Gallery – Page 6 – Willem's Planet

August 27, 2015

Thursday/ the Wall and Checkpoint Charlie

It looks to me from all the tourist buses and hubbub around Checkpoint Charlie* that it is Berlin’s top tourist destination, beating out even the very popular Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building. I did not make it into the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (the line was too long), but there was a series of chronological, annotated pictures on display outdoors which I found very moving.

*Charlie is the ‘C’ in the NATO phonetic alphabet, not a person’s name. For more information that I could possibly document here, check out the excellent Wikipedia entries for Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

IMG_9369 sm — Here is West Germany and East Germany after World War II. West Berlin was a free city and political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany that existed between 1949 and 1990. It was located some 100 miles east of the East/West German border and was accessible by land from West Germany only by a narrow rail and highway corridor (from Wikipedia). [Picture from a display in the Potsdamer Platz Arcade, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the unification in Germany ].

IMG_9372 sm — And here is greater Berlin with its four sectors : American, British, French, USSR [Picture from a display in the Potsdamer Platz Arcade, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the unification in Germany ].

IMG_9371 sm — Families were separated by the very closing of the East-West sector boundary. The wall was built to stop an on-going and massive migration of people from the East to the West. [Picture from a display in the Potsdamer Platz Arcade, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the unification in Germany ].

IMG_9279 sm — The next few pictures are from an outdoor display at Checkpoint Charlie. This one taken in 1961, so shortly after construction and completion of the wall.

IMG_9273 sm — This picture shows that the Wall really is not a single ‘wall’ but several walls that create no-man’s land death strip areas that were patrolled by armed guards. Look for the ‘you are here’ caption in the middle of the picture, the location of the Checkpoint Charlie gate. Developers demolished the East German checkpoint watchtower in 2000, but a substitute symbolic guard house is still there.

IMG_9288 sm — Protesters in 1988 with the names of their family and friends that have been jailed, presumably for attempting to cross the wall.

IMG_9291 sm — The fall of the Berlin Wall, on 9 November 1989.

IMG_9339 sm — This is an outdoor museum two blocks from the Checkpoint, called Topography des Terrors. It is dedicated to the history of the Wall and its victims. Alongside the edge is a remaining section of the Wall.

IMG_9297 sm — The Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

IMG_9304 sm — Another picture of the Museum Building (is it my imagination, or do I see ominous dictator-Communist rule edges in the architecture?).

IMG_9292 sm — Here is the little guardhouse model complete with sandbags and ‘guards’. (They are resumably working for the museum. They accept payments from any tourists that want to pose with them for a picture).

IMG_4523 sm — This is a section of the wall in its original place (in a park nearby Potsdamer Platz), but now with artwork painted on it.

August 26, 2015August 22, 2017

Wednesday/ arrival in Berlin

I made it into Berlin’s Tegel airport in the afternoon. I dawdled a little getting out of the airport, taking my time to take the scenery in. Berlin’s new Brandenburg airport is under construction (years late and billions of euros over budget. So little Tegel airport with its hexagonal main building around an open square that Berliners have become very fond of, will be closed, but probably not before 2018. Walking distances are extremely short at the airport. Our baggage claim was RIGHT THERE at the entrance into the terminal as we stepped off the plane. And another 30 meters puts you outside the terminal where the taxis and buses are (no S-bahn or U-bahn train to take directly from the airport).

IMG_9196 sm — Here’s the Tegel airport’s control tower and part of the main building. The airport started operating in November 1974 and now handles more than 20 million passengers per year.

IMG_4482 sm — Here’s a look at the inside of the airport.

IMG_9195 sm — And the chalkboard at the Starbucks gives a nod to the Berlin bear (the city’s coat of arms and flag has a bear on). Buy some coffee from Kenia and you will get your favorite Starbucks drink for free, says the bear.

IMG_9203 sm — Here’s Potsdamer Platz as one comes out of the underground. The Marriott hotel where I stay is in the distance. The Berlin Wall ran right through this area. The Marriott is literally 100 ft on the west side of where the Wall used to be.

IMG_9205 sm — And another friendly bear to welcome me at the hotel.

August 23, 2015August 24, 2015

Sunday/ Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is South Africa’s second oldest European settlement (after Cape Town), founded in 1679 by then-Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel. Stellenbosch means ‘(Van der) Stel’s Forest. Stellenbosch University was founded in 1866. Its logo has a little oak leaf in it, a nod to the nickname for Stellenbosch, ‘City of Oaks’.

IMG_4477 sm — The main building of the Faculty of Engineering (with some construction going on downstairs). Freshman engineering students attend lectures in the main building and then graduate to the buildings dedicated to Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering behind the main building.

IMG_4456 sm — The JH Neethling Building houses the Faculty of Agrisciences.

IMG_4467 sm — This Jewish synagogue is on Van Rynveveld Street, and is almost 100 years old.

IMG_4464 sm — This building used to be a girls’ school, but is now a museum (containing exhibits of earlier days and peoples from Africa). It is also on Van Ryneveld Street.

IMG_4460 sm — These giant ficus trees are at the back of the main administration building on Victoria Street.

IMG_4468 sm — A building in Plein Street displaying the typical Cape Dutch architecture that prevailed in the 17th and 18th century in the Cape Province.

August 22, 2015

Saturday/ the V&A Waterfront

My friend Marlien and I drove out to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront today. The enormous V&A Waterfront shopping mall has too many shops to even count – clothing stores, book stores, home and kitchen gadgets, music, African artwork – anything under the sun. Outside one can take a helicopter ‘flip’ (short ride of 10-15 mins, about US$300 per person), take a harbor tour, or go out to a Robben Island excursion. We just took it easy and took in the sights, and bought a little souvenir here and there.

IMG_9020 sm — Here are the main areas around the Cape Peninsula. I stay out in the Northern Suburbs (Durbanville). The Waterfront is in the City Centre (where it says Green Point, actually). Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

IMG_4432 sm — The Clock Tower at the V&A Waterfront was completed in 1882, and restored in 1997. I’m happy to see it painted red once more (it was painted yellow in 2013 as part of an advertising campaign).

IMG_4423 sm — ‘Each Man To Do His Duty’ says the inscription on the ribbon of this sailor mast head.

IMG_4437 sm — I suppose I should have cropped the yellow picture frame from the photo, but then the longitude and latitude information would be lost.

IMG_4446 sm — This is the train station building at Muizenberg. It opened in 1913 and is another one of the Cape Town area’s national historic buildings.

August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

Sunday/ the Experiminta Science Center

The Experiminta Science Center is just a block from the Marriott hotel as well, and it was great to see such unabashed enthusiasm for math and science on display. My pictures are of some items that interested me, but there are many other interactive displays geared toward school kids of all ages. Here is the link for Rott’s Chaotic Pendulum.

mirrors2 — Sorry! but I could not resist the mirrors. Inside the 3-sided mirror caleidoscope, ‘wide’ me, ‘skinny’ me, ‘upside down’ me in a giant spoon mirror, and ‘center of attention’ me in a ceiling mirror.

IMG_8876 sm — Here’s a tornado in a tube .. a six foot high display of what happens when hot air and cool air mixes and gets a twist.

3D math equations — These colorful (and playful) 3-D math representations all have names, which I suspect were assigned by the mathematician that had spare time to play around with Mathlab (a graphic modeller of mathematical equations) !

IMG_8891 sm — What do these emoji sentences convey? 1. (The message sender is blue). Will you come with me to the movies tonight? 2. (The message sender is green). I heard that your friend’s little sister said that I am coming to the (birthday) party.

Rottche pendumlum — Rott’s Chaotic Pendulum consists of a middle piece that can rotate around its center (the black segment in the middle) .. but then it has additional segments attached to its ends that can rotate through 360 degrees as well. The trace of the tip of one of the attached segments is quite unexpectedly ‘chaotic’.

August 16, 2015August 17, 2015

Saturday/ the Senckenberg Naturmuseum

I was surprised to learn, from looking at my Frankfurt map, that the Senckenberg Naturmuseum was barely a five-minute walk from my hotel. Well, you have to go then, I told myself, and hurry up ! The museum closed at 6, along with every other establishment in Germany*.

*Shopping malls close a little later, at 9 pm .. but there is not much open on Sunday (convenience stores at gas stations are). I think that’s a good thing .. even with the Saturday evening rush that I got caught in at a grocery store just trying to buy a yogurt and bananas.

IMG_4249 sm — Here is the entrance to the Senckenberg Naturmuseum (museum of natural history) here in Frankfurt.

IMG_4300 sm — This is the main exhibition hall. One the left is an Iguanodon, and on the right a complete Diplodocus skeleton, gifted from the American Museum of Natural History in 1907. Diplodocuses roamed around on earth 156-147 million years ago.

IMG_4260 sm — Ready for your close-up (encounter with a 5-ton iguanodon?) Lucky for humans the beasts died out 110 million years ago.

IMG_4287 sm — These are two woolly mammoth skeletons : on the left the ‘Mühldorfer mammoth’, a complete skeleton found east of Munich. On the right the American woolly mammoth, found in Little Britain in the New York State area. Most woolly mammoth populations disappeared between 14,000 to 10,000 years ago.

IMG_4286 sm — Saber-toothed cats lived for 42 million years until about 11,000 years ago. This specimen’s bones were found in California.

IMG_4282 sm — Open wide! Lucky for us this big fin whale does not eat humans! A close relative of the bigger blue whale, this skeleton lines the entire wall in the big exhibition room.

IMG_4301 sm — Here’s the Coelacanth, the famous ‘dino-fish’ with bones and all, and a lung. A live fish was caught in a net off the South African coast in 1938, a sensational find for the archaeologist community, and today methods have been put in place to try to prevent catching the rare fish in fish nets.

IMG_4333 sm — I like the pictures and the tailors’ tapes on this tailor shop and offices for the sharply dressed man (and woman)., on Bleichstraße.

IMG_4329 sm — The old and the new : in front Eschenheimer Tower (built in 1810) that guarded the old city’s Gothic walls, behind it the Jumeirah Frankfurt Hotel that opened in 2011.

IMG_4322 sm — This is the Alte Oper, the old opera house. The original building was badly damaged in a World War II night raid, and only the facade remained. It took several decades before the building was restored.

IMG_4344 sm — The early evening view from my hotel window. The little red aircraft warning lights are already lit up. The building with the pyramid is the Messeturm (offices); the silvery stepped building in the middle the West End Tower; the black building two more to the left of it is the Frankfurter Büro Center, home of my German namesake company, PwC.

August 15, 2015August 15, 2015

Friday/ Frankfurt Altstadt

Friday brought cooler temperatures and a little rain late in the afternoon as well. The Altstadt (old city) in the historic heart of Frankfurt is undergoing a lot of new construction here. At least the Römerberg square is now nicely cleaned up (it was not when I checked it out a few years ago).

IMG_8734 sm — Here’s a 1950s vintage engineering handbook that was for sale by a vintage art and bookstore. I love the crisp graphics (showing a lot of very ‘engineered’ ways to measure temperature, in this case).

IMG_4205 sm — Here are some of the buildings around the Römerberg square. I suppose there are people that live upstairs from the cafes and restaurants .. why wouldn’t there be?

IMG_4194 sm — Here is the Kaiserdom St. Bartholomäus cathedral, holding its own in the middle of all the construction. And why would it not? The current church was built from 1250-1514, the third building in the same place, and it survived World War II .. at a time when most of Frankfurt was destroyed.

IMG_8722 sm — This paving, lighting and wall tiles at the Domplatz (Cathedral Square) U-bahn station is new and very nicely done. (I waited for the silly humans in front of me to disappear so that they would not spoil the clean lines in picture!).

July 27, 2015July 27, 2015

Monday/ to Kettleman City

I had to get up early on Monday morning to go out and help with the training of our system’s new users, located in Kettleman City in the Central Valley in California. (There is a big gas pipeline compressor station there). Kettleman City is a small town just off of I-5. I took a flight out to Los Angeles airport and did the three-hour drive up north from there. It is hot out here – of course. At 7 o’clock this evening, it was still 96°F/ 36°C.

IMG_8454 sm — The clouds were still lying low over Seattle-Tacoma airport as we waited to get pushed back from the gate at 6.30 am. This was the view from my seat 16D on the wing.

IMG_8462 sm — We’re at the gate in LAX. The old space age-y control tower is just visible in the middle of the picture. LAX is still sprawling and seems to forever under construction. ‘The next great world airport’ proclaims the signs on the construction fences.

IMG_8477 sm — This is a stop I made at the Tejon Pass Rest Area. Everything seemed to shimmer in the afternoon heat, and the sky was a vivid blue.

July 13, 2015

Sunday/ Gas Works Park

Gas Works Park here in Seattle is a 19.1 acres public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant. It is located on the north shore of Lake Union. The park contains remnants of the a coal gasification plant that had operated from 1906 to 1956. The city bought the facility to make a park out of it, which opened to the public in 1975. Here are some pictures. I had never been to Gas Works Park (in spite of its hosting of the 4th of July fireworks every year), a situation that had to be corrected immediately !

GW Park — Gas Works Park is located on the north of Lake Union. I marked the location of the Google Seattle office and the Fremont Troll (a cement sculpture under the Aurora Bridge.

IMG_3924 sm — Looking west from the Park toward the Aurora Bridge and the Fremont Cut that connects Lake Union to Puget Sound.

IMG_3927 sm — Another view of the old Gas Works equipment.

IMG_3918 sm — Parts of the old Gas Works plant’s insides are on display and open to the public as well.

IMG_3929 sm — These paragliders were just checking out their equipment and getting ‘the hang of it’ on the mound in the park. I don’t think there is nearly enough elevation there to take off from.

July 12, 2015August 22, 2017

Friday/ it’s a goblin shark

It’s Shark Week on Discovery Channel here in the USA .. and here is a goblin shark gobbling up a fish. These stills are from the Discovery website, here. This creature is a living fossil – in that it is the only one remaining from a family of sharks with a lineage dating back 125 million years. Its specialized jaws can snap forward to capture prey. The elongated flattened snout is covered with ‘ampullae of Lorenzini’ that enable it to sense minute electric fields, as little as a 10 millionth of a volt.

May 9, 2015May 9, 2015

Friday/ the Relativity Express

Check out the pages from my Time-Life Science Library book that I bought for $7 from Amazon. I remember the book from when I was growing up, and I wanted it especially for the explanation of the effects of relativity, illustrated by a fantastical train called the Relativity Express and the doings of the evil Agent X. The Relativity Express will get you there in a flash : it travels at ¾ the speed of light !

May 2, 2015May 2, 2015

Friday/ downtown Portland

Here are some pictures from Friday. We found lots to look at, and things to do, close to the hotel in downtown Portland. The weather was sunny and mild and we just went on a walkabout, stopping at different places.

IMG_7670 sm — We’re on the banks of the Willamette river, and just in time to see the drawbridge open up for a barge that needs to pass through underneath.

5-2-2015 4-02-19 PM — Here is a street car that stopped at a plaza close to the University of Portland. I could not fit the street car in one frame and so I clicked three times instead !

IMG_7675 sm — Here is Starbucks’s mug for the city of Portland, also called the City of Roses.

IMG_7694 sm — This was our lunch spot, called Huber’s. It is billed as the city’s oldest restaurant, some 178 years old. Check out the cool lead and glass skylights.

IMG_3643 sm — This is the famous Voodoo Doughnut Store. Most mornings the line of patrons stretches around the corner.

IMG_7702 sm — This offering from Voodoo Doughnut has chocolate, crushed Oreo cookie and caramel on.

IMG_3626 sm — We found this happy group of Portland dancers in one of the plazas in the city. They look Polish or East Euopean to me, but the sign just called them ‘The Portland dancers’.

IMG_7704 sm — This is the chalkboard from Powell’s bookstore. (It is a very large and unique bookstore. If it ever closes, civilization as we know it will have come to an end).

IMG_3664 sm — Friday was May 1, International Workers’ Day,and this small group made a go of it to protest working conditions, wages and the USA’s immigration policies. There was no serious confrontations or violence. (Not so in Seattle, where cars were damages and protesters and police were injured).

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

Thursday/ to Portland by train

Amtrak cascades — Here is the Amtrak Cascades route down to Portland. It takes 3 hrs 40 mins.

IMG_3547 sm — Approaching the Tacoma Narrows bridge – two bridges actually : the old one and the new one right next to each other. The old one dates from 1950 and the new one opened in 2007. The original bridge from 1940 collapsed when winds amplified the natural frequency of the bridge movement. We were shown a clip of this when I was an engineering student in the 1980s !

IMG_7644 sm — This is just a beautiful brick-red truss bridge right at Portland Station after our arrival.

IMG_7647 sm — Our train was the Mt. Jefferson. The train is still south-bound and the passengers for Eugene, Oregon are already boarding.

IMG_7658 sm — And here is Portland Station. Our hotel is walking distance from the station, so we did not even need to get a cab.

Five of us are making a long weekend of it a going to Portland by train, and stay in a hotel in downtown Portland and walk around and just relax. The Amtrak Cascades train gets one there in just under 4 hours. Yes, one can drive down in slightly less time, but the train is relaxing and there is no traffic to deal with.

December 26, 2014

Thursday/ Christmas Day

IMG_6438 sm — The Poodle Dog Restaurant off Highway 99 was started in 1933, originally in railcars, and still serves classic greasy spoon diner food.

IMG_6439 sm — I love truss bridges like these, but man! most were built shortly after World War II and are 50 years old. This is in the Tacoma area.

IMG_6456 sm — The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound, and connects Tacoma with the Kitsap peninsula. We’re traveling westbound on the older of the two bridges. The oncoming traffic’s bridge is new and was completed in 2007.

IMG_6494 sm — Christmas Day, and we’re inspecting the seawall along the properties. Logs, rocks, seawalls – all help to stabilize the land .. but they interfere with the inter-tidal habitat of little creatures in the sand and on the coast. The new seawall along Seattle’s waterfront will try to mimic some of the features of a coastline with steps and terraces.

IMG_6464 sm — There are little trails in the woods around Hansville as well. The trail was a little squishy but not too muddy.

IMG_6501 sm — And of course, here is the sunset. The sun sets far to the south on the western horizon at this time of year.

Paul, Thomas and I set out for Paul’s ‘beach’ house in Hansville on Wednesday night. The wait at the Edmonds-Kingston ferry crossing was so long, that we drove the long way around south through Tacoma, and up north again to get to Hansville on the Hood Canal. Tacoma is sometimes called Seattle’s step sister-city, but she definitely has her charms : great views of the south Puget Sound and much more affordable living than Seattle.

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

Sunday/ The Company’s Garden

IMG_3205 sm — I like the leaf and flower motifs in this wrought iron gate by the Gardens.

The Company’s Garden (‘Kompanjiestuin’ in Dutch) at the top of Adderley Street in Cape Town, and adjacent to the South African Parliament, takes its name from the Dutch East India Company who first started the garden in 1652. Locals just refer to the area as ‘The Gardens’.

I have never really spent time there, and went there yesterday after dropping my friend Marlien at the airport. The Gardens area is abutted by numerous landmarks, including the lodge house for the slaves who built large parts of the historic city, the present day Houses of Parliament, the Iziko South African Museum and Planetarium, St George’s Cathedral (which is the seat of the Anglican church in South Africa), the National Library of South Africa, the South African National Gallery, the Great Synagogue and Holocaust Centre as well as Tuynhuys, which is used by the President for state events.

IMG_3176 sm — This stone-with-white plaster building is right next to the Cape Quarter building on Somerset Street. I couldn’t immediately find its name!

IMG_3178 sm — There is still a number of Victorian era storefronts in the city, and it’s nice to see they still stand their ground, get renovated and a new colorful coat of paint.

IMG_3185 sm — ‘Restored 1991’ says this one.

IMG_3189 sm — This is the main foyer of the Golden Acre shopping center which had its heyday in the 1970s. Those days are long gone with all the action now happening at the Waterfront. The tenants nowadays are cheap clothing stores and fast food places.

IMG_3193 sm — This is at the Gardens, a pedestrian walkway lined with trees.

IMG_3194 sm — This is adjacent to the Gardens .. part of the Parliament building.

August 10, 2014

Sunday/ in Amsterdam

So here I am in Amsterdam : I made it in to the Central railway station at around 3 pm from Schiphol airport for my one night stay in the city. It was cloudy and rainy all afternoon, but for the most part not so rainy that one could not walk around. From what I saw, I believe Amsterdam still easily carries the title of the world’s most liberal city. There are pot shops (marijuana shops) everywhere, and one smells it while walking the streets. People smoke it in restaurants. And even in broad daylight, there were madams advertising themselves in shop front windows (Oh! Am I in the red light district? I guess I am, I thought. No ma’am, thank you ma’am). The city is dirty! It’s actually noted in the newspaper as well. The writer says maybe now that the Rijksmuseum has been renovated and reopened, it can motivate city officials to do a better job of sweeping the streets. (Unfortunately I did not have enough time to make it to the museum).

IMG_4786 sm — The Dutch love their cheese .. I did not poke these wheels of cheese outside of a shop on the sidewalk to determine if they were real !

IMG_4781 sm — No entry .. except for bicycles and mopeds, scooters. Those are a menace! Watch out! There are bike lanes everywhere and THEY DO NOT STOP for crossing pedestrians.

IMG_4763 sm — The Amsterdam Centraal railway station’s main hall is as gorgeous as ever. I arrived here from the airport, a 20 minute train ride for €8 (US$10.73). (First class train ticket).

IMG_4737 sm — This is in Schiphol airport .. a nice lamp fixture showing some motifs of the famous (is it still famous? I hope so) blue Deflt porcelain.

IMG_3150 sm — This is close to the hotel where I am staying. I made my way around entirely on foot. I did not make a note of the street.

IMG_3132 sm — The sun is still setting late here, at 9.13 pm. This river canal boat is plying the waters in the Heerengracht canal.

July 18, 2014July 18, 2014

Thursday/ the MH17 tragedy

On Thursday night reports came out that 298 people were killed on board Malaysia Airlines MH17, apparently shot with a ground-to-air missile even though it was flying at 33,000 ft ! So who did it, and how to get to a crash site that is in a Ukranian rebel-controlled war zone?

From NPR news : As they try to piece together how Flight MH17 was brought down, U.S. experts are analyzing a recording released by Ukraine’s government that it says is a string of intercepted phone calls in which separatist rebels acknowledge that they shot down an airliner.

However, as NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports, U.S. intelligence has not yet publicly authenticated the recording.
“Privately, U.S. officials say they suspect separatist rebels were behind the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17,” Dina reports. “U.S. officials say they are still analyzing the audio. They are also using algorithms and mathematics to pinpoint where the missile was fired from.”
The fate of the flight’s “black box” data recorders remains in question. After the separatists said they had recovered them from the crash site, Ukrainian officials disputed that account. And while some reports stated that the flight recorders might be sent to Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow has “no plans to seize the flight recorders,” according to state-owned news agency RT.

The maps are all from the New York Times’s online edition.

May 18, 2014

Saturday/ Southern African trees

I am doing a (late) spring cleaning of my stuff in my study, and found these Southern African tree post cards. I want to frame them, but will have to get to it next weekend ! My favorite tree? It has to be the legendary boabab.

Botswana0010 — That’s me in the picture, showing how big the trunk of a boabab tree is. This was in Botswana, some 25 years ago.

January 3, 2014January 3, 2014

Friday/ more Munich

Here is a selection of my pictures of walking around Munich, some from Thursday, and some from Friday. Since I’ve been here before, I can enjoy the sights a little more and not feel I have to take hundreds of pictures!

IMG_0046 sm — ‘Men in crisis’ says the Zeit newspaper on a lead article for the new year .. and that’s bad for women as well, notes the article. I did not read it in its entirety. (It’s hard work for me to read German).

IMG_9979 sm — A panorama picture of Odeonsplatz. I stood right in front of the Theatinerkirche and panned from left to right with my phone camera.

IMG_2394 sm — This movie theater at Sendlinger Tor square is 100 years old (OK, 101 years I guess – since it’s 2014!). Interesting that they seem to produce hand-painted posters for movies.

IMG_2391 sm — This is Marienplatz in the old town. I was in the bookstore on the 4th floor when the glockenspiel started (music, and the little guys in red start rotating and dancing).

IMG_2366 sm — This is in the Karlsplatz area; with the iconic twin towers of the Frauenkirche seen from the side.

IMG_2314 sm — This clock is inside the Deutches Museum complex.

IMG_2301 sm — The Deutches museum seen from afar. This is the river Isar. The water is shallow very clean; I could see the pebbles on the riverbed. Behind me is some islets in the river which were made into city parks.

IMG_2287 sm — This lion is at Odeonsplatz. Everyone passing by rubs the nose of the lion on the shield (which is why it’s buffed and shiny).

IMG_0024 sm — This cute cuckoo clock is from a store on Karlsplatz. (I want one! It can be Oktoberfest all day long in my house. Or will I go cuckoo with it? I may order one on-line and have it shipped to Seattle when I get back home).

IMG_0029 sm — This bookstore is on Marianplatz; has a gorgeous industrially designed staircase in its center.

IMG_2266 sm — This is close the the University U-bahn station, a war memorial. The figure with the four lions on top reminds me of the Brandenburg gate in Berlin (which I have not been to). The BB gate has four horses, though.

IMG_2274 sm — Ludwigskirche : a church close to the same university (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), on Ludwigstrasse.

December 20, 2013December 20, 2013

Friday/ Reykjavik in 24 hrs

Well, I made the best I could of a very short day here in Reykjavik! We arrived at Keflavik International Airport around 7 am local time. It is a 50 min bus ride into the city, and the bus driver dropped me in front of the Radisson Blu hotel in downtown. NO TIPPING in Iceland, said my quick look-up on my phone : everything is expensive and includes gratuities. So after breakfast I set off with my Cossack-styled head cover, scarf and gloves. I needed it! The was a chilly breeze driving the freezing temperatures down. I think I did well, getting a really good impression of the city, eating a meal at Cafe Loki, and buying a Tintin book in Icelandic for my collection. Mission accomplished, right?

IMG_2184 sm — The local currency is Icelandic kronas : 116 of them to the US dollar right now.

IMG_9700 sm — We’re just coming in for our landing at Keflavik airport.

IMG_9708 sm — Check out the Icelandic words on the signage .. on the way to passport control.

IMG_9721 sm — The inside of the arrivals hall.

IMG_9707 sm — I wash my hands in a LOT of airports. And this one gets my blue ribbon award for design. There is no touching. Squirt soap from the dispenser on your hands, and hold them under the middle of this faucet-in-disguise. The water comes out. Wash your grubby hands. Then just move them both to the outside and a violent blast of air comes out and downward and dries them. Voila ! Clean hands.

IMG_2145 sm — I assume the 1919 means the hotel was built at that time. This is the Radisson Blue 1919 that was my overnight spot.

IMG_2129 sm — Cute wall art describing what’s available inside in the cafe.

IMG_2135 sm — This Timberland store looks just like a gingerbread house. Can I eat it?

IMG_2101 sm — This is a church on a high point in the city : Hallgrímskirkja by Daniel Williams. That is Leif Ericson in the statue : a Norse explorer regarded as the first European to land in North America, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus did.

IMG_2115 sm — A great view from the top of the church, 8 stories up. It looks serene but it is in fact is very cold and blustery where I stood for this picture.

IMG_2057 sm — This is Harpa. [From Wikipedia] Harpa is a concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavík, Iceland. The opening concert was held on May 4, 2011. Harpa was designed by the Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects in co-operation with Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

IMG_2080 sm — The side views of the Harpa building are pretty spectacular.

IMG_2064 sm — Looking from the inside out towards the harbor.

IMG_9742 sm — I love this ‘Koko mjolk’ milk carton packaging. The ‘supercat hero’ says ‘chocolate milk is best ice cold’.

IMG_2089 sm — Beautiful display with cutouts of the iconic buildings in the city. And 5 days to go before Christmas, it says.

IMG_2086 sm — Signage on a building that says to look at the mountains .. I couldn’t get to a spot to catch all of it, though.

IMG_2042 sm — A red roof to brighten up the whites and grays of winter.

IMG_2035 sm — This is the Danish embassy (fort?).

IMG_2034 sm — Sign to the Danish embassy. I like the lions.

IMG_2025 sm — More rainbow colors in the city.

IMG_2020 sm — Better hurry with mail for Santa !

IMG_1987 sm — Yes, you can get a burger, fries and a small coke. Will cost you US$8, somewhat more expensive than in the USA.

IMG_1979 sm — This little lake in the city is simply called Tjörnin (the Pond). It has a fountain in summertime

IMG_1976 sm — A gaggle of geese and ducks are crowding in for some FOOD. One sits on the wall and pesters the girl that feeds them.