Month: June 2008

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Burgenstraße and Odenwald

Driving back home to Darmstadt on Sunday, I had to stop in order to check the nuts in the wheels (I lately managed to change from winter to summer tires 😉 ). At the restarea a biker from Hamburg asked me about nice sidestreet routes in the area so I told him about the Bergstraße. Just after this talk I realised that I really was not in a hurry and that there was no need to take the big highways. I left the Autobahn near Heilbronn and followed the Neckar river up north along parts of a route called Burgenstraße. At the Burg Hornberg near Haßmersheim I had a nice lunchbreak with a marvelous view over the Neckar-valley. Afterwards I went on a short trip through the remains of the castle. The climb up some rather old wooden stairs into the keep was quite adventurous.

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Diploma, at last!

The day before my birthday, there was the official handover of our diploma documents. So I left work a bit earlier that Friday and headed down to Stuttgart. After some speaches, during which Martin and I took the small quadrocopter out for a flight, all the former students gathered at the front of one of the auditoriums and got their documents handed over.  Afterwards there was a small barbecue party in front of one of the institutes.
Once this sort of official part was over, people started moving into the city to celebrate, which for me coincided with my 28th birthday as well. As many people came to Stuttgart for this event we were quite large group and partied at various locations (Palast, Schocken, Oblomow, etc.).

The next afternoon, Martin and I met at the beergarden in Leinfelden. After a laid back late brunch we went to Vaihing to get drinks for the party at Flowrider’s garden that night. At the mall we stumbled into a store selling nonsense gadgets like Hawaii flower garlands and soap bubble toys, of course we couldn’t resist and bought a bunch of the garlands and bubble toys for the party.
As things already got late, we drove straight to Flowrider’s party in the fields behind Vaihingen. The usual crowd barbecued and partied all night, getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes from the nearby pond.


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Derby, UK

This time my job brought me to Derby, a quite sweet town in England about 45mins from Birmingham. As it would be quite hard to get from the airport in Birmingham to Derby and then around town by public transport only, I reserved a rental car. My luck started at the airport, when the class of car I had reserved was not available and I got a car about 2 or 3 classes better for the same price :-)! Even though I drove on the other side of the road before (in NZ) I was a bit sceptical about it but it all worked really well.
After all the meetings and work done during the day, the local colleagues and I went out in Derby, enjoying the local pub culture.
my upgraded rental carthe pub and the church

Another big luck was the beautiful weather I had for the whole stay, just as I arrived at the airport on my way back home, it started raining again.

Cheers
Tim

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Bilbao, Spain

I was planning a trip to Bilbao, Spain, for the project and just a few days ahead it turned out that my father would be in the same region at the same time, so we adapted our plans and spent a weekend in that very beautiful city. Of course we visited the Guggenheim Museum appreciated the very diverse architechture and enjoyed the local Tapas.

Bilbao Airport:
Airport BilbaoAirport Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum:
My Dad and me in front of the Guggenheim MuseumThe other side of the Guggenheim

The City:
A very interesting bridge across the River.Some narrow street in the old town.