Venezianische Messe in Ludwigsburg

this was my second time to watch this large parade of the Venezianische Messe otherwise, Venetian Masks and Costumes Carnival in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

the first time i saw it was way back in 2004 as a tourist in town!

now that we have moved from America to live here in Germany, i hope to see more of this carnival again which is held every two years. Next will be in September 2010!

the opening ceremony was last Friday, September 5^th and it went for 3 nights until Sunday. We were very fortunate with the weather, it was like a blessing from Above! it rained on Saturday and gloom on Sunday.

the parade kicked off at 6pm that lasted for an hour to the marketplace center but all the mask participants gathered near the train station.

the participants, the spectators and the photographers gathered at 5pm just so ready for us to photograph them. Plenty of time to photograph each one of them.

i take it as a stroke of luck opportunity to get another taste of this famous colorful event with a touch of Venice in the middle of Germany!

i understood from the press released saying there were 700 masked and costumed participants in this event.

as for the crowd, it was packed, everybody turned out and we thought it could be up to few thousands spectators plus both of us to add more crowd :)))

overall, the parade was worth a thousand times to watch, not only it was free of charge (€9 per adult entrance fee to the marketplace) but there were lots of time to photograph them when the evening was still bright light.

you were free to move around and choose who you wanted to photograph and this little girl in red, she was a charm and i cannot resist not to photograph her.

the mask participants were very willing to pose and happy to be photographed which made my day most blessing.

you can find loaded of photographs posted here, best view in slideshow: Venezianische Messe in Ludwigsburg

and you can also see them here, best view in slideshow:
in my favorite black and white with little touch-up colors


NinaOA©

signs of Autumn in Heilbronn

it's Wednesday, September 3rd today and September means Autumn is approaching and our tree knows it :))

i was walking home from town today and i thought to photograph them with my cellphone camera to share with you what i saw along the way

leaves fall everywhere and are found everywhere

more photos when we are into the Autumn season - i truly missed Autumn and here i am going to be with them soon, yay :)))

NinaOA©

my Sunday best

it was one lovely Sunday today, the weather was so kind to us and it was even lovelier to have my Sunday best spending time only with my dear husband after going through all the hustle and bustle transition from America to Germany. today was our first Sunday weekend spent together in Heilbronn. so we thought to make another walk to downtown, have a coffee or ice-cream. all the street we walked by was pretty quiet at noon, i think the local must be spending their family quality time together inside their house

we stopped at Bar Moderna and it is a restaurant also selling assorted ice-cream. i loved my iced-coffee with triple scoops of vanilla ice-cream minus cream toppings but today i opted for Spaghetti Eis (Spaghetti ice-cream)

i think it was purely vanilla ice, they just designed it like spaghetti to make it looked different but the taste of the vanilla was strongly there. another trick to the mind. it's not cheap though!

my colorful spaghetti eis

i like the transparency look through of this empty glass of a menu left on our table - only the cut lemon left in this empty glass of our sparkling water

we then cruised drive outside Heilbronn city centre and saw huge field of vineyard. these are purple grapes and they are not for eating but for producing red wine

up-close and personal look of the red wine grapes

not far from the vineyard, there is a castle tower - perhaps, it was once lived by Rapunzel hahaa...

the huge vineyard discovery amuses me as i always wanted to photograph it in Autumn. so my dearest gentle bloggers, watch out for my autumn vineyard photography - it is only few minutes drive away from our home, i say drive because i hate walking steep uphills :))

NinaOA©

Today in Heilbronn

i took my first bus ride with my husband today. i really needed him to show me how to take a bus as i discovered so many local people don't speak English. it was indeed easy as long as i could afford to pay €2.00 one way! but i will buy a monthly bus ticket because i will be taking a bus to my future school in downtown Heilbronn.

bus stop near our apartment


on a bus

Volkshochschule, the school i will be attending soon to break the language barrier

the rear view of the school, quite pretty ay....

lady in green, there are so many of them and this one is called Barbara

poor thing! this lady in white is placed inside a wine barrel and i have no idea why she is in there for, keine ahnung (it means "no idea")

in town, there were few public entertainments going on - quite interesting to see some shows and hear happy music echos in the air

we had lunch afterward and i was pouring my last cola lite drink with one hand holding the bottle and the other my cellphone to photograph - stunt work or no? LOL.

close up view of my cola and ice, should have added vanilla ice cream and i will have ice-cream floats.. hahaa..

HAH !!!! PETRONAS !!!! who wouldn't be surprised to see PETRONAS in Heilbronn. I would and i was stunned. it is located near our home. When we walked home from town today, we walked pass this PETRONAS building. I wonder if i can work in there again? anyhow, it took us 25 minutes to walk home and yes, 20 minutes on a bus ride because of the many stops and driving around corners. I wonder if i can i re-apply PETRONAS again? Can i? now, which Datuk can i contact.... LOL

that's my share for today :)))

NinaOA©

Eclipse of the Moon in Germany

yoohooo... i'm back!!! i haven't post for quite awhile and even though this is an old story of the Eclipse that ocurred half month ago, i think it is not rusty to share yet, right... but i wanna share it anywhere...

Ludwigsburg, Germany: Sunday 18 August, 2008.

last night when we had a BBQ dinner outside a terrace of a friend’s house in Asperg, she mentioned there will be moon eclipse that will appear around 9:35pm. dang! i didn’t bring my camera with me because we were only BBQ. Neither me nor my husband had followed about the news of the upcoming eclipse.

nevertheless, we left our friend’s house at 11pm and i managed to pick the last hour eclipse, hurray...

i couldn't wait until the earth blocks the sun's light from reaching the moon, hence i only have the waxing crescent moon to share with you. i was standing outside the cold night all alone at 9° Celsius and everyone was already gone into their slumberland. i finished at 11:20pm.