Fotoeins Fotografie

Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB, Jenbach, Tirol, Tyrol, Österreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

Candid urbans

Above/featured: On EuroCity train EC89, Munich to Bologna: scheduled stop in Jenbach, Austria – 9 May 2018 (X70).

A candid photograph of a person is taken informally without the subject’s knowledge. Similar words for “candid” include: improvised, unposed, or spontaneous. The following extemporaneous images are from various stages of residence and travel from around the world.

Berlin, Germany
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eisleben, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany
Konstanz, Germany
México City, México
Mỹ Tho, Vietnam
Prague, Czech Republic
Santiago, Chile
Seattle, USA
Sydney, Australia
Vancouver, Canada
Vienna, Austria
West Vancouver, Canada

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Einöden, Gasthof Hauserwirt, Wörgl, Tyrol, Tirol, Kufstein, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

Small towns in the Austrian countryside

Above/featured: Bovine goodness with Gasthof Hauserwirt in the background, in Einöden at the outskirts of Wörgl – 13 May 2018.

Österreichische Dörfer auf dem Land

Spending a few weeks exploring Austria in spring between peak winter and summer seasons got me to examine a variety of artistic and cultural aspects, including:

• a search for Erwin Schrödinger’s grave,
• a century of Vienna Modernism,
• a day-trip from Vienna to Bratislava with a boat on the Danube, and
• looking for modern Salzburg beyond Mozart and The Sound of Music,

Because I’m all about trains and buses in Europe, there were many towns encountered: some passed by, and others planned and visited. The following examples of small towns in Austria includes a generous portion of mountains from the Austrian Alps.

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Bumble Bee Ranch Adventures, Bumble Bee, ghost town, Sunset Point Rest Stop, Black Canyon City, AZ, USA, fotoeins.com

Small towns in the American Southwest

Above/featured: I-17 Sunset Point Rest Stop, near ghost town of Bumble Bee: Black Canyon City, AZ – 17 Oct 2018 (X70).

A memorable road trip through the American Southwest included over three-thousand miles of driving through Arizona (AZ) and New Mexico (NM). We encountered many small towns: some of them were easy to pass through, while others were “must see”. We wanted to stop in as many as we could, but time and itinerary were as always the usual culprits. Guess we’ll have to return.

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Worms: Holy Sand, Europe’s oldest surviving Jewish cemetery

I’m looking for a “thousand-year history” in the city of Worms located in southwest Germany. This has nothing to do helminthology or nematology, as the town’s name is derived from “Warmaisa”, the former Jewish name of the city. This is about an important part of Jewish-German history and peaceful coexistence of the Judeo-Christian communities within Europe. The town’s fame and reputation is also partly derived from Martin Luther; I’ve already visited the site where Luther was on trial to answer charges of heresy, as well as the world’s largest Reformation monument.

This part of the Rhein river area is considered the “cradle of European Jewry”, known also as “little Jerusalem on the Rhine.” In medieval times, flourishing Jewish communities in the cathedral cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz facilitated the creation of a common Jewish league with the name ShUM (SchUM), spelled out by the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three cities. As emphasis on the influence of Jewish heritage in Europe and the ongoing process of preservation and education, the Holy Sand cemetery is one of four constituents in the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021).

On a breezy late-autumn afternoon, light fades quick, casting solemn shadows on this ground. In the town’s old Jewish cemetery, I’m the only person present, and I’ve placed a small stone on top of a number of gravestones. I’m surrounded by apparitions over an millennium’s age and by the remaining physical traces in various shapes, stones, and size.

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ABQ: world’s largest hot-air balloon festival (2018)

What colourful and interesting sights of light and balloons you might see, whether it’s your first or the umpteenth time at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Every year beginning the first weekend in October, hundreds of thousands of visitors descend upon central New Mexico to see several hundred hot-air balloons ascend into the skies over the Duke City.

To kick off our time in the American Southwest, we drove into Albuquerque for our first time in the city and to attend our first Balloon Fiesta. We purchased in advance tickets to day 1’s morning session with park-and-ride, day 2’s evening session with park-and-ride, and day 3’s morning session without park-and-ride.

For opening day, clear skies and crisp conditions waited for us as we struggled mightily out of bed, but headed out into the dark of the early morning with great anticipation. Even with massive crowds and some traffic chaos, the long wait was worth the sight of seeing the balloons as oval dots on the horizon and as shapely giants up close.

I have to mention the breakfast chile relleno burritos which everybody recommended we seek and try on the festival grounds. How about a version consisting of a New Mexico green chile stuffed with cheese and batter fried, enveloped in a scrambled egg and cheese mixture, all wrapped in a soft corn tortilla and lightly grilled to provide a little bit of outside crunch and crisp? That’s a big resounding yes to breakfast burritos and big balloons.

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