This is from the British Airways in-flight map:
If they think Stansted is south of London in Kent, rather than north of London in Essex, that may perhaps explain why they don't offer any flights from there...
Here's a big ant outside Magdeburg central station:
I guess this is what it eats:
Magdeburg doesn't have all that much to look at architecturally, on account of how the centre was pulverised by Allied bombers a few months before the end of World War 2, then lovingly restored in a concrete brutalist style by East German architects. However, it does have one particularly spectacular modern building — the Green Citadel:
Here's another picture of it in daylight rather than twilight:
I particularly like the way that graffiti artists have left it alone.
Here's a Trabant I found parked near the cathedral:
It was the only one I saw during my entire trip, and judging by the number plate and its immaculate condition, I surmise that it's something of a collector's item.
I saw these nest-like things in trees all over the place:
Apparently it's mistletoe, which I thought only grew on oaks.
This is a weird sculpture or something:
It has naked demons lolling about on it:
If I'd thought I could have made any sense of a descriptive plate, I may have looked for one.
Hey, Magdeburg has a British shop!
As you can see, it sells "British food and more". The fact that British food has appeal to the people of Magdeburg just goes to show how much they must have suffered under the Communists...
Judging by its advertising boards, it looks as if the British food shop's mainstays are whisky, tea and marmalade:
I didn't go in though, because, well, I'm British and it's simply Not Done to snoop around. I merely checked to see if the flag was the right way up (it was) and continued on my way.
Even though most of the buildings are made of concrete and glass, you have to admire the inhabitants' attempts to jolly them up:
This statue was outside the hotel:
It shows the only interesting thing I knew about Magdeburg before visiting, namely the Magdeburg Hemispheres experiment designed by Otto Von Guericke (after whom the university is named). The statue is only solid on this side — looking from the other side it's just a framework. I'm sure there's probably some artistic reference to vacuums going on there...
Finally, here's my bed in the hotel:
I like the way that I have a double bed, but, because I'm a single occupant, they only gave me a single duvet. It's as if they've been badly bitten in the past by university visitors who have sneaked in additional bodies... I have to say, though, that it was one of the comfiest hotel beds I've ever slept in.
Then my phone ran out of battery.