Post by adrian65 on Nov 2, 2010 10:35:16 GMT -5
Hello, everyone!
This week-end the largest rock fair in Europe was held in Munchen - Germany. I decided to go there so I hit the road.
The weather was not very good on the road, rainy and cloudy. Even some snow in the mountains (Alps):
But anyway, the scenery was beautiful. Even if cloudy, I enjoyed the fall colors in that beautiful place where I chose to stop every time for re-fueling especially for its scenery:
But, once arrived in Munchen, the weather was just perfect:
Firstly, I made a visit in the center of the city. Here is the city hall:
On Saturday, I was visiting the fair. Here's the entrance:
The fair is huge, at least compared to what I encountered so far. There were four big halls like the one you see below. Two of them were mostly full of beads, small drilled stones, jewelry, etc so I only had a quick look there. The other two ones were loaded with the interesting stuff, so I focused on them.
Here are some pictures of what caught my eye mostly.
Pet wood firstly, of course:
a video:
Can you see the baby fox in one of the slabs in the pic below?
No? Neither did I! Heck! Otherwise I surely would had bought it. Here it is, zoomed:
Amonites:
Pine cones:
A cave bear (ursus spelaeus) skull originating from Romania:
A little bit of malachite:
Boulder opal:
Some guys sold picture jasper slabs, and this was one of the best. Placing it on a chevalet adds to the pictural impression, I think:
There were also some other activities, like gold panning...
... and obsidian knapping:
There was also an artist from USA, whose works impressed me very much. He uses natural stones for shaping amazing sculptures, perfectly smoothed and polished. His name is Perry Brent Davis and here are some of his sculptures:
I was there mainly for visiting, but of course I couldn't stop myself from buying some rocks. Here are my aquisitions:
A piece of Indonesian pet wood:
A rutilated quartz from Brazil:
Some pictural jasper from Madagascar, nicely sculpted:
A piece of some weird jasper from Madagascar, they told me it's "snake-skin jasper". I like this one very much:
A Montana - look - like agate, also from Madagascar:
And two ocean jaspers:
As you see, all of them were finished products. If the fair was giant, the offer of rough materials was tiny (excepting Lapis, which is expensive anyway). I took some of these for slabbing and cabbing, even if they are polished. Some others will stay as they are, though.
On the way back home, the weather was fine too. Once arrived in Romania, I took advantage of that weather and took a scenic route through the mountains. It's the highest road here (some 2100 ... 2200 meters above sea level).
This was the scenery I admired while having the meal:
Then, the freshly asphalted road kept going uphill...
... and uphill...
Until I reached the pass:
The views were fantastic, distant mountains could be seen, but the camera didn't focus on them. The fall colors were also a treat for the eye.
Thank you for looking,
Adrian
This week-end the largest rock fair in Europe was held in Munchen - Germany. I decided to go there so I hit the road.
The weather was not very good on the road, rainy and cloudy. Even some snow in the mountains (Alps):
But anyway, the scenery was beautiful. Even if cloudy, I enjoyed the fall colors in that beautiful place where I chose to stop every time for re-fueling especially for its scenery:
But, once arrived in Munchen, the weather was just perfect:
Firstly, I made a visit in the center of the city. Here is the city hall:
On Saturday, I was visiting the fair. Here's the entrance:
The fair is huge, at least compared to what I encountered so far. There were four big halls like the one you see below. Two of them were mostly full of beads, small drilled stones, jewelry, etc so I only had a quick look there. The other two ones were loaded with the interesting stuff, so I focused on them.
Here are some pictures of what caught my eye mostly.
Pet wood firstly, of course:
a video:
Can you see the baby fox in one of the slabs in the pic below?
No? Neither did I! Heck! Otherwise I surely would had bought it. Here it is, zoomed:
Amonites:
Pine cones:
A cave bear (ursus spelaeus) skull originating from Romania:
A little bit of malachite:
Boulder opal:
Some guys sold picture jasper slabs, and this was one of the best. Placing it on a chevalet adds to the pictural impression, I think:
There were also some other activities, like gold panning...
... and obsidian knapping:
There was also an artist from USA, whose works impressed me very much. He uses natural stones for shaping amazing sculptures, perfectly smoothed and polished. His name is Perry Brent Davis and here are some of his sculptures:
I was there mainly for visiting, but of course I couldn't stop myself from buying some rocks. Here are my aquisitions:
A piece of Indonesian pet wood:
A rutilated quartz from Brazil:
Some pictural jasper from Madagascar, nicely sculpted:
A piece of some weird jasper from Madagascar, they told me it's "snake-skin jasper". I like this one very much:
A Montana - look - like agate, also from Madagascar:
And two ocean jaspers:
As you see, all of them were finished products. If the fair was giant, the offer of rough materials was tiny (excepting Lapis, which is expensive anyway). I took some of these for slabbing and cabbing, even if they are polished. Some others will stay as they are, though.
On the way back home, the weather was fine too. Once arrived in Romania, I took advantage of that weather and took a scenic route through the mountains. It's the highest road here (some 2100 ... 2200 meters above sea level).
This was the scenery I admired while having the meal:
Then, the freshly asphalted road kept going uphill...
... and uphill...
Until I reached the pass:
The views were fantastic, distant mountains could be seen, but the camera didn't focus on them. The fall colors were also a treat for the eye.
Thank you for looking,
Adrian