Old Port - Smoked Beef

Bonjour, 

as promised I'll write about the second half of our Sunday. We directly took the bus for the Old Port, which was surprisingly new. We expected old pirate ships and wooden planks all over. Maybe some barrels with wine or beer standing around in each and every corner… Everything was unexpected. An escape labyrinths, an ice rink, a nice clock tower, a zip line and all kind of amusement installations. Not a single trace of some pirate-ish flair. 

This does not look like a pirate ship at all!

Mont Royal - Sunday Trip

Bonjour,
at this very first sunday in Montreal Julia, Oli and I did, what every good tourist and family does in Montreal. We had a trip on top of Mont Royal. It is a park, located on a mountain. You can walk easily up the ways, IF you have some spikes under your feet. You can guess.... we didn't.

But we made it to that really cool view.

First we had to take the subway and for the very first time a city bus!
Even if we are not fluid in french were we able to communicate with el driver.... we had to get off two stations more early as usual, because of some...we guess movie shooting. Yeah, we will be very fluid in french soon kkkk

 So we started in the very urban environment around 12 am. 

 After entering the park we found ourselves in the harsh canadian non urban environment. SNOW and ICE!

 We had a lot of fun walking up the mountain in sneakers! Reminded me a little bit of Mount Hallo in South Korea, where me and my family had to walk this kind of round downhill for hours :-) kkkk

 But after around 30 min walk we had climbed the top and got a really nice overview of the city. At least centre ville.

 The house which we see here just had a very big hall, some coffee vending machines and toilets. I loved it. Ah and most important... free Wifi!

On our way back we decided to take the bus, which was departing more or less next to the platform, where we have taken the pictures. Back in town we went on with our tour. Unfortunately I am too tired right now to write more. Therefor I will delay the second part of our sunday to tomorrow. Have a good night!

Nuit Blanche - German Visitors

Bonjour, 

today is already weekend time. It feels unreal, that I have been in Berlin until this Wednesday.. and now I am already working here at Shriners, setting up experiments, going to the gym regularly, having a new favorite coffee shop and even have friends over and participating at the regional festivals...

Julia and Oli came over all the way from Essen to Montreal. Unfortunately they arrived at the coldest day of my stay here.... -18°C during daytime... I guess that is ridiculous for canadian standards, but for us sensible germans it is really cold.... not to mention the wind. You feel the ice forming in your face. No fun at all. But at the same time it is the first day I am able to see the sky. No clouds in sight. Just clear blue sky! 

Shriners Hospital for children - First day

Bonjour,

the first night was really a short Amüsement.


After 4.5 hours of more or less recharging sleep I woke up close to my german usual time to get up (5am).

I love the photographer of the Hospital and furthermore that I am again student :)

Berlin - Amsterdam - Montreal

Bonjour,

as some of you guys know, I will be the next six weeks in Montreal, Canada. It is my first big business trip during my PhD time. It is a LabExchange between the graduate school (Berlin School of Regenerative Therapies) and the McGill university. 
There is definitely a lot of work to do during the six weeks, but I want to see some cool stuff over here as well. So I have to work for my free time. 

I departed at home in Friedrichshain at 9 am sharp, got the Ring 42 at 09:06 am and was at Tegel Airport at 09:40 am.

Amsterdam Part II - Daylight!

Dag!

Fist I have to apologize to all Dutchmen and Dutchwomen :-) The Amsterdam Centraal is much bigger, and even nicer than described yesterday! Upsi!

 I guess we arrived yesterday at a little separate track. 

 If you don't exit to the center you can have a nice view at the Film museum and some towers, where you can take the elevator to the top to have a nice view all over Amsterdam.

 Yes, no cars here... just bicycles.

 And you can have a swing.

 After walking down the promenade, we entered again the center... the mystery land....

We passed by the red light district, the antique store quarter, the area for modern art, shopping and food streets and of course a lot of canals. 

This was the best I ate in the Netherlands, ever! Ginger bread filled with marzipan, topped with some almonds! It was worth a sin!

Amsterdam - First Impression

Dag!

During the windy, cold and rainy days in Berlin, Johnny and me decided to take to airplane to Amsterdam!

It has been a long time to be in the Netherlands for both of us, but we still enjoy being here. 

Flying KLM we felt super royal during the flight, with a very yummy scrambled egg wrap in our hands we landed in Schiphol and took the free shuttle bus to our hotel.