Gudrun's photos

Built in 1909-1912 by Max Littmann the Opera house is home to both the Stuttgart opera and the Stuttgart Ballet . de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staatstheater_Stuttgart

In the skerries south of Brønnøysund on board MS Vesterålen.

On board MS Kong Harald HFF everyone!

Somewhere along the coast of Sør-Trøndelag north of Trondheim...

Taken from MS Vesterålen sailing out of Rørvik, Kp-index was 5-6. All photos were taken within seconds of one another at 10.02 p.m.

Aurora over Vestfjord (0:43 a.m.) with a bright moon and the light of Landegode Fyr. It was clear enough to see the Lofoten Islands in the distance. The inset photo was taken at 1.05 a.m. and shows Landegode Island (both photos taken from Hurtigruten ship MS Polarlys)

A brief break in the clouds afforded a view of the aurora over Skjervøy. When MS Polarlys left harbour it started snowing again... The star constellations explained by Ko: www.ipernity.com/doc/1072793/40610094

Water powered prayer mills are a common sight in Bhutan, this one is in Bumthang valley near the end of the motorable road ( the prayer mill is inside the little building)

Thangbi Lhakhang is a Nyingmapa monastery in upper Choekhor (Bumthang) valley. It was founded in 1470 by the 4th Shamar Rinpoche of the Karma Kagyu school but subsequently taken over by Pema Lingpa and run as a Nyingmapa temple. The iron curtain in front of the main temple (see inset photo) is attributed to Pema Lingpa himself. Typically for Nyingmapa monasteries, Thangbi is run by 20 gomchen (married lay monks) who live as farmers in houses grouped round the Lhakhang (see inset photo) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Lingpa

A field of flowering buckwheat in the valley of Bumthang Chhu (2600-2700m). HFF everybody!

"The margins of Waimangu Stream from Frying Pan Lake to east of Inferno Crater are covered with delicate silica formations and colourful mineral deposits containing traces of arsenic, molybdenum, antimony, and tungsten, while the stream bed is home to blue-green algae and filamentous colonies of the photosynthetic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus in a range of colours from bright green to orange. In the midst of this area is the picturesque Bird's Nest Terrace, a delicate silica terrace with the small volcano-shaped Bird's Nest Spring atop continuously erupting near boiling-hot water about 1 metre (3 ft) high. The terrace is covered in blue-green algae, which cannot survive in the hot stream of water running down from the spring, providing a colourful contrast of green and orange." (Wiki)

View over the upper part of Waimangu Volcanic Valley with Mount Tarawera in the background. Steam can be seen rising from Frying Pan Lake, Cathedral Rocks (made up of 60.000 year old rhyolitic lava) and Inferno Crater with its underwater geyser. Frying Pan Lake and Inferno Crater Lake are interconnected in a unique and complicated 38-day hydrothermal cycle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_Crater_Lake Waimangu geology See inset photos and notes

Frying Pan Lake is the world's largest hot spring. It is situated in Echo Crater in Waimangu Volcanic Valley , a 17km long rift opened up by the 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption. Frying Pan Lake was created in 1917 by a hydrothermal eruption. It is acidic and has a temperature of 50-60°C. www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Volcanoes/New-Zealand-Volcanoes/Volcano-Geology-and-Hazards/Waimangu-Geology

View from Mount Victoria over Devonport, Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, Auckland Harbour Bridge and North Shore EXIF: 1/125 • f/11.0 • 38.0 mm • ISO 100/ Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL/ 18.0-200.0 mm - Panorama stitched from 14 verticals

Devonport, Waitemata Harbour and Auckland Skyline from Mount Victoria

View from Mount Victoria towards Rangitoto Island and Auckland North Shore. Rangitoto is the most recent of the ca. 50 volcanoes of Auckland volcanic field . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangitoto_Island www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Volcanoes/New-Zealand-Volcanoes/Volcano-Geology-and-Hazards/Auckland-Volcanic-Field-Geology EXIF: 1/125 • f/11.0 • 38.0 mm • ISO 100/ Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL/ 70.0-200.0 mm - Panorama stitched from 12 verticals

On a winter morning at Hammerfest a hearse is waiting to board northbound MS Nordnorge. This is rather a common sight in northern Norway, where the boat often is the most reliable way to get around. That day most roads in Finnmark were closed due to storm and MS Nordnorge needed several attempts to get into harbour. HFF everybody!

Sun going down over Bøkfjorden at 1.30 p.m. The fog over the water (Frostrøyk) is caused by the temperature difference between air (below -20°C) and water