Break the Jinx please!!!

The bike ride to Speyer was really nice. Excellent weather and some hidden treasures enroute.

Our way back was a different story. Despite being dragged out unexpectedly to join us on a bike ride to Speyer, Peter was nice enough to ride back with Vishal to Reilingen, pick up his station wagon - drive back to Speyer to transport me and my bike back to Wiesloch.

No I was not hurt.

My my bike lock wouldnt OPEN!!!

What an utterly silly situation!!!

(Thankfully, I didnt lock the bike to a lamp post/ rail... )

Its perhaps the last time Peter joins us in some unplanned activity like this one :(

Monday morning the 'car' incident - sunday afternoon this!!!!!

Whats next??

First 'negative experience' post on this blog

I found my rental car vandalized this morning.

The lock was broken and the in built navigation system, the music system stolen. The same went for a BMW that was parked in front of my car.
I heard from the Polizei that last night multiple such incidents were reported.

Was so surprised. I always believed that this part of the country was very safe. Obviously I overestimated it.

Im not comfortable parking my car on the same street beside my apartment anymore :(

Berlin Impressions: 2

One Big Art Gallery!
Berlin provides artists plenty of walls to paint on em.
There is graffiti all over the streets.
I have seen a lot of graffitti along city streets in the US, however I found them very different from those in Berlin


To me, the ones in Berlin were not all abstracts/ typography or plain spray of colors. I could tell some of the artists have done more. E.g. combine paper cut outs with color sprays, some illustrate historical events of the past, some have a message in them.

Very interesting - something I would always remember Berlin for.

Berlin Impressions: 1

Big city - lots of new high rised housing - drivers honking...First impression - "its so different" (from the Germany Ive experienced so far)
As we experienced more parts of the city, it started feeling like a history class. Every other part of the city has some story behind it.

• I tried to visualize crossroads with tanks and military checkpoints instead of cars and designer stores...
• I wondered what went through the mind of the 'elders' that lived through this time but were now reading their own history in a museum/memorial
• I wished the world never goes through wars of this scale.

The image of my old black and white TV broadcasting the news of the Fall of the Wall flashed in my mind very often. Somehow I remember that very clearly. This year Berlin celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

'Listening to the Winds of Change' (on the car radio) suddenly felt very different.

Spring time...flowers are in full bloom

All of a sudden, there are flowers in full bloom everywhere. White, pink, yellow...some flowe bearing trees have no leaves in em. Very very pretty indeed! The sunshine enhances this beauty...

Keeping with the spirit, we bought some plants for our apartments too. Mainly for the balcony but a few indoor ones too. I like em...hope I can take care of them...