La tienda de Jordi

Or Jordi's store, in the Istanbul Spice Bazaar. Jordi being a Catalan name (for George), you would that Jordi was Catalan, or at least Spanish. You would be wrong! According to Turkish television, he is actually Mehmet Kaynar, a Turk, speaking Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and English. He fell in love with the Spanish language years ago, and change his name so to attract customers in his spices and herbs shop. The shop attracts mostly thousands  of Spanish speaking tourists, but also Sting, Jackie Chan, Jodie Foster...  Bona sort, Jordi! 

I am not getting paid for this, just found it funny. 😂 
 

For cat lovers!

From my trip to Istanbul a few months ago. Istanbulites love cats! Many cat food shops around, with cat toys, lasers...
 

Out of ideas...

And very busy...So here are some flowers for you.
 

And some more Christmas decoration

 

The cube

The cube, just next to Berlin's central train station. An international food hall inside. More weekend reflections right...here 

Christmas market in black and white

We have in Strasbourg the oldest European Christmas market, every year since 1570. 3 million tourists expected this month... A decoration on one of countless stalls.

More b&w here.
 

More Christmas decoration. Oh well, t'is the season...

At the old city hall, built in 1731, former residence of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg. These figures are not the counts mentioned above...:-)
 

A piggy Christmas

Decoration above a butcher shop... Why not.
 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

A place I always visit when in Berlin. Click here to know more of the place. I'm writing this on Monday December 11th, the fifth anniversary of the Strasbourg Islamic terrorist attack.

 

Oh my, what did I do!!!

I ventured into town yesterday, Sunday, to take a few photos... Big mistake! I've never seen my town that crowded! Pedestrian traffic jams, long queues at the few public toilets... The Christmas markets weren't even open yet. Yesterday was also a shopping Sunday, all shops were open. Despite of all this, I managed to get a last (maybe) Christmas present, yeah!
 

Snow, ice, cold

I spent a few days in snowy and icy, and so cold Berlin this week. Managed not to fall or break a leg.
 

A weekend reflection

More weekend reflections here.
 

Holy? Unholy?

The Russian orthodox Holy Trinity cathedral in Paris... Hard to find anything holy about Russia nowadays. In my opinion anyway.

More b&w here.
 

Bearlin

 

On the road

I'll be away for a few days, to the world capital of Currywurst. I'll try to post from my phone, whenever possible.
 

A weekend reflection

Swan river. More weekend reflections right...here.
 

December theme day: local history

Well ok, this is in Venice, not Strasbourg. But the theme is local history, and I'm not living in Venice anymore... Then why? The Valentine's day 1349 massacre, or pogrom, that's why. The Black Death killed about 25 million people in Europe. The church authorities were sure the Jews poisoned wells, therefore causing the plague. So, February 14th, 1349, they decided to burn the entire Jewish population of Strasbourg, 2000 men, women, children. It didn't stop the plague.

A few families, fearing what would be happening, managed to escape before. They settled down at the only place allowing Jews, in the old foundry in Venice. Foundry = ghetto in the Venetian dialect. Many Venetian Jews are descendants of there Strasbourg Jews.

More theme day posts right... here.

Laundry day

In Venice. Not the touristic part of town. More b&w here right... here.
 

5 minutes...

 

... of pale sunshine.

Maybe tomorrow...

Winter. Day temperatures are around zero C. This is an old photo, no sunshine today. But, if the weather report is correct, I might have a hot cup of coffee on a terrace somewhere. Fingers crossed.

Update: coffee inside, far too cold for a terrace, and no sunshine. Sigh.