Through the French hexagon

Last weekend, I drove back to Guadalajara from Frankfurt with my parents. Our two-day trip took us through Germany, France and Spain.

The first part of the trip, the one from Frankfurt to the French border, was boring and disappointing. One has heard so much about German highways that it is easy not to meet the expectations. Fifty years ago, I agree that German highways were the best ones in Europe but it seems they have forgotten the meaning of two important words: maintenance and enhancement.

Then, we spent quite a lot of time in France. We entered the hexagon in Mulhouse, close to a huge Peugeot factory and left it in La Jonquera. It is amazing the comfort and quality of French highways: they are clean, the speed limits (130 km/h and 110 km/h when raining) are perfect, they are surrounded by nice woods and landmarks,... We also drove close to river Rhône and, again, I must write that it is the closest thing to the ocean that I have ever seen in my life. Other rivers (such as Doubs, Isére, Ain,...) are also remarkable, but Rhône seems to be the mother of all of them.

I booked a room in Chateauneuf du Pape, a small village close to Avignon. I could not find nice and cheap accommodation in Avignon and that is the reason why I moved some ten kilometres away. Talking with a French colleague at work, I learnt that Chateauneuf du Pape is said to have the best wine in France. As I do not drink wine, there is nothing I can say about it, but I can say that, at least, they are expensive (7 € for a cup of wine for dinner).The name Chateauneuf du Pape means something like "Pope's Newcastle". It has indeed a castle, but it is in ruins, not new. From it, there are nice views of Rhône river and Avignon. These ruins allow the visitor to learn how arches and doors were made in Middle Age (see picture below). They just start by piling up stones, approaching each pair of two a bit more every time, until they can be covered by a single stone. It is obvious, but worth seeing.The last part of our trip, from La Jonquera to Guadalajara went through known places and there is not really much to say. Only the stupid fact that Madrid is not readable in the highway panels until it is only 260 kilometres away, in Zaragoza. In Catalonia there is not a single clue of how far Madrid is. Arghhh, again, another evidence of the stupidity associated with nationalism.

Second time in München

I was first in München several years ago and I came back to Spain with the impression that it was my favourite German city. During the ten days spent in München that time, it rained the very ten days, but, in despite of that, I really enjoyed the city.

Our trip did not have a good start. In the train we found themselves surrounded by a group of Germans of around 40-50 years, who just started to drink "Sekt" in the train (four bottles were emptied after two hours). They were really noise and the exception to the good atmosphere one finds in German trains. Never again, I will never find another noisy group of divorced Germans like that, never ever. Arriving to München meant a huge relief for us.Afterwards, we went to the town hall, to see the movements in the clock at 11am. The town hall in München is probably one of the most beautiful in the whole world, but this time I felt a bit disappointed because the show in the clock was not so special: it looked like just a as a trap for tourists. This gothic town hall also shows the fight for the power in the Middle Age between the church and the new citizens: they wanted to have the largest building to show their power.

After having lunch in Agustiner, once a real closter, we went to Odeonplatz, where the old palaces and their gardens, and the administrative buildings dominate the background. This is the perfect place to get lost in München. It is remarkable that most of the administrative buildings have the name "Staat" in German, meaning "from the State", while München is not the capital of any country. To tell you the truth, München seems to be a capital city without country.

The cathedral in München was rebuilt after the Second World War but it is still a nice visit. Other remarkable churches in München are Asamkirche, an extremely barroque church, and St. Cayetan, in Odeonsplatz, just surrounded by extraordinary buildings. What about museums? Well, München has two museums with an Ancient Greek air and several others with interesting paintings, including Van Gogh, Rubens,... It even has an obelisk!

München is also a rich city. Around Maximilianstrasse, we saw more Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis than ever in our lives. After ten minutes, one is simply overwhelmed and a Porsche Carrera is nothing, it does not deserve even a short glance. Even the music bands in the street have some charm and they peform classical music with the help of a... piano!

The largest urban park in Europe is supposed to be in München: the English Garden. We did not have time to watch it all, but we saw some surfined in the city, the largest highlight of the park. On our way out, we found a naked man, showing the world his piercings, precisely in the part of his body you have now in your mind... How painful!

Finally, let me also mention the Olympiapark, where the Olympic Games in 1972 took place. From a certain point of view, these games were the first modern games: the first ones with a terrorist attack and the first ones with a remarkable stadion. In our visit to the park, we have witnessed a mountain bike race, with probably more than 1000 participants.To sum up, München is a top city in Europe, probably one of the top three with highest quality of life. It should be a "must" for a visit, believe me. Ahhh, if only the European Central Bank moved to München...

First week in Frankfurt

Well, let me comment here the main events which has taken place in my life in the last week, once back to Frankfurt. Days are becoming longer and now it dawns at around 6:20 in the morning. At 7, my house is full of light. Thanks Lord, this time I have, what a treasure, Venetian blinds ("persianas" in Spanish). Something is feeling different, as days are longer and the sun appears from time to time.

On Saturday we went back to Grosse Feldberg, the highest peak in Taunus mountains, around 30 kilometres far from Frankfurt. It is quite easy to reach with the underground, from Frankfurt. I was there in November 2008, with my friend Sonia, and everything was covered with snow. This time, though, the sun was shining and we could even have lunch outside, with amazing views of Frankfurt. It was strange to be in the same place without snow, sometimes I could not identify the places I have known.

I have realized these days that I am becoming rather old. I was complaining about my new mobile phone, because it did not charge batteries and, after some time, I discovered it was my own fault: I had put the batteries in the wrong position. The same happened when going shopping some days ago, I could not remember what I needed, the reason why I was in the shop.

Next weekend, I will be in München. Let's see what we find in Bavaria's capital, one of my favourite German cities, as far as I remember it.

Driving through France

Well, after some dayds with a lot of issues to solve and persisting problems with my Internet connection at home, let me briefly tell you the highlights of the trip from Guadalajara to Frankfurt. We foresaw a stop in Tournon-sur-Rhône, near Lyon, just in the middle of the trip.

During the first part of the trip, nothing interesting happened to us. We crossed Zaragoza and Barcelona quite quickly and without much traffic on the roads. In the French border, we passed without being stopped and in such an easy way that we got into the amazing French highway system. In the picture below, you have Mont Ventoux in the background, the mountain with snow and something like a lighthouse on the summit.After passing Montélimar, the town with two nuclear plants around 20 kilometres, we reached Tournon-sur-Rhône. The town has not special remarks beyond the river Rhône. Wow, it is like Rhein and like the sea: an amazingly huge amount of water. It also has the first hanging bridge ever built in France. On one side of the river we have Tournon-sur-Rhône while on the other side we have a different town (Tain l'Hermitage), belonging to a different province. Watching this huge river, one realizes the importance rivers and bridges had in ancient times (when Romans conquered Gaul, for example).
Once we passed Lyon and went through France, we entered into Germany and everything changed. There are no speed limits in Germany and it results in driving very aggressively and too fast, for my liking. In this respect, French are better drivers than Germans (although Germany has more drivers in Formula 1 than France, but this is the topic here).

Let's hope that my Internet connection works better and I can write more often about my second stay in Frankfurt.

First experiences in the first day of the second stay in Frankfurt

Yeah, such a long title to briefly explain by first feelings at the beginning of my second stay in Frankfurt, back after exactly one year. I have passed through this, so I know that at the very first moment, everything looks like a disaster, but, after a while, it turns out to be very nice and convenient.

Firstly, I would like you to know that two of my closest friends are having tough times and therefore I am not fully feeling in the perfect mood for starting a new adventure, since I indirectly felt I was leaving them behind. They are consuming an important part of my powers right now.

Having said that, the first day has been a disaster, I only have accumulated negative experiences. At home, let me enumerate some of them: my house still smells as it was recently painted, the freezer in the house is too small, at nights the tram and the cars outside make a lot of noise (gotta get used to it as soon as possible), the pillow in my bed is too soft (I now have a strong backache due to it), I am having problems with Internet and it does not work properly, the sound in the TV is broken, some water drops fall from the kitchen tap,... At work, the situation has not improved much. Hopefully, most of these problems have an easy solution.

However, I only faced a problem: my user account was locked and I could not log in until late in the afternoon. It means that I have done nothing today regarding paperwork and some other stuff I wanted to do. It could be said that today has been a "wasted day". On the other side, the work seems challenging enough as to soon overcome these difficulties.

To sum up, nothing extraordinary in my first days here: a lot of stuff to solve and a lot of problems. Nothing new, to be honest. I expect to start improving soon...