Category Archives: Vehicles

Picture Of The Day: Taking Home The Groceries Via Bike

So what do you do if you live in a small town near Dresden in eastern Germany — Ortrand to be specific — and you either don’t have an automobile or you choose not to use it? How do you take your groceries home?

This man rode his bike past the pretty, pastel buildings after I watched him filling the cart up with plants from the garden shop and groceries from the greengrocer. No traffic stress, no petrol bills, a nice bit of exercise, and definitely a way to live more lightly on the planet!

Taking home the groceries via bike in Ortrand, Germany

Vroom-vroom!!! Berlin’s Luftwaffe Museum – Part 3

In an oft-told story about my childhood, I heard from my parents that I began flying as a passenger in our small single-engine airplane when I was a mere 6 weeks old. And yes, I threw up whilst in flight. Ah well — a lifetime of motion sickness began just then!

My fascination with aircraft has lingered throughout the years and I prefer the old-fashioned propeller planes over the jets any day. So our visit to the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin filled my heart and my eyes with joy.

There were aircraft that I had only seen in history books — and frankly, it was thrilling to be close enough to touch them. I had seen a biplane with a metal propeller when I was a little girl, but not a plane with a wooden propeller such as the one below.

Biplane with wooden propeller

And can you even imagine returning to earth in a glider and landing on the snow or the grass in a fragile vehicle equipped with rather primitive-looking wooden ski?

Lightweight glider with wooden skis

This is a huge museum and it takes hours to go through — but it is well worth the time if you have an interest in contemporary history. We barely made a dent in viewing the rows and rows of planes which were on display outside and concentrated instead on the historic examples within the vast hangers. But a friend told us that a thorough visit might be best accomplished on a bicycle so that we could weave in and out amongst the decades of planes that lined the old runways. You can see a few of them if you look to the left of the yellow-tipped propeller below.

Yellow-tipped propellers on old German warplane

I certainly hope you have enjoyed this 3-part series and that it might inspire you to visit this fascinating museum.

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Vroom-vroom!!! Berlin’s Luftwaffe Museum – Part 2

Rumbling, roaring, noisy beasts. The age of the airplane saw a surprisingly rapid transformation from flimsy airborne creations into larger and heavier vehicles requiring more power to lift them into the air. And when World War II arrived, the German Luftwaffe was ready.

Wilhelm ‘Willy’ Messerschmitt was responsible for the jewels in the crown of German aircraft designed in the 1930s and 1940s — the fighter planes named after him — the Messerschmitt Bf108, the Messerschmitt Bf109, and the ones that followed. The links that are highlighted in this paragraph will take you to more detailed information.

Messerschmitt -- side view

Examples of this plane can be seen at the Luftwaffe Museum in the Berlin suburb of Gatow.

Messerschmitt -- front right view

If you are a history or aviation buff (and as I have mentioned previously, I happen to fall into both categories!), this is an excellent day out that is away from the main hustle and bustle of beautiful Berlin.

Messerschmitt -- close-up

One rather different example of a Messerschmitt was on display and it is a quite recent acquisition. In November of 2009, a fighter plane was discovered at the bottom of a lake in Germany. Please note — the website is in German, but the photographs alone are fascinating. What an eerie find that must have been for those divers in the lake.

If you wish to open this page-link to the daedalus-Berlin.de website in a translation-friendly site like GOOGLE CHROME, you can click on a button and translate the page from German to English. It’s a fascinating story!

The picture below is the actual plane that was recovered from the lake and reconstructed. When I saw this plane at the Luftwaffe Museum, I had no idea how complicated a process it must have been to remove it from the mud, bring it out of the water, and then transport it safely before it could be reconstructed. The article also answers the question about any remains found inside the plane. No, there was no sign of the missing pilots of the fighter plane and no remains at all were found inside or nearby.

Wreck of a downed WW II Messerschmitt recovered from a lake in Germany

Come back again soon for another World War II tale that I stumbled upon whilst in Germany!

Vroom-vroom! Berlin’s Luftwaffe Museum

In times long gone — a cough, a sputter, and then a an astonishing lift would see the bird-like creation of varnished canvas and wood and tensioned wires rise from its rubber wheels into the air. How brave those aviators must have been to venture aloft in vehicles such as these. They may not have been sleek and metallic, but they had a delicate beauty. Even the propellers from that era are works of art fashioned of beautifully polished wood.

Fragile early wings at Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin

Close-up of early airplane propeller at Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin, Germany

Alongside the later aircraft made of sturdy steel, a few such fragile creations are on display in Berlin in the large Hanger 3 of the Luftwaffe Museum/Luftwaffenmuseum.

Walking towards Hanger 3 at the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin

Located in the southwestern Berlin suburb of Gatow — the museum covers the history of aviation in Germany from the earliest airplanes, gliders, and zeppelins to the World War II era and the Cold War and beyond.

The museum covers a variety of decades, includes period clothing from each era, has no entry charge and is certainly a thrilling day out for aeronautical and/or history fans. I happen to be both, so I happily spent quite a few hours here and still didn’t get out to look at all of the airplanes that are parked along the once-bustling runways.

Below is a selection of images from that splendid day out. Enjoy!

And make sure you come back for Part 2 tomorrow when we move into the World War II era.

Cluster of planes at the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin, Germany

3 Wing Fokker -- the type that the Red Baron flew in WW I

World War I plane with machine gunner

Bullet Holes Remember Berlin’s Past

The signal sent to my consciousness was a slight prickling of the skin at the back of my neck as the baby-fine hairs raised and brushed against my silk scarf. “We’re walking around in history. Can you feel it?”

“Yes,” Mark answered — “and those are bullet holes all over that building!”

A sunny Sunday in Berlin — Easter Sunday in fact — and there were throngs of people in the public squares. But the side streets were quiet and I was able to take quite a lot of photos without being jostled by crowds.

The buildings around us were a mix of old and new and some of them still retained their stunning late-19th or early-20th century facades. Although I am a huge fan of modernism and contemporary architecture, these handsome structures made me wish that all new construction still had such attention paid to the small details and bits of ornamentation.

On either side of that visually arresting entry were the bullet holes — intentionally left unrepaired so memories of the tumultuous past of this city do not entirely fade.

Architectural detail of classical head over entry of building from early 1900s

World War II bullet holes in stone building

Bullet holes in stone building

Further down the street, we had a chance to have a laugh and then do a double-take. Here’s why.

Four weeks ago we were in London and we passed by the short street leading to 10 Downing Street where the British Prime Minister resides. The amount of security personnel and high tech security gear all around that area was rather interesting to see. Apparently, much like the President of the USA, both heads of state believe that they are in a constant state of threat.

Now contrast that with the pictures of the residence below. And this is where the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel lives. Not only are there only two guards out front, but there is a man with two red shopping bags having a casual conversation with the guards while a young dark-haired woman sits on the edge of the sidewalk. You can even see the cones and bit of construction items including a site caravan from the ongoing construction all up and down that street. There are no high tech gates or fences or any such ‘necessary’ items of security outside. Even the windows are quite open to the front of the very accessible street. She may live quite high up in the building and the inside may be fortified, but the very fact that she lives on a normal street instead of behind locked gates shows an amazing sense of trust. And I find all of that quite refreshing!

Apparently low-tech security at Chancellor Merkel's house

Come back soon for another post from beautiful and fascinating Berlin!

Berlin On A Sunny Sunday – Part One

Quick, quick preview with a couple of pictures. A longer post will be coming later today or tomorrow morning with lots more wonderful photos of Berlin from a walk on a sunny Sunday. The two pictures below were taken in what was the old East Berlin and it’s now a lovely and lively area!

The Fernsehturm or television tower was a strong image, not just for the German people, but for the world during the division of Berlin into East Berlin and West Berlin. Built by the GDR during the Cold War period of the mid-1960s, it was meant to be a symbol of power for the eastern side and visible throughout the city, but there are also some amusing facts about it. So click on the link to read the history!

Sunny Sunday in old East Berlin with Fernsehturm shining in the distance

Do you remember the post from Hannover? I included a photo of one of these vehicles sitting empty and I wondered what it would look like with people on it. Here’s a fully loaded version! They look like they are having quite a good time on this multi-passenger bike.

Fully loaded multi-passenger cycle

Check back soon for more wonderful pictures of Berlin!

Europe Travel Plans And A Health Hiatus

The bulbs are beginning to bloom in the garden as I write this from the family home in Norfolk UK. So in spite of the icy temperatures both day and night, spring certainly is on the way. A bit of a health hiatus has been forced on me and these next few lines offer a brief explanation about why nothing has been posted on either blog for several weeks.

All of my writing and photography uploads have had to go on hold for a short time because I came down with pneumonia twice in a 10 week period. I’ve been intensely ill, it’s is so BORING, and frankly, I am sick of being sick. Thank heavens for multiple rounds of strong medication, the wonderful medical care I received from the doctors and nurses at the Ballarat Base Hospital in Australia and the prompt attention of the local NHS practice here in England.

Now, for the FUN news — there are going to be some VERY interesting travel entries coming up quite shortly! We’re about to launch ourselves off into some long-term travelling and we have a wonderful first location for short-term work lined up in Edinburgh at the end of March and potentially into April. We’ll come back to Norfolk in mid-April to do the large pack-up prior to going to the Netherlands on the ferry. Then we will ramble across Germany before our next locked-in time period from the 20th of April until the first week of May in Berlin. We are quite excited about that! After that we will travel around middle-Germany for awhile and then begin to loop back toward France.

We have a longer term assignment of a month or more in Normandy that should have June and perhaps part of July sorted out. And our next very interesting “yes — please do come!” host after our time in Normandy is in rural Tuscany. I have a feeling that we will be there for more than a month as well. Right now I am on the laptop for hours every day, sitting here diligently planning all of our adventures, trying to set up a time-slot for each of the people we hear back from, and shopping for a left-hand-drive car.

We’re leaving a few gaps for pure-and-simple travel in France and I’ll be looking for some more work hosts on our way back across the country toward Italy. And before we leave France this time, we also plan to go down to the Limousin to meet a transplanted British man who is real estate agent and we’ll look at some run-down houses to potentially buy, renovate, and then sell on.

Did you know that the buying and settling/closing process in both France and England takes about 90-120 days??? There are no 30-45 day turn-around times over here the way they do it in Australia or the USA! If we find something to buy as an investment, we would put in the contract and the deposit, go off and work somewhere for awhile, and then come back a few months later when it’s time to sign on the dotted line at the notaire’s office. Sheesh!

We’re going to leave our Brit-drive car here with the family if they are fine with that and take our LHD (left hand drive) car (which we will purchase in the next week or so) over to the Netherlands on the overnight ship. We are already booked and paid for with another lovely cabin and good meals. It is so much more civilised than flying!

Mark got his British driving license this month and I just got my new NHS medical card in the post last week. Ooooo — paperwork and official documents. Such excitement! (grin!) But it just means that we are getting more and more officially European now. We have made no firm decision about where to settle and don’t plan to for many months ahead as we weigh up the housing costs and employment options in each country that we visit.

Life is good over here other than the non-stop cold & damp and the annoying chest infection. It seriously took us over a month to feel like our bodies and consciousness states had arrived in this place and weren’t floating in the ethers on the way over. And it wasn’t just me either. Mark said that he didn’t feel quite right in his body for the longest time.

Even though we have chosen this huge change and were excited about moving back here, this has still been a huge adjustment process. Something as simple as shopping in a new country has been a grand adventure (smirk!) — even for everyday things like groceries or health food items. Buying a car in England took a lot of time for paperwork and bank transfers — and don’t even get me started about how crazy it is to try and get car insurance in a timely manner!

Time to end this now and go make a nice hot cup of tea.

Hope that all is well in YOUR corner of the world!

Deborah