View from a window

This is the view of the courtyard of where I'm staying.

Snow galore!

Bus blogging

Can you see me in the close circuit TV? I'm blogging from the top storey of a double decker bus in Edinburgh. Fun, eh?

Edinburgh Castle

"See amid the winter snow,
Hilltop castles from below,
Towering views that aim to please,
Winter winds that aim to freeze!"

IT'S SOOOOooooo COLD!

Bird's Eye View

Here's a bird's eye view of the Edinburgh Gallery from the top of the ferris wheel in the middle of a snowfall.

Freezing Ferris Wheel in Edinburgh

This is me high over Princes Street Edinburgh on the Eve of Hogmany festivities. It's absolutely freezing and snowing, but fantastic too.

Princes St Edinburgh - Happy New Year

Party time in Edinburgh - despite the snow, people are out in huge numbers. The pavements are SO slippery.

Chockies for Chrissie.

These Marks & Sparks chockies come from my good friend Calum. My only complaint is that I probably can't take them back easily through customs, so we'll have to eat them through the week.

I'll ask Calum for assistance on this matter!

How gorgeous is this?

This is Weimar station. The sun is coming up and the light changes by the second.

Goethe country

Weimar, is of course, Goethe country. The train from Leipzig goes through there on the way to Frankfurt.

I'll put another pic up in a minute.

View from a bridge

Well, I'm on the train to Frankfurt airport, and I'm very lucky: the train from across the road from where I was staying in Leipzig goes direct to the airport, with no changes! It takes three hours, but it's really comfortable.

I'm spending the time downloading pics from the video camera and working on my laptop while looking out at this wonderful winter scenery.
Nearly coffee time...

Snow

Yep - it's snowing. And I'm travelling. I hope it goes OK, but I must confess to being a bit concerned with delays.

Gewandhaus Orchestra and Beethoven's Ninth

You can see here the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, which is, apparently, the oldest civic orchestra in the world ie not owned by royalty. This is the applause at the end of the performance.

I'm so used to hearing this with an English speaking choir singing the German text, that I was bowled over by the difference hearing native speakers singing in German. It might have also been the acoustic too, but the orchestra was very clear, especially the woodwinds. You seemed to sitting on top of the musicians, and felt a lot closer to the action. A great way to start end of year celebrations...

Leipzig Hauptbanhof day and night

Here's two views view of th Leipzig Hauptbahnhof from the front. The second was taken walking home after a concert in the snow.

The Wurst Case Scenario

The Germans love their sausage meat (or Wurst in German) as you can see here. There's a sausage stand on every corner that often has stand up tables in front and people stand outside in 3 degree cold eating the stuff, maybe to warm up. Pretty tough. I couldn't stand still in the cold, I kept moving.

This is the Leipzig main railway station. Pretty, eh?

Gewandhaus

This is the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the oldest continually running orchestra in Europe, and the oldest civic orchestra in the world. This picture is not great, but I'll get a better one when I go to the concert tonight.

Leipzig Opera House

This is the Leipzig Opera House in the Augustusplatz (Augustus Square). The whole square is very Stalin, with those big bold statements of space and austere style. It sits opposite the Gewandhaus.

Silly picture

I loved this silly picture of a crane and a plane's jet stream. They're parallel. I know it's silly but I like it..

Leipzig really is a great place for music

I found this shop M. Oesler, Musichändler on Schillerstrasse. I had a look to see if they had any viola music, and a nice man helped me, and showed me shelves of it. I also found some practice CDs with accompaniments you can play along to. I walked out with heaps of new music, and started wondering if I'll be paying excess baggage. We'll see!

Faust and he who shall not be named.

In Goethe's Faust, the Devil meets Faust Leipzig in Auerbach's Cellar bar/inn, outside of which, I am standing in this picture. Goethe studied in Leipzig, and in Goethe's day the bar was popular with students.

Glühwein

In the winter, mulled, hot, spiced wine, called Glühwein is sold on every street corner, demonstrating it's popularity... Here are some spices I am bringing home for my friend Takako. Presumably in preparation for winter!

How German can you get?

Coffee and cake - a German tradition. This Apple cake is classic but tasted fantastic.

Sehr deutsch...

Off to Leipzig

The ICE trains in Germany are incredible. I've just left Hamburg and am on my way to Leipzig via Berlin. The train is so comfortable, and I can use my laptop! I'm downloading holiday snaps...

A model town.

Inside the St Laurentis Church, there's a model of Itzehoe. It's fascinating comparing this to the town. You can see Laurentz here, whom I met in Scotland. His English is amazing, like so many young people here. In fact, it was an interesting morning with Gaelic, German and English being spoken, swapped and broken on all sides! The family was wonderfully hospitable and I had a fantastic although somewhat short time here. Klein aber fein!

Morning in Itzehoe

I spent a wonderful morning visiting the small town Itzehoe north of Hamburg.

I'm developing a real liking for the Northwestern part of this wonderful country. The level of culture in this country is unbelievable.

I met the good Pastor Harald Meyenberg in Scotland at the Mod last year, and he recognised me from my Gaelic video (google drronmccoy on YouTube and you'll find it!).

Harald met me at the station and we walked into the town centre and met his son Laurence, who I also met in Oban, and then we had breakfast together.

After this we visited some other sights (see other blog entries).

Not only is Christmas organised...

You have to file your rubbish in Germany. As you can see here, each bin is clearly marked (click on the pic and zoom in - I think you can see the categories) and you know exactly where you put your rubbish.
Well except when I was trying to dispose of a teabag. I thought "do I remove the string, put it in packaging, then open the used tea bag, and then try to empty the tea out into one pin and put the paper bag into the paper, and then put the cardboard tag into the packaging bin? I'm in therapy now, trying to recover from PTSD - Post Teabag Stress Disorder - apparently a common problem in Germany since the introduction of these bins.

The Germans are serious about Christmas

These are the decorations in the main Hamburg railway station. Everywhere you go in Germany, the Christmas decorations are beautiful, especially at night. They've got Christmas right - ein Winterwunderland!

Christmas flowers...

The flower shops have lots of interesting types of Poinsettas like in this pic.

Deutches Essen

The German food is very good. The bread is excellent but they're really into buttery pastries (yuck!). I know taste's personal, but I couldn't start the day on a croissant. Yuck!

The coffee varies for my taste, although there is some really good coffee. I Iike their brewed coffee, but a lot of places don't get the cappucinos right at all...

0630 Hamburg Hauptbanhof

I've arrived nice and early for my train to Itzehoe which doesn't leave for another 50 minutes. I always arrive early, check where the platform is (actually, double and triple check) and then get some breakfast. The station is amazing - huge with lots of facilities - so different from Australia. I have a first class rail pass, and you get great service. It's like travelling business. If I lived here, I'd use the second class. I've travelled in it, and it's great, but on holidays, I go for a treat. Also I can use my laptop while I'm travelling. It's really comfortable and convenient.

Anyway I'm off to a regional town today - Itzehoe - to meet Harald, a pastor whom I meet in October in Oban in Scotland. He's learning Gaelic and doing very well indeed. It won't be long before he's fluent. The Europeans are really good at applying themselves to learn about the languages and cultures of others. Anyhow, I'll put some pics up later today - when the sunrises, which is about 9 am.

My walk beneath the River Elbe, Hamburg.

In these pictures, you can see one of the dual tunnels that go 12 meters under the Elbe River in Hamburg. The tunnel is used during weekdays for workers. There are car lifts on each end of the tunnel, and in one of the pictures here, you can see the entrance to one of them.

There are two tunnels, and lots of pedestrians use the tunnel too, but the pedestrians can use the tunnels anytime. Being Sunday, the tunnel was closed to cars, so I walked the tunnel with my friends Julie and Thorsten.

The walls of the tunnel are lined with beautiful ceramic tiles and it has such a turn of the century feeling, being built in only 4 years in 1904. I bet that people would be hard pressed to meet that sort of schedule now!

Lighting a candle

This amazing display in St Petri Church is a mass of candles burning away symbolises humanity's collective hope and compassion for all of the hardship we have to endure. You find a place on this huge mass of candle wax - you can see in the picture the huge white rough mass beneath the candles - it's all candle wax. Once you find a spot, you melt a little area on it with the flame and candle wax, and then you put the base of the candle onto the little pool of wax. You hold it there for a few seconds, and the wax cools and sets, and your candle joins all the mass of other peoples candles. It's a simple idea, but so amazingly breathtaking.

Church Service at St Michaelis

This is the Sunday night church service (Gottesdienst) at St Michaels Church in Hamburg. I know the picture's not great, but I hope you can make out orchestra and choir. The service includes a choir and orchestra with the Festikantate zur Weihnacht (Festival Cantata for Christmas) "Ehre sei Gott" by Anton Bruckner and "Ehre sei Gott" by Max Reger.

Amazing!

And this St Michaelis Organ

And this organ is in the St Michaelis Church in Hamburg.

St Petri Kirche Orgel

Here is Hamburg's largest organ in St Petri Church. Renovated in recent times, this picture does not convey how impressive it looks within the church.

Weihnachtsbaum in Rathaus

Christmas doesn't finish here on Boxing Day. Look at this great Chrissie tree in the Hamburg Town Hall. And it's real...

Hamburg Hauptbanhof

Amazing train stations in Deutschland. This is the Hamburg main train station.

Pretty...

Cake and coffee (und Glühwein!)

Weihnachtsmarkt

These Christmas markets are all over Germany, but finish on Christmas Eve. Just missed it!

Isn't Hamburg pretty?

It really feels like Christmas with lights like this and snow on the streets...

Ich bin in Hamburg angekommen

So I arrived in Hamburg in one piece at 1250 local time. 4 degrees Celsius, but I found out there's some Bach on tonight so it's party time!

Ich mache Bachsweihnachtsfeier!

Anyone need a drink?

I can't believe how much alcohol there is in Duty Free Shops, although I quite like this pic...

Today's menu

Prawn risotto cakes, stir fried vegetables and a tomato and goat cheese tart.

Can't find the tomato sauce 'though...

Chillin' out bro...

After singing in midnight mass, morning mass and eating massive amounts of food, here I am waiting for the plane to depart to Hamburg on Christmas day.

The lounge is fantastic and there's hardly anyone here...

The tomato juice is nice!

Meet Jenny Seward aka Georgiana McCrae

I met Jenny over Chrissie drinks, and she plays Georgina MaCrae dressed in period costume at McCrae Homestead.

It's a small world, because Judy Turner from the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club is a descendant of Georgina McCrae and our fiddle club knows all about her...

I've promised to visit in the New Year...so stay tuned for more!

You know it's Christmas when...

...people drink stubbies on trams...

What's a penguin doing at the North Pole?

Helping Santa of course!

Don't you love silly pictures?

Don't you love silly pictures?

I do obviously!