Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
One day far ago I added the capital city of Spain to my travel todo list. As I added more and more places it never came to the top – until this year, when I decided to do numerous short trips instead of long journeys. But I asked myself why I wanted to get there. Only when I had booked my flights and started to prepare for the visit I remembered what was the reason: Guernica.
Continue reading “Spanish civil war”
Using public transport in Madrid, Spain is hassle-free. It is so simple that it even might not be worth writing an article about. When you reach the metro station at the airport you’ll find vending machines where you can get a smartcard and load tickets for a definite number of trips or days onto it. For tourists there is also a small office where you can buy your ticket from humans.
Continue reading “Metro”
I‘m in love with the first round of the DFB cup every year. The small clubs – sometimes even amateurs – against the big clubs. Teams that hope to get the FC Bayern or Borussia Dortmund as opponents to have the match of their lifetimes and fill their bank accounts – even if it means to loose with many goals against. But it is also about infrastructure, about playing in small stadiums where everything is a little bit improvised and where the big stars have to use rather shabby changing rooms without hot water.
Continue reading “Away game at home”
The Fährmannsfest at Hannover, Germany is one of these music festivals that evolved over time and became bigger and bigger. Founded in 1983 it was first a free open air concert with local bands financed by selling food and drinks. Today even some well-known bands play here in front of up to 10.000 visitors and for two of the three days of the festival you now have to buy a ticket.
Continue reading “Fährmannsfest”
The Albaniplatz at Göttingen, Germany is named after nearby protestant church St. Albani. It is a large parking area that many people use to go shopping in the city center or to visit an event at the Stadthalle next to it. But most people don’t know what happend here in 1933. By that time the place was called Adolf-Hitler-Platz and it became the place where the books of great authors were burned that the Nazis classified as degenerated.
Continue reading “Bücherverbrennung”
You can for sure spend months in the Baltic states to enjoy the beautiful landscape. But they are gives you also the chance to easily visit three countries in one week: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. And it is not one homogenous area without differences – that can easily be observed in the capital cities: Tallinn with its wonderful old city fortifications, Rīga with its fantastic art nouveau quarter and Vilnius with its nice baroque style buildings and more than 50 churches.
Continue reading “Triathlon”
The Lithuanian language belongs – like Latvian to the balto-slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. 3.2 million people speak this language and it is also spoken in regions of Belorussia and Poland. A strong Lithuanian community also exists in Ireland. Lithuanian seems to be close to Latvian (in contrast to Estonian), but they are different languages that even the locals have to learn.
Continue reading “Lithuanian”
Vilnius is with more than 570.000 inhabitants the biggest city and the capital city of Lithuania. It is beautifully located on different hills and next to two rivers (Neris, Vilnia – giving the city its name). The city contains many baroque style buildings of Italian original and it contains more than 50 churches. That’s why it is sometimes called the ‘Rome of the East‘. A legend says that Grand Duke Gediminas dreamt of an iron wolf that howled extremely loud while he was sleeping on a hill next to the confluence of rivers Neris and Vilnia.
Continue reading “The wolf”
Like in all three Baltic states trolley busses (which have become pretty rare throughout the western Europe) belong to the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. In addition there is a large fleet of normal busses that you can use to travel around. Since 2001 the construction of a metro system with three lines connecting the busiest spots is discussed – but work hasn’t started yet.
Continue reading “Trolley busses”
I usually try to omit travelling in groups – you never know whom you’ll have to spend the day with. But I learned that you can also miss a lot of fun. When I planned my trip through the Baltic states I booked a normal long-distance bus from Tallinn, Estonia to Rīga, Latvia. When planning the segment towards Vilnius, Lithuania I tried to find a railway connection but found an unexpected alternative.
Continue reading “Guided tour”