The wealthy heart of Europe

I just returned from a 10-day study trip in the context of my study of urban planning (a Masters of Human Settlements at KULeuven). We traversed the wealthy heart of Europe, visiting urbanistic and architectural projects in Luxemburg, Karlsruhe, Zürich, Luzern, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Nancy and Metz. What struck most was the amazingly quality of life in these places (with Mulhouse perhaps not meeting the lofty standards set by the other cities). There is no doubt that this part of the world must be the best place to live anywhere on this planet. If one wouldn't know better these cities could lead one to believe that the world really works. This experience of the good life was reinforced by an exceptional spell of sunny and balmy spring weather. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to get into some serious photography again. I took just the Bronica RF645 with its 65/4 lens and a mixed bag of 120 B&W roll films (including chromogenic Ilford, Efke 100, Kodak Pan 125, Tri-X 400, around 30 pieces in all). The purpose was simply to document our journey, keeping faithfully track of all the projects we visited. I was happy to experience how much energy I drew from this sustained effort to photograph.Taking pictures simply makes me happy! Because of such a long spell of inactivity I'd almost forgotten the feeling. The Bronica continues to feel like a wonderful camera. I didn't feel constrained at all by having only a single lens at my disposal. It's energising and relaxing at the same time. I am now looking forward to getting the films back, scanning them and bundling a nice selection together in a Blurb book.