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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Scottish Highland Cruisin'

Two days of time had to be enough to left my cold behind. After going south to Erlangen on Monday, I hopped on the next aircraft to Edinburgh (see the upper picture - Edi's skyline of the Old Town with its spectacular Castle at the horizon). The inner city is awesome and well-preserved; as it was hundreds of years ago. I was lost in my thoughts when walking through the streets.

On day two I cruised along the east coast, crossing the Firth Bridge and passing Crail (see picture - view from the calm harbour to an offshore island), St. Andrew's (the golf sport was invented there, thus don't be surprised of the number of golf courses) and Dundee.

Dunnottar Castle, William Wallace kept English Soldiers there and it was home of the Scottish Crown Jewels.

Dufftown - a small and cosy village with heaps of whiskey distilleries that makes it famous for, especially the tastings in which I can't take part due to responsibly car driving. ;-)

I was the only guy hiking up the Stac Pollaidh, feeling like ... hehe well, see the picture :)

Scottish weather at its best at the Achmelvich Beach. Rugged coastlines and loneliness reminded me of some parts in Aussie - was similar over there.

Sangobeg Beach near Durness at Scotland's north end. I sat down on the car roof and opened myself to this beaty, soaking up everything I saw.

Haha those sheep with black heads and feet always drew my attention to 'em.

Scotland's most beautiful castle found at the west coast pretty close to Kyle of Lochalsh - the Eilean Donan Castle. I walked around it to get an idea of the life people had in the 16th century. Strange thoughts and feelings, but ideal views on this scenery.

This rock formation an the Isle of Skye is called "The Old Man Storr" - bizarre and beautiful at once.

The Quirang -> a must see in Scotland. Stay there and enjoy!!!

Cullin Hills on the Isle of Skye. I spent 3 days on this island. That tells a lot about its variety and number of points of interest.

The highest scotish mountain is the Ben Nevis with a hight of 1344m. I walked it up and down again in less than 5 hours - gaining a great lookout.

Picture taken on the way down to Glasgow, near to Crianlarich.

Glasgow, here the Town Hall, is a fully packed city without a special charm. Thus, it's not Scotlands highlight ;-)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Racing Cyclists!


I had 5 weeks off - 5 weeks out of the office, i.e. plenty of time to do whatever I like. So here it is:


Part 1 - cycling besides the Baltic Sea



Start was in Kiel, after meeting and having a brief chat with Tobi (about the upcoming Transalp only 3 weeks later). Day 1 with approx. 130km was excessively hard. The weather conditions remainded aweful during the hole week, peak temperatures hardly over 10 degrees, cloudy with showers from time to time. We were forced to leave the machines in the garage on Wednesday, pushing ourselves forward again on Thursday. Overnight, we got seriously ill (both of us at the same time, surprisingly) and we dragged us to Rostock without reaching the original destination: Rugia. What an unexpected ending!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Grain Site Visit, England



Hey folks, time for some news again, after weeks of deathly silence :) Here we go: I've been in England the first three days of May. A weekend trip with the aim to receive an impression on how an HVDC (high voltage direct current) switchgear looks like. The switchgear I will work on in Maasvlakte (Netherlands), starting in July, will be exactly the same. Anyway, beside the site visit we used our tiny part of freetime and checked out bordered cities and areas. See following pictures:


The world-famous "London Eye"


Colourful illuminated tunnel near London Castle


Valve Hall at Grain Site


City festival in Rochester, Isle of Grain, near London