Hi! I’m back (if anyone is still reading this blog!)
I didn’t intend for my break from blogging to be this long. I was on a trip to Europe, then I visited my parents, then I had a really busy teaching week. I can see how one gets out of the habit, especially with a full-time demanding job. And then all of the sudden you look up and a month has gone by.
I also have a bad case of photo fatigue. I showed my parents the pictures from the trip on TV and it took two 2-hr sessions to get through everything.
A couple of years ago I started participating in a weekly photo challenge called Thursday Doors, now run by Norm 2.0. Thursday doors goes back to 2014 in Montreal. and it now includes weekly links to posts from all over the world. I find that doors provide a unique view of a place: doors show not only the architecture but the street culture and the history, the way neighborhoods cohere and don’t, and what people find important at the moment.
Although Norm tends to show closed doors, I have been surprised at how often the doors I am trying to photograph are open, leading to posts that are more about Thursday doorways. And I have wrestled (but not too hard) with the question of whether a gate is a door (answer: for blogging purposes, yes!)
So, for this Friday’s version of Thursday doors, I’m continuing what I started in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate.
Weather in Germany is different from weather in California. I’m biased, but I like California weather better. In the past when we have gone to Germany in June and July I have felt cheated out of a real summer. It’s just not summer when your normal clothing to go about the day comprises long pants and a jacket. IMO.
But that is Berlin for you. Like many European cities, most of the buildings in Berlin are made of stone. The trappings of modern commerce, especially around and in the doorways, manage to look both dignified and out of place at the same time.
This effect is especially apparent to me under a gray sky. Gray to match the buildings.
On this day it rained a little bit, too. It wasn’t even enough water to make real Germans think twice.
We were still a bit jet-lagged and tired from the 9-hr time difference, but we were getting out there because we were in Berlin and we were supposed to. So the experience felt a little surreal, wandering through alleyways (because that’s what these stone buildings make the streets feel like) in search of food and a geocache.
What is this man doing? Laundry? No, someone hid a geocache in a sock in the middle of a street in Berlin! It’s not a door, but I thought it was still worth showing. I’ve never seen a cache like it before. I’ll also point out that he is 6’4″ tall and still had to reach up pretty high to retrieve it. I probably couldn’t have gotten it on my own.

We had surprisingly good luck just finding places to eat, and this was a nice restaurant, a cozy place to eat and wait for the rain to stop.
Hello. Great post. Thank You. The first photo captured my mind. It resembles somehow United Buddy Bears. Check my post and compare:
Bears conquered Helsinki
Happy weekend!
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Wow! That’s a lot of bears! I have been to Helsinki and didn’t see all those bears. Was it a temporary exhibit, or is it permanent? The Berliner Baer is a well-known mascot and there were a bunch of these all over Berlin.
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It was temporary- They are circulating around the World. I was lucky to shoot photos of them. Happy Sunday! Did You stay only in Helsinki and when?
Happy Sunday!
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I was on a Baltic Sea cruise and Helsinki was one of the stops. It was a couple of years ago, in 2016. We also went to Estonia, Latvia, and St Petersburg on that trip. It was right after we came back that I discovered Thursday Doors. I may or may not have some pictures of doors from Helsinki, but I wasn’t looking for them at the time!
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We love cruises, but never made a such a Cruise You made. We have made three cruises to Germany for doing there road trips and many cruises on our lakes. Midsummer cruises are best, because then sun never sets. Experience of a white nights is awesome. Lake cruises reveal our summer house and sauna cultures. If You do not mind, I show one example:
Cruise to Rock paintings
Thank You. I wish You a happy new week!
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True, it can rain a lot in Berlin, but what I see is still a Berliner atmosphere!.And like most things, one gets used to it and rain is not a reason to stay indoors like for Californians:) I have become in-between – because I know most Californians slow down to 30 m/hr in the rain:):)
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Yeah, I got un-used to it over the years.
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Hi karen – love the fun photo .. and good to know you enjoyed seeing Berlin again despite the rain … cheers Hilary
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That’s hilarious that someone would put it in a sock and hang it up like that! Welcome back! Do you need a vacation from your vacation now?
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Yes! Vacation from the vacation, that’s exactly right 🙂
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I always read and enjoy your blog. Just don’t usually comment.
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🙂
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Ah Berlin. It’s a nice city ☺
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Yes, I lived there in 1983, as a teen. So much has changed since then!
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Hm 1983 I can see much has changed! I’ve only been there twice after 2010 though 😅
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