Monday Murals - New Beginnings

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week. Thanks Sami.

A mural I saw in January, in Kishorn Road, Mount Pleasant near the French "Praline cafe". I had been there a couple of times but never entered the street from this end, no wonder I had never seen the various murals at this end of the street.

Entitled "New Beginnings", it was painted in 2016 and was a collaboration by Konfucius (aka Ben Witherick) and Destroy (aka Joseph Boin).

March Wrap-Up - Germany 2 , 90th birthday in Portugal & Signs

Tuesday 7th March - I walked to Brühl town centre, (about 30min walk) bought a gift for Karina's birthday, visited 3 of the Churches and walked back home in time for lunch.

Bruhl

Churches in Bruhl

After lunch, Karina's in-laws and I drove into Brühl to visit the Augustusburg Palace, one of Germany's first examples of Rococo architecture.

The 120 room palace was finished in 1768, and since 1949, has been used as a venue by the Federal Government and German President to welcome leaders from around the world.

The palace as well as the French style gardens have been on the World Heritage List since 1984.

When I visited Bruhl in July last year we just wandered around the gardens as the Palace was closed at the time we visited.

Dark clouds over Augustusburg Palace

The entry fee of 9,50 Euro includes a guided tour in German. They have audio guides in various languages and I asked for one in English and 2 in French for the in-laws.

As we entered we were awed by the most magnificent staircase, designed by Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753), one of the most important architects of German Baroque and Rococo, famous for his stairways in many German palaces and churches.

The magnificent staircase

The magnificent painted ceiling over the staircase

We were shown around to about a dozen rooms - all ostentatious, with painted ceilings, lots of gold, chandeliers, wallpapers, Italian tapestries, beautiful fireplaces...

The Summer dining room had a different feel and was really meant to be cooler with tiled floors, beautiful blue Italian tiles on the walls, a water fountain...

When we left the Palace it had started to snow and we walked to the nearby Twenty2 Concept Store (a Gluten free Cafe and Fashion store).

The choice of cakes and food is great, the hot chocolate was delicious...

It snowed the whole night and the next morning, when I woke up I looked out the window I was thrilled to see the back garden covered in snow. The last time I had seen snow in Germany was 32 years ago! 

Karina's back garden covered in snow

Panorama photo of the snow covered street (2 cars had left their spot)

It was Karina's birthday - Wednesday 8th - and she received a cute "birthday card" from a colleague.

While Karina worked from home I made lunch - Tuna and mashed potato bake.

After lunch, Karina returned to work, and Max, Karina's father in law drove me to the Max Ernst Museum in town, and we both visited it. The Museum exhibits works of the local born surrealist painter and sculptor Max Ernst.

The snow had melted by the end of the afternoon as the temperature had gone up.

That evening we drove to Cologne to celebrate Karina's birthday at Phaedra Restaurant.

The small restaurant had a nice atmosphere, the food was very tasty, the service was impeccable.

The birthday girl, me, Isabelle, Thomas (my son in law) Max (the in-laws)

Thursday 9th - after breakfast Karina's in-laws left to drive back to Marseille.

After lunch, Karina and I took the train to Cologne (about 20min) and visited the Ludwig Museum, just behind the Cathedral. 

Cologne Cathedral

The museum houses an impressive collection of modern art - Pop art, Abstract, Surrealism - works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Picasso...

On the top floor of the Museum is an outdoor area where you can see the back of the Cathedral and views over part of Cologne.

The back of Cologne Cathedral seen from the Museum's terrrace

Panorama view from the Museum's terrace

From there we walked to the Chocolate Museum. 

Bottom right: Chocolate Museum right next to the Rhein

Who knew there was so much to say about chocolate? A most interesting museum, explaining the origins of chocolate from the cocoa tree to the in-house production line where you can see step by step how chocolate is made. 

Along the way you get to taste chocolate, and at the end of the visit, you can stop at the Lindt Chocolate shop and buy chocolates of all shapes, sizes and flavours. 

Imagine eating chocolate with sawdust or brick!! - Cocoa beans, products made with cocoa butter

The factory - chocolate fountain from where someone gives you biscuits dipped in chocolate - old machinery.

Lindt Chocolate shop, Old style shops, old chocolate vending machines, the Museum inside

Chocolate signs

The chocolate factory - layout of machinery with chocolate fountain at the end

Some of the chocolates I bought  (the tiny chocs bottom right are gifts at exit)

                 

Friday 10th - Karina, Thomas and I drove to Cologne/Bonn Airport for our 10.30Am flight to Lisbon.

While waiting in-line for the security check-in I spotted a bit of the Berlin wall.

        

There was still plenty of time for a hot chocolate and to read a bit before take-off.

A book Karina lent me, that I finished reading in Portugal

Almost landing in Lisbon with the 12.345 km (7.671 mi) long Vasco da Gama Bridge 

On arrival at Lisbon airport, while I purchased a Sim card for my mobile, Thomas waited for our suitcases, and Karina went to get the car they had booked.

Then we drove to Cascais where the family was waiting for us to have a late lunch.

At dinner time Jose's niece who lives in the Azores Island but is at University in Lisbon joined the family for dinner. 

We had a birthday cake too to celebrate 3 birthdays that had just happened - mine on the 2nd, my great-niece who turned 1 on the 5th and my daughter Karina's on the 8th.

Saturday 11th - My sister Isabel and I went to get our Dad's birthday cake and delivered it to the restaurant where we were having his 90th birthday lunch with about 45 people.

It was a beautiful celebration with good food, lots of laughter with the various speeches, Dad and one of my nieces sang a duet, lots of photos taken with all the families present... Of course I was the one coming from furthest away, but my niece from San Francisco just came for 5 days and my niece from Angola just came for 3 days and with a 3 and a 1 year old!!

The beautiful and unusual cake with photos of Dad

Speech time

Family photo - Back: 2 nieces, Karina, my brother in law, Thomas (son in law). Front: Me, sister Isabel, Mom and Dad and 2 great-grandchildren

Because the restaurant didn't have audio facilities, some of the guests came with us after lunch to my sister's house to see the Birthday video that my nieces had made with birthday wishes from many family members or friends who were unable to be present.

Here you see the youngest great-granddaughter who had just turned 1 on the 5th of March dancing to a song my Dad is singing in the video.

My Dad was a singer in his youth, and still sings today. 

Little K dancing to great-granddad song

This is an oil painting I did about 18 years ago, which was a favourite of mine, but I gave it to Karina who loves purple and it now hangs in her purple themed bedroom.

Also linking to Tom's Signs, please follow this link

March Wrap-Up - Germany 1 and Signs

March - A very busy month that started with my birthday on Thursday the 2nd. 

On the way to work I bought a cheesecake to share with my colleagues at tea-time.

 

As Jose arrived late from work we decided to ditch our earlier plans and had a simple dinner at Mid-Week Eats - an end of Summer event organized by the City of Canning (our local council) where once a week we get themed food trucks, live music and entertainment at the local Riverton Reserve. This time it was "Latin Fiesta", with Mexican musicians and Brazilian Samba dancers.

South African Chicken Curry, Samoosas, and French Crepes with Ice-cream

Friday 3rd March - I had a "Community Harvest " event in my calendar and decided to join my neighbourhood friends for just a couple of hours to make Tomato passata. Around midday I returned home to finish packing my suitcase and rest.

After dinner we relaxed a bit, and at 10pm Jose drove me to the airport for my 1,10AM flight to Singapore on the Saturday 4th.

I managed to have a nap during the 5 hour flight, then watched a 2022 movie - Sam & Kate.

The romantic/drama movie has 4 lead characters played by Dustin Hoffman and his real-life son Jake Hoffman and Sissy Spacek and her real-life daughter Schuyler Fisk. An enjoyable movie and nice story.

I landed in Singapore at 6,20AM, and I had about 4 hours before my next flight, which was in the same Terminal, so I visited the Butterfly Garden, took photos of art around the terminal, then read a little bit before being allowed to go into the departure lounge.

Butterfly Garden

The Louis Vuitton shop entry always has the nicest displays

My flight to Frankfurt took off at 10,55AM, and with a 12 hour flight I had plenty of time to binge-watch all the latest movies available!

"Alice, Darling" with Anna Kendrick - a drama about coercive control in a couple's relationship.

Another 2022 movie - "The Banshees of Inisherin" - despite the Oscar nominations and the well-known actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, I found this film quite dark, slow and strange story. I'm no movie buff, so it's just my taste!

"Mrs Harris goes to Paris" was another delightful movie from 2022 - and I loved the old-fashioned fairy-tale story.

I re-watched "Hope Springs" a 2012 movie with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones - I had already seen it a few years ago but enjoyed seeing it again.

Just over 12 hours later I landed at Frankfurt airport at 6,35pm (local time) - still the same day as they were 7 hours behind.  Luckily daughter Karina was at Frankfurt airport with a nice warm jacket, gloves and bonnet, as it was 4C when we landed!

We caught the train to Cologne station (about 1 h) where she'd left her car and then we drove to her house in Bruhl (20min away).

When we arrived home, her parents in law, who had driven from Marseille the day before were also there to welcome me, then we sat down for a very late dinner at about 10pm!!

Sunday 5th - After lunch, Karina, Thomas, me and the in-laws visited Linz am Rhein, a small village by the Rhein River, about 50min drive from Bruhl. The town is home to about 6000 people and is very popular with tourists because of its colourful half-timbered houses, some of them from the 16th Century.

Evangelical Church

Various half-timbered houses

Various statues in Linz Am Rhein

At the top of the village is the Catholic St Martins Church, built in the 13th century in early Gothic style with beautiful murals on the walls.

Next to the church is the Tilmann Joel Park, named after 15th century local legal scholar, diplomat and provost of St Florin Church in Koblenz. In the park also used as a cemetery, there are gravestones from 5 centuries.

We finished our visit with coffee at a local Cafe and returned home for dinner. 

St Martins Church

Tillman Joel Park - cemetery and nice views over the town

 

Monday 6th - Thomas's parents and I drove to Bad Münstereifel, about 30km from Bruhl. 

It's an historic spa town circled by the original 13th century fortifications with the River Erft running through its centre. 

The red Rathaus (Town Hall) completed in 1476 with the oldest parts from the 14th century.

The 13th century city walls are in their original condition and almost surround the city, with a couple of gates - Orchheimer Tor, being the one we used to walk through into the town's centre (bottom right).

Various gates in the old city walls

The old city walls and the Toll House next to Orchheimer Tor

Various typical houses - the yellow building (top left) is a school.

The St. Chrysanthus & Daria Church is the oldest building in town, rebuilt in 1100 on the site of a monestery of 830. It's architecture was inspired by the St Pantaleon Church in Cologne. Sadly it was closed, so couldn't see inside.

The St Donatus, Jesuit Church, was a simple building with nice vaulted ceilings.

The Hürten-Museum was inaugurated in 1912, based on a Romanesque House, and exhibits a dining room from the imperial era, early weapons, works of art from the Middle Ages, a 17th century altar...

The Hurten Museum

We climbed to the top of the village where we found the castle (Burg Bad Münstereifel), which was badly damaged by the troops of Kings Louis XIV of France in 1689. It is now privately owned and consists of several apartments and a restaurant. There is a nice view from the area over the town.

The former castle and views from above

Towards the end of our visit, when I saw some photos on the windows of a shop, I realized this was one of the villages that was heavily damaged during the July 2021 floods that devastated areas of Germany and Belgium. There were still a lot of road works, but the buildings looked as good as new.

The River Erft in the city centre - now and photo below during the floods

(Photo from the net taken during the floods in July 2021) - Same area photo above

We ended our visit with a visit to a very cosy coffee shop where we bought a variety of the local cakes to take home.

Various Printen cakes

Different post boxes seen in Bad Munstereifel, a street library, Easter bunny above a shop, and Jewish candelabra (Menorah) street monument.

Also joining Tom for his Signs meme - please check this link for signs from around the world.