Christmas???

The christmas lights are still on, even in my street! Makes the town shinier, warmer, which is a good thing in this bleak january weather.

Weekend in black and white

Not Strasbourg... But still easily reachable from here. A lady, seen in Venice last spring. Nice dress, signorina!

More black and white here.

Post 556, aka the hearty one

Seen on a wood pile this morning. Old toilet doors???

Slow mail

Post from the fishmonger only.

The new(est) bridge

After the road bridge, the train bridge, the pedestrian bridge: the tramway bridge. All of them across the Rhine River, and joining Strasbourg (pop. 277.000) to the german neighbor city of Kehl (pop.10.000). The tram bringing everyday about 10.000 shoppers, workers, tourists to Kehl, it gets really busy... A daily invasion. Why, will you ask? Cigarettes, tobacco, petrol, food are cheaper. And many other things are of better quality.
Me? I go there once a week, takes me half an hour.

A monday mural

Strange beasties indeed.
More Monday Murals here.

Doors

A pedestrian street in the city center was entirely redecorated by it's inhabitants last summer. 3 of the doors in that street.

Man in black

Spotted in Strasbourg!!!

Global warming

Real april weather, 13 degrees C, rain, flooding... And snow in Florida, north America "colder than Mars"! Despite of what some idiots may say, global warming is a FACT!!! Weather is not the same as climate!!!

The winged lion

This is no lion king! This is how Saint Mark the Evangelist is traditionally depicted, a winged lion. This statue is now inside a fortified bridge, and used to be part of the cathedral. Quite a scary sight at night...
You can see a different version of it in Venice, on... St Mark square of course. His relics are supposed to be there.

Eleanor

Storm Eleanor is upon us, so big trouble. I almost flew into the bakery this morning...The rain stopped, but no trains at all, over 171 km/h guts of wind, the top part of the big christmas tree in the city centre was blown away, 21000 households without electricity, 9 people injured so far, lot of damage, flooding, roads closed...

Back to work

Well, guess the holidays are over, for most people...

Hardest day of the year... The january theme day!

Here we go again...The day I have to choose my best photo the year. Well, bloody hell. The City Daily Photo theme day.
Well, after changing my mind about 568 times in 2 weeks (mostly today), I came bout this, the port of Genova, in Italy. I know, it's not Strasbourg! But hey, I am a born traveler, always planning trips. So, Genova is one of many easy reachable from Strasbourg. Lame excuse, I know, but this is simply, maybe not my best, but definitely a top favorite.
My chums from CDP made their own choice here. Well, click now, what are you waiting for?
Oh yeah, don't forget to leave a comment!
This said,

Happy new year!

Welcome, 2018!

E gleckichs Nej Johr, feliç any nou, bonne année, Frohes Fest und guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr, Καλή χρονιά, Bliain úr faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit, buon anno nuovo, 新年おめでとうございます, שנה טובה, happy new year, godt nytt år, bona annada, feliz Ano Novo, la multi ani, Счастливого Нового года, próspero año nuevo, नवीन वर्षाच्या शुभेच्छा 2018 हार्दिक शुभेच्छा,
Manigong bagong taon, Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun, DIS chu' botIvjaj. 2018!!!

Not Strasbourg!!!

Looking at the grey ky, at the very dark clouds outside my windows... I so need holidays!!!
Cefalu, Sicily, last August.

Musica!

Wish it was summer... Wish I was in Italy...

Early morning in Germany

On my way to the shops

Cross-border

A french tramway in Germany. Since april 2017, there is direct tram from Strasbourg to Kehl, our neighbor city on the other Rhine side. Very very convenient!!! Germany is a good deal cheaper than France for many things, such as food, tobacco. Taker me 25 minutes, instead of a good hour before. Over 10.000 people use it every day, many commuting to work.

Good place for...

...a merry go round, in the shade of the cathedral!
Most of the christmas market is closed, with a few stalls remaining at the cathedral, till the 30th. Hurry up!

T'is the day

Wishing you all a very Strasbourg christmas!

Noel!

Moderation

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Christkindelsmärik

The entrance to the main of the 11 christmas markets, on place Broglie. The word means Child Christ's market in alsatian, the 447th. We're in France, but we're of our alsatian culture, traditions, food, and so on, and our own language, which has absolutely nothing to do with french, as it is a germanic language.Close to the Amish's ¨Pennsylvanian Dutch. We are probably around 500.000 alsatian speakers worldwide, the city of  Castroville, Texas, included.
 So anyway, last year , that sign disappeared, the city fathers wanted to be "more french". Big angry outcry!

Janus

The Janus fountain, by Tomi Ungerer. 2-faced head and fountain, erected to celebrate Strasbourg's 2000 years, in 1988. The first roman camp was situated there, and was called Argentoratum, in 12 BC.
Why Janus? He was the roman god of beginnings and endings, usually depicted with 2 faces, since he looks at the future and the past. The month of january is named after him.
So, basically, we're a roman town... This might explain my lifelong love of pizza...lol

Getting closer

Some wonderful decorations in town. 5 days to go...

Need some ideas?

Any last minute present to buy? Here in idea... Available at the Christmas market, until the 24th.

City lights, part 2

Or when a tree gets the blues

The place at the back of the garden

Nice place for tea, brunch and... jewellery, just behind the cathedral.

No Santa

A different decoration: no Santa, no rendeers, no bears, penguins, baubles or artificial  snowy landscape to be seen. Refreshing!

Last sunday

More black and white here, on Dragonstar's very excellent blog!

You've got mail...to write

Did you write to the Père Noèl (Father Christmas, aka Santa)? Here is his mailbox. Hurry up!

A coffee, please.

Sorry, we're closed.
More b&w here.

A beautiful sunday

So, which tree would you choose? They look all the same... The christmas tree market on place Kleber, last sunday morning, during the heaviest snowfall in years. Yep, 13 days to go!
BTW, the snow was all gone by the evening.

A Monday Mural

More Monday Murals here! eanwhile, have some M&Ms!

Fun!

Some heavy snowfall this morning, so everybody had a lot of fun! Well, I was trying not to fall on my nose (or other parts): wrong shoes. I was successful.

Welcome to the kingdom of Bredele!

The bis Christmas market is divided into 11 smaller markets. One of them is dedicated to bredele. Bredele: biscuits traditionally baked on Christmas time. Here are some for you!

Hungry? C ya at the courtyard behind the Rohan Palace!

???....?...

..................?....................???
Well, I don't know either.

There be angels

Wondering who is staying in this room... The wings drying (?) on the balcony might be a clue

Christmas at the garrrison

Christmas at the Aubette, the former garrison building, built from 1765 to 1788. Now a shopping, with a small museum and a ...Starbucks. Although being a coffee multilingual aficionado, I've never been there, as I don't starbucks. Or klingon.

Venice? Not!

This could be Venice... I have very similar photos taken there. But it's not.

Folks, guess it's winter!

It snowed last night, so I hurried up to take a few pictures, as it is very noticeably warmer today, 10 degrees C more, and as it is melting very fast.
Friends in northern latitudes, please stay warm. Others: don't forget the suncream, or umbrella for some!

Not your everyday gargoyle!

Pretty colorful, innit! I am not quite sure if it actually a gargoyle, it might be an art piece.
Strasbourg is a city of gargoyle. I don't think anybody counted them, but there might be several hundreds of them, or more. They are everywhere!

City lights

December theme day: gift

Hi there. This is me, 7 years ago, recovering from open heart surgery in the ICU, at St Paul's hospital in Barcelona. I was given the gift of life.
A few years later, in Skopje, Macedonia, I suffered a severe stroke. And I died, my "new" heart just stopped. The doctors there, at the university hospital, brought me back, after 2 minutes. Again, the gift of life. Life changing experiences, both of them.
You guessed it, this month's CDP theme day is: gift. Being half german, I just HAVE to tell you that Gift is german for poison...;-) Waiting for german posts about that theme...
Anyway, just click here to see what my dudes and dudettes did about it! Do it now!

Number 3

Third time lucky! After 2 broken trees (see a past post), the big christmas tree (well, a miserly 28 meters tall) is up and decorated. Much bigger than the "big" one on Times Square in New York, a ridiculous 23 meters... Ha, WE BEAT  NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Strasbourg, capitale de Noel, capital of Christmas.

Having some wine at the cathedral

It is getting really cold, barely above freezing. So, a vin chaud, aka mulled wine, aka Gluehwein, is good for a lot of of things: makes you warm, help fighting colds, it it opens the appetite, it boosts the immune system, and so on... Louis Pasteur called it the healthiest of drinks.

Monday mural on tuesday

Sorry, I'm late!
Yep, our local genius Dan 23 did it again!!!

Hark the angels

The main street leading to the cathedral. It is even busier than it looks, thousands and thousands of tourists, all of them stopping abruptly (right in front of me, usually) for photos... You won't find many locals there for the next 5 weeks. Well, there is me...