Sternfahrt Hamburg 2008 - part 2

As announced in my blog-post immediately after the bicycle Sternfahrt I post some more pictures to show some not so usual view of my city - the beautiful Hamburg.

Here we drive up the Koehlbrandbruecke, which is normally strictly forbidden for cyclists and pedestrian. It offers superb views into the huge harbour and the river Elbe, views to Hamburg City and in the distance south one can see the Harburger Mountains (altitude up to 155 metres *ho-ho-ho*).

The Koehlbrandbrücke is an enourmous bridge in the harbour, very high and long. Built in 1974 it was one of the so called Century Buildings of Hamburg.
For me those have a special meaning, because my father, who died much too young, was a civil engineer with a special interests in bridges.

Container-Colors. :-)

The church in the middle is the "Michel", the town's landmark. To the left you can see the television tower, another one of Hamburgs important buildings. What a shame, that the café that used to be up top on a rotary platform has been closed for years. I was able to have coffee and cake (German tradition) up there and and watch complete Hamburg during only one hour from high above.

We cyclists have to gather to ride all together on the donwtown streets which are car-free for us. We are in the Hafen-City, the quarter, that is so much in fashion right now. Old warehouses get refurbished, new very chic apartment buildings grow next to them.
(I wish I would have the money to buy me an apartment with an unspoilable view over the river Elbe and the harbour in one of those new houses as my downtown-place-to-be. :-) )

For sure you will find me again on the Sternfahrt 2009.

June 28th is the birth date of my father. So this is for him.

* * * * *

Sunset

I love sunsets.

No matter how stereotype they might seem I enjoy every single one.
Just a couple of minutes ago I did exactly that while driving home from sport in direction west. Above the flat land that I was passing through there was this huge orange ballon sending out rays behind big clouds. The rays almost looked blue in the sky. Marvellous.

Not for the first time I was contemplating the question why sunsets seem so spectacular to us while being on vacation, preferable in exotic spots.
I remember as a child almost everybody on the campground at the North Sea in Juetland, Denmark, celebrated the sunset.
And who doesn't have African sunsets in their inner eyes? Sunsets like the one above which happened in Namibia.

Today I figured it is a matter of space and time.
At the sea or in the desert there is the space, the vastness, to actually see the sun going down. Not so in the city or in areas with a lot of trees. Second one has to be on time to actually watch them. And when does this happen if not during vacation time. Aren't we all too busy in daily life to go to a place for "just" watching the sunset?

The picture below I took while riding my bicycle not more than seven kilometers from my house. I had the same view the day before without having my camera with me. So I scheduled next days ride for exactly the same time and day. It was on a long weekend, so counting almost as vacation :-).

Oh yes, what I also enjoy are our almost endless days right now. It's daylight till 10 pm. So much more energy than in winter with the long dark hours.

Glückwunschkarte

After some dark weeks in which I cheered myself up with all the flower photos I'm very happy now.
My mind is indulging in creative ideas; mentally I plan thousandandone projects.
My plans for summer travel are finally all settled. Looking back I have such a wonderful life being able to travel all over, but most of the time arranging it's not as easy as it might look even for me after a while.

This summer I will visit an island far away with a different culture and there are many, many impressions waiting for me. For once it will be a trip without my bicycle, my climbing shoes and a rope.
I was wondering what to take to use the time for my interests. Into my mind crept journaling. I always write diary, sometimes more, sometimes less. Some words in my moleskine, some snippets glued beside.
Right now I'm very inspired to color pages, to experiment much freer than I normally do with different kind of media.
Because I won't be able to buy supply on the road and it has to be small I have an excuse to try out a bit beforehand - even if my time is very limited right now.

Before work this morning I made a Greeting Card for my friend and collegue. I brought for her a beautiful candle from an Austrian manufacture when I was there in May. I forgotten to take a photo, what a pity. The colors were gorgious: red and yellow in a flat brick floating into each other.

Sommerperlen - Pearls of Summer

Today is the Day of Creativity - 2. Kreativtag by Ellen "Summertime - and the livin is easy"

I mag Sommer - ich mag Perlen - Sommer heißt Reisen - ich mag bummeln während meiner Reisen - ich mag mir selber Mitbringsel mitbringen - ich mag es, aus diesen etwas herzustellen - ich mag blau und grün

I love summer - I love pearls/beads - Summer means travel - I love shopping while traveling - I like to bring myself souveniers - I love to create with my treasures from all over the world - I love blues and greens

Was für eine großartige Chance meine Schätze der letzten Sommer hier vorzustellen.

What a lovely chance to present my treasures from the last summers.

Diese Murmel-Perlen fand ich während einer meiner zahlreichen Zwischenstops in einer meiner Lieblingsstädte - Basel. Es liegt direkt auf meinem Weg in den Süden und seit einigen Jahren habe ich einen guten Freund dort.

These marble beads I got during one of my several stops in one of my favorites towns - Basel. It's on my way south and for the last years I have a good friend there.

Die folgenden Permutt-Knöpfe waren ein besonderes Erlebnis. Ich fand sie in einem winzigen Laden in Briancon in der Dauphine/französische Alpen. Bei dem einem, dem Besonderen, muss ich immer an Ellens Stil denken.

The following mother-of-pearls buttons were a special treat. I found a tiny shop in Briancon/French Alps. Every time I look at the very unique button I have to think of Ellen. :-)

Das Armband und die Kette machte ich auf der langen Heimreise auf der Autobahn, natürlich auf dem Beifahrersitz.

The bracelet and the necklace I finished on the long way back north on the autobahn - of course not on the driving seat.

Sommerzeit - das heißt viel Zeit in der Sonne. Und die genoß ich in all dem fantastischen, norddeutschen Wetter der letzten Wochen.
Sommerzeit - ist nicht immer einfach.
Aus beiden Gründen ist mein Hauptprojekt für diesen Kreativtag nicht ganz fertig geworden. Aber das macht nichts. Für den Augenblick gibt es mir die Möglichkeit eine Kette vorzustellen, die mich besonders glücklich macht.

Summertime - means a lot of time spent in the sun. And so I did in all those recent weeks with fantastic early summer weather in Northern Germany.
Summertime - is not always easy.
For both reasons my main project for this Day of Creativity is not quite finished.
But no problem- for the time being it gives enough chances to present a necklace that makes me especially happy.

Ich stelle es von Grund auf an her. Am Anfang war es nur eine Aluminium-Röhre. Ich lernte die Technik in einem der fantastischen Kurse im Institut für Lehrerfortbildung.
Die "Perle" kann man drehen, so dass sie zu vielem passt. In diesem Falle zu den Farben der nicht ganz fertigen Jacke.

I made it from scretch on. Originally it was a plain tube of aluminium. I learned the techique in one of the fantastic courses in the Teachers Ed.
The bead is turnable, so it matches a lot of clothes and all the colors of this not quite finished jacket.

Falls es jemand noch nicht weiß: Wenn du auf eines der Bilder klickst, landest du auf meiner flickr-Seite. Über dem Bild siehst du "all sizes". Such dir aus, was du willst - sehr praktisch.
Übrigens war meine Namibia-Reise in 2006. Ich machte einen Fehler als ich das Schild schrieb und sah es eben erst.
Was für ein merkwürdiges Gefühl: Zum ersten Mal in meinem Leben übersetze ich einen von mir geschriebenen englischen Text in meine Muttersprache.

Just in case you don't know so far: If you click on the pictures you come to my flickr page. Above the picture you see "All sizes". Choose whatever you like - very practical.
btw - Namibia took place in 2006. I just now noticed my mistake on the label.
What a funny feeling - for the first time in my life I translated an English text written by myself into my motherlanguage.

Sternfahrt Hamburg 2008

For many years I join the thousands and ten-thousands of cyclists in the Sternfahrt of my hometown Hamburg. From several meetings points of the Hamburg border and of outside people drive downtown, merging at one point or the other.
The purpose used to be and still is to show a way of non-pollution transportation and to demonstrate for better bicycle conditions, which are very, very necessary. For most of us it is a huge fun Sunday trip with meeting up old and new friends, travelling to our beautiful city and - if coming from the south - crossing over the great harbour bridge. I'll show some pictures later on.

Great spectacle, great fun, all kinds of people from kids to old ones, from stylish-dressed racing biker to low-tech somekind of wheel-driver.

The most astonishing participant this year was definitly this huge parrot.

At first sight I thought it was a stuffed toy animal - but no way, this big bird travels with his human compagnon all through Germany. Last month he got stolen, but due to police, radio and televion was given back to his happy owner.
He sits free on the handle bar and seems to enjoy his bicycle rides.

Here is another shot, because he was really amazing.

By the way, the nice bicycle in the background with the Namibian flag is mine :-) .

Glimpse on Monday

Monday Ellen's 2. Kreativtag (Day of Creativity) is taking place. I'm eagerly taking photos, working on them, crafting .......
My presence on her 1. Kreativtag was more than humble. Although I won't finish all planned projects this time I will be able to present my summertime-blogpost. :-)
On Monday you will know why I choose this photo for a preview. Stay tuned.

Tagged by Hélène

Hélène tagged me.
I turned a meme down early in my blogging days and have the same sentiments again. Because Hélène is a special virtual friend of mine and because the questions are not too personal to answer on a public platform like a blog I'll go for it.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Not so much different things than now, although I always want to change my life. Which I did quite a bit in between :-).
June 10 years ago the end of the schoolyear was in sight with all the work for a teacher. 10 years ago I was living in the same little house in the forest like now.
One huge, amazing, never believed 10 years ago thing changed: Back then I was smoking cigarettes like an engine. Terrible addicted, 40 sticks a day. Starting the day with them and ending with them. In 2000 I quit. The hardest thing I ever did. It was so hard, that I did not start again, because I never ever wanted to go through it again. Now I'm a very happy non-smoker.

2. 5 things on today's to-do list?
Writing reports for the term-papers. Watering the flowers. Prep tomorrows classes. Writing this post (hasn't been on the list before, I have so much other internet stuff to do these days). Working on my *psssst* for Ellen's Kreativtag coming (too) soon (for me).

3. Snacks I enjoy
What is meant by that? The small meals? Today that would be selfmade asparagus soup. I live in asparagus country. For lunch (the biggest meal in Germany) I have very often this delicious vegetable in May and June. I save the boiling water and also boil out the peel to have more liquid for my yummy soup. This I have as my evening "snack".
If those little unnessesary fattening things one munches inbetween are meant: I try to cut them down to nothing because I finally want to loose some of those kilos gained during the quit-smoking-process.
But I do eat ice-cream almost daily now-a-days. I rather loose slowly the weight and keep it low instead of binging on all the things I prohibited myself to eat . No good with that kind of strategy for me.

4. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire?
No idea, how many zeros a billion has. For sure enough to keep, let's say, 2 or 3 millions for myself. Maybe 4. Enough to quit the payroll job. Enough for my house in the Provence and an apartment of my own in Hamburg on the riverside. And a travel-car plus money for my long-distance travels.
The remains I would give to organisations which work towards global fairness in all regards. When I don't have the payroll anymore I could make myself smarter on those topics including nature and not only put money in but also effort.


5. Places I have lived?
Poppenbüttel, Hamburg
Benzonia, Michigan, USA
Zermatt, Switzerland
downtown Hamburg
Maschen, south of Hamburg
Zurich, Switzerland
village south of Hamburg


Whoever wants to pick up this meme is heartly welcomed.
:-Tally-:

Sunday Morning

This sunday morning



looking for peace
recognizing it



looking for joy
recognizing the beauty in it

pour Ellen