The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

Our Winter vacation started off with a flight from Aberdeen, Scotland to Copenhagen, Denmark where we caught a connection to Geneva, Switzerland.  My CRS flared up and and I left behind my camera bag at the security check-in at the Aberdeen Airport.  A phone call to Aberdeen fortunately yielded the good news that my expensive camera equipment was safely locked up in their lost and found.  Whew!We stayed the night with good freinds on their lovely farm outside Geneva and then headed off to the medeival German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  In route, I picked up the excellent Fuji X-E1 camera fitted to their equally excellent IS 18-55mm zoom lens at the Geneva Duty Free. I couldn't go on this vacation without taking some photos! We arrived in Stuttgart for a one night layover before our train to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  As it turned out, the Stuttgart Christmas Market (first started in 1692) was in it's last night!

A monument as only the Germans can make them.  Heroic, gigantic, romantic.

Stuttgart Winged Liberty (under repair).

Did I mention Stuttgart pastry . . . it would be worth moving here just for the pastry . . . . almost.

The Christmas Market spread along the entire length of Stuttgart's main walking street.

Their were lots of pretty booths set up selling just about everything Christmas-related.

There was a lot of festive seasonal food for sale too.

We stopped for delicious sausages and Glühwein (roughly translated, "glow-wine").

It was a beautiful, not-too-cold night in Stuttgart.  There were many tourists in the crowd that night (all, eventually, heading to Rothenburg the next day, we found out).

It was a wonderful evening to stroll around with the entire population of Stuttgart looking at the fun and interesting booths.

We were tempted . . . . but where would we put it?

There have been Bolivian street musicians in EVERY European city I have visited in the last twenty years: Stuttgart was no exception!  These guys were playing a kind of Bolivian Space Music.  Very esoteric.

A brightly lit merry-go-round tested the dynamic range capabilities of the new Fuji X-E1 camera.  Excellent!

Did they only use this Christmas Tree Bulb Ferris Wheel one month of the year?  Who knows . . . it was beautiful!

I imagine that the shapes and sizes of these Christmas Gingerbread Hearts have huge significance to the residents of Stuttgart.

About half way down the walking street my wife made the observation that all the buildings seemed new.  Yes, they were . . . because most of Stuttgart was bombed into smithereens in WWII.  Only a few old buildings remained, like this cathedral tower.

But the Stuttgart city fathers made the most of their suddenly new city by planting and trimming very lovely trees down the promenade.

We found a nice beer garden that brewed their own ale, and had delicious pork schnitzel (me) and pork knuckle (my wife) with authentic sauerkraut.

We had a wonderful evening among the throngs before walking back to our hotel.

I saw this interesting poster in the gutter on our walk home.  I'm guessing it is either a political poster for a politician running in the Big Partei, or it is an invitation to a Big Party.  The arrangement of leaves is attractive.

Our hotel was clean and centrally located.  We slept well after our long walk in the Christmas Market.

I took my obligatory art shot in the lobby of our hotel before we headed out the door.  We had a train to catch.

We hustled through the austere beauty of the Stuttgart Hauptbahnof to catch our train (after a quick stop for Starbucks). We would come back through this train station in a few days and then transit to the airport.