or: Three Belgian castles and one townLast Sunday was a beautiful sunny day, one of those days where you (ok, I) would just lay on the grass, look at the sky and watch the clouds float by - something we ended up not doing.We went on a day trip, not far from Brussels (oh yes, did I mention that I spent the weekend in Brussels?) to visit three castles, very different ones.The first one, Kasteel van Gaasbeek, is very well taken care of, very touristy, with a guided tour through the chambers, paintings, a beautiful Versailles-inspired garden:
The second one we could enter was Kasteel van Beersel, the ruins of a castle with three towers. We climbed into all three of them to enjoy the view and our respective thoughts and let our imagination run wild about life and use in those rooms.
The Belgian town we went to was Leuven, a small but very lively university town with a rich architectural and cultural (obviously!) heritage:
Finally, and for some reason that wasn't easy to find, during the blue hour, we took a walk in the park of Kasteel Arenberg. Again, this castle was completely different. Surrounded by a public park, the castle itself resembled a huge mansion with little towers more than anything else:
Which one was my favourite? I really can't say...
This is the Ark Nebra building, near the place where the so called Sky Disc, "the oldest visual representation of the cosmos ever discovered to date", was found. The outer shape of the bulding symbolises the form of an ark made from gold:
When I was a village child, we had poppies in our garden, small ones and not the kind that you'd make opium from of course. And now in the big city, I came across these huge poppies!
PS: Sea of poppies is a book I'm reading, by Amitav Ghosh.
One side of the river Main in Frankfurt is called Museumsufer ("Museums embankment") because obviously, it is paved with museums. This statue of light was standing in front of the Museum für Kommunikation and you have to admit that it could be a good conversation starter ;-)
This is a run-down house behind Apolda's train station, looks a bit like a haunted mansion in this photo I think.
Bernd das Brot is a grumpy character in the children's channel KIKA which is located in Erfurt, my state capital. And it is there that a Bernd monument was erected. Now I'm waiting for one dedicated to his colleague - Chilli das Schaf...
That's mine...
How do sunsets do that, create colour gradients like this? The sky being dipped in bright blue and flaming orange - I think it's the surest sign that spring is here :-)
Again, the city shows its old and new side together, at dusk this time. The skyscrapers seen from the old part of town, Sachsenhausen - nice area to go out but I wouldn't want to live there.
Taking HDRs of people is challenging because people have one annoying habit - they move. However, here, I was lucky, the girl was bent over some postcards and didn't change her position for the whole two seconds it took me to focus and take three successive pictures of her.
PS: Check out those mugs!
Yesterday was a fruitful photo day in Frankfurt and this was the last picture, a nocturnal HDR:
This lovely building is indeed someone's weekend and holiday home - Queen Elizabeth's to be precise.
I turned Windsor Palace into an HDR and dedicate the photo to the friendly population of Windsor where we had afternoon tea in proper style, scones, clotted cream and tea with milk included.
This is what I discovered today on my bathroom skylight:
And I'm giving the answer to the question I asked almost a year ago (this is the Valentine part of today's post): I would prefer an L lens to a diamond ring :D
I came across these downtown and wondered what they portray.
Yesterday, I left the house in time to catch the train ten minutes earlier than usual - which gave me a nice time buffer to set up my tripod before work and catch the world around the skyscrapers that adorn the city centre before dawn. 
Oh and I have a question to you, visitors and followers of my blog: Would you appreciate additional information on the technical side of a photo or could you not care less?
This was the first one of my photos on TrekLens that brought more than 30 points home.
Sometimes, especially at night, I really like the city I live in - even if it's not Venice. I mean, how can you not, seeing something like this. Even if is supposed to be the city with the highest crime rate in Germany (no, I'm not afraid and yes, I do go out at night).Anyway, in this picture, I caught a few of the 21 bridges in Frankfurt, took eight photos with different exposure and merged them to the HDR you see here.
And of course this picture has a soundtrack, too ;-).
This is another picture I took from the window of my new workplace (I should try to sneak in camera and tripod again some time). One roofed house you see in this city, probably without knowing from above, is the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, quite a nice and impressive building.
From my new workplace, I have a great view and every other day, I see a wonderful sunrise. However, my class starts at 8 and before, it's still too dark, afterwards, the sun is completely up already. The ideal time to capture the sunrise view would be around 8.30-8.45, in other words: it's impossible. I didn't want to have taken my camera in vain, so I took a few photos anyway.
I am aware that the skyscraper is heavily tilted and that the sky is rather grainy but here, I used both as a stylistic device and don't perceive it as a disturbance.
