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Nature

Move!

On the Sunday of my Montreux holiday I went to Vevey, the city next to Montreux, because firstly, I expected better weather there, and secondly for the large flea market there (always an invitation to stroll around).

Quite a strong wind was blowing that day – wind and kite surfers probably liked it…

Vevey: Wind surfer Vevey: Kite surfer

…and the waves could let off some steam, too:

Waves in Vevey Waves in Vevey

Waves in Vevey

Projekt 52 And since these photos can easily be made to match this week’s topic of Projekt 52, “Poem interpretation” – a poem for a photo or a photo for a poem –, I’m using especially the last of the images above for this project, in combination with the poem “An den Mistral” (=”To the Mistral”)1 by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (see here in Projekt Gutenberg for its text – in German, of course).

Now let’s continue with the photos. In Vevey, I happened to come accross the final part of the Triathlon de la Riviera:

Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey Triathlon de la Riviera, Vevey

Participants, if you don’t want to see your photo here, just drop me a line.

And on the way back, there was a jet ski race at Clarens:

Jet-Ski race Montreux

Jet-Ski race Montreux Jet-Ski race Montreux
Jet-Ski race Montreux Jet-Ski race Montreux

  1. even though that’s not a Mistral at Lake Geneva []

Gorge-ous

Gorges du Chauderon

After the castle, let’s head back to nature: into the Gorge du Chauderon, the gorge behind Montreux through which the torrent called Baye de Montreux runs – more specifically into its lower, steeper part.

Here, too, all photos are also available in the Flickr set (without comments, though).

A look back to the beginning – or rather the end, the bottom part where the torrent passes the stilts of that ugly highway, but I was walking up; and we have a look at the rock face:

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

A detail of the torrent – on the left with 1/400 second exposure time, on the right 1/25 second:

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

Rocks on the ground:

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

The largest waterfall in the gorge, due to its little bend and the many trees (Cut them down!! The tourists want to see the waterfall!!!) it can hardly be seen completely from one spot – so first the upper part that seems to spring from the trees, then the lower part, again with 1/400 and 1/25 second exposure:

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

Two other parts of the gorge – and all roads lead to… somewhere.

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

One of the refuges (and barbecue sheds) in the area, with the comforting realization that Uri Geller wasn’t around recently:

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

I didn’t go through the entire gorge to Les Avants this time (I went down from there two years ago), but turned right towards Glion where you soon leave the forest and encounter the first houses. (And a funicular railway that I’ll show on one of the next days.)

Gorges du Chauderon

At the end we have a look at the opposite mountain where also the Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway is passing to Les Avants and on via Gstaad to Lenk.

Gorges du Chauderon Gorges du Chauderon

The Bloom on the Quay

The “Quai des fleurs” in Montreux got its name for a reason – but also other parts of the lakeshore with other names have nice flowers. Following is a small selection of 29 of my photos that can also be seen on flickr (there all in the same medium size; here on the blog, I decided to feature some in larger sizes, some as thumbnails only).

Montreux flowers

Help, aliens!

Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers

Let’s use the portrait format for the transition from the closeups to the arrangements:

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers
Montreux flowers Montreux flowers

On the rainy Thursday, there were at least some breaks in the rain on the afternoon inviting to a photo walk:

Montreux flowers

Montreux flowers Montreux flowers


» All 29 fotos in the Flickr set

Of bees and buildings

A little photo walk means photos, and photos mean a blog post – let’s start with nature:

Biene auf Distel 1

Biene auf Distel 2

Schwebfliege auf gelber Blüte Hummel im Anflug

bewohntes Blatt

Now on to the Pfaffenhofen main square construction work:

Hauptplatz 1

Hauptplatz 2

…and in the Löwenstraße (lion street) – watch out, the church spire will soon be gone!

Gerüst Kirchturm an der Kette

A lantern on the town hall balcony – will it enlighten the politicians?

Rathaus mit Lampe blaues Geländer

And finally an attempt at HDR tone mapping – photographed through the building (and a dirty window) with exposure correction ±2:

Ilmgau-Kaufhaus HDR

Flickr archive with these pictures)