As it seems the rule every three months, earlier this week, I went to Paris for a working meeting. Also as usual, the total time of my stay there was merely 24 hours.
This time I decided to make the trip by train. There is always a question when going from Frankfurt to Paris: plane or train? Taking the train is more comfortable and easy, since the stations are in the centre of the cities. However, the trip is in the end a bit long. This time I made a mistake when purchasing the tickets and I had to pay some extra money to the ticket controllers. On the other hand, the plane is faster but also more tiring, as one must go from the airport to the city centre and, specially for Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, this is a pain in the neck.
Finding an economic hotel in Paris is also challenging. I have had many not-so-positive experiences and I am still in the search of my perfect hotel in Paris. This time we went to a new hotel (Newhotel Roblin), close to Place de la Madeleine (by the way, is it a church the main building there?). The hotel was really, really nice but I am afraid that we took an special offer and that the usual price is much beyond our budget. We could also walk to the place of our meeting in the morning. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, it was not possible due to some heavy raining so I walked through the shops in Gare de l'Est.
In this visit, I have to admit that I have been very happy with what Paris was offering me. There were no long taxi trips, so I was not too scared of the traffic and we could even walk through its wonderful city centre. We had the opportunity to go for dinner and lunch, enjoying very good food in both cases (probably too much food also). I even started to imagine how daily life could be there...
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Segunda visita al Escartín
Este sábado pasado he visitado por segunda vez el Pedro Escartín para ver al Guadalajara en su andadura por la Segunda División. El partido era en esta ocasión por un rival directo para mantener la categoría, el Gimnástic de Tarragona (nada de aspirantes al ascenso que nos acaban dando una lección). La victoria, que al final se consiguió, era vital para evitar apuros al final de la temporada. En la entrada de hoy no quiero hablar del partido en sí (para eso se puede ver un vídeo resumen del partido en http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/guadalajara-condena-descenso-gimnastic/20120421dasdasftb_42/Tes) sino de cómo se vive el fútbol en nuestro estadio, porque es algo peculiar.
En primer lugar me llama la atención que la gente llegue tarde al fútbol, cuando se llevan jugados cinco y hasta diez minutos de partido. La mayoría de los que llegan tarde lo hacen, eso sí, con una cerveza en la mano, dejando bien claro qué es lo más importante para ellos. Bien sabían los directivos de Mahou donde ponía su nueva fábrica, bien que lo sabían. Ayer, además, hubo una desbandada general a las siete y media para ver el partido del Real Madrid contra el Barcelona. No sé si esto será igual en todos los campos, pero la verdad es que me parece poco serio.
Junto a nosotros se sentó en esta ocasión un "hombre primitivo". Ya en sus cincuenta años, esta persona se comió un bocadillo de jamón en el descanso con bastante pasión. Yo casi ni quería mirarle porque se me escapaba la risa y es que tenía el tocino blanco del jamón colgando en la boca, como si de un lobo con una presa en la boca se tratara. Además, el jamón no debía ser de muy buena calidad, porque lo mordía haciendo toda la fuerza posible con sus mandíbulas, recordándome a un cocodrilo tratando de desgarrar un ñú.
En la fila detrás nuestra, tuvimos la suerte de contar en la segunda parte con tres "entendidos" del fútbol, que nos dejaron una serie de frases para el recuerdo. Así, hablando de Ernesto, salvando las distancias, el Guti del Deportivo Guadalajara, dijeron de él que "acaba de entrar y ya tiene cara como de cansado", a lo que otro pronto añadió "seguro que fuma". Estos tres personajes analizaban el partido desde un punto de vista muy técnico y profundo, criticando que no se sacara el balón jugado desde la defensa para luego pedir, en la siguiente jugada, que se mandara el balón al río, entre otras muchas perlas. Tambíen me hicieron sentir algo de vergüenza ajena.
Por último, quería remarcar el juego de nuestro Deportivo Guadalajara. Nuestros jugadores corren como leones todo el partido y entran con mucha fuerza a por el balón, pero luego carecen de calidad, con la excepción de Ernesto. En este sentido, parece que el fútbol en los últimos años esté dando más importancia al aspecto físico que al técnico, a imagen y semejanza del Chelsea y su colleción de Obi Mikel... Pero al final, siempre tiene que venir la clase a ganar los partidos...
Creo que con este partido ya se da por terminada la temporada de visitas al Pedro Escartín. Aún quedan ocho jornadas pero espero que el Deportivo Guadalajara no pase apuros al final y que se mantenga otro año en Segunda División. Un equipo con semejante himno (http://www.deportivoguadalajara.es/web/el-club/himno/), se merece eso y más.
En primer lugar me llama la atención que la gente llegue tarde al fútbol, cuando se llevan jugados cinco y hasta diez minutos de partido. La mayoría de los que llegan tarde lo hacen, eso sí, con una cerveza en la mano, dejando bien claro qué es lo más importante para ellos. Bien sabían los directivos de Mahou donde ponía su nueva fábrica, bien que lo sabían. Ayer, además, hubo una desbandada general a las siete y media para ver el partido del Real Madrid contra el Barcelona. No sé si esto será igual en todos los campos, pero la verdad es que me parece poco serio.
Junto a nosotros se sentó en esta ocasión un "hombre primitivo". Ya en sus cincuenta años, esta persona se comió un bocadillo de jamón en el descanso con bastante pasión. Yo casi ni quería mirarle porque se me escapaba la risa y es que tenía el tocino blanco del jamón colgando en la boca, como si de un lobo con una presa en la boca se tratara. Además, el jamón no debía ser de muy buena calidad, porque lo mordía haciendo toda la fuerza posible con sus mandíbulas, recordándome a un cocodrilo tratando de desgarrar un ñú.
En la fila detrás nuestra, tuvimos la suerte de contar en la segunda parte con tres "entendidos" del fútbol, que nos dejaron una serie de frases para el recuerdo. Así, hablando de Ernesto, salvando las distancias, el Guti del Deportivo Guadalajara, dijeron de él que "acaba de entrar y ya tiene cara como de cansado", a lo que otro pronto añadió "seguro que fuma". Estos tres personajes analizaban el partido desde un punto de vista muy técnico y profundo, criticando que no se sacara el balón jugado desde la defensa para luego pedir, en la siguiente jugada, que se mandara el balón al río, entre otras muchas perlas. Tambíen me hicieron sentir algo de vergüenza ajena.
Por último, quería remarcar el juego de nuestro Deportivo Guadalajara. Nuestros jugadores corren como leones todo el partido y entran con mucha fuerza a por el balón, pero luego carecen de calidad, con la excepción de Ernesto. En este sentido, parece que el fútbol en los últimos años esté dando más importancia al aspecto físico que al técnico, a imagen y semejanza del Chelsea y su colleción de Obi Mikel... Pero al final, siempre tiene que venir la clase a ganar los partidos...
Creo que con este partido ya se da por terminada la temporada de visitas al Pedro Escartín. Aún quedan ocho jornadas pero espero que el Deportivo Guadalajara no pase apuros al final y que se mantenga otro año en Segunda División. Un equipo con semejante himno (http://www.deportivoguadalajara.es/web/el-club/himno/), se merece eso y más.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Under the sun in Lanzarote
Some weeks ago, we decided to have a relaxed Easter break and instead of having "procesiones" to enjoy some days in the beaches of Lanzarote (in Playa Blanca, for more details). In overall terms, these have been one of my best holidays ever.
I must start here from the very beginning: the airport in Lanzarote. It is light-years away from other airports I have seen in Europe, with a special mention to the one in Nice. The airport in Fuerteventura, where our plane back made a short stop, is even better and more comfortable. The fact to have a friendly and easy airport is really something to acknowledge when arriving to a foreign country and certainly a very important asset for a country (by the way, this is not an argument in favour of airports in stupid places like Salamanca, León, Badajoz, Ciudad Real and the like).
Other infrastructures around the island (roads, bus services, supermarkets, restaurants,...) are also remarkable. We were hosted in modest three-star apartments (Bahía Blanca Rock), so we did not have any luxus there. But, on the contrary, again, the quality of the accommodation is light-years, specially when put in relation with the price, from that in other European cities, like London or Paris, just to quote two of them. Our apartments were very clean and in a very nice area, with very kind staff, something which not all the hotels in Europe can say.
Generally speaking, I think we, as Spaniards, should be proud of the tourist industry we have, which is, again light-years more advanced than in other countries, like Greece, Croatia, Tunisia,... These countries can compete with us in prices, but not in quality.
Playa Blanca is really a wonderful place to stay in Lanzarote. It has a 10 kilometres long walk along the coastline, from the beginning of Punta Papagayo to a lighthouse in the southwestern corner of the island. Punta Papagayo also hosts some wild beaches, which are really worth the effort to go there and the inconveniences of not having public facilities. Playa Dorada, situated in front of our hotel, is a man-made beach of sand of very nice quality. At a walking distance of Playa Dorada, one has the sport harbour of Marina Rubicón, built in the years before the current crisis and where nice shops and restaurants can be found.
Beyond Playa Blanca, Lanzarote has many other things to
offer. The most interesting one is the National Park of Timanfaya, covering the remaining of the vulcano eruptions three hundreds years ago. The desolated landscape as well as some funny showcases are really worth the prize of the excursion there. Also related to that vulcano activity, the former crate of El Golfo and the cliffs in Los Hervideros are remarkable points of interest. Lanzarote also has some other points of interest, which were mainly developed in the seventies under the auspices of the artist César Manrique, such as Mirador del Río (an impressive viewpoint over the tiny island of La Graciosa) or Jameos del Agua (an underground lake in the middle of a former stream of lava).
In conclusion, because it is almost midnight, Lanzarote is much more than a mere holiday resort and a very interesting place where to spend some holidays.
I must start here from the very beginning: the airport in Lanzarote. It is light-years away from other airports I have seen in Europe, with a special mention to the one in Nice. The airport in Fuerteventura, where our plane back made a short stop, is even better and more comfortable. The fact to have a friendly and easy airport is really something to acknowledge when arriving to a foreign country and certainly a very important asset for a country (by the way, this is not an argument in favour of airports in stupid places like Salamanca, León, Badajoz, Ciudad Real and the like).
Other infrastructures around the island (roads, bus services, supermarkets, restaurants,...) are also remarkable. We were hosted in modest three-star apartments (Bahía Blanca Rock), so we did not have any luxus there. But, on the contrary, again, the quality of the accommodation is light-years, specially when put in relation with the price, from that in other European cities, like London or Paris, just to quote two of them. Our apartments were very clean and in a very nice area, with very kind staff, something which not all the hotels in Europe can say.
Generally speaking, I think we, as Spaniards, should be proud of the tourist industry we have, which is, again light-years more advanced than in other countries, like Greece, Croatia, Tunisia,... These countries can compete with us in prices, but not in quality.Playa Blanca is really a wonderful place to stay in Lanzarote. It has a 10 kilometres long walk along the coastline, from the beginning of Punta Papagayo to a lighthouse in the southwestern corner of the island. Punta Papagayo also hosts some wild beaches, which are really worth the effort to go there and the inconveniences of not having public facilities. Playa Dorada, situated in front of our hotel, is a man-made beach of sand of very nice quality. At a walking distance of Playa Dorada, one has the sport harbour of Marina Rubicón, built in the years before the current crisis and where nice shops and restaurants can be found.
Beyond Playa Blanca, Lanzarote has many other things to
offer. The most interesting one is the National Park of Timanfaya, covering the remaining of the vulcano eruptions three hundreds years ago. The desolated landscape as well as some funny showcases are really worth the prize of the excursion there. Also related to that vulcano activity, the former crate of El Golfo and the cliffs in Los Hervideros are remarkable points of interest. Lanzarote also has some other points of interest, which were mainly developed in the seventies under the auspices of the artist César Manrique, such as Mirador del Río (an impressive viewpoint over the tiny island of La Graciosa) or Jameos del Agua (an underground lake in the middle of a former stream of lava).In conclusion, because it is almost midnight, Lanzarote is much more than a mere holiday resort and a very interesting place where to spend some holidays.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Back to "business as usual"
Today I have realised that the current crisis started in 2007, almost five years ago, and we are still in the middle of it, with not a clear path to recovery. In the case of Spain, and extending it to the European Union, the end of the crisis seems to be light years away from us. What started as a mere crisis coming from a bubble in Wall Street, which was supposed to be similar to the "dotcom bubble", for example, has become the most severe crisis in recent history (in the case of Spain, given our past full of defaults, it is convenient to add the adjective "current").
The first months of the crisis saw a miriad of initiatives to change the global financial system, in order to make it more manageable and sustainable. However, now, after some years and some billions of euros (or dollars or pounds) of taxpayer money, most financial institutions seem to be back to the mode "business as usual" and are expecting to go back to their quiet and greedy life as before the financial crisis. It is the role of the supervisors and regulators worldwide to stay firm in the reforms and not to give up to their pressure.
In this context, I have found a paper from the Federal Reserve of Dallas about the role of big banks (too-big-to-fail in financial jargon) in the economy: http://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/fed/annual/2011/ar11.pdf. The paper is written in a very uncommon way for a regulator, and it is certainly worth the reading. I would like also to show my appreciaton for Harvey Rosenblum, the author of this paper, for its brave and clear explanation of our financial systems. His analysis of the factors behind the excesses in the financial system (complacency, greed, complicity, exuberance and concentration) is outstanding and clear like water.
The first months of the crisis saw a miriad of initiatives to change the global financial system, in order to make it more manageable and sustainable. However, now, after some years and some billions of euros (or dollars or pounds) of taxpayer money, most financial institutions seem to be back to the mode "business as usual" and are expecting to go back to their quiet and greedy life as before the financial crisis. It is the role of the supervisors and regulators worldwide to stay firm in the reforms and not to give up to their pressure.
In this context, I have found a paper from the Federal Reserve of Dallas about the role of big banks (too-big-to-fail in financial jargon) in the economy: http://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/fed/annual/2011/ar11.pdf. The paper is written in a very uncommon way for a regulator, and it is certainly worth the reading. I would like also to show my appreciaton for Harvey Rosenblum, the author of this paper, for its brave and clear explanation of our financial systems. His analysis of the factors behind the excesses in the financial system (complacency, greed, complicity, exuberance and concentration) is outstanding and clear like water.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Der Tag is gekommen
Gestern war es der Tag, darüber wir so viel seit Dezember gedacht haben. Es war auch ein langer Tag, der du um 6 Uhr morgens angefangen hast (ich habe den zwei Uhr spätens angefangen). Seit Dezember habe ich diesen Tag jeden Tag mit mir gehabt: er war immer da, er war eine stille Anwesenheit, die ich nicht raus von meinem Kopf senden konnte.
Gestern war der Tag, wo zwei Jahren von deinem Leben in Frankfurt zu Ende gekommen sind. Ich hoffe, diese Phase in deinem Leben sehr glücklich gewesen ist. Es gibt viele Erinnerungen, manche nicht so positiv (bei der Arbeit), manche sehr positiv (mit mir, ich hoffe). Wir haben so viel zusammen gemacht, es war so hart am Anfang und so einfach jetzt.
Jetzt eröffnen wir ein neues Leben, mit 800 Kilometer zwischen uns. Aber wir haben viele Liebe, um diese Entfernung zu verkürzen. Was die Zukunt uns bringen wird, ist zu uns unbekannt: wir werden es jedenfalls zusammen entdecken, "moja", "moja".
Gestern war der Tag, wo zwei Jahren von deinem Leben in Frankfurt zu Ende gekommen sind. Ich hoffe, diese Phase in deinem Leben sehr glücklich gewesen ist. Es gibt viele Erinnerungen, manche nicht so positiv (bei der Arbeit), manche sehr positiv (mit mir, ich hoffe). Wir haben so viel zusammen gemacht, es war so hart am Anfang und so einfach jetzt.
Jetzt eröffnen wir ein neues Leben, mit 800 Kilometer zwischen uns. Aber wir haben viele Liebe, um diese Entfernung zu verkürzen. Was die Zukunt uns bringen wird, ist zu uns unbekannt: wir werden es jedenfalls zusammen entdecken, "moja", "moja".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)