Passo di Stelvio

What a great ride! A few mates and I went on a 2,000 mile round trip from London to Paris to Nice to the French, Italian and Swiss Alps and back to London on our bikes. In between we had amazing views and beautiful landscapes sweetening our days. Passes like Stelvio, Furka, Galibier, all great fun.

Ni Hao

I had the great opportunity to go to China for a week. Just like everyone else visiting the country, I came away being very impressed.

What you see here is a snapshot of Hong Kong, which is a bit "China light", basically. On a Saturday morning you would find all the Ex-Pats having their croissants in french-looking coffee shops. You could be anywhere in Europe or in the US.

But don't be mistaken. There is some great culture to be discovered in HK. I particularly liked the famous Man Mo temple, located on Hollywood Street (sic!). The temple was built in 1847 for the worship of the civil god Man Tai and the martial god Mo Tai. The temple features a huge number of bell-shaped coils of incense in order to attract the attention of the gods. The rumour goes that some hundred years ago, locals came to the temple to solve disputes that could not be solved by British law.

The process of finding an equitable solution involved the legal system of the Qing Dynasty, which stated that both plaintiff and defendant should make a promise in the temple and write it - along with a punishment - on a piece of yellow paper. They then killed a chicken, chopped off its head, let its blood drip onto the paper, and burned the paper. It was believed that because the promise was made before the gods, if the individual broke the promise they would suffer the indicated punishment. Many Chinese preferred this justice system to the British system.

I do presume that the young couple getting married also wanted to seek some attention, but it might have been that of the photographer only...

The night market in Hong Kong featured a stunning variety of small enterprises. I liked this shop in particular. Doesn't get much smaller than that, does it?

This is some spectacular view from Kowloon island over to Hong Kong island.

But given I was in China for the job I also went to see some hospitals. The picture is very touching, I think, telling a story about a man taking care of his wife while she is undergoing dialysis treatment. The face of the old man tells the whole story.

Shanghai was also part of the route, so here is the amazing view from my hotel room on the 94th floor.

And finally, I had a few hours before my flight back to London, so I went to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Everyone has seen everything there is to see, I believe, so I will put up a photo that I hope is also reflective of what you can see everywhere in China.

Snow Patrol

We had a lot of snow last weekend here in London, well, at least for the UK average amount of snow, that is. Went for a walk along the river Thames and the funny thing was that dozens of people, totally unrelated with each other, got involved in a snowball battle, right there in front of Tower Bridge. Great fun.

Headonism

The beautiful Somerset House in London hosted an interesting Vernissage. A colleague of mine has a friend, Philip Levine, who was part of the exhibition himself, and I can highly recommend taking a look at his website www.headism.co.uk for some iconic head designs. Here, he wears a 1,000-Swarovski crystal piece, directly glued to his bald head. Fancy stuff.

But surely, the Somerset House also attracts people more interested in ice skating than art. Amazing panorama.

Paris on Tuesday, or the first breath you take after you give up

Eighthundred streets by feet

Enjoyed a night stroll along the Docklands the other day...the surreal light was pretty amazing, thought I´d share a picture here...

Petrolhead

Top Gear is a UK TV series that attracts literally millions of viewers every Sunday evening. It is all about fast cars, and it is indeed rather entertaining. I was lucky enough to see one of their shows, lots of fun.

One of the main characters on the show is a racing driver called "The Stig", whose identity remains secret. He is always dressed up in a white racing suit, wearing a white helmet. Bets are on who that might be...some famous Formula 1 driver?

But it wasn't all about sheer horse power, some performances were truly impressive as well. Check out the bike riders...

Dorset

Dorset features miles and miles of largely unspoilt coastline. Very wild, very beautiful....

Durdle Door is a three hour drive away from London, but if you bring along a bit of time you will be well rewarded.

Flying dogs

Had the opportunity to spend a week in New York City, and I had a bit of time before my flight back home to London, so I went for a 4 hour walk through Manhattan.

I actually took quite a few pictures, but I didn't really like too many. However, I thought this one was funny, I call it "Flying dogs", as the dogs were so excited to get into a fight they only managed to have one out of the potential eight legs on the ground...

How to attract tourists

Funny how creative small villages by the sea can become in order to promote the two most important sources of income, beaches and parking tickets. Here, a small village displays hints of ingenuity by combining these two: Watch the policemen have palm trees growing on top of their heads! Amazing stuff!

Leeds Castle Kitsch

It was suggested to me that I should go see Leeds Castle. It is indeed really precious. The picture I took here however is pretty much "Kitsch", I thought. And yes, the swan was really there, no Photoshop applied. Anyone for postcards?

Coffee maker

Went to a photography tour in London City with a couple of friends. Amazing how much time you can spend within a square mile if you only pay enough attention to details. Some of the things we saw however were not exactly small. The Lloyds building is apparently famous. We were told it is called a gigantic coffee maker. Couldn't agree more. Sure looks the part.

I thought some of the reflections were really amazing...

...but there was one place which was really magical. Couldn't believe something like that can be found in the heart of London City. Just had to go back again a few days later, it was all quiet...and that was even more touching...and beautiful.

Any colour you like

The beauty of working in the UK is that you can have an off-site meeting with the team at really nice places. No dull hotel with boring food in the middle of nowhere, but a place where the sun shines and the sea invents new colours by the moment. Lovely.

How to spend a day at the beach

How to spend a day at the beach? You could chill out a bit and watch other people enjoying their beach life...

...or maybe watch wheels in the sky...

...or you could watch a bit more interesting stuff being moved by the wind....

...or you could just look out for a nice place to rest...

...or if you are lucky you could find a place with a view where they serve a chilled pint or maybe two...

Sweet Thames Flow Softly

This weekend I went to see the HMS Belfast, a huge WWII warship, which has found its final rest on the River Thames, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge. While there were a lot of things to take pictures of as you would expect, I thought these three boys looking out over the river with their sea cadet hats were funny.

Going to California...

Went on a trip to San Francisco for a week or so. Football was all over the place, and I guess San Francisco 49ers scored quite nicely.

Also found a bit of time to rent a bike and cruise along the coast down south, but I felt the weather wasn't quite as nice as last time round...got soaking wet and stopped after only a few hours.

 

Was strolling along Fisherman's Wharf, and thought the three guys weren't particularly trustworthy. Certainly I felt I would have had a hard time buying a liferaft from these guys. Lucky me, I didn't need one that day... 

San Francisco might have changed a bit over the last two years, I thought. While on the surface everything was still sunny style California, I felt it had become a bit poorer. 

Mere weeks before Christmas

Winter has arrived, dry whispers of cold...

...but now is the time: Cocooning with our warm and cosy blankets, our warming fires. Wiping the frost off the windows, and watching glistening jewels of light in all these Christmas trees...

What I saw this week...

...was people looking for fun at night

...a bit of wishful thinking by men in dark suits...



...and a hairy nose...



Tourists

Had a friend and his 14-year old niece over this weekend. She hadn't been to London so we went to some of the usual suspect tourist attractions. Weather was nice and I particularly liked the light around the Thames river on that sunday

Despite Tate Modern just being a two minute walk from my apartment, passing by the building on my daily commute, I am still amazed by the looks of it, every time.

Also made a short movie when I saw the people gathering in the generator hall of Tate Modern, might post it here some time soon



Portobello Market

Spent a bit of time at Portobello Market last weekend...it's nice for a couple of hours on any given Saturday morning, but don't expect any bargains to be made...

Thought the army of teddy bears was funny.

No, the lady wasn't real...

 ...but if she would have been, I am sure she would have probably lived in one of these nice apartments.

Was nice after all, but I didn't buy anything in the end.