Eau de Cologne

Yesterday I went to Cologne, a city I should have known some years ago. Cologne is worldwide famous for its cathedral and for its water (eau de Cologne in French) and I could admire both of them during my visit.I went to Cologne by train, but this time I had learnt the lesson and I had no difficulty in getting an unreserved seat for my trip. Cologne lies 200 kilometres north of Frankfurt and it only took an hour, so imagine the average speed of the train. It is really recommended from my side going there at least once when living in Frankfurt.

I started my visit by going to the ruins of a Roman turm and to the ElDeHaus, former headquarters of Gestapo in Cologne. It is amazing how a country could fall into that kind of bloody crazyness in less than ten years. The cells of the prison, with the inscriptions in the wall by the real inmates is really breathtaking. Luckily, in my opinion, with initiative like this one, the horror of those days will not be forgotten and repeated.

Afterwards, I devoted my time to less material issues. Firstly, I went to the original house where the Eau de Cologne was created and I bought a bottle of it for my mother. The smell of the shop was quite nice, to tell you the truth. Then it was time for another important visit: Museum of Chocolate, the place where I would like to work. It is a nice museum, but obviously not like Prado or Louvre. Anyway it managed to keep me busy (and drooling) for an hour.

Then, the rest of the day was devoted to the cathedral. To get there I just walked close to the River Rhein, an incredibly wide river (I counted 442 steps over the Hohenzollern bridge, what would mean approximately the river being 330 metres wide). The area around the cathedral and the river is really pleasant.

The size of the cathedral itself is outstanding and the amount of statues and sculptures in it is beyond my vocabulary. Inside, there is a strange feeling, thanks to the light entering through marvellous windows and the height of the ceiling; one feels to be separated from the rest of the world in its interior, believe me, it is mainly a provider of peace. Unfortunately, I could not visit, since it was closed to visitors, the chapel where the Three Wise Men are supposed to be buried. I had some complaints for them, grrrr!I also climbed the 509 steps of one of the towers to have impressive views of Cologne. It was midday, very hot and I think the Pope Benedictus XVI should grant heaven to anyone doing this, because it was kind of hard and sweatful experience. Due to this bias, probably, I do not classify Cologne's cathedral as the most impressive one I have ever been to. This first place belongs to Strasbourg's cathedral, but together with Vienna's, Cologne's could easily get a place in the podium.

Mes amis les avocats

Aujourd'hui je voudrais être bref parce que je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps et parce que il y a longtemps que je n'utilise pas mon français. Le sujet que j'ai choisi est le rôle des avocats dans le système judiciarie actuel.

Je pensait que les avocats doivent assurer que l'accusé a un procès juste et avec tous les droits. Mais parfois il semble que l'objectif des avocats soit laisser libre l'accusé malgré il ayait declaré sa culpabilité. Les avocats cherchent dans les lois des trous pourquoi leur client soit declaré innocent. Quand ça n'est pas possible, ils cherchent des avancer des arguments sur les problèmes mentaux de l'accusé. Par exemple, l'assassin d'un garçon de dixhuit mois parce qu'il faisait des bruits quand ce monstre joueait avec la console. Ce monstre mérite de rester beaucoup d'annés en prison et les efforts de son avocat pour le rendre libre sont dégoûtants.

Ça n'est pas son rôle, à mon avis. C'est la mission d'avocat être sûr que le procès est juste et transparent. Naturellement je sois en faveur d'un système judiciaire plein des droits et des garanties, mais cette système ne devraient oublier que son dernier bout est faire justice, et les avocats semblent d'oublier trop souvant ce fait.

Pour conclure, je voudrais rappeler ce que Woody Allen a dit sur les avocats: "si on t'aide avant commettre un crime, il devient un complice; si on t'aide après le crime, il est ton avocat".

City of bishops

Some days ago I only knew the city of Würzburg because it is the birthplace of Dirk Nowitzki, one of the best basketball players of the XXI century.

But my day trip yesterday allowed me to discover a wonderful and charming city. However, there were some negative points and I would like to report them just now, before starting with the good memories. First of all, in the train from Frankfurt it was quite difficult to find a seat, since most of them were already reserved. I had to walk forward and backward the whole train and just in my second “lap”, I was able to find an empty seat for me. The other negative point is that I could not watch two of the three main churches in Würzburg: St. Killian’s Cathedral and Hofkirche. The first one is being renovated and it is closed until 2009 and there was a wedding at Hofkirche at the time I wanted to visit it.

The city centre of Würzburg is very nice and enjoyable if walking. I recommend a short wander which must finish at the Neumünster (New Cathedral) and at the St. Killian’s Cathedral. The small garden called Lusam Gärtlein, backwards both cathedrals, is worth a visit. I went there twice, since my Lonely Planet guide strongly recommended it. At noon, first attempt, I could not stay long because a couple was having a moment of passion and I could not help feeling to be interrupting something. On my second attempt, in the afternoon, there was an exhibition there and I had to pay 6 euros to get in.

From there, just take the Domstrasse towards the old bridge over the river Main. River Main keeps me fascinated because of its huge dimensions: it is incredibly wide at Frankfurt and it is still at Würzburg, more than 100 kilometres upstream. The bridge is quite nice, with all the statues of these saints which bear so old-fashioned and weird names.

Once on the other side of the river, your natural destination is the Fortress, which according to my Lonely Planet guide, has only been taken once: by Swedish soldiers. Yeah, the same question comes immediately to my mind: what the hell were doing some Swedish in Franconia? It seems they were taking part in the 30 Years War, but in any case I still think it is too far away from Sweden. Ok, let’s focus on the Fortress itself. After an amazing walk, I understood why it is so invincible: it has so many walls and doors and towers and… Nowadays there is a beautiful walk uphill among the vineyards but it has not ever been like this.Würzburg is a World Heritage Site due to the Residenz, the dwelling of its bishops in Middle Age. Not only in Spain did bishops enjoy high quality of life. I must admit I felt a bit disappointed by it, as I was expecting much more after the amazing day in the town. The staircase is worldwide famous and it is also a bit disappointing. But the most remarkable of all are the gardens the bishop needed in his meditation.
According to my Lonely Planet guide, again, Hermann Hesse once said that he would have liked to be born in Würzburg. Dirk Nowitzki even dared to do it. And I think I could perfectly agree with both of them, since Würzburg is really a lovely place, one of the very top ones.

Last but not least, I just wanted to remark a geographical issue. In the 50 days that I have been living in Frankfurt, I have visited four regional lands so far: Hesse (Frankfurt), Rhein-Pfalz (Mainz), Baden-Wurttenberg (Heidelberg) and Bayern (Würzburg). And Nordrhein-Westphalen (Cologne) will join soon. Do not panic, this will not continue at the same pace.

Un poco de todo

He estado este fin de semana en mi casa de Guadalajara, por primera vez desde que me trasladé a Francfort, y tanto ajetreo de viaje ha hecho que no esté centrado para escribir únicamente sobre un tema, así que esta vez voy a dedicar una frase o dos a cada una de las cosas que quiero mencionar aquí.

En primer lugar, hablaré de mis perennes problemas informáticos. Llevo unos días con problemas en mi conexión a Internet, justamente desde que instalé la versión 3.0 de Mozilla. Todo funcionaba tan ricamente pero tuve que cambiar a la nueva versión, que tampoco me ofrece nada que merezca la pena. Ahora ya tampoco me funciona el cortafuegos Zone Alarm. Moraleja: si algo funciona, no lo toques, incluso si es para mejorarlo.

Al comparar el grado de civismo de Guadalajara con el de Francfort, temo que la ciudad alemana gana por goleada. Así, entre otras "perlas" de mi querida Guadalajara cito el pestilente olor que emena la recién estrenada pasarela sobre la N-II, el individuo que tiró una lata de Coca-Cola desde un coche en marcha, el millón y medio de chicles y escupitajos que adornan nuestras aceras y la práctica de aparcar donde le viene a uno en gana.

Hoy he estado otra vez en un aeropuerto y la verdad es que últimamente estos sitios me dan algo de sueño y me ponen algo tristón. En los últimos tiempos he tenido muchas despedidas en un aeropuerto ante un viaje que debía hacer solo y poco a poco creo que esto me va erosionando. Espero tener pronto un recuerdo algo más agradable.

En el vuelo a Madrid con Lanchile he visto la película de "21", sobre unos estudiantes del MIT que sacaron un dinero de los casinos en los 90 usando técnicas matemáticas de probabilidad. Es una película muy amena, y, que pese a su final feliz, me ha gustado mucho. La escena de los escarceos del protagonista con la chica delante de sus amigos freakies me hizo reír, porque eso es real, eso lo he vivido yo, desde todos los puntos de vista, je, je, je.

Venga, pues lo dejo hoy aquí. Añado alguna foto de Francfort, que espero no esté repetida y hasta la próxima.

Difficoltà economiche

Alcuni mese fa, tutti i paesi europei hanno cominciato ad avere difficoltà economiche o qualcosa similare, che cercano di descrivere lo stesso che la parola che non può essere detta: "crisi".

Adesso sembra che la globalizacione non è una fada che ci farà la vita più facile e bella, ma è una bestia brutta che ci farà lavorare 60 ore alle settimana (come nel 1910) per guadagnare meno soldi ogni volta, e così fino ai 70 anni, perchè la età di retiro dovrà moversi avanti un po' per i problemi demografici. Anche la globalizacione non ci piace e perciò chiudiamo le nostre frontiere agli stranieri, dimenticando a volte i diritti umani. I mercati finanziari non sono luoghi dove tutti multiplicano l'inversione in due anni e comprare una casa in propietà è diventato un'aventura che farebbe paura a Indiana Jones.

Gli economisti e i politici hanno sicuramente visto venire queste difficoltà, ma hanno preferito non dire niente o, ancora peggio, dire delle bugie. Oggi, il giornale "El País" compara quello che hanno detto politici ed empresari un anno fa sulla situazione della costruzione e che cosa è successo alle loro ditte. Tutti quelli che dicevano che il mondo era felice e perfetto hanno avuto delle grandissime dificoltà: Enrique Bañuelos, Fernando Martín o Luis Portillo, tra altri tanti. Le loro parolo ci mostrano la loro stupidità e mancanza di onore (per mentire giorno dopo giorno).

Anche la classica frase liberale di lasciare fare al mercato è minaciata con queste difficoltà. Tre mercati hanno preso tutta l'attenzione mondiale: il mercato dell'olio (dove c'è tantissima speculazione, vero Goldman Sachs?, che non è possibile sapere se la salita dei prezzi è dovuta alla demanda, all'oferta o alla speculazione); il mercato de gli alimenti (lo stesso, siamo in 2008 più o meno gli stessi abitanti del mondo che in 2006 e quindi direi che la demanda non si trova dietro alla crescita dei prezzi) ed i mercati finanziari, dove i prodotti finanziari si hanno trovato molto più avanzati che le regolazioni che dovrebbero controllarli. Per la prima volta, ci sono evidenze di che i mercati liberi non servono per fare tutto, che i prezzi non sono i re' e bisogna un minimo di regulazione.

Vediamo cosa succede e quello che ci porterà il futuro, un futuro dove il capitalismo non sarà il re'...

A month in Germany

I have been living for a month in Germany and I think I could tell some characteristics of life here which seem to be a bit strange to the eyes of an Spaniard like me.

First thing I would like to mention are traffic lights. Their functioning is rather strange. I mean, in Spain we also have traffic lights and I know the basics. But I mean that in a crossroad, here in Germany, you have at the same time, the two traffic lights in red for the cars or green for them. It should not be that way, at least, it is not in all the places I have been. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure there is a great reason for this strange functioning, there is always a reason for everything in Germany.

My apartment is quite close to a hospital and I think I am starting to regret it. You should hear the volume of ambulances, here. It seems they just want to be sure that drivers are aware of their presence by making an incredible noise. And if ambulances are noisy, firemen (o firepersons or whatever) are twice of three times noisier, they are like a rock concert or a landing aeroplane.

Bikes are some kind of mistery for me. I have seen the same bike, parked in the same place during one month and I am desperate trying to find an answer for this. My best estimate is that they are left by the owners in different points of the city, "just in case" they need to use them. I mean, imagine I go to Westend one day, then I know that I have parked a bycicle in a square and I can cycle back home. If you watch the amazing number of bycicles parked in some train stations (such in Heidelberg), you would believe in my theory.

In a few days, I must get my hair cut. Let's see if I can make myself understood by hairdressers'...