Even the Hummers.
We saw this stretch Hummer outside the Texas Ranger baseball stadium a month ago. No THAT probably gets great gas mileage. NOT!
Hi All!
No, I didn't stay for the royal wedding, I actually came back on Monday. I just was feeling a little down this week. And then Thursday evening & Friday it got really bad - Mom went in the hospital. Everything seems better on that front, and I've had a very relaxing weekend, so now I'm going to post some photos from my London trip - I hope you think they're worth it! :)
The weather was wonderful for the entire time I was there - sunny, warm, nice. The weather kept saying it would rain, but that held off until I left Monday morning. Okay - to recap from where I left off:
Saturday evening - I went to Leicaster Square & found a club that had some comedy acts performing. I'd just missed the first guy, but got in just as the second one was starting. He was okay - his act was funny things in the news. The funniest part of his act though was the drunk guy in the audience who was heckling him. The guy HAD to react to him and his reactions were funnier than his prepared act. The third guy was more well known (but I still didn't know him). He was genuinely funny. After the acts we could get in for free to the disco part of the club so I went in there. It was still early there - about 11pm - so the party wasn't even getting started. I hung around for a few minutes but decided sleeping would be a better use of my time. LOL.
Sunday - went on another London Walk - this time the highlights tour. We met in front of Big Ben, walked around Parliment & West Minister, down to Buckingham Palace, over to St. James Palace (where Prince Charles lived until the Queen Mum's death), through some alleys to Piccadilly Circus and then ended at Trafalgar Square. Our tour guide was funny. She was such a little lady (shorter than me & slim) but she had about three bags wrapped around her body. Also, she had a tendency to talk to us with her eyes closed. Like she was looking into the sun, except she hardly ever was. As a result all her mascara was on her cheeks under her eyes instead of on her eyelashes. She was chock full of information though.
After the walk I had an hour and a half until my London Eye "flight", so I sat down and ate lunch - pizza. (I didn't have any typical English food the entire time I was in London. ) Then off to wait for 40 minutes in line to get on the Eye - yes, even though you have a "reserved" time for your "flight", you still have to arrive 30-40 minutes beforehand and wait in line to get onboard. It takes 30 minutes to make a complete rotation. About 15 people fit in a pod, and they have a bench in the middle to sit on. It's really funny - everybody rushes in to sit down and then spends the entire time walking around the pod looking out the window. The only thing missing from my flight was Bill. I would have loved to kiss him at the top. Guess we'll have to go back before they dismantle it. Okay, Bill? ;)
Afterwards I walked back to Trafalgar Square and then made my way over to the Tower of London via bus. Even though the Tower was open for another hour, there were no more guided tours and most of the attractions inside were closed. So I decided it wasn't worth the 14pound entrance fee just to rush inside to see the jewels and bought a 3.5pound book about them instead.
Since I couldn't do the tourist thing, I went off to Oxford Street for some retail therapy! I'd looked up some places to buy yarn while in London and John Lewis was mentioned as a place & I knew their address on Oxford Street, so I headed there first. I was expecting an upscale yarn store and was surprised to find out it was a mid-class department store. However, they're yarn department is upper class! Full of Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Noro, etc. All lovely lovely yarns. My only complaint is that it was 100% geared towards knitting - no crochet hooks, crochet books, nothing. BUT the yarn more than made up for it. I bought four balls for a scarf swap I'm doing. After John Lewis I bought a couple books (a humourous book about the Underground & the 25th Anniversary edition of The Princess Bride) and the second season of Roswell on DVD. Fortunately for my bank account, the stores closed at 6 so I couldn't find other lovely things to spend money on. :(
To finish off the night I went to Waga Mama for dinner - a lovely Japanese noodle restaurant and then went back to Leicaster Square to watch a movie. I watched Be Cool in a HUGE theather there - it held 1344 seats! Yes, I asked. I calculated that my movie ticket ended up costing me about $20, but I think it was worth it. Just to experience a movie theater that big & in London. Oh, the movie was good too. Not as good as Get Shorty, but funny anyway. :)
That was essentially the end of my trip. I tried to go to Wimbeldon Park Monday morning for my brother, but their museum opened about the time I needed to leave for my plane. I still went hoping to find a store selling tshirts or something by the tube stop, but it turns out they hold exclusive rights to that, so you can only buy souveniours there. Sigh. So my brother will have to be happy with my tube ticket that says Wimbelon Park & a photo of the tube sign. :)
Here's a teaser photo. Go to the extended entry to see the rest of the photos.
These are mostly in order of how I took them. Most of them can be clicked for a larger version.
The view of Piccadilly Circus from Burger King. Notice the Reduced Shakespeare Theater where I took in a show the first night (an hour after I took this photo).
The Angel of Eros in Piccadilly Circus.
A cute house stuck in amongst a row of townhouses across from my hotel.
Earl's Court Tube Station.
The famous Camden Market at Camdon Lock. I thought this was it. Nope - you go outside this area & there are two or three other areas just as large as this.
The London Eye aka Millennium Eye aka British Airways Eye.
The Tower Bridge and City Hall caught in the reflection of another glass building.
The Tower Bridge & waterfront
Me in front of the Tower Bridge :)
A Statue of Queen Anne in front of St. Paul's.
Underground Sign in front of Parliment (station Westminister)
Big Ben, The Eye, and Parliment
Wimbledon Park Tube Station
I just thought these pint milk jugs were too cute - photographed in a Marks & Spencer. Which by the way, I could totally get used to shopping in - lovely grocery store.
This cracked me up. I've heard about this show (Extreme Makeovers) in the US, but I didn't know it was in the UK. And this billboard ad is just too funny.
Caught in the pizza bathroom. Apparently you chew on these little toothbrushes & they clean your teeth for you - but don't swallow! Weird.
I ate at the Indian establishment next door on Friday for lunch. That was good. This is .. wrong. A couple of guys inside gave me a funny look when I took the photo. I was cracking up laughing and had to take this photo. :)
Pretty painted Christmas ornaments (I was going to say balls, but, well....) from the Christmas market last night. I tried bringing home one for Mom two years ago, but it didn't survive the flight. Sniff.
See Janine - you got my creative juices for Photography going again. ;-)
Zurich's Grossmuenster Church by day:
... and again, by night:
This is THE largest landmark in Zurich and the building most often featured on it's postcards.
Please look at these two photos. Both are macro shots of the same subject at approximately the same distance and angle. On the first I told the camera to use ISO400 (the speed of the "film"). On the second I told the camera to pick the ISO (Auto).
ISO400:
Auto:
Click continue to continue reading.
I took the ISO400 one first, but when I downloaded it, I was disappointed in how much "grain" you can see. So I went back out and took the Auto one next. At first I thought I liked it the Auto one better, but now I'm not sure. The overall colors are better, but I like the detail you can see in the ISO400 better. See these enlarged detail crops:
ISO400:
Auto:
The pollen pistons are much more detailed in the ISO400. So, I'm not sure which one I like better, but the "grain" still annoys me. I've noticed that in any photo I take with this camera, that if I take it out of auto mode, I immediately have grain. Very frustrating.
Oh, here's a non-macro, full Auto photo of the mums:
These are my photos of the Hundertwasser Waldspirale House in Darmstadt. It looks like a vibrant eastern influenced Gaudi house. Very cool.
This is my favorite image. Do you see the eye? It's a reflection, but it's eerie.
Click on the "continue reading" to see the others.
Practically this same image was on a postcard they were selling for 1.75EUR. I like mine better. Anybody want to buy a copy? ;)
Here in this entry you will see the Hochzeitsturm (Wedding Tower), the Russian Capella, and some examples of Jugendstil, or Art nouveau, from Darmstadt.
Just click on the "continue reading" to see them. Next up, Hundertwasser Waldspirale!
Sandra was tasked with taking photos of a restaurant for work this evening, so she asked if I'd like to come along and then go to dinner afterwards. Sure! The restaurant is where our bosses are taking our clients out for the annual Christmas thank you dinner. The bosses want photos of the restaurant to send with the invites.
Anyway, once Sandra and I found the place, we were at a loss as to what to photograph. The place (Lobster's in Sachenhausen) might be a really good seafood restaurant - they wouldn't pick anything else, and besides it smelled delicious! - but their decor is sadly lacking. Above the door is a half painted over sign from some other establishment and there are no decorations. However, the restaurant logo in the window with the lights behind it and the postcards on the wall beside it were interesting, so we shot that. I was using Sandra's digital camera to shoot, so no pictures. I'll ask her for a copy tomorrow at work though, so you can see what we ended up with.
Afterwards we went to a mexican restaurant for dinner (crappy margarhita's, so-so food, nice atmosphere) and then we walked around taking photos of the Frankfurt skyline at night. That's when I took my first photo assignment photo (see entry below). We also walked through the Romer square, where I got a couple interesting photos. A very nice evening in Frankfurt.
A few photos from my trip this last weekend. More later.
The hotel I stayed at in Cologne. Yes, that is the shower right behind the bed. The room was very small and the bathroom was on the stairway landing, down a half floor. Not a problem, but it was 55Euro/night. And the wardrobe flyer said that it's normally 90 Euro/night. The first price was already about 20 Euro too much. But, they sent me my keys. Nice, small, but expensive.
The Cologne Hauptbahnhof.
The next photo is after I spent a few hours at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn. They didn't allow photographs, so nothing from there. This museum has a wonderful exhibit on the German history from the end of WWII to the fall of the wall. It's really quite excellent. It covers the German struggle to deal with the horror of the war, rebuild their infrastructure, rebuild their government, deal with a split Germany and become a strong proud economic power. I highly recommend visiting it. Bonus: it's 100% free.
An announcement sign with clock in the Bonn Ubahn.
The front of the Bonn Hauptbahnhof.
The lovely lounge atmospheric cafe where I allowed myself to indulge in a delicious meal. Chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese, covered in a wine sauce. On the side were augratin potatoes and artfully cut, perfectly done zuchini and carrot pieces. Together with a glass of Chardonnay and followed afterward with a milch cafe. Ah, perfect.
I was bored while waiting for the train to arrive for the trip home. So I about 10 around the Bahnhof. This is one of two that I liked.
Okay, I know I promised to let you vote on the photo suggestions yesterday, but I only received four:
This means I either inundate my five readers with photos already and they've seen all they want to, or nobody had better ideas.
In any case, there is no voting, as I only have three valid suggestions - sorry Amanda, a trip to France isn't in the works for a while. So, I will work on them and post them sometime next week. I'm gone this weekend and scheduled for bowling on Monday night, so start looking for the photos around Wednesday next week.
When I came up out of the Sbahn tonight, the quality of light given off by the streetlights and the rain reflections on the cobblestones inspired me. So I dashed home for an umbrella and a warmer sweater, then came back out to snap these.
Enjoy.
Click on "continue reading" to see the other four.
I'm not copying Val, really I'm not. However, I saw on Blogger.com News last week were they suggesting that you solicit photo suggestions from your readers, and I liked the idea.
I'll collect suggestions until Thursday and then ask you, the readers, to vote on the suggestions on Friday. I'll take the photos over the weekend and post them next Monday.
So, your mission is to create a comment with at least one photo suggestion that you would like me to post. Something artsy, sight-seeing worthy, local, whatever. Suggest away!
Once we finally found how to get to the Golfing Range - there was construction around the entrance, we had a lovely afternoon golfing. The weather was perfect - sunny and slightly warmer than chilly. Perfect for walking around a 9 hole course. I have to say I had a lot more fun than I ever expected. Hitting a little white ball around a green isn't as easy or as boring as I've always thought it would be. Still, it's probably not a sport I will take up for sport. Tagging along every now and then to hang out with friends would be fun though.
After hole 7 we allowed the couple directly behind us to play through. They started about 40 minutes and five holes after us, but were playing a lot faster than us. While we waited, we popped open a bottle of Crémant and toasted Simone's birthday - the reason we were there. The two glasses on an emtpy stomach went straight to my head and made the last two holes very interesting.
All in all, I didn't play that bad for my first time. My best effort was 5 strokes, but for eight holes I did and 8 or 9 and only on one hole did I do the maximal 10 strokes. Hey, at least I didn't lose three balls in the water like Stef or Simone did. :)
Click on "continue reading" for the other photos from the day.
The driving range/9 hold course where we played.
Simone and Sandra warming up. Stefan took this photo - the pink sweater on the left is me.
The fifth hole with the Frankfurt skyline in the background.
Sandra making a picture perfect tee off (see the ball in the air?).
Simone practicing with the locals looking on.
Oh my, look what I saw when I was out and about today - a giant man and a dinosaur!
My Prague Photo Album is finished! Click here to view it and then come back here to leave your comments.
Oh yeah, Bill and I watched XXX (Triple X) last night with Vin Diesel. I'd seen it before, but Bill hadn't. I am soo glad we went to Prague. 80% of this movie is filmed in Prague, or has scenes from Prague, and it was soo cool to recognize the buildings. I don't know how they managed to film that last scene on the Charles Bridge though - that bridge is always packed with tourists and artistans (and pickpockets).
Update: Okay, it's just occured to me that maybe it's not 100% clear how you're supposed to navigate through the photos. I mean I looked at my stats and 21 people (actually about 18, since I've looked at them 3 times myself) have looked at the start page, but only 5-7 people have looked at individual images. And only two comments!! Hmmm.
Sooo.....click here, and then click on one of the square thumbnails. Once you're on an individual image's page, then there are arrow's to navigate to the next/previous image. Does that make it clearer?
The table being put together:
And finally, the end product! Tada!
It's lovely, isn't it?
Yes, the wall on the right looks bare now. I've got a plan to fill it with printouts of my favorite photos from my travels.
My loving man in a lovely light.
I tried uploading this to my fotolog site, but it's not coming up there.
My three nieces and one nephew from this last weekend. Isn't this a perfect photo of summer time fun at Grandma's?
And yes, even though red hair is a recessive gene, it's very dominant in our family.
I know I said I was going to post my photo gallery today. However, that was before I agreed to meet my neighbor at the bar across the street. And met another new friend. And their boyfriends. And sat and talked for four hours and now I've just gotten home. Tired and smokey. Going to bed.
Isn't this photo lovely? Bill took it after our dinner River Cruise on the Seine. He gave me permission to use any photos of his that I liked in my photo gallery that I'm putting together. I mentioned tonight how lovely this image is, how much I like it, and he said "oh, did you like that one? I didn't think it was so good". It's LOVELY! Don't you agree?
A photo from one of my early morning walks in the last week. This barge was off loading something to the pipes on the side of the river earlier this week. It was a beautiful morning.
Here are the two handsome men I spent the weekend with. :) This was on a nice sunset walk through the fields near Bill's house.
Bill and I saw this while driving last Sunday evening. It was so beautiful I had to capture it.
A close up of a tulip (Tulpe) in my kitchen and some daffodils (Osterglocke) that caught my eye on the way home.
This is why I went to Barcelona: my sweetie relaxing in the sunshine. :)
Click to see a larger version.
I just had to post this one more photo. Love you sweetie! I hope your Birthday trip was everything you wanted! ;)
I took some photos in the Museum fuer Moderne Kunst when I visited two weekends ago. Click on the extended entry to see them.
