Brexit

My views as a German and passionate European on recent events:

I can't say to have been shocked by the outcome of the referendum. Despite recent optimism the polls were around 50/50 for a long time. I feel sorry for all the Brits wanting to stay in the EU but in the end it might be better to make a painful break than drawing out the agony. The only good outcome would have been a large majority (at least two thirds,better three fourths) for staying and that wasn't realistically possible. It's simply too tedious to deal with a country that isn't really in but is (not yet) out either for a longer period. For part of the conservatives and UKIP would have gone on and on in the same fashion if they would have been defeated by the same margin they did win now. At some point it's really love it or leave it.

I hope the EU will be strengthened by all of this mess. All right wing movements and their voters throughout the EU will be shown what's waiting at the end of the road: Severed ties and economic decline or implementing EU legislation (including those about migration) without having any influence on it. To reach this goal as early as possible, the new government will be pressured to send their letter of intent as soon as possible. Whoever  thinks the UK will get to enjoy the benefits of the common market for free will be in for quite a shock.

Personally I can't comprehend how anyone could fall for the right wing pied pipers but apparently there were more than enogh who did. This is not solely a British problem but I did have a bigger esteem for their constituency than for that of other, less firm democracies. The only mildly interesting thing to note is, how soon after the referendum they started to back away from their bullshit (350m for the NHS per week, anyone?).

A few lessons that I hope will be learned by this mess:

- You can't go around bitching about the EU for years and then expect people to suddenly vote remain

- It's a gamble to build your career on populist promises, you might have to deliver at some point

- If there's no EU around anymore to blame for everything that's gone wrong, the people will realize who's really responsible

- If you are asked to vote on a certain topic, it's really a vote on that topic and not on anything else

- Be careful what you vote for for you might actually get it



I'm optimistic that in one or two decades the UK (or England and Wales by then) will be back in after a new generation will have taken over the country and both politicians and their constituencies will hold the things the EU stands for in higher regard. The fact that younger people even now voted in favour of staying raises my hope in that direction.

If you want to shorten that period don't despair, hold your politicians accountable for what they promised, ask yourself and others who really is responsible for a given political decision (is it really Brussels or rather Westminster?), fight the vitriolic public opinion about the EU and stay open minded towards people from other countries.

To quote Genesis:

This is the world we live in 

And these are the hands we're given

Use them and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in

York

York is a city with a history of nearly 2,000 years. From the Romans over the Vikings, every cool cat has been here. They have a huge amount of very well preserved old buildings like the city wall with its gates...

houses...

or the minster which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

Some ruins add a nice touch to a public park. This very special place comes with its own ghost.

Leading to the minster is a lovely crooked street with lovely crooked houses inhabited by lovely crooked people.

And then there's Bettys, a Yorkshire institution I've been told. They have really yummy stuff there. The perfect place for having a cream tea.

A few pictures of the riverside

And the main attraction: the inside of the minster. Breathtaking, awe-inspiring, beautiful. The minster choir is an attraction of its own. Loved their singing!

Manchester

Manchester is a multicultural city vibrant with life. The atmosphere reminded me of San Francisco. I arrived on a Saturday afternoon and found myself surrounded by street merchants, buskers, stag and hen parties and more generally by people having a good time.

 

There is a big number of shops selling comic books, old and second-hand stuff, adding to the vibe.

Most old buildings within the city are from the second half of the 19th century. The industrial history is omnipresent.

 Manchester was famous for its textile industry. The Museum of Inustry and Science preserves some of the old machinery.
 

 

 
 A most lovely place is the old part of the university.

 Located right next to it is the museum of  Manchester, containing many archaeological as well as natural historical exhibits and even some live animals.

 Last but not least there are some older buildings worth seeing...
 

 

 especially the cathedral with its terrific stained glass windows.

 

The Red Bird

I tried my hand at creative writing and present you my very first (very) short story.
Critique is appreciated though please bear in mind that I´m neither a professional writer nor a native English speaker.

The Red Bird

There it was again, a red speck on a branch of the old oak tree outside his window. He had noticed this peculiar bird a few times already. With its bright feathers it was hard to overlook after all.

The first time, he ignored it, not being overly interested in the avian fauna. The next time however, he started to wonder what kind of bird it might be and how it ended up in this vicinity, for he could not recall ever seeing another one like it. He tried to look it up in books and on the internet but to no avail. It was neither a robin nor a northern cardinal, not a parrot and most definitely no flamingo. Whenever he saw the bird, it would be sitting on the same branch of the same tree tilting its head and looking at him. He never saw it land or fly away. It seemed to just be there at one moment and gone at another. Only after a few weeks would he begin to understand the meaning of these encounters, reluctantly at first. 

His job as a paramedic was a constant change between boredom and stress, the joy of helping people and the frustration of not being able to do so. Deaths occurred frequently around him but he recalled every one of them. More often than not he secretly felt guilty for the death of a patient, accusing himself of wrongly doing this or failing to do that.

It was on one of those nights: having returned home after an old man had died in his car, sitting beside the window of his kitchen, he remembered that he had been sitting in the same spot this morning before driving to work, being looked at by his crimson visitor. For the first time his mind made the connection of the red bird and a dead patient, almost offhandedly discarding it as purely coincidental. And yet...hadn't it been last week, on the day the little girl had died in a car accident, that he too had seen the bird? Rubbing his eyes he decided to stop brooding and to go to bed.

Days passed without anything unusual happening. Then, one morning, sipping coffee in his kitchen, he saw the red fellow again. With an uneasy feeling he hit the road, wondering what the day would bring. Shortly after lunch he was called to an apartment complex. In a rundown flat a young woman who looked twice her real age had taken an overdose. Despite his best efforts, she was dead before they could make it to the hospital. Even though being a man of science, he couldn't suppress his gnawing doubts any longer.

The next time the bird appeared, he felt fear and anger building up within him. He opened the window and frantically searched for something to throw to shoo it away, but when he looked up again, the branch was empty. Sure enough he was called to a man with cardiac arrest that day. Angry about the lingering prophecy and eager to prove it wrong, he gave the man cpr for almost an hour before finally admitting defeat. The next encounters with the bird evoked the same response but after repeatedly exhausting himself on a series of hopeless cases, his anger faded.

By now he had gotten used to his personal prophet of doom. Though glad for every day looking at an empty tree, he was not above acknowledging the bird's presence with a grim nod and lately even got the impression that his companion would slightly return it. Being dedicated to his job he would still give his best to help everyone he could. With up to a dozen patients a day he could never be sure for which one his visitor had appeared, but he didn’t try to fanatically avert the inevitable anymore.

After his retirement the appearances stopped. Over the following years his memories of their encounters faded and whenever he recalled seeing this red bird in his past, he couldn’t decide if it had been real or just his imagination.

He enjoyed his free time but eventually the years began to take their toll and each new day seemed to be more troublesome than the one before. On a bright October morning in the 81^st year of his life, he woke with a sharp pain in his right arm. While grabbing the phone to call an ambulance, he noticed the red bird sitting outside his window. Instead of the former grimness he now almost felt pleased to see his longtime companion again. For what felt like an eternity he would bear the pain and have a quiet conversation with his friend. After finally seeing him fly away for the first and surely the last time, he decided to put down the phone.

Lübeck

This summer (at least that's what they said it still was) I decided to spend some days in the city of Lübeck, capital of the Hanseatic League.
After seeing so much new stuff on my trip to the USA, I now needed the special feeling of walking among historic building.

At first some general impressions of the city:

 

Considerable parts of the old city fortifications are still intact

Also once a part of the city fortifications but already militarily obsolete when it was built in the 15th century, the Holstentor

A wooden model of the city in the 17th century

Throughout the city you can find houses with gates that lead to inner courtyards with nice little houses, the former poorer people's quarters

The most impressive building is without question the town hall, a huge building, especially for the time it was built.

The inside is even better and speaks volumes about how rich this city has been a couple of hundred years ago.

The entrance hall

The upper floor

The remains of a medieval mural

Door to the court room and the inside of it