Conveuropean

The Victory Column is a monument created to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War. It's possible to visit this monument and climb the the stairs to get to the top of the column where you can find very interesting views of the capital city.

The 3rd of October is a national holiday when the German celebrate their "Unity Day" (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). This is normally a really good day to walk along the "Straße des 17. Juni", since it''s open only to pedestrian traffic. I did that walk last year, visited the column and shot the picture you can observe above.

In september of 2016 we made a roadtrip with K and visited Lindau, a major town and an island on the eastern side of Lake Constance. We stayed at a hotel in the Island that’s connected with the mainland by a road-traffic bridge.

The current harbour of this island was built in 1856 and the iconic Lion sculpture and lighthouse mark the entrance of this port. An interesting fact is that this lighthouse is the only one in Bavaria!

I published some additional pictures of Lindau in my juanpics domain.

Yesterday I started waking from Prenzlauer Berg, all the way to Postdamer Platz and when I was crossing the museum island I noticed the Humboldt-Box and I remembered I never went there before so I decided to make a short stop. This temporary construction, created by the Humboldt foundation, serves as an exhibition space and viewing platform for the Berlin Palace - Humboldt Forum reconstruction project.

It has been a while since the last time I published any picture in this conveuropean photoblog. I have been travelling in Asia so most of the picturers I have been taking are published now in the breaksian career break blog. Nevertheless I'm currently on a break from the break, spending Xmas with my girlfriend.

I you have been following this photoblog I think you are not going to be surprised if I mention Berlin is one of my favorites cities in Europe. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit it once time more and since I stayed with some friends living in the south part of the city I got to see the area around Templehof including the former airport that now it is a huge open green space. In a truly Berlin style, it has an Art minigolf in the middle of the park where we got some water and this is where I took this picture. During the weekend I was visiting Berlin there was a referendum to keep the tempelhof park 100% public and it passed with around 65% percent of the votes in favor of the initiative. Therefore the Berliners will keep enjoying this huge and popular park in the city. Well done!.

Sometimes you get a nice photoshoot in the most unexpected place, so it’s good to have a mobile phone with a decent camera at hand to capture the instant. This exactly what happened last weekend when we went to the big shopping center in Weil am Rhein, located very close to the river point where countries meet (France, Germany and Switzerland). We were in the parking lot and getting ready to leave the place, but when we look outside at the sky, we just saw this amazing view composed of some blueish hues and a stripe of sunny light on the background, so I got my phone and shot a couple of pictures trying to get this view on a picture. I wish we will have a new year full of nice sky views like this one we experienced last weekend. Happy 2014.

Yesterday we enjoyed a nice day at the thermal baths of this German city located very close to Basel, Mulhouse and Freiburg. This was the first time we visited this town and it turned out to be a pintoresque place with a couple of fancy hotels, some restaurants and full of baths due to the spring mineral waters it possesses. When we were arriving to the town we noticed from the distance the ruins of a castle and when we were going back to the car we noticed it again, so I grabbed my phone and took a picture. I was able to get a nice silhouette of the castle at this time of the year.

Last Saturday we went to Europapark, a “Europe” theme park located in Rust, Germany. I wanted to celebrate my birthday there because I really enjoy the thrills you get riding a nicely designed rollercoaster. We were lucky with the weather because we had a sunny day that allowed us to enjoy even the water related attractions. The park was relatively crowded so we had to wait in line for most of the rides, but those seconds when you are rushing through the sky upside down made it worth it. The Blue Fire is probably my favorite ride with all the fast ascend, descends, inversions, turns and loops. I always finish with a green face and dizzy but extremely happy!. This time around I missed riding the Silver Star that you can observe in this picture, but that’s going to be first, next time I visit the park. bis bald Europapark!

Normally I publish in this photoblog pictures from European cities or landscapes, but this time I decided to upload a nice butterfly photo I captured earlier on today. We decided to visit Konstanz in Germany and it turned out to be a very nice city with an old well preserved city center (luckily the allied bombs during WWII didn’t touch it). From there you can take a boat that bring you to a small island called Mainau. K. always wanted to visit this place because she had studied in the school this island had a gorgeous greenhouse full of butterflies and indeed once you enter to his place you find plenty of those 'Schmetterlinge' flying all over the place, sucking up juice from orange slices and hopping from flower to flower. So my dear K. here is a butterfly picture for you!.

One of the plans K. wanted to do for a long time was to visit and walk in the black forest in Germany. Basel is located in northern Switzerland, so Freiburg and the small towns in this region of the country are located nearby. Yesterday we booked our economic smart car and headed north to Titisee. Even if the town was a bit too touristy for our taste, it has a nice lake where you can rent a small electric boat and explore around. Additionally it has some good hiking paths to visit small towns near by walking through the forest. While we were walking through one of these paths we had the opportunity to see the lake through this frame made of leaves where I took this shot.

Everytime I go to Berlin I'm very quickly reminded why this my favorite European city. As soon as I’m getting close to Alexanderplatz, I feel excited to realize that I’m again visiting the German capital. The first time I visited the city was 7 years ago and it’s amazing how the city have changed in that short time: The palace of the republic is gone, the hauptbahnhof is completed and the area around the parliament is getting nicer and nicer. Each time I visit Berlin I get the opportunity to see something new I haven’t seen before and this time it was not an exception: When we were walking near to Postdamer platz we saw a small flyer talking about a watching tower and indeed we found hidden by a tree one of the last remaining surveillance symbols of the GDR.

During this long weekend we visited Hamburg for the first time and we got a very good impression about this German maritime city that once was member of the medieval Hanseatic League. We didn't know but during those days the city was celebrating the "Port Birthday" and there a lot food stalls, bands playing and nice ships visiting the port. Berlin is still my favorite German city but this comes second very close.

Today I have been wondering around freiburg enjoying the first sunny day of a spring that almost forgot to come to Europe in 2013. Seriously! This has been the longest European winter since the year I arrived to Europe. I know winter can be long in these latitudes, but if you could see the happiness in the faces of most of the people outside enjoying the sun and grabbing cofee in the terraces you would understand what I'm talking about. Anyway, when I was waking from the train station I saw this woman taking a picture to the first blossoms and you can see her and see them in this picture. Welcome spring!!!

Today we visited Karlsruhe, one of the big german cities in the Baden-Württemberg state. Before going there I read there has been some speculation about this city being used as a model for Washington, D.C. (since both cities have a centre from which the streets radiate). I couldn't stop thinking about this point when we were walking in the city center: When we passed by the Rondellplatz we observed this obelisk that might be in fact a model for the American one. Probably this city is very nice during the summer time, but today we realised the spring hasn't come yet to Karlsruhe because it was rainy, grey and cold ... brrrr.

I was in Heidelberg 4 years ago, but last weekend I had the opportunity to go back and climb to the castle where you have this amazing view of the city. It's quite some exercise to climb the stairs to go to the top but once you are there you feel it has been totally worth it.

When you visit Dresden it's hard to believe that one of the most important landmarks, the Frauenkirche, was reconstructed only after the German reunification and it has been standing there for less than 10 years (the works were finished in 2005). This famous church was completely destroyed after the second world war during the Anglo-American allied forces began the bombing of Dresden in February 1945. When you look at both the pictures before the war and the picture of this area during the communist German Democratic Republic, you realized they did an amazing job bringing the Frauenkirche to its former glory. I have been in Dresden only 2 times, but it was just a short visit catching a train to Prague. I would love to go back and spend more time in the city.

The first trip of this year 2010 was to Berlin to visit my aunt and uncle. I'm sorry it was such a short trip because I really like that city!!. This time, when I was passing near the Brandenburg gate I notice the path of the former Wall and I followed it all the way to Postdamer platz where I took this picture. As you can see here it was snowing a lot!.

In the second week of October 09 I went with K. to Munich and Salzburg for a long weekend holiday. I really enjoyed both cities. I pass by Marienplatz many times during the trip and every time I enjoyed looking at the "Glockenspiel". We even went there the last day to hear and see the mechanical characters come to live for a couple of minutes :-).

Last Christmas (08) I had the chance to go to Germany and to spent a wonderful christmas with L. and J. They were wonderful hosts. In this second visit to Berlin I really wanted to visit the Reichstag and I'm glad I did it, but it was not fun to queue outside in the "Berliner Winter". That's a lesson I learned :).

In December 08, I meet my aunt and his husband in Germany. I went to Frankfurt first and one night when I was crossing one of the bridges I took this picture of the lights of the "Wolkenkratzer" in Frankfurt am Main. This was my second visit to the city and I really enjoyed it :).

The first time I went to Berlin back in 2006 I noticed there was this ugly building "under construction". I was curious and I took a picture that was buried in my hard drive. Today when I was cleaning up my computer I found this picture again and I realized they were not building anything, but it was actually the other way around: They were dismantling the "Palace of the Republic". This building was the seat of the parliament of the German Democratic Republic. A couple of years later I visited Berlin and the construction was gone. Berlin will always be one of my favorite cities in Europe.

The first I visited Berlin in the summer of 2006 I fell in love of that really interesting city. I like history and you can breath 20th century history everywhere in this city. When we were walking around with some of my colleagues we passed next to this statue of Marx and Engels and that was a good reminder that once this was East Berlin, the capital of the GDR.