Tübingen Rosenfest

I had been looking forward to the Tübingen Rose Festival for a while, ever since I stumbled upon the information about it while working online, which was way back in April. The weekend came, and not surprisingly, it was rainy (we've been having a cool and rainy long spring). But by mid-afternoon when I was in Tübingen it had stopped raining and cleared up enough so that I could enjoy the festival without being soaked :-D

As someone commented, it was a very "Erin" festival. It certainly was ;-) Anyone who knows me well knows I absolutely love roses and have since I was little (Beauty and the Beast remains one of my favorite movies still) And this festival included anything and everything having to do with roses - from the normal - roses themselves, garden equipment, planters, etc. - to the luxurious - rose scented soaps and lotions, rose print dishware and cloth and stationery and clothes - to the interesting gatronomical - rosepetal ice, rosehip tea, rose pepper and salt, rose and raspberry torte, rose truffles or cappucinos, and rose petal sparkling rosé wine. Yup. I tried all those cuisine items. In case you're wondering, the sparkling wine smells like roses and tastes similar to what I imagine rose petals would taste like. I still am not sure if I like it....in anycase, it was amazing to see such a variety of roses spreading over the whole of the park. Orange, red, white, grey-purple, candycane, snow white, peach, salmon, yellow, lemon, cream, burgundy, black-red, pale green yellow....I could go on and on. I was absolutely in flower heaven :-D and could not stop taking pictures (until my battery ran down on me - darn.) And by the end of the evening, the sun had come out and there was a gorgeous sunset...All in all, it was wonderful festival day!

~E.

Rose Festival Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Smilegirlerin/19062010TubingenRosenfestTubingenRoseFestival#

Graffiti and Flowers Downtown

Despite the cold and rain, flowers have popped up and spread around the downtown over the past two months. Although I spend most of my week busy with work, my job of daily photo documentation has given me the opportunity to see Reutlingen's trees, bushes, and gardens change from bare dirt with only snowdrops and tulips and early blossoms,to full in bloom with a variety of flowers and many variations of green decorating the trees. It has also been fascinating for me to walk through the streets and over the pedestrian bridges and observe the plethera of graffiti stickers or signs placed basically anywhere people will notice them. Some of them are odd, others thoughtprovoking, and still others pushing the limit with political statement. All of them I find to be really intriguing. Over time, I've collected a bunch of pictures of my favorite flowers and the graffiti I've discovered. I hope you find the photo album interesting!

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/Smilegirlerin/GraffitiStickersAndFlowersDowntown#



~E.