Around the Island - 環島 (huán dǎo) - Part 3

In spring time, when the sun start to shine more, european young ladies run to the sunlight and compete who will get tanned more quickly. That is not the case in Taiwan. Ladies protect themselves against sunlight as much as they can. Sometimes the results is interesting like this. Still to this day I don't know what this person look like even though I was riding bicycle with her for one week. This photo is so cool.

Symposium Sculpture Lorentzweiler 2013

The town of Lorentzweiler organize each year the so called "Symposium de Sculpture". I am ignorant of art and therefore had to ask my buddy Don Esaias what does "Symposium" mean. He explained that in ancient Greece, the symposium (Greek συμπόσιον symposion) was a drinking party. It was an important social institution where men of good family debate, plot, boast or simply revel with others. But in this context it just means a gathering of artist to work together, and in the end, to present their work publicly. A synonym for symposium could be workshop.



That is what happened in Lorenzweiler. Four artists, three of which came from abroad, worked one week together carving huge blocks of oak tree prepared for them in advance. In order to participate in the symposium, the artists had to present a plan. This year there were dozens of applications and the jury chose four. Among them, a Finnish artist blacksmith Risto Immonen from Lapland. You may appreciate his work at Gallerianapa.fi.

Here are the three foreign invited artist: Kerstin Vicent, Risto Immonen and Georgi Minchev.

Citta di Amelia flag band

Citta di Amelia, Town of Amelia (Italy) sent a flag band to Luxembourg to celebrate our National Day.

This is a video from the eve of the festivities, 23. June 2013 at the Place Guillaume II

Come on! BayBay!

This is 來吧！焙焙！Come on! BayBay! a charming Taiwanese indie group. Gracias Holataipei!

Around the Island - 環島 (huán dǎo) - Part 2

The around the island ride continues southwards from the Tropic of Cancer. I understand that some people would criticize the trip organizer of bringing us to ride on the national highway number 1. It is a busy road and goes through cities and industrial areas that are not the best places for cyclists in Taiwan. It can be dangerous, too. But if we want to ride around the island in 9 days only, that is the only viable option. I know Taiwan has many more beautiful places, but these busy roads, big cities and industry is also part of Taiwan, that I am happy to see. One day I hope to do some more sophisticated bike rides. Maybe in the near future.

I am not falmiliar with all the culinary specialities, but I know this. This field, sort of, or pond, is the place for growing Water Caltrops or Chinese water chestnuts, Latin: Trapa Bicornis, Chinese: 菱角 ling jiao).The fruit looks like a head of a bull with two hors. Inside the hard cover there is a starchy seed, a bit like chestnut. Not very tasty. During the stone age a similar plant called vesipähkinä or Trapa Natans (latin) was used as food also in Finland. It was much warmer then. More info and photos of Trapa bicornis.

Urban knitting in Lorentzweiler

Urban knitting is a new thing for me, but nice one! It is also called "yarn bombing" or "guerilla knitting". It is a form of street art or graffiti that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn rather than paint. 
Here is some exemples of urban knitting in Lorentzweiler and Blaschette, Luxembourg.

Luxembourg Belair Church

This extraordinary Church was built in the 1950's It carries the name of Pope Pius X, who was the head of the Roman Catholic Church just before the first world war, The Great War. He was traditional in views and criticized relativism. He was canonized probably because of the miracles connected to him

"On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the Pope and the Pope then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured."




The sharp Church tower is visible over the whole Luxembourg City. Thät makes it an easy to find meeting point.