Oktoberfest!

Today was the big day – time to head to the real Oktoberfest. Some motivation was required, as we were catching a train at 6 AM In the morning, to make it to Munich in time to get a table in one of the tents.

I was approaching the event with a mixture of anticipation and slight feat – as I recall my last participation at the beerfest required rather considerable stamina, in the beer drinking compartment. We decided to start it easily and stick to having a solid, rather than liquid, breakfast on the train (unlike the majority of people, who went for the liquid option). After all, we were, for the most part, a bunch of responsible adults, right? ;) The brave group heading towards Munich was composed of: yours truly, David, Guenther, Jose, Olli, Scott, Felipe and Mira.

Upon arrival at Munich, we bunched the crowds of drunken punters (at 8 AM in the morning – what is the world coming to??), and headed down to the venue, Theresienwiese. And then started the queuing for the tent – we headed for the most famous of tents – the Paulaner one (if memory serves me right, that is were we went for the last Oktoberfest as well...). Scott's mad Danish team mate Jens, and his nearly equally mad fellow danes had thankfully managed to grab a table, so we were able to get in pretty quickly.

The madness then kicked off. Beer after beer, interrupted by the odd pretzel and schnitzel, and plenty of singing (thankfully the songs are quite easy - “ein prosit, ein prosit, Gemütlichkeit!” - that's even easy enough for a tone deaf bloke like me). All in all, I have to say, Oktoberfest is just brilliant. What is incredible is that in spite of all that beer consumed, there is basically no violence at all. The atmosphere is rowdy, sure, but very positive, all in all. And the atmosphere really is something – watching a bunch of drunken folks in Lederhosen dancing and singing on tables might not sound like a particularly memorable experience (at least in the positive sense), but trust me – it really is!

My good mate Magaye was also participating at Oktoberfest with some of his mates, and we did make a brave effort to meet up – but didn't succeed in the end. All that beer got in the way, I suppose ;)

Several hours and quite a few beers later, we stumbled back to the train station, to catch the train back to Ulm. Amazingly, we didn't loose anybody on the way, and everybody was in a rather civilized state. The journey back was rather spirited and entertaining as well (the few sober people on the train might disagree, sure...), I even got to practice my Italian with some exchange students!

At the train station it was time to say our tear-filled good byes. Somehow Oktoberfest seems like a rather appropriate way to end my association with Ulm! Or who knows, maybe I will be back – it's not the first time I've said this was my last time in Ulm (if that makes any sense??).

I was rather pleased that Andi could take me to the airport the next day! Auf wiedersen, Ulm!

The last visit to Ulm (again!)

So, one more visit to Ulm then, the first (and last?) one since that fateful visit that ended rather painfully on the 14^th of June, with some bad news announced by my employer... The reason for my visit was a course given by the Linux Foundation, and of course it was a good opportunity to say bye to all my great colleagues (best of all, there was an “Octoberfest style” party planned for Thursday).

Andi, an Italian chap who worked on the same project as me, was kind enough to put up myself and David. After picking up at the train station, and deposing our stuff at his flat, we headed down to Zum Shatten, a rather nice typical German eatery. We helped ourselves to the most massive Wiener Schnizels I've ever seen – that is no exaggeration. A good start to the trip, then ;)

The rest of the week was, apart from the training course, a kind of series of “deja vu” experiences, as we headed down to our favourite eating/drinking holes. Naturally, most importantly, a visit to Barfusser (or rather, two), was called for. I was rather shocked/flattered, when the waitress was shocked at me not ordering the Sweineshaxe! (I mean I'm not that much of regular!). Apart from that, we checked out the Drei Kannen, another nice little eatery where the food portions are, let's say, generous.

Thursday was the night – time for the big Ulm closure party. And quite a party it was. They'd put up a big tent, in proper Octoberfest fashion, with long tables and benches. After the boring speeches, we got down to business – food and beer. Great to catch up with all the old team mater, and Sami as well of course! It was all rather good fun – I even ended up dancing on a table at one point, believe it or not! And the highlight of the night – some pretty darn impressive fireworks (wonder how much that cost...). So, I think it's fair to say the Ulm site rampdown was done in style!

The next day at the training course was rather painful for most of the participants, I'll tell you that... We took it rather easy, since on Saturday, it was time to head to the REAL Octoberfest. A visit to Barfusser was called for, though (and this time I did have the Schweineshaxe!).

Quick visit @ Stuttgart

Time for one more visit to Ulm! After mulling over various flight options, I decided to fly to Stuttgart (Munich being a wee bit expensive due to the ongoing Octoberfest – more about that fest later!). I was arriving rather early on Sunday, so I decided to meet up with David (who was also coming to Ulm, from London) and have a walk around Stuttgart before heading down to Ulm.

Stuttgart is the capital of the Baden-Wurtenberg state, and one of the biggest (the 7^th biggest, to be more accurate) and most prosperous cities in Germany. It is also known as the “cradle of the automobile” – Stuttgart being the place where both the automobile and motorcycle were born. Stuttgart is also where Porche and Mercedes are based. What’s rather surprising about Stuttgart though, is the fact that it’s a rather green city, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards, and blessed with quite a generous amount of parks and gardens.

It has to be said that Stuttgart was rather badly damaged during World War II, so the town center is a kind of weird mixture of rather ugly post-war constructions, and well restored historic buildings. The overall impression I got was of a prosperous and dynamic place, with people chilling out in the numerous bars, cafes and beer gardens.
Our exploration covered most of the main sights in the town center. We started at the impressive and lively Schlossplatz, the largest square in the town center, and also where the new castle is located. From there, we headed on to the other well-known square in the town centre, Schillerplatz, where the Stiftkirche and old castle are located (which dates back all the way to the 10^th century).

Our quick tour of the town center done, we made our way to the castle garden beer garden, for a well-deserved schnitzel and pint of hefeweisse. The food and drink bit done, we then headed to the train station. Before taking the train back to Ulm, we climbed up to the 12-floor tower that dominates the train stations (with, quite appropriately, the Mercedez-Bentz insignia at the top), to take in some rather nice views of Stuttgart and the surrounding countryside.
All in all, quite a nice and pleasant afternoon!

Circuit de Castellet

Amazingly, for this Sunday, Aurelien and Julie were joining Antoine's gang and us for a hike (I say amazingly, since Aurelien has stated he is allergic to sport and excercise). The plan was to meet up at Saint-Jeannet, and then hike up to the Baou de Saint-Jeannet. Or actually, turned out we ended up walking the Circuit the Castellet – a 4 hour hike around the Baou.

We started off by walking through the village, which is typically picturesque (I think I've used that expression rather a lot on my blog?). Passing by the nice little chapel at the exit of the village, we embarked on our hike. The hike took us through a surprisingly pristine valley (considering all the construction on the Riviera), up towards the ruins of an old castle.

From there, we started heading towards the Baou (baou, btw, is Provencal for cliff). But before taking the final path up to the top, we ended up walking around the Baou and approaching Saint-Jeannet from the other side. We did stop for a much needed picnic lunch.

And naturally, once we were back at Saint-Jeannet, we awarded ourselves with some drinks at the local bar. All in all, a very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Not 100% sure Aurelien agrees, though ? ;)

BBQ at Mikko and Marianne's

We were very happy to get the invitation to go for a BBQ at Mikko's and Marianne's place this weekend – it's always nice to see them, and almost as importantly, we always eat very well there. And then there is the sauna, of course... Nahtalie, Henna and Aki also came along for the event.

The food was predictably tasty – although perhaps a bit less “meaty” than usually (Henna is a vegetarian). But thankfully, Mikko is a confirmed carnivore, so there was plenty of meat to eat as well (in fact, in spite of our best efforts, we didn't manage to eat it all). We had a predictably good time, especially when me and Aki climbed into Aleksi's little toy house (Aleksi is 2 years old, by the way!). Amazingly, no damage was done.

After the BBQ and the near destruction of Aleksi's little house, the boyz naturally went for a sauna. That is definitely one of the things I miss from my home country... We had some pretty good “löylys”, and also put the swimming pool to good use.

So a great day, then! In fact, so great, that me and Mathilde had to skip the rest of our plans for the day (visiting Negresco hotel, as it was exceptionally open to visitors this weekend, and going to the movies). And in fact, much to my shame, I have to admit I didn't even have dinner in the evening, I was that stuffed...

Exploring Le Cannet

After a rather lazy weekend, we figured it was time to activate ourself on Sunday. Our initial plan had been to go hiking, but the weather forecast looked distinctly off-putting, so we decided for a bit of culture instead.

So we decided to head to Le Cannet, where they've recently opened a museum dedicated to Bonnard. Aurelien and Julie, who live in Le Cannet, were happy to join us when we told us about our plans, since they'd not been to the museum.

We started our visit by checking out the Tour des Danys. This old tower, dating back to the 16^th century, used to guard the entrance to Le Cannet on the road from Cannes (Le Cannet is basically just next to Cannes). From there, we headed off to the old village. Quite a picturesque little spot, I have to say (I guess that shouldn't surprise me, almost all towns here do have a picturesque old part). After walking around the cute cobble-stone streets for a bit, we were joined by Julie and Aurelien.

After some deliberation, we decided to go for lunch before visiting the museum (which meant we had to scrap our plan of having a picnic lunch on the beach at Cannes, darn!). We chose one of the two nice-looking restaurants on the main square in the old village, and ate rather well, I have to say. I had some nice prawn skewers, followed by a nice café gourmand (basically a coffee with a selection of small desserts – usually a safe choice!).

The museum itself was pretty interesting. The theme of the current exhibition was to explore Mr. Bonnards relationships with other painters from the same period through their art. So actually, there were also some quite interesting works of art from for example Matisse and Monet, in addition to paintings from Bonnard, of course. The collection was pretty small (takes less than an hour to see everything), but I still reckon this museum is well worth a visit.

Our very pleasent afternoon finished with some drinks in Aurelien and Julie's lovely garden!

Jocke visiting!

This week, my good friend Jocke decided to pop over for a short visit. As usually with Jocke, confirmation came rather late – but in the end neither the looming Lufthansa strike nor the last-minute work assignment (Jocke is a pilot) materialized, so he showed up at the expected time at the airport – one bag short unfortunately (Lufthansa seem to do that quite a lot...).

On the first night, we decided to dine in – an oven-baked free-range chicken did the job, with some nice rose wine to wash it down. And that was naturally followed by a couple of glasses of Mathilde's grandmum's, as well as grandfather's calva, and a couple of glasses of the '44 I've also made. More than a couple of glasses, actually... Strange how that home-distilled calva always seems to go down well with my fellow Finns...

The next morning, we didn't get up quite as early as planned (I wonder if it had anything to do with all that calva the night before?). But, we still managed to stick to our plan, which was to go sailing. We rented a catamaran at the sailing club at the Cros de Cagnes, where I sailed for a year. The session went rather well, as we sailed back and forth between the Port de Saint-Laurent-du-Var and the Villeneuve-Loubet Marina. Seems that sailing is a bit like riding a bike – once you learn it, you never forget ? Good fun, maybe I should sign up at the club again ?

All that sailing meant we'd developed quite a healthy appetite, so after some deliberation, we ended up going to one of my favourite restaurants on the Cote d'Azur – the Dame Nature in Saint-Laurent-du-Var. Their concept is to make good food from natural (mostly organic) ingredients. A bit pricey, but the quality of the food is really excellent. I had the Parillada a la Plancha this time – an excellent choice. One of the best seafood dishes I've had for a really long time... The dessert was absolutely delicious as well. Dame Nature certainly didn't disappoint – in fact I reckon it was better than on previous occasions.

After our rather late lunch, we didn't have time to do much after dinner actually. I did want to show Jocke a proper Provencal village, so we decided to head down to Saint-Paul-de-Vence for a quick tour. It's certainly one of the most picturesque villages on the Riviera – but a bit touristy unfortunately. I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was, considering this was a weekday evening in September, but alas, the tourists were there in great numbers. That, of course, takes nothing away from the beauty of the place. And it was a fruitful visit; Jocke purchased some local art, and I finally found Marc Chagall's grave in the grave yard just outside the village (last time we visited, we failed to find it).

For the evening, we'd booked a table at another one of our favorite restaurants, Entre Cour et Jardin, located in Haut-de-Cagnes (the historic village in our dear hometown). After the appetite-inducing hike up to the top of the village (it is located on a hill, with a rather steep cobble-stone street leading to the top), and a short exploration of the medieval village (in my opinion, every bit as pretty as Saint-Paul-de-Vence), we made our way to the restaurant. Entre Cours et Jardin was every bit as good as last time we came. I would say the place is pretty close to deserving a Michelin Star, at least so far as the qulity of the food goes. Both the starter and the main course were excellent, as were the amuse-bouches and their bread. Should you ever find yourself in Cagnes-sur-Mer, this is the place to have dinner (but do book in advance...).

The next day, we had a rather ambitious program. We started off by heading down to Cannes, from where we took the ferry to Ile Saint-Marguerite, the bigger of the Iles de Lerins. It's a very nice place indeed to wonder around, with well-preserved nature and dramatic, rocky coastline. After a short hike around the Western half of the island, we made our way to the Fortress, located on the northern shore of the island. We decided to pay a visit. Quite an interesting place – reminds me a bit of Suomenlinna in Helsinki. What the fortress is doubtlessly most famous for is the fact that The Man With the Iron Mask was a prisoner here for a number of years (we visited his cell). The identity of the mysterious chap has never been established with certainty – there are quite a few theories though... (for example: the brother of Louis XI; Moliere, an Italian spy...). You may recall a movie about the chap, starring Leonardo DiCaprio...

After a rather quick visit, we had to speed back to Cannes for lunch. As we wanted to top the restaurants from the day before, we'd booked a table at a Michelin-starred establishment called Park 45, located on the Croisette (it's the restaurant of the Grand Hotel). And it would be a bit harsh to say we were disappointed – the food was excellent, and the service was pretty good too. But, it's true, the service was perhaps not quite as good as I'd expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant. And the food, although very good, wasn't really better than we'd had the day before. Don't get me wrong – we had a very nice meal, but there are better “fine dining” places on the Riviera than this, I reckon.

Our appetites sated, we then carried on to the Var department – the next item on the agenda was wine-tasting. The Var department is very famous for its Côtes de Provence rosé wines – we decided to make our way to Les Arcs, which is kind of the capital of the Côtes de Provence region. We stopped by at two places. We felt we weren't very well welcomed at the first vineyard we visited – but their rosé wines were really excellent, so I decided to get two bottles. The second place was a bit nicer, with a nice lady giving us a good overview of their wines, and let us sample quite a few bottles. I liked the wines less, but decided to take a bottle of white, anyway.

After a short walk around Lorgues (a typically pretty Provencal village, yet again), we started driving back towards Cagnes. But, since we still had some daylight to enjoy (and the sun was finally out, after a rather grey morning), we decided to take the scenic route – that is, drive by the Massif d'Esterel. There is a very nice road that follows the coastline – the views are just stunning (especially in the evening light, as it makes the ochre-coloured rocks seem almost red).

After dinner at home, we decided to hit the Cagnes-sur-Mer bar circuit. I'm being slightly ironic here è there are hardly any bars, and unbelievable as it may sound, I've never been to any of them, although I've lived here for close to 5 years. Well, better late then never. We hit three of the establishments by the seaside – I think we accounted for about 50% of the customers at each place. Oh, well, at least I can say I've done a pub crawl in Cagnes-sur-Mer now ;)

That pretty much brought an end to Jocke's short but intensive visit. The next day, after a swim on the beach, it was time to take Jocke to the airport. Well, it was good fun, that's the main thing!