indoor passage

As I try to stay calm and not think about the impending ash cloud that is threatening my upcoming trip back home (montreal), I realize that I ate my through 3\4 of the strawberry and rhubarb pie! (honestly it's a great recipe even if i didn't use tapioca!)

Enough is enough, I decide to head out for a walk for another calming activity, shopping! My husband G. is worried that a cancelled trip will get too expensive :-)
It's quite windy out, so after I have let M. run around wild in the center square, I decide to head home by a different route and use the 'indoor passageway'. I didn't realize this at first, but it is an actual shopping 'arcade' as they call it here...equivalent to Montreal's underground shopping network, except that you are at ground level. The masterminds behind the renovation of this area are Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland. It's called the Fünf Höfe, which means five courty ards, because it is literally an area of five connected courtyards. There is one courtyard that I enjoy strolling through, not for the shops but for the scenery above!





I am not sure if my photos capture the detail, but the plants are real and almost 10m long!



















M. loves to stop and admire it herself!