On our trip to South-Germany and especially at Lake Constance we saw a lot of beautiful inscriptions and signs. The technique is special: the names of places, maps and little drawings are carved into the walls and then painted, all in a typical traditional illustrative style.

The characters of written Thai are just so beautiful – even prohibition signs look kind of friendly.

You don’t always have to choose the sunny South to get a rewarding break from Berlin’s November rain. Last weekend I went to Helsinki and once more the city and its friendly inhabitants took me by storm. You get the Scandinavian feel but combined with an Eastern twist. The city’s architecture varies from cozy wooden suburbs to monumental soviet style buildings. Helsinki also offers great shopping with loads of design, both new and vintage (check out the Design District), unfortunately it was All Saints’ Day so we ended up with window shopping only. It is very convenient that most of Helsinki’s sights and places of interest are within walking distance, so we continued to the Kiasma museum to see an exhibition with the works of Damien Hirst and his British contemporaries. But to be honest, the thing I almost miss most when I leave Helsinki is the dark rye bread. You really should try this and other traditional Finnish food at Sea Horse, a snug restaurant with original wooden interior and wall paintings from the 1930s. Go for the real classics like crispy fried Baltic herrings or Scandinavian hash.
Hyvää ruokahalua/Enjoy your meal!

As our hairdresser moved to London we took the occasion to follow her and get a haircut at Radio Hair Salon plus some inspiration. It was a great trip, apart from meeting our friends, highlights were staying nearly a day in Tate Modern, afternoon tea at the National Portrait Gallery, Fish and chips at Rock and Sole Plaice. A visit at Fortnum & Mason was a must, not just for high quality tea & marmelade shopping but for enjoying their beautiful packaging.

Lars participation in the group exhibition inter.cool 3.0 at Ruhr 2010 led to a trip to the Ruhr region. We went to the opening and at the following weekend we took in everything the European Capital of Culture had to offer. From  »A star is born – Photography and rock since Elvis« at the museum Folkwang in Essen to the SANAA museum showing all famous Ruhr photographers from the Bechers to Gursky in one spectacular building and the Zeche Zollverein in Essen it was a real cultural treat!