During the last 24 hours or so I travelled from Helsinki via Frankfurt and Beijing to Sanya in Southern China. We have just another meeting here during this week. I hardly slept on the first two flights and when I arrvied in Beijing, I had to wait two hours for the connection flight. So I sat in a restaurant behind secuirty control and watched the people coming in, while drinking a beer. That was around 10.30 local time, a bright morning. Of course in Europe it was 6 or 7 hours earlier and my body was still in that time-zone.

There were a lot of interesting thoughts in my mind, but I could not catch them. I was too tired and had tasted too much of the red wine, that they give you in Lufthansa Economy flights. A thought came by, I milled it through my brain several times and it escaped. What a ridicuoulus thing of a thought to do . I ordered another beer, watched the people and played thought catching. Nothing happend. I ate. The waitress gave me plastic knife and fork, she did not even think I would be able to handle chopsticks. I drank my beer a little further. The red display of the clock shifted to 12.00 and I went to the plane to Sanya.

The seats on that plane made for something else but not for people who are 190cm tall. It did not bother me too much, as I fell asleep right away. Inbetween the sleeping during that four hour flight I finished "Post Office" from Charles Bukowski, which I had started on the plane from Helsinki to Frankfurt. The stewardess gave me a green tea when I ordered a water. I slept again. Woke up again and ordered a beer and hoped I would not end up with engine oil. She handed me a beer and soon after I slept again.

About three hours before landing it was announced that the plane would land soon. Might be it was only 30 minutes before, but it did not seem like 30 minutes. The ususal "be a good passenger" announcements wer given in Mandarin and English and then a female Chinese voice told a childrens story or read the communist manifesto or told us about her last boyfriend - I don't know, but she kept the loudspeaker busy with her words and sounds and emphasises. While she was talking the plane descended throught the dust of the clouds to a landscape of mountains, tropical woods and a blue sea.

The temperature down here has for sure never been reached in Helsinki region. I am not fond of high outside temperatures, but the related thoughts could anyhow not be caught. Whatever. I have to avoid to fall asleep too early, else I will not adjust to the local time. I guess that's why I bother you with this.

Here are some first impressions from Paris. I'm attending a conference and went out with two friends this evening.

Around Bastille

It's my second visit to the French captiol. The first time was only for 12 hours or so, several years ago. Not sure whether I'll see more this time.

A street Orchestra, underground


Notre Dame





Before the Wine and after (Moose and bear were really present)

Here are some pictures from a short trip through the high plains, that I took on Sunday before leaving back to Europe again.

After taking the I70 east I found an exit that pointed to "Kiowa", which sounded interesting. Kiowa was more than 20 miles and a dusty road away. The best views over the great land I had when driving further west from Kiowa.

The road to Kiowa

I recorded the Trip with GPS and put it on a map with GPSVisualizer, which now also converts the recorded route into Google Earth files. If you do not have Google Earth yet, I really recommend you to install it on your computer. It is free of charge and you can watch satellite pictures of the whole world.

Driving through the high plains -- Show in Google Earth

On Saturday afternoon I arrived at Denver, Colorado, where I attend a meeting this week. On Sunday, we took for several hours a trip by car into the Rocky Mountains.

Denver - minus degrees and sunshine.

I was in this region already in September 2001, when the 9/11 attacks took place. Johannes and I at that time drove for over a week through the Great Plains and the Rockies. I remember how I woke up on 9/11 and knocked on Johannes' door, to go for breakfast. He opend and dragged me to the TV. There the first plane had just flewn into the World Trade Center. We did not know what to make out of this situation. Few minutes later we were sitting down at the breakfast room, together with other guests - I think all of them were Americans and we stared at the screen of the TV there. When the towers were still standing I remember one man asking "I wonder when the WTC can re-open again". I know, it's a stupid memory, but on the other hand it also describes how clueluess everybody was at that moment.

Later that day, we were driving into the Great Plains, listening to the radio. I will never forget that. The tremendous land, stretching further out than anything I had ever seen, buildings appearing somewhere in the far distance and growing very slowly out of the flat land, and the reports and interviews on the radio. Obviously nobody had an idea what would happen next. Nobody had a clue what this all means for the future. During the afternoon the name Osama Bin Laden could be heared more and more often. A general said "We must pulverize their cities" and meant a not-yet defined enemy. Othere pleged to not run into a war, without knowing for sure who should be fought.

During the following week we drove through the mountains. It was autumn and the leaves of the birch trees were all showing a warm yellow color. The whole land seemed just to glow in this color - at least that is how I remember it. Whilst the political situation became clearer and first actions were taken, speeches were held, we drove through moutain towns where the roads were lined with US-flags.

The usual tourist photos

These things came back to my mind, since we landed here. When driving through the moutains again the landscape had not lost any of its magic. It is winter now, the birch leaves and most of the flags have gone but the impression of greatness is everywhere. And the view on the flat land, when going back from the Rockies to Denver, just opens eyes and heart. I grew up next to the moutains and never was too fond of them. Maybe I felt they block the view to something more interesting. Anyhow - you'll never satisfied with what you have. Here, in Colorado, it is also the sharp natural line that is drawn between plains and the mountains, the contrast between a land that looks endless to a human eye and the roads that guides you between high mountains to their top and down again.

No, it was not that cold. (Seen in a restaurant on the way)

It's four o'clock in the morning now. The time difference is still playing its games with me. But that's ok. The meeting starts in five hours. As long as there is a good breakfast before that, even that might be ok.

There are some cities I cannot stop making photgraphs of. Vienna is one of them and I have been there during the last days. I am now on the train to Budapest and watch the snow covered landscape of the Austrian Burgenland passing by. As I have to watch the trees and fields carefully, my report of the last days will be rather short.

City Impressions



Votivkriche - 9th District

Christmas Lights at the Graben

Stephansdom

Strudlhofstiege

On Friday I was initiated to the card game Tarock, that is mostly played in Austria. It has hundred times more rules and falvours than cards, but it's a lot of fun to play it, even when losing.

On Sunday afternoon friends and I vistited first the St. Marx Graveyard, which is an old Graveyard that is not used anymore since the 1870s. It is a very beautiful place to walk around and the writings on the gravestones are often funny to read nowadays. There is also an official Mozart grave. Mozart was buried in a mass-grave on that graveyard, but nobody knows where he really was placed there. So the official grave is just a fake, but nice to look at, if you like little angels.

Marx Graveyard - Entrance and Orientation


Graves at Marx Graveyard


The faked Grave of Mozart and the empty Grave of Josef Strauß

On the same day we also drove to Castle Laxenburg, which is south of Vienna. Lots of people were there, especially for ice skating on the frozen lake.

Castel Laxenburg, south of Vienna

And back from the castle we needed another walk along graves, so we went to the central graveyrad in Vienna, where also some famous people are buried. Of course also there is a Mozart monument.

Zentralfriedhof (Central Graveyard)

As always the hardes part was to leave Vienna. When driving in the taxi from the Hotel to Westbahnhof memories lurked between the buildings. I will be back, that's for sure.

P.S. If you want to see the above pictures in full-size, just click on them. I thought that this would be a simple user interface - but you never know ...