Juan Convers

Photo taken a few days ago while I was walking in the city center of Basel. If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very happy one today.

A few weeks ago, Basel experienced an unusually chilly couple of days, including a particularly frosty weekend that gave us a fresh layer of snow. This wintry weather was the perfect excuse to enjoy classic winter activities such as crafting snowmen, engaging in friendly snowball battles, and enjoying some fun ice sliding.

The following day was bright and sunny, and as a result, the lingering cold ensured the snow stuck around a bit longer. These moments presented some interesting photo opportunities, as the example captured in the image above. The photo showcases the sun's rays creating interesting patterns on the snowy rooftop.

On the past Saturday, I started the day very early since I had to catch a train to Freiburg. As I was cycling towards Badischer Banhoff station and approaching the Mitterebrücke bridge over the Rhine River, I noticed that the sky was really beautiful with its pink multicolor hues. I had to stop suddenly to capture the photo you see above. When I was about to take out my phone, I turned to the right, and there was another cyclist who had done exactly the same thing. With a smile, she said, "We have to take a photo of this, right?" and smiling back, I said, "Yes, indeed, it's a must!"

Last weekend when I was walking home after getting a PCR test (which is part of the routine in this pandemic era), I passed by markplatz where I have walked thousands of times, but from the angle where I was, looking at the clear sky, with the Rathaus in the background, I said to myself: wow it really looks beautiful!

Yesterday before I boarded the plane, I noticed the sky was just beautiful with an amazing summer sunset. I started to climb the stairs and just before I entered the aircraft I was able to snap this quick shot throught a narrow gap in the door. Sometimes the light, time, station and weather is perfect for a picture like this.

Beautiful sky in the basel airport

Another picture I shot last weekend during a sunny Sunday. In the background you can see Pauluskirche. This Reformed Church in Basel was built between 1898 and 1901, in a Neo-Romanesque architectural style.

Yesterday the weather was quite amazing here in Basel. Spring is definitely here already.

One of the most interesting parts of the Basel Fasnacht is the big latterns that participate on the parade on Monday morning. On tuesday they were exposed in Munsterplatz and this year there were a lot political motives related to politics and the far right trends. One of the most descriptive ones was this one.

The last couple of days have been particularly cold in Basel, but a nice gift that you get with those type of days is the Snow. Yesterday I saw this beatiful snowy tree next to the snow on top those leaves.

Finally 2016 is ending. As John Oliver mentioned in the last episode of his last week tonight show, 2016 has been a pretty shitty year. There were so many musical and movie legends passing away (David Bowie, Alan RIckman, Prince, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Carrie FIsher, Debbie Reynolds and George Michael) and Europe experienced terror in many cities including Nice, Istanbul, Brussels and Berlin.

On the other hand the populists and far right anti-immigrant movements gained a lot of traction in Europe and America. The popular vote brought many unexpected outcomes including the Brexit victory despite the Scottish and Northern Irish opposition, the Colombian plebiscite rejection to the peace agreement reached in Cuba and finally the astonishing Trump victory on the electoral college, even though he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots.

The only silver lining of this year was the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Let's hope this doesn't change in 2017 (cough trump), since that will make it a horrible year as well.

This morning I was talking to my father in law and he mentioned he wanted to check out the Synagogue in Basel. I had no idea there was such a building in the city, but I checked online and discovered there is a neo-Byzantine domed structure indeed, originally constructed in 1868 and enlarged in 1892. Above there is a picture of this Synagogue.

In downtown Basel there is a wall with a mural that shows portraits of rock stars like Janis Joplin, Keith Richert, Mick Jagger and David Bowie, that you can see on this picture.