Kato's travels...: 2009

7/05/2009

Perching

Waiting to pick up the remains of my burger.

5/22/2009

Campus

Mannheim Engineering College. Half of it anyway. Taken from the center building, a 12-level highrise.

The yellow bridge is new, and is replacing an older bridge in that place. Since the traffic rolling across it is important, the blue bridge next to it was built and will be torn down again once the yellow one is finished in four to six weeks. The old bridge was greenish-brown btw.

Last Exit: Suite.

Club in Mannheim, last event happening this weekend before the club closes permanently. Will make way for a four-lane freeway and a highrise building, both part of an urban redevolpment project.

Tree

... with clouds.

Bay

Local district is trying to make the Neckar river a bit more ... "natural". So in this place, an artificial bay is being dug into the side of a Neckar side canal used by shipping. The wall of the canal is still in place, probably until the bay is properly finished.

Bridge

Oldest railway bridge in the state or something like that. Other side in this and this post.

Clouds Again

"Best Form Ever"

Sticker of the Antifascist Initiative Heidelberg. As in the local Black Bloc. And a group that's sorta being watched by domestic intelligence for anti-governmental activity.

At Night

Club entrance on a rainy night at Mannheim central station.

What?

Clear "are you messing with me" stance.

Lizards #2

... and this is one of the luxury houses, for 6-8 lizards living in a double. Note decorative tree stump added for aesthetics, the apartment blocks instead get smaller and less aesthetic tree stumps spread here and there. Lawn is still being seeded in the luxury quarters.

The apartment blocks instead also have a number of public playgrounds, and, unlike the luxury quarters, are closer connected to the Lizard Highway so they can uh... go work or something.

And yes, i'm serious. The city is investing 4 million bucks into resettling 1500 lizards like this.

Lizards #1

The city here is currently building a new suburb. Problem is: the protected lizards living there have to go first. So they built them a new suburb of their own. At 2500 bucks for each lizard on average.

However, can't have them all living on the same standards. So these here are the cheaper apartment blocks...

Overgrown

Least useful sign location ever.

Lazy

First pic taken with my new Ixus 85 IS. On the way home from work ^^;

3/24/2009

Closed

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Underground level of Mannheim Central Station. At 10 pm the last shops in there close.

Ramp

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Tram ramp accessing the underground station under the mall. There are two more complicated ramps on the other side of the building, the only underground part is the station itself - originally built as part of a larger metro system that was never finished.

Modern Architecture

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This is a supermarket in Walldorf.

Glasshouse

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Same building as this, shot from the parking deck top of the mall part.

Disc

Weird new building in Mannheim. No idea what its purpose is. The floating disc is more than 30 meters (about 100 ft) across.

Lighting

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Mannheim Planetarium (the pyramid) and surrounding area at last daylight.

3/22/2009

Other Site

I've put one of my older pages back online.

That one contains a number of longer trips i've taken around the area, hundreds of pics mostly with in-depth descriptions.

Can be found at kato.bplaced.net