UDS:3. Nobel: 4

The university garden. The local U is the Université de Strasbourg, or UDS (formerly ULP, Université Louis Pasteur). 3 universities in one, with 50.000 students and 4000 researchers. And 4 obel Prize winners working there right now, teaching, 3 in physics, one in chemistry. The U teachers won 3 Nobel prizes since 2011. You might see them in the garden...
More b&w for this weekend here.

Raven's court

Actually the raven's courtyard. Ravenscourt is a tube station in London, from where I commuted daily for a few years. Well, couldn't resist, couldn't I!
Anyway, this is the Cour du Corbeau. An old inn, it became a hotel in 1528. Yeah, things are old here! This is the entrance to it, 57 rooms in a 4 stars hotel, a few minutes from the cathedral.

The passage

A passage to a long gone past, to my childhood

The CIA chateau

Well, we even have our very own castle here, the chateau de Pourtales! With a rich history.
Built in 1784, called after Mélanie, countess of Pourtales, a favorite of Napoleon the 3rd. When she was in town, she had many hosts: King Ludwig the 2nd of Bavaria, the German emperor, the Prince of Wales, many kings and queens, Albert Schweitzer, Franz Liszt, and so on.
Melanie died in 1914, and her castle closed in 1939.
After the war, the castle housed the Free Europe University in Exile founded by the CIA in 1951 to form cadres for the reconquest of Eastern Europe. I wasn't aware of this when I played in the park and used the chateau's toilets in the 60es...
In 1972, it became a campus of Schiller International University.
A fancy hotel occupies now the former stables, see below

Abandoned bunker on the Maginot Line

One of the last bunkers in Strasbourg. There used to be a lot more of them, as we are right on the german border. Growing up the 60es,  we kids used to play hide and seek or cowboys and indians in them.
Still a necessary thing for many.

CDP monthly theme day: abandoned

These are the 2 abandoned kittens we rescued in the last 8 years, In Cyprus and in Spain. Rio and Bundles.

How could someone have abandoned them at the first place??? Beats me.
More about the City Daily Photo blogs theme day here. And thanks, Peter, for not abandoning us! :-)

A weekend reflection

Happy blogaversary, Weekend Reflection! 7 years already, quite an achievement!