Robot Claw – Page 381 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Bankfurt

August 2, 2015

I woke at 2 am this morning. Perhaps not a good sign with regards to jetlag! I couldn’t sleep though, so lazed around until the (superb!) breakfast buffet at 6:30.

Dad was arriving at midday, so KLS, BS and I headed to the Frankfurt zoo while JBF hopped onto a train for a day trip to a nearby city on The Rhine.

Frankfurt Zoo is quite good for such an old zoo in the middle of a major city. While some of the large animal enclosures (such as for the hippo) are sad relics of a bygone era, others – including the excellent nocturnal house and aquarium – are worth the admission fee alone.

In particular we loved the following exhibits:

The first are garden eels – tiny and beautiful eels that hide in the substrate and just poke their upper halves out to feed. The other is of course the cuttlefish. Both animals were displayed wonderfully in big crystal clean tanks that really gave us a good look!

After the zoo we headed back to meet dad via the river.

Yes they seem to have picked up the ‘padlock on the bridge’ habit here too!

In the late afternoon we cruised that river for an hour and a half, seeing Frankfurt (at least the river front) for several miles in each direction. Many drinks were drunk and many laughs had!

Conveniently the boat left from a dock right at the same fair we visited yesterday! Once again we enjoyed the many dining options 🙂

Another find day that seemed to whizz by very quickly. Tomorrow we’re leaving Frankfurt for our next destination, but I have to say I’ve found this city quite charming and a good introduction to Germany overall.

Frankfurt

August 1, 2015

The trip was uneventful, and almost comfortable compared to some of my previous voyages. Despite a late departure from NYC we arrived more or less on time and rendezvoused with Bernard as planned at Frankfurt airport. We were in Deutschland!

That’s our hotel. It’s in a great location and quite comfortable. The beds had gummis on them! After a brief respite it was time to explore the city…

Frankfurt was bombed to hell back in WW2 and almost completely leveled but has been rebuilt into the financial hub of the EU, and as you can see they celebrate this! The CBD is a mix of skyscrapers and old-style buildings with an abundance of shopping and eateries.

We followed the main pedestrian shopping district to a historic church for a gander. It was warm but not hot and the streets were packed with people.

As usual, I lit a candle for mum and dad 🙂

We headed down to the river and found a large and wonderful fair going on, filled with amusements and rides and an incredible concentration of food and drink!

Quite some time was spent here enjoying the sights and sounds and tastes! My companions all tried the local specialty ‘apfelwine‘, which is apparently ‘too wine-y’ 🙂

I could go in for ages about how impressive this fair was but I’m still a little jet lagged! Suffice to say it was a lucky find. One end was capped with s gigantic Ferris Wheel:

Which we all rode:

It was great 🙂

By now (around 6pm) we were all getting droopy and headed back to the hotel to tackle our jetlag-induced exhaustion. Bernard and I grabbed some traditional food to snarf down before an early bed:

There’s so many different types of sausage (and bread, and pretzel, and beer) that it’s hard to choose. That’s rindwurst and was delicious – ever so slightly spicy with a crispy skin. I’d eat it again in a heartbeat!

Tomorrow we’re meeting dad to complete the quintet! Stay tuned…

Wildlife Camera (Part 10)

July 29, 2015

It’s been a while, but once again it’s time for some snaps from our backyard wildlife camera! I dusted it off a couple of weeks ago and put it out on the back patio facing away from the house on an angle. Here’s the first shot on it:

If you think that’s me carefully placing a feeder in shot to attract animals… well I’m guilty as charged!

There were about 90 shots on the camera, about 45% of which were like this…

…and another 45% like this…

Yes that’s me mowing!

The other 10% were very interesting though. Let’s get the squirrel shots out of the way first:

We saw chipmunks (and birds) eating from the feeder as well, but apparently they are too small or fact to trigger the shutter so there were no photos of them.

However it seems the feeder wasn’t just popular with the squirrels and chipmunks. Here’s the night photos (click on them to enlarge):

Strangely I don’t think this is the cat we usually see in our yard. I bet Yossie and Emi know all about this visitor 🙂

That’s a deer, hiding behind the first bowl (which is full of dead branches yes I know and I will clean it up soon!)

That one is a real mystery. It’s small and sleek and probably dark-furred. Could it be a rat? I think it’s too big for a mole (which we have seen in our backyard before). Any ideas?

A possum! And the first clear shot I’ve got of one on our camera! I wonder where he lives?

Another first: a skunk! A little one as well, probably a baby. This is not surprising to us, since we’ve seen skunks in our yard before (even a mother and two babies a couple of years ago), but this is the first time I’ve caught one on the feeder.

These night shots surprised me because of the variety and because in every case there was only one of each animal. There were however a few shots with no visible animal and I wonder if there were things lurking in the dark beyond the range of the sensor that had triggered it. I fiddled with contrast on some of them to explore with no luck. Perhaps it was just the wind?

I love using this camera and the excitement of looking at the photos. I’ll be putting it out again this time for a month or so 🙂