Joyeux Noel!

Above, it's Alsatian for merry Christmas and a happy new year. You probably guessed... :-)
Frohe Weihnachten, God Jul, buon natale, feliz navidad, bon nadal, kali chronia, nollaig shona, feliz natal, craciun fericit.

Ho Ho Ho!

Guess who is coming tonight, on his fancy green ride? Well, did you behave this year, have you been a good girl/boy?

A weekend reflection

More weekend reflections here.

Chaos!!!

Like a fool, needing some parsley, I ventured into town this morning. Very bad idea! I absolutely HATE queuing in shops! Luckily, I managed to escape the "last Saturday before Christmas shopping chaos" unscathed (coffee helped). My bad: should have thought about that parsley before.

Weekend in black and white

Winter is coming! At 22h 22 minutes and 44 seconds exactly tonight, local time. All those of you on holidays: don't overdue it :-) !
More b&w here

Last day

Last few hours of autumn, although it is not really ending. Looks like early spring, march kind of weather.

Gone

Well, last Sunday's snow has all gone. We will probably have the warmest Christmas in decades, grey and around 15 degrees C, or 60 F.
Last chance to see the Christmas market, as it closes on the 24th, 5 or 6 PM!

Lights in the city

Some nice lighting this year, in the Grand Rue

Ein Monday Mural in Berlin

See, you understand German! :-)
A part of the old Berlin wall called East Side Gallery. 110 artists were asked to decorate a one mile long stretch of the wall, back in 1991.
More excellent Monday Murals here

Winter!

And BANG! Suddenly, overnight,  it's winter! The white kind, not the fake grey and dreary one.
One question though: will we finally have a white Christmas???
More Weekend Reflections here

The little house in the...

...tree. At home among the stars.

All hands on

Part of the East Side Gallery, the decorated remains of old Berlin Wall.
More b&w here, as usual

Allez les amis, on continue

The show must go on.

Je suis Strasbourg

Terror attack here last night, 3 dead, 13 injured, 8 of them between life and death. The lone shooter fled. Cherif, 29 years old, radicalised Muslim, born and bred in Strasbourg, was arrested 27 times in France, Germany and Switzerland, the first time aged 10, spent several years in jail. He was well known by the anti-terrorist police, and was...free.

The Dom

This the protestant cathedral in Berlin, just next to the world famous Pergamon museum, on the Museum Island, on a glorious but freezing day The entrance will set you back 7 euros...
More about it here, in English.

Happy GDR propaganda

Mural seen last week in Berlin, at the old aviation ministry at nazi times, under Herrmann Goering, , now the finance ministry. No idee why they left this huge mural from communist times, when the building was used as the "ministry of ministries"...From what I know, the life in the former German Democratic Republic wasn't exactly rosy, with a sixth of the population members of the Stasi, and spying on everybody...
Next week, I'll show the East Side Gallery in Berlin, part 1 of...many
More Monday Murals here

Action Catholique

The place is always closed, as it is an office building of the catholic church. First time I've been inside. The courtyard is used this month to sell monastic artwork, food and handicraft, as part of the Christmas market.

Dressed with light

The cathedral, all looking festive

Weekend!!!

So, I spent a few days in Amsterdam and Berlin. This is somewhere near Alexanderplatz in Berlin. The locals call it "Alex".
This is for the Weekend in black and white meme.
And also for the Weekend Reflections meme.
Click!

Berlin, last night

Been a very long day travelling. So: good night.

Take a seat!

Inviting, innit? I'll have a triple expresso, please! And a foot massage: too much walking lately, in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Madness

Hallo from Berlin!
Madness. This word describes perfectly too many things...Not only the Berlin wall above... We're living in a world going increasingly mad, at high speed.

Monastic

Some stalls selling things they do in the local monasteries and convent around.

I'm off for a few days from tomorrow, haven't decided yet if I'll take my laptop, or not. Anyway, see ya a bit later

Oh deer!

Well, you kind of expect to see many Rudolfs as Christmas decorations. Not here, not this year! Deers are the new Rudolf, with or without red noses!

Family fun

Fun to watch, but you wont get me on the rink! Safer from the outside! On Place Kleber, till the end of the year.

Een maandagmuurschildering

A dutch Monday mural, seen in North Amsterdam, during one of my many trips there.
More Monday Murals here

The Finnish way

This years guest country of the Christmas market in Finland. This is how they smoke salmon here, on Place Gutenberg

It has started

The 449th Strasbourg Christmas market. Feel free to join the 2.5 millions tourist expected.

Weekend in black and white

Port Vell, or old port, in Barcelona, from the times when I was living there.
More b&w here

Autumn

The piper

Near the cathedral, close to the FEC. If there are any Irish students residing there, I'm sure they love the name!!!

3 days

3 days to go till the opening of the 448th Christmas markets. This year's guest country is Suomi Finland.
For us here, it means zillions of tourists crowding the streets, heavily armed army and police checking bags, coats, public transport problems... It is a good festive time, but we're glad when it's over!!! Last day: December 30th.

A Monday railway mural

Last spring, 2 Newyorkers were asked to do an enormous mural on the glass bubble surrounding the central railway station here. This is a small portion of it.
More Monday Murals here, at Sami's colorful blog

A weekend reflection

More weekend reflections here.

Notre Dame

Morning stroll in town, looking for the first Christmas present. Cold but sunny, nice!!!

Weekend in black and white

Probably the most beautiful tree in town!
More b&w here
The same tree below, in his best autumn garb

The Sea of Straw

Mar de Palha. Well, kind of. Not actually a sea, more a large bay, where the Tejo river, aka Tagus, flows in the Atlantic Ocean, in Lisbon, Portugal. The name comes from the color of the water at sundown. In the back, the 23 km long Vasco de Gama bridge.

Notre Dame de Strasbourg

Well, they built things to last, 1003 years ago...

Look, Mum!

I'm gonna jump you!

A Monday Meowral

Meow, everybody! The tiniest of Monday murals!
More Monday Murals here

100 years ago...

At the end of WW1, in November 1918, a red flag was floating on top of the cathedral. Strasbourg was declared a socialist republic, for about 10 days, until the french army "liberated" the town.
Last night, some partisans of the independence from France floated the "Rot Wiss" ,red and white alsatian flag on top of the same cathedral. It was removed by the police at 10.30 AM.
History repeating.
Below, the press photo;

A weekend reflection

Les Ponts Couverts, or covered bridges, part of the old fortifications around town. Well, we had to ward off the nasty Germans, innit!
More weekend reflections right here.

Weekend in black and white

Last month at Lake Garda , in Italy.
More b&w here, as usual.

Towards the sun

It's a grey day, but I know the sun is up there, somewhere, somehow.

Petite France

A quiet side street in the over touristic Petite France area

Fall

A Monday Mural

Well, what can I say? It's a camping, in Argeles, south of France
More Monday Murals right here.

A weekend reflection

Definitely my top favorite spot in town!
More weekend reflections here.