Getting to Hull

(Weiter unten auf deutsch)
Today I wanted to travel to Hull - the city is actually called Kingston-upon-Hull:  the Hull is a river that flows into the Humber.
I had to take a train to Barton-upon-Humber...

Heute wollte ich nach Hull fahren - eigentlich heisst die Stadt Kingston-upon-Hull; und der Hull ist ein Fluss, der bei Kingston in den Humber muendet.
Zuerst musste ich per Zug nach Barton-upon-Humber

... but when I got to Ulceby train station I was told it is cancelled. Fortunately there was a bus going. And I arrived in time to catch the next bus to Hull over the "magnificent" Humber Bridge. I definitely would have preferred a ferry! especially as we got stuck in a traffic jam and it took ONE HOUR to cross the bridge. It would have been faster to walk over it... (see BBC news)

... aber als ich an der Bahnstation von Ulceby amkam, sagte man mir, er ist gecancelled. Zum Glueck fuhr ein Bus und ich kam rechtzeitig an, um den naechsten Bus nach Hull zu erwischen, ueber die "grossartige" Humber Bruecke. Viel lieber waere ich Faehre gefahren (aber die wurde 1981 mit der Eroeffnung der Bruecke eingestellt): besonders da wir in einen Stau gerieten und eine ganze Stunde brauchten , um die andere Seite zu erreichen. Zu Fuss ware man schneller gewesen.

Finally we arrived and I went to the Maritime Museum. The former Dock Offices building was built by Christopher Wray in 1871 and converted into a museum in 1975.

Schliesslich kamen wir an und ich ging ins Maritime Museum. Das Gebaeude von 1871 war urspruenglich das Buero fuer die Docks und ist seit 1975 Museum.

They have a good Whaling exhibition and quite a few scrimshaws.
Sie haben einiges ueber Walfang und eine ganze Menge Scrimshaws.

Afterwards I had time to visit an old light ship, the SPURN...
Danach hatte ich noch Zeit, das ehemalige Feuerschiff SPURN zu besuchen....

...before I had to catch bus and train again to get home. This time without incidents.
... bevor ich mich wieder mit Bus und Bahn auf den Nachhauseweg machen musste. Diesmal ohne Vorkommnisse.

Lazy Sunday in "my new place"

for today only some pictures:

"my" bed

"my" garden

"my" cat

Ich packe meinen Koffer....

... und wiege die Sachen!
Lange nicht so witzig wie das Kofferspiel *seufz* Aber da ich morgen zu meinem nächsten cat-sit mit ryanair fliege und nur 10 kg Handgepäck mitnehmen darf, leider unerläßlich.

• Laptop 1050 g
• Kamera 750 g
• Kalender, Notizbuch 500 g
• Täschchen mit Ladegeräten 500 g
• Lesebuch 500 g
• Waschzeug (nur winzige Packungen, ob man da noch was weglassen kann?) 1000 g
• Turnschuhe (könnte ich auf dem Rückweg anziehen) 450 g
• Sandalen (ziehe ich an) 360 g
• Geschenk (soviel Platz habe ich also mindestens für Mitbringsel) 200 g

Jetzt sind schon 5 kg voll und ich habe noch kein einziges Kleidungsstück dabei

• Handtasche, leer (die bunte; auch die muss  INS Handgepäck!) 320 g

Nun, dann werde ich mal weiter packen, ab morgen oder übermorgen gibts den Reisebericht dann wieder in englisch...
So long

Nachtrag: fast vergessen:

• Handgepäck-Köfferchen 2250 g

Nun, ich glaube, ich werde auf das Lesebuch (Philip Hoare: Leviathan or, The Whale) verzichten und hoffen, dass es in dem haushalt auch was zu lesen gibt...

"Hast du nicht genug Taschen??"

Klare Antwort: "Nein, nie!"

Ich weiss nicht, ob ich euch diese Tasche schon mal gezeigt hatte. Ich habe sie schon vor ein paar Jahren aus Platzsets und Moosgummi gemacht:










Die Idee mit dem Moosgummi könnt ihr getrost vergessen, es hat den Belastungstest nicht bestanden! Aber die Platzsets waren noch wie neu! Also habe ich die Seiten aufgetrennt (ist übrigens Bootsmannsnaht mit scubidoo-Bändern) und mir ein neues Band für Seiten und Boden aus plarn gehäkelt. Und hier also meine neue Sommer-Lieblingstasche!

Mitbringsel

Da Martin sich ohne Abschied einfach so aus dem Staub gemacht hat, habe ich wieder Zeit für Anderes. Und ich hoffe und denke, dass er selbst am besten wußte, dass er nun alleine klarkommt...

So kann ich heute zeigen, was ich alles für meine diversen Sammlungen von meinen letzten Ausflügen mitgebracht habe:

Sherryglas, erbettelt in einer Kneipe in Jerez

Paprikadose gekauft in einem kleinen Supermarkt in Cádiz

Münze geprägt in Córdoba

Münze geprägt in El Torcal

und so sieht ein Prägemaschine aus...

Meet Martin!

Yesterday I went back to Antequera by train - laden with 8 cement tiles! (more on this later) - and of course, Martin!
Martin is a young Crag Martin (Felsenschwalbe, Ptyonoprogne rupestris), that I found on Tuesday near the river Hozgarganta.

He is recognizable by the white spots on the tail. As you might imagine, I just couldn´t step over him and say: " The next cat/ rat/ snake etc. will take care of you". So I put him in my camera bag and brought him home. Since then I was continuously hunting insects!
Fortunately the chinese shop had a butterfly net and tweezers, and there were empty water bottles in the house. Do you remember my grasshopper hunting for the swifts? (here)
I had to realize though that the grasshopper season has only just started, and there were not many around. Oh, those hitherto unknown joys of finding fresh dog-shit with flies on it or - even better: fresh horse droppings! One scoop with the net brought me about twenty flies, and I could come back ten minutes later for the next scoop. Once they had dried out though, the flies were not interested in them any more...
So I invented a fly trap!

An empty water bottle with some fresh - irresistibly smelling - cat shit! The flies went in and then didn't find the way out. Every hour would bring me about 3 to 5 flies. I then held another bottle over the opening, flies would fly up into that one - close it and into the freezer, while the trap could be placed again!
Martin, like the swifts, had to be force-fed, and I gave him about 10-15 little insects every 1 1/2 to 2 hours from sunset to sundown - around one hundred per day! So, of course, the fly trap didn't yield enough, but it helped. During the rest of the day, I was mainly around hunting insects.
I kept Martin in a big pottery jar in my apartment - a cat-free zone.

He never made a sound, but once I managed to get a fly into his beak, swallowed readily and seemed to like it. When he had enough, he would spit the insect out.

Yesterday I had to leave Jimena and had to bring him on the train to Antequera. I chose the camera bag as means of transportation again and had a box of insects with me, thinking of maybe locking me in the toilet during the 2 1/2 hour train ride to feed him.
Not long after we had started the ride, I heard a vague noise - quite in tune with the rumble of the train. It got stronger and I took the camera bag, opened it carefully - and saw a screaming bird with a wide open beak! I couldn't believe my eyes!!!
So I took the insect box out and started feeding...

I documented the progress in my note-book and so can inform you, that 25 minutes after leaving Jimena  (16.35) he had already devoured 13 flies! By 17.45 my box was empty - gone were another 15 insects, 3 of which were rather big grasshoppers!
At home I had at least some old mealworms - and the pet shop had crickets!
Now he has a new "nest", likes to sit on the rim and gives a tweet every 15 min or so... then I rush and shove a cricket down his throat - the bigger ones I have to cut in two.

I just bought the last box of crickets from the pet shop and hope it lasts over the weekend - together with what I might catch!

Coming home

Tomorrow evening I'll be back home. There's a lot to tell!

Norman Rockwell: Returning from Camp