German Apps part 5

Lastly, I like to follow the weather in places I'm going to visit. "AccuWeather" fills the bill. I can list the cities I'm going to visit and follow the forecast for a few days to get an idea of what to pack. Right now the weather in this part of Germany is quite nice.

German Apps part 4

If you are a map lover, then this next app is for you. It's called "Best Travel" and its filled with maps from about 5000 cities world wide. Search for a city you plan to visit and the map will appear. I've stretched the map on my iPhone to make it larger and found its not completely scalable. At a certain point it loses focus. However, the iPad does not seem to have that problem as the screen is bigger.

German Apps part 3

If you want to see up to the minute webcams from just about anywhere in the world check out "WorldView." Search for the city you want and before you know it about 20 webcams will pop up for that city. It's a good way to keep track of the weather or crowds or traffic. It's also a good way to get oriented to the city before you visit it.

German Apps part 2

I love reading information about a place I'm going to visit, and this travel app called "Germany" is just about perfect. It's filled with history, pictures, maps, places to visit, even restaurants to try. Click on a city in Germany and it will give you a bunch of info.

German Travel Apps

We are taking a river cruise on the Elbe River is a few weeks so I'm getting ready for it by shopping at the App Store.

To practice some German words and phrases I have downloaded "German" which is a good app for learning some basic words and here's the good part...a native German speaker pronounces the words so you have a fair idea what to say and what to listen for. It's a lot more fun than listening to German tapes. I have it on both my iPad and iPhone.

Aspens and Vinca

Today the sky is “bluebird blue” and the tall aspens are tickling the clouds! 

I never tire of looking at his beautiful sky or the aspens!

The understory has a little story too. There are a few flowers in bloom. Many years ago I planted dozens of vinca because they were supposed to “take over the yard” with a carpet of blue flowers. Well, they have not taken over the yard, but they do have blue flowers.

And one of the plants has a purple bloom. I’ve never seen a purple vinca in my “garden” before. 

 

From April

We went on a coastal cruise in April...cruise was good, but I came home with the proverbial  "ship’s cold." So I put my camera away and forgot the pictures that were hidden inside. Today I took out the camera again. Surprise! There are some pretty interesting shots of the Golden Gate Bridge as we sailed under it.

The Bridge from the Bay

 Black and White from the Ocean

Nighttime photos are difficult to take, especially with a point and shoot camera. I’m very pleased with these results.