Water-falling

Those who know, say that the German part of the Alps is the least beautiful. I don't have an opinion on the other parts of the mountains, but I really enjoyed the hiking last June. And I found many things around me that made me (and the fellow photographers :) ) use my camera.

I one of the billion pictures we took that day, was this beautiful waterfall.

Going to work

Imagine you lived somewhere where you could walk to work and the path looked something like this.

Welcome to Garching bei Muenchen!


Caution: Do not attempt this during the winter. Keine Winterdienst.

Free the puppet

This puppet was tied on a door in Anafiotika, Athens. I used my lens to kidnap her but I turned out to imprison her in my photo album for more than 7 years. I guess now I should let her free in the internet.

-13

What a strange country this is!

Yesterday the temperature at this hour was 22oC, today 9oC. How can the temperature drop 13 degrees so easily? O_o

Anyway, this picture is from last year when I had just bought my camera and I was wondering around in Garching admiring the nature. More pictures to follow!

Third time's a charm

It is the third time I try to make this Easter bread/Zopf/τσουρέκι. I tried three different recipes but the most successful is by far this one.

Who wants to taste?

Beer on the street

This blog supports polish beer. And is only lost in poker on April fools day.

Spotted in Lublin.

Goodbye...

Dear all,

last night wasn't a very good night for us.
After a very bad round in poker, we found ourselves loosing quite a lot. The only thing we had left to bet was our blog. Murphy's law triumphs once more and we lost our blog just like that.

You will not hear anymore from us. It was a great ride. Farewell.

Watch out!

Watch out for the slippery slopes out there!

This photo was taken while following a walking trail in Andros (and then slightly deviating from it). The trail leads to the ruins of a village from the Geometric Period, Ancient Zagora.

Andros can easily please nature lovers, stay tuned for more!
And if you have any further questions, just ''ask inside'' (πληροφορίες εντός!)

Relax

Spotted in the zoo in Stuttgart. It seems that this little guy is having some time off.
With holidays coming up in less than a month, I can picture myself in a very similar situation!

Little boy

What is this little boy looking at? Well, this window has many things that make boys happy: trains, ships, airplanes, soldiers and... beer mugs! Of course... we are in Munich!

Poznan Duck

 

One more photo from Poznan.

Cat international

I really can't remember where I caught this cat. Anyway, if it had been in Greece it would say "Νιάου" (Neeaw), if in England or USA, I guess "meaow".

Sooooo... challenge of the day: Please leave us a comment with the sound the cats produce in your language. If possible write it in your native alphabet and provide also a rough pronounciation in Latin.

News of the blog:
1.You may have already noticed that on the bottom of the page some "subscribe" options have appeared. Except the old "friend connect" by google, there is also an "Atom" feed, along with some other feeds for yahoo, google and others which I had never heard of before. Also, you can give us, or actually feedburner, your e-mail and we will keep you informed about our newest photos.
2. Below our posts, you now can find links to three other posts that "you might also like".
3. Probably all of our visitors know us personally, but anyway, we have added a small text about us and the blog. Find it on the side column.

Roots of Poznan

The roots of this kind of tree protrude from the ground. I have been told the reason but I don't really remember. Can somebody help? Meanwhile, this reminds me the scenes of mother hen with her chicks walking behind her. Only bigger and less fast.

Spotted in a botanic garden close to Poznan, Poland

Alps

Back in Munich...

If I'm not mistaken, this is part of the Austrian Alps.

Smoke

There's no smoke without fire they say...
Here I present to you the very first example, spotted somewhere between Munich and Athens. It is the smoke left behind by another airplane, along with the almost full moon.

Ok, maybe there was some sort of fire in there :)


Sotiria

The plane of the rising night

Flying from Munich to Athens, that is from west to east. Seeing the sunset from an airplane is fine, but seeing the rise of the night is amazing! This is caused by the altitude of the airplane which increases the horizon of the observer. As always, klick on the image to enlarge it.


by Sotiria hijacking Kostas' account :)

Gorgopotamos bridge

A nice scenery with an interesting history.
On a rare cooperation between the leftish and rightish partisan groups during the German occupation of 1941-1945, this railway bridge over Gorgopotamos (litterally "fast river") was blown up. The operation was organized by British saboteurs and disrupted the main route of supplies of the Nazis between the North and the South of Greece.

Red things

It feels like the spring is just around the corner, starkbierfest even closer and paddling season is coming again!!! :)

By the way, does anyone know how are these red things called? Any language is welcome!

Update by Kostas:
My good friend Kostya from Ukraine sent this answer to the question what those red things are called:

"These red things are very similar to traditional Ukrainian bush - калина (kalyna). Snowball Tree in English I guess. This bush is the national symbol of Ukraine. I believe that kalyna is the most poetized herb in our folklore. In the past kalyna was a mandatory participant of wedding ceremonies. Also kalyna symbolizes a beauty of young lady. Fruits of this bush are widely used in Ukrainian folk medicine since Middle Ages and (as you can see from photo) up to present days."

Beach

This is what I long for...

Now on the side of the old physics building.

Athens avian fauna consists mainly, if not exclusively, of pigeons. They like to perch on buildings like the old physics building of the Kapodestrian university.

Windows Piran

Piran is a town in Slovenia, close to the border with Italy. A nice place to walk around.
If you happen to be in the area, I highly recomend spending some time there.

Faith

First day of the Great Lent tomorrow. Easter is approaching.

Hacker-Bridge

This is the view from Hackerbrücke in Munich, the bridge above the central railway. As I learnt crossing the bridge, it was built for the first time in 1892, it was destroyed during the second world war and rebuilt in 1953. Finally, it was renewed in 1983-84. This means that this bridge has been standing there for a lifetime! (for my lifetime to be exact...)

If you look closely in the background you can make out the two towers of Frauenkirche the central church of Munich and landmark of the city.

And of course, bicycles parked along both sides of the bridge :)

hundredth bottleth

100 cheers for our 100 posts!

Spotted in a classic bar in Plaka, Athens.

Kostas-Sotiria

P.S. Q:What does a hiccups of a Physicist sound like?  A: Higgs!

Lollipop

Lollipop, lollipop, lolli-lolli-lollipop!

Spotted in a school yard in Garching.

The river and the castle

 

Heidelberg. One of the most beautiful towns we have ever visited. And the locals are really kind and helpful.

When you go, visit the castle and find the big barrel. There is a sign "zum grossen fass".

Did you know that the University of Heidelberg used to have a student prison (studentenkarzer), where they condemned students for misbehavior like womanizing, drinking etc? Apparently the locals don't. A taxi driver told us: "Student prison? We have a prison but it's for all the people". After some search a greek student told us where it is. Unfortuanatelly it was closed...

Observing the sunset

Nowadays, the National Observatory of Athens is located on hill outside the city, in Penteli.

The buildings there are not as pretty as the old one but the view is amazing. Quite ironic for an astronomer to watch the sunset while leaving instead of going to work!

Even the new site is inappropriate for observations but nevertheless, the 62.5cm Newall telescope is used for public outreach and educational purposes.
In case you would like to visit during one of the open nights, here is the site :)

Observatory in the centre of Athens

Observatories are built on the outskirts of cities. So, the National Observatory of Athens was built in 1847 on the Nymphs' hill, just below the Acropolis. Which, 160 years later, is deep downtown.

This is another piece of Art by Theophilus Hansen, the man behind some of the most beautiful buildings of modern Greece.

The National Observatory is the oldest research insitute of the Balkans.

water on the rocks

An islander is always attracted by water. This was spotted in the mainland of Greece.

Olive Tree

Gorgeous old olive tree, standing there watching us passing by.

This tree was already old when my grandfather was born, so this makes it more than 150 years old.
(If anyone has a better estimate, let me know!)

This picture is 5 years old, and most likely this tree was burned down during the great fire in Peloponnese a few years ago...

The Spree

If I need to choose my favorite spot in Berlin, well, this is it.

Lion no. 2

Remember the bavarian lion we came across in Nafplion? As you probably already guessed, there are plenty of them in Bavaria.

Here is one located in Odeonsplatz covered with snow, like pretty much everything in Munich today (again!).

Ή στραβός είναι ο γυαλός...

η στραβά αρμενίζουμε...

Greek expression, really difficult to translate.
Our non-greek-speaking friends you will have to stay just with another picturesque summer scene.

Summer

I remember once it was summer...

Sailor dog

This dog does have the looks of a pirate. If only he could stand the sea...
Spotted onboard.

(BTW: This is the first of a series of posts picked out of my film archive)

2/3 of a trilogy

  

Once upon a time, a Bavarian prince became King of Greece, and moved the capital to the decadent village of Athens. Two Danish brothers and architects, Hans-Christian and Theophilus Hansen came and built among others the Athenian Neoclassical Trilogy. In the photo we can see the National Library (left, work of Theophilus) and the main building of the National Kapodestrian University of Athens (right, work of Hans Christian). A bit on the right lies the National Academy to be seen in one of the next posts.

Built at times when money was a serius issue due to the try for the birth of a state, but aesthetics was an issue, too. Since then, greek state has seen better days but few, in my opinion, equally beautiful buildings.

It's a pitty that the building of the University now houses only the administration. I would like to see it used for actual lessons, like it was meant to. Now the students enter it only once for the ceremony of gratuation oath.

Erwin

Has anyone seen Erwin?

Thirst

Recent studies demonstrate the need to drink 10 litres of Coca-Cola(R) daily.

Otherwise you will get stack inside a wall.

Seriously.

Porsche of spades

One of the first Porsche ever made, I guess for a passionate gambler.
Found in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

Chalcis

What are the two physicists of the picture observing?
"Crazy water" of Chalcis. It changes direction of flow every 6 hours.

Science says that this is due to the gravitational attraction of the moon.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any cool legends associated with this phenomenon, other than that Aristotelis killed himself because he could not explain it. Which is sadly not true.

photo:apeleytheros (http://apeleytheros.wordpress.com)

Kamara

One of the beautiful spots in Zaganiari. The Kamara (greek for Arch). I guess it was built to facilitate expansion of the house above without disrupting the pathway.

In the Cyclades, every spring we paint the exterior of our houses with lime (google-translated from ασβέστης, I guess nothing to do with the citrus-like-thing we put in a mojito, any better translation welcome!) making them bright white. And this of course is a great opportunity to decorate the road, too!

In a boat

We also met two little girls in their boat in Munich, Germany.

The Lublinesse

We met a girl sitting on her door in Lublin, Poland.

Henkerhaus

Nuernberg, Bavaria. Some time ago this used to be the Henkerhaus, the residence of the executioner. I wonder if the logo was there so that the public could find easily an executioner when they wanted him.

The building used to be part of the wall of the town and it is attached to a bridge for use by the same guy. It seems that people of the time, although they had no apparent issues with death penalty, they kind of disliked the executioner and wanted him isolated from the the regular people...

Deep Blue Sea

The weather was marvelous today.
I should have been on boat traveling somewhere, say for example Andros?

Please note, the dirt on the upper left corner. It is the smoke from the ship.
Also note the visibility of Earth's curvature.
(Ok, ok, it is my lens' curvature :P)

Brandenburg Gate

How do you feel about wide angle lenses?

Although obviously unsuitable for taking pictures of people, I rather like the effect they have on buildings.
This one was taken with the wide lens of Michele, who kindly lend it to me for my trip in Berlin.

Peeking

Now in Kifissias ave.

The state senior residence.

The path not taken

One of my favourite sayings is this one:

"Look where you want to go or you will go where you are looking"

or translate freely in your own language until it makes more sense :)