Hi folks,
this blog entry is dedicated to our US friends having a hard time with all that German language on this website :-)
Here are some pictures from my vacation to Germany, enjoy!
I stayed at my parents house (pictured) for about a week. My parents have a really short commute to work at their pharmacy (Apotheke) - just fall down the stairs and you're there :-) It is really nice that pharmacies in Germany are not hidden in the back of some supermarket like they are in the US. My sister and I were living on the third floor.
My Mom at work.
My parents live close to the city of Giessen which is about 40 miles north of Frankfurt in the middle of Germany. Pictured is the theater of Giessen - wheather was really nice during my visit.
This is the Röntgen Memorial dedicated to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen who was a professor in Giessen and best known for his discovery of X-rays or "Röntgen-Strahlen" as they are called in Germany. Another very notable Giessen professor was Justus von Liebig who made major contributions to chemistry - Wikipedia refers to him as "one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time". Giessen's University is named after him. However, von Liebig didn't seem to like the city too much. The quote "Das beste an Giessen ist sein Bahnhof" is alleged to him which translates as "The best thing about Giessen is its railway station". Apparently he liked to escape the city from time to time :-)
The tower of the former Stadtkirche (chuch house was destroyed by heavy bombing in 1944) in the city center.
About 60 plastic dinosaur are currently on display in the pedestrian precinct. I think they are really great but my sister just hates them because there is one of them right underneath her appartment's balcony and every night there is some drunk party people riding the baby T-Rex making a lot of noise. Go T-Rex!!
Watch out for the raptor on the bus stop shelter!
Triceratops at the "Marktplatz".
T-Rex running down "Seltersweg" (Giessen's Broadway)
My sister kissing a Stegosaurus.
This guy has troubles calling a taxi.
This is probably the biggest one - check out the kid at the dinosaur's legs as visual reference.
This is my grandma's house in Riebelsdorf another 40 miles north of Giessen.
My grandma Elfriede and me.
My dad and me getting ready for a bike tour.
The former railway line along my grandma's house has been turned into a beautiful bike route that leads up into the Knüll mountain range.
These are the towers of the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. I lived in Frankfurt for about six years during my university time.
I met a lot old friends at Frankfurt university. This is me and Betty - she is currently doing her postdoc at the pharmaceutical institute.
Markus and Betty joking around. Markus is working on his diploma thesis in bioinformatics.
Carmen in her lab at the pharmaceutical institute. Carmen is working on her PhD thesis.
The opera house in the Frankfurt's city center.
The opera house at night with Kristin dancing for some money. Kris will be visiting NYC in July.
This is Christiane. We had a lot of fun at our university internship in cell biology - including going for strawberry picking in the evening :-)
Christian and me in a street cafe in Frankfurt. Christian will be eventually playing for Germany at the next soccer world cup in Brazil - if the money is right ;-p
Yes, beer drinking in public is allowed in Germany! It is also allowed to drink beer on this moving vehicle (as long as the driver is sober). Notice how all the drinkers have to pedal to move this thing!
Frankfurt is Germany's financial capital. Almost every building that doesn't have a clock on it is a bank. The stream running through Frankfurt is the "Main river" (pronounced "mine"). For this reason Frankfurt is also referred to as "Mainhattan".
Christian with the Frankfurt skyline.
At the Main river.
By the way: This is how we watch the world cup in Germany! Just put two gigantic TVs back to back in the middle of the river and offer free seating for 30,000 people on both sides (picture taken during the 2006 world cup). More pictures here.
The above video was shot when Germany won over Argentina in penalty shootout in the quarter final.
There goes the beer bike again.
The Commerzbank tower in front is the tallest building in Europe. Gardens are installed in the building (where the windows are set a bit inwards).
Half-timbered buildings in the historic city center.
Me baking a cake ("Russischer Zupfkuchen") for Anna's and Eugen's wedding afterparty.
I really like this picture. These are some friends at the garden party for Anna's and Eugen's wedding. From left to right: Eugen, Swetlana, Betty, Bjoern, Friederike, Sarah, and Birgit.
This party was a lot of fun and Eugen served a lot of Russian Wodka. Too bad I was flying back to the US the next morning and still had to pack my luggage when I got back home at 1 am. From left to right: Lutz, Matthias, Friederike, Bjoern, Swetlana, Christiana, Birgit, and Sarah.
They showed the movie "Invictus" (see monitor) on the flight back. This biographical drama portraits the story of how South Africa won the 1995 Rugby world cup against all odds in their own country. This movie inspired me to place my bet on the South African team for the soccer world cup game we play in the office. Quite disappointing so far... :-)
Heavy rain clouds always look nice and white from above but these clouds delayed our arrival in Newark for about an hour.
On this flight tracker image you can see the crazy route we flew before landing in Newark (click to enlarge). I was just happy the flight was not diverted to JFK or another airport.
20 minutes before finally landing in Newark we overflew Delaware Water Gap - twice (lower holding pattern on the map above)! This was quite a sight!
This is Giants stadium (well at least half of it) at Meadowlands Sports Complex along route 3 just moments before touchdown. I was looking forward to see U2 here in July but Bono is injured. Hope he gets better soon!
That's all folks - hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Cheers,
Martin
