bruecken_schlag_worte

Brückenschläge und Schlagworte

Schlagwort: steel bridge

Admiralsbrücke in Berlin, Germany

Today was one of those beautiful days in early Spring when the air is pregnant with sunshine and the smell of flowers. I took a bike tour along the canal to photograph bridges, and today I am presenting you one that I have been excited about for a long time. I have been in love with it ever since I moved to Berlin. Admiralsbrücke, Berlin, GermanyThis is Admiral’s Bridge in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. From the first time I saw it, I’ve loved its wrought-iron bannisters with the secession ornaments, or the cobblestoned street that leads across it. It has a romantic, old-fashioned feel to it inmidst the rather trendy area – altough one must admit that the people who reside here have come to be more and more settled, as have the restaurants and coffee places.

It isn’t only its architectural beauty that has taken me by storm, though. On a day like today, the bridge is packed with people relaxing in the sun. It is in a traffic-calmed area, so hardly any car ever disturbs groups sitting on the street and relaxing. It will be even more busy once summer hits. In fact there is a 10 pm curfew for parties on the bridge because it is so popular. People go to the nearest „Späti“ – little kiosk places where you can buy tobacco, alcohol and snacks – to get a beer and then just have it sitting outside, on the bridge, leaned against the bollards that calm traffic. It is lively and colourful and relaxed, and it is very much Berlin.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Lichtensteinbrücke in Berlin, Germany

My bridge archive is slowly running out. No more bridges from around the world (or at least Europe). I wish I had started to actively collect them sooner, and I would have so many more. But then today I realized that there is a ton of amazing bridges right under my nose. Berlin has so much to offer, it never ceases to amaze me.  Lichtensteinbrücke, Berlin, GermanyThis is Lichtensteinbrücke, Lichtenstein Bridge, in the Tiergarten district of Berlin. It crosses the Landwehrkanal, a canal that connects different parts of the Spree river. It is solely a footbridge as it is in the middle of the biggest Berlin park, the Tiergarten – while the word „Zoo“ exists in German as well, „Tiergarten“ is the more oldfashioned, nicer expression as it literally means Garden of Animals.

I came across this today completely by chance when I cycled through Berlin to meet a friend for coffee in this area. When I saw the bridge, I stopped right away and regretted so much not to have my camera on me, and it dawned on me that I will have to take a bike tour along the canal only taking photos of all the nice bridges that cross it. I especially loved the reflection of the bridge on the even surface of the water.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Ponte da Arrábida in Porto, Portugal

Only recently did I remember that I had been saving some more pictures from Porto to share with you on a rainy day. It now turns out it is a snowy day – Berlin’s streets are covered in mud, the parks are white, it is too cold and slippery to go to work by bike and the sky is generally grey or white. Time to dream ourselves away to sunny November Portugal.

Ponte, da Arrabida, Porto, PortugalPonte da Arrábida may not be as majestic as Ponte Luiz I in its old fashioned grandeur, but it is a mighty and impressive bridge. Of course, it stretches across the River Douro as well, connecting Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. Reading up on the bridge, by the way, I learned the term „arch bridge“ (self-explanatory, I guess) – never a bad idea to brush up on your architecture vocab.

I took this picture on our way to the Ocean from the city center, looking back into the mouth of the river, to the seclusion of the inland, in anticipation of the untamed, endless surge of the Atlantic I was to see just a little later. I enjoyed that about Porto very much – the immediate proximity of nature and culture, of the wilderness of the sea and the civilized city. It was a city that bridged gaps indeed.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Train Station Blankenese in Hamburg, Germany

Quite likely you will see this picture and think to yourself: „Why in the world did she choose *that* bridge?!?“ It’s not pretty or remarkable in any way, I guess. But it means a lot to me, which is why I thought it fitting to be the last bridge in 2013.

Train Station Blankenese, Hamburg, GermanyThis is the metro station close to my parents‘ house in Hamburg. Most of my adventures started from here. When I was in primary school, I would take my dad’s hand in the morning and walk with him to the train station, across this very bridge, he would descend to the platform to take a metro to his office, and I would walk a bit further to school. I often went to pick him up in the evening when he came home from work, too. We would make little poems about the plants, trees and bushes we discovered on the way between the station and our house (my dad is a passionate gardener).

When I started high school I took the metro for two stations from here myself in the winter – in the summer I went by bike. As I grew older, I would go on the metro to the city center of Hamburg more and more often – first for shopping or to go to the cinema, later for going out at night in the infamous Reeperbahn red light district. Even my five month backpacking trip through Central and South Eastern Europe started at this very metro station on this bridge. It has been the beginning of so many things. And now, when I come home to visit my parents and I cross over it again, it is always crossing back into my childhood and coming home.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Ping Tom Memorial Park Drawbridge in Chicago, Illinois, US

Back to the summer, back to sunny weather and back to the travel life – back to Chicago.  Ping Tom Memorial Park Drawbridge, Chicago, IL, USOn my very last day in Chicago, Jesse took me to Pilsen for the best Mexican food I have ever had in my entire life (and that from someone who lived in El Paso, Texas for a year!) and to enjoy a bit of Chitown’s Latino side. On the way back home, we stopped by the Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown and sat by the Chicago River for a while before taking a boat downtown. We were in sight of the bridge – not a spectacular one, although I liked the little hut that was on top of it and wondered what that was for. It was a mild August day, and the sun was glistening on the water. Children were playing nearby. It was peaceful.

But then, all of a sudden, the bridge started moving! It hadn’t looked like a draw bridge to me, but the entire body (including the little hut) started moving upwards along the steel constructions on the sides. After coming to stillstand, it remained silent for a while, then a train passed over it and when that was gone, the bridge came down again. It was the weirdest looking thing to see the little house on the bridge rise up and sink down again. I imagined that, when I was a little girl, I would have wanted to live in a house on a bridge that moves up and down. I think I still do.

If you have read My Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!

Ponte Luís I in Porto, Portugal

It has been quiet on the blog this week because my decadent three day get-away to Porto left me with a lot of work to catch up on. But I am happy to present you today with one of the beauties I found while fuelling up on sun and energy in Portugal’s sun.  Ponte Luís I, Porto, PortugalThis is the Bridge of Luís I, king of Portugal between 1861 and 1889. While Portuguese kings are usually referred to by the title „Dom“ and the bridge should be called “ Ponte Dom Luis I“, our tour guide told us that rumour has it the „Dom“ was dropped when the king didn’t show up for the opening of the bridge in 1886. Spiteful! If you think that the metal structure seems familiar, you probably associate it with the Eiffel Tower – and yes, Gustave Eiffel did do some work on bridges in Porto. Just not this one. This is his partner Téophile Seyrig’s work who is often not given credit because Eiffel is just the more glamorous and well-known name.

I am fairly certain that I will have to put up more pictures of this stunning bridge because I took about 50 of it. I find it fascinating how the metro goes over the top and cars go over the lower level, and how the bridge connects once more not only two river banks, but two different cities. What you see on the other side is not Porto anymore, but Vila Nova de Gaia. I love the majestic gate that carries the bridge’s name, and the filigree of the steel structure. And this isn’t even the only beautiful bridge over the river Douro in Porto. It certainly was the city for me in that respect.

If you have readMy Mission statement, you know why I love bridges. To me they are the most universal symbol of connection, of bringing people together and overcoming anything that may seperate us. I want to present to you pictures of bridges that I really love in places that I really love on my blog every Sunday. If you have a picture of a bridge that you would like to share with my readers as a guest post, feel free to contact me!