January 2020 Photo Competition - Countries

Question

Entries for January have now closed. Congratulations to Dirty-flow for their winning entry!

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Theme for January, 2020 - Countries .

Describe your experience with a certain country with a set of pictures. This can be culture, nature, people, food, buildings.

Note: The rules for this competition are different. This is a single answer/multiple photos competition.

Rules for January 2020:

• Maximum of 1 answer per user.
• You may submit more than one photo per answer. But try to keep it to no more than 5 photos.
• The subject of the photos is countries.
• The photos can have been taken anytime.
• The photos should all be of the same country.
• Try and keep it non offensive.
• All entries should include a line of text with the location and subject of the photo and when the photo was taken, date for recent photos, month for 'a few years old' and year only of old ones.
• The photo has to be taken by the user* who posted it and taken in the time frame given in the description for that month's photo. (*Or one of a two people team, give credit to the actual person who took the photo, nick names are acceptable.)
• Remember we are 'Travel' stack exchange. If you can give the photo or its description a travel connection, you should get more votes (and/or stand a better chance on getting the virtual prize.)
• No entries/photos should be posted before the 1st of January, 2020
• No entries/photos should be posted after the end of January, 2020.
• Voting will run till midnight, the last seconds of January 2020* and to be clear, we use UTC, just like the site itself. (*Or as soon after as your main judge can see the votes.)

Please do not delete posts if you do not get upvotes (or even get down votes.) It is what you entered, stand by it.

(If you think a photo does not meet the rules, you can post a comment or ask about it in the chat.)

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If you want to join in sharing themes for future competitions, please see Possible topics for the photo competition. Just edit your suggestions into the community wiki answers there. And to have a say in which one will be selected next month, do a suggestion, soon after a month started, in the You Are Here chat. Be ready to defend your choice for a while, as more people might post suggestions.

Answer 1

As I have been living in Germany for more than 12 years and have travelled here more than in every other country, I decided to show you some of my favourite places here:

In Germany there are castles... A lot of castles - around 25000. The most popular and one of the most beautiful one is Neuschwanstein.

Photo taken in June 2018

As Gary Lineker once said:

Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.

Signal Iduna Park is the home of Borussia Dortmund and famous for the intense atmosphere of the Südtribune also known as Die Gelbe Wand (The yellow wall). It's the largest terrace for standing spectators in Europe.

Photo taken in March 2019

In Germany there are also many circuits. The Nürburgring is the most dangerous and the longest permanent circuit in the world. Jackie Steward nicknamed the old track "The Green Hell".

Since its opening in 1927, the track has been used by the public for the so-called Touristenfahrten, i.e. anyone with a road-legal car or motorcycle, as well as tour buses, motor homes, or cars with trailers. It is opened every day of the week, except when races take place. The track may be closed for weeks during the winter months, depending on weather conditions and maintenance work. (Source - Wikipedia)

Man Rides 11,200 Miles Across Asia On 8 HP Scooter To Take On The Nürburgring

Photo taken in September 2019

The panorama view from the Niederwalddenkmal over Rüdesheim and the Rhine river. It's only few kilometers away from my home and I am visiting it several times every year.

Photo taken in August 2018

The gardens of the Schwetzingen Castle, located near Heidelberg. The photo shows me and my wife in front of the mosque.

Photo taken in June 2017

Answer 2

The United States of America

I thought I understood how big a country the USA was, until my wife and I had the opportunity to road trip across (California to Maryland) a couple of years ago. We're originally from New Zealand where things can be done in a day or less most of the time.

In the US, however, the roads are massive, the distances are long, the land (and sky) vast. I know realise I still don't fully grasp the size of the country.

Here are some photos of the view along the way.

All photos taken by my wife or me, between June 27 and July 5 2018.

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First up - we rested the car a bit at a gas station in California, not far from the town of Zzyzx, CA.

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We stopped at Mile Marker 105, the Sand Bench View, in Utah. The photos we have here just don't do it justice. Open this pic in another tab and zoom it in a bit.

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Things changed fairly quickly from desert & rock to grass & trees once we hit Colorado. This is the Colorado River (the water was FREEZING) at Glenwood Springs, CO.

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After Colorado in Nebraska. It is flat, very very flat, and the roads are straight. We didn't get too many photos in Nebraska as all we could see was miles of corn, but occasionally there was a tree.

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After a detour into Canada (so no photos since it's a different country) for the Niagara Falls, we hit Washington DC for 4th of July - parades, fireworks, and lots of beautiful buildings. This one is apparently quite well known.

Of course we have hundreds of photos from this trip, but as the competition is limited to 5, I couldn't add all the great ones.

Answer 3

So, let's do Thailand, again. As a central theme, let's do foreign influence (in and on Thailand).

Starting with the most recent event: Christmas. Picture taken on Boxing Day 2019 (because contrary to popular requests it's not Christmas every day) at the Narai Hotel Christmas Buffet in Bangkok:

A bit closer to home for some of us: American fastfood chains. Picture taken along the highway close to Buriram's racing circuit in December of 2019:

Then, a bit closer to home for some others here: Dutch stroopwafels ("The Amsterdam Way"?). Picture taken at an Amazon's in Khon Kaen in December of 2019:

Then, a bit further from home for most, hopefully (but it's better to be aware and not find them than vice versa): Cold War era anti-personnel mines. Picture taken a Pha Mor E Daeng in December of 2019:

Finally, a picture taken at the JEATH (Japanese, English, Australian, American, Thai and Holland) Museum in Kanchanaburi. It serves as a reminder of the past: "Forgive but not Forget" (picture taken July of 2013):

Answer 4

My grandparents' family and friends playing their daily game of mahjong after lunch, in rural China, Jiangsu province. It's roughly a 4 hour bus ride north of Shanghai's PVG airport.

November 2019.