Short answer to Mike - go to Franconia (northern Bavaria, in German: Franken). In Berlin, Becks seems to be the beer of choice. There is a beer known as Schultheiss but it was more of an old-mans beer. Berliner-Pilsner was a good alternative to Becks. I heard of Berliner Kindl too but can’t remember it being any good. Certainly didn’t try any green/red Berliner Weisse
Giving an uninformed guess, the beer in East Berlin was horrible and in West Berlin, you were happy if you had coal during the airlift. So a proud, continuous brewing tradition is unlikely. Even the new, hip, organic drink of choice, “Bionade” isn’t from Berlin.
The beer culture in Bavaria and Franconia is much stronger and even the wikipedia page reflects this EN. The German Wikipedia goes into more detail and states that Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) has more breweries than any other European country! Only the US (1383), China (420) and Russia (404) have more breweries but Oberfranken is much smaller of course and there are approx. 200 in Oberfranken and approx. 300 in all of Franconia). See: Bierland-Oberfranken List of breweries in Bavaria www.franconiabeerguide.com
When I was in Germany, I took part in a driving-safety course at the ADAC Centre in Linthe
The course covered some useful issues such as emergency braking in the dry and the wet, the effect of ABS and ESP and braking on slippery surfaces going downhill and on bends.
This video shows one of the participants trying to avoid jets of water that pop up randomly. You can barely see how the wheels lock up and ABS kicks in to unlock them. Unfortunately for that car, it was on “summer” tyres and wasn’t half as good as cars on the softer winter tyres. Whatever about electronics, the right tyres can make a difference of 40 yards when braking even at a reasonable speed.
One rather unusual thing about the German license too - it never expires! They have a date of birth, a date for when the card was issued and a simple dash for 4b (expiry date).
It also fits nicely into a wallet
Trichet stressed repeatedly today that the ECB saw its role amid the turmoil as one of anchoring inflation expectations, making clear that an interest rate cut called for by some investors and politicians should not be expected in the near future
‘If we don’t learn the lessons of the past we will find ourselves faced with the same problems that we encountered during the first oil crisis,’ when countries responded to higher prices by raising wages and salaries, he said.
That had fuelled an inflation spiral, choking off growth and causing widespread, stubborn unemployment that dogged Europe for decades. ‘Never forget, mass unemployment in Europe started with the very bad reaction after the first oil shock’ in 1973, Trichet noted.
Note too that the German economy hasn’t slowed yet and the metal industry there is experiencing the strongest boom in decades. Even the Ifo index has increased this month showing that the business climate has improved in March instead of getting worse.
oh yeah - the dramatic pause in blogging Seactain Na Gaeilge events was because we went on a little trip to CeBIT.
CeBIT for those of ye that don’t know is the world’s largest computer and IT trade fair - Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik; German for “Centre of Office and Information technology”
Quick run down on events:
Wed: Daren wakes me from my slumber, train to Dublin, flight to Bremen, drive to Bad Gandersheim, pizza and beer (Gilde Ratskeller) in “Pizzeria Gino II”
Thu: long breakfast, drive to CeBIT, registration, food in the Münchner Halle - a lovely slab of pork knuckle and a Maß (litre of beer) and then back to the fair. TCD actually had a stand where they were advertising the university and looking for Masters/PhD students. We got back to Bad Gandersheim for dinner that evening in Pizza Napoli and after a regular beer (Einbecker Pils), we were treated to a taste of Einbecker “Bock bier” which is quite tasty
Fri: Back to CeBIT after breakfast but only 5 of the 10 of us, due to sickness. There was a smell of burning from the car on the way too so we called the rental company later that day and the breakdown service who decided to tow us back to the garage
Luckily, there wasn’t much wrong with the car apart from some oil spilt around the engine bay by the people who had rented it before us. After a good steam-clean, we were ready to go again. Mercedes service was actually quite good. Met up with the rest of the gang back in Hannover city centre, where we went for kebabs.
Sat: Final Day of CeBIT and almost back to our full compliment of tourists. Quizzed the people in Ericsson for quite some time on WLAN, MIMO, LTE and IMS. The final thing I did was some quad-biking and then said goodbye to CeBIT…
Sun: Headed back to Bremen, via Dublin and the train back to Limerick
Some photos from CeBIT
Two German boats crashed into each other off the coast of Lebanon four weeks ago. A video of the crash that has turned up on the Internet shows that the captain apparently wanted to allow a bit of fun, that blew up in his face.
The video video could be shown in “Ooops - the Boopers” in a special episode “crazy military accidents or: how one can waste tax money professionally”. The German fast attack craft “Frettchen” can be seen bombing across the wash caused by the other warship off the Lebanese coast. One of the observers said “that looks cool” but shortly later one of the others shouts “shit, shit.” Because after riding over the wash, the “Frettchen” can’t avoid the “Gepard”, a second Fast Attack Craft travelling parallel to the warship, any more. And so there was a crash
In the second scene, the accident is seen from the perspective of the “Frettchen.” Firstly, a fun powertrip over the waves, den someone says “look out!” but it’s too late. The boats bang off each other. In the final seconds, the camera catches a glimpse of the German flag - as if it must be made clear to whom this embarrassing incident has happened.
“No good explanation”
Götz Meiert, spokesman for the German fleet command in Glücksburg confirmed to stern.de that the video is real. The incident occurred almost a month ago and no-one was injured. But the boats suffered heavy damage because they are built from wood. Photos of the wrecked ships can be seen in an Austrian Internet forum. They show that the “Frettchen” ripped a large hole in the side of the “Gepard.” Both ships are being repaired in Cyprus according to Meiert.
Meiert was not able to say why the captain of the “Frettchen” risked his vehicle for a bit of fun. “I cannot think of a good explanation.” The navy have set up a committee to enquire into the incident. All parties concerned will be questioned. The only thing that is certain, is that the ship was on the way back from a sending-home ceremony for the “Brandenburg” frigate. At these ceremonies, it is common to sail by and salute again on the way home. A crash doesn’t belong to the normal bye-bye of course.
The filmmakers are also on the line.
Not only must the chief of the “Frettchen” prepare to be disciplined. The filmmakers that were on board face adversity too. “The film damages the reputation of the German Armed Forces; there is the possibility that the soldiers are guilty of misconduct” Meiert said. On the other hand, the have unintentionally done a good deed: the film and the photos in the Internet help the investigation.”There is hardly a loss, that is so well documented” said Meiert.
The fast attack crafts belong to an international naval unit under German command. It patrols off the Lebanese coast and ought to prevent weapons smuggling. In total, the Germans have two frigages, four fast attack crafts and two supply ships in operation. The fast attack crafts’ home dock is Rostock-Warnemünde.
Big shout out to Denis in Paris; Ilona Mitrecey - Un Monde Parfait (A perfect world)
While looking for this I came across some good sites for finding past chart hits in Germany - www.charts-surfer.de and Schlager der Woche which shows that young Ilona was beaten by a German/US/British pop group made famous by RTL II called US5
Transport 21 has gone tits-up already - 2yrs delay for Citywest Luas after 18 months. Would Enda have stood for this? It wasn’t announced either - websites were simply updated…
Many other people have posted this but I was there too - John & Patrick Collison of Auctomatic share their experiences of setting up Auctomatic, ycombinator and Silicon Valley.
People were quite excited to be part of an interactive webcast too - we were getting feedback and questions from the people watching the live stream
Short answer to Mike - go to Franconia (northern Bavaria, in German: Franken). In Berlin, Becks seems to be the beer of choice. There is a beer known as Schultheiss but it was more of an old-mans beer. Berliner-Pilsner was a good alternative to Becks. I heard of Berliner Kindl too but can’t remember it being any good. Certainly didn’t try any green/red Berliner Weisse
oh yeah - the dramatic pause in blogging Seactain Na Gaeilge events was because we went on a little trip to 
and then back to the fair. TCD actually had a stand where they were advertising the university and looking for Masters/PhD students. We got back to Bad Gandersheim for dinner that evening in 
