What a beautiful day to have a barbecue dinner with good wine and friends on a roof terrace.We just started around sunset. This was teh view to the North West of the town:
The view of the Beijing skyline with the new skyscrapers was amazing. The central business district (CBD) of Beijing with the strange shaped CCTV headquarter building and the World Trade Tower 3 reminds me of the skyline in Hongkong.
Friends had invited for a barbeque on there new rooftop terrace of their new apartment outside East 3rd ring road. And it was a superb day for great views due to the strong wind making the sky very clear and blue. But it was quite hard to get the fire starting with all the wind. And we did have minor sparks light up some cardboard outside the grill.
We could see the CCTV headquarter building with the burnt down building to its right side.
And the mountains were visible in the West and North. Here the view to the West:
And to the North West we could even see the top of the Dragon Building of the Olympic Village as well as the mountains I usually cycle in.
And this is their garden: The Chaoyang Park. And still here you see mountains in the background.
Many people brought nice wine as some work in the wine industry in Beijing. I was planning to go on a bike ride later so I unfortunately could hardly try any of those nice bottles. Too bad.
It is Easter (I almost forgot about that) and friends had the idea to do a picnic in one of Beijing’s parks. So we met at Ritan Park with fresh bread, cassoulet, salami (saucisson), cheese, Champagne (almost, it was Brut de blanc), red wine, fresh salad, Chinese marinated pork, liang mian, grapes, strawberries, chocolate and many other delicious things. The weather was nice and warm with a little bit of haze which made it really comfortable sitting outside. The cottonwood was flying making it really feel like spring.
How beautiful it was with the fresh snow everywhere and the sun shining the whole day! We went off piste in the morning and made our marks in the powder.
It was extraordinarily beautiful as the clouds stayed below an altitude of 1300 meter and we stayed above 1300 meters the whole day. So while the people in the valley were under gray clouds we had pure sunshine!
Those clouds made it look like an ocean or huge lakes between the mountains.
At the end of the skiing day we look the long slope all the way from the highest peak of the ski resort all the way down to the valley. It was a magnificent feeling like flying in a plane above the clouds and then dunking in.
In the evening Roman came to visit again. Hartmut cooked a 4 course meal with a salad with duck, an orange and carrot soup, pork cutlets with coconut basmati rice and a raspberry orange cake. We had some nice Austrian white burgundy wine as well as German Riesling Auslese with the dinner.
Hartmut and I drove to Austria today. I have been to Carinthia many times but somehow forgot which would be the best shortcut from the highway. Roman was already awaiting us when we finally arrived. Hartmut started cooking right away. But we were lacking apples and tomatoes and it was after shop closing time (6pm). Roman went on a search for them and after quite a while finally was successful at a restaurant. Hartmut prepared a 3 course meal and was very satisfied afterwards. Also because we drank nice Champagne and wine.
To get back to Germany I again took a the train. This time it was more difficult to buy a ticket. In Chambery it was not possible to buy any other ticket than that of the first train I was to take to Geneva. After some difficulty it was actually possible to give me the connection data of the 3 other trains I was supposed to take, but only in handwritten form. She noted that I only have 40 minutes for the transfer in Geneva and I could try to buy a ticket there but it is only 40 minutes. I thought how stupid, sure I can buy a ticket within 40 minutes. Well, I was assuming I was in Germany. But in Geneva (Switzerland) I took a number for the international ticket center and found out I had to wait for 30 other people. So I decided to go to the counter for the „train ticket sale for immediate departure“. After waiting there for about 25 minutes and only advancing about 5 people worth I started worrying. I found 3 ticket machines of which 2 were not working and I tried to get a ticket all the way, but found out I could only get tickets for the Swiss part of the travel. My next transfer would be again in Switzerland and only 18 minutes and I was very worried how I would get a train ticket to Germany.
But fortunately in Olten there was no line at the ticket counter. In Frankfurt I heard the message that my train was 2 hours delayed. I was positively surprised that the German Bahn did sponsor a substitute ICE train leaving at the time on the schedule. Deutsche Bahn has improved a lot on their services. I even heard that people in France use Deutsche Bahn online for booking train tickets or checking schedules of trains in France.
After a full day on trains it was nice to get a delicious warm meal from Hartmut. He made a very fragrant and spicy soup. We drank a very nice Champagne with it.
After a full day on trains and a delicious warm meal it was nice to do a late night walk in snowy Nuernberg and go for a drink. We walked past the Nuernberg castle and then around the small downtown streets crossing the Pegnitz river a few times.
Friends invited us over to play risk. They live in a nice three sided courtyard.
Problem in the beginning was that the key for the room in which the risk was was inside the room itself. But we did manage to retrieve the keys through teh window from the outside.
So we could start the game. It was a really exciting game with lots of negotiations. A few hours later we had delicious roasted beef with mashed potatoes. That went along nicely with the red wine we had been drinking.
A friend of mine sells wine asseccories in China. He invited for a small international wine tasing in his office. We had some French and Australian wine, some from Chile and New Zealand. It is nice to meet people who are also interested in wine. Especially if they do not just buy the most expensive bottle and then put ice cubes and sprite into the wine like many Chinese do. Slowly we hope to spread the culture of wine drinking in China.
