Eifgentallauf

Today I took part in the annual run through the Eifgental passed the city of Altenberg and its cathedral and on to Cologne Dünnwald. It's a fun run and not a race. Time doesn't matter. And today no personal bests were possible due to the weather conditions. The track was pure mud. It rained, it snowed and in the end it even hailed. After 26.6k my legs looked like this:

I was in the group that wanted to run 6:30, but we had to walked a couple of times to avoid falling, so my Garmin said 7:18 in the end. U. did fall, which secured her the pole position in the shower queue.

Munich

On the 10th I had a day off and went to Munich. It was a beautiful sunny day. Totally enjoyable. I walked around the city without a map, not really knowing where I was going. Hence, I can't really say much about the stuff I photographed. Apart from the Frauenkirche, of course.

Good things come to those who wait

It took a while, but I have finally managed to upload the pictures from my birthday trip to Berlin a couple of weeks ago.

The main reason for going, was that The Cure were touring and there was no concert really close by. So I decided that, if I have to travel to see them, I might just as well travel quite a bit. The decision between Munich, Hamburg and Berlin was an easy one.

I finally managed to go to Potsdam and visit Sanssouci. It is much smaller than I thought it would be and I will definitely have to return in spring or summer, when everything is in bloom and the vine is not just leafless branches.

When Friedrich II. lived here, the view must have been even better without the modern buildings at the horizon.

The vine...

This is a bit over to top for my taste:

It was very cold and not the ideal weather to spend a lot of time in the park and go for a walk. And then the sky turned dark, so I decided to head back to Berlin.




Back in Berlin I went shopping. The Hackesche Höfe have been beautifully restaured and house a number of small local designer shops, a cinema and a vaudeville.

Saturday evening, the highlight of my trip. The Cure in the Arena. Or so I thought. I arrived at the venue early, but was nevertheless surprised to see hardly anybody there. I had planned some time to have dinner close by - I did not know there isn't that many restaurants you can go to. So to pass the time, I walked to the river and took a look around. Can you see the size of this piece of art? Look a the houses on the other site of the river, which is not very wide. It was huge!

I wandered back to the Arena and noticed a sign in the ticket booth window: "change of venue - The Cure play in the Velodrom". Slight panic set in, but when I checked my watch I was relieved to see that I would have enough time to get to the Velodrom. In fact, when I arrived the doors were still closed and people patiently queueing outside. The average age of someone going to a Cure concert nowadays is about 37, so it was all very civilised and laid back. No pushing and shoving. People our age are not so eager to get to the front row, I guess. We did that in the 80s, no need to repeat it now. Which is exactly why I headed straight for the seating area.

Apparently Robert Smith was recently voted "most beautiful Elizabeth Taylor" by the internet site "Mollygood", beating even the real Elizabeth Taylor. I did not get a close up, but even from a distance you can see that it is a title, he deserved.

They played for almost 3.5 hours! It was way after midnight, when I got on the train to go back to the hotel. Excellent value for money, if - like me - you were hoping for a "best of" mixed with some rarities. They only played a couple of new songs; the new album has not been released yet. But ... I did not really like the last one, so I was very happy that they played Disintegration and older stuff.