Photo Album

11 Juni 03 bis 28 Juni 03

Well here is the latest dump.

England

In early June I packed my bags and headed again over to the UK.

Firstly I participated in the launch of the Auto-Guide (BEELINE on a CAT) at one of the biggest field days in England. Good fun, and great to see what everyone else is up to in the industry.

After the field day I had the most relaxing drive, believe it or not into central London. I didn't get lost, and was never stuck in a jam. Very strange. I caught up with Nik and Dobsie for a few beers at the local ship in. It was a beautiful sunny night so we went to one of the local bars on the Thames and had a few local brews. Next step was a very dodgy Chinese restaurant, but for London the prices were very good:) Quite good food, although I don't think it mattered so much after the beers.

After a little more work on Friday with one of our AGCO customers, I headed up to "Shrewsbury in Shropshire" to catch up with Deb. After a dream run out of London that morning, I should of expected that I expect the worst. It took around 4 hours to conduct what was meant to be just over 2 1/2 drive. Fortunately the extra hour an a half was taken at an average speed of around 5mph which made it far less relaxing!!! Driving a manual rental car in such traffic can result in some very interesting vehicle behavior which had the benefit of releasing stress for me, and provided something to amuse the other drivers. I can't believe how clogged the roads can get in this country. It is probably a ploy by the government so people think the country is bigger by making it so slow to travel around.

Finally made it to Shropshire. Like Deb said it is quite picturesque, and there is a lot of Tudor buildings. The one way road system there was a little crazy, but using some techniques I had learned in London, no problems finding my way around:) I picked up Deb from town, we checked into a quaint little B&B at an old station house, and went for dinner at one of the local pubs. We then hit PGL for a big night, well we tried. After dealing with Nik the night before and a busy week of work I crashed pretty quickly. I got to see Deb's new home and met some of the great folks she works with at the local on site bar "the loose moose"(I think that is what is called). Interesting place overall, sort of like a cross between school camp, back packing and uni residence.

We hit the town the following morning and, yep we saw some more Tudor buildings, and had a bit of a walk around, and laid down and enjoyed some of that beautiful English sunshine!

Wales

We jumped in the car, and headed over to Wales. Wales is not so far from Shrewsbury, and headed to a placed called Llangolan. On the way in to town we found a you beaut hotel for 35 quid, checked in and went into town and grabbed some lunch and sat down at the river. It is a very picturesque little town.

We did a little more touring around the area on the next day and headed up one of the local mountains where we could up with a true 'Welsh' resident:) Yes, welsh sheep have tails!

After a hard few hours of again enjoying the sun, Deb had been having a "Welsh afternoon tea" craving since she saw a sign for one the previous day. After some searching, we managed to track down a place that sold it. After speaking to some Welsh folks the day before, Deb was very skeptical of its authenticity as there we no pancakes provided. We had scones, and cream which I was pretty happy with.

After our little bit of nourishment we dropped into the local Abbey. It is one very old church, that old it now has a very open air feel to it. It was closed, so we jumped the fence and had a look around.

After our tour around I jumped the fence, whereas Deb after her religious enlightenment thought it was best to walk through it. Not quite graceful, but it worked:)

Next stop the Aqueduct. Basically this is a big bridge that extends a canal across a deep valley.

On the way there we bumped into a retired couple who had one of the canal boats. They had sold their house and had been living out of it for the last year. The boat is very long and narrow, and even had a Jacuzzi! Supposedly there are 100s of miles of canals around the UK which they can travel. It is even possible to take it across the channel so they could travel around France or Holland. Very cool:)

Not far from the Aqueduct, there was a pretty little stream. Very wooded, with a nice old bridge near by. After a few issues with the camera, and about 20 photos we had a photo that was OK:)

Next stop Shrewsbury, and on the way back we stopped at a very nice pub. We shared a lovely 3 course meal and a Pizza, as the sun went down. We are still not use to how long the days are, we were a little surprised how empty the restaurant was when we finished.

After heading back to PGL, and staying the night there, I jumped on a plane (after traveling through Grid lock at 7:00am in the morning) and headed back home. We had a lovely weekend, and like always time flied. There are certainly some beautiful parts of England, outside of the big cities. I am sure I have missed out a lot here, but I am sure that Deb will fill in the gaps:)

A pretty night

Here are a few shots from one of the evenings recently.

The longest day of the year

Saturday June 21, the longest day of the Year. At 3pm I packed my bags ready to climb a mountain, via cable car:) When I got there I found that the cable car was closed, and more recently found out they had a break down and had to rescue everyone via helicopter:) that would of been fun! I asked the cashier how long it takes to walk up, and she said 2 1/2 hours. So I thought what the hell, a little walk will do me some good.

3:30pm - Puffing heavily, thinking maybe this is not the best idea, but can't turn back!

4:00pm - Feel blisters coming up on my heels. Hmm not such a good idea to where new shoes on such a trip.

4:30 pm the views are getting quite nice. Above is a photo showing the town I live in. People warn me that it gets steeper. How can that be possible?

5:15pm after a very steep set of paths, and eventually several hundred stairs I make it up the top. They have a restaurant and bar up there which is very nice, so I had a huge cold Lemonade which was a great refresher. The views were incredible. In the end I had climbed just under 1000m in altitude. I think the cable car would of been easier though.

6:00pm Pretty happy with myself for getting up there, now getting down was the next problem. Took one of the less steep back paths down, through the back of the mountain range.

6:30pm Beautiful scenery, although my speed was very slow. My knees had decided to cease up along with my hamstrings and my heels weren't doing so well with the blisters:)

9:00pm totally buggered. Finally make it to Marienbruch, the bridge near Neuschwanstein Castle. I met up with some friendly Hong Kong tourists, a bigger photographic nut than myself from France and an American living in the area who tells me about some great language schools near by. I will have to come here more often on Saturday nights, it is the place to meet and greet:) Oh yeah, and the sunset was very nice!

9:30pm After posing in a photo for my new Hong Kong friends Dustin and Keith, I took them down to see the waterfalls. By this stage my knees were totally ceased. Keith helped me get down the hill a little until I found that walking backwards was OK. I must of looked like a complete nut. Walking down steps was only possible walking crab style, sideways!

10:30pm I said goodbye to my Keith and Dustin, and started walking along the flat track which is about 1.5km taking me to my bike. On the way I saw fire flies. It had just become dark enough to see them. Very cool, look like flying ants with green arses that glow in the dark. They even turn the light off if you chase them. Very hard to photograph though, as you will see (look for the faint green dots).

The last half hour was the slowest I have walked in year, due to "kaput" knees, heels and hamstrings. It is very hard to walk without them:) Good chance though to take in the twilight of the longest day of the year:)

11pm Very little light left, but managed to ride home safely.

I have only just recovered and can walk normally, but it was worth it. I am sure it will be easier next time:)

Fendt Day

Yesterday, I headed down to "Fendt Day" which was a party for all 1800 Fendt employees. They set up a huge Beer tent, and guess what everyone drunk a lot of beer. Good to finally catch up with them outside of the office. They are a good fun bunch of people, and I met a heap of new people from Fendt which I hadn't had a chance to meet earlier.

After the Fendt Day, some of the folks I had met invited me to one of the local bars to have some dinner and more beer. Everyone was in a little shock over my age, as in Germany at 25 most people have just started the practical part of their study. So most people I was with were at least a couple of years older than me. A lot of people knew of me and that I had gone to Rock Im Park. It seemed very exciting for them that I would do that. Bizarre what rumors can float around the office, especially when you can't understand a word of them.

Next stop was "Seefest". Basically a big gathering on one of the local lakes, with Beer tents (of course) a few bands. Again met a few more people from Fendt and from the area. There was a lot of interest in Australia, and I even had a good chance to use my bad German. I managed to get some invites to see some of the local sites. It was a great fun night. The Germans are a lot of fun after a few of their small (500ml) glasses of beer!