Black Forest Castle

Black Forest, 2006

This is a drive-by shot of what I presume is a castle that we spotted one misty morning on our journey between Gengenbach and Strasbourg.  The low resolution given by an early model of a digital camera does not diminish the charm of the image for me. As usual, more details can be seen when it is enlarged.

PS. Thank you to Randi for identifying this as the Ortenberg Castle located in the Kinzig Valley near Offenburg. It was first built in 1167 and destroyed in 1678; then this Neo-Gothic palace was built between 1838 and 1843 among the medieval ruins. Today it is a youth hostel.

Posted for Scenic Sunday. Many beautiful scenes to enjoy there.

Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge is not really what it's called, but I failed to note the name of this colorful bridge I captured in Kaiping, a town in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, so it will have to do.

Kaiping, 2010

Today I am joining the fun at James' Weekend Reflections and Louis' Sunday Bridges. Why not join us?

A postscript: after reading the first dozen comments, I realized that of course all what you see here is a blue bridge. I forgot to mention that the colors change every five seconds - green, red, yellow, blue - so in my mind, it was a rainbow. Silly me.

[SkyWatch] Feather in the Sky

Manila, 2010

Beautiful skies around the world can be found at SkyWatch Friday.

G is for Goat

In the far, far west of Mongolia, in the great province of Hovd I've introduced before, we were driving through godforsaken yet glorious landscape when we came upon this family with their ger (aka yurt) tending their goats.

 

 Hovd, 2007

Besides watching the males sit idly by while the females worked, I found it amusing to see the goats all tied up. Yet after the milking was done, one small tug on the rope released them all and they galloped into the barren rocky field that had not a blade of greenery.

 
These goats are good not only for the nutritious milk they produce - and from which butter and cheese are made - or for the gratifying grub they one day become, but also for the grand cashmere wool shorn from their necks that is knitted into glamorous sweaters and shawls.

And this is posted for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday, where others are joining in the G fun.

P is for Pinnacles

I have not seen the movie Avatar, and hence neither have I seen its scene with Hallelujah Mountain. I've been told it's phenomenal.

But I think I've done one better... I've seen the real thing: Heaven and Earth Pillar.

A few months ago business took me on a plane to Zhangjiajie and our host proposed we take a morning to promenade through part of Wulingyuan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage listed natural heritage site. It was peacefully snowing and it felt a tad nippy for my tropically acclimated blood, so I borrowed a winter parka and off we went. Being low season, the tourist traffic was very light, and that, you must take my word, was to our profit.

The park consists of a ravine of precipitous karst pinnacles that are splintering away from a high limestone plateau. Many of these pinnacles are as tall as 1200 meters / 4000 feet.

Here is some of what I saw; the photos enlarge if you click on them.

Zhangjiajie, 2010

The seventh and tenth photos show the Heaven and Earth Pillar. The poster in the eighth photo shows it with Hallelujah Mountain.

And this is my post for ABC Wednesday, where of course many other pleasant P stories await you.

[MyWorld] Ladies in Red

It was mid-afternoon, right after a leisurely lunch, when we came out of an upscale mall close to downtown Shenzhen and I saw these pretty young women dressed up... as what? flamenco dancers?... also leaving the building. 

 

 Shenzhen, 2010

And that is truly my world in China, always full of surprises; often delightful, sometimes painful, and other times just plain mind boggling. 

I post this for MyWorld Tuesday as well as for Ruby Tuesday. Join us there for the fun!

Moving It in Kathmandu

The City Daily Photo is a community of bloggers around the globe who post daily about their cities. Being an avid traveler, it's an idea I both admire and enjoy. They do an awesome job of describing their cities, both in words and in photos. There are too many for me to follow them all, but there are a good number of sites I visit regularly. 

It thrills me to learn about distant cities like Astoria on the west side of the USA and Ocala on the east, East Gwillimbury in Canada, Livorno in Italy, Oeiras in Portugal, Versailles in France, Sydney in Australia, Saltaire in the UK, Jerusalem Hills in Israel, Tokorozawa in Japan, and of course our Manila right here... just to mention a FEW... Every city blogger has a very unique style and their own creative way to see and present their city. It's truly fabulous. I'm hooked.

On the first of each month, the community follows a theme. Today's theme is transportation. You can see thumbnails of the participating City Daily Photo bloggers here.

Well, I hope no one minds, but I thought I'd play along today. 

I seem to be on a roll of threes. My transportation photos were taken earlier this year in Nepal, where I captured three modes of movement on the same spot.

Katmandu, 2010