Of China and other things

It's amazing how much planning a move half way around the world mixes up your life. I've been planning this post ever since my first day in China, back a couple of weeks ago. Since China has Blogspot blocked, I had to wait till I got home to post, and since I got home, life has been a whirlwind of boxes, phone calls, errands etc, but more of that later.

Spent a week in Hangzhou, and since the office was about 20 mins away from the hotel by cab, I actually got to see some of the city for once. The weather wasn't quite a cooperative this time as it was on my previous trip, when I actually spent a bit of time getting a few photos.

I was there with a co-worker from Germany and his wife. Their hotel was not too far from mine--almost right on Westlake. Mine was a bit further away, about 5 mins by cab, or 35 mins walking. I walked it a couple of times. Once was after a nice dinner with the two of them. It was a bit of an experience trying to order food for 3, with different tastes, only by looking at the picture. At one point my co-worker's wife decided she wanted some soy sauce with her dinner--it wasn't salty enough for their tastes. More than too salty for me, as I am used to eating a low salt diet. She ordered it in english, and they brought a small bowl of salt. Well this met one criteria, but wasn't exactly what she wanted. So she got up and looked around the restaurant. There was a neighboring table with a small bowl of brown liquid on the table. Assuming this was soy sauce, or some similar salty soy based liquid, she took our waitress over to that table, pointed at it and asked for some. The waitress scurries off to the kitchen and in a minute a busboy comes back with a small brown bowl of liquid. Ok, now all is good? She dunks one of her vegetable croquettes (best description I can give for chopped veggies fried some sort of crispy covering) in the sauce. Her face was a dead giveaway, complete pucker. The sauce was vinegar, not soy sauce-- back to the salt dish. We never did get the soy sauce, even though the food was pretty good and we managed to get a variety that we could all share. The only thing that none of us touched was the chicken foot and chicken head in the large dish which was not really cooked, but finished on the burner built in our table.

Hangzhou is split by a river. In the past I stayed in the "old town" side of the river as both the office and the hotel were on the same side (about 10 mins walk). But the office has moved to Binjiang, which is where there is a lot of new development.

Here you see the office building in the background, NSN occupies 14-24th floors, with Petri, Christian, Tony, Bryan and William in the foreground. Buildings are sprouting like mushrooms, and rising to touch the sky in weeks. The roads are wide, not crowded. There is not as much noise, but there also aren't many places to eat or shop yet. I stayed close to the office in October in the Longhill hotel, and really didn't enjoy the stay. Neither did I like the hotel which I felt was fairly dirty and not kept up (except the lobby), but the choices of places to eat was very limited, and the pool was empty.

The lack of things to do and places to eat may change as there are new businesses opening up almost daily in the area, and the locals are discovering where there are good places to eat, usually a trip by car from the office though.

In October the building was still very new (we inaugurated the sauna with it's glass doors and slippery floors), and the landscaping was still in very initial stages. It is much nicer looking now that the grand opening has been held with the local government and party officials.


On a clear day, you can see the bridge, and across the river to the older part of town.

I don't have many pictures from my recent trip as it was usually dark when I had time to go wander around. I did manage to do some shopping one night a the Pinghai (sp?) night market. It looks like a flea market in the west, tables set up down the street with vendors of all kinds of goods from some really nice things to real crap. I did buy Conner the watch he has been bugging me for ever since I started traveling to China. I kind of liked it and may go back to get one for myself. I also went shopping one night with my friends.

I got two strings of pearls (not the highest quality, but still very nice) for Cindy-- 100RMB. My friend had learned how to bargain from another expat who is living there. We started out at 300RMB for 1, she bargained it down to 70, then I picked up another. She said 100 for both, the shopkeeper countered with something like 150, she again said 100 for both, and after some hesitation we got them both for 100. Goes to show you really need to know how much they are worth and how much you are willing to pay and be firm. I'm not nearly so good at the bargaining thing.

On my previous trip to China, we took a day to go on a teambuilding trip, I don't remember the city where. It was about a 2-3 hour drive from Hangzhou. We went to a city where there are hot springs. The hot water was piped into several pools, actually there were about a dozen, of different sizes. Some could hold 10 people, some could have held 50 people. The pools were of different temperatures. Unfortunately the hotel attached to the hot springs was full and we could not stay there. That would have been nice, but we stayed in a very nice place about 10 mins away, except for the trains which went by every 20 mins or so. The elevator was a bit odd, it was numbered 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12...20. When I asked the next day why this was, I was told that the building is the local party headquarters and the missing floors were for offices. Well I guess that is one way to make sure that your power, sewer, etc. services are in working order, host the local officials in the hotel building.
We spent the evening in the hot springs, the next morning doing work on various organizational issues local to the R&D site.



On the way back, several of the team played a very intense card game in the bus. I couldn't tell all of the rules, but the play was fierce.

I also managed to get one picture of some farmers housing. There is farmland all along between Shanghai and Hangzhou (well where it isn't actually city any more). And also there were a lot of these on the way to/from the hot springs. These look like very nice housing from the outside. Much pleasanter than many of the old cement block apartment housing in the city of Hangzhou.

Thanksgiving with the family at Ankie's house was between the two trips. It was very nice to get the gang together, although I really missed my dad. It is strange that it has been almost a year since he migrated to a different place, as was so nicely said at his memorial. I guess it was strange as last year thanksgiving was the last time many of us saw him.
Before dinner we went on a bird walk, to remember Bruce, and were lucky enough to see many different species, even though I cannot remember any of the names. I guess I am just not cut out to be a serious birder. I enjoy looking at them, learning about their habitats, habits, etc, but remembering each one's name--that's beyond me. Still it was thouroughly enjoyable, and everyone-even all the children, brought something to eat.

Geoff and I had to flip for who had the 'honors' of cutting the turkey, I won, and Ygrayne criticized all the way through. Still it came out very nice and good times were had by all.


Returning the most recent time was a bit of a shock. The house was in a total chaos with packing. Since then I have not really had the time to do much other than pack. But now finally I got our visas today, and we have flights booked. We are leaving for Bangalore early next year, and will be very busy between now and then.

And this may be the only christmas tree we have this year... Oh well at least Smitty was nice enough to bring us one. It is a bit of cheer in the mess.

Letting Go

This is truely going to be an exercise in letting go-- particularly of all of those little things I am wont to keep, just in case. I spent almost the whole weekend throwing things away, getting them out for Freecycle, or organizing them so they can be stored. I know I am a packrat, but I amaze even myself how much stuff I can keep. I think about 1/3 is stuff that just didn't get put away or thrown away (like receipts from the hardware store) because I was either lazy at the time, or got interrupted on my way to putting things away. Now I get to purge, and purge, and purge.
Trying to figure out what is worth paying to store, and what small amount of things I want to take along is really hard. We get 5 cubic meters for shipping. If I consider that we need to take some essential cooking items so we can eat the first few days before we actually do some shopping and get our kitchen set up, also we want to bring some things which will make our home feel familiar and "ours" it doesn't leave much room for personal items. Of course we could ship more, and pay for it ourselves, but we don't want to end up with too much stuff there. All the housing I saw had less storage space than we have here at home. So, having a lot of extra stuff around won't be easy.
I have about a month more of time to get the packing and sorting done, I still have one week of travel before the end of the year. I'm starting to feel stressed and like the house is full of boxes. Cindy tried to sell off many of the homeschooling textbooks and resources this weekend, not many people came. We'll try again one more time, but int the mean time, there are 10 boxes of books sitting on the living room floor. Not the most "cozy". I hope the chaos reduces fairly quickly. I know I have a lot of work to do in the garage. I spent 1 day on it this weekend, and got a lot of junk taken care of, now I need to organize all the tools to keep/ sell/ loan out/ take... I suppose a hammer and screw driver might be useful, but none of the power tools will work... At least that decision is made. Ok, enough of that, back to sorting...

Home again

Well, I made it back home. Now I'm just suffering from that old nemesis of travelers: Jetlag. I managed to stay awake till about 8pm and slept all the way till 3:45am. Fortunately I was able to relieve my bladder, and get back to sleep till 8, so maybe, just maybe it'll go ok this time...

Weather here at home seems dreary and makes it hard to get moving this morning. But the jungle I call a back yard seems to be taking over and I really need to do something about it. Funnily enough the grapes I had cut for the family before I left, but forgot to bring in from the back yard, turned to raisins while I was gone; now I need to rescue them before they start to mildew and rot in from the rain. Also I have way too many ripe apples on my tree, I guess I'll have to make apple sauce, or eat a lot of pie over the next few weeks before we head off into the wild blue yonder. So much to do and so little time left-- better go find my cup of real decaf, something I had trouble finding abroad, and get started with the chores.

Rain Rain Go away

I've been in Finland all week, mostly just working. Long days. Hardly any light, and really no sunshine to speak of. When I arrived Sunday, it had obviously recently snowed, but that melted quickly. I guess Monday was ok weather wise. I slept in pretty late as I had arrived at 2am. It was a decent day and the walk to the train, and from the train to the office was brisk but refreshing. By evening it was drizzling and dark. It gets dark around 4pm now, and is still dark at 8 am. Tue&Wed were long days at the office punctuated by occasional taxi rides in the rain from one building to another.
On Thursday we went offsite to Majvik. It is a few kilometers from Espoo, and a rather nice place. Christian and I got there early, so I went for a walk while it was still dark/dusky. It was raining lightly, but not enough to bother with.
There were some wonderful trees, berries and birds, but the light wasn't really cooperative for good photography with my point&shoot.
Thursday evening we did some stretching exercises and learned some good techniques for a quick exercise routine even when travling. I will need to try them out over time to see if they really help out. I think they will. Then we went on to the obligatory (but highly enjoyable) sauna. None of us were really up for a swim in the lake, so we just enjoyed the sauna, and a beer in between times. I always enjoy the sauna, because it is relaxing and cleansing, and I sleep well afterwards. Friday was a pretty productive day, but the weather was really rotten on the way back to the city. Now I am sitting here, getting ready to come home and really ready to be back home after 2 weeks. I'll post more about the trip, especially the China part later after I am back home.

Singapore Sling

You've heard of the drink the Singapore Sling-- well by the end of the day I felt like I'd had one too many of them, even though all I had was juice and Tea, oh yeah and one coffee with breakfast. I plead lack of sleep, only 4 hours on the plane. But it was a wonderful day touring the city. I was fortunate enough to have a co-worker who really insisted on taking me around Singapore. She picked me up at the airport at 6:45am on a sunday, wow-that's dedication. We went for a nice outdoor breakfast at the Botanical gardens.
After a leisurely breakfast of Eggs, Sausage, and toast (yes I was hungry, I didn't have dinner the night before), we went to see the Orchid garden. It was huge, with orchids from all over the world. By now it must have been about 9:30 am and it was already getting hot. It was very nice to go into the "cool house" where they had mist and air conditioning for the orchids from cooler regions of the planet.

After touring the gardens, we went up the 'mountain' and saw the view of the city from there. They also have a statue of one of the icons of Singapore-- the merlion. It is a beast that was seen on the beach which looked like a lion, but was assumed to have come from the sea, like a mermaid. Therfore a merlion. Singapore is a real contrast to Bangalore, China and Taiwan. The streets are pristine, everyone speaks English as their first language, then most likely chinese or one of the other south east asian languages from the countries near by. The traffic is very orderly. And it seems that here in this small Island State, people of many races and religions get along very peacefully. In China town , there is a real sense of the old Singapore, but very well kept up. Buildings are old, but painted regularly and maintained otherwise. In front of all of the buildings there are extended shops onto the street. And I could feel the air-conditioning by walking close enough.
Then I came around the corner and all of a sudden I felt like I was in India again. There was a temple with a ceremony in progress. Traffic was briefly stopped while they came out into the street, turned around and went inside again. No honking of horns, or upset faces. In the market area, there was a definite sense of commercialism and some touristy items, but no-one accosted me to buy anything, it was very nice. They seem to be very into Christmas, according to my co-worker, and had decorations up already. I didn't get a shot of the christmas trees on the patio up on top of the mountain, but I did get one of the snowflakes hanging in the trees downtown.

After that we went for a nice lunch of Dim Sum and other Chinese dishes. The table was literally covered to overflowing with food and I felt stuffed by the time lunch was over. I was taken back to the airport where I basically had just enough time to document our meeting (it was a business stop), and then I was too tired to do any reading or writing, so I just zoned out and watched cricket on the TV till it was time to board the plane. I arrived in Shanghai at about 10:30pm and since we were just a bit late, there were several other plane loads of people going through immigration. About an hour later I managed to get through, find my luggage and driver and off to Hangzhou by car. I fell asleep in the car, luckily, as I arrived at the hotel at about 1:30 am and had to be up by 6 for another meeting. More about China later.

I have a lot of catching up to do. Here it is more than a week later and I haven't even had a chance to finish describing the trip to Bangalore. I really wanted to finish it while things were fresh in my mind, but China has blocked Blogspot and I couldn't do an update. So I'll just have to do some late posting.

Saturday was our one last day of sightseeing in and around the city. We started out by going to Lal Bagh. We had hoped to see some monkeys there as we had heard that they are all over the city, but the best place to see them is in this park. We got the car around 10 in the morning and went directly there. First thing we see is that there is some sort of stage being built for a festival or presentation. Turns out there was some dance festival planned in a short time. I couldn't get exactly when from the driver, his English wasn't too good.

We walked in a ways and I spotted some groups of men who looked like they were preparing for dancing or something like that. There was a variety of music coming from several directions. Then suddenly one of them starts drumming and the noise level goes way up. It was awesome how the drumming reverberated through the park. Then several more started up practicing and the noise was something ferocious. It was fun watching them practice the drumming and the dancing.
We must have stayed and watched the drumming and dancing for 15 mins or longer.

I could have stayed for hours, if it hadn't been our last day and we wanted to see some other things too.

We wandered on. On the way into the Japanese garden we were approached by this lovely young girl who first went to Anna and said "hello auntie", then she shook Cindy's hand and mine and asked if she could have her picture taken with us. She was utterly charming. You can see her picture on Cindy's blog.
After seeing the Japanese Garden, we went on and saw Snow White and her 7 Dwarves.
Kind of a crazy site in the middle of a nice park in Bangalore. Apparently this is a fairly famous location, never heard of it myself before. We went on and saw more of the park, including many sleeping stray dogs, several kinds of birds, as well as a variety of flowers and trees. See my Flickr site for all of the photos. Just for comparison though, we saw a small Tank (lake) which was partially covered by water lillies.


After seeing the park, we went to Commercial street. I didn't take any pictures there, but it is a veritable visual, as well as auditory, cacophony. Signs for and stores with just about anything you could want or need. We did a bit of browsing for clothing with Anna who was very concerned about what she might find to wear in India. I got very tired of standing around clothing stores. We did buy a couple more scarves and nicnacks for gifts. Then we got tired and returned to the hotel to pack up.

Somewhere during the day, Cindy had heard from Sensei Ganesh and we went to see a class. It was very interesting, I would guess about 30 students, and they practiced outside in the courtyard of a school. He wasn't there at the start, he has several classes throughout the city, and is involved in the India Karate Do federation. He met with us, and then had Anna show him her moves. He seemed to feel she could do well and suggested a private lesson.

Then it was off to the hotel to collect our bags and head for the airport. I had to leave at about 11:15, and Cindy and Anna had a 1:50 flight. They came with me. We arrived there very quickly (last time it took me about 20 mins to get into the parking lot, but this time we just drove right in). I could check in and run my bags through the scanner, but they could not. So we waited about an hour. They put their bags through the scanner and went to stand in the Checkin line while I went upstairs to go through immigration and customs and Security. They managed to get through it all before I had to leave on the plane, but I did get to say goodbye there in the waiting room. Then I got on my flight--destined for Singapore at 6:20am. Yes I got about 4 hours sleep. More on that in my next post.

More Bangalore

Thursday we all went to the Mastery International School, to drop Anna off for a day of 'checking it out'. We left at 7:40 from downtown and arrived just before 8:30. There was general chaos outside as children were unloading from the buses which have brought them to the school from various points about the city. Cindy and I then returned back to the hotel (where I then had several phone meetings during the morning) and Cindy went off to the OWC. She met lots of new and longer term expats and came back full of stories.
In the afternoon we picked up Anna from school. When we arrived, it was just about 10 mins before school was to let out, we signed in and found a comfortable spot to sit in the lobby. Shortly we spotted Anna across the lobby speaking with a young girl, who we found out later is the one she shadowed for the day. Then she came over to talk to us (and gave us the thumbs up). She went back to chat with her new friend and was intercepted by a young man who spent a good 10 mins chatting her up. Later (today at lunch) she admitted to having flirted with many of the young men at the school. I think she's going to be rather popular there. Anyways she seemed very comfortable there and we noticed that all of the children were very friendly and there was a general good will in the air as they were leaving for their various buses and cars.
After that we went to the Krishna temple on the hill. It is large. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, so you'll have to google it or something. We spent about an hour there and then came back to the hotel to rest up a bit before dinner.

On the way back, while we were sitting in interminable traffic, just to go a few Kilometers, I saw this pharmacy. Here in Bangalore the ambulances have red crosses, but if you need a pharmacy, you need to look for the green cross.

For dinner we met Gerd and his wife Helga at the Oberoi which has 3 nice restaurants (although I think the restaurant at the Chancery Pavilion is better). We had Indian Buffet dinner with them while they filled us in on their various trials and tribulations here in India with servants, drivers, landlords and the like. Anna was a trooper through the dinner as it wasn't too interesting conversation for her, but she looked very elegant in her Indian outfit(from the shopping at the mall). Again too bad I don't have a photo, but somehow the photography has been difficult this trip.

Today I had to go into the office, so Cindy and Anna went shopping on MG road. After my meetings I met them.

We had to wait out a good rainshower, and then finally decided to go eat even though it was still raining. This is the first time I've felt cold here (except for the AC in some places which can be too much). I got a bit wet, but not thoroughly soaked. We had a nice lunch in a definitely 'new Bangalore' restaurant called Soul, where they played everything from Eminem to Country, rather loudly. Then we came back to the hotel as it was still raining and we're now planning to go to Sunny's for dinner. Tomorrow will be our last day, let's see what that brings, I hope the weather will cooperate and we can see a bit more of the outdoors.

Of homes and schools

Let's see, I am getting lost in time now. The jet lag seems to be wearing off, I finally slept in till the alarm went off for the first time this week. I guess that means we must be close to leaving--well not quite, but we are half way through the trip to Bangalore.

So there are several days to catch up on. Starting with Monday, we met with Murali who described the Expat system to us here in India, and then we went for a tour of some houses in the Whitefield area. Very "posh" area, but very sterile looking. We saw two "Projects", no not projects like those done in the US for low income people, these are developments. They both had a lot of amenities, like pool, gym, shopping, etc. But they were very cookie cutter and looked like a street in suburban San Jose. The other problem with Whitefield is that it is on the opposite side of Bangalore from where we expect Anna will go to school. We saw a 3rd project which was a little better, but still not very much to our liking. Apparently these locations are very much in demand for Expats because they do have so many amenities, they are gated communities and there is an additional sense of safety and more other Expats. Oh well, maybe not for us though.


Off to check on schools

Tuesday morning we went to see the Canadian International School. It seemed like a nice school, and I think we were all prepared for Anna to decide that this was it. She gave it the thumbs up. The admissions director is a very bubbly person. She was very nice and gave us some advise about living locations in Bangalore and offered to even ask questions if we found something and wanted to know if it was a good location or "near to the fish market" or ... She also commented that it is good to live close to school because if you have hired help driving, or being the guard for the house, they may just not show up one day without notice "father died" (for the third time this year), and if you are far away from school and have to make quick other travel arrangements, it can be a problem.

They are located out in the countryside, here you can see the road in, it is about a 1/4 mile from the main road, and about 45 minutes from downtown in the morning traffic. Everything is measured in time, not distance here. More Photos

After visiting the school, we were supposed to meet the real estate agent, Shankar, again. There was some confusion, we waited around 45 mins, then the driver took the wrong turn in getting to the meeting point, and finally we met him. From there we went to another house in in a nice neighborhood, and saw it.

3 BR, family room, dining and living rooms, plus a patio "for parties" on the roof. We didn't really get many good pictures of the house, but it does have a lovely tree out front as seen from the rooftop.

Then we saw two apartments, one of them was like a cave, the other was nicer, but had an orange color scheme and a brand new cement structure being built in front of the main window--not a very nice view. The real estate agent didn't like either building and suggested that when we return we could look at something better. We told him we liked the house and he is looking into whether it can be "reserved" for us.

Today I stayed in the hotel for various meetings and Anna and Cindy went to see 2 more schools. You'll have to check Cindy's blog about that as I don't have much to say. That's all for now...

Comparison Shopping

Today our we went out for a walk in the morning. We walked from the hotel up Residency Road to Brigade road where we had coffee in the local version of Starbucks--Cafe Coffee Day. On the way we saw lots of leftovers from the recent celebrations. Many cars and rickshaws have flowers and or Banana Leaves attached to them.

Many stores do as well. There are also random piles of trash which looks like the leftovers of celebrations.

In the afternoon we had our driver take us to a local mall where Anna and Cindy did some comparison shopping to figure out how prices compare with the states. Anna commented that the mall was nice, but not as many "teen stores" as Valley Fair. We had lunch in a pizza place where Anna had her standard, and Cindy and I shared a Paneer Tandoor Chicken Pizza. Then we did a bit of looking at household furnishings and came back to the hotel pretty exhausted.

Arrival in Bangalore

We arrived late last night after about 24 hours traveling. Got out of the airport at about 1am in a slight drizzle, to the hotel and checked in by 2. Slept pretty well until some bozo started yelling at the TV about some sports event at 6:30 in the morning. Today we plan to go look around the shopping areas and maybe tour the city a bit. I'll post more after we've actually done something and maybe have some pictures.

Well today I am leaving Finland after 5 days of intermittently horrible weather. I got totally soaked on the way to work on Monday because I misjudged the clouds and got caught in a real downpour. Tuesday was beautiful most of the day. Wednesday had rain off and on, it froze that night while I was at Majvik. It is really pretty around Majvik, unfortunately I don't have pictures because we were so busy inside with our workshop. The food there was really bland and disappointing. The workshop was good. Thursday it was pretty nice, and today it is just awful weather. Almost snowing. It was -7C last night as we returned from dinner.

Dinner was at a nice little restaurant called Maya. They serve Mexican/central American food. Food was really good, service a bit slow. It is located close to the train station in downtown Helsinki.


Before I left today I took a picture out of the hotel window. View isn't much but it gives a good picture of the weather.

It's just about time to go get on the plane, so I'll finish here now.

Saturday after going to the Krup Estate, and seeing the sailboat races on the river below the estate.


After finishing up at the estate, we took the train to downtown Dusseldorf and wandered around the old town. Giselle and I talked a lot about her family (she is happy where she is), her travels and difficulties getting a new situation, and what she plans to do. She has to take classes, per the contract, but hasn't started yet. She is given a monthly transportation pass which is good for about a 50 mile radius. She can get to Essen, Dusseldorf, Duisberg, Krefeld, and many other places around the area. Sylvia encouraged her to get out and meet other German young people. Also to see some of the local sites. She also encouraged Giselle to get of the computer more often and be more present "locally".

We ended up at the river again.

OOPS, I need to figure out how to rotate pictures, or I need to rotate them before uploading.... Oh well, I am tired and will deal with it later.

Children's play house

Children's play house
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

This is the children's house, it seems to be just a little smaller than many bungalows I've seen.

Little House Krup Estate

Little House Krup Estate
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

The big house and the Little house are separated by a big long room which looks like it could have been a big sitting room, or changed into a ball room.

Giselelle @ Krup Estate

Giselelle @ Krup Estate
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

No, this is not the house where Giselle is staying, though I thought it might be fun to tell you that. It is near Kupferdreh (where she is staying) and part of an estate of a Steel magnate family, now open to the public. Big house on the left, little house on the right

Bryan and Giselle at the train just before leaving

Bryan and Giselle at the train just before leaving
Originally uploaded by BryanBajema

First post. I should have started this a long time ago. Now I've finally done it.
I saw Giselle first last night after a long trip up from Ulm to Muenchen, doing some work there, and then taking the ICE to Essen. After getting to the hotel, I took a taxi to meet Giselle and her family in Kupferdreh.
She and I went out to dinner at a beerhall, where we had pretty typical German fare. Then we came back to the Hotel and talked a while before I put her in a Taxi home (roughly 20Eur). She seemed to be in very good spirits. Her new family seems very nice, though I didn't get to meet the children. Sylvia works at home half time for IBM. Markus is an Engineer.

That was yesterday. Today I went to meet her in Kupferdreh (a suburb of, formerly a town near, Essen). The train was 15 mins late, and then only went one more stop, from there I had to take a bus. Sylvia and Giselle met me at the station and we drove to the Krup estate. The Krup family moved to Essen from the Netherlands centuries ago (16th if I remember correctly) and then became wealthy through trade and later Iron/Steel processing. Here are a couple of pictures of the house and grounds: