First stop: Dubai

The flight was leaving Nuremberg at a moderate time, 10 am. Having a little stopover in Zurich, the 10 hour journey was continued without any inconveniences. Chilling and snoozing, drinking white and red wine and watching some movies, no problems to survive those few hours before entering Dubai. A taxi was waking me to the hotel at Deira City Centre. Haven't thought it could be that silent in such a mega city at 2 am. It was even difficult to get some food...

View across Dubai Creek to the old Dubai city centre. Important spot for trading everything: spices, tires, all kinds of electrical devices, jewellery, ... To cross the river, hop on those wooden boats called Abra, it just costs 20 Cent, and either you are on your own or travelling with 20 others. Perfect chance for the feet to get some rest.

Burj Khalifa, the highest tower on earth, 828m above sea level!!! The tourist platform at a hight of 452m is simply amazing. The elevator is kinda speeding to the sky with 10m/s, and the head feels like it's gonna be explode. Well, a bit!!!

View from the platform. Sand everywhere, and between that, roads, cars, skyskrapers and a few people ...

Oman, here I come

Ok, I am off now, for a couple of weeks, travelling to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and through Oman. Fleeing from the grey and drab winter weather here, coming back right before X-mas to get all my presents :D Cya then!

Away Games

Away games are not fun all the time, but that one was. Perfect weather combined with an terrific basketball game in the late afternoon can't be any better. Rothenburg o. d. Tauber seems to be the right spot for that.

We started the game a bit too sleepy, horrible defense was punished with some dunks and alley oops. 46:27 was the lead for Rothenburg after the first half. But we started fighting and won the game 66:67 after a 0:7 run in the last minute of the forth quarter. Yeah man!

Back @ Home 4 once

Little story to fill up the blog with some posts. The weekend at home was supposed to be calm, with some relaxing minutes doing nothing. Well, so good so far. Things changed on Sunday, when I got a ticket for the Kalkbrenner concert. Fritz was starting, getting the crowd to move, followed by Paul for another 4 hours. That was worth it. As a result, the bike ride going back to Erlangen the next morning was not about to happen on time. Never mind, Claus and I just wanted to see how far we can get. Destination reached at Bamberg, 8:30 pm, appox. 160 km. Not too bad, after all.

Summer Travelling

I've been kinda busy the last weeks - long time no post. This will be changed now... I had one day to pack all my stuff together, including a little detour via Erlangen, then hitting the road going north, cruising through Denmark and Sweden, appoaching Norway on the following day. Two relaxing weeks, two locations (island Atloy and Ulsteinvik) and a lot of relaxing time floating on the ocean, doing nothing, just chilling. This is how life's cool.

On the way back in Hamburg, I took the flight to Dublin, meeting Uwe and David after staying one night in the hostel in Dublin Downtown. Uwe was kinda speeding though the rain, hoping for better weather showing up after every turn :D But it didn't. We had fun anyway, climbed Europe's highest cliffs on Ireland's West Coast on day 2, enjoyed typical and traditional Irish breakfast or fresh and homemade served fish 'n' chips for dinner. The Giants Causeway at sunset wasn't missed at the third evening, before flying back to Frankfurt the following morning.

Getting started for the next highlight: Transalp 2011 - this time as a combination of two famours routes, i.e. 14 days and more intense. Rinkes, Tobi and I started in Oberstorf, passing Schroffenpass and spectecular Val d'Uina, riding though Vinschgau Valley and the Dolomites before approaching Lake Garda. The weather was more than excellent, the food delicious (Pizza, Spaghetti, Italian Ice Cream and fresh fruits, ähm wtf is bread??? :D) and the Italian language challenging. We had enough time for some sunbathing as well, reaching everyday's destination before sunset :) That will be different next time, promise.

Monster Trip

I've done it, biking home, from Brielle (NL) to Erfurt, 650 km in 4 days. Here are the stats and figures:



Day 1: Brielle - Venlo (210 km)
Day 2: Duisburg - Soest (130 km)
Day 3: Soest - Göttingen (170 km)
Day 4: Göttingen - Erfurt (140 km)

And, as a result of this, new wheels are needed. My ones broke down and were not able to handle the pressure :)

Limassol Meze Tavern

If you are in Limassol one time, starving, then try this Meze Tavern. I can highly recommend it :) Extraordinary food spiced with cool stories of the tavern owner ;)