So when Scott and I were in Berlin during week 275, we met a few of our local friends in the park – even those who have no love for Sundays at Mauerpark. A big thanks to everyone who came out to hang with us that day and night and during our brief fly-by Berlin visit. I love you all so much!

For those of you who follow other expat travel blogs from Berlin, you might recognize Nicole of nicoleisthenewblack.com and Cheryl of CherylHoward.com. If you don’t know them yet, go check out their awesome travel reports and photographs!

Mauerpark is located (just steps from my apartment) in the Prenzlauer Berg district. Its name derives from the fact that it used to be part of the Berlin Wall death zone (then on the border or East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg and West Berlin’s Wedding). Today it has two bars that serve food and drinks (Mauersegler and Schoenwetter), an outdoor amphitheater that hosts the Bearpit Karaoke and semi-permanent stalls that house the Mauerpark Flohmarkt – both only on Sundays.

If you would like to see another Mauerpark video, please watch the one I did about the flea market in 2010: Mauerpark Flea Market – In A Berlin Minute (Week 17)

And for another video from Prenzlauer Berg: Prenzlauer Berg – In A Berlin Minute (Week 162)

The music in this video is the instrumental version of the song “Are You Having Fun?” by the talented, productive and generous Josh Woodward. This song is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 US License.

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

As so often the 1-minute version of this video doesn’t really do justice to all that could be seen. And in this case I actually accidentally at first edited a 2-minute version (I’ve got a head cold). So there’ll be a longer Moving Postcard soon.

For now please enjoy the mini versions of Reichstag, Brandenburger Tor, Sowjetisches Mahnmal, Siegessaeule (Goldelse), Bahnhof Zoo, Tiergarten, Alexanderplatz, Alexa, Neptunbrunnen, Park Inn, Fernsehturm, Die Mauer (The Wall), a Turkish family in the park, abandoned buildings, metal artists, street art, a concert, dinosaurs, cops and lots and lots of trains. The only thing I didn’t capture well was a tram. Also Mauerpark Fleamarket and Karaoke are missing from Loxx altogether.

The song “Lollipop” was written and produced by Jason Matherne. Find him on Soundcloud.

On a side note, the night I first met him, David of the andberlin blog suggested I should do an In A Berlin Minute video about Berlin LOXX. He in turn had found out about the place through a post by James and Zoe on their uberlin blog. Thanks for the tip, British Berlin bloggers!

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

Because of time and space constraints in this video, I couldn’t include all the details of all 10 Colorado facts. So here are a few more details:

While the name Colorado does come from the Spanish words for red-colored (de color rojo), it was the Colorado River that first got its name because of the red sediment washing down from the mountains. The state was then named after the river.

While there are 4 National Parks in Colorado, I left out the number of National Monuments and National Historic Sites also under federal jurisdiction – all added up there are 11 or 13, depending on which list you trust. Altogether, the federal government owns 1/3 of land in the state of Colorado.

Ghost towns! There actually are supposed to be 1,500 ghost towns in this state. A ghost town is a town or settlement that once existed but is no more – and that would include towns that have completely disappeared without a trace. In this 10 Colorado facts video, I decided to go with the number of 641 ghost towns that refers to places that still have abandoned buildings or at least some remnants. I’d like to contrast that with the number of actual inhabited towns and cities in the state, which is only 221. Yes, Colorado has more ghost towns than live towns! Awesome factoid!

In case you’re wondering what “mean elevation” is: it’s basically the average elevation. There are more complicated ways to explain and define it – but let’s just leave it at that for now. In the case of Colorado, the mean elevation and lowest point matter to define it as the “highest state” because if it was just about highest point, Alaska would win since Denali has a higher than any Colorado mountain. Also, marijuana is legal in Alaska.

Claiming that Colorado was first in any marijuana legalization was a bit tricky. Because both Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana in 2012 in theory – and then both allowed the sale through shops in 2014; Colorado just did it a few months earlier. There are claims that medical marijuana was first in Colorado as well (2000) – but then there is California with its policy changes in the 1990s. It got to time-consuming to figure out all the minute details of legislation and timing. So I kept it simple for the video.

In my research for this 10 Colorado facts video, I found out that some “known facts” about Colorado are actually not true. The often repeated phrase “Colorado has 300 sunny days a year” just started as a promotional slogan for a railroad company in 1870 and is not based in fact – although the sun does shine most days in Colorado. Thank the universe!

Also, Colorado currently does not have the most craft breweries and brew pubs per capita in the US. That would be Vermont with 9.4 breweries per 100,000 21+ adults. Colorado comes in third (7.3 breweries per 100,000 21+ adults) – according to the Brewers Association. By the way, Colorado is in second place when it comes to consumption of craft beers…

Last but not least, there are a lot of interesting facts I couldn’t fit in the video. For example, the cheeseburger was supposedly invented in Colorado by Louis Ballast, and the first license plate was put on a car in 1908 in Denver.

All the footage in this video, I took from other 1-minute In A Colorado Minute videos. If you want to check those out, go ahead and explore more of Colorful Colorado (the slogan that used to be on Colorado license plates):

Garden of the Gods – In A Colorado Minute (Week 250)

Colorado Sunset Time-Lapse – In A Colorado Minute (Week 341)

Red Rocks – In A Colorado Minute (Week 237)

Rocky Mountain National Park – In A Colorado Minute (Week 208)

Marijuana Strains (Selection from Flower Power Botanicals) – In A Colorado Minute (Week 257)

Royal Gorge Bridge – In A Colorado Minute (Week 300)

Pikes Peak Summit – In A Colorado Minute (Week 280)

Ghost Town Carr – In A Colorado Minute (Week 186)

Fort Collins – In A Colorado Minute (Week 318)

The featured song is the instrumental version of “Aimless” by Josh Woodward (JoshWoodward.com). The song is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Thank you again and again, Josh!

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This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

From Fort Collins, the Rocky Mountain National Park is only a little over an hour away by car, and the drive via Highway 34 takes you through Thompson Canyon along the Big Thompson river. Thompson Canyon features rock walls that rival those of Poudre Canyon road (Highway 14). If you come this way, you will find the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park in the town Estes Park.

So it was an easy choice to take a little road trip with my friend Judith Hecktor, who was visiting from Berlin (and has been featured in quite a few videos from Berlin, Brooklyn and other road trip videos). As you can see in the video she gets along smashingly with our dog Whiskey.

This area is truly stunning with its contrast of big mountains, deep meadows, running rivers, colorful rocks, a variety of plants and wildlife everywhere.

The last time, I visited Rocky Mountain National Park was in August, in the heat of the summer. Even then you could still find snow on some of the peaks. Unfortunately, now in April, there was still so much snow that some of the higher roads were closed. But I’m sure I’ll be back to film, explore and show this beautiful nature park to other visiting friends throughout the summer. Scott and I may even go on a camping venture up there or stay in one of the cabins along the river… Whatever we do, I’m sure I’ll share a video with you afterwards.

On the plus side of checking out this park in the winter: so much snow has fallen that entire lakes, hiking trails and the signs for those locations are buried in the snow, which adds a different kind of drama to your photographic or videographic experience.

While the fee to get in is $20, the ticket is valid for an entire week – at least at this time of the year. And there’s so much else to explore in the vicinity, like staying at The Stanley Hotel, which was the inspiration for Stephen King’s novel “The Shinning” and where some of the TV show has been filmed, or taking the aerial tramway… So yeah, I’ll be back soon…

The featured song is the instrumental version of “Saturday” – a song written and performed by Josh Woodward (JoshWoodward.com), who kindly makes his music available via a Creative Commons License.

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

To get to the Tri-State Marker, where the US states Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska meet, you have to turn off a dirt road unto some dirt tracks across a field and hope that your four-wheel-drive will get you through the deep dips by the windmill and that there actually is a marker on this field. There is!

There are no signs by any of the roads or dirt tracks that will assure you that you’re headed in the right direction. The only way I found it was by following the GPS coordinates, which weren’t exactly accurate (N 41° 01 W 104° 03) and eventually just turning onto the field near the coordinates on a wing, a prayer and the intense winds up there this week.

Because this was definitely one of those cases of the journey itself being the destination, I’m showing you some of the roads leading there and our trusted 4Runner. Because the wind was so intense, I also kept some shots that are a bit wind-wobbly and one of Whiskey with her ears blowing in the wind.

Coming from Colorado, I first drove into Wyoming (Co Rd 161) and then headed back south a bit (Co Rd 164). The areas in both those states leading up to the tri-point are so beautiful (Pawnee Grassland and the Pine Bluffs) that I highly recommend this excursion and I plan to return for more hiking and filming. Expect to see a video on the abandoned farms of the Pawnee soon…

An interesting fact: In 1896, the original marker was placed a few hundred feet away from where the states where actually supposed to meet. Instead of moving the marker, the powers that be found it easier to redraw the map. So this marker actually determined where the boundaries are, which makes this place a little more important than it seems (considering there are no signs to find it).

By the way, the highest point in Nebraska, Panorama Point, is not far from there. Again, I plan to go back to that area…

The song in this video is called “Mountain Sun” and was written and performed by Jason Shaw, who made this song available via the CC BY 3.0 license. Thank you for all your great (and free) music, Jason!

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

I was inspired to have her shoot such a video this week because with all the unsettling turmoil in the world, like terrorists attacks and the ridiculous, but frightening new US president, I was feeling envy towards her simple life. With all the stress surrounding so many of us, don’t you wish you could spend a day in the life of a dog?

One minute makes for a very short day. I tried to include all the highlights (getting up, breakfast, checking on the yard, getting dressed, driving around, fetching a ball, jumping in the Poudre River, walking on ice, running some more, swimming, doing tricks to entertain the humans, walking home, waiting for dinner, steak (!) dinner and going back to bed. But all the highlights are naturally very short in this version.

Please let me know in the comments if you would like to see a longer, slower version of A Day in the Life of a Dog… or if you’d like to see a (longer) Whiskey Guide to Arapaho Bend Natural Area (with lots of more running, jumping, swimming, fetching…).

The song in this video is the instrumental version of “Goodbye To Spring” by Josh Woodward. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Thank you, Josh!

Check out more videos featuring Whiskey Dog in her sub-series Whiskey Business.

I’ll be posting a few photos of Whiskey Dog’s shoot throughout this week to the In A Colorado Minute 2017 Flickr album, on Google+ and Facebook and there will be is now a picture post on my blog: Photos from Whiskey’s video shoot at Arapaho Bend

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This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard

My original plan was to share a video of autumn wildflowers and autumn leaves I happened to have filmed while out filming another video. But then I went out on two specific excursions just to capture these fall bloomers and all the other beautiful leaves, seedpods and autumn vistas. The second excursion to “pick some flowers for you” happened this morning after I had already started editing… the weather was just too beautiful to not get some more… This is, of course, also the reason why this video is a little bit late.

I filmed all the footage for this video in Fort Collins, Colorado (at Riverbend Ponds Natural Area, Running Deer Natural Area, in a secret location along the Cache la Poudre River) except for the last shot of the Aspen in their autumn color along County Road 59, just south of Wyoming.

A few notes on some of the shots: The first shot is not a photo, but actually video… suddenly there wasn’t the tiniest gust of wind. The grasshopper is alive; it just held on for dear life while the wind was blowing. The warbling in the close-up shots of Longs Peak and Horsetooth Rock must be caused by the heat that was spreading when the powerful Colorado sun finally warmed everything up again after a freezing night.

The song I used in the video is the instrumental version of “Thanks For Coming” by Josh Woodward. With that beautiful slide guitar, it might just be my favorite song by Josh Woodward. This song, as most of his music, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Josh, you’re awesome for writing beautiful music and letting us use it for our videos!

I took tons of photos of autumn wildflowers and autumn leaves this week and in the preceding weeks. So I’ll be posting a bunch of photos throughout this week to the In A Colorado Minute 2016 Flickr album, on Google+ and Facebook and there’s a dedicated post on my blog: Photos of autumn wildflowers and fall foliage in Colorado. Look out!

This entry was originally published on Moving Postcard