Thanks to modern, ultrabright LED lighting, the nightscapes of mega-cities like Saigon just keep getting better and better, as this snap shows:
Seagull at Bodega Bay
Probably only a single thought on his mind: does that fellow with the camera have something I can eat?
The amazing Moors of Yorkshire
The Moors of Yorkshire are just an amazing, amazing place:
The amazing automatic popcorn machines of Switzerland and Germany
We’re under attack! It seems these machines are now literally all over Southern Germany and Northern Switzerland! By which I mean, to date, I’ve seen two of them: one in Friedrichshafen (Germany) and one in Winterthur (Switzerland) – the latter at my local grocery store, no less.
They work like this. You deposit either a 2 EUR coin (if you are in Germany) or a two 2 CHF coins (if you are in Switzerland),
and in just 2 minutes you’ll have a little paper container of freshly popped popcorn (sweet or salty, your choice).
How does it taste? I found the kernels to be better that what you’d get at home with microwave popcorn, but not quite as good as the popcorn they serve at movies. And there was a faint taste of oil – but a type of oil I’m not used to tasting. It wasn’t bad, just different.
The amazing, incredible night markets of Saigon
Many Asian mega cities have truly amazing night markets, and Saigon is no exception:
Seagull
A seagull at California’s majestic Bodega Bay sits at the water’s edge and considers his options:
Those Saigon cables
Continuing the series, here are more cables in Saigon,
The sea cliffs above California’s Bodega Bay
Just an amazing, amazing place
Thun Swan
A swan stretching its wings on a very chilly morning on Lake Thun, deep in the Berner Oberland
Appenzell Cow
Even in the very rural Swiss country of Appenzell, try as you might, you just can’t take a bad photograph of a good cow:
Einstein Museum in Bern
For a brief while I lived just a few hundred meters from here,
Nobody really knows how Switzerland’s capital city Bern got its name, but the favorite story that the locals tell goes like this: a long time ago the King was looking for a good name for the city, so he sent a team of hunters into the surrounding woods, promising to name the city after the first animal that a hunter could kill and bring back. That animal happened to be a bear, so ever since then the city has been named Bern – or, as it is known in the local Alemannic language (a more evolved form of German), Bäärn.
Where the Aare meets Bern
Beautiful snap of the mighty Aare River, transporting huge volumes of melting snow from the Swiss Alps towards the North Sea, as it enters the medieval city of Bern,
The Presidency Building in Sofia
This is it, the Presidency Building in Sofia
These are not ceremonial guards – they are members of the Bulgarian special forces. As you can see in the lower right, someone is taking their photograph. Approach any nearer and the next stop on your itinerary is likely to be one of the hospitals in downtown Sofia.
The Mighty Niesen Supervolcano in Winter
This is a scene of the mighty Niesen supervolcano, lying dormant in Winter. This was the view from my apartment when I lived in the Swiss hamlet of Oberhofen am Thunersee.
There are only around 20 known super-volcanoes in the world. Most scientists concur that the next eruption of this supervolcano will extinguish all life in Europe.
1300th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Bulgarian State
Some of the most impressive things about Bulgaria are not Bulgarian at all, but rather the vast number of Soviet-area statues and monuments all over the cities and countryside.
Below is one of them, that features prominently at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia:
Thun Flowers
Continuing the series, here are some flowers at the Saturday morning street market in Thun,
The amazing roundabouts in Barcelona
If you’ve ever spent time driving around Europe, you’ll notice a few trends that depend on geographic location. One of those trends is that, the farther south you drive towards Spain, the more lanes the roundabouts will have.
Roundabouts in Northern Germany is likely to have no more than a single lane.
Roundabouts in Northern and Central France are likely to have two lanes.
Roundabouts in South France are likely to have three lanes.
But once you cross into Spain all bets are off, and as this snap shows, the roundabouts can have many, many lanes:
Driving to Andorra
Andorra is one of the smallest countries in Europe, nestled high in the mountains between France and Spain.
And when you drive here, this is the first sight you’ll see of the main city:
Bus driver snooze
I caught this bus driver taking a mid-day snooze in the luggage compartment of his bus in downtown Saigon:
It’s obviously not the first time he’s done this, as you’ll see his approach to his hammock is well-tested:
Getting ready to mime in Avignon
A street mime puts on her makeup on a secluded street in the medieval papal city of Avignon,
The amazing swarms of Hondas in Saigon
Automobiles are few and far between in the capital city of Vietnam, Saigon – the streets are ruled by scooters, known to the locals (despite their manufacturer) as Hondas:
How do you cross a busy street like this? It’s easier than you might think: you just close your eyes and start to walk slowly. The drivers are so careful and aware of what’s in front of them, that they will easily move to avoid you.
Fruits, nuts, and birds in Barcelona
If you’ve been to the major pedestrian area in Barcelona known as Las Ramblas, then you know how it is.
Barcelona fruits:
Barcelona nuts:
And Barcelona birds:
Colorful Saigon
The Saigon skyline, along the Saigon River no less, at night:
The development of ultrabright light emitting diodes has transformed how cities look at night.
Saigon Roots
Continuing the series, when concrete meets roots in Saigon,
All roads lead to Quillan
