golegrand

yesterday at the elbe river in hamburg … one year before at swan river … … and the indian ocean a day later … ouch.

as mentioned in the last post , waited to be back home to post the last pics of our australian summer 2015 . we touched down in hamburg yesterday in the early afternoon after a long and tiring flight (13 hours from adelaide to dubai, then 7 hours more to hamburg). now, everything feels weird. it's very confusing. it's cold, the sky is cloudy and low, the cars drive on the right. this morning, it wasn't the singing of the lorikeets or cockatoos that was accompanying my run, but the screams of the seagulls. that's a change… to take things humorously ;)

today’s featured image: spirit of endurance, flinders range. so, we looped the loop in south australia – weather was cooler, not that perfect like in perth, with cloudy and frizzy mornings and nights. yes, autumn already started here, but we really enjoyed the days in blackwood/adelaide, we walked, hiked and went for morning runs through eucalyptus forests, like in the belair national park where tons of rainbow lorikeets, cockatoos and many other birds sing and the koalas are lazy in the trees. we walked the beach between brighton and glenelg too, and got a closer feeling to the city of adelaide and subburbs. on march 4th, the awesome foo fighters played a fantastic concert of nearly three hours . it was just happiness. very tranquil aussie crowd however, at least in our west stand –no big breaking out, nobody going crazy to the sound of the music. they came, listened, applauded politely, and went home. and we made a road trip in the outback to the fl...

today’s featured image: clean and clear blue waters of the indian ocean. that's it. today we're closing our perth chapter for this winter, or summer in either case. it's sad to leave that fantastic place but we also feel extremely lucky having been here, and we'll come back, for sure. tomorrow morning, we'll head to the airport and qantas flight qs-592 will bring us to adelaide for some more australian adventures with our friends there. on schedule: the foo fighters on march 4th and a visit to the flinders ranges. the last three weeks have kept us busy. we've been at the incredible and phenomenal journey of the giants to the streets of perth , a street theater in a crowed city at #perthfest. we've ridden many more kilometers around swan river and along the indian ocean. we've been in fremantle, aka the busiest harbour in australia... haha. shouldn't beat cuxhaven or brest i guess. and we've spent another day on rottnest island (on t...

today’s featured image: perth's cbd at swan river. now, the two last weeks in short… january 26th was australia day, and another beautiful cloudless day. watched the firework show with up to other 300,000 people in a hot summer night at the swan river foreshore. then, after 4 weeks of heat and dry weather, we got a low – 4 days of thunderstorms and some rain, mix of blue sky and scattered clouds, very humid and hot. next, uncommon intense thunderstorms hit perth 3 days in a row. on one night, we even had to have dinner indoor (omg!). still temperatures didn't dropped. back in the dry heat, haze across perth: two massive bushfire in wa's south and a wind change saw the city covered in a blanket of smoke. upper swan ride to guildford and back on two hot days, along swan river and through some wetlands that remind of the camargue. from guildford, cycling the swan valley , aka perth's valley of tastes, the home of the oldest vineyar...

today’s featured image: clear blue waters of rottnest island. just back from rottnest island, west from perth on the indian ocean. a dream day for a birthday – biking around the island, birthday cake watching the waves of the turquoise-blue ocean at west end, enjoying the sunshine in a cloudless blue sky, over 30 °c. it's now time for food and a bottle of aussie shiraz :) photos in the stream.

today's featured image: cottesloe's latitude. this one today might be hard to get for those living somewhere above 43 degrees north latitude. myself, i could never have imagine that before experiencing it in the flesh.… see: it happens sometimes that the temperatures jump a bit around, changing from an average of 35 °c to 38° on several days in a row, where the temperature is already above 30° at 9:00 am (and force you to switch your morning run to a more-walking exercise…), rises to 36° at 3 pm, and suddenly drops to 24° two hours later, and at this point… it just feels cold. yes, cold! or call it cool, whatever, but believe me – 24 °c do feel frizzy under certain circumstances. anyway. this january weather just tops to explore perth and discover this great and diversified metropol. i enjoy walking here around and discovering the places. there are the cbd , its city skyline and street malls where futu...

today's featured image: gum and palm trees – fav trees everywhere! day # 13 in perth, the first day a bit cloudy as i opened the curtains this morning. only scattered little clouds. as i'm writing these lines, they're all gone. in fact, perth is a particularly sunny city enjoying a mediterranean climate and an average of 8.8 hours of sunshine per day – since we arrived on january 1st, temperatures have stayed in the 30th, we get endless bright blue sky, and it's like in paradise. monday jan 5th was super hot with 44,4° c on record, a layer of clouds passed over in the late afternoon, next day was back at lower 36°. thanks the " fremantle doctor ", the cooling sea breeze, it's never really too hot. well. ok. except on those days over 40°. we're staying here in subiaco , a western suburb of perth, known colloquially as subi. our apartment is located close to rokeby road, the main street of subi, and coming from ottensen it's not really compli...

today's featured image: cottesloe beach, wa. we already lived some warm sunny january 4th, for example that day in 2004 during our honeymoon on siesta key, or the two following in florida as well, but this one today was the most beautiful and the warmest. literally a dream day that we certainly won't forget. temperatures went up to 37° c under a sunny bright blue sky and around noon, we headed with transperth (perth public transportation) to cottesloe, one of the popular beaches around perth. there we walked on the shore, sat a while on the grass and watched on the clear blue water and until the horizon on the indian ocean, then had an unplanned but lovely 6 km walk to the south until north fremantle along the cottesloe reef. this sunday was just wow.

today's featured image: remarkable rocks, kangaroo island, sa. more than two weeks in australia, hamburg and europe are far away. geographically, and in mind. arriving on dec 19th 2014 in adelaide, we have spent the rest of the year there in south australia. the highlights so far: mainly warm sunny days, but chilly ones too, cold south west wind (here down under the equivalent of our north east wind), staying in blackwood in the adelaide hills (beautiful place to live, koalas in park and garden, songs of birds from another world), three days on kangaroo island with lots of wildlife (wallabies jumping around on the morning run way, but we've missed the penguins) and magnificient costal landscapes (admiral's arch and remarkable rocks at cape du couedic), dec 21st, the longest day of the year in the australian summer, barbecues with tasty food and nice drops from the region, beach walk between brighton and glenelg, kangaroo feeding at...

haven't spent much words here lately. after 2014 started cold in colorado's winter and beautiful heights, the two first weeks of march at sea level on siesta key, florida have been a feast for our organisms. and back in hamburg hasn't been that bad so far -- all in all it's been a sunny year here, with lots of good times too. we've made a spring trip to merano, south tyrol, as well as a summer one to the provence. breathing there in the mountains was a breeze, and hiking like a walk in park, after the colorado experience some months before – watch the photos here . and that's how time goes by… it's now mid december with its short days and cold temperatures (hooray still no snow!), but we don't care much about that. next to come: swapping the shortest day of the year for the longest one down under, kangaroo island, x-mas in adelaide, new year start in a plane across the continent to western australia, australian summer in perth AND the concert of t...

here we go –  time for change, new webspace! i finally take up managing a *real* website powered by WordPress plus some gigabytes on a server, moving little by little the stuff from MobileMe (Apple is discontinuing his hosting service next june)... a lot of new notions to cope with but learning is fun. henceforth, our previous iWeb site (2006-2011) is hosted  here  and the blog from australia there . still looking for a new gallery. our new name golegrand © by armin