Changing of the Guard

HA! And you think I'm talking about London. But no, I digress.


This was a story in the making yesterday when the workers came to our Hannover apartment building to change out the wee tiny windows that you see here on the left. This is the back side of the 4 stories (65 steps!), opposite the street. The bottom roof with windows is our building entrance behind the alley and in the courtyard.

Uschi told me that the 100-year-old iron-framed windows were "too cold." And since she and Wolfgang are forever doing projects to keep this building up to snuff, it was a needed project, she said!

There are actually 4 of these windows, one on top of the other at each landing, approximately 1 x 2.4 feet each. They're all in tiny closet rooms that used to be for toilets years ago (until they added bathrooms to the units?). That top left window is in the landing closet before the 9 steps up to our attic apartment. It's where our vacuum cleaner is. And those 2 windows to the right are the landing windows that give us light. The top window on the far right belongs to the apartment next to ours.

Okay, then. Here's the entire process before your very eyes, all done in one easy day's work! Uschi says these are the smallest windows they make.

Iron-framed window before and after being removed.

The before and after windows.

Chipping out the old; bringing in the new.

Setting the new frame in place.

Yup, the new ones work just fine.

And now, the finished project! See--the changing of the guard! They remind me of sentry windows, keeping watch over our building night and day. Day and night.

Appropriately, yesterday was the day I switched from old to new Blogger. YAY! No major hassles to report whatsoever...yet. Now I'm contemplating changing my template, in spite of the fact that all the good ones are taken. I may end up looking like one of you. :)

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[Addendum on 3/4/07] The day after I published this post, landlady Uschi sent me this pic that she took from outside when I was carefully looking everything over. It really was a fun project, from beginning to end, so I clearly need to include this pic. :)

Victoria Memorial

You know I'm gonna have to take this bit by bit because I have lots of pics to arrange into albums. In the meantime, I'll give you tastes of my weekend in London before arriving here in Hannover last evening.

From Gatwick Airport on Friday, I rode the train to Victoria Station and walked from there with my suitcase to our hotel in the St. James area. I just happened to walk by Buckingham Palace, where this Victoria Memorial sits out front! So, of course, I had my camera in hand and snapped away. All of this we had seen in 2002, but not with my digital camera.

I wanted to keep zooming in on Queen Victoria herself who has sat there since 1911, gazing out on the world as it gazes back at her. I was quite surprised to see her nose job (below) when I later transferred my pics!

On the pinnacle of the memorial, high above Queen Victoria, stands the winged Victory, so graceful in her glory. Wiki says the whole sculpture has a nautical theme, so I'm guessing she feels quite victorious over battles at sea.

How's this for starting out the London weekend! Before I get to our Saturday's excursion (last post), I'll next take you to St. Paul's Cathedral, which we did NOT see last trip. It was my main goal for Friday while Donica was in business meetings and was well worth the time and effort.

And BTW, don't be surprised if my next post is on New Blogger! I think it'll make me switch after this post, so wish me luck. I may even change my template!