I arrived in Bonn on Wednesday evening. A good friend of mine moved here from San Francisco in 2000. Bonn is the former capitol of Germany, close to Cologne on the river Rhine. The parliament and most of the administration has been moved to Berlin, but it seems that it was rather for the better, because the city seems to be prospering. I would have loved to post some photos of the Rhine, the river boats (there was one in the shape of a whale called "Moby Dick"), the old parliament, the historic buildings (some of you will probably say "oh no, please no more old buildings"), but as I mentioned earlier the battery of my camera is dead and the adapter that I brought with me does not fit.
Yesterday I spent quite some time searching for a new adapter or a new charger, but all without success. Then last night when we came home from watching the Brazil game we passed this small electronics shop. So I went there this morning. The shop was filled with old stereo equipment, receivers, tape decks, amplifiers, record players ... all used for very little money .... all the current and long forgotten brands. I believe some stuff was at least about 30 years old. I thought "boy, not sure if this will be successful", but of course I was also very interested in this stuff, so I gave it a try. The owner was from Syria and has lived in Germany in 1967. It was really interesting to talk to him. He was extremely helpful and searched all over the place, always telling me that he knows exactly what I am looking for. He found all kinds of adapters, but unfortunately they were all for American plugs to convert to European. Well, he would not give up and over the course of our conversation he mentioned his sister who lives in Washington. He remembered that he bought an extension cord there. Finally he found it, still in original wrapping, with an American price tag. Unfortunately, it did not fit so we thought about what to do. Finally we had to sand off the edges to make it work. Not very professional and definitely not up to code, but what the heck ....Yeah ..... now I have an extension cord that fits into my adapter and I will be able to charge my batteries. Soon there will be more photos of old historic buildings of course ....
Yesterday I spent quite some time searching for a new adapter or a new charger, but all without success. Then last night when we came home from watching the Brazil game we passed this small electronics shop. So I went there this morning. The shop was filled with old stereo equipment, receivers, tape decks, amplifiers, record players ... all used for very little money .... all the current and long forgotten brands. I believe some stuff was at least about 30 years old. I thought "boy, not sure if this will be successful", but of course I was also very interested in this stuff, so I gave it a try. The owner was from Syria and has lived in Germany in 1967. It was really interesting to talk to him. He was extremely helpful and searched all over the place, always telling me that he knows exactly what I am looking for. He found all kinds of adapters, but unfortunately they were all for American plugs to convert to European. Well, he would not give up and over the course of our conversation he mentioned his sister who lives in Washington. He remembered that he bought an extension cord there. Finally he found it, still in original wrapping, with an American price tag. Unfortunately, it did not fit so we thought about what to do. Finally we had to sand off the edges to make it work. Not very professional and definitely not up to code, but what the heck ....Yeah ..... now I have an extension cord that fits into my adapter and I will be able to charge my batteries. Soon there will be more photos of old historic buildings of course ....
Hi Ralf,
ReplyDeleteHope you're having a wonderful trip...great job on the travel blog!
Tom