The umlaut is the word used to described the two dots you sometimes see above the letters a, o and u in German. On a German typewriter keyboard there are separate keys for all these letters with umlauts and they are considered separate letters. It’s not just a u with two dots on it, it is a “ü”. To the German ear it has a distinctly different sound to a normal u. In the IT world, before umlauts were possible, you would represent a ü as ue – so the name Müller is usually written as mueller when it is part of an e-mail address.

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What a pleasure it was to cycle to work without gloves today. I was never particularly sensitive to the seasons in the past. I am a staunch advocate of the “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing” view of life. But cycling to work every day has made me appreciate the changes in the weather. First the ground drying out, then it getting warm enough to stop wearing a sweaty hat under the helmet and now no need for gloves. It’s all less important when you’re in a car with heated seats.

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Finally the weather has really taken a turn for the better. Yesterday evening was already noticeably milder and I caught the faint whiff of barbecues on the air. Today we woke up to sunshine and a proper spring day. We woke up late as we were invited to a birthday party last night.  Continue reading →

Back in Germany again. We flew with Ryanair. We didn’t expect great customer service but it does seem like they go out of their way to be extra crap. Well you get what you pay for, I suppose – cheap ‘n’ nasty, as we used to say. I am not known for obsessive cleanliness, but the plane really was grubby. I say plane, and not planes, because we definitely had the same machine to and from Manchester. Continue reading →

Well, the trip to the Dales didn’t work out quite as planned. We ended up having our picnic in the car with the windows steamed up. Outisde, the wind and rain buffeted our rented Seat Ibiza. We did get down to the river for 20 minutes between showers but it was a lot of driving for not much return. Continue reading →

I am still in Yorkshire, up early to write this blog. I couldn’t sleep as I had seen a bit of blue sky through the crack in the curtains and we are going to drive up to Malham in the Dales today for a bit of walking. After 4 days of pretty patchy weather, it looks like we might manage today without rain and a fair bit of sunshine. The Yorkshire Dales are probably my favourite place when the weather is good – which is not very often. Perhaps the lack of good weather makes it all the more special when it is sunny. I’ll take some pictures.

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We are now three days into our Yorkshire trip and I am certainly getting my dose of windy days. We went up to Almscliffe crag yesterday and it was blowing a gale. One of my girls got caught slightly off balance and was blown over – she was quite pleased about that. Not many of her friends at school will have been exposed to the sort of wind that can blow you over. We spent a couple of minutes with our coats stretched out above our heads leaning into the wind – something I had done as a kid countless times. Continue reading →

It rained all day yesterday. I like golf, but don’t much care for the local golfers so I like to get out on the course when the weather is bad and most people don’t think of playing golf. My plan worked very well yesterday. I was literally the only person on the course. The less succesful part of my plan was that the rain didn’t let up at all and it was cold and windy as well. Golfing in a near gale with freezing, wet hands is certainly a challenge but, as I discovered, not very enjoyable. It looked like the rain was here to stay. Continue reading →

I had a great lie-in this morning. After waking at around 6 am as usual, I had a quick read and then managed to doze off until after 9. I was woken by the ringing of a small bell which signifies that breakfast is ready. An excellent start to the day.

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In Stuttgart, they are building a new station. The project is called Stuttgart 21 and is a fairly big deal. At the moment, Stuttgart station is a terminus station – all the trains come in forwards and leave backwards. The new station will be a through station. And as if that wasn’t enough it will be underground with a new park to be built above it. Continue reading →