Good thing about traveling: I am getting to know a lot of interesting people and saw quite some impressive offices lately, see below for the office where I worked past week (Gioia del Colle, Italy) and notice the blue sky ;-).
Lots of travelling lately
As you might have noticed, I have not been able to post anything in past weeks; mainly due to a lot of traveling since beginning of August. Weekends are rather short and besides trying to somehow relax for a few hours at home, there is not much time to post anything.
Anouk @ Westerpark
Well, what else to say? Just check video on second page and you know where I was Saturday. Besides being stuck in group of 18.000 dutch people which were still dreaming about winning the world cup final, seeing Anouk live in the Westerpark in Amsterdam was pure fun - including heavy rain & thunderstorm (of course we were totally not prepared ;-)). See for yourself...
Cycling the Cabot Trail
Juli and I made it and survived the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada :-). Wondering what this is? Well, Alexander Graham Bell described it perfectly:
“I have travelled the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.”
The Cabot Trail
The Cabot Trail is a highway and scenic roadway in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in northern Victoria County and Inverness County on Cape Breton Island. The route measures 298 km in length and completes a loop around the northern tip of the island.
It is passing along and through the scenic Cape Breton Highlands: the northern section of the Cabot Trail passes through Cape Breton Highlands National Park, the western and eastern sections follow the rugged coastline, providing spectacular views of the ocean and the southwestern section passes through the Margaree River valley before passing along Bras d'Or Lake.
Clockwise or counterclockwise? Counterclockwise!
Since neither Juli nor I have had any experience with cycling before, we split our tour into 5 days having a 6th day as a fallback. But even for me, as living mostly from coffee & cigarettes for years now :-(, 5 days worked out perfect - and we still had lots of time to do stops in between, check some smaller hiking trails, do whale watching or simply enjoy the landscape (which you should really, really do).
If you are planning something similar, check Brian Hedney's page on "Cycling the Cabot Trail" which was of great help to us upfront! The following links consist of my mini diary, some GPS info (yes, I like my gadgets ;-)) plus pictures, pictures and even more pictures.
Last but not least: Some places special to us...
Although friendliness and feeling welcome was the main tenor for all places & people in Cape Breton, some places I will remember a tiny little bit more. Can't really say why, but here they are:
Restaurant "Flavor": Actually not on the Cabot Trail but in Sydney where I rented my bike for the tour. Gordon and Bev from the Colby House B&B recommended it and I can only agree: We had a very delicious dinner at the Flavor!
The Maven Gypsy B&B: This was our first evening out on the road after cycling 62km...so, we were not sure what we could expect. But Christine & Devin made our day! If you are ever around Wreck Cove make sure you stay (at least) a night and enjoy their hospitality.
Restaurant "Rusty Anchor": Having left North Mountain behind us on Day 3, we arrived in Pleasant Bay and really needed dinner. Elizabeth, our host at The Poplar B&B, recommended it and we enjoyed a scenic sunset as well as fresh seafood in all kind of variations.
"The Red Shoe Pub": On our last day back to Antigonish we drove by Mabou late in the evening. Not only serving delicious food and good beer...Monday night also spontaneous fiddling by people from Mabou as we coincidently learned. If you go there, try Monday night!
Wednesday at Kieler Woche
Here we go again: Kieler Woche 2010 goes on :-). We were out on Wednesday night with the famous "Cocktail Jungs". Actually our former taskforce team which was formed when migrating Exchange servers back in 2002. We still try to catch up with each other once in a quarter...this time at Kieler Woche :-). [nggallery id=40]
And since it is again World Cup like back in 2002, Gerd and I were talking about Marcus who seems to be either into Brasil and/or USA if I listen carefully to his facebook stream :). Anyway, for more impressions follow the link...
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Tuesday at Kieler Woche 2010
Kieler Woche 2010 goes on :-). We were out on Tuesday night on Kieler Förde doing a small sailing tour with all SDMs from Fachbereich NNO/International. [nggallery id=37]
Some more impressions you'll find following the link.
Sailing on Tuesday evening:
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Kieler Woche 2010
Here we go again: Kieler Woche 2010 started this weekend! And since Claudia came by during weekend, here is a first shot only - basically the "tourist" point of view ;-). [nggallery id=39]
secom BBQ
It seems like I am back from the woods and suddenly summer is all around :-). Friday we had our BBQ by secom consulting as a kickoff to Kieler Woche. Here are some impressions: [nggallery id=36]
Ok, and here are some more impressions which should not be posted on front page ;-):
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Day 2 on Cabot Trail: Wreck Cove – South Harbour
73,69km distance, Altitude difference 327m, Duration 7:51h (incl. stops)
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Needs update...
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Day 3 on Cabot Trail: South Harbour – Pleasant Bay
xx,xxkm distance, Altitude difference 460m, Duration x:xxh (incl. stops)
Just leave this place and get coffee in cape north, breakfast after first small climb, then north mountain ahead, 13%, 7km, 457m, last 1km really bad, pain, real pain,
then downhill almost 10km nice ride but now knowing what good brakes are for, beautiful, some hiking as break, finally in pleasant bay, went to whale interpretative center
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