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.