Draconfells

DraconFells or Dragon's Rock is on a high hill overlooking the Rhine just outside Bonn. There are ruins of an old castle and if my memory is right, a mythic German hero supposedly killed a dragon up here. It was a big attraction even back in the early 19th century, the poet Lord Byron lived in a cottage on the hill, or so it's said.
Now thousands of people visit it on weekends, I'm not sure why it's so popular, although the view from the top is spectacular. Perhaps the legend is a big one in German culture.










Looking towards Bonn in the near distance and then Cologne is farther on, it can't be seen in this photo, but it can be seen on a clear day from the hilltop
There are various kitschy tourist attractions on the walk up the hill including these old early 60s (i think) era fun machines. One of them had photos of women in short dresses and bathing suits that you view through binoculars.. shocking!! .. and this one had something to do with your loving abilities, Cheryl, from work, came out relatively hot.... I however was rated as Stumperhaft.. or clumsy.

Bridge at Remagen

I saw the war movie, The Bridge at Remagen, when I was a kid and it really stuck in my head although I couldn't remember why. But after I got to Bonn and saw that Remagen was only 20 kilometres up the Rhine river I rode my bike ride there one Sunday to look at the ruins.
I also rented the movie after seeing it in a video store... it was made in 1968 and so was anti-war and made the point that were good and bad people on both sides.. and it was pretty well made... it was filmed near Prague, but was held up when the Russians invaded that year.




The bridge towers are still standing and on the Remagen side they've been converted to a museum. It's basically a community museum and kind of amateurish, but well done with lots of artifacts from the period. It's also dedicated to peace in a non-cheesy sort of way, the people that made it lived through the war, saw a good part of their town destroyed by bombing, and so know first hand what it's about.

Beautiful, Beautiful Barcelona

Barcelona is an amazing place, I've never been anywhere like it. It's so full of life, which means you don't get much sleep because there's always noise, but still it's exhilarating in a way to be there. This is the Catalonia art museum. There are lots of beautiful buildings, especially in the medieval old city... unfortunately I once again forgot to bring the charger for my camera and I was only able to take a few pics before the battery died.
Plaza Espagne... which I guess literally is the Spain Plaza, but that sounds more like a mall at home, so I prefer the Spanish version.
The beach on the Barcelona waterfront, the tourist office said there are much better beaches out of town a ways, but this was okay, there was sand and there was sun and there was water... and I don't think taking photos here is totally cool because there are lots of topless women on the beach... the nude beach was just on the other side of me in the other direction.
There was a vending machine with books in it in one of the subway stations. I've never seen that before. At the baseball championships I was covering, they even played opera sometimes between innings, I don't if people here even separate high and low brow culture the way we do at home where people seem to like one or the other, but not both.

This is the University Plaza, about a half block from where I was staying. People spend a lot of time outdoors in Barcelona. There's a huge section in the old city full of cafes and bars and on the weekend nights it's full of thousands of people partying with various types of live music happening in different squares.

Beisbol in Barcelona

I got to cover the European Baseball Championships in Barcelona in mid-September.. what a blast. The ballpark was on Mont Juic, next to the 1992 Olympic Stadium.
The German dugout at the start of what turned out to be an 11-3 thrashing at the hands of the Spanish... and ruined Germany's chances of getting a medal and qualifying for the Olympics.
These were the German fans at the game against Spain.. despite being beaten so badly that night, most of the fans were still in a good mood.. perhaps the sunshine and cold beer helped with that.. and as one of the Germans told me.. this is still Barcelona and it's a great city to be in.
The Dutch won the gold medal after going through the tournament undefeated. The coach got the customary cooler of ice water on his head while being interviewd by a TV crew from the Netherlands.
The Dutch players looked like they were ready more for a nap after their final game, than a party. They had to play until almost midnight the night before in an 11 inning game against Spain and then be back at the park in the morning for the final game against Great Britain. The coach was pissed and said somebody should be fired for the scheduling.

Hockey Season Under Way!!!

Germany's pro hockey season opened Thursday night with a game between the Cologne Sharks and the Hamburg Freezers

I was doing a story about it for work so I got to go on a press pass... which was great because it was the best seat I've ever had at a hockey game. It was a fun game, I got quite excited at times, which I now realize is not something you're supposed to do when you're sitting in the press section.
They have a really nice arena in Cologne.


German hockey is supposed to be the most physical of the European leagues, and there was certainly digging for the puck, but they're a lot easier on the body checks, I heard really hard checks are sometimes penalized, it was fast though, with lots of passes and shots on net... Cologne won 6-3..... go Cologne.
I bought a Sharks jersey which I can't wait to show off at ball hockey back home.
At the end of a game the Sharks sit in a circle on the ice.. some bring their own kids out with them, while the fans chant something at them, I couldn't understand what it was... and then they're supposed to stand up and dance a little jig on the ice which only a few did, but it was pretty funny to see.
There were 17,000 fans at this game which I thought was pretty amazing since hockey gets very little media coverage here... it's soccer uber alles here as in most of Europe.

There was a press conference with the coaches afterwards which was uneventful, except for some cranky photographer, and aren't they all (except mike thomas), who was pissed at me because I was standing too close to where his cameras were sitting on the floor, and he was pissing everybody else by making loud noises with his laptop... he wouldn't have known I was a foreigner, and he muttered something presumably very nasty in my ear when he left, but it was all German to me.... sticks and stones dude, sticks and stones.

Stag and Hen party capital of Germany

Every Saturday afternoon in Cologne, there are dozens of gangs of men and women out on the streets partying... I think they are usually wedding stags and hen parties, but maybe also some work and team beer ups as well.

Usually the brides and grooms to be are dressed up in a funny costume, and their friends wear matching shirts, sometimes they'll have to wear a sign, like 'I never have to use a condom again' and stuff like that... and I think they sometimes are given a mission, like asking strangers for kisses.



Once I, and a train car full of people, were caught in the perfect storm of these parties, when two groups, one female, one male, got on the same train car and sang drunkenly and loudly together for about a half hour.


Then there's the beer bike.. it's a bar that's powered by pedals, and groups of guys ride it around downtown, singing, hooting at girls and so forth.. I've never seen any women riding on it.. go figure.

Bike Ride

Deb and I went on a three hour bike tour with a guy named Nils, that's him on the left. We were riding through the cemetery where Hans Christian Andersen is buried. The ground cover was so green and the tree cover was so thick the air itself seemed green. It was beautiful and the tour was great. Nils has lots of stories about Copenhagen and opinions about the current state of Denmark and was happy to share them.
For instance, the Little Mermaid is a huge draw and I was thrilled to see it, Nils is less enthusiastic.
This is an old fort that still contains military offices. There wasn't much security. At one time moats and berms were built around Copenhagen to keep out the Swedes... and who would want those hockey wannabes around, but now the old defenses have been converted into parks so there's a ring of 'green' around the city.
The free city of Christiana in the middle of Copenhagen. It's the site of an abandoned army base taken over by 'hippies' in the early 70s and now the home to the third generation of the original inhabitants, who wanted to set up a Utopian community. About 1000 people live on 85 acres and while it's a huge tourist draw, the residents strictly control who can actually live there. I kind of expected a big mess, but except for a dodgy part where pot is sold, it was neat and clean and Utopian looking. The government really wants to close it down, but Nils says the last time they tried there were big riots and every anarchist in Europe was heading to Copenhagen to join the fight so the government backed off.

Hello Denmark

Took the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen. There was low cloud and rain during the short ferry trip from Germany to Denmark and I thought, scheiße, this won't be good for sightseeing, but actually as the train got closer to Copenhagen the skies cleared and everything turned out great.
The Queen's palace in Copehagen. No need for high fences and concrete barriers here I guess. Denmark sort of reminds me of Canada. Why would someone bother going there to make trouble. There's always somewhere better, closer.
The stock exchange, I think it was built around 1600 and maybe the first one anywhere. There are lots of well maintained old buildings here and the national museum is excellent, full of treaures from around the world, and we went to a separate part of a national museum to see an exhibit on Danish resistance during the Second World War. It was well done. The Viking exhibit was closed because of renovations.. maybe they're embarrassed Danes once made that much trouble, I kind of doubt it though.

An old church and a nice fountain in a park. We were on bikes at this point and I don't think the other tourists liked us whizzing through them, the Dad on the left of the photo gave me the glare.

On the road to Denmark

Went up to Copenhagen for the weekend to see my friend Deb and her family. The first leg from Cologne to Hamburg was through a ride service on the internet. Me and another guy shared the front seat of a delivery van with the driver. That's Mehmet the driver, on the left, and Karsten the passenger on right. We talked for almost all of the six hour trip so it was fun.
We had to stop in Bochum to pick up some newspapers Mehmet was taking to Hamburg, but the guys bringing him to the meeting point were about 45 minutes late so we had lots of time waste there.

Mehmet said we could go to a snack stand that was there (above), or there was a video place next door, above, where we could watch pornies (in private presumably). Karsten and I went for a walk instead and then came back for a beer. Because the guys bringing the papers were late, Mehmet had to boot it to make his deadline into Hamburg... he did with about a minute to spare.
The Reeperbahn in Hamburg. Lots of sex shops, strip joints and of course hookers in the evening. It's also a tourist attraction and part of the St Pauli neighbourhood so there's a real mix of people strolling around. I had dinner in a sidewalk cafe. This Russian guy and his buddy were sitting next to me and when he noticed my mobile phone was the same as his, he had a proposition... we would arm wrestle and if he won, I'd give him my mobile, buy dinner and give him some money for his "beetch." And if I won he would give me his mobile, buy dinner, and find me "a beetch." I declined.. but really, where was Sam Singh, Yukon Ladies Arm Wrestling Champion, when I needed him.


Went to this bar in the Reeperbahn in the evening. It was a Thursday and a lot quieter than I thought it would be. The bar had a nice neighbourhood pub feel and I drank lots of beer. The foosball table was getting lots of action. It was a warm night and between games the players would sit outside to cool off.

Cheap Shots

Just some signs that have caught my attention along the way.

Beer Fest.... yahoooooo...

When I heard the MC say, Deutschland's wunderbar cover band the QueenKings were the main act at the 12th annual Bonn beer fest, I knew it was going to be a fun evening... actually they weren't bad. I think for any German rock musician, the phrase HALLO BONN is the stuff of nightmares, I think it's considered somewhat of a middle class backwater.
There was a huge crowd at the beer festival. I was wondering if there could be as many as 100,000 and I saw in the paper this week, there were 100,000. A hundred thousand people drinking beer in a small space and I didn't see any fights or loud arguments...hmmmm. This discussion comes up here sometimes... why do the English and their colonial descendents... Canadians, Americans, Aussies... start fighting when they're drinking. Argue among yourselves.
One of the dozens of little kiosks on the grounds selling beer. I usually just drink kolsch, it's light and the beer that Cologne is known for... it's not considered 'real beer' by people from other parts of Germany.


Many pigs had to die to feed the beer fest crowd.

Alternate G-8

In early June I went up to Rostock for the Alternate G-8 about 20 kilometres from Heiligendam where the G-8 was being held. I had interviewed Siegfried, left, earlier in the month for another story, and he had invited me to come along to Rostock with him and his friends Hans and Birgit. They're in a group called Attac... an anti-globalization organization which is actually fairly mainstream.

We missed the riots by a couple of days and things had quieted down quite a bit when we got there. The workshops had started by then and everybody knows what a fun-killer workshops can be.

We did go out to where young people had blockaded the roads into Heiligendam. About 10,000 of them had marched through the police barricades the day before to set up the blockades, but it was more of a festival atmosphere by the second day. I was impressed by how idealistic a lot of the European young people are, they believe they can make the world a better place and actually try to make a difference... on the other hand there were some young Canadian American protesters on a train took one day..
They were rude and foul mouthed, especially the Canadians, I never thought I would see Canadians act that way overseas.

Strasse Fest

I was riding home from work last Saturday night when I heard reggae music and party noise pumping out of a side street.. the people who live there were having a Strasse Fest.. block party, so I stopped for a beer and took some pics... besides the beer and music there were jugglers.... grilled sausages of course and foosball... fußball.. pronounced foosball is the German word for football (soccer), so I have a theory the table game was invented in Germany, except here they call it... Kicka!!!.. (always in an exclamatory tone.)