
Above is the Dubai Ports and Customs Authority building, made to look like two ocean liners side by side.
Well, for someone who threatened to stop blogging, this is a very long entry. Hope you enjoy it. You could always leave us a comment or too, ya know (hint, hint).
Anyway, keep our little secret, and I will keep on extolling the virtues of Dubai.
Living the Travel Channel 