Live your Light

Last week at this time I was in Düsseldorf at the Santana concert. Although the ticket was not cheap at all, I'm glad that I bought it and that I was there. I definitely was worth it! I had not been at a similar concert before. Most of the time I didn't feel like in a concert but in an endless jam session (of about 2 hours and 45 minutes). A very good one I have to admit.

Below you can find the setlist and although I'm not a Santana fan through and through I knew quite a lot of the songs. And even during the songs I did not know, I didn't feel "lost" (like it is sometimes the case in other concerts if you don't know all the songs) because Santana's music is really universal. One can also see that in the diversity of the audience. For example there were 15-year-olds as well as people who could have been at Woodstock.

What I found a bit strange in the beginning was Santana's message "love and peace" which he repeated a few times. Strange because it sounds so honest when he says it. Well, I read he wants to found his own church on Maui...

Setlist:

1. Peace / Jingo
2. Life is for Living
3. Everybody's Everything
4. Corazón Espinado
5. Incident at Neshabour
6. Batuka / No one to Depend on
7. Namia / María María
8. Foo Foo
9. Boogie Woman
10. Savor / Percussion Solo
11. King Charles V
12. Right on / Umi Says
13. Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
14. Oye como va
15. Apache / Smooth / Dame
16. Soul Sacrifice / Drum Solo
17. Samba Pa Ti
18. Angel Chant / Into the night

Here you can find some pictures of the concert. The text is in German.

Paper Boat Challenge July

Here is the new Challenge. I'm always a bit uncertain about how difficult the puzzles are but I guess this one will take you some time. Have fun!


P.S.: If you need a bigger view, click on the picture above to get the original size.

Trip to Lausanne and Lyon

I already mentioned that from 11th to 16th May I took some days off and took a short trip to Lausanne and Lyon. Now, I finally will share some pictures and impressions with you.

I chose Lausanne for my trip because an old school friend of mine, Ulrich, lives there now working on his PHD thesis (or the preparations for it). So it was a nice opportunity to see him again and to have a cheap accommodation during my stay;-)

When I arrived on Sunday night, Ulrich had already prepared a very Swiss dinner;-): Chili con carne. The following day we did a tour by bike around the Lake of Geneva. We tried to go from Lausanne to Geneva clockwise around the lake (= the longer way) but at some point I had to confess that this was too far for me. For me about 100km were enough. The 30 missing kilometres would have become a torture...

You can see some pictures we took in the following map (thanks to Michael who told me how to embed it here!).


Bigger view

At 5pm we took the ferry from Ivoire to Nyon and then the train back to Lausanne. BTW, we were really lucky because it was the last ferry. I had expected there were ferries at least until 8 or 9pm. Mmh, things are different in Switzerland.

Tuesday we spent a whole day in Geneva visiting the main attractions like le Jet D'Eau, the cathedral, the UN building and some of the many parks. At night we had a nice dinner in a restaurant with some Argentinians on the next table. So very Swiss again...

On Wednesday Ulrich had to do some things at his uni in the morning. In the afternoon we went to Château de Chillon which we had already passed on our first day. It is close to Montreux where it seems to be normal to have a Porsche other types of expensive cars. We took the bus from Montreux to the castle which turned out to be a mistake: The day before when we had gone to Geneva by train they had told us that we also could use any type of public transport there with our ticket. We expected the same in Montreux but no, it wasn't and they caught us "dodging the fare". That meant we had to pay a fine for which we also could have rent a car (maybe not a Porsche but a nice car).

As I didn't want to detain Ulrich from his work too long, I decided to leave Lausanne the following day and to visit Lyon, too. I went there on Thursday morning but didn't have a perfect start there: It was raining when I arrived, I didn't find accommodation in the beginning and my colleague at work called me to tell me about the latest problems with one of my projects. However, the weather turned better and everything else as well. I found a hotel which was not nice at all but the room was ok.

What I liked most in Lyon is its Old town with its alleys (especially Rue du Boeuf), shops and restaurants. In one of them I ate quenelle, a typical dish from Lyon.

Rue du Boeuf

On Friday fortunately the weather was good again and I could see some more sights in Lyon like the roman theatres, the Tour Métallique and the basilica Notre Dame de Fourvière...

Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviére

At night I went back by train which was a looooong journey: I had to change trains in Paris (but not only trains, also stations) and in Karlsruhe. But I have to say I had nice fellow passengers (after the extended Russian family had left the compartment again).

View of Lyon