Heidanger- Hannover, 31 May

Happy birthday Mats! Kusinen

Early morning, only birds awake. at Heidanger Yacht Hafen on the stick kanal to Saltzgitter.

Water was so calm that we didn't dare let out the dishwater. I don't know what the other boats did, maybe they drank it.  During the evening a beautiful, sleek motorboat, snipa in Swedish, came gliding into the marina with an elderly, really elderly, couple sitting in the back under a canopy. They were sitting so serenely, I like to think that they were celebrating a birthday or a 80 th wedding anniversary.The boat took them right up to the restaurant and they left about 2 hours later. It was beautiful.

At Sendhe there was a scale 1:3 replica of the Cuxhavener Kugelbake. Carl believed that we would hear the national antheme (Swedish ) when passing the replica but no tune was heard. Carl is probably wrong in his Cuxhaven Kugelbake importance to playing national anthemes.   

The tailings dump from Kali Salz mining activities in Sendhe. Mine closed down in 1994. The work with putting vegetation on the dump is going on with good success as can be seen.

Waiting for the lock at Anderten to open.  15 m down. 

This is maybe the 10 th lock and we are getting the hang of it. Look so relaxed we are. 

Entering Hannover on MLK. Frequency of bridges in the Mittellandskanal  (MLK) is about 1,65 per km but in Hannover more like 5 per km. 

Deep concentration.

Altestadt Hannover. 

The Church next to Dublin Pub. 

Another building not far away from Dublin pub

Dublin pub. The town was full of hen and bachelors parties. But the party in the background was for a young man who turned 30 and still not married. We were told by a bystander that because he is 30 and not married he has to clean and cook by himself. His friends had thrown a lot of bottle tops and sawdust that he had to sweep up. Understood is that as a married man the wife would do the housework. Haha we hope it is just a joke. 

Anna and Renato, you need to come to Hannover. They are celebrating a British year. All over town there are information points about 300 years of Brittish/Hannover relations. 

In Hannover there is a Waterloo Column 46 m high, dated 1832, a connecting point.

Disco party at our Marina. Cocktails 5 Euros. Lots of German top of the pops. We joined in the dancing. Best night spot in Hannover., und Gemütlichkeit. 

Good Night Hannover. 

Wolfsburg - Heidanger Yacht Hafen 30 May

Heidanger Yacht Hafen

N 56 16' 40,8666"

E 10 23' 58.3540"

Elbe-Seitenkanal meets Mittellandskanal

between Wolfsburg and Braunschweig. 

Heidanger Yacht Hafen. A place to relax

Good restaurant and other facilities. Drömmen från Lomma ligger för om oss. 

Spargel noch einmal. Found out that it is easier to peel the Spargel with the cheese slicer than the potato peeler. For dinner we had Bratwurst and Kartoffelsalat,  Hollandsise Sauce to the Spargel and strawberries. 

Wolfsburg 30 May

Happy birthday Dan 

from

N 52 25' 51,9898"

E 10 48' 24,4341"

Five meters from the busy Mittellandskanal. 

The real thing at last. 

My brother Crispin taught me to drive on his 1956 Volkswagen

Ein zwei drei Polizei 

Alex and Calle!! Herbie remember?

Beetle mania. 

Wedding beetle in the foreground, speedy beetle the white one, next to it a wooden one and next to it a basket beetle.

Good bye Wolfsburg. 

Magdeburg-Wolfsburg, 29 May

Stocking up for leaving Magdeburgh in the rain.

Fully loaded dramaten. Thanks Dan and Margaret for the useful two wheeler

When we arrived Magdeburg this digital display showed 105. We learnt that it was cm above normal water level at Magdeburg Storm bridge, Elbe. The level at 28/5 at 1400 was 158.

Last year it was 700 cm above normal and the promenade was under water.

Two hours later the level was a bit higher. Spot Carl.

The magnificent Magdeburg Cathedral. Otto I laid the foundation in 916.

Getting ready to leave the Yachthafen Magdeburg.

Approaching the Shiffshebewerk which is going to lift us 18m from Elbe to the Mittellandkanal.

The mechanical lift. See behind the guys.

Approaching VolksWagen city Wolfsburg. 

Established in 1930th explicitly to manufacture VW, das Auto. 

The old VW factory, still working, now adjacent to the Autostad. 

An example of the ultra modern building in the Autostad

Same structure from different angle. The whole area is full of amazing buildings, exhibitions and entertainments. All focused on cars and particularly VW.

Spot Cartl outside the Autostad with a brand new super duper VW thermo flask in the stripy paper package. Could have bought a new VW instead and left LB in Wolfsburg.

Autostad is VWs showpiece to the world. Visit recommended.

I was actually more interested in the smaller and older VW historical museum and will try to visit tomorrow.

Meanwhile in Magdeburg continued

Meanwhile in Magdeburg

Bike ride along the Elbe. Seems like the Way to Santiago passes through Magdeburg. How about it, Corriene, Steph and Tessa, should we start here next time? After 13 km came to Wassenstrassekreuz, biked over the aqueduct. In a little town, Glidenburg found out that Napoleon "was here". Some sheep with lambs on the way and Otto, the big man of Magdeburg. Otto von Guericke was the mayor and even discovered "der Vakuumluftpumpe" in 1660. In the tourist brochures Magdeburg is referred to as Ottostadt. There was apparently even a King Otto, I think in the 800 or 900 century.

Almaty 26-27 May

Done deal. Mission completed. 

Back to the hotel

Kristoffer and Eugeny relaxing in the backseat. No seat belts!!!

Aftercontractsigning relax time at Kazakhstan hotel veranda. 

Kristoffer and Eugeny reporting home. Who can spot Carl?)

Split bananas

N 43 14 40,6641

E 76 57 20,0307

Carl has been spotted here tonight. 

But where is Leslie?

Jetty boating in Magdeburg

In the Art Hotel bar? or....

... in the Art Hotel lobby?....

...or in the BonApart restaurant across the road whet the lemon was elegantly packed in a neat little net bag. 

Magdeburg-Prague return, 22-24 May

Have left Lellebelle in Magdeburg to travel by train to Prague to celebrate Paulinas birthday.

Train from Madgaburg to Prague takes about 4 hours. Three American pensioners and a youngish Argentian our travel companions. American were sitting in our reserved seats but refused to move because their reserved seats were on a carriage that had not left Budapest. The Argentiinian lived in Patagonia. Much to my delight, having always wanted to travel to Patagonia after readin Bruce Chatwins " In Patagiona"

Prague, what a pleasure. Cannot get enough of the beautiful buildings. Such a pleasure just walking around. Could  take hundreds of photos but here are the hotspots where Carl was spotted.

The Astronomical clock, Prague Orloj. Made up of 3 components, the astronomical dial, the walk of the apostles and  the calendar dial. The oldest part of the clock dates back to 1410.

The old town square, eating traditional Prague ham ( just 

Iike julskinka, Christmas ham) and sausage, just to soak up the beer. 

Later in the evening we had more pig pork and pig calf? cooked in beer in a traditional  Czech restaurant. More beer to go with beer cooked pork. 

Charles (or Carl) on Charles bridge, Karluv Most. Construction of the bridge started 1357 under King Charles the fourth and was completed at the beginning of the 15 the century.

Amother view of the bridge.

Que?.... Anyone knows how this works?

I, Carl, think he has an invisible pole in his buttocks or the guy on the ground has a magnetic north head and the floating guy has same pole in his buttocks

An ordinary street In Prague. Spot Carl.

And we met up with cousin Mats and Else at the Hotel Paris......

.... en route to the salsa party. Here we have birthday girl Paulina having exhausted husband Magnus in a wild salsa

Prague style mojita, a bucket with straws shared with Magnus and Else. How do I  know, at 2 am, which is my straw?