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Phil Mercer |
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You are in the Mercers Tedium Blog |
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011Kuchen
Since the weekend I've been back in Hamburg and taking things a little easier.
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I've been doing a few of the touristy things! In fact none more so than Miniatur Wunderland! A huge model railway with an incredibly detailed landscape including: car and lorries that drive around - one even bursts in to flames only to have the fire brigade turn up; Murder scenes, motorised boats and - currently under construction - an airport with planes that move! All very impressive. Lots of photos online, I had a play with a close up or two and they aren't too bad! Never let it be said that I don't like my cake! Cake is great. One thing I would like to see more of around the UK. Gay cafes with good cake! Hamburg has a nice one along Lange Reihe, Cafe Gnosa. It makes a refreshing change to the smokey bars of the city. The best bars i've been taken two in Hamburg this week have all been great fun with good music and good beer. In the St Pauli area they look pretty grubby from the outside. Some were similar on the inside as well. It probably adds to the character and the bohemian feel. In fact, as I think about it, there are only two things that have given me trouble. The smoking and the late hours! Everything seems to get going about midnight and keeps on till Dawn! My body has been struggling to adjust. I feel I might suffer jet lag on my return to the UK! Today I had a smooch around the Museum fur Volkerkunde. It had a big collection of Mayan objects, a fun if limited Egyptian collection and a really interesting Malay section. I also took a walk around Planten und Blumen. I can imagine in the spring and summer these gardens are stunning. They wind there way through the west of the city and include kitchen gardens, Japanese gardens and full on parkland with lakes. It was a dreary day, so seemed to fit the season. I switched the camera to black and white mode. It will be interesting to see how they come out. Now, do I have another stucke of cake before I return to Daniels? Monday, January 24, 2011Sticks
The weekend was spent visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Celle.
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It is a really quiet corner compared to Hamburg, in fact it is to Hamburg what Reigate is to London. Still it was a chance to catch up with some of my closer relatives. The irony here is that they are a good 600k further away than the rest, yet I see more of them! One reason I love seeing them is the conversation. We are guaranteed to have had a good stab at world politics, the state of the environment, and all and sundry by the time I leave. Bad news seems to be everywhere at the moment. While the Mercers continue to struggle with an ageing grandparent, an Aunt in a coma and an Uncle with cancer, the German wing are facing up to a close friend with a brain tumour. With all these things it's difficult to know what to say. Watching from the sidelines and offering support where you can is about all. Life never seems more frail than when you brush with all these unfolding tragedies. 'Search for a purpose' pops back in to my head. What do I want from life? Should I follow some peoples advice (and one particularly offered by gay friends) and just look out for myself? It's hard to argue with that, especially if you have no children to worry about. Really, why should you care what state you leave things in, just for who comes next! It will never affect you. In some ways I wish I could do that, but then a guilty feeling creeps in. Trying to keep the good ship Phil afloat often means selfish behaviour. That is probably thanks to the legacy of my parents generation - and I'm not sure if I mean my selfishness or the state I find myself in here. My education, the state of the economy, even the stresses and strains of coming out were/are as a consequence of all the decisions made before I had any say. Obviously some of those things are positive and some negative and i cant forget my own choices in how things have panned out. I just can't help but think that my nephews and god children are facing the same fate. Will I be able to make things better for them? If I do put effort into that and they turn out selfish as well, was it worth the effort? Maybe another beer will help me work that out! Saturday, January 22, 2011Phew
What a few days. I'm finally getting a bit of time out after a rather full-on couple of days. Since arriving in Hamburg my cousins Daniel and Jan have kept me busy.
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 We put on our best anoraks and did a tour of the vast Airbus factory. It takes up a large parcel of land alongside the Elbe and is responsible for stitching together most of the single aisle aircraft plus final finishing of the big A380 and the new A350 when it begins production soon. It was all really interesting, the attention to detail and the scale of it. It still seems a bit daft that you would go through the logistical nightmare of building it in large chunks around Europe and then put it together Lego like later. That's international politics for you! We weren't allowed to take photos so this was as good as it got:  Since then it's been days of eating out, sitting in cafes or drinking in bars. Daniel and me went to see Black Swan at an art house cinema. See my review on Flixter for that. Thursday evening took us to the Hamburg Planetarium to see a sound and light show based on Pink Floyd's 'The dark side of the moon'. It was great fun made all the more interesting by an event that will now forever be known as Planetarium Gate! In a rather unfortunate coming together of circumstances, we had all been out for the afternoon at bit of a tourist trap of a bar called Hoffbrau Haus. The beer came plentifully and in large quantities! Put that, together with a salami sandwich and a 360 all enveloping visual experience, and it seems to have hit the Patterson boys quite hard! I just feel sorry for the couple in the row in front of us, and of course the staff! Wednesday, January 19, 2011Cake
It's my last day in Denmark and I've used my Copenhagen card thingy to head out in to the suburbs to track down Louisiana.
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The modern art collection is mentioned in all the guide books as a must see and who am I to argue. I always have reservations about Modern Art! Most of it I just don't get, however, every now and then something goes click. Just to be sure I also intended to go to see Ordrupgaard, which was on the same railway line. It has a recent addition by one of my favourite architects Zaha Hadid. Louisiana proved a bit of a trek from Humlebaek station and I'd only given myself an hour to have a look around. The first hint that I might have to change my plans a bit was the large Henry Moore statue sitting in the entrance courtyard! Ever since laying out in the sun in Greenwich Patk at lunchtimes, in the shadow of a Moore (which I think has now sadly been removed for security reasons!) I have developed a love for his voluptuous and organic yet monolithic works. You walk through the door of what could be the house of someone who has done well out of life to then be taken through to a vast warren of glass walled flat roofed modern buildings. They make a large loop around the gardens and allow regular glances out in to open to see trees and lakes dotted with regular sculpture installations. The collection is pretty good with some of my favourites, Moore, Plank and Giacometti. Plus a fare smattering of the ones I'd file under 'Not for me!' (my father would just say 'crap' though!). It is the setting that makes it wonderful. Even on a dreary day you get an amazing atmosphere and changing light that transports you away. It helped I had Goldfrapp playing on my iPhone and the place was nice and quiet. What's topped it all off was a rather tasty bit of cake by the open fire in the cafe! All I need to do now is complete my final task. Find something for my travels shelf at home. It needs to look alright alongside my carvings from NZ, India and Canada and compete with Poopi from Bilbao! I'm thinking something Viking! Labels: Copenhagen, Travel Monday, January 17, 2011By the book
After such a wet Saturday, Sunday stayed pretty dry so I pottered around the city centre and did some of the standard touristy things. I've posted the pics on to my Flickr page so you can see what I got up to.
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My photos from Copenhagen. The Nationalmuseet tells the tale of how Denmark came together. Although in my quest to learn about the Vikings I didn't seem to absorb much beyond a familiarity to our (Britain's) own prehistory. The use of burial barrows was quite striking with similar designs to Wayland Smithy (or more likely the other way round!). The stunning new Opera house on the harbour front was amazing. If only I liked Opera!!! It seems i can't visit anywhere without seeing the lay of the land from above, so I climbed the Roundhouse. A different experience to most as instead of steps there is a long helical slope! I guess if you wanted you could drive a car up there! In the evening I found a much better bar for a few pints and a lovely chat with some locals. Labels: Copenhagen, Travel Saturday, January 15, 2011First
Things didn't go fully to plan after I got in to Copenhagen. I made it to the hotel without any hassle but in the process managed to do my back in. So I spent a few hours ironing myself out on the floor of the worlds smallest hotel room.
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I'm sure a twin bed should be wider than my shoulders! By 9pm I was feeling better - with help from a shower that had the water pressure of a Laser from a 1960's Bond film! I set off to find food and beer. It was raining. Really raining. The type that goes up as well as down! By the time I'd found food and completely missed the bar I was aiming for I was soaked to the bone. Plan B was to find the gay club i'd looked up. As usual my timing was perfect! I made it in time to see the guy unlock the door! Therefore I was first in! What is it with the continent for this late late start malarkey?  It was at this point I wondered if I was going to be on my own all night! I was also a little worried i'd found the Danish version of G-A-Y! The bar staff looked young enough to be my children! It was a long way from my XXL comfort zone! Labels: Copenhagen, Travel Vikings
As I write this I'm climbing up to 11,000m (37,000 feet) on my way to Denmark for the first time.
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 Not the most obvious choice for mid january but knowing I had a few weeks of leave to mop up but (as usual) not much cash to play with I looked at the family options. We used to be quite far spread as a clan, with relatives in the US, France and Switzerland at various times. Thanks to the army even Belize became an option for a while although I was too young to take advantage! Now it seems just Germany is left. Two of my cousins have settled on Hamburg and their parents are in Celle so I booked myself in. I love Germany and as I've mentioned in the blog, it has been a regular holiday destination. The itchy feet of mine do have a tendency to demand fresh turf though and having spun the globe a few times I remembered that just north of Hamburg is the Danish border, and that is somewhere I'd yet to go. Anyway, thanks to a sale at BA (I have an unhealthy dislike of any airline that requires me to fight to get a good seat!) Copenhagen actually proved no more expensive to get to than Hamburg. So here I am, on my way to what is said to be one of the most chilled out and friendly cities in the world. I'll be getting a train down to the family middle of next week, but for the moment I'm on m' tod. Will I make mischief or just do the wall flower thing! Only time will tell! I do kinda fancy meeting a genuine Viking though. Labels: Copenhagen, Travel Friday, May 15, 2009Posh init!
Thanks to a friend with a glut of BA Miles that needed using up, I'm having a week En France.
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He had so many points that I've been able to travel club class, which means for the first time in a while I could use the benefits of 'The Lounge!' Now I understand why it costs a fortune to fly business class! The Galleries lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 is a lovely venue. A chance to get out of the bustling hub of the main terminal and take time out, get some food, have a glass of wine, watch a film. Places like this seem to have a certain atmosphere. I've been through business lounges before and just as with those I felt a bit like I'd entered a private members club where no one explains the rules and whats more, you're expected to know them already! This time I thought I'd try and get a way around that and as I entered asked the lady on reception... 'Hi this is my first time, what should I know?'. Nothing like being up front. She looked surprised and then just said... 'Here's how to get on to the WiFi, the spa is downstairs!' Not that helpful really. So I went in and laid low for a bit to see what people got up to and worked out that pretty much anything goes. If it looks edible eat it. If it looks drinkable drink it. What interested me more (while I was stuffing my face on free ice cream) were the people inside. You had the standard business man, using his laptop while on the phone dealing with some crisis or other. There were the rich bitches who swanned around looking like they owned the place yet also with an air of 'why can't my husband afford First' about them. One guy was in his badly fitting tracksuit and wearing flip flops - I'm guessing an internet developer of some kind! We even had a boyband of some kind come through... who immediately headed straight to the beer and free food (similar to my approach!) and generally looked like children in a sweet shop! I guess the only way to really fit in is to practise and use them more. Here's hoping my lottery ticket finally comes in! Labels: Travel Friday, June 02, 2006France, Saumur and the Loire Valley
For many year my parents friends Pat and J have owned a property in France.
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I don't know about you, but I begin to think about the novel "A year in Provence" and the good life. Over those years Mum and Dad have visited many times, to relax and take a break and also to help out with the referbishment of the dream property. They come home with all sorts of stories and saga's on the project. The type of house Pat and J chose is different. Not to surprisingly it was and still is in need of a bit of love and repair, although they have done an amazing job so far. More interestingly the building requires a respect of geology and history. For some mad adventurous gene drove them to buy an abandoned troglodite cave (with house and views attached!) and what a cave it is.
The area around the house is riddled with caves that date back centuries. Originally dug out to provide building materials for the towns, villages and cities of the area along the Loire they have since become homes, wine cellars, mushroom fields and places to hide away. Just to walk out the back takes you in to a spooky world of mainly disused houses built into the abandoned caverns. Its hard to imagine what life would have been like.
But turn another corner or wander around a village nearby and people are still living in those caves. Its wonderful, the kind of place I wish I'd known of as a child, to run find places to set up camp and to explore (with torches!). Return to the Travel section of my website. Go...
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Copyright Phil Mercer 2010