View from the Michael Bridge shortly after sunset on a balmy summer Saturday evening to the TV Tower and the Spree River.
Damnatz Church
The small Damnatz church, seen from the dike.
After the rain: reflection with blue sky
First it rained heavily, then the sun came out. At Arkonaplatz at the intersection of Wolliner Straße / Fürstenberger it looked like this.
El Bocho: ‘Berlin is Yours’
The street artist El Bocho has been active since around 1996. Many of his works deal critically with various current issues such as gentrification and surveillance. His works can be found in many major cities around the world – but El Bocho is particularly active in Berlin, especially with large-scale, often colorful paste-ups, such as this work “Berlin is Yours”, which could be admired in August 2023 at the corner of Kastanienallee / Schwedter Straße.
Paste-ups are often not very durable due to their manufacturing and application techniques. The sheets of paper are usually applied to the walls with wallpaper paste – which minimizes the risk of property damage, but after a few days of rain, a paste-up often loses its shape. Therefore, I am quite happy to have documented here for once a fairly fresh work.
Luechow Bell Tower – Kirchstraße / Lange Straße
The Lüchower Bell Tower seen from the intersection Lange Straße corner Kirchstraße.
The bell tower actually belongs to the St. Johannis church. The church or the nave is located a little further, around the corner in Johannisstraße and is separated from the bell tower by a row of houses.
The tower juts out a bit onto Theodor-Körner-Straße – the footpath of Theodor-Körner-Straße leads through a passage in the ground floor of the tower at this point.
Wildflowers on the banks of the Elbe River
A few wildflowers on the banks of the Elbe River on a groyne head near Hitzacker.
Elbe, clouds, sky
The Elbe: view from Hitzacker upstream, dramatic clouds
Berlin Lietzensee: Water. Builings, Green
Walk along the Lietzensee in Berlin Charlottenburg: View of the Lietzensee – in the background various old and new buildings, a high-rise. And around it a lot of green.
KLP Parking
The Kulturelle Landpartie is somehow also always a showcase for the motorhome community. Many visitors to the KLP drive with their campers from location to location and then stay overnight in one or the other place – in their own camper van. And so you can admire every year the most diverse camper vans on the various parking lots, the village streets, in the villages, on the roadside and everywhere in between.
Flatboat in the Harbor of Harlingen
Flat-bottomed ships (NL: ‘Platbodem‘) are sailing vessels specially designed for use in the Wadden Sea. A flat-bottomed vessel, as the name suggests, has a flat bottom and no keel. Instead, a flat-bottomed vessel has drop-down pulleys on the left and right sides of the boat’s exterior. Because of the shallow draft, flat-bottomed vessels can also operate in the shallow waters of the Wadden Sea and can easily dry out at low tide.
In the harbor of Harlingen you can admire a whole series of such partly historic flat-bottomed ships, which you can also rent or charter for small or larger excursions and sailing trips.
Cannon in Harlingen Harbor
A small historical cannon near the outer harbor wall in the harbor of Harlingen
The Lighthouse of Harlingen, Waterfront
In the center of the picture, the railroad line and the small train station, which actually only consists of a platform and a ticket machine. On the left in the picture you can see the waterfront, where a historic sailing ship is located, which can also be visited. On the right you can see the lighthouse of Harlingen. The lighthouse was in operation until 1998 – today you can spend the night here. However, staying overnight in the lighthouse seems to be so popular, that the lighthouse is booked out many months in advance. The view of the open must be magnificent – the price for staying at the lighthouse are too.
The picture is taken from the pedestrian bridge that connects the waterfront with the city center. Near the pedestrian bridge is a parking lot where payment/timekeeping is completely automatic: There are no parking tickets. Instead, the license plate number is recorded when you enter – and when you leave, you pay the amount due directly at the barrier.
Vermeer Exhibition Guide Lines
On our way to the Vermeer Exhibition …
Herengracht
A fairly typical Amsterdam view of a row of houses in the Herengracht. In the tallest house is the Happy Bookieman bookshop – to the right is the Hotel Hegra. On the right you see the ‘entrance’ to the small alley Romeinsarmsteeg.
Amsterdam Central Station Tunnel
“Light at the end of the Tunnel”
Homomonument Amsterdam
A part of the Homomonument by Karin Daan, 1987, at the Kiezersgracht near the Westerkerk at the Westermarkt, Amsterdam.
The Homomonument is a public walk-in or walk-on sculpture commemorating people who were and are persecuted or discriminated for their homosexuality.
See also:
Reguliersgracht
View of the Reguliersgracht at sunset, seen from the Lijnbaansgracht.
Den Haag Skyline
The skyline of The Hague seen from the intersection Koningskade (S 100) and Zuid-Hollandlaan (S 101).
On the far left you can see the high-rise Hoftoren. Due to its shape, it is also nicknamed “de Vulpen”, which means “the filler” in English. With a height of 142 meters, the building is currently the third tallest building in The Hague (as of 2023). Originally, the skyscraper was supposed to be 270 meters high – but an additional mast, which would have reached this height, was not realized. It was designed by the US architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox and completed in 2003. Currently, it houses the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
The red skyscraper to the right of the courtyard gates houses the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security (Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid). With a height of 147 meters, it is, together with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties) placed behind it on the right, number 1 in the list of the tallest buildings in The Hague. It is no coincidence that the two skyscrapers are reminiscent of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin – the towers were both designed by the Kollhoff architectural firm, as was the Kollhoff Tower in Berlin.
In front of the group of buildings is the Castalia skyscraper, which actually consists of two buildings and with its distinctive brick double spire is reminiscent of traditional Dutch architecture. At just under 104 meters, the building is currently the eighth tallest in The Hague.
Cheese Window, Delft Skyline
A shop window at the market square near the Nieuwe Kerk – packed with big round yellow cheese wheels. Just as you might imagine when you think of a typical Dutch cheese store window.
Sheep on the Dike
A walk along the river Elbe – a flock of sheep strolls photogenically over on the dike.
Dandelion in evening light
The delicate faded flower of a dandelion shines in the evening light.
Geranium Molle
Sometimes you have to look closer to discover the hidden blooms of a wild meadow. The Geranium Molle with its delicate pink flowers is such a secret highlight, for which you have to get quite close.
Berliner Dom / Friedrichsbrücke
View of Berlin Cathedral and the Friedrichsbrücke bridge as seen from Burgstraße / James-Simon-Park. Part of the colonnades of the Kolonnadenhof can still be seen on the right. On the left in the background you can see two high-rise buildings on Fischerinsel.
Urbanhafen in Kreuzberg
A walk around the Urbanhafen in Berlin Kreuzberg – view from Baerwaldbrücke in east direction – on the right side in the picture you see the the Van Loon Restaurant Ship, right behind it the Urbankrankenhaus / Urban Hospital (‘Vivantes Klinikum Am Urban’), around it some swans in the evening light.
Danish Flag, Port of Rødby
On the way back, another short stop – this time in the port of Rødby.
Seagull on the Roof, String Lights, Blue Skies
A seagull on the roof of Ribergsborgs Kallbadhus – a cute little wooden bathhouse and restaurant in Malmö, right by the sea or actually in the sea, on wooden piles.
The restaurant has two terraces. From the one terrace you have a great view towards the Öresund Bridge, from the other you look towards the Torso. Both terraces are regularly visited by seagulls, which like to sit on the roof and spy out whether there might be an opportunity to occasionally grab a tidbit.
Malmö Skyline: Turning Torso and Västra Hamnen
The Malmö Skyline: View from the boardwalk Brygga 1 (“Bridge 1”) towards the Malmö skyline and the Västra Hamnen district with the Turning Torso skyscraper. For me this is basically “The Malmö Skyline”. The boardwalk Brygga 1 leads to the wooden restaurant, sauna and open-air bathhouse Ribersborgs Kallbadhus.
SLU Alnarp Main Building
View of the historic main building of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SLU (Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet) in Alnarp.
Beach and the Baltic Sea, Friseboda Nature Reserve
View of the Baltic Sea on the beach, Friseboda Nature Reserve, Yngsjö, Skåne, near Nyehusen
Cranes at Pulken Lake, Skåne Sweden
Thousands of cranes gather at Lake Pulken in Skåne, southern Sweden.
Puttgarden Ferry Port – waiting for the ferry
Probably quite many travelers to Scandinavia are familiar with this view – at least when traveling by car from Germany: the queue at the ferry port in Puttgarden.
Housing Project Tuntenhaus, Kastanienallee Prenzlberg
View of the façade of the Tuntenhaus housing project on Kastanienallee in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. Particularly striking is the admonishing lettering “Capitalism standardizes, destroys, kills”, which is visible from afar and is even illuminated at night. Find out more about the history of the house on the housing project’s homepage at www.kastanie86.net.
Polling Station Sign
Polling station / local election – a sign shows the way to the polling station in a sports hall in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, on the occasion of the referendum Berlin 2030 Climate Neutral.
Berlin Wall Memorial Bernauer Strasse
Walking at the Berlin Wall Memorial Bernauer Strasse, near Brunnenstrasse – on the left in the picture the steel stelae symbolizing the course of the Berlin Wall.
Pizza
Finally a sheet of homemade pizza: with eggplant, tomato sauce, basil, red onions and spinach. Of course, the dough and tomatoe sauce were also homemade.
I have to admit that my homemade pizza is not necessarily as tasty as the ones you get from a proper pizza shop. But homemade is homemade. And I’m glad that after the years, I finally got to make my own pizza. Yay!
I worked at a pizza delivery service as a student and built and baked literally hundreds of pizzas. But to make a really good pizza, I think it takes a little more than just brushing up on a rusty routine. Well, anyway. Bon apétit!
![Sunset at iver Elbe, Wendland [video]](https://www.bilderbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/sunset-at-river-elbe-wendland-video.jpg "Sunset at iver Elbe, Wendland [video]")
Mirrored Sunset at river Elbe [video]
Panorama view of a beautiful sunset at the river Elbe in Wendland. At the end of the panning there is the boat Damnatz coming into view, with the almost full moon hanging above it:
Full Moon with Clouds and Evening Sun
It’s January – and the cloud cover is virtually torn open in both directions: on one side the setting sun, on the other the rising moon.
The sun sets early at this time of year. And after some cold and rainy days, the late rays of the sun are a welcome accompaniment on the evening walk. And in the evening sky, between the trees, you can see the moon rising, which is still a day away from being full, but already feels like a full moon.
River Seege in the mist near Gartow
The small river Seege in the mist between Gartow and Restorf, view from the lake bridge. A delicate mist hangs over the river, between the trees and on the meadows, the trees on the banks of the Seege are reflected in the water, dramatic gray-grey clouds hang over the landscape. And on closer inspection, a few horses can be seen in the mist on the left of the picture.
Berlin TV-Tower on a misty day in December
The Berlin TV-Tower on a misty day in December, seen from Schönhauser Allee near Senefelder Platz.
Sunrise, Fog over the Fields
Got up rather early, saw the sun rise over the mist covered fields, went outside, took this picture. Also November mornings can be beautiful.
Tram on Kastanienallee by Night
A Tram passing by on Kastanienallee in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. It’s October, it’s late in the evening – it’s dark and foggy. A couple is waiting at the crossing of Oderberger Strasse and Kastanienallee. The bright yellow tram is about the only colorful thing in this grey grey night.
The Slackers at SO36
This was the first real indoor concert for me since the beginning of the pandemic: The Slackers at SO36 in Berlin Kreuzberg. And I was even playing with my fine band as support act / opening act. What a great evening!