tackling stuttgart

We caught up with Leo and Hera, some DFAT friends on posting in Belgrade. And Max set a new record of steps for the day!

We're in Belgrade this weekend, the capital of Serbia in the Balkan region. The home of Fiat cars and the former capital of Yugoslavia. Serbia is not part of the European Union but locals consider this to be the heart of Central Europe. Architecturally it's a lovely city but there are parts that were bombed by NATO forces in 1999 after Serbia's involvement in the Kosovo War.

On the short flight from Croatia back to Stuttgart I had a great view from my window seat. I saw the scenery change considerably. From the white sand beach edged coast of Croatia (not unlike Phuket) it soon turned into snow capped peaks as we passed over the Swiss alps, then it became the patchwork of flat farm land in Germany. Amazing and beautiful - the pictures don't really do it justice.

A few pictures from Ironman Slovenia. 1.8km swim, 90km bike ride, 21km run. Finished the course in just over 6 hours. Weather on the day before the race was perfect (first picture) then on race day it was a bit overcast and it rained on the last 10km or so of the run, hence the silver space blankets were handed out. Most of these photos are from the official photographers, not my work!

Staying near the town of Novigrad. It's quite a rural part of the country even though it's right on the coastline. Small villages and quiet roads. Olive trees growing everywhere in fertile red dirt.

Took off from Stuttgart and landed an hour later in the tiny airport of Pula on the Istria peninsular of Croatia where I picked up a hire car and checked into a hotel near the beach to get ready for the half Ironman in Slovenia this weekend. I am staying in Croatia but driving across the border to Slovenia for the race. There must be quite a history to these two countries. Slovenia only has a very small coastline - Koper the city where the Ironman is held - whereas Croatia has a long one stretching many hundred kms. I imagine it was not easy to draw the border lines when the countries came into existence in the 1990s. Both used to be part of Yugoslavia. The last photo is my bike in its travel bag.

I like the parts of Stuttgart's light rail tram network that have grass growing between the tracks. It doesn't seem to worry the trams and it looks much better than stones, concrete or dirt.

Stuttgart is known as a wine growing region and there are plenty of vineyards close to the city. I came across these during a run a few days ago. The grapes looked beautifully plump and ready to eat. There were teams of people picking them I guess the farmer wants to get them off before the cold weather sets in.

Today Zara and Max had their first day of school in Stuttgart. It is the beginning of the new school year after the summer holiday here in Europe. Zara is in 7th class and Max in 5th. They both go to the same school - a high school near Hölderlin Place. Oddly, the German word for high school is gymnasium. So the name of their school is Hölderlin Gymnasium. It looks quite different from the British International School in Phuket in many ways. It is a city school so the land size is quite small - there are no outdoor fields or sporting facilities apart from a concrete multipurpose area for basketball and soccer. German schools don't have uniforms either so the kids can choose each day. School times are quite different too - the day starts at 7.50am and finishes at 1.10pm. Some days the kids will have after school activities making it a bit longer. The school is very close to our apartment, less than 10 minutes walk. The kids were quite nervous this morning but thankfully the day se...

I wished I'd taken a close up photo of the pebbles on the beach. There was no sand - only smooth grey stones. I lay on them for a while - not as comfy as soft sand but they didn't stick like sand does. The stones weren't hot as the temperature was only mid 20s. A lot of the beach area is shut off to the public and operating as private beach clubs that charge an entrance fee. Luckily we found a small stretch of public beach area - which was very crowded as you can see. We had some flashbacks to Phuket days!