Berlin Wall

It has been almost 20 years?! I can hardly believe it myself and I was not even there. I took this photo outside the German Embassy in the Hague last night coming home from visiting a German friend and another friend who was raised in Germany.

And then it made me think of all my other friends in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg and Dresden what it must be like for them to think of that occasion. Especially my dear Andreas who was on the "other" side of the wall.

Other walls are being built around the world to divide and separate peoples, don't we ever learn?

This photo was taken in June 2007

Into the Great Wide Open

Last weekend me and the 'lads' went to a little island in the north of the Netherlands called Vlieland. This Island is part of the province of Friesland and judging by the look of the average local they were all of viking decent.
We stayed one night in Harlingen and caught the early boats over. H and I on the fast ferry the others on the slow. We arrived within 15 min of each other on the other side. Picked up our rented bikes and headed for our accomodation for the weekend which was only a few min away.

First impressions were there were many more trees than I expected and there was lots and lots of sand.
We happened to be staying near the festival site and could bike there in less than 15 min as well which was convienient.
The first day we went for a bike ride to get the lay of the land and had a look at the festival grounds, and went for a peek in the shopping street.
We headed over to the festival and saw an act before going home to grab a bite and then back to the festival. It was wet.. and I was feeling not much like staying in the rain so I headed back before the others.

Sat was a fine day and Helen convinced us minus one to go to a bike ride. Cors turned around after many sand dunes and the wind against you not the mention the with the extra 15 kilos on his bike and in hindsight I think he was smart to do so... my calves still ache from the ride which seemed to go on and on. But we saw wild cranberry patches, 'muckle coos' (Scottish highland) cows, large waves off the coast and more hills than we have in the whole of the Area we live in.
After we got back to the house we had a glass of wine, made some food and then headed back to the festival to catch Emiliana Torrini who was as wonderful as ususal. I must admit that by this time I was starting to feel the effects of the cold and was not entirely in the mood to stick around at least it stayed dry.
On sunday we had to be up and out by 11 and the festival started again at 12. The others changed their ferry ticket to an early one and headed over to Harlingen for the afternoon to wait for H and I to come on a later ferry.
We went to see Alela Diane and then for a nice long walk through the art trail in the forrest. Which was really nicely done, we also went for another bike ride and visited some friends of H's for some tea.

We also were hoping to get on an earlier ferry and managed to sweet talk ourway onto the boat a few hours earlier than we were booked arriving us home almost before it was dark which was a pleasent change.
It was a lovely festival with a real family vibe to it. I doubt it will or should get much bigger the accomodation and campsites were already heaving from the extra people and I doubt the island could have coped but nice none-the-less. I felt a little bad that I was not in a better mood for the music but it was a nice weekend to be out of the Randstad for a change.

Beats not Bombs ''FREIe HEIDe"

Another summer has come to pass. Some say it is the first weekend in September when labour day is gone others when school starts for their kids. For myself it is very often indicated by the passing of another Sea U Site party.

Now since at least 2001 I have been attending these underground and always cause driven parties with my friends in Germany. Each year is for some reason or another to protest against military, state or against racism.

This years party was a little bit of a celebration as the protest for the Heide in the area was won.

A quick recap on the issues. The area around this little town and for several hundred kilometers used to be a military testing site for the former DDR (East Germany) and after the reunification the current German air force wanted to resume using the area and the land for bomb testing and fly-over for military planes. Obviously nobody wanted to have jet fighters flying 'low' over their houses nor for that matter dropping bombs in their backyards daily. And the movement for the "FREIe HEIDe" was born. It has now come to pass that this will remain a nature area and be allowed to recover from the ammunition and toll the military has taken on it in the past.

But often times this is just a nice excuse to meet your friends, enjoy the beautiful and often forgotten outdoors of the north east part of Germany and have a nice long weekend in the sun.

All photos not watermarked were from the protest from 2003, Bass not Bombs.