The Passenger ⋆ Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.

September 12, 2020September 12, 2020

Hessen Kassel

The KSV Hessen Kassel is a football club with a big history and a stadium (the Auestadion) rather fitting to the past than to the present. It was an obvious idea to watch a match but I simply didn’t do it after moving to Kassel – shortly after I decided to buy a ticket, SARS-CoV-2 appeared and all matches were cancelled or no spectators were allowed. Now the large stadium becomes an advantage: people can watch matches during the pandemic safely while adhering to the distance rules. Against TSV Schott Mainz around 2,000 people (in a stadium for more than 18,000 persons) saw the first home game of the new season.

September 4, 2020September 27, 2020

Mirroring the clouds

European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main

When passing through the East of Frankfurt you might certainly see a giant skyscraper. It doesn’t look like a part of a skyline – it is standing out and surrounded by rather small buildings and residential zones. The giant glass windows look like a giant mirroring and it is really an amazing piece of architecture. That doesn’t only seem to be my opinion; for some years, every time when I was passing through the Ostend with friends one of them said: ‘Do you see this building? That is the new European Central Bank!‘. Proudly. Like it doesn’t happen so often with a skyscraper in Frankfurt.

September 4, 2020September 27, 2020

Café Crumble

There are endless good options to have a nice breakfast in Frankfurt, Germany. But if you’re looking for a plain, non-touristy coffee bar aside from the busy city centre you might like the Café Crumble. It is located not far away from the Bockenheimer Warte and offers seats inside and outside in a small backyard. The Crumble is a cosy place which offers a small but good range of breakfast: from vegetarian to sea fruit, from sweet to Greek.

September 1, 2020September 23, 2020

Getting around

København with its 600,000 inhabitants isn’t a small but also not a giant city. Most sights for tourists are located in the city centre but for some, you’ll have to travel a bit. Getting around in the capital city of Denmark is rather easy – even as there are so many different transport systems. A little bit surprising for me was how important bicycles are for the inhabitants: riding a bike is a real pleasure as there are separated bicycle lanes and sometimes also bicycle bridges – you can get from A to B very fast by bike.

August 31, 2020September 27, 2020

CopenhagenCard

Should I buy it or not? That is the typical question you’ll have to ask yourself when you are travelling to a major city in Europe and you discover that they are offering a tourist card (and most of them do!). The answer isn’t always simple because you need to analyze what is included in the ticket and it heavily depends on what you’re about to do in the city. København offers a tourist ticket which they call the CopenhagenCard – and it is available as a hard ticket (which seems to be fading out) and as a virtual ticket in a mobile application for smartphones.

August 31, 2020September 23, 2020

Getting cash

When getting to Denmark you might be surprised that the country doesn’t use the Euro but still has its own currency: the dansk krone (DKK), divided into 100 Øre. It is at least strongly bound to the Euro and the exchange rate that is aimed for is 1 Euro = 7,46038 DKK. In 1992 and 2000 the Danish voted against the introduction of the Euro but this topic might come up again in the future.

August 31, 2020September 22, 2020

Andersen Boutique Hotel

Getting by train to København, Denmark, is easy and highly recommended – when coming from central Europe you’ll cross the water on long bridges two times (Lillebælt and Storebælt). When doing so it is always nice to have a hotel close to the railway station. One of these is the Andersen Boutique Hotel conveniently located only three minutes on foot from the København H main railway stop. It is a beautiful boutique hotel with nice rooms and friendly staff.

August 16, 2020August 17, 2020

Glitzerschwein

Fortuna Ehrenfeld, acht&siebzig, Hannover

The Coronavirus changed everything in 2020. From one day to the other many things making life enjoyable became impossible and that included for sure also concerts. It is still absolutely unimaginable to stand in large crowds, sing and dance. All events are moved into 2021 and bands, concert venues and tour organizers are facing pretty tough times. After half a year without live music, I‘m also suffering and realizing what a luxury culture is.

August 8, 2020August 9, 2020

Kurbad Jungborn

When it is getting hot outside the people in Kassel, Germany, gather on both sides of the river Fulda running through the city. The Fulda is used for swimming and all kinds of watersports and bathing in the river has a very long tradition. In earlier times there were Flußbadeanstalten – supervised places dedicated to swimming in the river. One of them is today the Auebad, the largest indoor and outdoor pool of the city. Another one you will automatically see when moving close to the Orangerie and the Spitzhacke: the Kurbad Jungborn which is today a museum and a coffee bar.

July 19, 2020July 28, 2020

Elefantenklo

A strange building made of stone hidden behind high trees in the forest. A temple? A ruin? If you walk around the building on the Klausberg in Göttingen, Germany, you will spot a tiny inscription: ‘Gedenkstein für Otto von Bismarck‘, a memorial for the former imperial chancellor. It is officially called ‘Bismarckstein‘ but the locals have a different name for it: ‘Elefantenklo‘ (elephant loo). Bismarck was very famous by his time even though his role in history has a lot of dark sides – but the people were willing to donate for memorials to commemorate him.