In which the reader is quizzed...

Which side of the wall are this pictures from? Hmmm...

(This is Ernst Thälmann.)

The above is a picture of the memorial to the "Spanienkämpfer," or German volunteers for the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. I actually read a paper over the winter about the important role the Spanienkämpfer played in the mythos of the GDR. This statue is really quite weird. Why is the guy kneeling on a block? What's up with the pose? Why a sword? Is he a contortionist? (etc.)

Altes Museum snapshots

Random pictures from the Altes Museum's Greek collection...

Giant tuna fish...

WWII damage

This stuff may be passé to people who live in Berlin but I still find it pretty fascinating... Above you can see the obviously reconstructed colonnade of the Altes Museum.

Other buildings nearby

This building was designated a "building-memorial" and renovated in such a way as to preserve the damage from the war as well as other historical details, for example the monogram of Wilhelm II (in the lower left-hand corner of the photo).

Berlin: early morning snapshots

Altes Museum

Alte Nationalgalerie

Konzerthaus and French Cathedral at the Gendarmenmarkt

I found a bear pit in Köllnischer Park very much without expecting it...

I'm thinking of posting photos and travel stuff here and writing unrelated general stuff in another blog... we'll see what I pull off.

London

A few weeks ago I spent a couple of days in London (I've been lazy with updating this blog).

I really didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Here are a few snapshots.

Chan d'Arquiña

I went along on my school's end-of-course outing, to a place on the top of a mountain on the Morrazo peninsula called Chan d'Arquiña. In the map below you can see my area of Galicia, which is called Rías Baixas (lower rías or lower bays). We were on the peninsula north of Vigo. Looking north, you could see the Ría de Pontevedra, the next peninsula, and actually all the way to the Ría de Arousa and the next peninsula after that!

The picture above faces north, and you can see all the way to Vilagarcía d'Arousa.

This picture faces west, and displays Moaña from above.

Here's Vigo.

The Puente de Rande, a bridge which I crossed every day.

This is a prehistoric megalithic structure that is the "arquiña" in the name Chan d'Arquiña.

These horses have owners, but are allowed to go free most of the time, so they are semi-wild. We actually saw a few horses that had wooden hobbles attached to their feet to prevent them from going too fast or far away, a practice that is illegal.

Praia Castiñeiras II

This beach is on the north side of the Morrazo peninsula, right next to praia Castiñeiras, where we went the other week. Technically, I think it's actually named San Xián (the name Xián is the equivalent of the Spanish or English "Julian"), but all the beaches are next to each other and barely separated.

Something else I would like to post photos of is San Xoán, the festival of St John, which coincides with the Summer solstice. On St John's Night, everyone goes to the beach and makes bonfires. We went to Samil, in Vigo, and it was really a special experience. There were thousands of people on the beach, and hundreds of fires stretching down for miles. The air was hazy with smoke. The moon was a sliver in the sky which soon disappeared. My friend has some photos; hopefully I can get them and post them here.