Bonn - Saturday 17 May

Saturday in Bonn.
I arrived a day early in Bonn due to flight schedules.
I'm expecting to be pretty busy during the conference so I took the opportunity of this day to have a good look around Bonn.


First I wandered down to the Rhine which is always busy with barge traffic. Notice the loaded barge traveling up-stream (to the right) low in the water while the barge going downstream behind it is empty and sitting very high out of the water.

The barge traveling upstream is transporting coal.





"Biological Diversity needs our attention".

This poster is prominent all over Bonn at present.

Consul Hotel where I am staying in the background.














The fresh produce market in the Market Square with the old 'Radhaus' in the background

See live webcam image.










Fresh asparagus is one of the numerous products on sale. Wish I had a kitchen at my disposal!












A Suzuki Bergman - a little older than mine.













Chestnut trees in full bloom.

And note all the bicycles. Everyone (and I mean everyone) in Bonn seems to cycle. Cyclists rule the roads here in Bonn and are treated respectful by drivers and pedestrians alike.










One of the primary entrances to Bonn University.
















Beautiful architecture.


















In the 'Münsterplatz' the Lady Mayor of Bonn, Ms Bärbel Dieckmann opened an event of Biodiversity Ballet by local school kids.

She gave an excellent background about the CBD COP to the assembled crowd and explained all the activities that Bonn had organized to involve the citizens so that the event did not only take place within the confines of the Maratim Hotel Conference venue.




Some of the older ballet dancers.

Most of the dance that I saw seemed to be about growing and watering plants!










Lots of proud parents taking photos.













There was a climbing wall sponsored by Rheinaction a local environmental NGO as part of the ...


(see also here)













... biodiversity awareness fair in the Münsterplatz with lots of activities - aimed mainly at kids.

Try some biodiversity origami for example.

The Western Cape's unique flora should provide an origami challenge of note.








After lunch I hired a bicycle from the hotel and took a ride down the Rhein. Nice and flat - just a bit of a headwind on the way back.

But riding on the wrong side of the road is ...

So I chose to ride down the cycle track along the Rhein where all I had to avoid were pedestrians and other cyclists. Keep right idiot ... Where did you learn to ride a bicycle? Rusape in Zimbabwe, about 1955, if you really want to know lighty!



In some parts of the world Mallard Ducks are not exotics!












Stopped to watch some cricket.

The teams seemed to be of Indian or similar origins - definitely not locals










A view from the cycle track.

It drizzled lightly every now and again so I stopped to put on and take off my rain gear.










Barges and pleasure craft.













Passing through the United Nations precinct I stopped to photograph this wonderful pair - an bronze sculpture and a beautiful old tree ...






















































A ferry over the river.













The cycle and walking track goes all the way to Frankfurt something like 125 km away.

I wish that I could have carried on.










Königswinter on the other side of the river.













There are a couple of castles on the hills behind Königswinter












A huge castle up there!













Mallards with ducklings













Commercial and luxury river transport.

No sailing craft. I guess it is too hazardous to allow tacking back and forth across the river traffic and the strong flow probably also makes sailing very dicy.








... and recreational transport.

I passed a number of 'Rudder' clubs, one of which was having a 150th anniversary celebration.










More castles!


















The romantic Drachenfels, crowned by the ruins of a castle built early in the 12th century by the archbishop of Cologne, rises behind the town. From the summit, which can be accessed by the Drachenfels Railway, there is a magnificent view, celebrated by Lord Byron in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A cave in the hill is said to have sheltered the dragon which was slain by the hero Siegfried. The mountain is quarried, and from 1267 onward supplied stone (trachyte) for the building of Cologne cathedral.










Maybe my son Nick can tell me if this wall is built of basalt columns












... or is it just my imagination?













Beautifully constructed walling in any event.













On the way back I rode slightly upwards to Freizeitpark (Free time park) ...

This is the Auensee ...










With 6 bridges across to various islands.













The huge park was hosting a circus in one area.













The 10km Naturathlon 2008 was run on the following day, attempting to set a world record to beat 107 nationalities participating in a single event.










The Course of the World













Here is an aerial image of the Freizeitpark.

Note that just to the right of centre is the wastewater treatment facility around which it is built. Not a hint anywhere that the Auensee is treated wastewater which is clean enough to use in a public recreational context! And not the faintest odour on the breeze. Only in Germany!

Can you imagine any of Cape Town's waste water treatment facilities operating at this high standard. Not likely!


And at the top of the park a huge flea market.
Not many craft stalls selling high quality crafts like we have back in Cape Town though.

But the variety of secondhand goods for sale was truly amazing.








Lots and lots of space for Bonners to enjoy.

When I was here in 2004 there was a very hot public holiday and the place was full of happy people.










The flea market was packing up by the time I was through.











A view over the river to the yellow Hilton Hotel where most of the SA delegation are staying.

My hotel is about three or four blocks away.

Bonn - arrival on the 16th

This is the day I left Cape Town to attend the Convention on Biological Diversity (commonly called the CBD or Biodiversity Convention), Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9).

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!

Suzuki Burgman 650 - Chapman's Peak Drive ... again ...

Having been so impressed with Chapman's Peak Drive two weeks ago I persuaded Gigi to join me this past Sunday. She didn't offer much resistance! Here are a couple of pics we took at the top of the drive overlooking Hout Bay.


No - Gigi doesn't sit side saddle while we are underway!












The weather was perfect and there were hordes of tourists up there with us












And one friendly tourist saw us taking pics of each other and offered to take a pic of both of us.

Last time we did this was in Times Square, New York. I don't have to tell you which spot I preferred!

We stopped at the Hout Bay Craft market for an egg and bacon roll for breakfast, and headed home over Constantia Nek.

What a cool way to begin a Sunday!

Suzuki Burgman 650 - Chapmans Peak Drive ...

On Sunday 13 April I took an early morning ride on my new Suzuki Burgman 650 on the route over Ou Kaapse Weg and the stunningly beautiful Chapman's Peak Drive on the Cape Peninsula.

There is just no more beautiful route on the planet to take an early morning bike ride.


A view of Long Beach at Noordhoek













A view across the Cape Peninsula through the Fishoek gap













Looking South down Chapman's Peak Drive (Chappies)

This is part of the route of the Two Oceans Cycle Tour and one of Cape Town's primary tourist routes














Aah - what a view














Stay on the road please!
















View of Hout Bay from the top of "Chappies"

New Suzuki Burgman 650 ...

Gigi and I took our new Suzuki Burgman 650 for a run down to Cape Point today.

We really enjoyed ourselves notwithstanding that the wind was really blowing .

Not really ideal for a pleasant Saturday ride, but it was a good test for the bike and dare I say for both myself and Gigi.

I've had my eye on this bike for a while now and last week I spotted this 18 month old machine at the local Suzuki dealer. It has only 16000km on the clock and the price was too good to resist compared to the price of the latest model.


In the parking lot at the Cape of Good Hope


















Watching kite surfers close to the old whaling station just north of Misty Cliffs












Here is a pic taken from the Cape Point view point. The clouds over the southern Peninsula mountains show just how hard the wind was blowing