The Usurped Wapiti

Was having a bad jet lag day today for some reason...you'd think I'd be over it by now. Maybe it was the cloudy day doing it. Went out with some cousin's shopping in Landau and just couldn't get into it, ended up walking around with a smile pasted on my face. Will have to go back and get some photos - maybe walk there tomorrow. So just laying back and reading email, and JS had sent me these - amazing photos of chalk paintings (maybe somewhere in Germany?). Lightened my day for a couple of minutes.

Well, it didn't feel as bad as it sounds. After starting the evening gathered around with a number of the relatives, 12 of us went to a new disco (and one of the best) in Germany. Don't ask me why they name the discos like they do, but as with the disco 4 years ago (A65), this one has followed in its steps and called itself A5. The disco was amazing and they also had specials on drinks - everything you could look at for 0.99 Euros ($1.50 CAD). We danced for the night - clubs don't close until the mid morning (8AM), but we finished early after 5 hours at 3AM.

Anyway, after getting only 4 hours of sleep, I awoke to church bells and roosters. Still tired out of my mind, but unable to go to sleep and not wanting to wake everyone, I grabbed a catalog, and made this quick sketch. 20 minutes and it didn't turn out too badly

Below, Left to Right - Roman (Rheiner&Batina) and his rabbit, Aunt Racy, Racy's cat Charlie, Karina (Rheiner&Batina), Manfred and Eva, Aunt Gertrude, Rheiner (the magician), Ralf and Susie, Lisa (Roland&Gabi), Julia&Lucas (Ralf&Susie)

A special post dedicated to those courageous pilots who wake me up every day with their low level flights over Herxheim. There are two airbases close by, one German and one American, and they use the region for training flights. With a minimum flight level of 500m. You can regularly see Tornados, A10s and others. Neat for the first couple of times...been trying to get a couple of photos, but its difficult to follow them on my LCD screen or in the view finder.

Some of the best Hefe Weisen (Wheat beer) I've tasted.


Have moved flower pics to new subfolder - view at Closeups


The Herxheim church is quite an old church (mid 1500s I believe - will have to check on this) and is located at the center of the town. The photo probably doesn't do it justice, due to the fading light and the first time for using my landscape item on my camera, but then again, it is an old church...


Close to main street.

The countryside of this part of Germany is dominated by two things - small cities with their shining red roofs and the church steeple peeking out from the highest point, and agriculture. Here are some photos of general agriculture in the region - all crops are grown in approx 100 acre plots, so there is lots of variety...from rhubarb to wheat, carrots to spargel (white asparagus), and of course the everpresent vineyards producing the famous Rhineland-Pfaly white wines. A neat thing about Germany (and most of Europe), is that there are no fences separating the fields - not only this, but they have paved many of the paths between the fields, so you can get to other cities in the area by walking, riding, scootering, horsebackriding without ever meeting a car (although maybe the odd tractor).






In the background of this photo are wind powered electric generators - Germany gains a lot of electricity from these, but they are still largely dependent on nuclear powerplants.


Chapels such as these dot the countryside - this one is just on the northern edge of Herxheim.

Not much different from Canadian flower pics, but having a great time with my camera:

These pics have been move to a new folder - see them here

Did I mention I got a new digital camera? Picked it up the last day before I left for my trip. Its a Nikon Coolpix 5400. A great camera, especially ease of use in the menu navigation - which as someone told me, is the quintessential piece of a digital camera. Nikon's lenses on their 5000 series and up are better than Canons or other manufacturers - considering that I got the camera for approx. $750 CAD, and a Canon with an equivalent lens but less features would have cost me $1100 CAD, it was a good deal. If you're in Vancouver, the best place to buy cameras is New Westminster Fotofun (enter shameless consumer advocacy statement here). It actually has the best service and prices around, and when you buy a camera with them, they give you some free services and 10% off of accessories for the next year.

The camera itself is easy to use, and it has a great scene mode, in which it has standardized settings for a number of different situations - for example, closeups, portraits, fireworks, landscapes, etc. And with a 4X digital zoom and the ability to add on another 1.5X, its good enough for most new to intermediate photographers.

Of course, I didn't even get the chance to take the first picture - one of my friends at work picked up the camera and snapped this:

Here is a map of the area - if you zoom in and find Sebastiansring, you can almost see the house. Here is the town site.

Well, I made it to Germanz. I would have made it to Germany, but for some reason, German kezboards have the 'y' and 'z' backwards, as well as some other idioszncracies. After a long 11 hour flight in a seat that was made for someone 4'5" (I'm 6'2"), I got off the plane about the same size as mz suitcase. Of course, not actuallz knowing German (other than a few phrases here and there), poses a bit of a challenge - and most of my cousins speak English as well as German, so there it becomes difficult to practice. Julia and Lucas are my cousins kids - photos to appear later. Got up at 5:30 this morning. I went to Lucas' kindergarten where another of mz cousins work. Then tried to get some sleep. Couldn't. Went running. Tried sleep. Ended up eating. And going to Julia's school to participate in an English class - this was prettz neat...bunch of 10 zear olds trzing English phrases. Tried to sleep. Ended up being tossed around bz Lucas. Then went swimming. Finallz slept 1 hour at the big outdoor swimming pool that thez have in Herxheim. Had supper. Ran some more. Hopefullz can get a good nights sleep - next post will have less 'z's.