Frankfurt airport once more

Another day at the airport, so I took photos again. It's nothing important, just aircrafts. The new and giant Airbus 380 has been seen here in action already, unfortunately not this time.
There is just the landing, unloading, loading and taking off as usual. This time I discovered that there are a lot of driving too. Not only the luggage transporters and the follow-me cars but the airplanes themselves have to drive across the airport area from the landing strip to the gate. It looked random but I'm sure the flight and ground controllers have a sophisticated system behind everything.
The second floor of Terminal 2 in Frankfurt is a nice place to spend some time waiting for the departure. There are some restaurants and a huge panorama window overlooking the apron area.
I had a papercup latte which reminded me of San Francisco (well, the size is more European compared to the American papercups).

Rain in may

This morning I learned from the radio news that the month may has had the heaviest rainfall in Berlin since the recording of meteorological data. And there is still one day left in May...
The pictures don't look scary but the rainstorm was serious. It hit me not far from home, just some hundred meters away. It was a hot day and suddenly the sky became dark. Within five minutes there was apocalypse...
I had to run for shelter and wait for half an hour. And when I finally got home I feeled like being dropped to the pool with clothes.
Well, the photos really don't look like that, you have to believe me :-)

Wolfsburg

Actually Wolfsburg is not a city but a huge plant with some houses for the workers in front of it (ok, maybe some residents disagree). The plant (and the city) had been initially built to produce a small and cheap car for the Germans. During the war it produced military cars and later it became the headquarter of the Volkswagen Group and home of the famous VW Beetle. These days they assemble the VW Golf and some others. As far as I remember they assemble here up to 4000 cars each day!
On the picture there is one of the power stations (which supply the city as well) and the entrance to the harbor. Far in the back there is the high building of the research department.
I can recommend a factory tour (I guess it's one of the biggest factories in the world) and a visit to the automobile museum.

Station series: Wolfsburg station

Wolfsburg station is rather small, or better very small, or better tiny compared to Berlin Hauptbahnhof or the other major stations. Surprisingly the fast InterCityExpress has a stop here. The business travellers from and to the Volkswagen car plant are seemingly a good reason.
The train station is located just in front the plant. Well, EVERYTHING in Wolfsburg is located just in front of the plant.
There is not much to tell about the Wolfsburg train station besides the amazing fact that some of the ICEs are passing the station without stop...in full speed of 200 kph and more. This is always a strange experience when one of these large trains passes with full speed (and noise) just 2 meters in front of you.

Peacock Island 3

There were not only peafowl on the island but a pair of long-haired horses as well. They are needed because there are no cars allowed on the island.
The island itself is beautiful, well-kept parks and nice lake views everywhere and there are also some nice old building which fit perfectly in this countryside.
The evening sun created a very nice mood during the extremly short ferry trip back.

Peacock Island 2

Ok, it's not a big surprise: there were peacocks on the island :-) Or better peafowl, as I just learned on Wikipedia: the term peacocks is incorrect because there are female animals, too, called the peahens. So let's be political correct :-)
Contrary to the humans, the male peafowl is the far more impressive sex (I guess that's incorrect to say, too :-).
Some of them were in an enclosure and some were free (don't know why). There was even a white one. He just got a visit from a free friend.
These birds were obviously used to human visitors. This peacock looked me deep in the eyes with one of his eyes.
And to be political correct here's a picture of a couple of peahens (hope these are peahens?). Of course such a handsome guy has not only one girlfriend but a full harem :-)

Peacock Island 1

I love boat trips. Even if they are only on a ferry boat. And even if it's one of the shortes ferry trips possible. Actually paying the ticket took more time than to cross the 50 meters water to the other bank.
It was the ferry to the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) in the south west of Berlin.
The sky was very cloudy so the pictures are not as colorful as they should be. However, it was a really nice summer day.

Station series: Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Yes, I have posted pictures of the Berliner Hauptbahnhof already. But since I took some more last week and to compare it to the crowded Hamburg station I thought it is worth a post.
It looks huge, actually these are only the lower levels (the new north-south railway).

Station series: Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

Continuing my collection of photos of German railroad stations: here is Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hamburg central station). It is a pretty busy place, I suppose it is already overloaded. Trains leave almost every minute and everybody is running around, hitting other travellers with the luggage and there are more than usual of these incomprehensible announcements which we hear at every station or airport :-)
It is really heavy crowded. One of the reasons could be the neighborhood of the station, nobody dares to leave it. On one side of it there is a shopping center but on the other side there is the probably worst red-light district in Germany. And it is far from obvious which exit leaves in which direction. I remember one day I had time left to the departure of the train and I had the idea of leaving the station and do some shopping. But I took the wrong exit. Suddenly I was surrounded by mean looking pimps and there was nothing to shop besides drugs or girls, it was like entering sin city. I was back in, in cold sweat, after a few minutes. Until today I'm happy that I got away with my life and all my belongings (ok, this is a very small exaggeration ;-)

Trip to Hamburg

Flying through the countryside at 228 kph is a great feeling. It is even better since the InterCityExpress does it almost silent compared to a car at that speed. It is not a bad place to be at that morning hour, watching the window, preparing the busy day...
Well, watching the window was more interesting as sort of meditation than actually as sightseeing. The only place along the rails I remember was Wittenberge which looked kind of dead (but is nevertheless mentioned in Wikipedia:-). The rest of the time there were only green fields and cattle. Maybe the train was too fast to spot interesting things because after only 96 minutes we reached Hamburg (about 300 kilometers).
I arrived in Hamburg as I had left it the last time and as I remember it from every single visit : in heavy rain. To tell the true: Hamburg and I are not the closest friends.
However, I was quite fascinated to discover a ship tied next to the building where I had my business meeting (looking down from the 10th floor). I have to admit that this is special. As I learned later (during a heavy traffic jam caused by this) it was the day of the 818th anniversary of the Hamburg harbour and a huge party was going on. Hmm, I guess the Hamburg residents are used to the rain, for me there would be no fun.

Garden party

Maybe it is because of the usually short summers that Germans are addicted to garden parties :-) Maybe childhood memories play a role, too. I don't care whichever reason is the right one, I love it.
And I love it much more with fresh-baked pie (this time with rhubarb)....scrumptious.

But some of the guest prefer herbage to pie....
...under the apple tree.

Night at the hotel

My hotel was remarkable green with many palm trees and bushes. So it was in strong contrast with the dead volcanic ground around. It was sort of an oasis...

The center of this oasis was a very large swimming pool area. It looked especially great at night because of the underwater illumination.

Fuerte sunset

Actually there is not much to see on this picture besides the sun.
Interesting to me is that the color of the evening sky is very similar to the color of the sand and stones on the ground, as if it reflects the surface...

Roads to nowhere

Some roads seem to lead to the infinity, as much as that is possible on an island :-)

I made this picture on Lobos Island, which is even several times smaller than Fuerteventura, just 6 square kilometers.

Airports: Fuerteventura

Continuing the airports series: here are two pictures of the airport in Puerto del Rosario which is the main airport of Fuerteventura.
It looks straight, simple, modern and without any extras. To me it's like an airport in the Middle East, mostly because it's located between the yellow desert and the blue sea. This is how I imagine an airport in Egypt for example...
And this is how the Boing 747 looked after the arrival in Berlin-Tegel airport (although I could easily say this is the airport of Singapore or Buenos Aires, they look all the same..).

I love boat trips...

...even if I look a bit silly after a couple of hours in the burning sun :-)

Clouds

The clouds in Fuerteventura are special sometimes. Then they stack in layers of different forms which looks interesting.

Un cortado por favor

I love Spanish coffee because it's small, strong and delicious. I prefer the version with some milk in it, called cortado. (It seems one can lookup virtually everything at Wikipedia :-)
There is a drawback: it's already empty after 3 minutes. So it's not the suitable drink to spend some time in a coffee shop and watch the street life...

Isla Fuerteventura

Here are the first pics of Fuerteventura. It consists mainly of volcanic rocks and is surrounded by the blue water of the Atlantic Ocean. This is a very typical sight.
There are some parts of Fuerteventura covered with nice white, fine-grained sand. Especially in the north-east there is much of it creating 20 kilometers of the finest beach.

Besides the beaches and dunes most of Fuerteventura looks like this.