World Tour Part I - Darmstadt

Ta da! I am presenting you with the first part of a new photo series in which I am going to show places of the world, big or small, remarkable or not so much. We are beginning with a "not so much" candidate, Darmstadt.

In Darmstadt, you can always go for a walk:


whether you have four paws or two:


You can confess your sins:


or just admire the pretty colours and the beautiful architecture of the Russian Orthodox church:


Afterwards, you can have a quiet little chat in a secluded place:


And if you contemplate moving there, you should know that some of their houses, namely the Hundertwasser complex "Waldspirale", are not exactly straight:


but very colourful and royal looking:

Always a topic: weather

As opposed to Spain or Italy, the weather here is everchanging and so we always have a reason to complain.

It's raining:


Foggy:


Or it won't stay that nice for long:

Your private own KASTEEL

or: Three Belgian castles and one town

Last 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...

The sky is the limit

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:

Miniature world

Last week, I saw all of Thuringia in one (admittedly terribly rainy) day, in Mini-a-Thuer, a theme park that exhibits 92 famous Thuringian buildings and their inhabitants:

Geometrical Landscape

It's for a reason that they call my region The green heart of Germany:

Point Alpha

This is the miniature version of Point Alpha, the war memorial that was "NATO`s most important sentinel during the Cold War":

Lake Side

Details when I get back..

Le jardin est tout vert*

Although this is a photo I took at the palace gardens in Würzburg, I read the headline on a café's signboard in Brussels. I found it original because it says "the garden is all green" but when I read it out loud, it sounded like all the lines at all the signs during the summer: "le jardin est ouvert" (the garden is open). So, intentional or misspelling?

Orange Girl

I saw this girl when we were waiting for our tram and just had to "shoot" her. It always amazes me when someone matches everything they're wearing or carrying, even the plastic bag! I like doing that, too, but she took it to perfection:

Catch!

I'm quite proud of this shot as I caught the exact moment at the Parade der Kulturen when these two players of the Frankfurt Football Club jumped for the ball:

Parade der Kulturen: Ecuador

With this feathered young man from Ecuador, the parade ends for now. I still have a bunch of photos I haven't shown you yet so I might upload them some time later.

Parade der Kulturen: Madagascar

I want to show that I am not partial to women, so here a photo of a drummer boy from Madagascar:


Here the partially desaturated version (which I think is my favourite):


In sepia:


and black and white:


Which one do you like best after all?

Parade der Kulturen: Indonesia

I took so many pictures at that parade, quite a few of which turned out alright, so I decided to make the planned week 10 days instead.
Indonesia alone is so amazingly colourful that I felt the need to upload 3 photos.

Parade der Kulturen: Spain

The representative for Spain is this young Flamenco dancer:


PS: The post processing I did here was increasing contrast, cloning out some of the background and sharpening for the net.

Parade der Kulturen: Vietnam

This is one of the Vietnamese refugees who have been in living in Frankfurt for ten years now:

Parade der Kulturen: Colombia

Another one of Latin America's beauties in her traditional costume:

Parade der Kulturen: Brazil

With the sun, the warmth and the beautiful women, it just felt a little more Brazilian. There were so many pretty girls and women from all over the world in this parade! And here's a question: Why do women have no problem pointing out that another girl is pretty while you would never hear a (straight) guy say: 'Wow, look at him, he's handsome!'?


PS: The post processing I did was blurring the background (stupid photographers in the way everywhere ;-) ), increasing contrast a little and sharpening.

Parade der Kulturen: China II

And then there was this group, playing traditional instruments like this one. I had seen that once before when I was accompanying a friend who was performing as a dancer at a New Year's function in a Chinese restaurant. There were these two other girls, one singing and the other one playing this. Too bad I forgot what it is called - maybe someone can enlighten me? Rain?

Parade der Kulturen: China I

There was a whole Kung Fu group and this young guy was one of them, looking all important: