I could wait in line and be lucky to catch one, but the war is over here in The Neterlands for more than 60 years now and I really don’t like soup kitchen lines. Not for food and for sure not for something else than food.

Next to that I refuse to sign a 2-year contract with a gsm operator. In The Netherlands this is T-Mobile, here known for its poor in-house reception, due to the used frequency. The iPhones you get are also simlocked, something I also don’t like for something that is mine.

I made my hands dirty and drove to our friendly southern neighbours in Belgium. Brussels to be more precise. Two hours to go and two hours back.

In Belgium a simlock is illegal and so gsm operator Mobistar has to sell the phone to anyone, with or without a 2-year contract. It wasn’t easy to get one and I will not get into details (unless you really ask me), but I got my iPhone 3G. It has a big and when I say big, I mean BIG WOW factor.

Am I a fanboy? Yes and No.

I was getting sick and tired to walk around with and a Nokia E61i (connections) and Palm Centro (calender (Datebk6!) and contacts infomation). I have everything in a bigger, but ONE device. Finally…

But do I like Apple and the operators to grap me by the b*lls/n*ts? I don’t think so!

Ik heb niet echt liefde gekregen van de stakende treinmachinisten en metrobestuurders (, hoewel het vervoer NAAR Parijs uitstekend ging, met de beloofde – ja, geklokt! – 300 km per uur). Van de ongeduldige en onbeschofte bediening in een bar/cafe moet je het ook niet hebben. Dit keer hielp het barre weer ook niet mee, maar daar kunnen die Fransen dan helaas ook weer niets aan doen. Daar mag ik ze dan de schuld weer niet van geven…

Of zou het het licht zijn, of de mensen die lekker arm-in-arm lopen door het park, de vrouwen die er toch net even iets vrouwelijker en verzorgder uitzien dan hun Nederlandse versies? Eh…….

[foto's volgen]

Misser 1: Een trendy restaurant (Casino Zollverein) serveert als lunch een mooi stukje tonijn zalm op een bedje van salade en paprika. De vegetariërs krijgen exact hetzelfde, maar dan zonder de tonijn zalm en op de koop toe nog minder paprika dan de viseters. Een beetje buffelmozzarella had niet misstaan. Erg fout dus!

Duim Op 1: Het restaurant waar we s’ avonds eten heeft er beter over nagedacht. Ondanks dat het er wat ouderwets uitziet zet men, in tegenstelling tot het eerder genoemde übertrendy restaurant, de vegetariërs een broccolisoep voor die goed op smaak is, gevolgd door een groentenstrudel (alleen in het Duits) en een toetje. Compliment!

Duim Op 2: Na een dag Buchmesse is het goed eten zullen de organisatoren gedacht hebben. We bezoeken een van de bekendste en beste Appfelwein Kneipen in Sachenhausen, aan de rand van Frankfurt. Ik ben daar al eerder geweest om met Duitse vrienden iets te drinken, maar ik heb er nog niet eerder gegeten. Meestal was de aankomsttijd tegen een uurtje of tien/elf… Dus nix eten!!

Mijn tafelgenoten krijgen een enorme schaal met allerlei soorten varkenvlees die, okay als je ervan houdt, helemaal prima van kwaliteit is, zo hoor ik. Met argusogen kijken mijn tafelgenoten naar het bord met groene kledder waarin halve eieren drijven. Daarnaast een bord met gebakken aardappelen. Ik weet ze te overtuigen dat ik precies weet wat ik ga eten en daar zelfs erg blij mee ben. Frankfurter Grüne Soße (link alleen in het Duits), het lievelingsgerecht van de in Frankfurt geboren Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Na wat mensen te laten proeven is men het roerend met me eens: Frankfurter Grüne Soße is GOED!!

Misser 2: Op weg terug naar huis maken we rond het middaguur een tussenstop voor een warme lunch. De tomatensoep die naast de niet-vegetarisch soep op tafel komt is kokend, maar prima van smaak. Wat me hierna overkomt is me de laatste 10 of 15 jaar in Nederland niet meer gebeurd. De kok heeft het gore lef me een kale omelet met drie stukje aardappel ernaast voor te zetten. Ik heb geen zin in een gezelschap van een man of 50 een scene te schoppen, maar mijn hart is er goed voor. Had er dan nog wat paddestoelen of groenten in gedaan… Terug naar school met die kok!

Zoals gezegd, het leven van een planteneter gaat, zelfs in 2007, niet over rozen…

De startprijs is € 2,10 per half uur, maar dan gaat het snel beter, blijkt nu ik hier ben. Heel goed!

I went to Newcastle with my brother, just to get a breath of fresh air… So we did… The crossing by ship wasn’t our best experience, but the best choice to get a real good breath of that fresh air…
I didn’t do my homework right, because it was an spontanious action to take the boat. Newcastle was a small size city to my opinion.
On the boat we discovered it was more than this… Nice… We like old history….

The last time I have been to the UK was about 5 years ago. That was London, but the feeling was the same, I do remember.

My observations:

- British girls are – generalized – cheap, use tons of (bad coloured and wrongly used) war paint and are therefore very unattractive, They are loud and quite some alcohol.
- British lads are – not generalized – agressive, real ugly and drink much too much alcohol, in liters I mean.

And the both have a predilection for sports shoes and tracksuits or a jeans and a t-shirt of a football/soccer team

I always had the idea of the British being soffisticated, clean and well-mannered. This is what the movies tell us, but nothing of that. Even at Marks & Spencer, a favorite of mine because the enormous choice of food I was surpised. People just leave the coffee cups on the table and don’t trow them away… I was (really!) shocked!

But I am not sure whether my observation is fair and that it was a a cross selection of the population in the whole UK. But why not?!

I am a bit puzzled…

The Swiss are said to be neutral in the Second World War… I mean they didn’t care were the money did come from… I am sure this is true…

I am afraid I started just a bit off topic…
The Swiss are banning all navigation devices with so called POI’s, Points of Interest on it. Yes, serious!
Not all POI’s, but only the ones that contain information on speed controls, speed limits and everything related it seems.
This is fine with me, because I think it is a-social behaviour to drive (too) fast and then hit the brakes to get to the right speed. It is the way they do this….

But the police and maybe others can search actively to PND, Personal Navigation Devices to see whether someone has one in possession.
I can see the border patrol with their German Shepherd Dogs (no Berner Sennenhund or Saint Bernard! – the first are helt on farms and the second are used for rescue in the mountains….), and search cars for illegal PNDs!

The official information on this (in German / Italian / French) from ASTRA, “the bureau of roads”, with an (German only explanation here.

Happy driving in Switzerland!!!

[I forgot to say that pda's (like my Palm Treo 680) with navigation software can be confiscated and destoyed too!!]

…the world go round…

…at least, that is what I hope for!

What is it all about? Well, just like the old skool Internet rules: SHARE!!!

fon wants you to share your internet connection with the world. In return you will be able to have a wi-fi connection all over the globe at spots where other Foneros live.

When I am on the road – and this is not that often anymore – I want to be able to have a wireless connection at a reasonable price.
But this seems to be impossible. The big telco’s want earn money with wi-fi, and I mean loads of money.
I am prepared to pay, but don’t like to be squeezed out…

I did order the fon social router, La Fonera, last week!

I hope you will do the same! It will cost you $ 5 or € 5 (okay, excluding shipping and tax (€ 10 + € 2-something in Europe) but this is still only € 17 as an investment for the future!) ORDER HERE!
[!!! THIS € 5 OFFER HAS ENDED ON 8TH NOVEMBER 2006 !!!]

You still ask why? I like to share, don’t you?!

[Google and Skype did invest in fon, just you know]

I haven’t been camping for the last, let’s say about 25 years. I mean real camping, in a tent, for more than seven days, and no streaming water at your campsite. (but with different digital camera’s (3 in number), a notebook (I am writing on now), my smartphone Treo 650, expensive Wi-Fi, but for all power available!)

These last things have changed, but the way people connect to each other is still the same. A campingground is a small and temporary community that share the same interest: being outside, in a tent or (second choice, in a) caravan, preferably in sunny weather and with lots of children playing around, women walking around without make-up and men sleepwalking to the toilets.

Different from being at home and working, and having lots of social duties people have the time to talk to each other, about whatever they are interested in.

Favourite subject are of course the (mostly quite young) children, but now they have time to sit down,relax (after the children are put to bed hours later than at home) and talk.

The social side of camping life isn’t bad at all (if the weather is as great as it is now).

Where are we going next year?

This vacation the children of my girlfriend had lots of fun. With swimming, playing around and GameBoying.

The kids and adults of these years are lucky with all sorts of toys it seems. But are they?

The children are travelling with their favourite DVD-movies on their personal screen, the parents are navigating to their destination with navigation toys and working and playing at notebooks with or (mostly) without wireless connection.

This is a new generation that wants to take the achievements of this time anywhere they go.

And yes, I am one of them! [except for the dvd-screen]

In fact I was already aware of the fact that French car drivers and for all French motorcyclist are absolutely out of their mind. They don’t drive just fast, but very dangerous too!

I am sure my mate bacteria doesn’t agree, but he is a Francophile from birth. So in this case his opinion doesn’t count. ;-)

On my way to this camping I drove into some traffic jams and was passed by numerous high speeding motorcyclist that were zigzagging between the slow driving cars.

This is something I have never seen before, anywhere…

The same feeling of cars speeding through your neighbourhood with kids on the back seat. Is you would tell people something about that I am sure you will look at you if you are crazy. But if you would drive through THEIR street high speed with THEIR kids playing on the street, they would be furious I am sure.

Last few years I tried to get a (wireless) connection on campings, in hotels and on other places around Europe and Israel. Most of the time I didn’t succeed or it was just bloody expensive.
One obscure Antwerp hotel had the guts to ask 12 euro an hour for connection and this wasn’t even on the room itself.

The camping I am on now has two Internet-machines and Wi-Fi. A few minutes ago I tried to make a connection from in front of the tent. And even that worked! To the router I mean…
The connection was moderate strong, but hey this is a nice start.

But then I heard the prices! 8 euro for 1 (connected – continuous) hour (!), 20 euro for one day and 50 euro for a week.
That last one is okay for a week, but the other prices are just too high and absolutely ridiculous!

When will owners of campings, hotels, restaurants, coffee bars, etc. understand that they can use wi-fi as an asset?!

Don’t give your signal free to anyone around, but to your clients. Starbucks does that and the Atrium Hotel in Barcelona does the same. Checked in guests only.

That’s why I love Starbucks: for their great hot chocolate and their signal. The Atrium Hotel for the good beds and their signal…

Share!!!