Stripes on stripes

Serendipity! I was in the right place at the right time. This woman in the stripey sweater was crossing the bridge in Volkspark Wilmersdorf just as the sun was making those wonderful stripey shadows from the barrier rails. Hope you have been having a wonderful weekend. It's rainy and gray here, but I'm planning to visit the Kathe Kollwitz Museum later on. Hopefully they will allow photos and I can share my visit with you. Until then, you can see more shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday.  

I see you!

I found this colorful man hanging out in the gardens of Schloss Charlottenburg. I don't know what kind of water fowl he is, but maybe some of my expert readers can help out with his identification? He was really shaking his tail feathers for me, I probably would too if I had such beautiful plumage.

ETA: Thanks to TexWisGirl and Linda for identifying this fellow as a Mandarin duck.

Real Berliner Bear

At one time Berlin had two live mascot bears. Unfortunately, one of them died and now Schnute is all alone. I'm pretty sure once she's gone there won't be another - her enclosure is really small and the upkeep is expensive. But I always like saying hello whenever I'm in that part of town. You can read more about Schnute here (only in German).

PS: The Berliner Bear is not in the zoo. This enclosure is in the middle of the city - another reason why it's not really suited for an animal of this size.

Backyard cuties

Why not keep a couple of llamas in the backyard? I'd love to have some of their wonderful wool to knit into warm hats and mittens!

PS: I am posting photos from my recent trip to Paris on my other photoblog, Halcyon Travels. Please stop by and take a look. You can click here or on the link on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

Bun buns

After the somewhat sad posts from Plötzensee, I hope these cute bunnies will cheer you up!

Express route

There was a short walk from the ticket booth to the place where you boarded the boat for the lift lock tour. For people really in a hurry, there was the Hafenexpress. I think it's a bit of a misnomer, but I'm sure the ride was fun!

February theme day: Entry

I suppose this could be an entrance or an exit depending on how you look at it. In any case, I was exiting the castle courtyard and while the dog was entering it!

It's once again the first of the month and February's theme is "Entry". If you'd like to see more interpretations of the theme from around the world, visit the CDP website.

Snowy bench and camouflage dog

I went out to the Grunewald over the weekend. Parts of the smaller ponds and lakes were frozen over, so there were lots of people out enjoying the bit of sun and blue sky we had. There were also plenty of dogs! But most of them were quite friendly and excited to meet new friends. 

It's finally Friday! Learning German really wears me out, so I am ready for a short break. My weekend looks pretty free right now. What about you, do you have any big plans?