August 15 - 227/365
8/30/10
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| 18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/7.1, 1/125, ISO 200 |
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
May 25 - 145/365
6/18/10
Canon PowerShot SD600
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Another day of nothing but travel as we made our way from Frankfurt, Germany back to Baltimore, Maryland via Philadelphia. Pictured here is my passport and our ticket stubs for the trip from Germany to Philadelphia. We had a great time in Germany and Austria, but there is still nothing like home sweet home!
May 24 - 144/365
18-55mm lens @ 20mm, f/8, 1/160, ISO 200
Berlin - the capital of Germany and infamous for its struggle in the Cold War. The modern city was actually very nice - a pleasant surprise after all the stories we remembered hearing about Berlin when the wall was in existence. We stopped to tour the requisite sights, including the Brandenburg gate, the Parliament building, and even a great museum of German history. This museum was the best possible ending to our travels since it covered all of Germany's history which we had been learning in bits and pieces along the way. It helped put all of the historical events and stories we had learned into one big picture. Of course no visit to Germany would be complete without visiting one of the remnant pieces of the Berlin wall. At this particular part of the wall, which you can see decorated with Graffiti in the background, there was a guy dressed up as a military guard stamping cards with all of the stamps that you would have had to get to be able to cross the wall during the Cold War. It was touristy, but we thought it was a pretty cool souvenir from such a dramatic part of German history.
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May 23 - 143/365
18-55mm lens @ 20mm, f/11, 1/320, ISO 200
What an unusual sight, huh? I honestly have no idea where these ladies were going or why they were dressed the way they were, but we spotted them on our long walk through the gardens of Potsdam. Postdam is a small town just outside of Berlin and is most famous for its majestic palaces and lush gardens. We spent part of our afternoon wandering the gardens and stopping to visit the palaces, although unfortunately we were not able to tour either of the palaces because the wait was far too long to get into each of them. But the palaces and gardens were beautiful and these ladies added to the historic feel of the park. From here, it was on to our last destination in Germany - the city of Berlin.
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May 22 - 142/365
18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15, ISO 800
Our second to last stop in the country of Germany was the city of Dresden. Close to the Czech Republic border, it was the most damaged city in all of Germany after World War II. As a result, most of the city has been completely rebuilt. We thought it was going to be pretty modern, and it was, but many of the buildings were rebuilt in with old-world style, still giving the city a historic feeling. This city was also the location of one of the best-known Lutheran churches in Germany, the Frauenkirche.
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May 21 - 141/365
18-55mm lens @ 40mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200
Another image of Rothenburg. This image better captures the old world feeling of the town. Like I said, one of my favorite towns in all of Germany. :-)
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May 20 - 140/365
18-55mm lens @ 39mm, f/5, 1/20, ISO 800
So I decided not to post any pictures from our one night/day in Nuremburg because our first night in the town of Rothenburg was much more memorable. Rothenburg was one of my favorite cities in all of Germany. It immediately transported you back to the middle ages with nothing but cobblestone streets, an old stone wall, and old buildings. But one of the most fun experiences we had was joining the midnight watchman's tour. The midnight watchman, pictured here, told funny stories about life in the middle ages and about the town of Rothenburg, with bits of humor mixed in. It was a very touristy experience, but so much fun that I didn't care. Highly recommended!
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May 19 - 139/365
18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/9, 1/200, ISO 200
The city in this photo was just a stopping point on our long drive from Vienna to Nuremberg. The town, called Regensburg, was apparently one of the best preserved medieval towns in a country that was quite destroyed by World War II bombs. This town was largely untouched and a charming spot for us to enjoy a picnic lunch.
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May 14 - 134/365
6/16/10
18-55mm lens @ 43mm, f/7.1, 1/80, ISO 200
Day 2 in Munich! What a fun city. We had some great experiences in our brief 2-days in this Bavarian city, famous for its massive beer halls and men wandering the streets in lederhosen [yes - we saw lots of them dressed this way!]. It is hard to find one picture to capture all the fun experiences we had here and the sights we saw, so instead I chose an image taken from the top of a tower looking out toward city hall in the Marienplatz.
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May 13 - 133/365
6/11/10
18-55mm lens @ 29mm, f/7.1, 1/80, ISO 200
Germany has so many amazing things to see and great experiences to be had. Castles. Beer. Sausages. Mountains. Wine. The list goes on and on. But it is hard for me to imagine stepping foot into Germany without spending some time visiting its dark side.... the era of Nazi control and World War II. On our way from Innsbruck, Austria to Munich, Germany, we stopped to visit the Dachau concentration camp just outside the city of Munich. While Dachau is not as infamous as the camps that participated in the mass extermination of Jews, such as Auschwitz in Poland, Dachau was the very first concentration camp and the only camp to be operational for the entire duration of WWII. My husband and I have both visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., but as moving as that experience was, it was nothing compared to the feeling of touring the isolation cells, walking through reconstructed barracks where the laborers wasted away, and seeing the crematoriums where the masses of people which were worked and starved to death were cremated. The museum was packed with history from the rise of the Nazi political regime to the liberation of the camp by the Allies, and it will definitely be an experience we will never forget.
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May 11 - 131/365
18-55mm lens @ 30mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200
This was definitely one of my most favorite days in Germany. 1) It was the first completely nice day we had. The sun was shining and it actually felt a little warm outside after days of overcast skies and rain. 2) We got our first glimpse of the Alps, the most magnificent mountain range I have ever seen and with crystal clear water below the most beautiful shade of turquoise blue - you don't expect to see that in a lake. 3) Today was "Mad" King Ludwig castle day. Well, not officially, but for us it was. We were able to tour three of King Ludwig of Bavaria's castles, one of which is the most famous castle in all of Germany, Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was King of Bavaria and LOOOOVED to spend money and build castles. In fact, he spent so much money (which he borrowed and didn't actually have) that his family was forced to declare him legally insane so that they could regain control of his accounts and keep him from spending any more money. His sudden death days after he called off his engagement was shrouded in mystery as he was found dead in a lake with his physician, and no one to this day knows if it was murder or suicide. Craaaaazy! His death left all but one of his castles unfinished inside, but you can still tour the finished parts. The castle pictured above, called Hoenschwangau, was the castle that King Ludwig spent his childhood in with his family. While it wasn't the most magnificent castle we saw that day, I loved the surrounding scenery with the lake and the mountains in this photo the best.
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May 10 - 130/365
6/7/10
18-55mm lens @ 24mm, f/4, 1/13, ISO 100
We move from beer to cuckoo clocks, a product that is best known in the Black Forest region of Germany. We had finished up a 2-night stay in Baden-Baden and spent the next rainy, foggy day driving through the actual "Black Forest", called the Schwarzwalder in German, to our final destination for the day of Fussen. On our way from Baden-Baden to Fussen, we decided to stop in a small town called Triberg for a picnic lunch where we spotted a store that boasted it contained "100,000 clocks"! It was a total tourist trap, and we knew it, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see that many clocks at once.... and it did not disappoint. :-) Of course I had to take a shot of the plethora of cuckoo clocks we saw there. Good thing the store didn't have them all set to go off at the same time!
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May 9 - 129/365
18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/6, ISO 800
The word "Germany" brings certain items/images to mind.... sausage, sauerkraut, castles, cuckoo clocks.... and of course, beer. LOTS of beer. At this point in our trip, we hadn't tried much beer. We had been sampling more wine than beer since we were in a region known for their wine. Not to mention that we hadn't been able to enjoy any biergartens since the weather was cold and wet and not good for sitting outside. So for our second dinner in the town of Baden-Baden in the Black Forest region of Germany, we asked our waiter which beer to try, unsure of which kind to try first. The next thing we knew, our young German waiter [who spoke good English] brought us a tray of beer "samples", which he ultimately did not charge us for. We tried Pilsners, Marzens, Dunkels, Hefewizens, IPAs..... probably one or two others that I can't remember. We loved them all. Of course we had our favorites, with the unfiltered Hefewizens being our #1 favorite throughout our trip. But the best part was the experience of talking to the waiter, being treated to a sampling of every local beer they had to offer, and enjoying a great meal of pretzels, sausages, sauerkraut, and other traditional German foods after a great day in the baths of Baden-Baden.
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May 8 - 128/365
18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 200
Nurburgring.... the king of all race tracks. So my husband tells me, because he is the car fanatic and I am the chocolate/shopping fanatic. :-) This is the most dangerous race track in the world, earning it the nickname "The Green Hell" and serving as the major benchmark for testing the performance of newly manufactured cars. Nurburgring was also one of the most anticipated attractions in Germany for my husband, who would have done anything to take a fast car around this track for a few laps. Unfortunately, that experience was not meant to happen for us that day for a number of logistical reasons that I won't bother explaining here. But he did get to drive a Lotus to tour the track that afternoon, where we got a personalized tour of the track up and close, watching lots of cars that were practicing for an upcoming "24 hours" race. It was amazing to see these cars whip around some of the turns on this track, trying to go as fast as possible but also follow certain "rules" that earned them points for staying within lines, hugging curves a certain way, etc [don't ask me.... I don't entirely get it :-P]. It was quite an experience to see, but I made sure to remind my husband of the entire afternoon I spent with him at the racetrack when I was ready to do some shopping in the next town. :-)
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May 7 - 127/365
18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 200
We had spent the past 2 days touring the Rhine Valley in western Germany. After leaving the town of Bacharach, we drove ~1hr north west to another river valley area known as the Mosel Valley. The Mosel had been described as a "sleepier version" of the Rhine. But we went to the region for just one night with 2 attractions in mind - Burg Eltz [another wonderfully preserved medieval castle] and the Nurburgring race track [see tomorrows photo for more on that sight]. I had a tough time choosing one photo for the day, but I ultimately chose this one for a few reasons. First, it gives you a great birds-eye view of the town we stayed the night in, Cochem, and the castle that overlooked the town and the Mosel River below. Beautiful countryside, dotted with vineyard plots growing grapes for the famous German Riesling wine. Second, this image also gives you an idea of the weather we were encountering during almost our entire trip. We had expected to tour Germany and Austria in sunshine with temperatures close to 70F. Well, some kind of freak system had settled over almost all of Europe for a few weeks, and we had almost 3 full weeks of fog, drizzle, rain, and temps around 45F-50F. Not what we had expected.... or prepared for! So this also made taking outdoor photos quite a challenge, and there is a lot of post processing done on many of the outdoor photos to reduce the glare from the fog. But the castle, the Mosel, and the wine were still amazing and quite enjoyable!
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May 6 - 126/365
18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15, ISO 800
Since I will be probably showing you lots of photos of the outside of castles we saw in Germany, I thought it might be fun to show you the inside of one for once. Usually I don't get to take too many photos of castle and palace interiors because they just won't let you, but today we were allowed to take photos in one of the castles we visited, Burg Rheinfels. This particular image is of the bedroom of the Duchess of the castle, decorated in 19th century decor.
I also just want to quickly mention one point about my shooting process for the photos I'm going to be posting from our vacation. I have been doing most of my shooting in Manual or Aperture priority mode over the past few months, during which I have been teaching myself about my camera and how to optimize each photo I take. And as much as I wish I could have continued shooting in that carefully planned manner during my trip, the truth is it just isn't possible. Or at least, not very efficient when we are touring multiple castles/museums and walking miles each day, plus taking tons of photos.... it would unfortunately take me way too long to take each photo and my husband would probably keep going without me. :-P So for almost every shot taken on my vacation, I was shooting in "Program" mode, adjusting minor settings like aperture or ISO when absolutely necessary and doing the remaining editing in the RAW files here at home. I'm still recording the shot details under each photo in case you want to know the nitty gritty, but just be aware that I didn't specifically choose each of those settings like I usually do.
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May 5 - 125/365
5/27/10
18-55mm lens @ 32mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200
After our arrival into Frankfurt, Germany, we spent our first few days in the Rhine Valley, an area known for its many castle towns dotted along the Rhine River. This picture is of the castle town that we spent 2 nights in, called Bacharach. The castle that overlooked the town is actually now used as a hotel, and down in the town below the buildings line the edge of the town, overlooking the river. Each town we visited along the Rhine those 2 days had quaint cobblestone streets to wander around in and a castle at the top of the hill to hike up to - a beautiful and peaceful area!
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May 4 - 124/365
Canon PowerShot SD600
I'm back! Did you miss me? Just kidding, but if you did, I'm flattered. :-) Well we made it to Germany, Austria and back, despite Icelandic volcanoes spewing ash and threatening European air travel over the past month. We were nervous that our flight to Frankfurt, Germany would be cancelled, but luckily our flight was on time as you can tell from today's photo. Since we spent almost our entire day on a plane, finishing with a red-eye flight that had us arriving in Frankfurt's airport at 6am Germany time, the only photo ops I had were airport related. Hopefully it won't take me tooooo long to catch up from the 3 weeks we were away!
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