Frantic action, is the one in which our friend Stefania is embroidered right now in Babelsberg! She’s producing wonderful jewels made of knots…who said that macramé was for old ladies? Next Spring everybody will want macramé! I tell you!!
Oh my favorite is this one in peacock/mineral hues!! Love it!! Want to see more? Visit Manufacta Est Blog!
Photo: Stefania
Tim Raue’s book is really interesting and entertaining. Curious that in German “gang” also means course (as in “main course”) 
A few days ago our friends Stefania and Paolo booked a table for four at Tim Raue’s. The name rang a bell because I had seen a bio of the cook in bookstores, but we were very happy to join our friends in this gastronomic adventure without knowing anything about the cuisine. We only knew the guy had won a Michelin star.
Well the experience was definitely worth it! Everything, from the fabulous Asian food to the décor, from the service to the artwork was enjoyable. I will not say it was perfect because perfection is boring and Raue’s cuisine is not. The meat is cooked with Japanese craftsmanship, the dim sum are a Chinese firework, the fish bring along the South Asian flavour…if you love Prussian determination and Asian flavours, that’s a place not to be missed!
The Niederfinow boat lift is no industrial archeology. In operation since 1937, it got recently a bit of an overhaul in order to keep it in good shape. Germans have maintenance in their genes. Continue reading ‘Bigger, faster, harder!’
We feel that iron and mechanics should need to be regarded as respectfully as stone and ancient constructions. We feel mesmerized by such technical prowess in the same way as we are when we look at the Pont du Gard…
There’s always an uncomfortable moment when you try to fit in a lift which is already a little bit crowded. Continue reading ‘Fourth floor, women’s lingerie…?’
Of course we had to try the whole Schiffshebewerk experience, exactly like last year with the F60 (didn’t we tell you about that one?).
So here we go, with a small ship we enter the liquid lift. Continue reading ‘Beam me up, Scotty!’
We are always amazed by engineering and during many holidays we chose to travel (walk or cycle you name it) along engineering monuments. Be it the levadas in Madeira, the Canal du Midi, the F60 in the Lausitz, railway lines in the Appennini, Switzerland or in the heart of Australia. In many cases these impressive engineering oeuvres are protected by UNESCO, or included in a protection scheme like ERIH – the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
But the thing which attracts us the most is that “wow” feeling. Visionary people who thought about a solution and were sufficiently stubborn and technically competent to get them done. Continue reading ‘Just do it!’
Here you can perceive the geographical gap which makes it necessary to build a lift in order to bring barges and small ships up and down.
Not only the ship is lifted, but also a trough (a portion of channel) where it is temporarily parked. Trains of barges need to be unlocked and inserted one at a time. The lift’s lenght is about a barge. Its width accomodates two barges.
Central Europe means barges. We are always fascinated by the sight of fat barges drifting gently on the Rhine and other world-class big rivers in Europe. Still we had never seen something like the Schiffshebewerk at Niederfinow, next to the Polish border.
Here the rivers Oder and Havel are interlinked by a canal. Still at Niederfinow the Barnim hills create a 36m high gap between the beds of the two rivers. In the past the gap was filled by a stair of locks. But locks take time to be opened and closed and the heavy traffic of barges at this important geo-economical junction called for a swifter solution. A lift. For boats.
The construction phase lasted for about a decade and the result, the Schiffshebewerk, is still operating as if it had been inaugurated yesterday. The lifting time is 5 minutes. Including all manoeuvres to get the ship in the lift, lift it and get it out the total time is about 20 minutes.
