• Travel & Photography

    A roadtrip through Japan

    In early August 2019 I went on a 12-day roadtrip through Japan. And it was one of the best holiday roadtrips I have taken so far. My love for Japan had led me to the country about eight or nine times before, but except for the Mount Fuji and Hakone area, I never made it out the big cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Sapporo and Osaka. And while all these cities are amazing, I was absolutely eager to explore the countryside of Japan and see some of the other cities, too. So I came up with the the idea of a roadtrip through the whole country. I had 11 full days…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    Farewell flights of the Biman Bangladesh DC-10

    While the Coronavirus keeps us from travelling, at least I have some time to go through old photos and finally about some events of the past. Back in February 2014, Biman Bangladesh was the last airline to operate scheduled passenger flights on the old Douglas DC-10 aircraft. They were about the replaced with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Because Biman’s CEO had a heart for all the aviation geeks out there, his airline stages three days of farewell flights from Birmingham Airport, UK. We avgeeks were bussed to the airport, could walk around it, take tons of photos and then went on an one hour sightseeing flight above the Birmingham area. Inflight…

  • Travel & Photography

    Eating in Japan: Yakiniku — You have to try this!

    First post to my travel blog. And it’s about food. And it comes with the most serious suggestion I will ever give you: GO and EAT Yakiniku in Japan! Of course you can eat it anywhere else in the world, but it’s just more original in Japan. But if you can’t go for the next time, just search a local Yakiniku place. Hopefully you have one in your town. They are quite rare. Slight warning: Yakiniku is a little bit expensive, it’s like a visit to your local steakhouse and not opting for simple local steak, but the Argentinian Beef filet or even a Japanese Wagyu Beef-Filet. So if you…

  • Travel & Photography

    Lost Places: Closed Public Bath at Cité Foch, Berlin

    In January 2014 I visited a the closed public bath at Cité Foch, Berlin. The Cité Foch was a newly build quarter in Northern Berlin, while the city was under allied control after World War 2. The French Army controlled North Berlin, the borough of Reinickendorf and in the Cité Foch all their military personnel was housed. The accomandations there were much better than the army housings at home in France, so many soldiers even decided to stay after their time in the army ended or even after the French Army left Berlin after the German reunification in October 1990. The small quarter had a french shopping center and public…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 4 (J)

    Read this report on Airliners.net. . .. … Hello and welcome to my 6th trip-report, part 4! … .. . This map and all other maps in this TR created with www.gcmap.com, copyright Karl L. Swartz. Previous Parts: 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 1: Featuring the flights to SIN and back, departing from TXL, arriving two days later in BRI. 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 2: Featuring the flights to NRT and PVG, a 787-roundtrip and visits to the cities of Tokyo and Shanghai. 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 3: Featuring the flights to PEK, HKG and HKT, the cities of Beijing and Hongkong,…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 3 (Y)

    Read this report on Airliners.net. . .. … Hello and welcome to my 6th trip-report, part 3! … .. . This map and all other maps in this TR created with www.gcmap.com, copyright Karl L. Swartz. Previous Parts: 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 1: Featuring the flights to SIN and back, departing from TXL, arriving two days later in BRI. 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 2: Featuring the flights to NRT and PVG, a 787-roundtrip and visits to the cities ofTokyo and Shanghai. This is Part 3: — PVG-PEK — PRE-FLIGHT: Two days after arriving in Shanghai it was already time to leave again. Still not…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 2 (Y)

    Read this report on Airliners.net. . .. … Hello and welcome to my 6th trip-report, part 2! … .. . This map and all other maps in this TR created with www.gcmap.com, copyright Karl L. Swartz. Previous Parts: 6th TR: Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 1: Featuring the flights to SIN and back, departing from TXL, arriving two days later in BRI. This is Part 2: — BRI-FCO — PRE-FLIGHT: My alarm rang at 6 o’clock in the morning and it took me forever to get up and pack the things I had used into my bag. Just anothern sign that there are more relaxed things than flying to SIN…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    Asia-Trip – AB,AZ,AF,NH,MU,KA,TG,RJ – Part 1 (Y)

    Read this report on Airliners.net. . .. … Hello and welcome to my 6th trip-report, part 1! … .. . This map and all other maps in this TR created with www.gcmap.com, copyright Karl L. Swartz. BACKGROUND-INFO: This trip was not planned. Really! I had no intention to go on a holiday in 2012. I wanted to save up some money for future trips and had already planned to spend my 3 weeks off work in September 2012 at home, perhaps going on one or two fly-for-fun-trips for a few days or a short golf-trip. And what happened? In June 2012 Alitalias booking system offered us that incredible error-fare or…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    TXL-LIN-CPH-TXL – Hunting The MD-82 (Y)

    Click here to read the trip report on Airliners.net. — TXL-LIN — Hello and welcome to my 5th trip-report! ***BACKGROUND-INFO:*** Last October, when I read that both SAS and Alitalia had planned to retire their MD-80 family aircraft until the end of the year (2012) I decided to go on another weekend-trip as I have never been on a DC-9 or MD-80 family aircraft. I managed to book a trip with SK from LIN back home to TXL via CPH. The first leg was scheduled to be an CRJ, another new aircraft family for me, the second one on a MD-82. I added a rather standard LH A319 oneway flight…

  • Aviation & Trip Reports

    TXL-FRA-MAD-LCY/LGW-MAN-MUC-TXL-DUS-TXL (Y)

    Click here to read the report on Airliners.net. Hello and welcome to my 4th trip-report! ***BACKGROUND-INFO:*** I started planning this trip, because I wanted to celebrate the opening of the new BER airport. I planned to take-off from TXL one last time on June 1st 2012 and return to the new BER airport on the first day of operation, June 3rd. As I was fascinated by the number of trip-reports about 5th freedom flights on intra-European routes I started investigating what routes could be flown on one weekend without having to take some days off from work. After making lots of travel-plans and weighing up which route to take I…