Snow Crystals in Bad Urach and HAPPY 2017!!!

Happy, Healthy and Lucky 2017 to all of you! Let it be a serene and successful for everyone.

Myself started the year on the first of January with macros of frosty details on the walk to the Bad Uracher Wasserfall with good friends. enjoy the nature beauty and lots of good vibrations!

Oktoberfest 2013 seen from up in the air: the non-beer side of it

 

This year the famous Oktoberfest takes place for 180th time in the beautiful Bavarian capital Munich! A friend of mine asked me few days ago why Oktoberfest starts (and takes place mostly) in September? Good question I have to say. But there is also a good reason for it: the difficult Munich weather! In 1810 and the following years the celebration took always place in the month of October (usually in the middle of the month). However in 1829, four days after the official opening, the first snow storm arrived and everything had to close down! Since 1872 this big beer party has been moved to the last 10 days of September (+first October days) so one could enjoy better weather& more pleasant temperatures....

This huge celebration is known of course to most of the visitors for the ...German beer! Every year during 2, 5 weeks (this year between 21.09-6.10.2013) around 6 millions liter of beer are sold&drunk there! However half of the surface at the fair ground is dedicated to having fun like a child: big wheel, carousels, rollercoasters...name it! These are all there waiting to be enjoyed the whole day&evening (recommended before the drinks:-) So this year I enjoyed the "Riesenrad" and one carousel-ride, which made me feel like a happy kid again;-)

 

Ampelmännchen in Berlin/ The old East-Berlin traffic light now all around the city

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The famous cute little figure is not only cute, creative and adorable, it is nowadays all over Berlin (and Germany)....The East Berlin Ampelmännchen (the little traffic light man) was crreated as a way to show better what should be done by red and green light and turned (from 1961 till 2005) into a cult! After the Berlin wall fall most of the East Berlin Ampelmännchen were dismantled due to unification reasons. Already in 1995 there were movements for saving East-Berlin traffic lights as part of East Berlin culture. The modern "little traffic light man" had their come-back in 2005: both to East and West Berlin.

 

What is even more interesting that even few other (West-)German cities installed some in their streets, for example Heidelberg and Saarbrücken. The reason for this the more appealing symbols and better effect on public. In 2004 the female version of Ampelmann, die Ampelfrau, was born. You may meet her on traffic lights in Dresden, Zwickau and Fürstenwalde...They make me smile, what about you? Any cute/ funny/ different traffic lights actors in your city/area/country we should know of?

Berliner Mauer: History& Art, 2 in 1 at the rest of the Berlin Wall/ at East Side Gallery

Today I simply have to start this blog entry with this cute Trabi graffiti...because I remember the Trabis from my childhood in Bulgaria. The uncle of my mum had one and we used to call it "the blue-eyed Trabcho", because its headlight rings were blue:-)))

23 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, from Oberbaumbrücke following Mühlenstrasse (direction Ostbahnhof) one may still see (big and long) piece of it. And by see I actually mean "sightsee", because this previously 140km-piece of concrete& limiting history has been transformed in an open-air-art platform.

 

 

After the fall of the wall in 1989 quiet some creative painting tookplace in 1990. Several artists have presented their works here. In my humble opinion this is one great way to keep this history monument in a nice& colourful way alive. The East Side Gallery has become already symbol of the city. Its a pity however that some works have been (partly) distroyed by some vandalism already.

Beautiful buildings in Munich: facades, ornaments and other details

 

While walking in Munich I could not stop noticing all these colourful buildings and beautiful ornaments from different years...It is really worth sometime to stop for a minute and enjoy all the architectural beauties in areas like Haidhausen and Neuhausen...I hope you enjoy my small selection here:-)

The German Eastfrian islands from the sky/ Die Ostfriesischen Inseln vom Himmel gesehen

 
This is one lonely tiny island between the islands Juist and Borkum in the WaddenSea.

 

















While enjoying the carfree island Juist 2 weeks ago we have decided to visit all German Eastfrisian islands (Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeooge, Spiekeroog, Wangeroog). And we did this in one hour!  How do you wonder? By plane, we had a sightseeing flight over all these beautiful islands and enjoyed the fantastic green-blue-grey colours the Wadden Sea offers! I hope you have fun while checking my pictures:-)

 
The seals were having fun sunbathing themselves.

 
It was sunny and very busy on water: a lot of boats around the island Spiekeroog above.

On the picture above one sees the landing line on island Juist and the island Norderney behind it...

Walking&discovering the Wadden sea/ Wattführung mit Heino auf Insel Juist

 

Das Wattenmeer, known in English as the "Wadden Sea", is an intertidal sea, part of the North sea. I had the big pleasure to be last weekend on the car free island Juist (the second German Eastfrisian islands after the Dutch islands)... And one of the thing to do and really not to miss here is a walk on during low tide in the Wadden Sea with the local guide Heino...Heino transfers to you not only only his tons of enormous knowledge about the life under the sand, but also his love to this unique ecosystem on Earth!

 

Very witty he compares during the whole guided tour (from 2 till 3 hours) the sea with human organs cleaning the entire system. The shell common cockle (de. "Herzmuschel") are the kidneys, the worms (de. "Sandpierwurm") are the lungs....each of the water inhabitants has an unique cleaning function: the cockles filter the water and keep all dirt and toxins in them See for confirmation the quick test Heino did  for us by putting cockles in one jar with muddy sea water next to jar without those cleaners. After 2 hours the jar with the shell contained some crystal clear water...Another very important local is the rock worm (de. "Sandpierwurm"). He is the one leaving some spaghetti-looking sand mountains behind. This is actually the cleaned sand once after it had passed through his body. A very visual way to see the difference between the cleaned and still-to-cleaned sand is the colour of it. The top layer of the sand held by Heino is the one already filtered by the efficient worms!

 

We have also met the famous "Seeklaffmuschel" (see picture below). A sand inhabitant who hides some 40 cm under the surface. Heino took it with big care outside for us so we could look closer and learn that this specie is also endangered. In the last 10 years their number has decreased really quick due to the human influence by enlarging harbours and changing working ecosystems...
At the end we could even hold some sea crabs to convince ourselves that they are not dangerous at all...

Hospital for baby seals in Norddeich, Ostfriesland/ Seehundenstation in Norddeich

 

Over 5500 seals were counted in 2010 from a plane by an attempt to get a number of these cute animals living around the German Eastfrisian islands... However their every day life nowadays is not as easy as some years ago. The dirty sea water and the increased amount of viruses make the little ones often sick. When this happens the seal hospital in Norddeich is there to take care of them. Once they are healed, they are put back into the wild...While visiting the "Seehundenstation" one may meet these little ones playing the water or sunbathing in the sun. Next to this one can learn more about ehri life, habits and the things which make them sick...

 

However they need to relax in quiet and sunshine in order to get better very soon!