Tuesday Night in Jena

Posted on January 9, 2018 by vanbraman

Today was another busy day in the classroom, so I was ready for a bit of relaxation this evening. After walking home in the dark again and finishing some work in my hotel room I headed into the city center for some shopping and then a bite to eat.

TeeGschwendner, Jena, Germany, Tea, Loose Tea, shopping

Since Saturday I have been looking forward to another visit to TeeGschwendner. I have been studying their Teebuch to see what other teas I wanted to take home with me. Tonight I bought three more bags of tea and also got a sample of another tea I wanted to try. Once I get home I will write more about the teas and also the new tea pot that I bought on Saturday.

I really enjoyed my visit to the shop tonight and the wonderful help that I received in choosing my teas.

Wagnergasse, Jena, Germany, Restaurants

After visiting TeeGschwendner I headed to the Wagnergasse to meet up with some of my students for dinner.

Versillia, Jena, Germany, Wagnergasse, Italian Restaurant

We met up at Versilia which is just past one of my favorite place to eat Restauration Stilbruch.

One of my students is from Italy and he highly recommended this Italian restaurant. He promised authentic pizza so I decided to join some of my students there after I finished shopping.

Prosciutto Pizza, Jena, Germany, Restaurant, Pizza, Italian

Here is the Prosciutto pizza that I had for dinner. It was definitely a great Italian pizza.

We had a good time together as we enjoyed our pizzas and talked about our different countries. We talked a lot about food 🙂 The students that were there live in Israel, Lebanon, France and Italy so we had a lot to talk about.

Italian Dessert, Ice Cream Spaghetti

I decided to have dessert and wanted to just have some simple ice cream, but they only had this interesting dish called Spaghetti ice cream.  The centerpiece was ice cream formed in the shape of spaghetti. I was not impressed as it seemed a lot more like an ice cream novelty than an actual dessert you would get in a nice restaurant.

Definitely go for the pizza, but skip the Spaghetti ice cream. Two of my students liked the tiramisu that they had, but the student from Italy said that his wife’s is much better 🙂

Now for one more day in the classroom and the long journey home.

Steven

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Fall to Winter in Jena

Posted on January 8, 2018 by vanbraman

During my last trip to Jena I shared some comparison shots of how much the fall color had changed in two weeks. See: Fall Two Weeks Later

Tonight I will share some comparisons from fall to winter.

jena, germany, walk to work

Here is a view from three months ago of my walk to the office.

Walk to work, Winter, Jena, Germany

Here is the same spot on my way to work on Friday. The pictures were taken at about the same time of day. You can see how much darker it is and also that the trees are completely free of leaves.

Jena, Germany, Trail, trees

Here is another picture taken on Saturday that shows the area in better light. It is not quite as gloomy with the sun shining. However, you can still see a big contrast between fall and winter.

Red leaves, Trees, Germany, Fall, Autumn

Here is the street our office is on in the height of fall. The trees are full of leaves and very colorful.

Winter, No leaves, Office street, contrast

Here you see the picture from Friday and the big contrast between fall and winter. Much more colorful in fall 🙂

Saale River, Fall, Germany, Jena, Germany, Colorful treesHere is a view of the Saale River in fall. You can see the beautiful color in the trees.

Saale River, Jena, Germany, Winter View

Here is a picture taken on Saturday. There is still some residual color in the trees, but definitely a lot less leaves. The river is also very full with runoff from the winter rains that Jena is receiving.

Definitely a lot of change since my trips here during the fall.

Alas, I can only imagine what it would look like with a bit of snow.

Steven

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