Since some days the temperatures are slowly rising, the snow mixes with rain and the ice on the lakes and ponds changes sound and color: the sound gets powerless, foul and the color undecided, the reflectivitiy is lost. Definitely signs for the end of the winter, even if the snowdrops are still invisible in most of the places. Thumsee again is a place for recreation, to re-gain power, to recharge and find peace.
Located in a “Durchhaus”, probably best translated as a combination of passageway and courtyard, is the Cafe Schatz in Salzburg. From all the Cafes – and as a coffeine addicted I do know many – this seems to be one of the eldest and most traditional ones in Salzburg. The coffee is great, so is the pastry, and the whole institution including the waitresses has an aura that seems unchanged from maybe 40 years past.
This is even more stunning as many of the streets in Salzburg now are governed by the great international brands, leaving less and less space for local flair. So the “Cafe Schatz”, and “Schatz” means treasure, really is a precious place, moody and relaxing (at least off season).
Update: I had edited the first version of the lead image on a color calibrated, yet not brightness calibrated monitor, and this resulted in an image that was way too dark. Lesson learned: I wil redo the calibration and double check the brightness level instead of using the all-auto setting.
I found these in Salzburg. The center of this town is so attractive for tourists from all parts of the world, that they have a shop selling Christmas decoration throughout the whole year. But to top this, they’ve invented easter eggs with Santa on it. That’s what I’d call real creativity and serving their customers. And if people buy this…
Having packed up work, it’s almost dark again, especially when thick clouds dim the little daylight even more. This matches the winter’s cold, and it makes the warm light out of the windows even more attractive. The best time to see and capture this is twilight, just before the street lights get switched on and shift the light’s colour to a, well, less attractive one.
The building in the background to the right is the old royal spa center (featured here, here, here, last image) and here), which has the most beautiful hall here in Bad Reichenhall, used for concerts and receptions.
Estimating how often I had passed by this arrangement of cute robots (water and electricity dispensers) in the train station of Freilassing, where I change trains when commuting to work, lead to a figure in the thousands. Don’t ask me why it took so long until I realised this image. One explanation – the one which I like best – is that photography leads to opening the eyes leads to better photography leads to … You get the picture. It could be that perception can be trained like the biceps.
