January 10, 2012

New Years Eve - Leipzig

Arrived in Leipzig in the evening of December 30th, it was dark already. So main activity of that evening was visiting the several old trading houses with its passageways, for which Leipzig is famous. 

Then to the fine hotel for a good sleep.

From the 15th floor window there was a perfect view of the last sunset of 2011...
..which brought a rather fine day with a blue sky in the early hours.

'Whoever reads this is happy!'
Several old buildings make one feel as being back in former times..
..like this old coffee house: Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum...where even old Bach might have had coffee some centuries ago :-)
...but we went to somewhere else which was very good as well, had coffee with Cointreau against the chilly wind outside..



And another one later...
Then to the Thomas(!!!)-Church, where the famous Thomas(!!!)-Choir performed something in front of the statue of good old Johann Sebastian Bach. As I learned Bach not only was a very productive composer and musician, he also was a father of 20 children from several wifes. Impressive...
Here's the church from outside and inside. Later there was a Organ concert....
....and finally the year was over and Leipzig celebrated a hopefully good beginning of 2012. Unfortunately the fireworks smoke made further photo shooting impossible....Happy New Year everyone...


Rolling Hills


A typical sight in the low hills of the Crete Senesi, Tuscany, south of Siena. Just to post something sunny these days...

December 26, 2011

Repost Glowing Trees

This year they fixed light strips to the trees, again. Unfortunately the shown walk is surrounded by temporary fences because of construction works which doesn't look good on a picture. So I grabbed an old picture from 2007 instead, I think it is worth a re-post.

December 20, 2011

Dynamic Views

Just discovered the Dynamic View feature of Blogger. Please take a look yourself at: http://cogniproc.blogspot.com/view/timeslide

December 19, 2011

Christmas and the Brandenburg Gate

Went for a Christmas stroll along the Unter den Linden to see...
...the official Berlin Christmas tree, courtesy of the Norwegian embassy.
This building catched my eye, before...
...I got nearer to the tree and then...
...in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which is lovely illuminated, again, as every night.