Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Reykjavík - a view of town

Halgrimskirkja, Reykjavík


Halgrimskirkja, on one of the highest points of Reykjavík, is a strange but pretty church of its very own type.

From the tower we had a great view of town.

Die Halgrimskirkja, die auf einem der höchsten Punkte in Reykjavík steht, ist eine hübsche und sehr eigene Kirche. Von dort aus hatten wir eine gute Aussicht über die Stadt.














Clock in the tower of Halgrimskirkja
near the harbour area along the waterside
a wall in town with helpful information


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Peterborough Town Library

On a road trip through New England in spring 2010 we checked out Peterborough. The town library in the bright sunshine was worth an HDR for me.


Auf der Fahrt durch New England im Frühjahr 2010 haben wir uns Peterborough angesehen. Die Stadtbücherei im strahlenden Sonnenschein war mir ein HDR wert.







Monday, May 16, 2011

Lizard

no words needed, are there?




Hope Chapel

Kurz vor Ostern in Neu England (Keene, New Hampshire): Man kann es kurz fassen, oder nicht?








This is the short version of the story, really, but this I found in New England (Keene, NH) close to easter of 2010.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Doors

For a contest I was looking for "doors" all around. These are some that I came across.



















This last one I used for the contest and won my topic.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

funnies

For a contest I had to take a picture of "letters" and this was my winning team:




Für einen Contest musste ich ein Bild zum Thema "Buchstaben" machen. Hier ist mein Ergebnis!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Fire

The time for fire places is almost over in this season. But I just came across these pictures again today.





Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Summer on the way

Mit ziemlicher Geschwindigkeit bricht hier gerade der Sommer herein. Vor zwei Jahren habe ich mal eine Bild-Kombination dazu gemacht, die möchte ich Euch nicht vorenthalten:






Since summer is bursting in the door here speedily I'd like to show you a picture I created two years ago around the same time.


Monday, May 9, 2011

Blue Lagoon

On several trips to Iceland we went to the Blue Lagoon near Keflavík. Here are a few impressions and the big recommendation to try it out!

Unbelieveable that we saw snow falling just minutes before these pictures!







Bei unseren Islandreisen waren wir schon mehrfach in der Blauen Lagune bei Kevlavík. Hier sind ein paar Bilder und die Empfehlung, den Besuch fest mit einzuplanen.

Unglaublich, dass wir noch Minuten vor diesen Aufnahmen Schneefall hatten!





The lagoon is fed by the wast waters of a power plant. But since this power plant is operating on sea water that is heated by geothermal forces, there is no pollution in the water.

Die Lagune wird mit dem Abwasser eines Kraftwerks gespeist. Da es sich aber um ein Kraftwerk handelt, dass allein mit geothermal aufgeheiztem Meerwasser arbeitet, ist es natürlich völlig unverschmutztes Wasser.

The sediments that get carried along with the water  and that make it hazy blue have prove to be healthy, not just pretty.

Die Sedimente, die mit dem Wasser in die Lagune geschwemmt werden und die die Farbe geben, sind außerdem gesund, nicht nur hübsch anzusehen.
The funniest part about the lagoon are the white faced people in the water. Concentrate of the sediment is provided in buckets near the back of the lagoon for people to spread on their skin. You let it dry on and wash it off in the lagoon. It is a face mask that makes your skin all smooth. 

Das lustigste an der Lagune sind die weißgesichtigen Menschen im wasser. Konzentrierte Sedimente werden hinten in der Lagune in Eimern bereitgestellt, damit man sie sich die Masse ins Gesicht schmiert. Es ist eine Gesichtsmaske, die man trocknen läßt und dann wieder im Wasser der Lagune abwäscht. Die Haut fühlt sich gut an.

Just never spread it in your hair. It will not feel good for a longer time. After the bath I recommend using as much as possible of the hair conditioner that is provided in the showers and maybe a hair cure soon after your stay. Believe me. I have tried the other way.

Man sollte sich das Zeug nur niemals in die Haare schmieren. Die fühlen sich danach für längere Zeit nicht mehr so an, wie vorher. Nach dem Schwimmen empfehle ich ohnehin, soviel wie möglich von der Haarspülung zu benutzen, die in den Duschen vorhanden ist. Und vielleicht eine Haarkur bald danach. Glaubt mir. Ich habe den anderen Weg versucht.







This is the vast lava landscape that the lagoon is situated in.

Und so sieht die Lavawüste um die Lagune herum aus.



Saturday, May 7, 2011

The grow houses of Hveragerdi

In spring of 2010 we went to Iceland for a quick stop over. We saw Iceland in the dark for the first time. On our summer vacations there was constant sunlight.

We stopped in Hveragerdi, southern Iceland, on the way back from the vulcano because we were hoping to finally see the grow houses of Hveragerdi in the dark - glowing eerily. And there they were. The biting cold made it very tough for us to get out of the car at all, but we just could not skip this photo op.

In those grow houses - or better glow houses? - they grow vegetables, fruit and flowers. When we came to Hveragerdi in the summer we visited one of those houses and even found the world's most northern bananas.

The energy for heating and illumniation of those houses if drawn from the areas geothermal power, free of waist.



Als wir im Frühjahr 2010 in Island waren, haben wir das Land zum ersten Mal bei Dunkelheit erlebt. Während unserer Sommerurlaube war es permanent hell. Auf dem Rückweg vom Vulkan kamen wir durch Hveragerdi und haben uns selbst die Daumen gedrückt, dass wir die Gewächshäuser von Hveragerdi im Dunkeln aber beleuchtet finden würden. Als wir ankamen hat uns die extreme Kälte beinahe davon abgehalten, aus dem Auto zu steigen, aber wir konnten uns diese Gelegenheit nicht entgehen lassen.

Die Gewächshäuser beherbegen von Obst und Gemüse über Blumen alles. Im Sommer hatten wir sie besichtigt und sogar die nördlichsten Bananen der Welt begutachtet. 
Die Energie für die Gewächshäuser - für Heizung und Beleuchtung - wird aus der Geothermal-Energie der Gegend gewonnen, also abgasfrei.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Iceland from above

coming into Keflavík on an Iceland Air flight - March 2010











lava flows from a while ago






... ending right on the edge of the water

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Icelandic faces

These Icelandic faces I found in Halgrimskirkja in Reykjavík.


Diese isländischen Gesichter habe ich in der Halgrimskirkja in Reykjavík gefunden.



Friday, April 29, 2011

Thursday, April 14, 2011

local bird


More and more geese nest in the river meadows around our town. As pretty as they are to look at, it is getting quite the amount of birds. Since they are nice to take photos of, I went to those meadows quite often in the last few years.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Murano Glass

On the island of Murano we watched the glass making while we were in Venice.


Venice 2011

We lately went to Venice for a few days.




Thursday, March 24, 2011

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

Maine Lobster

Lobsters are sold all over Maine. This restaurant was closed for the winter, though.





















Thursday, March 17, 2011

Cats

These 2 cats I met a friend's house. I took several beautiful pictures of them which I owe to the friend still - sorry, I will process them soon!














Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Eyjafjallajökull and Fimmvörduháls

When we looked at the volcano in Iceland, March 2010, (Fimmvörduháls) we took videos, too.


The videos are taken by my husband, (who has his own blog here) but I want to show them here among the photos:




The actual erruption has formed a big pile of ashes that are between us and the main fissure. We therefore only see the fountains going up behind it.
The lava flow, though, comes down towards our side of the mountain. It is better visible in the darker pictures and videos. In the daytime footage it is only the steam that comes up from it, that you can really see.


The lava streams were relatively slow so motion of the streams is not destinct in the videos but the darker it got, the more we could see of actual motion.




Daytime:

´

falling night:


night time:





youtube has many spectacular videos of the erruption. It is worth searching out!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Arnheim

A back street in Arnheim, Netherlands, in HDR