V&A

Paris in the Springtime...

...but London in the 'Fall'?

Old Haunts

Yesterday I took - for the first time in 7 years - the commuter line I used to take to work each morning for a year when I lived in London. And this morning I ran around Tooting Bec Common, not so far from where I first took up running properly, in all of its autumnal glory. I had to pinch the photo below because of course who takes a camera on a run? It was amazing to run on forest paths and see the squirrels scarper, and still remember you are in fairly-central London. And this afternoon I found myself on St John's Road, Clapham Junction (our own little neck of the woods) for some shopping. A little trip (run) down memory lane...

Boris Bikes

Only about 5 years after the rest of Europe, the city bike scheme has finally arrived in London. There's one very large stand at the end of Brick Lane and when I saw it I hummed and haaed (it is after all London traffic), but decided to give it a go.

Not so easy.

35 pages 'I agree' to. A terribly confusing 24 hour access pass. A dodgy method of securing your possessions (no baskets) and even worse mechanics to unlock the bike.

Why they have decided to change a tried and tested design (aka Paris) is a bit beyond me and I saw as many people scratching their heads and trying to work out which buttons to press, as riding the things. And they weigh a ton.

So how did I do? Well, frankly, I just love seeing cities from 'upstairs' rather than the 'downstairs' underground. It makes the city make sense and you discover linking roads as well as the main thoroughfares. So I followed my nose and the number 26 bus, which just happened to be going in the same direction, and made it to Waterloo, thoroughly wind-swept and excited at my achievement (really, it is not that easy to decipher), and thrilled at discovering new sites, like this one:

(a water storage tower, believe it or not).

Urban Outfitters

I thought it was a cat at first, but it looked to be an awfully large one, and it was only when we drove nearer that we saw clearly that it was a fox. It had bounded over the road and leapt up the wall and was now calmly peering down at us from his vantage point and not particularly scared.

This morning as I walked to the train station a grey squirrel sprang across my path, and once actually in the station I was dive bombed by a couple of squalking sparrows.

Yes, and then I joined all the other animals pushing and shoving to get on the train that would take us into central London.

And then they wouldn't take my cash.

This time...London

London 2012 welcomes me. This is the only time it will thanks to the fiasco that was the ticket lottery.

Paris...by Bus

On one of those cold but clear and sunny Autumn mornings, we decided to take the bus. Well, we decided to tour Paris by bus, but not the 25 euro tourist buses. Instead, we decided to see the parts of Paris that we never see, to go in the opposite direction to the beautiful boulevards and enormous Hausmann buildings and iconic monuments, towards the residential areas that we know only by name at the end of metro lines.

It was super cool.

Travelling by bus brings you into contact with real people living their daily lives. It also keeps you warm and seated, is inexpensive, and has large windows that you can look out of. It also gives you an opportunity to stretch your legs and walk a bit between stops or to a new connection. And there's always plenty to see. 

We went from the north-west of Paris around the back of Montmatre to the north-east of Paris, where we saw how steep the hills are that eastern Paris is now perched on, and how much life there is on the other side of them. We travelled as far east as we could go and still be in Paris before turning south towards the river, travelling through the eastern flank of three arrondissements and disovering forested parks, narrow churches, cobbled alleys with houses, a wall of permitted artistic graffiti, and an incredible view of Paris as we crossed the river. Then it was into the Chinese quarter along the south of Paris and the bustling shoppers before we decided on a final treat: to take the bus that crosses from the south to the north of Paris, drinking in the sights that normally symbolise Paris such as the Panthéon and the Eiffel Tower, before we plunged back into the dirty, coloured, funky, steep-sided streets of the 'wrong' side of Montmatre.

Same city, different eyes.

The Changing of the Guard...

Make that the SIM Card....

[via Amsterdam to Paris]

Bye Bye Hamburg.

Don't you just hate it when...

...you forget you packed a banana in your bag.

Winter Noon

The sun is so low in the sky now that at noon I have to close the blinds in my office to be able to see my computer screen.

On Holy Ground

I think one of the things that has struck me most about our little North German jaunt are the Churches. And not just the number of them, which is already impressive. But because so many of them were destroyed (either in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry Cathedral, or because fires from bombing raids nearby overwhelmed them etc) and had to be rebuilt and restored, the Church now have an exceptionally unique mix of old crafts and new ideas.

For example, the alter in many of the Churches can now be found in the centre of the Church. Some of the stained glass windows are modern versions, new organs hang in mid-air, and original pews have been fitted with leather cushions. At the same time, the stonework and woodwork is original and the original drawings, paintings, tiles and designs have been reworked or restored. 

It all lends itself to the sense that you are somewhere honoured, sacred and revered, but also new, original and exciting.

Bremen

Turn left out of Hamburg instead of right and you eventually hit Bremen, a city which has placed an important role in North Germany historically.

We went to the fair.

I mean, it was another stunning day, the fair is only there 17 days a year, and it had glühwein.

 We did of course stretch our horizons beyond the fair, with the aid of the big wheel of course.

Lübeck

Think north Germany, then go up a bit further, turn right, and find yourself in Lübeck on the Baltic coast. Well, why not. It's a Friday.

Lübeck is stuffed full of all those red brick buildings that so characterise the north of Germany as well as displaying what I have come to term 'North Sea Architecture'. To me this means tall and thin, brightly coloured houses built along waterfronts - imagine Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm. Anywhere except the British Isles part of the North Sea pretty much. Even UNESCO recognises the beauty of Lübeck's old town and has named it a World Heritage Site. Lübeck was for several centuries capital of the Hanseatic League (a medieval trade organisation), and along with Venice, Rome, Florence and Pisa, was one of the main trading centres.

The second world war was not kind to Lübeck and much of what remains has been restored beautifully, although many of the Churches have a small section depicting 'before', 'after' and 'post-restoration' shots. We had a beautiful sunny if baltic (boom boom) day there.

The train station when you arrive from Hamburg (about 1 hour away):

 The city gate:

 Along the canal:

 Ducks equally enjoying the weather:

 The clocks which fell the night the Church was bombed, and remain broken as a symbol:

 After bombing and before restoration:

 Brand new organ, suspended in the air:

Ground Control to Major Tom

Check out this link. It shows you where KLM planes are in the world and updates every 30 seconds or so. If you hover over each plane it tells you the flight number and route so that you can follow each plane. When you zoom in you can get an idea of what's happening in Europe and how the planes move around the skies as well as the air corridors to the US and other places. It's incredibly interesting and distracting from work ;-).

Mama in HH!

Cuxhaven

I met the German MEP Frau Langenhagen when I worked for a Scottish MEP in Brussels 10 years ago. Frau Langenhagen also sat on the Fisheries Committee but, unfortunately, she was not reelected in 2004. Nevertheless, when I found out about the German Academic Scholarship opportunity, Frau Langenhagen contacted the von Thünen Institut on my behalf and helped secure my place here. She also invited me to Cuxhaven on the north coast of Germany and arranged two visits to processing plants and another four interviews.

Visiting a processing plant always means getting to wear the cool stuff:

And stay in cool places. This is the Cuxhaven marina from my hotel window (note typical north German climate).

Frau Langenhagen still dabbles somewhat in politics and attended a political meeting on the evening that I was there, so I decided to go along too. The German transport minister was addressing the fisheries association on issues to do with transport links, which is particularly important for the distribution of fish landed in Cuxhaven. About 200 men attended, all in suits, and about 10 blonde, of-a-certain-age females, and me. I actually quite enjoyed it and was introduced around a bit, and was particularly delighted by the local beer which seems to be present at every public event (in polite quantities) in Germany.

The day trip today also included a visit to where the Elbe River (Hamburg lies 150 km downstream) meets the angry North Sea amidst ear-numbing winds and the salty squawks of the seagulls. It's just made for painting.

I had an interview with the Chief Veterinarian in Cuxhaven who told me all sorts of interesting quality issues associated with fishy imports, as well as showing me his herd of prize-winning coos. Not that they have much to do with fish but he was proud of them and I was happy to take a break from wearing hair nets and wellies.

They also me further round the coast to see the Kutter vessels. These little vessels fish in the North Sea but not too far out as they are just teeny. They catch very small North Sea shrimp with the nets that you can see suspended above the boat. They can only slip in and out of the marshy harbours at high tides.

High tide here really does mean 'high', with the water overlapping the pontoon as seen below. The whole area lies around 2m below sea-level (like Holland) and is protected by dykes.

Here a vessel is unloading its cargo of shrimp. What is unusual about this boat is that the shrimp are already cooked and therefore the vessel is officially a 'factory trawler' in EU-speak. This is actually quite funny because the true factory trawlers are the ones that go for months on end out on to the high seas and do all the processing, packing and freezing on board. Anyway, these little cutters end up bracketed in the boat (ahem) as the big guys, which pretty much sums up the main problems with EU policies that attempt to generalise the sector.

Fishing is a bit of a dying industry and so Niedersachsen (the region) is diversifying its economy into bioenergy. Wind is one thing they can certainly produce a lot of.