The Big Guy

I'm on a train back to Berlin from Munich, where I participated in a live discussion about AI for one of the ZDFs YouTube channels.  The train is very full, the table I have booked has all four seats taken. Across from me is a big guy and a woman. They spent the first half hour with his hands all over her (while she tried to watch a movie on her phone). He then decided to sleep, and put his head in her lap with his knees sticking out in the asile making it difficult for people to pass by. He tried to put his head on the table, but his fourth of the table is too small. Now he is sitting (shoes off) sideways in the seat with his legs in the asile. 

I realize that it is difficult to get comfortable on a train if you are big, but the disrespect for those around him I find galling. There are, of course, a handfull of sneezers and coughers on the train as well, so I am wearing a mask (as the only person, apparently). I wish the Deutsche Bahn was able to have more trains running this route so that it would not be so crowded.

Skånes Djurpark

Goodness, it's been over a year since I last wrote. Probably no one reading anymore, but I need to get my anger out, so this is probably the best place to do it.

I'm in Skåne and WiseKid was up with his family for a few days. He wanted WiseKidKid2 to see how nice the forest and the grass around the house and the fresh air is. WKK ran barefoot around and around the house a zillion times (they live in an apartment building in downtown Berlin). He found some frogs and oodles of slugs (yuck), enjoyed picking and eating blueberries and raspberries right away, and studied the flowers - and of course watering them, getting your feet wet is really important if you are 3.

We decided to go to Skånes Djurpark yesterday morning, that used to be a very nice zoo that focused on fostering local animals and teaching kids all about the forest. 

The wierdness started when we checked the prices. There are different prices for every day, and it is cheaper if you buy it online, they are asking 399 SEK (around 35 €) at the door. Of course, the weekends are much more expensive than during the week, but we felt Monday was good. I don't like this "buy your tickets early for a particular date/time"-thing. It's horrible to have bought tickets and then someone is sick, or you miss a train, or the thing you were doing before is fun and you would have preferred to go an hour later. Anyway, they are to be 279 SEK a person (no discounts for children or senior citizens). But look what happens when you start adding people:

Even though the price on the calendar stays the same, they now want 299 SEK a person! Sure, that's only about 2 €, but it irritates me no end. I decided I was too tired Sunday evening and tried it again the next morning. Imagine my surprise to see that the price has now CHANGED, both in the calendar and in the basket they are now another 20 SEK more!

I gritted my teeth and paid the 319 SEK price, as WKK2 was babbling about going to see a moose today. Of course, I had to use a credit card. Must not let this valuable data point go missing!

We drove up, there were not that many cars there. They scan your license plate as you drive in and then you can pay at a station (with credit card) when you leave, or use an app. Sweden seems to have an app for everything.

WKK2 is so excited and runs way ahead of us, but Grandma is going to have words with the people at the cashier's desk. And indeed, they agree to refund me 160 SEK, that what I paid above the published price. Except that went on my credit card and has not shown up yet. The debit was taken momentarily. We'll see if it ever shows up, I demanded (and got) a receipt.

So, shall we now enjoy the park? I point to the left where the petting zoo is - and right behind it is "Shaun the Sheep Land". What on earth? Okay, at least there are some goats and sheep to pet, no rabbits or chickens or baby pigs to be seen as there used to be. We don't stay long, as WKK2 is racing up the hill to the tractors! They have an amusement park ride where two children can sit in the front, "steering", and two adults in the back. The tractors are on a track and are dragged though some cheesy figures, more than half of which don't work, WiseKid said. But the camera sure worked, and we were able to buy pictures and keychains of the event. At least the cost of the ride was part of the steep entrance fee. 

On to the next animal place, except this is now a bunch of wagons for people who want to sleep at the park. O-kaaay. The pig is at least still there, fat and bored. And there are big signs with figures from the mole book and a big button to press - and the painted animal "shits". Yes, a big hit with the kids, but not about learning about real animals! I tug the door that used to go to the building for observing the storks - locked. I peer around, no storks visible. Maybe they got angry at all the beeping and pooping?

And now there is a truly awful plastic TREE and people are taking selfies with themselves in front of the tree! I go with WKK2s mom to the seals, and yes, they are floating under the surface in very dirty water. The place seems quite run-down, although a worker is sawing away at bushes that are quite overgrown. A seal pokes his head up and has such sad eyes. I am reminded of the seals we observed in Labrador a few summers  ago, much more lively in their natural habitat. 

We continue up the hill past overgrown and decrepit pens. Yes, there is a fox walking around, but nothing else. We come to "Dinosaur Land"! Oh my, these look like the stupid dinosaurs we saw in a little amusement park we went to when WiseKid was a pre-teen and his cousins were 3-5. At least they seem to have gotten a bit of paint, some of it perhaps not intentional.

I didn't go in, but sat at what I thought was just past the exit in front of the wild cats. Except they came out above the cats and there was another dino you could take a selfie with. The booth at the "archeological dig", as many of the other booths, were closed because in Sweden school started today so be damned if any foreign tourists are here. We looked for some wolves from the viewpoint, but everything was overgrown. On to the bears - in decrepit pens, just sitting there, waiting for food. 

The place where you used to be able to pay 20 SEK to have your child ride a pony around and around is now just for children riding STICK PONIES! Pretend horses!

We pushed on, past more and more overgrown pens. We did see a wild pig in the pig stys, but there were no piglets. At least there were two eagles on a perch, but they were hard to see in the overgrown foilage. We saw some deer at a distance and finally finally finally found some moose!

You weren't allowed to feed them like we used to do, the branches for them to eat are behind a fence. I suppose too many people were giving them other stuff to eat. This was, of course, one of the reasons for coming, to see a moose, and WKK2 was very excited.

We waved at some bison on the way out, past some cabins now on the grounds of the place. WKK2 played in the water playstation (plastic) for a while, then we took the tractor ride again. The lines were not long, as there were not too many people here.

We made it past the collection of stuffed toys and ice cream on the way back to the car. The machine told me it would send me a receipt for the parking fee (50 SEK) by SMS. Of course, none has appeared yet. 

Can I say something positive about the park? Yes, they have more toilets now. 

The bottom line? WiseKid was very disappointed, he wanted his kid to experience what he had enjoyed as a kid. Of course, WKK2 had a wonderful time, but it was all plastic and figures from TV shows he watches, all commercialized. I'm afraid this is the last time I've been there, I have taken adult friends there previously without a kid and they enjoyed learning about the animals. The focus now is just on earning money and having fun fun fun.

I will be informing the Konsumentombud about the situation with the price gouging, I find it unacceptable that the price charged to you is different from what is advertised. We'll see if that gets any action.

Edit: WiseKid suggests that I include what he experienced after I haggled with the cashiers to get the 160 SEK back. They had heard us speaking German and me discussing in Swedish with a German accent. Once I left, one noted to the other that she found it so silly to worry about such a "small amount of money" (note: almost 15 €!). They didn't know that WiseKid speaks Swedish, too :)

Edit 2: The refund made it back to my account four days later, so that's taken care of. I still reported them to the Konsumentombud for price gouging. I wonder how much money they have made with this "error".

Der Schwarm / The Swarm

Well, that was a waste of time. All sorts of broadcasting companies and film boards across Europe collaborated to pour money into making an 8-part series out of Frank Schätzing's wonderful book, "Der Schwarm", that was published in 2004. The book itself was a fascinating bit of science fiction that contained lots of real science, which made it believable. And scary.

The "ecological thriller" TV film series is a catastrophe. Frank Schätzing was part of the production team at the beginning, but pulled out because, as he put it in an interview with Die Zeit, "it 'pilchers' more than it 'swarms'". Rosamunde Pilcher is the British author of numerous romantic stories with happy ends. 

It starts out okay as we are getting introduced to the characters. Not brilliant, but some nice scenery and okay acting. It gets worse with every episode. They were released 3-3-2 episodes a week on German television ZDF and you asked yourself every week, did you really want to continue? We made it through the book about 20 years ago, so we will make it through the series.

The love stories are really distracting. The pseudo-scientific crap with fancy pipetting and microscopes and audio stuff and fancy computers made no sense at all, but hey, who knows what those science-y types are really doing in their labs. A few small glimpses of the grinding life in a biochemical lab are perhaps a tad realistic, but eureka discoveries don't happen like this.

The errors in the film and discontinuities are too numerous to name. I mean, on a scientific ship you don't change clothes every five minutes! And when your face gets cut with flying glass, it does not scar over in 15 minutes!

Enough said. It actually makes me angry, as the environmental dangers that we as humankind pose to the planet are REAL. I saw the shrinking glaciers with my own eyes this past summer. We have to stop misusing the resources of the planet and work towards a life that is sustainable for ALL of the people on earth. And for the creatures of the sea. 

We will probably have to suffer a second season, as the close of episode 8 was a highly improbably cliffhanger. I do not understand the critics loving this film. I found it a waste of time I could have better and more enjoyably spent cleaning out my office. And I hate cleaning.

Kalaallisut Nunaat Days

Goodness, the days visiting Kalaallisut Nunaat (Greenland) have just flown by! I also picked up a nasty cold (no, not Covid, they tested me for that) and have been barking like a seal for days. I wear a mask to keep others from catching my cold. 

It was grand fun, getting on the Zodiacs and zipping around, getting a closer look at glaciers and moraines, learning what nunataks and cirques and drumlins are, and taking lots of pictures. 

The internet is terribly bad on board, so I’ll just try and upload a few pictures here!

The town of Aappilattog, in Kujalleq

A closer view of Aappilattog

Icebergs come in strange shapes

This glacier, an arm of Sermeq kujatadleg, runs into the sea. A small piece broke off (calved) and splashed into the water below.

Another interesting shape

On land! At the moraine in Puiátoq on the Qaersuatsiarssuasik

The power of the ice can split granite rocks in two!

The glacier didn’t look that big until we got up close

We can’t get any closer, because there would be waves if a piece breaks off that could capsize our boats. 

A view from afar

At the narrowest point in the Ikerasagssuaq fjord (Prince Christian Sound), only about 500 meters wide, the ship has to move *very* slowly to slip through.

They keep us in good spirits and give us too much to eat. We have had extraordinary good luck with the weather, that will be changing when we get to Canada. 

On board the MS Fridtjof Nansen

Our friend drove us into town so that we could get our outrageously expensive lateral flow tests at the Harpa. A test kit costs 2 € in Berlin, a test at a test center 3 €. They charged us 50 $ per person for the tests! I got my results within the hour, WiseMan‘s didn‘t come at all, so we trudged back and had them re-send it and print it out. Luckily, both of us were negative, so on with the adventure!

We were able to dump our suitcases early, and at 12:30 were able to board. First we showed all of our medical documentation and had our temperatures taken. Then we went through a metal detector, and joined the pure chaos that was behind that station. I had already fought with the ArriveCAN app that the Canadian government insists that you use to register coming to Canada for quite some time. It could use a usability overhaul, and maybe a proper update: Our ship was not on the list of ships entering a port of Canada. And without choosing a ship, you couldn‘t go on. You also had to put in the first landing in Canada and the date and time. I had written to the reception desk to ask and they sent me a place with a silly date, the day we are to land in St. John‘s, far away from Goose Bay.

We were, of course, not the only ones with problems, which were exacerbated by the Internet on board not working. You could get the ship WLAN, but it was not connecting to the outside world. I managed to get the app to talk to me and to FINALLY fill out all the fields. Then I pressed SEND, and it didn‘t go through. I must have pressed SEND a dozen times, it took a while and then timed out. I finally managed to turn off the WLAN and coax my mobile phone plan to speak with the Internet. Hey, 1&1, when you tell me I can use the Internet like home I didn‘t expect you to export all the connection problems like we have back in Germany as well!

It was also clear that many older people do have mobile phones, but they don‘t know how to use them to do anything other than phone. They don‘t know how to download apps, they don‘t know how to log onto a WLAN, and it scares them to not know what to do. We computing people really have to get better at this.

But of course with all the chaos, we were unable to get someone to understand that we have two cabins but both want to get into each of them. It took another two visits to the reception desk before their computers were working again and they were able to issue us additional room cards.

We now have our red signal rain coats, we have been through the safety instructions, and we have emptied the bottle of champagne that was in the suite :) Dinner was nice, although there are far too many people serving. It seems that the boat is only half full, which is actually good for us. 

Tomorrow we will be at sea all day, crossing the Straits of Denmark!

Reykjavik, Day 4

Seeing as it was Sunday, we picked up the mother of my friend and took her to church. She was so thrilled to be able to see old friends. The church was quite full, with lots of children and a small choir. I was able to follow along and sing, as I knew the melodies. I really hate that Lutherans don‘t print the music in their hymnals - people need to learn how to read music!

After church and lunch we packed up our spa stuff and headed out to Hammsvík on the Hvalfjörður (the Whale Fjord). It is a newly opened hot spring that caters to people who are sick of the throng of tourists at the Blue Lagoon (no link, sorry) or the Sky Lagoon (filling up with tourists fast). It is *way* out in the boondocks, you think you are about to plummet into the fjord from the gravel road when suddenly there is a nice parking space. It is only about an hour’s drive north of Reykjavik, though. You have to buy your tickets online in advance, as they want to keep the number of people at the place to a sensible number, around 50 people. 

The Hvalfjörður at Hvammsvík

There are lots of pools of heated water that cascade down to one that gets refreshed when the tide gets in, and you are welcome to go take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean that comes up the Hvalfjörður. As in North Atlantic Ocean. As in very cold water, but the Icelanders seem to like it. I waded in just a little bit and quickly ran out again, it was sooooooo cold!

This being Iceland, we ended up in one hot tub with the owner and his brother went to school with one of the sons of my friend. Icelanders talk with each other until they discover their common friend or relative. He explained a bit more of his concept, not letting too many people in and fitting in with the breath-taking landscape. It is truly an experience sitting in a pot of hot water while enjoying the view of mountains with a tad of snow still on the top and greens below. Remember to bring your bathing suit, although they will gladly loan you one for a fee. They have towels and soap and you can even wade over to the bar and get a beer or wine or champagne (in plastic glasses) if it suits your fancy. No screaming kids like at the public pool, so quite relaxing!

In the evening we walked out towards the light house on the Seltjarnarnes Peninsula. I was amazed at the number of cars zipping past us, and indeed, it seemed half the town was there, parking hither and thither, all with their mobile phones and iPads and cameras set up to take pictures of a most magnificent sunset. I took some pictures, too :)

Tomorrow we leave Reyjkavik for Greenland, I‘m really looking forward to this! But it has been a wonderful visit!

Reykjavik, Day 3

 I slept late this morning, so I missed everyone else out jogging or for a walk. It is 15°C and very sunny! The look out the window where I am writing is stunning:

We went for a walk downtown with about 10.000 other people! The place was packed with tourists, partially of course because there was a big cruise ship in the harbor. We first went to see the Harpa opera house and wanted to go to the top, but it was closed for some conference or other. 

We made reservations for dinner at the Tides, as it was clear that everyone and his brother would be out on the town this lovely day. The sun shone and it must have been 15 or 16°C. We had a lovely walking tour, stopping midway for coffee and delicious cakes at the Mokka Kaffi on the pedestrian zone. The street has been painted in rainbow colors, people stop to take selfies of themselves.

We walked through the sculpture garden of Einar Jónsson. He made quite a lot of sculptures that can be found mostly in Iceland, but also in the USA and Canada. Many of the ones in the garden have grief and sadness as a theme. This one, „Protection“, is in front of the house where he lived and worked, just the other side of the Hallgrímskirkja. 

It was fun walking down streets that were not full of tourists, peering into little gardens where people were sunning themselves, seeing the treasures they had on display on their window sills, and then sitting by the Tjörnin, a little lake in town soaking up the sun ourselves.

We had a rest before heading out to dinner. We started with drinks at Harpa, then really excellent food at Tides, and closing with more drinks at the bar in Kónsulat. Yes, alcohol is expensive in Iceland. But when you haven‘t seen your friends for 7 years, you need a night on the town!