So called "Winter" in Denmark

It's incredible. This year the rule for winter weather in Denmark have been nothing but 3-7° C, rain, rain and some more rain. Throw in complete cloud coverage, so it's gray all the time when the sun is up.

Everything is soaked--went to my small summerhouse the other day, and it's so wet that one sinks in the grass breaking the lawn. Of course there's been the usual 'Breaking News' that winter is finally coming, but then it freezes for 1-2 days and when a bit of snow finally arrives (in all other parts of the country than my town of course), it's not freezing outside no more, so it turns into a wet nasty substance, which sticks around for a day or two before it's washed away by the rain.

No, let me tell you Ladies and Gentlemen: it was a lot better when I was a kid; on the evening of November 30th, we would prepare ourselves for waking up to 30 cm of powder snow in the morning of December 1st, ready for us to go play in. It would then keep snowing 5 cm every other day, right until end of February. On March 1st we would then get the first warm days, with clear blue sky, and spring clearly on it's way.

It finally arrived!

So it turned out the Russian Postal Service and the Danish Customs finally processed my watch, so when I returned from Bavaria Monday morning, there was a delivery slip from Friday's attempt at delivering it. I went and collected it, and it's even nicer than I expected.

I took some pictures with my disappointing Sony Cybershot DSC-P200 (software controlling the flash is broken, and the camera is close to 100% uselessness). I need to get a new camera; Question is just--which one to get?

A thank you is also sent to the Russian watch shop for declaring it $35 value. Meant there was no extra bill for me :-)

Bayern

After a couple of good days in Munich, having a pleasant meeting with Kaj, Lenz and Patrik, I traveled the approximately 170 km north to visit old friends in Nuremberg, staying at the 6-star Hotel Vogelsang.

Weather is awesome compared to the wet, moist, nasty, gray 3-6°C Denmark. Up to 14°C, sun and dry climate. I really have to try hard to remember bad weather in this region.

A couple of random notes:

• Werder Bremen lost at home to Hamburger SV, meaning that Henne--who I think was born with a goatee--now looks like this. That's how sure he was his favorite team Werder Bremen never could lose at home to the arch enemy from HSV
  
• A lot of people really like this ring tone that Daniel gave me--it's an old 28.8k modem.
• A taxi ride from Nuremberg to Bamberg is approximately 80 €. Kalle Weimar missed his last train connection due to us enjoying good Bavarian beer
• The Prestige is a good movie, but usually 8.2/10 on IMDB means it's better

Russian postal service

Over a month ago I bought a russian Poljot watch online. After several queries I finally got a tracking number and a link to a tracking page--albeit only in russian. After consulting a russian speaking colleague of mine, it turns out it left customs in Moscow for export on February 3rd. That's more than a week ago, and still no sign of my watch. How hard can it be to bring a 500 gram package from Russia to Denmark?

Trains vs. Airplanes

If there's one area where I really feel sorry for the americans, it's wrt. their lack of good train connections around the country. Yes yes, I know America is a huge country, but Seattle -> San Francisco -> Los Angeles at the speed of the French TGV train would be a very valid alternative. This tuesday evening I'm travelling to München to meet Kaj and Lenz, so let me just outline my way of travelling here:

1. Get on the train in Odense where I live , at 20:24. It's a 5 minute walk from my place
   
2. Go to the train restaurant and get a coffee or a beer and read the newspaper, a book, or use the laptop for an hour or two
3. At 22-22:30 go to your compartment, and brush your teeth, go to bed in the real bed with pillow and duvet
   
4. Watch a movie, read some more, etc.
   
5. Go to sleep
6. Wake up at 7:30-8 and get served breakfast with hot coffee
7. Shower if needed
   
8. Get off at the München central station just before 9 (8:57 as of this writing) and be right in the middle of the city

Had I to go by plane to München, I would have to:

1. Get on the train for 2 hours to Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup
2. Check-in at least 1h30m before the plane leaves
3. Sit in a small seat for 1h40m
4. Get off at München airport, locate the trains
5. Find a train to the city center
6. Arrive at München central station

Price is roughly the same, unless we remember the fact that I also save a hotel room in München, had I to attend a meeting in the morning.

People who argue it's an 11 hour train ride, forget the fact that one is only really awake for 3-4 hours, in which things are happening making time fly(!).

See this is civilized travelling!

P.S Did I mention there's no security checkpoints, no luggage checks, no fluids in standardized sized clear bags, etc.?

This wasn't supposed to happen ....

.... but it did. I've created a blog. I always said that this wouldn't happen unless I felt I had something interesting to share with the world. This--however--haven't exactly happened, but with me tracking all kinds of boring stats in the sports world, and many interesting leagues about to resume, I decided it was time, since I want to dump the collected stats somewhere. Besides--if everyone else gets to air all kinds of BS on the internet, why shouldn't I?

Another very compelling reason was also that Henne have made a blog, and thus do I need a blog to comment on his stuff. And let me start this by mentioning he indeed does have very fat fingers :-)