I kept this journal at LiveJournal, a journalling service. In this service the newest entry is added at the top, so if you want to read chronologically, start at the bottom.
Saturday, June 16th, 2001
10:26 pm Arrived back in South Africa at 07:30 Saturday morning. The flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam was delayed because of poor weather: the rain moved in just as I moved out. The Amsterdam-Johannesburg flight went without a hitch, and we landed slightly ahead of schedule.
Thursday, June 14th, 2001
11:39 pm On Thursday we visited Ironbridge Gorge, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Industrial operation in this valley stopped only recently, and now restoration and preservation work are the dominant activities. The history of the area is illustrated by a series of museums. The town of Ironbridge takes its name from the existence of the worlds first bridge made of cast iron, a marvel in its time.
Wednesday, June 13th, 2001
11:33 pm On Wednesday we visited Warwick Castle, which contains well-executed reconstructions of life in the castle in medieval and more recent times.
Tuesday, June 12th, 2001
11:24 pm Tuesday we drove to Rugby to visit family, paying a visit to Coventry Cathedral on the way there.
Monday, June 11th, 2001
11:23 pm Monday afternoon I visited the Science Museum, and in the evening I travelled back to Birmingham.
Sunday, June 10th, 2001
11:22 pm On Sunday morning we visited the London Dungeon.
Saturday, June 9th, 2001
11:20 pm On Saturday morning I travelled from Birmingham to London, by coach. I was met by friends, and we had a picnic lunch in Kew Gardens.
Thursday, June 7th, 2001
10:59 pm On Thursday I visited the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. The museum is based on a large jewellers that closed down in 1981, but had operated essentially unchanged since Victorian times.
Wednesday, June 6th, 2001
11:17 pm Wednesday I spent sleeping, an ill-advised attempt to get rid of the jet-lag.
Tuesday, June 5th, 2001
11:14 pm Monday afternoon I travelled to Birmingham in the UK. Flew from Austin to Memphis, Tennesee to Amsterdam to Birmingham, where I was picked up.
Sunday, June 3rd, 2001
10:49 pm Sunday morning we visited the Texas State Capitol, the home of the Texas legislature. It is an impressive stone building, but no longer the highest state Capitol. In the evening we went to the Oasis, a restaurant/bar high above Lake Travis, to watch the sunset over the lake. Texas is hot and humid. Today the temperature reached 36°C, and yesterday was worse.
Saturday, June 2nd, 2001
10:34 pm On Saturday we went to San Antonio. The heart of this old city is the Alamo, a mission-turnedfortress where a number of Texans were cornered and eventually slaughtered by the army of Santa Anna, the Mexican ruler. Another attraction in this city is the River Walk, a restaurant-encrusted waterfront along the San Antonio river, where it loops through downtown.
Thursday, May 31st, 2001
10:49 pm On this day I travelled from Seattle to Austin, Texas.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2001
2:12 pm On Tuesday I visited the Wooden Boat Center. Here they have a collection of boats of all shapes and sizes, all wooden. The Center also rents them out, and provide workshops and training on aspects of boating. Later I visited Pike Place Market, a public market in downtown Seattle, a wonderful place if you like shopping.
Monday, May 28th, 2001
11:20 am Monday was Memorial Day, when America remembers her soldiers. Nothing interesting happened.
Sunday, May 27th, 2001
11:18 am On Sunday we saw Shrek, the new computer-animation film.
Saturday, May 26th, 2001
10:56 am On Saturday I went with my hosts to Bermerton, on an island across Puget sound from Seattle. It is home to a US Navy shipyard, and the USS Turner Joy, a destroyer from the 1960's, and today a museum ship. It is one of the last gun destroyers, before missile destroyers came into fashion. We went to Bremerton by ferry, but came back via Tacoma, crossing Puget Sound at the Tacoma Narrows bridge, which has served generations of science and engineering students as an example of resonance: the somewhere in the middle of 20th century the centre span of the bridge collapsed when wind started and amplified oscillations.
Friday, May 25th, 2001
9:47 pm On Friday I took the bus to Discovery Park, a very wild park on Puget Sound. From there I went to the Hiram M Chittenden Locks, part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which makes navigation between Lake Washington, Lake Union and Puget Sound possible. These locks are unusual, because they also separate fresh and salt water, and they include one of the few freshwater/saltwater fish ladders in the world. After the locks I visited the Japanese garden that is part of the Washington Park Arboretum.
Thursday, May 24th, 2001
10:39 am On Thursday I went on the Underground Tour. After the Great Fire of Seattle, the city was rebuilt in stone and steel, and simultaneously the streets were regraded. In many parts of the city this left the bottom floors of the new buildings under street level. Eventually the sunken sidewalks were roofed over, leaving the Underground, which was condemned in 1907. The tour takes you into parts of the underground with the guides giving a humorous commentary.
10:36 am Yesterday we visited the Museum of Flight, an aviation museum with a heavy emphasis on the achievements of Boeing. Part of the museum is the Red Barn, where Mr Boeing built his first airplanes. One important (to Americans) aircraft in the museum is an earlier version of Air Force One, the US Royal Aircraft used to transport the President and his court around the world. Other exhibits includes the SR-71, Spacehab, a mockup of a International Space Station module, an airport control tower and an F4 Phantom.
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2001
9:35 pm On Tuesday we visited the Seattle Center. In the Pacific Science Centre there was an exhibition of artefacts salvaged from the Titanic. These artefacts are cleverly combined with other exhibits to tell the story of the Titanic simply and movingly. After this I went up the Space Needle. The air was as clear as it could possibly get, I think, and it was possible to see the mountains surrounding the city. Mt Rainier is especially impressive, considering that it is 90 miles away, and still appears huge. In the evening we were visited by a fellow Antarctican, and we swapped ice-stories, while our hosts politely listened.
Monday, May 21st, 2001
9:04 pm The first activity on Monday was to get on-line. The local libraries Washington gives free Internet-access, and as my hostess uses this facility I had the chance to spend some time on-line and get my journal up to date. In the afternoon, because it takes some time to get there, we visited the Everett plant of Boeing, where the wide-bodied jets are built. The tour lasts one hour and five minutes, and includes a view of the 747 assembly lines, which is housed in the largest building in the world, measured by volume.
Sunday, May 20th, 2001
10:46 am Sunday dawned clear and bright again, and after breakfast we cycled to Jericho Beach, for a walk along the water's edge. After a sumptuous home-cooked lunch, my Seattle hosts, who had spent the weekend in Vancouver, arrived to pick me up. It was with a heavy heart that I started the drive south. The weather continued clear and sunny, and as we came closer to Seattle it was possible to see Mt Ranier. According to the locals this is not an everyday occurrence. The scenic route through Seattle to Redmond, where I'm staying, also includes views of lake Washington and the Space Needle.
Saturday, May 19th, 2001
10:26 am Saturday's weather offered a distinct improvement. Although it was windy, it was warm and clear, and for the first time I could see the mountains clearly. In the morning I went to the Maritime Museum. The museum itself is quite small, but the centrepiece is a token of great courage and adventure. The largest building in the museum houses the 'St. Roch', a vessel used by the RCMP (Mounties) to patrol the islands in Northern Canada. During WWII it became the first vessel to traverse the North West passage from east to west, and in 1944 it went back, from Newfoundland to Vancouver in 86 days. It was also the first vessel to circumnavigate North America. In the afternoon we went cycling in Stanley Park, a large park located right next to downtown Seattle. We cycled along the seawall, past a collection of totem poles, past the 'Girl in a wetsuit', a bronze statue on a rock, under the Lions Gate bridge, past Shiwash rock, walked up to the lookout at Prospect Point, and back home.
Friday, May 18th, 2001
11:46 am Friday started slower than expected, due to bicycle problems. I gave a slide show in a UBC lecture hall, and later in the afternoon I visited the UBC botanical gardens, which houses a large collection of Asian plants and a replica of a medieval Physik garden, a collection of medicinal plants. On the way home I cycled through the Pacific Spirit regional park, a piece of (almost) pristine forest, commercially unexploited, but with 32 paths through it, some reserved for pedestrians.
Thursday, May 17th, 2001
11:37 am The bus drivers in Vancouver are on strike, so that the only transportation available for students and budget travellers are bicycles. My hostess and I cycled into downtown Vancouver on Thursday, where she had some official business, and I went on a guidebook-directed walking tour of the district. Particularly impressive was the public library, 8 stories high, and reminiscent of the Coliseum in Rome.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2001
9:10 pm My firs visit in Vancouver was to the University of British Colombia. The campus, which is almost a town on its own, houses the BC Museum of Anthropology, which displays a large number of artefacts of the First Nations, but also a fine collection of Central European ceramics. Also on the campus is a Japanese Garden, with unreal beauty, and immense tranquility. In contrast to it stands the Rose Garden . A delightful discovery was the map library. The UBC has a complete library devoted to maps, which covers every spot on earth. In the evening we went to the Omnimax Theater at Science World, and saw a double feature, 'Solar Max', and 'Chang Jiang, the great river of China'.
3:34 pm The flight from Washington to Vancouver was uneventful, but early. The flight left at 06:10, and it meant that I was out of bed at 04:00. Quite unnecessary, because it was only a 15 minute drive from downtown to Ronald Reagan National Airport. The cab dispatchers give the rudest service I've yet encountered. Vancouver is a green city, in every sense of the word. A walk along the Kitsilano beach to Granville Island shows some of the pleasures this city has to offer. Supper was Chinese, one of the things Vancouver is famous for.
7:57 am On Monday morning I went to the Holocaust Museum. In the afternoon I visited the Navy Museum, which was unfortunately closed for renovations, but in any case my time just allowed a visit to the moored museum destroyer, the ex-USS Barry, and the portion of the museum dedicated to the Korean war. After supper I went to have an ice-cream in a street filled with restaurants, in the north-west, beyond Rock Creek. And this ended my visit to Washington, DC.
Sunday, May 13th, 2001
4:12 pm My first visit was to the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. I was shocked to learn that on weekends the Washington Metro only starts running at 08:00. Not surprising, really, for the museum only opened at 10:00. But no problem, the walk through the city was interesting enough. The Museum is famous for its exhibition of real famous aircraft: Spirit of St Louis, Wright Flyer, Voyager. Also present are numerous spacecraft, including a real (but unused!) Apollo lunar lander. After the museum closed I walked down the National Mall, past the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool, to the Lincoln Memorial, where I listened to a talk about the Gettysburg address, given by an enthusiastic Parks Ranger. Supper was in a Mexican/Salvadorean restaurant. This morning I visited the Arlington National Cemetery, the Marines Monument, and Foggy Bottom.
Friday, May 11th, 2001
4:04 pm Arrived in Washington DC yesterday afternoon. No problems with the flights, but the US Customs & Immigration seems user un-friendly, though the offcials I dealt with were friendly enough. Dulles International is huge, and spread out, and far from the city. As a first impression, Washington is similar to Pretoria, but scaled up 1.25 times.
Thursday, May 10th, 2001
6:41 pm Heidelberg, Köln & Essen
Heidelberg is a famous university town in Germany, situated beautifully on the hills at entrance to the Neckar valley. As soon as I had arrived in Heidelberg I went to the hostel to book in. With a place to leave my baggage, I immediately went back to the train station, and caught a train to Bad Wimpfen, a delightful little town on the hills above the bend in the river Neckar. Unfortunately I was allowed very little time in this town, as I had to catch the next train back to Heidelberg. On Monday, after a good breakfast at the youth hostel, I went exploring the city. From the central plain I walked along Hauptstraße. I nearly choked on my chocolate when I saw a sign calmly announcing that in this house, Kirchoff first measured the spectrum of the sun and some stars, and so started a new study-field in astronomy. At the end of the old town, there is a funicular rail that goes up to the old castle, the most prominent feature of the town. Built of red stone, it was destroyed by the French during the War of Succession (I think). Parts of the castle are still habitable, and I also visited the German Pharmacological Museum, which is housed here. A particular attraction in this castle is the biggest wine vat in the world, which held 220 thousand litres of wine. The last part of the castle that was built is the gardens, which is still intact, and a delight. From the Schloß I went up further with the rail, and ended at Königstuhl, where there is a broadcast tower, some eating-places, and convenient access to the observatory. Also, the last section of the rail was electrified in 1908, and the original equipment is still in use. Windows in the room allows visitors to view the operation. From up there the view over the river and out onto the plain is of course spectacular, and the surrounding forests gives it a very calm atmosphere. Up here I lost my ticket, but the driver very kindly let me ride down without it. Down in the town again, I crossed the river by the Old Bridge, and walked up the Schlangenweg to the Philosophenweg, which runs parallel to the river, but high up, with a view over the town. I crossed the river again to the Bismarckplatz, for a late supper and bed. I left Heidelberg early on Tuesday morning, and caught my train to Essen. I made a stop in Köln, for a visit to the justly famous Kölner Dom, or Cologne Cathedral, as it is known in English. Back in Essen, we spent the afternoon in the medieval town of Werden, and in Villa Hügel, the house of the Krupps, the famous family of steelmakers. In the evening we saw a student production of the Händel opera Acis and Galatea.
Sunday, May 6th, 2001
6:41 pm Paris
The direct train from Zürich was full when I tried to reseve a place, so I ended up going by express to Genevé, and from there by TGV to Paris. Travelling by TGV is an experience. It is a very fast train, and very modern. The experience approaches that of flying, with seats similar to airliner seats, and a definite feeling of acceleration when the train starts climbing a hill. In Paris I arrived at the Gare Lyon, and walked into confusion. The station is being renovated, and it is dusty and noisy, with crowds of people milling around. I immediately obtained a Metro (underground railway) map, and started plotting my course to the hotel. I bought a ticket at a machine, and entered the labyrinth of the Metro, which I found easy to use, but crowded. Although I thought this was because of Friday afternoon, I learned that this crowding is permanent. From the Metro station to the hotel was more than the promised 8 minutes' walk, but I found the place without much effort, and although the details of the booking was not correct, they had a room ready. I was just getting engrossed in an television broadcast of a bullfight when my host knocked at the door. They had just arrived by car from Bordeaux, and as soon as they had washed, we were out into Paris. Our first stop was the Trocadéro and the Eiffel tower. Next stop was McDonalds on the Avenue des Champs Élysées, for a welcome supper. On Saturday morning I accompanied my friends to the station Gare du Nord, where they went to catch their train to the north, and the rest of their holiday. From Gare du Nord I went back to the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs Élysees, where I walked until I saw the Invalides, crossed the Seine at the Pont Alexandre III, and walked up to the Invalides. From there I caught the Metro to the Sacré Cœur de Mont Martre Basilica, the huge church on a high hill. Discouraged by the milling crowd of uninterested tourists, walked down the hill through quiet streets and a cloth-selling district back to the Metro. The next train I caught was to the Ile de la Cité, the island in the Seine which is the origin and centre of Paris (and possibly France.) On this island is the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, the next attraction I visited. Again confronted with thousands of tourists on the plain in front, I walked around the cathedral, which is not very big. I was delighted to find the gardens behind the cathedral practically empty. Meanwhile, troops of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides (or whatever their equivalent in France) was descending on the Cité, and the crowd became a mass of people. Instead, I went to have a meal. When I came back, the Scouts had gone, and the crows thinned out, so I joined the queue that shuffles through the cathedral, and saw the inside. All I can say of that, is that on a sunny day, the glass must be truly spectacular. From the Cité it is a small distance to the Musée de Louvre. Unfortunately the staff was on strike, so although the entrance was open, the collections was locked up, and all I got from the visit was an orientation, and a look at the controversial glass pyramid. And so my day in Paris came to an end. Early on Sunday morning I went to the Gare de l'Est, to catch my train to Heidelberg.
Thursday, May 3rd, 2001
6:40 pm Zürich On Tuesday evening my host met me in Zürich Hauptbahnhof, and took me for a walk through the medieval part of the city, where we had a supper of rösti and veal, a typical Swiss dish, I'm told. On Wednesday I went to the Post Office, and spent some time at an exhibition of large-format photographs from a recent book entitled 'Earth from Above.' The rest of the day I spent walking the city and along the lakeshore, enjoying the spring weather and the view of the Alps. Thursday, after reserving my train-seat to Paris, I continued my exploration of the city, and did some shopping. For supper we went to an Italian restaurant in a less fashionable (but more real) part of the city, and ended with coffee at the Café Odeon, which is located in what used to be a cinema.
Tuesday, May 1st, 2001
11:11 pm Bodensee
The Bodensee is to Germans what the Natal South Coast is to South Africans, and the atmosphere is exactly the same. The difference is that the major crops in the region are apples and hops, and not sugarcane. I arrived in the small town of Kressbronn rather late Monday evening, just in time to see the towns Maibaum (Maypole) being erected. It is tall pole with a pine tree on the top, and further decorated with greenery. I also carries the shields of the different artisans in town. On Tuesday my hosts took me for a short sightseeing drive through the hinterland of the Bodensee, a beautiful country of small hills and lakes, formed by the deposition of gravel from the glaciers of the last ice age. Pretty little villages dot these hills. Because it was a fair-weather May Day, the roads were crowded with cyclists, and we also saw a parade of old tractors. Before returning home we visited the town of Wasserburg on the Bodensee. Inside the church is inscribed the details of the three times when the Bodensee froze completely, making it possible to cross on foot. The afternoon I spent in the Zeppelin Museum, that describes the history of the giant airships, but also houses art collections. Hooray for hypertext: each exhibition hall is dotted with computer screens, from which is possible to get background information. Late in the afternoon I caught the ferry across the Bodensee, from Friedrichshafen to Romanshorn, in Switzerland, from where my train departed for Zürich.
Sunday, April 29th, 2001
11:11 pm München
On Thursday I travelled from Berlin to München on the ICE, Germany's high-speed train, very modern and comfortable. The afternoon I spent exploring the München inner city, walking from the station to the Marienplatz and back. Late in the afternoon I was picked up by my hostess, and brought to Geretsried, the town where I stay. On the way we stopped by a tiny chapel on a steep little hill, from where there is a good view of the Alps. Friday I spent in the Deutsches Museum, a very big and famous science museum in München. Saturday morning I spent some time cycling through the nature reserve on the banks of the river Isar, which flows past Geretsried through München. In the afternoon we went to visit the Starnberger See, a large lake in the vicinity, with crystal-clear water. Sunday I was back in the museum, not having seen nearly enough on Friday.
Saturday, April 28th, 2001
12:34 am Berlin
Berlin is a great city. I arrived on Monday, and spent the afternoon in the Berlin Zoo, which claims to have the largest collection of animals in the world. It is certainly strange to hear the cry of the fish eagle here. Monday night I went to listen to the Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Tuesday I spent exploring Berlin. The Gedachtniskirche on the Kurfürstendamm, the KaDeWe, largest shop in Berlin, Fernsehturm on the Alexanderplatz with its excellent view over the city, Unter den Linden, and everything. The Brandenburg Tor is currently being repaired. There wasn´t much on at the Staatsoper, and I had a headache so I spent the eveing at home. Wednesday I went to Potsdam, to Park Sanssouci, the playground of the Prussian kings. A beautiful park, filled with beautiful buildings, gloriously expensive and royal.
Monday, April 23rd, 2001
1:42 am A week in the north of Germany. It's been a while since I've had internet-access, so here's the update for the week: On Tuesday 17 April I travelled to Rotenburg auf der Wuemme, a small town between Bremen and Hamburg. During the afternoon my hostess and I went to the Universum, a science exposition of the Bremen University. My hostess is a teacher for handicapped children. On Wednesday I visited her school. I'm sure I learned more from these handicapped children than they benefited from my visit. On Thursday I had an excursion to Bremerhaven to visit the Maritime Museum. Just across the road from there is the headquarters of AWI, the organisation, responsible for German polar research. On Friday I travelled from Rotenbrug to Rostock, arriving late in the day. Saturday my hostess and I spent visiting Warnemuende, a famous holiday resort, and going up the tower of the Petrikirche, the very tall roof of which has recently been restored from war-time damage. Today we visited the Rostock Maritime Museum, not as glamorous as its Bremerhaven counterpart, but interesting in its own right. Tomorrow, Berlin.
Monday, April 16th, 2001
6:34 pm Spent this morning on a visit to the Wupperthal Schwebebahn, an elevated railway in the town of Wupperthal. The carriages are suspended from the overhead rail, and most of the rail runs above the river. This technique saves space in the narrow valley bottom. It is a hundred years old, and the safest public transport in Germany, if not the world.
12:07 am This morning I had an Easter brunch with my hosts, and afterwards went to walk it off along the Baldeneysee, a lake in the Ruhr. We came back with a small steam train. In the afternoon we went to visit the zoo in Bochum, and went to a 3D IMAX show: the first animation 3D in IMAX.
Saturday, April 14th, 2001
11:22 pm Not an auspicious start to a long journey! My flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam was delayed by four hours. This was not too serious, but what really threw this out was that the next connecting flight from Amsterdam to Düsseldorf was only at 16:10, instead of at 08:00. Slight problem, but it gave me a chance to see something of Amsterdam: mostly the outside of buildings. Also got almost run down by a car driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. The train from Amsterdam Central to Schipol was also delayed, by about 10 minutes: not enough to be serious. Next the Amsterdam-Düsseldorf flight was delayed, because through-booked passenger did not board the same flight as his luggage. In the end we had to identify our own luggage. This delayed us another 90 minutes. At the moment it is snowing in Essen: apparently not a very usual occurence for Easter.
Saturday, April 7th, 2001
10:22 pm Just completed my own journal style!
10:57 am Got my Eurail pass yesterday.
Thursday, April 5th, 2001
10:53 pm On the technical side of the journal, I got it embedded in my web site, and downloaded the LiveJournal client to my home PC. I won't be using the client on tour, though. This is the first entry using the client Current Mood: accomplished
10:48 pm Been to the bank today, to organize the foreign exchange for this tour. Not totally successfull: our small branch in Bronkhorstspruit can't do everthing for me. So it's off to Pretoria tomorrow, to do that, and to pick up my rail pass.
12:06 am First entry This is the first entry in my journal. The purpose of this journal is to let friends and family follow my tour through Europe and North America. I've been wondering how to update my web site regularly, until I discovered LiveJournal
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