Theatre

I can't believe I'm blogging for several months now without taking a picture of our national theatre - shame on me. =)
This huge building was built in 1937/38, there are 875 seats inside. They have several shows of opera, operettas, musicals, plays and ballets.

Some words about the not so perfect history of the place: The theatre was officially given to the Saarland by the Nazis as a thank you for the result of the poll in 1935, when the inhabitants of the Saarland decided to be part of the German Reich again.

Magic Sky

This big cloud covered the sun today, making the light beams look magic.
I already told you that I'm a big fan of clouds and this moment proves again that looking up can be sooo worth it! =)
Here's a link for sky admirers like me, that Katherine F.G. pointed out in my comments once: The Cloud Appreciation Society - a whole site dedicaded to clouds and skies. Thanks again!

---

My grandma turns 72 today, happy birthday!!! (We usually guess cloud shapes together and I know she'll love this picture.) Alles Liebe Omi!!!

Clearance Sale

It's always a bad thing when your favourite shops are closing... but it has a bright side, sales returns and allowances!
Well, this is (was) one of my favourite shops downtown, called Asiatica which had its last open day today. They sold furniture, clothes and accessories from Asian countries, mainly Japan and China. During the last week, the prices got reductions up to 50 percent, which came in handy, since Asiatica was usually a look-only shop for me... (just too expensive for a student, I guess)

---

PS: Happy centenary to me! It's my 100th post today... Wohoo!

Candy Shop

One thing that really makes you feel like a child again is standing in a candy shop with bright colours and any sweets you can think of. Your eyes get bigger and you start counting your change (the problem is, once you're older, you start counting calories as well) to buy those goodies (all of them, if you just could =).
What a colourful and sweet indulgence!

Bee

It was a beautiful day again, and I saw lots of bees and bumblebees collecting pollen from flowers. This picture turned out quite nicely, so here it is... =)

River Boat

Whoah, it's still hot and sunny here, so I thought I'll show you a bit of water to cool down today.
This is the river Saar that floats right through my town. The river boat in front is called "Vaterland" (fatherland or home country). It serves as a restaurant boat and has a big neon sign on its side, giving the official name of the location: "Schwimmschiff" (swim ship) - a kind of funny but weird name for me, because I expect a ship to swim. =)

Construction Site

There are many construction sites in Saarbrücken at the moment, old buildings are being renewed, the train station is being partly rebuilt, the motorway will be put in a tunnel etc.
So this is a building close to Karstadt, called "Diskontohochhaus". I liked the site there best.

Anti-War Protest

Today there was an official Lebanese Anti-war protest held on Bahnhofstrasse.
It was a very calm and peaceful march against the killing (especially of children), emphasising the meaninglessness of the war of Israel vs. Lebanon. Mainly Lebanese people took part, they were supported by some Germans.
Let's hope the war will stop soon!!!

Reading

I was lazy reading all day at home, so I decided to show you a picture of our city library (Stadtbibliothek).
It's a nice, big and modern libraray that fulfills all reader's wishes. You can even check out their books online. You just need to go there and pick your online orders up. Nice service!

Serious Fire

This morning, a storage hall in Weyerbachtal close to Burbach burned down.
Rubber was stored there, which created a humongous cloud of smoke. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
The fire fighters advised the residents to keep their windows shut because of the dangerous smoke.
The picture was the view from the motorway, when I was on my way home.

Hmm, not a nice thing to be welcomed with. I'm back from Munich, so I'm blogging "live" again.

Fancier Bar

Since Radian had some "complains" about the last bar picture, here's a new one especially for him... no toasted oranges this time, mister! =)

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Zen

Oooooommmmmmm... no words, just relax!

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Fancy Bar

This is one of the bar areas in Domicil Leidinger, one of our 4 star-hotels in Saarbrücken.
I'm not paid and wasn't asked for advertising, but if you should ever come to our town, make sure to sty in one of the Asian theme rooms in their 4 star area. They're not too expensive (about 90 Euros), and have such a nice ambiance and great flair.

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Empty Checkpoint

These are empty checkpoints close to the stadium. At those cash desks you'd usually buy your football or concert tickets.
I liked the reflections of the sunlight on the emty houses and the clash between silver and brickstone...

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Stadium

Very close to my flat the Ludwigspark Stadium is located.
It's a rather small stadium compared to what you've seen of Germany's stadiums durin the World Cup. It only holds about 35,000 people and is mostly used for smaller football matches and concerts. The stadium was built in 1953, and had no mayor restaurations since then if you ask me.
On Sundays I can usually hear the songs and calls from the fans on my balcony.

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Pheasant

The last animal that I'll show you in my little picture series is this beautiful pheasant that was a real camera model, posing for me and my boyfriend for several minutes. It came really close and then turned its head from side to side, allowing us to take nice close-ups. I hope its model agency will be happy with me publishing this picture. =)

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Wild Boars

I think boars are fantastic animals... they're some of the cutest (and most dangerous) pigs of all. I once met some in a wood close to my home here, accompanied by her 5 children. I can tell you, I was scared like hell, because they're said not to attack humans as long as the boars wouldn't have shoats. I stood still and didn't breath, so I was fine, even though I wasn't really sure about the meeting-a-boar-rules. =)
Anyway, here they are in the wildlife park in Meerwiesertalweg.

PS: I tried to find a sound file of their noises, but couldn't find one. Do you know where to get one?

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

Kikerikiii

I had this argument with my boyfriend lately, and yes, I assure you, German cockerels do "Kikerikiiii", not "Cock-a-doodle-doo" like they obviously do in Britain. =)
We've been to the small wildlife park in Saarbrücken, where you can see goats, deer, boars, donkeys, bunnies etc.
In the next days, I'll show you some more animals from there, so look forward to that!

---

I'm in Munich at the moment, and will update my Saarbrücken Photos from there. I hope you'll like the pics that I've prepared for you.

The Roofs of Saarbrücken

This view is taken from a window in Hotel Leidinger, I love all of the different roofs we have here.
You can see some of the modern roofs in the background, like the one from the Karstadt-building. Then you can see Basilika St. Johann again as well as roofs from the Old Town, wonderful picturesque facades and colourful roofs.
I like changing the perspective of things, and visiting the hotel was the perfect opportunity to get a cool bird view.

Nice Day - Nice Road

That's a view down Mainzer Strasse, especially this part at the beginning of the road is incredibly nice. There's the best hotel around, Hotel Leidinger, a small cinema showing alternative movies, lots of restaurants and bars... They also made the road calmer now by not letting buses pass this part of it.
It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine, which gave this street an even nicer flair.

[Graffiti] Money Money Money

The Citybank Saarbrücken in Kaiserstrasse was cool enough to have some young people beautify their building (side only, not the front that points to the street) in bright colours. They sprayed all sorts of slang words for money on the walls... Zaster, Mäuse und Moneten.

King of Bavaria

No no, I'm not posting of the actual King of Bavaria (who actually doesn't exist), I just think it's hilarious thatwe have a beer garden called "König von Bayern" in the middle of our town centre.
I've never been inside, but it looks really nice, just that huge advert is distracting and doesn't really fit the Saarland mentality...

Bravo Italia!

We just came back from downtown, where we watched the football finals at Congresshalle.
Yesterday, I was convinced that France should win, but after seeing the foul of Zidane in the 110th minute, I really thought the Italians deserved to win. Well, the got all the goals in the penalty, and won!
Congratulazioni again to all you Italians out there (the Saarland has the highest rate of Italians of all the German federal states, and they all seem to be on the streets partying!), we'll see you in the next World Cup! =)

PS: And thanks to all my blog readers who finally get to see non-football-related pics again!

---

Special greetings to the Italian members of the DailyPhoto-Family: Pasquale from Milan, Frederik from Milano, Luisa from Turin, Pierre from Venice, and Liz from Bologna!

3rd for 2

My boyfriend arrived today (he'll stay here for over a week!!! =), so we decided to stay at home and watch the match together.
Pretty nice play, and Germany's official third now... thanks to Schweiniiiii!
We can hear fireworks and and car horns outside, so there seems to be lots of partying going on there.
I think we'll head to France tomorrow to watch the finals, I'm sure they'll go nuts over the border =). Bonne chance!!!

---

Update: Vird called us some minutes after the game was finished to give us a ride to take us on a Car Corso around the city centre. You can see some pictures on my picture blog.

Walk in the Park

Before I came home today, I had a nice walk in Ludwigspark (do you remember this post?) after work.
They're still reconstruction a part of the park, but there are some zones that remained untouched until now.
The park has several levels, and to get from one to another, you can find very old stairs in many places. This staircase had serveral parts, and lead to a round metal plate on the floor showing the layout of the park. (I wanted to take a picture of it, but it's old and dirty, so you'd hardly see anything)
Anyway, I liked the way the plate was shining in the sun, like a treasure in the woods... =)

Sex Shop

Today I'll show you one of the sex shops that you come across quite often in Saarbrücken.
In my hometown, I remember the sex shops were placed in a kind-of sex district, where you could find many of them in one place.
In Saarbrücken it's different, the shops are distributed all over the town between ordinary shops.
Beate Uhse is probably Germany's most famous one, plus they had the nicest decoration, still in a football layout. There's a brilliant poster advertising vibrators with two sexy football girls saying: "Our boys only start cheering when he's all the way in!" (I'm serious, the poster says that!), proving that even studs can be erotic.
PS: The football accessories are on sale now on their shopping website! (Girls, that might be your chance to drag the guys off the TV at the weekend. =)

Paris in 2 hours

Finally! The civil works on the Eurobahnhof (Euro train station) will be started this Friday.
This extension of our normal train station will give Saarbrücken new tracks for the high speed trains ICE (German) and TGV (French). In December 2007, there are supposed to be five connections per day taking us to Frankfurt and to Paris. The papers said that the TGV to Paris will only take 1 hour 50 min, which is much better then the 4 hours train ride including 1 change is just now.
The whole project will cost the DB (German train services) about 31 million Euros.
I can't wait for them to finish... Eric, here I come (every weekend then! =)

Goodbye Finals

Well well, that was it for us. Germany lost the football match against Italy! Congratulazioni!!!
This is probably the last impression of German flags here, swung goodbye by some sad fans walking home.

For me, it's ALLEZ LES BLEUES now, and I agree with the wise words of my friend Samir: "We don't have to go to Berlin! We OWN it!". =)
Thanks anyway to all of you for keeping your fingers crossed for us during the last weeks...

Sushi

Phew, I just came back from a great Sushi all-you-can-eat in the restaurant Grand Asia Saarlouis with some of my friends.
For 17,50 Euros you can chosse from about 40 different kinds of Sushi, salads and soup. It's a great offer, and the best thing is that your food runs along a long circular conveyor belt, something really unusual in Germany (my Japanese friends told me that you usually have those conveyor belts in cheap Sushi places in Japan, but here it's a great attraction). The only downside is that at first it's always nice to see the food running towards you, in the end you want to run away from it, because more and more plates are being put on the conveyor belt...
PS: I'm soooo full! =)

This is the first picture that was not taken in Saarbrücken, but in one of our neighbouring cities, Saarlouis. I decided to include this picture nevertheless, because Saarbrücken also has a Grand Asia restaurant, serving Mongolian, Chinese and Japanese food, but the one in Saarlouis is much more special (even if they only serve Japanese food). So if you come here, make sure to visit the Saarlouis one, it has the only conveyor belt in the whole Saarland!

Flower Bike

Today I helped a friend moving into a new flat. She used to live in Schafbrücke, one of the greenest parts of Saarbrücken that you could live in.
As you can see, from there you have a beautiful view over the green hills of the Saarland.
The occupants put this cool flower bike there, it's an old bicycle that was painted silver and on which they put the brightest purple and yellow flowers. They put it on the bins which not just gives them a nicer look but also a much better smell... =)

Theme Day: Supermarket

Today's theme day is a picture of a local supermarket.
I chose Edeka, a medium-sized market at Saarbrücken-Rodenhof, close to where I live.
What you see here, is about a quarter of the whole supermarket, a view from the frozen food down to the crisps isle... =)

Please visit other supermarkets around the world by clicking those links:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26