FRANKFURT AM MAIN GERMANY – We flew here from Munich yesterday afternoon, making our way back home. There is little in Frankfurt that predates the war – the Alte Oper Haus is one of the few exceptions. The shell survived and the interior has been restored, and in the case of the hall itself modernized. Maria and I had separately had dinner at a restaurant there but were curious to see a performance on this our one free night in Frankfurt. It turns out that the event that we got tickets for was the launch of Latvian Cultural Days, sponsored by the ECB. No kidding. The Latvian National Orchestra was in attendance. Fine musicians doomed to play music of Latvian composers: the music could have been a sound track from a 1950s Disney feature-length cartoon. There were speeches by Mario Draghi (in nuanced English) and the Latvian Prime Minister (in German). We were in the third row. Security was heavy. An altogether odd evening but the acoustics in the hall were excellent. I did find out that Yelp works here – it led us to an excellent Thai dive for dinner.
Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I got up at dawn and walked around for three hours before leaving for the airport. Images of Frankfurt taken with my Leica Monochrom and 50mm Luxochron lens.
Frankfurt Am MainScience fictionPublic ArtHe’s big!
NEW YORK NEW YORK – This is my fourth anniversary. I’ve posted a picture every day since October 16, 2009. I’ve reproduced below my October 16, 2009 picture, a Jean DuBuffet sculpture, that was my first post. This is my 1461th consecutive daily post. (I’ve written a dozen or so posts more than 1461 because on one of our Africa trips I wrote more than one post a day.)
I’m planning on continuing until they bury me. There’s no point to this work other than the blog itself. I get occasional revenue from it as magazines ask for publication rights to images – this just about covers the cost of my hosting service. I have no plans for commercializing it.
For today we’re still at Schloss Elmau with perhaps one of the best pictures of our stay here. It’s a joint portrait of Maria and me.
SCHLOSS ELMAU GERMANY – Today was one of those better days. I switched equipment to shake myself out of yesterday’s doldrums. I gave color a try in the morning shooting with my Leica M and the lovely 24mm Summilux lens. Some of my best color for a while.
Flowers 1Flowers 2Schloss Elmau
SCHLOSS ELMAU – We hiked today, around 12 miles round trip from here to the Ferchensee, where there is an old fashioned Bavarian inn that served us freshly caught trout for lunch. Images from the trail – color with my Leica M and 24mm Summilux lens and black and white with my Leica Monochrom and Luxochron lens.
FerchenseeGerman AutumnMore German Autumn
NEAR GARMISCH GERMANY – We arrived at Schloss Elmau, here in the foothills of the Tyrollean Alps, after an overnight flight from New York to Frankfurt, a rushed transfer to a flight to Munich and a two hour van ride. Lovely site. We arrived in time for sunset, taken with my Leica Monochrom and Luxochron lens. The snow is the aftermath of a freak early storm from two days ago.
Schloss Elmau
