Another world

In 1986 I flew from Manchester to Frankfurt for £99 roundtrip on a “super apex” fare twenty four years later I flew to Berlin (no east or west now!!) for £70 roundtrip with Ryanair. This fact demonstrates why the airline industry is in so much trouble

When I was growing up in the 1980’s Schonefeld Airport in Berlin was quite literally in a different world being the airport serving the East German Capital Berlin. I had (have) a real interest in Aviation and during the 1980’s this was one of the most exotic places to go, the aircraft of the Eastern Bloc countries were common visitors throughout Europe but the Interflug aircraft were much less common. One of the Aviation societies used to arrange occasional tours to East Berlin to see the aircraft. Although I never went on any of these tours visiting Schonefeld Airport was like going back in time, very little has changed and you still get a feeling of being in the east. The building is decrepit and almost unchanged since communism. With the expansion of air travel it is massively overcrowded.

Gatow and Tempelhof have already closed, Tegal will close along with Schonefeld in 2012, when Berlin Brandenburg Airport will open on the same site and Berlin will have a single airport. As I said, it’s another world and every day its a world that exists a little less

cool hotel reception

The Hotel in Leipzig had a really unusual bar, it was the reception, really unusual but it worked

Leipzig Station

Railway Stations in German cities have always been fantastic buildings, in my view Leipzig is the most stunning railway station I have ever been in. The photo below is from one of the main entrances (there are two at the front and one at either side) the sense of size is immediately obvious.

The photo below is of the main concourse, below it there are two floors containing resteraunts and supermakets. what a great idea a supermarket in a railway station you can go shopping on the way home from work, why do we not do this in the UK?


tucked in a corner of the station was this fantasitc preserved steam engine,



what a fantastic building, it puts all our stations to shame even the restored StPancras.

Colditz Caste

Sometimes when you are traveling you get to see something out of an aircraft window just for a moment that you didn't expect to see and would have liked to have seen more of. its not the best picture in the world but the large building in the centre of the picture is the infamous Colditz Castle used as a prisoner of war camp in world war two. I was on my way to Leipzig via Altenberg. Next time I have a spare day I will go and look at the museum they have there.

Ljubajana

I had been invited to make a presentation in ljubajana, the flight schedule gave me a few hours in the town. It is a typically Balkan town and is really nice in the summer.

One thing about "none western" towns is that normal people can still afford to live in the city centre. The photo above is taken from a bridge in the middle of town the flats are working class accommodation and you can see that the balconies are just an extension of the flat and people were sitting on the Balconies watching television. Prague and Budapest used to be the same but now they are much the same as every western European city with glass fronted office blocks and only the rich have flats in the middle

The river was cut into a deep narrow channel, this must make it susceptible to flooding when there is a bit of rain, that said the area round the river was full of pavement bars and restaurants and was beautiful.

There was a really helpfull 3D map of the town, I liked that !!

Perfect parking

I took this photo in a car park at work, by the time I had returned the Freelander had left without leaving a note. some passer by however had left details for the Mercedes owner.

Lost in Translation

I was sitting in the garden with a beer and some crisps trying to work out what the alternative to “real ingredients” is