München (15-16 Feb 2009)

Last visit to TUM, marred by numerous trains delays and poor weather.

Fetched by Kahai at the Hbf, and spent the evening with Serina & Vin at KFC & MacDonald's.

Monday morning went by slowly, waking up early to the tooting of the trains, went downstairs for breakfast & went back to watch ZDF TV till 11am. Then went to Marienplatz to my favorite choco-shop Dallmayr for 2 cakes(Schololaden & Obstkuchen) and a bag of cheeze pastries & some nutty chocolates...., then went to Nordsee for a hot Seelach lunch.

Took U3 to BMW Welt, since the museum was closed on Montag. Ok place, filled with many nice cars, and a eco-friendlier V6 BMW that my big boss drives. Then went to OEZ for ice-cream and to kill more time b4 heading off to Garching.

Left late from TUM, so had to take grab dinner at the Hbf & take a longer connecting train home(4 h bleh!). Was skeptical when I reached this ulu station to transfer to an S-bahn....the snow was pouring like mad there...and it made me more furious when the S-bahn turned up late, and I reached home even later, coz the train stopped at MA for 30 min. LU was soaked with rain when I reached the Hbf.

Guess when the weather sucks, DB cannot cope.

Anyway, gonna say goodbye to Deutschland soon. Will go Stuttgart this wk ba, to complete the 4 car-museums tour.

Might cry next Wed/Fri (somebody pls pass me some Tempo!)

Sunday, Basking in Winter Sun (8 Feb 2009)

I have grown to appreciate Sundays in Deutschland, no noise from cars, trams and postmen, no need to rush to work or shopping, and even the traffic lights are taking a day off ...
just the quietness to sleep in till late morning...... and remembering to wake up before 11am to go to the bakery for my food supplies for the day.

In summer, people spend their time in the woods and swimming pools on Sundays,
In winter, people spend their time in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot tea.

But in sg, why must everyone go out & make so much traffic/people jams and noise on Sundays?

Flomborn (3 Feb 2009)

Visit to Weingut Bernhard-Räder, my wein family in Germany to taste the wein I have helped to make. The weissweins were very cold and tangy, but the rotweins were still, ah, fermenting and not ready yet.

A pity that I could not bring home the weins to share with my family in sg, coz bottling only starts in end March......

If anyone is interested in 'my' homemade weins:

Familie Bernhard-Räder
Deutschland 55234 Flomborn
Telefon: +49-6735 960085

Suddenly realized my alkoholic tolerence have maintained fairly good even I have not been drinking that much lately, no headaches and can still wake up sober at 5am the next morning to report to work, ah......

PS: forgot to take fotos with Philip, coz I was too happily enjoying the weins.

Körperwelten im Heidelberg (1 Feb 2009)

Gunther von Hagens' Körperwelten exhibition: Der Zyklus des Lebens (The cycle of life), Real men, women and foetus in Plastination. Went with Mun & her London freundin, Lyna.

It was an eyeopening experience, to be able to witness a world class exhibition on well, preserved bodies and body parts. Too bad no cameras were allowed inside the exhibition hall, so ja, got the souvenior book to remind myself of how complicated my body is, and of course, got to start taking very good care of it from tomorrow......

Ling's goodbye (30 Jan 2009)

SL's farewell party in the only Karaoke lounge in Ludwigshafen. Well, a proper K-box gathering in Sg is in the pipeline......

TUM, München (22-23 Jan 2009)

Visit to TUM for the 2nd time.

Too bad the day was rainy and cold, so didnt stop over at Marienplatz to Alois Dalllmayr. Disappointment :(

My 1st time taking the 1st Class ICE. The return train was nicer, with free treats: pretzel, Ferrero Rondnoir and biscuit. But the coffee costed me 2.90€. So throughout the 3h trip, my teeth was constantly active! Though the in-seat TV was nothing like Krisworld, it only had 2 channels, both was the Deutschebahn homeshopping, lol! They ought to learn from SIA.

Kaiserslautern Fritz Walter Stadion (19 Jan 2009)

1. FC Kaiserslautern vs Bayern München (0:2)
There was close to 40, 000 people (abt 20,000 in the Fan Zone)...wow!!!!!!

Despite it being cold and windy, the fan crowd did not falter.

Luckily I ate dinner and bought my own Pringles and Rittersport, coz the food stalls did not accept cash, only fan-cards......bleh.

It was a fun night seeing the huge FCK fans cheering for their team throughout the 2 hrs!
Of course, me sitting at the 3 row and very close to the field allowed me to see the players. The only sad thing is that the fotos didnt turn out right, coz the players were always moving and the lightings were very strong. I think I wanna go for a real Bundesliga Match......(Hoffenheim perhaps)

Freiburg & Triberg (17 Jan 2009)

1st Hiking Trip in Winter!!!
Went to the most Sunny city in Deutschland, Freiburg (Breisgau). I guess the most famous sights are the Bächle (& luckily I never fell into one of those drains else I might not be able to leave this city......)
Then, hiked up the Schlossberg to the 2 towers there, one is a modern one, and the other one is a hmm, watchtower? The view up there was superb, could see the whole city and of course, the Schwalzwald. The manmade watchtower was taller, and was located at 431m. Gosh, I was totally exhausted when I reached the Schlossbergturm. The metal watch tower was another 50m, it was pretty small & narrow. I had no jelly legs this time, maybe coz I was too tired to be bothered by it. But then, when I was at the very top, the metal support was shaking coz of the strong winds...I couldnt be bothered and sat there on the steps, enjoying the cold air & the nice surroundings.....

I think I have a little tan now...haha!
Oh, but hiking in winter is rather dangerous. The icy ground was so slippery that I had to hang on to the rocks and handrails all the time. Even the dog who walked in front of me (he had 4legs ja!) had difficulty keeping his balance.

TRIBERG

After lunch, I went to Triberg which is IN Schwalzwald. Here the Cuckoo clocks are the world famous ones, very pretty and nice, but damm expensive. The real ones work on weights and doesnt need any batteries, and the Bird comes out every 1/2h and will turn round every hr. I couldnt buy one bcoz I am sort of broke now....:(

Then, went to the tallest Wasserfall, but that place was closed bcoz of snow, so I could only walk to the bottom of the waterfall.
After that, went for foodhunt, for wat else except a slice of Schwalzwälder Kirschtorte, all the restaurants says das Original, so much for publicity. I went into one that was not deserted (this is a small town ja, so there was not many people on the streets.) The cake was like soaked in Liquor and was very moist and delicious, and of course, the cherries were there, inside the cake.

To Sg bakers: Stop putting blueberry jam inside the Blackforest cake, be a bit more Pro can or not?

Then I took the ICE back to Mannheim for dinner. It was a tiring but nice trip, and the weather was perfect for a little walk. But how many more of such sunny and warm days till 27Feb?

Oh, and Bayern Munich here I come......