chasing the moon

Yesterday evening I was out for chasing the supermoon. A clear sky and a moonrise shortly before sunset proposed a good view. Thus, I went uphill to the south and keep the big city in my back.

I arrived about half an hour before sunset to look for a good spot and used the opportunity to get some sunset images. The opposite side, where the moon rises, was not in that good shape 😦

A thin layer of clouds and dust-covered the moon constantly. The snap in the gallery is the best possible shot 😦 You can recognize a slight light corona around the moon. That’s the reflection and distortion of the moonlight ins this cloudy layer.

But, the sunset images are the compensation. The clouds were a perfect canvas for the setting sun to paint wonderful colors in the sky.

Enjoy!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: from every angle

Here we are again, at the weekly photo challenge organized by “The Daily Post”

Take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Skógafoss

Did you miss the waterfalls in the last weeks here in my Iceland series? They are back 🙂

One short stop at Skógafoss. The water falls about 60m and is about 25 broad. It is quite easy to reach, because it is located right beside the Route 1, the Ring-Street. Which is surrounding the whole island. Thus, this one is easily to watch even by disabled people. The downside is, many people are here.

A quite big parking ground, a camping site and a hotel are completing the scene right hand from the waterfall and in the back of me, while photographing the above scene. You even could step up stairs to two or three platforms on the right side of the fall up to the top of the hill. Because of the weather conditions I passed on that and stayed on the water level.

Take care!

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Monochrome Madness 2-25

(btw. click in the image, to see it a little bigger)

There was a song in the late 1970s inviting you to “a walk in the park” by The Nick Straker Band. This is always a good idea to get your minds sorted and to think about something very carefully. A park is also a good location for a photo walk.

Despite the song mentioned going to a park, I was in a forest when I took the photo I’ve chosen for this week’s Monochrome Madness organized by the Australian photographer Leanne Cole. Go over an check her site for more incredible monochrome photos taken in Victoria.

Take care!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today Was a Good Day

What an interesting topic for this week’s photo challenge!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

volcanic structures

In many places you can see structures of stone. Many, if not all, of them were created by volcanic activity. Especially basalt is easy to recognize because of its characteristic shape: (usually) hexagonal pillars.

You can find similar remains in several parts of the earth. These pillars occur, because of the certain environmental conditions while cooling down of the lava.

At the southern coast of Iceland near Vik (and probably in other parts of our planet, too) you can find huge caverns, where you can even see these pillars from below. These pillars have a side-lenght of approximately 30 – 40 cm. So, you can easily use the lower ones as a seat.

Take care!

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Monochrome Madness 2-24

(btw. click in the image, to see it a little bigger)

Back to France for this week’s Monochrome Madness hold by Leanne Cole.

You know, I came back from my vacation in Étretat, Normandy, the week before last. I really love the iconic cliffs here. They were cut out of the clay rocks by rain, frost, wind and the ocean waves.

This image was taken at a beautiful warm afternoon with only very mild wind. So, I got these nice reflections in the tide pond. It’s not a real pond. There are many rocks in the water. They are keeping the waves away from the pond. Unfortunately, when the water is away, the bigger pieces of rock rise out of the water and disturb the reflections, while the waves disturb the reflections while the water level is higher. (and: you won’t reach this place while high tide).

In Normany you have very big differences between low tide and high tide. In Étretat the difference is about 6 m, further south (around Mont Saint Michel) it’s even about 9 m. That’s the dark band at the bottom of the bright rocks.

Take care!

Weekly Photo Challenge: creepy

This is my contribution to the weekly photo challenge at The Daily Post.

This is a plume moth (Pterophoridae), I found a few years ago in our garden. It’s about 3-4 cm. I’ve never seen such a moth before.

Take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

around Dyrhólaey

the black beach and the westmen islands at the horizon

A few month ago, I have read about the 10 most impressive beaches one has to visit during lifetime. One of them was the black beach next to the Dyrhólaey peninsula, near Vik. This peninsula is 120m high and of volcanic origin.  Behind the cap of the peninsula, the rock has a big hole, giving the name of the peninsula: the hill-island with the door-hole.

From up there you have a fantastic view. Following the sun you can see the black lava columns of the Reynisdrangar come out of the sea in the east, in the south you can see the endless ocean, in south-west you can see the westmen islands (Vestmannaeyjar), to the west your eye can follow the coastline along the black beach of lava stones and to the north you can see the big glacier Mýrdalsjökul.

I’m so glad we have had such an experienced driver for our small bus. The narrow street up to the plateau was really an adventure.

Take care!

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Monochrome Madness 2-23

Btw. as always: click on the photo to see it in a higher resolution

For a calm summer day I was at the river Wupper a few weeks ago. Enjoy the silence and the slowly running river. This is my contribution for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness.
Take care!

Btw. as always: click on the photo to see it in a higher resolution

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beneath Your Feet

This is my contribution to the weekly photo challenge at The Daily Post.

(btw: as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Happy holidays and take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

Katla Geopark

Today, I take you to Fjaðrárgljúfur. This creek was digged by the river Fjaðrá and it will give you an idea how mighty water is.

The walls of this canyon are up to 100m tall and the valley is about 2 km long. Although, it is part of a nature conservation area, you’re allowed to hike through the valley. But, be prepared to either walk back the same path or climb up a narrow path at a certain place inside the valley to come back. You often have to cross the river on the trail. So, bring shoes for walking through the water.

I didn’t take the hike through the valley myself. I only looked inside the valley from the cliffs. In one of the photos you can see a few people hiking along the river. Can you find them? Do you see them? How tiny they are? I highly recommend to plan your trips very carefully and don’t take any risky tasks. Iceland is a rough country. The fantastic landscape won’t forgive any carelessness on your trips, as you might have already seen in my previous posts.

In another photo you can see a small bridge in the background. Here they have a parking ground. Even big enough to bear a few busses. You can also find here a public restroom.

More photos are in the slideshow below.

Take care!

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Monochrome Madness 2-22

For this Monochrome Madness I went to a park in the triangle of three towns in our neighborhood: Wuppertal, Remscheid and Solingen. Leanne Cole asked us for bridges for this challenge. The park is called “Brückenpark” (bridge park). I wasn’t in that park for a few years, because it is quite small. It’s located in the valley of the river Wupper. I showed some photos taken there in a past post. And proposed to discover a not so hidden secret 🙂

This is the proposed secret: a huge iron railroad bridge crossing the valley 107 meters above the river. The bridge was built more than 100 years ago by using the same technique, that was used for the Eiffeltower in Paris and the Wuppertal Schwebebahn.

The next few paragraphs are an excerpt from the english Wikipedia:

The bridge was a masterpiece of Victorian-era engineering. For its time, it was a highly sophisticated structure. It astonished the local population, many of whom had had little exposure to such state-of-the-art engineering work.

First drafts for a bridge connecting the two cities of Remscheid and Solingen go back as far as 1889. Preparatory work began in 1893, the bridge was finished in 1897.

The six support columns have a maximum height of 69 meters (230 ft). In the middle of the structure, the main arc has a span of 170 meters (560 ft). The overall length of the structure is 465 meters (1,530 ft).

A total of 5,000 tons of steel were used in its construction. 950,000 rivets hold the structure together. During construction, a number of advanced building techniques were used.

Anton von Rieppel (1852 – 31 January 1926), an architect and engineer, was in charge of the project. A memorial plaque at the foot of the bridge reminds one of his efforts.

Originally, the bridge was planned to be single-track. However, high future traffic growth projections led to the redesign as a dual-track bridge. Before its opening, the rail distance between the cities of Remscheid and Solingen was 42 kilometers (26 mi). With a direct connection via the bridge, this distance shrank to 8 kilometers (5.0 mi).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Müngsten_Bridge

The german Wikipedia has much more details, than the english one.

Since November 2010, the bridge was closed for reconstruction and restoration works. I already was in that park in May 2010, thus I included two old photos. The one with the red S-Bahn (S = schnell = quick/fast, Bahn = train – one of our public short distance people transportation vehicles). The other one shows the complete bridge, but with way lower trees. This time I was in the same place to get a view to the bridge.

For commuters the closed bridge is a huge disaster. To come from one side of the bridge to the other side, they have had to leave the train and use a shuttle bus to the next railway station on the other side. I was told, that has had cost them more than an hour, because the bus has had to go down in narrow serpentines, drive to the closest street bridge and then climb up through narrow serpentines.

The bridge was reopened in December 2014 but closed again in January because of a landslide as a result of heavy rains. I don’t know for sure, if the bridge is already open again. Nevertheless, there are still restoration works ongoing.

Take care!

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I’m back …

from the sea. 🙂 Where from else? 🙂

I did it again! What? I re-visited Étretat, Normandy, France. In April 2012 I was here with some friends. We visited many parts of the Normandy. You can find more about that trip here in my blog.

Étretat is a small town, not far away from Le Havre. It has only 1440 citizens. Étretat is best known for its impressive cliffs, including three natural arches and the rock needle. The cliffs consist of chalk and flint-stones. Two of the three famous arches are seen from the town, the Porte d’Aval (left of the beach, with the needle), and the Porte d’Amont (right from the beach). The Manneporte (left of Porte d’Aval) is the third and the biggest one. But, it can’t be seen from the town (but in my photos). The coast is called Alabaster Coast, because of its color. The beaches consist of round  pebbles, mostly flint-stones. The flint-stones are embedded in the chalk and fall into the ocean, when rain and storm dissolve the chalk. The constant movement in the ocean than grinds the stones to pebbles. Chalk is a quite soft kind of rock and very sensitive for water. Thus, chalk coasts have to be preserved from needless stress. Other famous chalk coast in Europe among others are in South-England around Dover and the German island Rügen in the Baltic Sea.  The chalk was generated during the Cretaceous period at the bottom of a lake. The origin of the embedded flint-stones is not completely clarified and resolved.

This time, we’ve had a vacation-house in the old town of Étretat, instead of outside on top of the cliffs. A well renovated old fisherman’s house about 100m from the ocean, and less half the way as the bird flies. When we arrived, we were greeted by a wonderful warm, sunny day. Unfortunately the next days were overcasted and sometimes rainy. But, we were outside despite the weather. In 2012 I was quite disappointed about the waves. I expected to see big waves, because we’re here at the Atlantic ocean. But, the waves were smaller than those at the North-Sea or even the Baltic Sea. This time we were able to see impressive waves, dramatic sunsets and of course the really awesome cliffs at both sides of the beach.

Because of the location of our vacation home, inside the old-town of Étretat, we didn’t need our car very often. Instead, we only used it once for a trip to Giverny. That’s the home and garden from the french impressionistic painter Claude Monet (1840 – 1926). All the other time we left the car in the parking ground. When we were visiting Giverny, the weather changed and we got sunny days again for the rest of our stay. Although the town and the beach are so small and you could assume to have seen everything in only a few hours. There is much more to discover and enjoy.

Although, this was more a family vacation than a photo trip, I certainly took my camera with me. I love to see the different light situations during the day or from day-to-day. Also, the tide changes the ambience. And, so you can get many different photos although you stayed in only one place. Every evening I developed a few photos. Thus, you can have a small overview right now in the gallery below.

Take care!

(I don’t know, why the slideshow needs such a long time to load – sorry for that)

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