Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof

The title of this blog is in German - roughly translated it says "holidays in pig shit".  At least you will adopt the aroma after a weekend there.  You will also learn about biogas and GMWs.


Getting there:

As Robert Louis Stephenson is once rumoured to have said "it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive" or was it Plato or Homer?  Anyhow I caught the aeroplane from Manchester and flew to Hamburg.

This nice piece of French Canadian engineering is prepared at Manchester airport one fine Saturday morning quite early.

We climbed swiftly over Manchester enroute to Hamburg.

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

An Airfix kit of a breakfast served soon after take off and remaining impenetrable as we cross the Dutch coast.

It's always good to exit an airport on Zeppelinstrasse. I'm heading for the pig shit smell generating capital of Europe, Cloppenberg to catch up with Mrs Nikos who is working there in her peripatetic fashion.

Its Halloween and I by chance pass a Polo shop  - these motorcycle clothes shops are the size of Harrods and I manage to buy a bluetooth wotsit for my Schubert musical helmet at a bargain price. Mrs Nikos' 6th sense engages and I receive a panic "where are you" siren call.  Response "stopping for petrol dear".

Mrs Nikos on the job.

Now to the Farm.

Popular for family holidays, Mrs Nikos is staying here for a bit.

Good concept for a holiday: Whilst the parents are scrutinsing the farm animals,

the kids play with the biogas generating system X Box game

Wherever she goes Mrs N attracts pussies.

More pussies in the hay.

Bentheim pigs.

Geese in a flap

And now for something completely different.  The back garden of the farmhouse has been converted for shit to energy conversion.  If you need more information click -----> HERE

Herr Bauernhof kindly gave me a guided tour of the facilities.  It would appear that the shit is collected from here:

is cleaned in here:

And then the Hochgeschwindigkeitsscheißeauszieherpumpe comes into play somehow thus:

Controlled by this gubbins:

resulting in the necessity to install 10GW worth of solar panels in order to make a nice cup of tea:

PS

In the pig shed I found the remnants of the Father of my mighty BMW R1150GS motorcycle.

Seven Dream Bikes?

A recent gauntlet thrown down by fellow blogger Trobairitz requested that with unlimited funds what bike would I choose for each day of the week.

Easy to start with, I would not have:

My first wholly owned machine - good for commuting across South London to school and leaving a plume of blue smoke.

My second bike - I would not have one of these again either - slightly better than #1 for commuting across South London and leaving 2 plumes of blue smoke.

I lead a very sheltered childhood and missed out on British classics.  This would now be rectified by a stable of  British beauties:

A yellow one

A black and white twin  Trumpet

I do fancy Norton's - my school mate had one that also laid a plume of blue smoke across South London (piston ring problem?)

For more sedate runs around my local park this would fit the bill

Moving on to more modern European machinery, this one has nice curves.

Boxer Power: I always fancied a BMW R90S with its twin jugs exposed to the airflow.

A nice blue Jap Job operating on the 4 stroke cycle.

A scooter!  BMW are bringing them back with a vengeance.

To placate our American cousins I would have one of these too.

On Sundays I like to go flying.

All images taken from the internet  - I'm sorry about that.

Hibernation

It's the time of year for hibernation.

Motorcycles, cats, plants all must hide from the ravages of a German winter.  That's why I spend most of my time in England...

Summer parking at a top secret location on Rheinstrasse Weisbaden.

Ronny Corbett starts first press and I take her for a  blast around town before trying to ride through the front door to the winter parking.

Winter parking - in the bike shed.

The next job is to build the marquee and house the delicate Mediterranean plants on the roof garden.  The marquee is 4m X 4m and the balcony is 4m wide. 

Mrs N's pussies cannot abide my foul language on the balcony whilst erecting a marquee that is 4m X 4m on a balcony that is 4m wide so they hide on top of the wardrobe.

Congratulations to the Hellenic Airforce..

..on their 100th Anniversary.

In a Nikos World exclusive the latest addition to the HAF fleet is captured during a test flight over Germany.  This sole JU52 will replace the aging fleet of C130s that are languishing at Tanagra AFB awaiting spares.    

The Road to Greek Economic Recovery

Can only be driven in a small Italian car

Blog Flash Exclusive

Lookalikes of the hour:

A biogas plant near Cloppenberg, Germany.

Mr George Papandreou live on TV clinging to power

Pictures on a Mobile Phone

I found the connection lead for my mobile phone a few days ago - it has a usb type connector that is like no other usb type connector. After several hours of fiddling around I managed to download the eclectic collection of blurred images of random events over the past few years.

Wiesbaden street scene after Germany has won a football game.

Winter 2010 at Tatton Lake - looking forward to another bleak winter

Summer 2011 - The BMW out on a proving run at Manchester Airport.

Manchester Airport again - waiting for take off clearance to enter the eurozone

Mrs Nikos as seen through a kaleidoscope  - Autumn 2011.

The skies over Cheshire  - aircraft condensation trails.

Crocs(tm) in Wiesbaden but no size larger than 13.

Church in Wiesbaden - Summer 2011.

Manchester street scene - Summer 2011 - family on 2 motorcycles in the rain.

Flying over Germany the plane starts to ice up!

An Ozzie posty bike at the launch of the Ted Simon foundation - October 2011 Coventry - in the foreground is Jupiter.

Friday before August bank holiday weekend 2011 at Manchester Airport.

How come a German admits to building war planes between 1919 and 1934?

Self powered submarine racing - the Bogus Batoid family.

Cream tea at the Ashmolean Oxford.

Pussy power

Christmas 2010.