Violin Vase

A week in Sydney. Time to get over jetlag (sort of) and photograph the ceramics that came through the kiln just before I left for Germany.

Violin Vase with Music.

Jetlag

If you can't sleep on long haul flights, you watch a movie. Then another one and then another one. Even if the ones you watch are all good (Boy, Sense and Sensibility, Vincent will Meer [Vincent wants to sea (sic)],) it doesn't make up for the jetlag Yeowwww.

Opera in Bremerhaven

Sketches from the opera Peter Grimes in Bremerhaven are online at artsmitten.com.

On a sunny day...

On a sunny day Hamburg is really lovely. The trees on the Alster Lake have just begun to turn colour.

The sun glistens on the waterway in front of the town hall

and cafe patrons have a mellow feel.

Painting Roses

I sit painting roses in momenti italiani in Rissen.

Next day I go back to paint some more.

'Roses speak every language in the world'

said Ralph Waldo Emerson. A bit like music really.

I have been painting roses recently at momenti italiani, a new Cafe in Rissen that makes good coffee (yaaaaay, long overdue in Hamburg.)

Two boats in the Museum Harbour

Pigs,church and coffee

BREMEN: Pigs in the main street  ...

... lead you to a church .... and coffee.

Bremerhaven

Bremerhaven is half an hour by fast train or an hour by S-Bahn from Bremen and the Gasthof an der Karlstadt is in a quiet little side street right in the center of town, about a twenty minute walk from the station .

The Gasthof an der Karlstadt has the steepest set of stairs you ever saw...

which begin right outside (well almost inside) room #2. It wouldn't be much good for sleep walkers.

Around the corner is the river where people walk ...

and sit in the afternoon sun.

Watching a Lock

So what are these people in Bremerhaven watching?

They are watching this gate slowly open ...

to let the boats through.

The lighthouse that stands to one side was built in 1854 in brick north gothic style.

People stream across the bridge when the gates open again.

Art in Bremerhaven

The art gallery in Bremerhaven has a sign on the window saying: 'Art ... nothing else'.

The building is rather small but with an interesting collection. My favorite was Gerhardt Richter's Page Corner from 1967. It might look like a page turning up, but it is flat. A clever drawing.

Sculpture in the main square.

(Dear Sydney City Councillors. Please note that you don't have to fill every available space with flags and kiosks and other street eyesores.)

Bremerhaven boats

Bremerhaven (Bremer-harbour) is a city of waterways and boats.

Boats in the 'museum habour',

boats tied up in the river ...

...boats sailing past.

Oak piles 14m long were used to build the Bremerhaven wharf in 1928. When a new wharf was built in 2004 these oak piles were retained as a historical reminder.