Travelog for: Bob Beeker

It's the first of December, so today we start one of my favourite Christmas traditions: the Advent calendar. Everybody has their own, so we get to see two new pictures everyday.

This is my mentor's calendar. She got it from her mom. It shows some palazzos along the Canal Grande of Venezia:
Palazzo Dario (gothic with polychrome marble decorations, built in 1479),
Palazzo Pisani (17th century),
Ca' d'Oro ("Golden House" of 1440, originally it had a gilded front) and the
Palazzo Contarini (from the second half of the 15th century).
You can see me, Curio and Lady Sirina.

We opened the first door today and saw... Basilica di San Marco as seen from the Piazza San Marco.


The second calendar is one with little angels where one can put a tea-light inside and the light will shine through the pictures.


In the first window there's a snowflake. (In reality one can see the snowflake better and the still closed pictures not as well, as in the photo.)

Another day, another picture:

The Venetian winged lion from the gable of the Basilica di San Marco.


A cloud in this one

Let's see what we got today:
a Murano glass vial

and a cookie.

Outside it rains and is windy so that the umbrellas don't help much. I am glad to be inside with a cup of hot tea called Ruhrgebiet's Traum, it's a blend of black tea and fruits with some herbs. It's warming me up nicely.

Today's calendar pictures are:
St. Mark's lion on the column

and a shooting star!

Nikolaus Day is here! Children get big bags of chocolate and cookies and small presents. If they put their boots or spcial dishes in front of their doors they will have found thise things in them in the morning. Grandma tells us that when she was young, she got oranges and nuts as is now traditional, but mostly replaced by more modern things. However back then it was a real luxury because import was more expensive and less common.

Today I discovered the statue of Colleoni, a famous Condottiere (leader of mercenaries) in 15th century Italy.

a present!

A carnival mask is a nice souvenir present if one likes such things.

Campanile


fire, how fitting considering the big candle we placed inside instead of a tea light seems likely to alighten the card board of the calendar, better change it

Rialtobrücke

Why is the angel hiding there?

Today I visited the designer outlet center at Zweibrücken. Among many others they have a Body Shop store there and I got birthday presents for a friends who'll be ** this week. (Psst, don't tell anybody the age! )

Here I am on the Christmas market in Essen. They have a bit of a fair in one part of the city center. You can see thge Ferris wheel from far away.


There’s the old synagogue. The windows were broken by the firefighters during the ‘Reichskristallnacht’. It was restored as a museum and place of remembrance and is now being restructured as a meeting place.


Part of the Christmas market has a middle ages theme. There are old-fashioned clothes, food, jewelry, etc.


Big stars of light are hung up along some streets,


The main Christmas market is covered by a curtain of lights, it look a bit like there are lots of little stars in the sky.

We are in Düsseldorf right now, ready for take-off to New York!







On the plane, flying over the Atlantic ocean.

There’s a cool screen in the taxi.

My bed:

On the way to the outlet mall in New Jersey, we took the bus from the Port Authority bus terminal.

Union Square has something of a Christmas market.

One has a great view over it from Filene’s Basement, a store selling designer clothes at cheaper prices.



In the sub way:

On 42nd Street near Times Square:

Some people seem to have rented stretch limos to take them around.

Times Square



The ToysRUs store here is very big.


It has all kinds of fun stuff inside, like a special Ferris wheel, a moving T-Rex, or lego models of famous movie scenes.





Charmin has a restroom with entertainment value here.





In m&m world one can buy anything m&m style.