Capturing the sun, for as long as it lasts - Historischer Hafen Berlin

Another excellent location suggestion I got from scrolling through past meetup posts of Berlin Urban Sketchers. The temperature was too hot to cycle, so I prayed that this location has enough shade for me to hide under...and it did! There were plenty of trees along the Spree Kanal, and the streets were empty enough for me to park myself (and my bike) there next to the canal. A few local and tourists alike passed by. One older German lady even cracked a "mom" joke at me, claiming that my work looks nicer than the real thing. Thankfully I was able to respond in German and carry out a normal exchange with her (phew) I was debating whether to include that out-of-place modern apartment building in the background...but I guess it kinda worked?? sort of filled out the empty space on the left nicely

The second one was done a bit further down. I "borrowed" the empty tables of a cafe that hasn't yet opened. I was scared that I might get kicked out soon after, but thankfully the cafe does not open until 2pm and it just rolled around noon at that point. The Fernsehturm and old city hall were clearly visible, while the Rotes Rathaus was hiding between the trees to the left (for some reason I could never paint the Fernsehturm to any level of satisfaction) -the modern apartment block makes another appearance!

I changed up the pace a little bit by doodling in some linework for the boat (if not, I would have left the Hafen without actually properly drawing a boat!) Sometimes I do miss the details I could put in with lines. It was a lot of fun. There was one dude sitting on the boat...at which I was staring for a good half an hour. 

Cause for Panic - London

Nothing predicted the chaos that would follow on this bright sunny Monday morning in London. What a nice morning to stroll and sketch around before my afternoon flight! so I thought. Nope! Just as I was settling in to work on All Hallows-by-the-Tower (its spire was tentalizingly visible through my hotel window for 3 days) by borrowing a not-yet-open BBQ restaurant's storefront, my phone buzzed. My 2pm flight, it reads, has been delayed to 1:00. Has there been a mistake? How could there be a delay of -1 hour? Then it dawned on me that the flight is actually delayed from 2PM to 1AM. At this point, I decided to put my paint brush down on the palette and switched to 2-hand operation. 15 mins later, the intel of UK-wide ATC failure was obtained and a refundable back up flight for 7PM was swiftly booked. Cool, now I can refocus on this beautiful church!

Since my original flight was delayed and the backup flight is not until 7PM, I strolled aimlessly along the Thames until I spotted this perfect spot. Just off a promenade deck, away from the flow of people, and plenty of space. The Tower Bridge was in maintenance during the bank holiday long weekend, so you could see that the bridge was still lifted in the previous sketch (has been for a whole weekend). By this time, they finally lowered it. The rounded green bulbous is the city hall. I uhm...did not do it justice. Just as I started walking away from the spot and contemplating which view I should do St Pauls, my phone buzzed again. The delayed departure of 1AM has been re-adjusted to just 30 mins after the original time. Great! I thought! They must have fixed the problem, and so I picked up my pace and headed towards London Bridge.

You find me 1 day later still stuck in London. In the end, both flights were cancelled (thankfully early enough in the day that I could still find a decent hotel and have dinner at a reasonable time) Since I had zero work equipment with me and my new flight was not until 3pm, I decided to continue my stroll & sketch. I saw an excellent panorama somebody did of Trafalgar Square and decided to do it too. Uhm...turns out Nelson's column is a little taller than I expected...plus the National Gallery was half in construction. But still, it was not raining and I count that as a win!

This time I finally found the right door to access Temple Church (and it was indeed open!) This is the 3rd London church interior I did (not sure if I'm getting better or worse at it ooops) My phone was buzzing intermittently throughout the sketch, telling me my new flight is now 10mins delayed, then 20 mins delayed, 40, 50...I appeared calm, but I was definitely panicking at this point.

I ended up spending a little too long doing the interior (and panicking), so instead of having lunch at DTF Selfridge, I decided to stay and paint the exterior of Temple Church and then head to the airport directly. It was a quiet courtyard with some people enjoying their lunch break

Thankfully my flight departed only 90 mins later than scheduled

June in France + bonus in Berlin

I probably undertook the longest (non-Christmas) vacation to date. Almost reaching 2 weeks! 

Starting with the fabulous Lake Annecy (while I hide under a tree's shade to avoid the mid-day sun.

I resisted a full 3 days not to draw the hotel's (hostel??) resident bull dog, but finally caved on the last day. Every morning she spreads herself on the small lobby floor, either dozing off or licking her paws, basking in the soft morning sun. Very nice

Then I dedicated a full day strolling and sketching in Marseille downtown, while friends were out at the Calanques. It was a blistering hot and humid day, so my strategy is to paint near the ocean or in the shade...and of course, spending copious amount of time eating lunch in a quiet and well air-conditioned restaurant. 

There was no way I could let a cute boat lifted in the workshop slip by. This one is called the Nini

I intentionally (or not?) returned to the same spot in La Panier. The road traffic was sparse so I had no trouble standing on the sidewalk (just by standing there I already took up the entire width of the sidewalk) Inexplicably, a group of adults turned up doing some sort of scavenger hunt?? which I guess kinda makes sense in the Panier?? Anyway I think with the sun out, this time I made the scenery much more coherent in colour.

The wind was blowing nicely from the harbour, so I decided to do a quick and clean panorama to close out the day!

+bonus, I kinda ended the France sketches on the second to last page, so I had to fit it some local scenes so I don't have to take a whole sketchbook on the road just to finish one page. So here is a random street of Berlin with some cars and nice trees

 

Maybe a little overrated? Vienna

I felt like I pushed myself a little too hard over a short trip in Vienna. The weather was as miserable as in Berlin, and the food not any better. The only highlight was an old lady first surprised that I could speak German, then whispered to me that she thinks Canada is much better than here. After this I exclusively spend my sketching vacations in truly Southern European countries.

 

Pandemic Home for Christmas - Porto

Because of the nature of travel restrictions for Christmas 2021 + New Years 2022, I opted to stay in Europe and not go home. That being said, it was way too depressing to endure 2 weeks of Swedish winter in solitude, so I ended up spending 2 work+holiday week in Porto. I didn't officially take any day off work, but since the 2 holidays all fell on Thursday and Friday that gave me enough time to explore the city and surroundings. 

I chose an apartment out of downtown core, but with parking space and a huge terrace. Granted it was not terrace weather so the airbnb host packed together all the outdoor furnitures to protect them from the rain, but whenever the sun came out, I was still able to drag a chair outside and sipped my tea under the winter sun. Despite the miserable weather forecast (basically all rain for 2 weeks), the rain actually never stayed for long and there were ample periods of sunny weather during each day. In total, a "rainy" day in Porto still had more sunlight than a "sunny" day in Stockholm.

This was also my first time renting a car in Europe. Since I had very limited experience driving another manual car that is not my own, I had some real difficulties even finding the biting point of the rental car's clutch. I looked so clueless the rental car lady thought I had no idea how to drive a manual car! Well, there is a first time for everything! (although after driving numerous rental cars in Europe now, I realized that my car was the outlier, not them...)

Ponte da Arrábida + Duoro River

Miradouro de Lomba (on Route N222) Overlooking Duoro River

View from Praias Fluoriais

(somewhere after crossing a bridge)

Along Av.Dom Afonso Henriques, Porto

along Douro River board walk

Luis I Bridge, Porto

From Porto Cathedral

Overlooking Jardim do Morro, sunet

 

13 years apart: in London

 It felt surreal to be in London again. The last I visited was in 2008 (confirmed after digging through my email correspondences) with mom. And because it was before the age of smartphones and googlemaps, I have almost no digital trace of that visit. No photos, no bookmarked locations. But again, everything seemed a little familiar, and deja vu's came back from time to time as I strolled around town. 

I do remember distinctively that we stayed in a hotel near St. James' Park, and that we ate fish and chips for dinner almost everyday. I honestly had no idea why we chose to stay there, the location this time in Piccadilly Circus was much more convenient. 

It was nearing Christmas, so the "christmas market" and the menorah was out in front of the National Gallery. And of course I had to include the lions! The winter morning light was spectacular.

Followed by a bit of a chaotic sketch of Piccadilly Circus itself. I think I was standing next to a Five Guys...

Golden Jubilee Bridge (view from South Bank). There was some space behind the elevator shaft that kept me out of pedestrian traffic.

I did the essential tourist stroll past London Eye and Westminster Bridge. The sunset was very intense and thankfully I was able to find myself a spot amongst the tourists jostling for photos

TfL Museum

Sunset at Tower Bridge

Stockholm after-work series: the Twilight Zone