Hugin

You may have noticed my extensive use of panorama photos in the last couple of posts. So far I always used the PhotoStitch software tool that came with my Canon camera. I didn’t want to spend much time stitching my photos together so I quite liked this drag and drop easy way of doing it. But the results were sometimes really crappy, especially with large panoramas and different viewing angles.
A friend of mine started to program his own stitching software a couple of years ago. Back then there were much too many options that you had to set in order to create a good panorama. But now this little panorama tool called Hugin supports both – a drag and drop quick and easy way as well as many options to improve your panorama. I was really surprised how quick and easy it is to create fantastic panoramas (much better then the PhotoStitch tool)! I highly recommend this FREE software!

Strolling through Southern Germany

After our ski holiday Ian had to fly home. He couldn’t get as many holidays as I got – I love being a student and being able to work all over the work!
I stay a couple of days at my best friends place near Stuttgart and we did some sightseeing and women’s things chatting, shopping, chatting, relaxing, chatting … :-)

We went to see Tübingen an old university town south of Stuttgart.
It is a really lovely little old town with narrow alleys, little shops, nice cafes and historic churches and castles.
On the way back we stopped at the old cloister in Bebenhausen. All the buildings are kept in really good conditions; this is also because the castle next door has still been inhabited 60 years ago. We took a tour through the cloister combined with a guided tour through the castle. And because we were the last 2 visitors for the day we had a private tour just for us.

The next day we went shopping the Ritter Sport industrial selling in Waldenbuch. After buying tons of supposedly cheap chocolate we visited the little museum upstairs. In there we learnt that Clara Ritter invented the novel square chocolate bar because of the soccer players who passed the chocolate factory before the game. The square bars were more practical and harder to break in trouser pockets.
At the end of the week I took the train to Ulm and stopped over in Aalen to visit a friend and her cute little kids (3 and 1 year old). In Ulm I went out for dinner with my former colleagues. It was really nice to see all of them again and to have a chat. Ulm is a really lovely city and I think that I wouldn't mind to live there again sometime… we’ll see.
And after a short visit in Ilmenau to catch up with some old study mates, I finally drove back to my home town. Now I am enjoying some relaxing day at home with my family.

Skiing in the French Alps

On Friday we started our trip to Belle Plagne a ski resort in the French Alps between Geneva and Grenoble. Together with 4 others we rented a big van (VW Caravelle) and drove all the way from Thuringia to Belle Plagne (about 1000km). Altogether we were 12 people – old friends from university, friends of them as well as some of Ian’s friends who are living in the UK at the moment.

We stayed at 2050m in 3 apartments with 4 beds each. The apartments were quite small but functional. But the best thing was our balcony! We would step out from the balcony each morning and could ski from there directly to the base of the ski lift.

New Year in Dresden
We went to Dresden 2 days before New Years Eve in order to celebrate my uncle’s 50^th birthday. So we also used this opportunity to celebrate the New Year there and to do some sightseeing.
Dresden is one of my favourite old German cities. The old skyline as seen from the Augustus Bridge is just amazing. It really feels like being set back in time. We did all the must-seen in Dresden: Zwinger, Semperoper, Hofkirche, the promenade at the Elbe, the old train station, the “Blue Wonder” Elbe bridge, .... and of course the reconstructed Frauenkirche (“Church of Our Lady”). We had some really lovely days in Dresden.

Just before midnight on New Years Eve we were standing on the Augustus Bridge and watching all the fireworks around us. Ian was again wondering about the extensive and sometimes careless use of firecrackers ;-) You can’t buy them in Australia – it is much too dry and the fire risk is too high.

After we came back from Dresden we spent a couple of days at my parent’s home in Thuringia. We went swimming in Erfurt (Ian is currently training for the Rottnest Channel Swim in February), we visited Buchenwald and we went for a daytrip to Leipzig and had lunch in Auerbachs Keller.