Germany

A word of advice, before I get into this (which for me was very largely about my dear friend Ponti) - apply for a job and move to Germany as soon as you can.  I cannot state this strongly enough - sure there must be a million things wrong about the place - but I couldn't see them anywhere (an ominous winter?  So what?  Skiing!  You don't speak German?  No big deal (everyone, it seems speaks English, and German is clearly learnable (and has some meaningful overlaps with Afrikaans); what's more, you speak mathematics and engineering fluently - widely appreciated languages in Germany, it would seem.)  Immensely cool people; Tokyo clean and yet hugely chilled.  Seemingly classless (i.e. no bastards looking down their moneyed nose at others).  Somehow an absence of preoccupation with petty issues; apparently real issues only; real feeling people.

So off the geography and onto Ponti - the delightful Leon Engelbrecht - who I miss enormously, and had such fun being with for a day.  I think it was also the best weather that I have experienced anywhere, every.  Crisp, warm in the sun, cool in the shade.  I had limited time, kindly he fitted some client work in and a visit to his inlaws - and drove down to Frankfurt where my show was on.  Sadly I therefore did not see Sabine and Lea - who look from the many photos I saw, alarmingly exactly the same (Sabine) and completely different (Lea) - all grown up of course.  Ponti himself appears unaffected by the decade that has passed since we last hung out.  So what to do?  Hire bikes and attack Frankfurt:

 Just about every person I spoke to about being impressed with the place said something like, oh no, if you like this you should really go to Munich or Berlin, those are the places you should really see - which left me wondering just how much better it might be supposed to get.  I did not attempt photography whizzing along the city streets, but every street - right in the very centre of the city too - has a bike path, with it's own set of traffic signals, and absolutely tons of people are using bikes for transport.  The ones we got were called trekking bikes - a sturdy steel frame workhorse with a carrier - turned out to be super-useful, and built in electrics - in the form of front and back LED lights, which were powered via a small generator in the front hub.  So they were just on all the time, without discernible addition to the riding effort.  And Germans are big - so absolutely no problem to get a frame that fitted, with a saddle-pole that rose to the appropriate height.  If I had to choose, I would probably go for something with a bit steeper steering angle - this was not a bike to be swerved suddenly - more a cruiser - which in itself saved us, I am sure, as the ride got quietly more and more booze fueled.  I blame the Germans for this of course, in the miles and miles of path along the river, there were a good number of watering holes - and absolutely everyone looked like they were keen to celebrate the pending summer.

 Beer garden for lunch, of course - and fantastic as one would expect.

A great German invention - the mobile cocktail bar - which appears next to the river on days like these - perfect days.  We subscribed on several occasions.

The river strip was full of people catching rays.  The dude on the roller-blades is just chilling along with cocktail in hand.  The girl behind to the right, smiles warmly for the camera.

Lovely smiling Ponti, the danger of photography on the move, backwards, bringing the smile - it was at this stage already a risky business...

.... as you can see.  Cheers to another cocktail, the chairs belonging to the cocktail bar - help yourself.

Crossing the river, could probably have swum it - underwater - feeling like supermen.

When I say Germany is bike territory - it really is - all sorts of bikes.  Saw these two very cool recumbents - two guys on a tour together - and that is the way to travel on a bike, super comfy, hugely improved wind profile - feet out in front. 

Arriving back at the hotel - at this stage it was probably better not to have bikes - just the best day I have had in a very very long time; friendship, sunlight, bicycles, real civilization, and a big party thrown in.