Flying Emirates, Walking in the Park and Celebrating a 50th Anniversary

Both our employers urged us to take our remaining vacation days until the end of the year, so we decided to spend an extended weekend in London as we felt that we lacked a bit of the buzz of a big city. So we booked one of these super cheap Ryan Air flights from Baden-Airpark (another former Canadian military base) to London Stansted from where we took a train to downtown London. We stayed in the same hotel as last time, halfway between Paddington station and Hyde Park and prepared for bad English November weather by carrying various layers of clothing, topped with rain resistant coats and an umbrella. As it turned out we had great weather, sometimes bordering at fantastic, with lots of sun, blue skies and no rain at all!

We hadn't really worked out a program, so on Saturday we decided to follow our noses, ending up in North Greenwich where we were hoping to get a good view on Canary Wharf. When we left the station we were curious what was meant with 'connection to Emirates Air Lines'... until we figured out that this is a Gondola via River Thames. Of course we hopped on and were rewarded with fantastic views over the O2-arena and the Wharf. We strolled around the old the old docks for a while: a totally different London!

After an extended walk in the fresh air we took the tube back to Canary Wharf, where we watched Ice Skaters on the rink at Canada Square Park and enjoyed awesome food at the Turkish Restaurant Hazev.

After lunch we rode to Baker Street, looking for address 221B, but we only found a very commercial 'Sherlock Holmes Museum' that rather reminded us of a tourist trap than a museum. 

So instead we decided to exploit the last sun beams of the day in Regent's Park. The autumn colours were stunning. We couldn't believe that it was a late November afternoon in London!

The only planned and pre-booked event of our visit was the 3D-screening of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode 'The Day of the Doctor' (WHO?) at one of the (smaller) London cinemas. The show was sold out, like in any of the other venues, and we enjoyed David Tennant, Matt Smith and John Hurt bantering at each other in their different incarnations and interpretations of the Doctor. And they even had Tom Baker and - for a split second - Peter Capaldi showing!

What a gorgeous day it was!

Canada's most embarrassing mayor...

Source: Tagesschau.de

...now has made it into German news, too. The article summarizes the scandal pretty well, although only starting in May (as far as we remember Ford started acting strangely a long time before that). For everybody Non-Canadian who might not know the background:

Ford, who is the mayor of the City of Toronto, supposedly
- used substances (incl a DUI charge in Miami)
- is an alcoholic
- has insulted various people with offensive language
- was driving drunk
- was reading and texting while driving
- has threatened that he would kill somebody
- and on and on

Apparently the law does not provide the possibility to fire him during his term, so the Toronto City Council removed some of the most important aspects of his power.

Many of the comments of the article draw comparisons to Italy's Berlusconi who is widely considered as the worst politician alive in the view of many Germans. Looks like he has found a worthy competitor...

It's the Law: Winter Tyres!

A few years back Germany implemented a new highway code regulation that makes the installation of winter tyres on all axles compulsory from November 1st to April 15 for all passenger vehicles and motorcycles (yes, that goes for foreigners also), that is if the vehicle is driven through wintery conditions such as snow, black ice, or frost. Note: You are good, when it's just mild and wet in winter.

The rule is simple: If you get caught driving on summer tires you will get fined, if you get stuck or delay traffic you will get fined double, if you cause an accident you will get fined big time, gather some points and likely pay for the damage caused yourself (the insurance will cover for the damage to the aggrieved party, however it will reclaim moneys from the responsible party). Also, one could lose insurance coverage for the future.

Red: Winter tryres mandatory!

Source

We had recently fitted winter tyres to our car, surprised how cheap they were compared to cost in Canada. So far we haven't seen any snow but mornings are getting a bit nippy lately. Temperatures are around 0C (32F), and aren't climbing much during the day. 

No winter tyre conditions yet, but for all we care, the white stuff doesn't have to visit, because sans snow and ice we will be good just to ride on.