???....?...

..................?....................???
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...

It's christmassing

A butcher's christmas decoration... The 447th christmas market has started, the tourist hordes are coming, all 2.5 millions of them...

Hey you!

Feed me!

It was a cold and rainy evening

More b&w here

The big clock in the sky

I had to be in town early this morning, so I took my obligatory 2nd coffee of the day at the train station. No moon, just a big clock.

Good morning!

The view from my kitchen window, whilst sipping my first coffee of the day

Barcelona...

A photo from my old Barcelona blog

Cliché

Believe it or not, we do have other cars in France...LOL

Christmas tree, episode 3

Right. Every year, in time for the opening of the Christmas market, the city puts up the tallest possible pine tree on place Kleber, aka the main square.
Well, it started well. They found a tall one, 36 meters, in the mountains nearby. They cut it, and... it broke into 3 pîeces.
One week later, they cut another one. This one made it to the city, and was put up. The city workers were decorating it, when... they noticed a large crack.
So, this is number 3...  Let's touch wood.
The Christkindlsmaerik, or christmas market, opens next weekend.  I'll keep you posted.