PLEASE TRY AND VIEW ON SOMETHING WITH A LARGER SCREEN THAN A MOBILE PHONE

BERLIN

There's a lot of concrete in this one! Now I'm not attempting to say that Berlin is a concrete jungle - far from it. It's a beautiful and vibrant city. My non-mobile phone images just 'by accident' were often architectural in nature. The city has some beautiful historic buildings but, of course, also has a lot of post-WWII construction, a lot of which is striking and lends itself to photography. Helen and I had a great 5 days away for our first stay in the city - loads of lovely food, great people and a (so far!) unrivalled relaxed vibe I've never found in a capital city. Pop it on your bucket list.

I think the shots - being of 'a type' will fall into roughly three main categories - buildings, 'the wall' and street scenes of general interest. That's the picture forming in my mind right now. Come with me and see whether I was right!

BUILDINGS

Yup.....definitely a building! You more or less tripped over this one as you wandered outside our hotel. The 18th Century Neue Kirche. I must complain to Lufthansa, or whoever's jet left that contrail, right on top of the spire!

Nearly always visible, no matter where you were in the city. The 'TV Tower' or Fernsehturm. An impressive 1207 feet (368m) high. Fans of Father Ted will appreciate the 'small.....far away' perspective trick with the nearby flagpole!

I'm stretching the building classification for these two......

especially this one....... but there are buildings there!

It's amazing how these 'from the water' shots allow you to capture the buildings so well. Did the Berlin builders have a works outing to Venice before they started building these structures?! And there's that bloody tv tower again!

Getting towards the end of the waterfront ones now. Our river cruise was very pleasant in fabulous weather on a lovely boat with individual (comfy) seating. It made for a very interesting hour. I recognise this one from the 'Scapes' library in Gran Turismo 7!

The final one from the river. I just liked the 'zig-zag' skyline this created. As you can see, the weather was lovely.

Just because we've left the water doesn't mean you can breathe a sigh of relief that all the boring concrete has gone!

The other side of the Reichstag had building work going on and so didn't really look the part! I could therefore have called this a street scene....... but it's like one of those 'prove you're a human' highlight the squares with traffic lights in them puzzles and most squares have buildings in them so.......!!! It is quite an impressive building though, just not quite with the impact of the houses of Parliament in the UK.

Fans of my novels will immediately (!) recognise the venerable Hotel Adlon, situated just a stone's throw from the Brandenburg Gate. In my usual style, I decided to visit one of my locations years after I wrote the book. I have no idea whether there is any subliminal link between the two things, but we do seem to have done an inordinate number of post-novel visits!

Are monuments 'buildings'? They are for this purpose lol Plus it seems daft to miss the Gate when the hotel was just a 90 degree swivel away, but I'm doing a sort of 'soft transition' into street scenes so it scratches both itches simultaneously and keeps my OCD at bay!

The bit on the top!

Staying pretty much static (albeit on two separate days!) Brandenburg always seems to be a target-rich environment. This violinist in the 'Issey Miyake-alike' dress kept us entertained in a style somewhat reminiscent of Lindsey Stirling.

The police presence in the city was staggering. I'm wondering whether it has anything to do with us! We saw hundreds of police controlling the demonstrations in HK on our first visit as well. They had the advantage in transit vans but the Berliners definitely had more R1250RT BMW bikes!!! I've ridden one of those but, at 60, it was a bit heavyweight for my spindly little short-arse geordie legs. Sorry, talking about bikes again! Move on to the next pic for an explanation of why their presence might not have been entirely down to us arriving in the city........

We came across this very early in our stay when our taxi pulled up outside our hotel behind a cavalcade of black limos and police vehicles The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission 2025 was, apparently, in town! Some seriously big nobs from over 130 countries, including the UN Secretary General and even Trump's delegation decided to turn up.....why I have no idea! So many streets blockaded and thousands of police.

The massive police presence making it a bit tricky for this fella!

But not so much for this one!

Or his buddies!

This group of three were taken in, around and through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (not just Jews but Hitler's other little friends too). It's, basically, a series of rectangular concrete blocks covering an area of about 200,000 sq feet (20,000m2). I fail to see the artist's 'vision' (not for the first time!) but it was an impressive 'monument' and given full prominence as well, just across from the US Embassy.

Staying with WWII, the infamous Checkpoint Charlie - a bit 'token' now but a big draw with the tourists. The lovely tapas bar Mundo 2 we visited (twice!) was just off camera to the right - lovely food, friendly staff, very easy on the wallet and only a couple of hundred metres from our hotel.

Yeah, it's sort of a building but shot in the style of a street scene (!). Just off Alexanderplatz, I just liked the vibe round here. And it's 'a wall' which links nicely to the next section......

THE WALL

Hard to believe but it's approaching 36 years since 'the wall came down'. This is maybe because we are now so freakin' old!!! I explained it to Ellie (HK) who was 5 at the time!

I guess this is the disheartening view you might get if you were trying to scale it

And I told you that blasted TV tower gets everywhere!

Some of the spectacular artwork adorning the wall

Where the wall meets modern infrastructure at one of the river bridges

And an imaginatively named boat!

One of the guard houses set into the wall

And I suppose this is a bit of a play on words........ some 'wall art' A carefully put together panel of the actual wall mounted on a modern building wall with visible reinforced concrete steelwork 'framing' the composition.

And that was Berlin! I hope you enjoyed the images as much as I enjoyed making them. Hopefully this little collection will encourage you to visit this unique city.

HONG KONG (third try!)

Hong Kong is a city of contrasts. We first visited in December 2019, just as the early stories about Wuhan and 'a virus' were starting to emerge. We stayed at the wonderful Icon Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui and kidnapped their most English-fluent concierge. A few vc's later, we adopted her! This enabled us to go back for round two - after a break of 4 years and about half a dozen Covid shots each! In January 2024....... a week or so after we returned, Helen uttered her, by now commonplace, "BA have their sale on" catchphrase and we booked for California (see below). In almost the same breath she 'wondered' how much we could get a business class flight to HK for. Well it proved to be more than first class to California but those nice people over at Air France/KLM were happy to take our money nevertheless. Being of a certain age, long haul is starting to become a (literal) pain and so we are now fully paid up members of the lie-flat bed club. HK in 2023 was in Premium Economy, so we did try to curb our profligate spending! Anyway, thanks to what is proving to be the trickiest bit of any multi-leg journey (unavoidable when you live in Northumberland) - airline cancellations and changes - we ended up going out on KLM and back on Air France. A (very familiar to us now) Boeing 777 out and - a new plane alert! - an Airbus 350 coming back. Our stay courtesy of Dan and Elly who are very tolerant of us and put themselves out no end to ensure our comfort, safety and enjoyment. True stars!

Anyway, returning to the city of contrasts bit (!) if you close one eye and ignore the fact HK is composed almost entirely of skyscrapers, restaurants and shops and so could be regarded as very non-contrasty. However, there are skyscrapers and skyscrapers, restaurants and restaurants and shops and shops. I've tried to bring some of that out in the images below and the accompanying blurb will explain what I mean. I've been quite good (honestly!) at limiting the number of skyscraper images, so hopefully this trawl through won't be too tedious for you. Enjoy!

People and food

After 'Goblim' Flowing Heart Egg Crisp Cheeze flavor wafers, it's all downhill from here! Unlike the States - where we had to take out a mortgage to pay the tip, let alone the food bill, you can dine out like a King in HK for a fiver........no, seriously. And, what's a tip? We slashed our spendies budget in half, despite eating out in restaurants every day, sometimes a couple of meals and a breakfast 'snack'. Every type of Asian food you could dream of and a few worthy attempts at Western food too. I even ate fish and chips on Lamma Island - purely in the interests of research. And who knew Korean pizza could be so good!

Seriously though, this section will be one of the biggest. Not only is HK a foody paradise but it is the people and the food we get so much of a kick out of. It's part of the daily routine for us and so many HK-ers. I suspect food will even creep into other sections. It's all-pervasive over there, from its wet markets with their stunning and ludicrously cheap produce through to more Michelin-starred establishments than you could shake a stick at....... but more of that later!

Starting modest and working up, the HK equivalent of a McFlurry. That's the McFlurry on the left and one of my favourite pictures of Helen eating said delicacy. Sweet Potato ice cream - it's the future!

This time we sadly only had Umi (Elly's little helper) for the first couple of days as she had business elsewhere for the remainder of the holidays. However........ never one to be put off by hard work........ it's almost impossible to stop her cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, snacks for you. Here's just one example of the gorgeous tasty food she works so hard to produce. I'm salivating on my desk!

Hot Pot time with Dan and Elly!

A recommendation from a Chinese-Medicine Doctor, no less......not sure what he would think about having private dining rooms where you can smoke or vape at the table......a first for a few decades for me!

A very common sight in many windows around the city.

And a stunning example of how it might end up if you go to the right places. We'd been good and only had two half ducks between three of us, instead of our customary three halves!

Ducklicious - purveyors of the stunning duck and pancakes you see (above right) is one of our favourite restaurants. Visit count this time was just two...... but could easily have been three or four! Despite the display of gluttony with the multiple ducks, we always manage to have some 'little extra' (or BIG extra if truth be told!). Our 2024 tour saw such delights as sweet and sour fish, lobster in cheese sauce and prawns in salt egg-flavoured breadrumb coating. My desk is in danger again!

Staying on a theme of poultry.......here's a lovely fresh example from the wet market in Tsuen Wan West, where we stayed. This lady was determined to pose for the 'white person' with the camera. One of two stand-out personalities we met there.

Also at the market, this gentleman was a very popular fishmonger.

Doesn't this just have you scrambling for your knife and fork! Chopsticks just aren't fast enough!

In the markets, on the streets.......

....... In the malls

Now, one of the things you soon realise in HK, is that Michelin operate ever so slightly differently! I posted a pic of us in our converted washroom on FB while we were away but here is the main part of the restaurant......it's a few levels below school dinners isn't it! We had our feet on wet corrugated cardboard and supply/rubbish carrier bags underneath our countertop. A good few of the HK Michelin establishments like Kam's Roast Goose and Tim Ho Wan's dim sum places are similar. Clearly the concentration over there is on the quality and taste of the food, rather than ambience and stylish service.

A lot of the food is VERY fresh!

A fascinating one to finish off the food pics. This was actually part of our Christmas lunch! A great little family Thai place in Kowloon City where the ladies worked at tables in the back of the seating area chopping and preparing ingredients. Lovely friendly service and (yet another first - HK is full of them!) the dish on the far left......looks like Scotch Egg......is actually something called 'Century Egg' - eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks or months to the extent that the white in particular assumes a completely different colour and texture. Very tasty!

When I arrived in Kennedy Town, at the very east end of HK Island, I wasn't really sure what was going on. There were more girls than this but the shot shows the 'logic' which eventually helped me work out what they were doing.......without being too nosey and intrusive!

Part of my confusion arose from being a photographer who is not into selfie culture and other forms of modern 'look at me' behaviour. The background was poor.......a murky distant view of Kowloon and a mid distance with road Armco barriers, signs and litter bins. However, for some reason, Kowloon must be this month's de rigeur backdrop for aspiring fashionistas! In a style so very telling about the polite culture in HK, the girls were 'forming an orderly queue' to have their photo taken by an accompanying friend, then swapping subject and photographer so they had their turn. You can see the girl in the beige mac at the right hand side adopting the classic Asian photo pose while her friend in the winter-defying black shorts plays David Bailey. Weird!

And last, but certainly not least a very small, hairy person. At a sprightly 15 years of age, Muffin is adorable and kept us entertained in between meals. If you're wondering about the jaunty apparel....... medical reasons!

Celebrations

One of the most common questions we got asked when friends found out we were 'going away for Xmas' was....... 'do they celebrate Xmas in HK?' The short answer is - not really. The commercial answer would however beg to differ. You'll see some of the decorations in the coming few images. HK-ers make more to do about the Winter Solstice than Xmas. This decoration was taken on my last day out and about, at the base of the massive 118 storey International Commerce Centre (13th tallest building in the world) and is ready for Chinese New Year - more familiar as an Asian key date.

But, back to Christmas. The mall underneath where we were staying.

And a, somewhat grander, effort from our good friends at Dior, outside K11 Musea on TST Promenade....... just in case you thought I was exaggerating about how big commerce view the uncelebrated event!

The first of three (handheld!) attempts at capturing the magnificent 12 minute display of fireworks over the harbour to welcome in the (non-Chinese) New Year.

Fireworks a la Monet!

Taken from the 51st floor of The Arch, atop Kowloon MTR station.

Planes, trains and automobiles

........and boats and ambulances!

KLM did a great job once we got to Schipol. The lounge there was really done out with an eye for design and some nice festive touches.

A rather nice touch was the model Delft house display either side of the escalators heading up to the restaurant.

And the provision of a massage function on their seats - another first for us.

Once in HK we lost no time re-acquainting ourselves with their MTR rapid transit system.......the tube but with clean, safe, spacious and airy stations........

........and trains!

Many of the stations are vast underground cities. Even a 'small' station like our 'home' one at Tsuen Wan West (above) can have multiple levels and several access points, linking to malls etc. Here's an example from HK MTR station which gives you some idea of the complexity attached to a medium/large station complex. Stations like East Tsim Sha Tsui can have dozens of exits and, depending on which ones you choose, have you going downstairs at one end of TST Promenade and coming up almost at the other end....... that's almost the length of the main HK harbour waterfront on the Kowloon side!

And some even have facilities to check-in your luggage during the day for an evening flight. Thirty check-in desks at this station alone.......that's as big as Newcastle airport! You can relax, safe in the knowledge your luggage will be taken to the airport for you so you don't have to lug it around town or pay for a left luggage facility.

Some methods of transport aren't quite so modern! The 'ding ding' stems from 1904.

And this one continues to perpetuate the Xmas myth!

But perhaps my favourite mode of transport is the 19th Century 'Star' Ferry.......best almost free view for about 30p!

If Postman Pat made ambulances! One of the tiny ambulances on Lamma Island.

And home, for the first time on an Airbus A350-900

Shenzhen

Or a day trip to 'proper' China.

With Shenzhen only being just over half an hour away from the station beside where our HK adventure first started in 2019 it seemed stupid not to visit when we had the services of a fluent English/ Mandarin/ Cantonese/ Indonesian/ etc/ etc speaker to smooth the linguistic challenges for us. Shenzhen is third only to Beijing and Shanghai in Chinese city population size at around 18m. Its GDP has now surpassed that of HK and is in the top 10 of largest economies. It has the fifth highest rating for number of billionaires, second for the number of skyscrapers and has the fifth highest one of those in the world, a frustrating metre short of being 600m tall! Read on for titbits from our short trip (Chinese immigration turned out to be more of an issue than we expected, so we only had a few hours there after lengthy walks between HK and China immigration, returning and then back again for another try!). They probably saw my CTC security clearance level and thought I was a spy!

A nice stroll to start! No, this isn't the Chinese equivalent of those awful shipping container 'Stack' blots on the landscape. Instead, immaculately clean mobile food stalls for roll-out at local events.

The alleyways were just as 'mind-bogglingly compact' as some of the HK ones, but a lot cleaner underfoot.

Back to what I mentioned earlier about HK's contrasts. It's mostly high-end or low-rent, with not a a lot in between. The number of men and women swilling pavements clean in Shenzhen was quite something. Brought back memories of granny cleaning her front step!

This mural was very large and very well done.

A lilac Tesla with a Swarovski crystal bling boot badge.......Helen couldn't resist this one!

And who knew Xiaomi made cars as well as mobile phones!

It's not just the great cities of Europe who enjoy pavement cafes!

And, continuing with the food theme, how's about some of this........

Or this........

Or these totally yummy skewers? Yours for 30p!

The Environment

Back to HK and a collection of what, I guess, could be called 'miscellaneous' but this sounds more enigmatic, plus it does centre around the built environment. So, one last cuppa, then you're ready to go!

And I suppose a good place to start is where we stayed - Tsuen Wan West. This is my 'aal porpose' (Geordie dialect word, for those in exotic parts who won't understand what I am on about) shot of TWW. This is what I refer to as the TWW 'High Street' - Yeung Uk Road - it's not the biggest road, but fronts many of the stores, restaurants and housing.

It's back to my 'contrasts' theorem again. The left hand side, quite swanky, the right not so much. However, it's the best 'average' view I took during my time here to offer a realistic picture of life in TWW.

And, for completeness, here's the right hand side. Somewhat run down but I always felt when we crossed that bridge (light blue, extreme rhs) to some of the restaurants on the other side, it was very photogenic. Shoot me for sounding like a pretentious prat!

Staying in TWW, those of you who followed our travels in 2023 will be sick to death of this view by now........BUT........what a view! A quick trio as samples of the dozens I've taken 'over the years'.

Rush hour!

That famous sunset!

From luxurious vistas to luxurious living. Dior's stunning facade to their 'shop' in the Hallmark Mall.

Not a 5 star hotel reception area but the entrance lobby to The Arch 'apartment block' - where we watched the NY Eve fireworks from. These types of buildings are stunning, both from an aesthetic and architectural point of view. I could post pics of them until you all fell asleep. What do you mean, you have fallen asleep!

Mixing things up a bit with a switch to the wildlife environment. Turtles/ terrapins/ whatever you want to call them are very common in HK. A lot of basking going on, seeing as it was a perishingly cold 70F! Meanwhile, back home, brass monkeys were lagging themselves!

A beautiful spotted dove on Lamma Island.

Also on Lamma Island.......WTF! Dogs basking on sand bars while an Egret looks on. They were so stock still we thought they were dead for a good while until one flicked an ear.

Continuing with the WTF theme.......just what you normally find at your typical town bus stop!

A little back alley interlude to get you away from the beauty of nature and some of HK's architecture. I've borrowed a couple from our 2019 trip as I visited Chungking Mansions again this time but didn't risk the camera (!). (Still) trying to keep the contrasts theorem going and, although I don't have any truly mucky examples, you can't deny these locations aren't as pristine as in Shenzhen!

My favourite from Chunking! You can't believe, a mere stone's throw away from this dubious location, the shops of Rado and Rolex abound. Yes, you may be approached in the street asking if you would like to buy a 'Rolex', but I mean the real Rolex shop!

Two very similar images, again from Chungking. This first one is more to provide some recognisable context as........

........trying to fathom what umbrellas and cables are doing all mixed-up in one image might not be so easy otherwise!

More visually chaotic as dark and dingy......but you get the idea!

And there's no disputing that this structure has seen better days! These last two from Lamma Island.

A little light relief needed after that last foray into HK's seamier side. This one should, strictly speaking, have gone into the people and food section but the overall architectural context saw it moved here instead, so there!

Another 'pretty' one. A mural on the jetty at Kennedy Town. Those girls should have taken their pics here instead!

One of Helen's of an entranceway into Kowloon Park. I like the Park, there are surprises round every corner.

What we really need around here is some more PINK! I think, although the mind is going, this is somewhere beside the MoMA shop in K11 Musea.

Back to HK MTR station...... you're never more than 100m from a MTR station in HK....... unless your feet are tired that is!

Just stepping outside the station for a bit...... the pics don't stop once you get out either.

Or indeed, even if you go up on the roof!

Light and shade. These benches are very popular come lunchtime.

A big stitched panorama from the roof garden looking across to Kowloon. The International Commerce Centre (I mentioned its 118 storeys earlier) to the left. And K11 Musea (also mentioned previously) the tall dark building to the right.

Last one from the roof garden.

I was saving all the lookie up at skyscrapers ones till towards the end....... lull you into a false sense of security!

That's it, I promise!

Something quite different to contrast. Gotta love all the reading material outside HK restaurants. I think it's because a lot of them have queues at peak times!

Another photographer-y one, like the grubby flats in TWW.

And finally. A very typical covered walkway on HK Island.

So, there you have it........ HK 2024/25. My first ever Christmas away from home. Did I care......no! I nearly got brussel sprouts on the 25th though...... that lovely family-run Thai place in Kowloon City had them on the menu as part of a dish we nearly ordered. That would have been fun. But, if it meant missing out on the century egg......no way!

At this age you are never quite sure whether or not you will ever get back to see places. However, HK is a jewel and, thanks to the generosity of our friends, we have managed to spend far more time there than your average English tourist.

If we do get back sometime, I'll try and get up some really mucky alleys for you!

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