Hard to believe, but today’s post is the 500th post here on the Two to Tübingen blog.

These round-number milestones have a way of sneaking up on you, similar to how the swans are stealthily swimming toward the postcard shot buildings in this photo:

For comparison, here’s a look those buildings from the angle seen in a standard postcard shot:

BTW, those buildings can also be seen from the next bridge down along the river:

Anyway, what to say about 500 posts? Well, something that’s surprising to me is that we’ve lived in Germany long enough that I’ve had time to write 500 blog posts already. But it’s true — we’ve lived in Germany for almost 2.5 years now – incredible!

It’s interesting for me to look back at the first posts on the blog and recall that I’d intended the Two to Tübingen blog mostly to track daily life foibles and follies that occurred as Chris and I adjusted to living in Germany. But the blog seems to have rather quickly morphed into an eclectic mix that has gone beyond just our everyday adventures. After all, the last 3 posts alone have ranged from topics on everything from the history of Tübingen, an old U.S. cartoon, and seasonal fried dough specialities. Expect the unexpected here on 22tue, that’s what I always say.

But wait a minute. Those photos above of the postcard shot buildings might have been too expected as a way to celebrate 500 posts on this blog.

So, let me also offer the following photos of some other buildings that are also along the Neckar near the Tübingen Altstadt (historic city center), Remember you can click any photo in this (or any) post to view a bigger version of it in a new window:

These photos were all taken while standing on the Neckar Island, along the wooded path you can see in the photo earlier in the post.

Now my blog posts are rarely introspective written reflections on life, even though I sometimes think that might be nice for these milestone occasions. However, I didn’t do it back in 2010 when writing the 22bz blog’s 500th post, and I’m not going to attempt it today.

But if I can’t usually write reflections, I can usually take good photos of them.

Which leads me to a question: when you look at the 3 photos of the “unexpected buildings” above, how many of those photos do you think are photos of the reflections of the buildings?

Scroll back up and take another look before you see the answer below.

I’ll wait.

OK,

are you ready for the answer?

The correct answer is

all 3 of them.

Yes, all 3 of those photos of reflections of the scene as seen in the river, not photos taken directly of the buildings themselves. You might find that a bit unexpected when you look back at the photos, particularly photo #1, which is hard even for me to tell at a glance that it’s not “real”.

But then again, realizing that I’ve taken a photo of a reflection and flipped it upside-down to fool the eye. Perhaps that’s not so unexpected after all. 😉

Anyway, thanks to all the readers, old and new, for being with me for the 500th post! Hope to see you all back here tomorrow for post #501.

In the meantime, below you’ll find a gallery with all the images used in this post, as well as additional ones that show alternate versions of those building photos.

Enjoy.