CBD COP9 is being held in Bonn (Wikipedia link), Germany, the old capital of Germany. Bonn (Bonn city link - English) also currently hosts 16 United Nations institutions so the citizens are quite used to hosting UN conferences.
In fact I visited Bonn for the UNFCC intersessional meeting in 2004 so it feels a bit like visiting a very good friend. I know my way around and speak enough German to get by. in fact I really surprise myself at the amount of German I have picked up from Gigi and her family. I haven't spoken a word of English since I've been here - surprise!
My flight left left Cape Town at 7am.
The first usable light, and I was looking out, not over the sea but over the dunes of Namibia. We were flying north up the coast.
The coastal mist pushing in from the sea is the distribution boundary of many desert plants and animals that depend on the mist for water.
One can also see the more broken nature of the dunes closer to the coast (left side of pic), no doubt due to the vagaries of the coastal winds, while the more stable inland winds seem to result in more regular dunes inland (right side of pic).
We flew over the sea most of the way north and came ashore again just west of Nigeria over Benin.
Flew North over Benin, just east of Niamey in Niger and then straight up over Algeria crossing the north coast of Africa about half way between Algiers and Tunis.
Crossing the Niger River, the boundary between Bennin and Niger
By the way pressing 'CTRL Click' on any of the images will open an enlarged version in a new window.
We crossed the north coast of the Mediterranean over Monaco, maybe clipped over the east of Switzerland and in to Germany, landing in Frankfurt at about 18h30.
Most of the flight over the central Sahara was a dust red-out and very difficult to see out details on the ground.
However central Algeria has magnificent rocky mountainous areas that contrast with seas of red sand.
I wished I was down there in a Landrover exploring those mountains!
Nearing the north coast of Algeria there are some strange round features on the ground. I must check out GoogleEarth and try to find them and fiure out what they are. I cant belive that these are pivot irrigation fields in the desert. They also seemed rather small compared to those I've seen over South Africa.
And here they are in a bit more detail
I saw nothing of the north cost of Algeria or the Mediterranean as it was completely overcast.
But over Germany the weather cleared and it was a beautiful sunny 24 degC day when we landed.
Lots of beautiful little villages, vineyards and forests make up the area we flew over
And the density of air traffic increased!
See the other plane just above the root of our left wing. It felt much too close for comfort as we were banking right just behind it!
I noticed many wind farms
Another windfarm
One of many pretty little villages.
Compare this with the pics we I took over the Sahara just a couple of hours earlier.
No wonder different countries have different views about biodiversity.
And then in over Frankfurt.
My 'flight' from Frankfurt turned out to be 'operated' by the railways.
At the airport I was given a ticket and sent off to a train bound for Köln (Cologne). (and then I would have had to catch a slow train back to Bonn)
This was my first experience of a 300kph train!
I think that the readout when I took this blurry pic was 297 kph.
Luckily I spoke to a local who told me to get off the train at Siegburg. From there it was just a 20 minute tram ride to right outside my hotel!
The high speed train was really luxurious but there were no vacant seats in my carriage to sit.
'scuse the blurry image. Its difficult to stand really still at close to 300Kph but the ride was actually amazingly smooth.
Once ensconsed in my hotel, off I went to the Market Square to find supper.
This is the old 'Radhaus' . See it from a local webcam . I could see the webcam up on a building next to the Metropole Hotel behind me.
Walked down to the bank of the Rhine.
That bright building is Deuche Telekom.
Maybe they need to be informed about energy saving.
From the signs in the rooms of the Consul Hotel, where I an staying, the management is very energy aware.
Here is the Kennedy bridge close to the hotel.
It looks very pretty but the bridge is being refurbished and is a total construction mess at present.
Here is a view from the bridge of a barge batteling against the flow of the river, cruising up towards Fankfurt.
Then it was off to bed.
Getting out of bed in Cape Town at 03h40 that morning seemed like a long time ago!
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