New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, which means that today  will be my final post of 2011. So, let me be the first to wish you Guten Rutsch! That’s the expression we’ve heard people say around here to wish people a Happy New Year.

I don’t believe anyone would say “Happy 8th Day of Christmas” on January 1st, BTW, but hey, you never know. 😉

Anyway, we’ve lived in Tübingen almost exactly 4 months now – Sunday will be the official 4-month mark. What better way to celebrate that with a final 2011 photo of Tübingen:

Through a Tübingen "window"

Take a close look – could you tell at first glance that it’s not really a a view through a window at all?

In fact, in keeping with so many of my recent photos in Tübingen, that’s an image of a reflection of some houses along a brook that runs through the center of town, near where I go grocery shopping. The bikes you see are parked on top of the small brick bridge. What you’re seeing in the photo, though,  is the reflection of them under the bridge. Of course, you also need to realize that the whole photo has been rotated 180º, to provide the illusion of the bikes .. and the houses … being “real”. They aren’t: everything you see in the circle is part of the reflection.

I know, I know, I’m in a rut with all these upside down reflections these days. But when you move to a new place, and run into different situations, you just have to be willing to look at things from a different angle at times to make sense of it.

You can think of that as my final reflection for 2011, on many levels… 😉

Anyway, I’ll be taking a couple of days off from the blog at the begining of next week, but look for regular posts to resume January 4th. In the meantime, Happy 2012! See you next year.