Hello Autumn!

Last week it seemed that spring was back in Germany although the color of autumn had already arrived. Today the sun was there only in the morning and it has been slightly cooler. Now the sky is grey and it might rain. Again the "proper" autumn seems back in Berlin.

The leaves are changing colors which is very beautiful and many people used the Sunday for a walk. I don't know but somehow I like autumn. I find the season very pretty even with rainy days and cloudy and grey times. A walk in the park smelling autumn and seeing the richness of mother nature makes me feel good. And then to come home and drink a nice cup of chai. That's a perfect autumn day.

Here my impressions of our Sunday autumn walk.:

Hamburg is always worth a journey

Hamburg is  beautiful city and always worthwhile. It's a great place and we love to visit the city. We didn't expect sunshine, so the grey sky was no surprise but luckily it was still quite warm.



We walked from the Bahnhof to Jungfernstieg. It is not far and you can also go by public transport, e.g. one U-Bahn station. But we had a look at some shops.

Here is the Hamburg station:

Here the Hamburg Rathhaus:

 

 After passing the shopping malls and stores we chilled out at Jungfernstieg and enjoyed a cup of coffee, and hot chocolate for the boys.

 Later we went to Landungsbruecken to take a "Hafenrundfahrt" though Hamburg harbor. Really enjoyed it. It was quite interesting We saw many ships, container ships, Speicherstadt, Marine Museum, Hafen City, Elbphilharmonie still in progress.
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Trip to Serengeti Park - Lueneburger Heide -

Wow, time goes fast. It's been a long time since my last blog post .... I don't know where the time has gone. Anyhow, here some pictures of our recent trip to the Serengeti Park. It's located in Hodenhagen near Soltau. Check out their website. You can download a free ticket. If you're interested you can also book a lodge in the Serengeti Resort. We've spent a day in the park. Entering with our own car (you can also take the bus). It's just such a fun park. We've never seen the animals closer than that. The giraffes lick the windows or put their heads through. The lions and tigers are fenced off and you have to keep the windows closed. Of course shouldn't get out of the car. There is an area to get out to strike the goats. We took 2 hours to drive through. I guess in summer it might be quite crowded and take more time.
Then we visited the Serengeti Freizeitwelt. There is a fun ferry wheel, small roller coaster (Wilde Maus), twister, chairoplane, Top Twin and many more for smaller kids. We also visited the Monkeys (Affenwelt) where you can walk through various monkey areas and be very close.

Here some pictures of the adventures.

Enfield in Berlin

Just yesterday I saw this Enfield on the streets of Berlin. It reminds me so much of India... and I would love to ride it on the bumpy roads. I haven't riden an Enfield before (only a modern motorbike) but would love to. I suppose it can't be so difficult. The bike is not mass produced and "has a soul". 

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Also, I remember the "kiss of the motorbike" which almost everybody gets at one point. In India nobody  wears heavy leather clothes just ordinary clothes when riding the motorbike. Then it happens, your calf touches the exhaust pipe and "ouch!" there is the "kiss".

The Enfield is a very fascinating motorbike and the sounds so very Indian. Since a few years one can also buy the Royal Enfield here in Germany. A company imports them.

But I think it's only half the fun to ride it on the nice roads here.

The info below is from this website:
http://royalenfield.com/aboutus/overview/

THE INDIA CONNECTION

Royal Enfield motorcycles were being sold in India ever since 1949. In 1955, the Indian government started looking for a suitable motorcycle for its police forces and the army for patrolling duties on the country's border. The Bullet 350 was chosen as the most suitable bike for the job. The Indian government ordered 800 of these 350 cc motorcycles, an enormous order for that time. Thus In 1955, the Redditch Company partnered with Madras Motors in India to form what was called 'Enfield India' to assemble these 350 cc Bullet motorcycle under licence in erstwhile madras (Now called Chennai). As per their agreement Madras Motors owned the majority (over 50%) of shares in the company. In 1957 tooling equipment was also sold to Enfield India so that they could manufacture components and start full-fledged production. The Enfield Bullet dominated the Indian highways and with each passing year its popularity kept rising.

Tomatoes on my balcony

This year I took on the adventure of planting tomatoes on my balcony. I bought a box with six plants. Two of them I planted in a bigger pot and the other four in a flower box (Blumenkasten). The ones in the pot really grew tall and slowly some tomatoes started growing, and grew bigger.

Unfortunately because of windy weather the pot fell and with it some tomatoes. :-(
 However some fruits survived and grew nicely. I already harvested them and they tasted very good in my salad. And now there are more tomatoes growing again ...

French Food

The best thing of travelling through France, is the food. The French just know how to cook. We really were in food heaven. At the end of a sightseeing day, we ate very well. Here some examples of our food discoveries:

salmon on vegetables

Choucroute... a very big portion of Sauerkraut with different meat and sausage on top

Choucroute is a specialty of the Alsace and a dish adapted from the German Sauerkraut and Eisbein. We also saw variations like choucroute au poison (on fish) and was also available in glasses.

And of course a dream desert .... amazing  chocolate cake a la maison with ice-cream.

 The dessert buffet at the hotel.

A good French breakfast, coffe and croissants. 

 Gugelhupf is famous for the Alsace.

 A good wine is a must.

 Escargots -  snails in garlic sauce

 Fish, sander in delicious sauce and with noodles

 Creme brulee

 A morning in the shopping market: We were amazed at the variety of  fish, sushi, cakes, pastry, cheese, bacon, salami, meat of course wine ...

The only problem with French food seems that it's rich and you have to take care not to eat too much :-)