27 February 2012

Life Boat


Hamburg-Blankenese, Germany.
February 2012.


Sail across the ocean, the ocean deep and wide
The storm will bring you to the other side
Freedom, my love, is a double-sided coin

What have you done to earn your keep?

It's no longer a dream...


(Miranda Lee Richards - Life Boat)




These photographs were taken when the tide was high. If you look close enough, you can see shipwrecks in both pictures. Click here and here to view pictures taken at low tide.


Click here if you'd like to see more pictures of shipwrecks.

The song quoted above is one of the tracks on Richards' album "Light Of X", which is a wonderful soundtrack for rainy days, sunny days, happy days, sad days, and pretty much anything else you could possibly think of.

Just one week ago, I stated that it was more likely I'd be going to visit the U.S. this summer than going on the trip up to Scandinavia, as I had originally planned. The situation has changed completely for a number of reasons:
- I have just learnt that my current car, a Volvo V40, is going to fail the TÜV (the German version of what we call MOT in the UK) this coming April, due in part to bodywork damage, which in turn resulted in damage by water, and a few other things.
- A few of my good friends here in Hamburg are planning to rent a house up north in Denmark for a week or two in August or September and asked me if I wanted to come along.
- I definitely need a trip somewhere - anywhere - but when I made plans to go on a road trip around the American Southwest I thought that I was going to keep my car for another year. 
- Denmark is just a four-hour-drive away from Hamburg, and since I'd be going with a group of people, I'd save the money for a hired car and avoid the current high petrol prices, and since we'd be sharing a house, I'd be spending a lot less money on accommodation, too.
- The money I'm going to save will contribute to the budget for my next car, which is most likely going to be a BMW. Then again, I love the Volkswagen T2 and T3 vans... well, I'll have enough time to think about that.

This is the final decision. The American road trip that I was talking about will be one of my future travels, just like the Scandinavian road trip.

I'm not yet sure if I'll come along to Denmark, but I do know for sure that I'm planning to go on a few short trips to other places in Europe - preferably one or two destinations in Portugal or Spain.


Goodnight.


- Dom

10 comments:

Mandy said...

How strange that I should read those lyrics now. I have just been speaking to a friend about service and thinking about how writing about these issues is not enough anymore. Indeed, what have I done to earn my keep. I often have serendipitous moments like this when reading other people's blogs.

My travel plans keep morphing too but only because I won't commit to actually spending the moment I have saved and buy a ticket. I'm quite tragic sometimes.

Mandy said...

I forgot to say: I love these photos!! I would love to see a real shipwreck one day.

joo said...

Scandinavian trip sound great. I've never been to Denmark, but I think it's a beautiful country really worth a visit:)
Great photos, by the way!
have a nice day:)

Dom said...

Mandy:
Tell me about it!

Thank you. These shipwrecks aren't that amazing. They're just the only ones around here. There's a gallery of breathtaking photographs of shipwrecks on the National Geographic website...

Joo:
Thanks! Glad you like those pictures. Apart from spending some (hopefully sunny) days at the house, we're also planning to visit Copenhagen and probably a few historic sites as well. Also, I'm still hoping to visit Gdansk this year (the friend who's from Gdansk is also one of the people with whom I'll be going to Denmark). Last but not least, a friend from school has graduated from college and left England to continue his studies in Bilbao and San Sebastián, and he said I should visit him there because it's so beautiful.

Suze said...

'I definitely need a trip somewhere - anywhere - but when I made plans to go on a road trip around the American Southwest I thought that I was going to keep my car for another year.'

I recommend visiting Chaco Canyon in Northern New Mexico if you ever make your way, here, Dom.

Dom said...

Thank you Suze! Chaco Canyon seems to be both a beautiful place and of archaeological interest. I'll add it to my ever-growing list of places I would love to visit.

Siddhartha Joshi said...

Have fun dude! The trip sounds fun.

Dom said...

Thank you Siddhartha! I'm sure I will. :-)

Carola said...

Wonderful photos, oh sooo beautiful.

Travel wherever you feel you should go.

"Sail across the ocean." I have done that, some years ago and my husband wrote a book about our circumnavigation.

If you like to travel: Take your time. I traveled three years on the ocean and some years later two years around slowly mainly on land (came across Pakistan). And always with my kids.

Are You Here – Are You There


Dom said...

Thank you Carola!

I'd love to do that! That must've been a fascinating experience.