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- 22nd AUGUST, 2012 -

You've noted that this (A) series update has been substantially delayed and that's due to a lot of stuff happening in the background, primarily medical.

THERE WILL BE AN IMPORTANT NOTICE AROUND THE 1ST WEEK IN SEPTEMBER.

Because there were too many pix for even a quick overview of the trip in June, I split the preview pix into two halves.  The second half is below and somewhat kinkier in general than the previous half.  Eventually there will be a full couple of articles in the JG-L TRAVEL PIX SECTION in the months to come.

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- Duxford -

The next injection of aviation porn was completed at RAF Duxford and that museum is something that has to be seen, if you are any kind of an aviation nut case and you are in the UK

All three pix above are of classic aircraft: the Stearman, The Sunderland and the Concord.

The Fairey Swordfish, otherwise known as the Stringbag, was a most effective torpedo bomber.

Probably one of the very best piston, aero-engines ever created, the Rolls-Royce Merlin.

The B-17 Flying Fortress, Memphis Belle.  A pretty formidable fortress indeed and so heavily armed that its actual, effective payload was only 4,000 lbs.  B-17's generally had a crew of 10, and when compared to the DeHavilland Mosquito, one wonders.  The Mossie had two engines, was one of the fastest airplanes, could be set up for many different role, ALSO had an effective payload of 4,000 lbs, and only 2 crew.  Hmmm.

Duxford, a division of the Imperial War Museum, not only specializes in aviation material, but also a goodly selection of marine and related stuff.

An old 5.7" battleship gun mounted in a Coastal Defence role.

On the left, the standard British 3.7" AA gun, and on the right, just one of the 110 barrel sections for the Gerald Bull super gun.

Much as they may look like small dioramas . the above pix are of full sized guns set up as they would be on the battle field.

One of the self-propelled guns on outside display.  This museum should NOT be missed and believe me, you can spend the whole day there.  I only managed 4 hours of running around madly taking pix and know that I kissed a lot.

Above is the only twin seater Spitfire in the world and I got the privilege to see see and hear it fire up then take off.  Quite incredible.  The pilot/owner is a lady, and very good.

Zooming down the road on the way to TOP TO BOTTOM LEATHERS, we passed the gate for RAF Waddingtom, then just a minute after, there she was, Vulcan 607 herself ... the air craft that blew out the runway in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.  Wow!

And that pretty much put paid to the three wonderful weeks in Scotland, Wales and England.  I cannot thank our hosts enough for all of their pre-planning and willingness to make things happen.  It WAS quite incredible.

London - Paris - Munich

After an EU 100.00 taxi ride into ST. Pancras station to catch the EuroStar, I was soon aboard then across the channel to paris.  Trouble is that 'shit for brains (me)' forgot about the time change.  Grrrr. caused a glitch and unexpected adventures.

Paris Railroad station crawl with these guys and a bloody good thing.  Any Muslim Jihadi who sticks his/her head up will promptly get it blown off - a good thing also.  Remember ... this guy is only the one you see - there's lots of others.

- Friedrichshafen Zeppelin Museum -

Graf Zeppelin's personal vehicle.  A lovely machine.

Some examples of the intricate aluminium bracing structures of the Zeppelins.  Top right - only a small hull section, showing the Diesel fuel tanks.  The friggin' thing was monstrous.

On the left a small section of the Bodensee Harbour at Frierichshafen.  A beautiful area and should not be missed if you're in Bavaria.  Right side is a Jaguar XKE, one of the classic designs.  I saw a bunch of these types of cars while staying in Kissleg.

While in southern Germany, I stayed with my good friends Cordula and Juergen of CAPTURED TABOO'S and Juergen showed me his latest project ... a head 'egg'.  It's nearly done and is MOST impressive device.

The 'Egg' is truly something else in terms of engineering.  Not only does it fully isolate the wearer, but it also controls vision, hearing and breathing air.

  Juergen has built this from scratch and his genius and workmanship are incredible.  As can be  seen, the Egg is designed to work in conjunction with he body case he's already created, and he tells me that there are plans for both leg and arm encasements in the same style.  Wow!

If nothing else, Juergen is an inventor and when he wanted a laser that would do a certain thing, and couldn't find one, he built his own.  Incredible.

I was soon off down the road again and thi9s time to see my long time friends, Anna and Uwe at their lovely home.

Anna and Uwe live out in the sticks ... as much as that is possible in a heavily populated Germany and they have a FANTASTIC home.  It's a 250 year old, classic German farmhouse/barn combination and they have done absolute wonders with it.

The large interior courtyard is wonderful for just about any kind of play that can be imagined

Anna, being the crazy and adventurous lady she is, was soon fully arrayed in her rubber, then I added in a few of my own costume accessories ... the Axsmar cuffs and collar.

If you look closely, you'll see that Anna is equipped with an internal e-stim device, and this is activated by the sounds of her hooves hitting the pavement.  When the sensitivity was turned up, she was reluctant to walk at all.

Of course Uwe and I were not prepared to let her just stand around and model her gear!  We turned down the sensitivity a little and then started her pulling me around the courtyard.  Half way, around I turned up the sensitivity again and was soon rewarded with some delightful squeals and wriggles.

On the left is the former cow barn and this [-lace has atmosphere PLUS.  On the right is the barn loft immediately above.  Anna and Uwe have at least six distinct studio areas and the things that can be done are limitless.

Onward to Holland

During this trip it seemed that I was always on a train of some sort, and so I departed Munich Hbf and went through to Amsterdam, Sloterdjik.  A pretty nice trip.

Holland is a fascinating place and I enjoy being there a great deal.  I love the overwhelming presence of water and canals and the people themselves are amongst the best.

Madieanne waiting patiently fort me, the typical tourist, and then a little later, me at a Thai Restaurant near her place.

A friend of Madieanne, JETT, had introduced herself to me on FetLife and we made plans to meet while I was in Amsterdam.  Needless to say, I'd soon bunged her into the Horse Woman harness I'd brought along and then we began experimenting with other stuff.

Here we have the 'layered look', with Madieanne trying on some swim goggles and on top of that, a gas mask, one of which I went out and bought the next day.

We planned to do a shoot at the DeMask store in downtown Amsterdam and so after getting mostly dressed at Madieanne's, we finished it all off at the store, then proceeded to try and stop traffic.

Our little display managed to stop a lot of folks just wandering along, and the same street sweeper machine passed us 3 times in 15 minutes.

The contrasts in costumes was fun, and then of course to be on a set of reins, being led up and down the block was a trip in itself.  Madieanne had a LOT of fun tugging o the reins and directing me.

Once freed of some of the more restricting parts of the harness, it was time to just sit down and have a smoke.  Just doing that attracted a lot of attention, as did, of course, the two ladies.

It was a fun afternoon, despite the effort and energy required to show off the harness.  Madieanne was a great head masseuse as can be seem by my expression of enjoyment.

Later that evening JETT was put to bed and there to stay, inescapably strapped down until the next morning.

The next day, Eric and I wandered around downtown Amsterdam and it was a delightful experience.  We stopped for lunch at a local pub and the table came complete with a cat that just stayed there for the whole meal.

Just walking along the streets and alleys of Amsterdam is an education in itself.  I was fortunate to catch the local beauty (left pic) just relaxing, then we found a Venetian Mask Shoppe that had some incredible masks, and even though not kinky, I'd loved to have had the money just to buy two or three of the more beautiful ones.

On any visit to Amsterdam, I always stop by the workshops of BIZARRE DESIGN to reconnect with Jeroen.  He is an incredible craftsman who makes nothing but the very best of corsets of all types.

Later that night I again clambered into the Horse Man costume and we went off to a club on the outskirts.  As with most of these events, it was incredibly loud, but very interesting.  I don't go to these kinds of clubs very often and so it was an eye opener.

- Visit to Pupett & Michael -

Pupett was approaching the last stages of her pregnancy (since successfully completed and she is now the proud Mama of twin boys), but her Husband Michael was kind enough to act as my tour guide.  Above left are what he calls 'the cloud factories' .... huge thermal generating plants.

He took me down to the Rhine for a walk along the dike and I got to see what a huge, fast and busy river it is.

One of the few remaining walled cities in Germany and this one has been around for LONG time.

Later that day, after visiting Pupett again, we connected with Ingo and Doro of Rubber's Finest and it was good to see them again.  The next day, it was back on the train for the short trip between Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, where I had arranged to stay with my very good friend Frank and his lady, Sigrid.

Bottom left side is the arrangement I used for humping all of my crap around the assorted train stations and i9t worked well. Right side shows one of the many river boats cruising  by on the River Mainz while we enjoyed a meal.

... and my last meeting for the entire trip was with PeterPD.  We hit it off instantly and enjoyed each other's company a great deal.  On the right, the Frankfurt Airport Hotel, Convention Centre and train station.  A monstrous building and you can be assured that when Germans set out to do a job, it's done right.

Probably the most gratifying part of the trip, after being gone for 5 weeks.  Here, on descent over the Coastal Range and heading for Vancouver.

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The latest update to the Travel Pix Section - Page 43 has also been uploaded.

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