Neither Wanda and Not Quite a Mermaid yet

Snorkeling in the Maldives

Baa-Atoll from the sea plane

I have a profound respect for people who take to the water like fish, snorkeling without fear of getting water into their eyes through ill-fitting masks or snorkels, or into their lungs when waves hit ..   For me, snorkeling so far had always been a test of courage. But what else to do in the Maldives? 
Drifting over a colourful reef in warm flat waters is fine, preferably in a safety swim vest,  but getting there through turbulent surf swimming out from the beach, meeting all sorts of unknown creatures or jelly fish on the way ... uuugh. We had had a nasty experience with high waves crashing over our heads and into the snorkels in the Great Barrier Reef, where waves were so high and currents so strong, that we had to hold on to a rope to not get swept away. The rope with ten people hanging on to it for dear life was obviously never on the water's surface, so the snorkels, eyes and mouths were always full of salt water and I had decided never to go snorkeling again under such conditions.

me in calm waters

In addition, seeing fish from above only, with their slender backs towards me, dashing out of sight, hiding underneath broad tables of corals, gives rather boring photographs. 

turtle in the distance

Therefore,  I was dreaming of going deeper into the water, getting below waves' troubles, spitting out the snorkel and being able to simply dive deeper, join the fish, if I saw something interesting. Well ....


The Amilla Fushi resort, where we stayed, had invited a Free Diving Instructor, a rather crazy Austrian, who holds 9 world records in disciplines like long distance diving under ice or deep diving in caves , to give instruction in free diving. He seemed very trustworthy in a calm and reassuring way, so I took that course together with two professional scuba instructors, who were not familiar with diving without gear either. I felt completely safe :)!  

the "professionals" went down to over 19 m

We practised holding our breath first with rather simple relaxation and breathing techniques..  -   I beat my oldest son, who is a scuba diver and the rest of the family did not even try: I managed three minutes and ten seconds !! How is that, Tom Cruise? I could have saved you in your latest Mission Impossible ...

Getting deep down and staying there, though, proved to be more difficult than just holding my breath, because I always seemed to float up, but that's another matter. I am working on my fin technique for the next vacation ... Maybe I will turn into a mermaid...

me (with the wrong finning technique)

This is the crop I brought back with my watertight Nikon 1 AW1, which has proven very reliable and dependable for my needs.

 Hawksbill turtle

 a school of Goldspot seabreams with yellowfin goat fish

 Oriental Sweet Lips (the big one with stripes) - Plectorinchus vittatus

 Amilla Fushi through the rotors of our sea plane

Isn't it tempting ?

Beach, Beach and .... Beach!

Christmas in the Maldives! 

My usual crop of a zillion images per vacation might this time consist of a rather uniform collection of beach in different shades of blues, greys and yellows ..... Not sure there will be anything else to photograph above water but I will try and find something. 

We  hope though that the Maldives will rather turn out to be the Bel-dives ... 

Merry Christmas to you and your families, have a nice vacation and see you back next year! 

Christmas Markets and Ice Rinks

The season for Christmas Markets and  sparkling street and window decorations has come. And as many of the new lights are energy efficient LEDs nowadays, we don't even need to have a bad conscience! 

Most Germans prefer a moderately modest style, secretly admiring the daring concoctions in other countries :  No blinking colourful lightchains like in the US, no red, blue and green  reindeers, no chimney-climbing and waving Santa Clauses could be found until a couple of years ago.  As everything what we seem to do, reasonably tasteful and certainly not ostentatious, strings of lights in the shape of trees and snow stars to brighten up the dark shopping hours at this time of year.  

Christmas decorations Unter den Linden, Berlin

Weihnachtsmarkt on Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin

and on Alexanderplatz

There is a Christmas Market aka "Winterwonderland" in Hyde Park, London,  which has grown out of bounds and turned into a fun fair. One can buy a real "curry wurst" in the "Alpenhütte"  - we gave it a try, nothing like the real thing and on top of that sold by Pakistani immigrants with not a German word, who would never eat that stuff themselves,  but it's the effort that counts ... as long as "der Rubel rollt". 

a yellow (rein)deer

Christmas market on the Thames, London


.... and on Frankfurt's "Fressgass" 

This year, Bad Homburg joined New York and London and for the first time installed a temporary ice rink in our Kurpark!  

... a tiny one in front of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spa ... 

Another  temporary Eisbahn : here on top of the "MyZeil" shopping centre in Frankfurt. 

The real things: 

                               

At the Natural History Museum - London 

At the Rockefeller Center - New York
Individuals in the pursuit of happiness

Wanderlust : Geneva (Genf)

My daughter spent a winter term als an exchange student in Geneva. I had never been to Geneva and, when I helped her move, was happy to get to know a new city expecting something grand, corresponding to the importance to its global organizations and its historic contracts and dealings.  However, Geneva turns out a rather nice sleepy small village, two shopping streets running parallel to the lake and a beautiful old town on the hill above the lake.

Genfer See - Lake Geneva 

with its characteristic Jet d'Eau high-pressure fountain 

and lighthouse

Rue de Rive

Place Molard

St Pierre Cathedral

The Supper in St. Pierre

the colourful Maccabeen Chapel

One can climb up the tower

for a view of the city and the river Rhone leaving the lake

a view from the top

Geneva is decidedly reformist protestant: Statues of Calvin and Knox on the "Reformation Wall" occupy a prominent place in the Parc des Bastions on Place Neuve : Luther and Zwingli seem to be less important. 

The Justices seem to think differently? 

The city's foundations go back more than 2000 years to the Allobrogians, who are mentioned as enemies in Caesar's De Bello Gallico.  Very interesting excavations and the history from the beginnings of the settlements on the lake can be found in the little museum underneath the church. 

It is a Swiss city.  And as many clichés  tend to contain a core of  truth in them, Geneva seems to live up to that expectation. It is a rather sleepy quiet town. 

All boarded up in winter - no fun 

Hehehey! 

 ..... and possibly slightly unimaginative? 

Unfortunately absurdly expensive, even more expensive than Paris or London, where it is still possible to find a decent cheap lunch. 

This may be due to its residents many of whom do not seem to pay their own bills, resp. live on rather generous expense accounts. I watched a conference once with ministers of African states, many of whom seemed  to be "residing in Geneva". Hm. Why would they even tell? As part of the governing body of a country not too well off, shouldn't they be ashamed that they are not with their people "in situ"?

The local populace are making comments in their own fashion. A fishermen decorated his shed in the harbour with his greatest nightmare:

fishing his lunch? 

The UNO

Now you know. 

in the park at the UN headquarters

Public transport is exemplary and necessary. Hotels give out free passes and one can get around easily. Taxis on the other hand are not allowed to pick up passengers from the curbside without reservation or outside of taxi stands  - which I learned the hard way after waving frantically for half an hour before a nice taxi driver stopped his empty car, explained the system and drove off to his appointment ... 

Carouge is a quaint little town next door where parts of the university are situated. It has a distinctly Italian relaxed feel. 

The CERN on the French border  is definitely worth a visit if only for their informative and imaginative visitor centre shown here  - the tram line takes a while but is very convenient.

Sunset in winter on Lake Geneva