FRANZISKA OUT AND ABOUT

As I had reported in my previous posting, the key purpose of this day out-and-about in mid-April 2025 was Franzi’s visit to the hairdresser for an in-salon appointment. I had made that appointment two months earlier and I had dropped off my long blonde wig at the hairdresser four week earlier. A full-scale treatment, consisting of washing, pin curlers, drying, styling was not possible with a wig that only loosely sits on my head. After my wonderful lunch at "Kanonesteppel," I arrived wearing my medium length blonde wig that you already know from my last posting, and I was placed in the hairdresser’s chair. In the background, my washed, treated, and to-be-styled wig. After removal of the pin curlers, my hairdresser first worked on it with his hands and fingers, drawing out the curls. You can see how this unfolds in the following pictures. He then placed it on my head and continued to style it. What do you think? Is that a fun and worthwhile thing to do en femme? I left the oth...

This Saturday in mid-April 2025 was special for several reasons. Having worn three different wigs within one day was only one of them. I had started to plan this day out-and-about about two months earlier by calling Franzi’s hairdresser – the one who has been washing and styling my wigs for several years – for an appointment. This time it was not to drop off or pick up a wig, but to have an in-salon appointment for a styling. He and I had talked about that before and this time I made an appointment for early afternoon today. It was time for Franzi to experience that feminine pleasure of sitting in a salon and have somebody work on your hair to make you look the most attractive. It was a warm and sunny day and I decided on one of my short and colorful summer dresses, with 5 denier nylons, white sandals, and a white blazer – just in case. Portraits of the day. Granted, this wig urgently needed to be taken care of. As many times before, I took the bus from our local bus stop to Südbahnhof...

This headline is the first ever AI generated content that I post on this blog. And I like it. Following that fantastic Altbier, it was time to get something to eat. Knowing Franziska’s culinary inclination, you did not expect her to pick anything but one of the top restaurants in that part of town. I had written earlier about my preparations for such a trip. And one of the very important planning steps is to pick a restaurant for Friday night, to avoid any poor ad hoc decisions in that respect. Especially for dinner on Friday night – shortly after arrival at my destination – I do my research well ahead of time and book a table. That is different for lunch and/or dinner on Saturday, where I might find inspiration during the day, in hope to still get in. For this Friday evening, I had picked a French seafood restaurant right on the edge of Düsseldorf’s Old Town. And it was fantastic – at least food and drinks were – while service at French restaurants (here as well), tends be incidental,...

After the welcome drink at the hotel lobby, Franzi headed up to her room to unpack. Unpacking my suitcase is almost as much fun as packing it at home. Whenever I travel – be it vacation with my wife, be it business, or be it Franzi out-and-about, I unpack all major items after having arrived at my hotel room and put them in the cabinet. Besides the practical aspect that the clothes can straighten out after having been crammed in a suitcase, I like to remind myself what I have and when I am planning to wear it. Each item had been carefully selected and combined with all it needs to form a complete outfit. And there is a plan what to wear when. Hey, cute or not, I am still an engineer. Portrait of the evening Tonight’s plan called for this wonderful multicolored pleated dress, which you might have seen before. I find it adorable and I love wearing it. Because it was a little chilly for this time of the year, I wore this plain brown leather jacket with it, as well as a matching scarf. You...

Museum Ludwig in Cologne houses " Eu­rope’s most ex­ten­sive col­lec­tion of Pop Art, the third-largest Pi­cas­so col­lec­tion in the world, one of the most im­por­tant col­lec­tions of Ger­man Ex­pres­sion­ism, out­s­tand­ing works from the Rus­sian avant-garde, and an ex­cel­lent col­lec­tion on the his­to­ry of pho­tog­ra­phy: To­day the Mu­se­um Lud­wig is home to one of the most im­por­tant col­lec­tions of twen­ti­eth- and twen­ty-first-cen­tu­ry art in the world. And, un­like roy­al col­lec­tions, it owes its ex­is­tence to the ex­traor­d­i­nary ded­i­ca­tion of pri­vate ci­t­izens. The corn­er­s­tone for the found­ing of the mu­se­um was laid in 1976 with a do­na­tion of 350 works of mod­ern art to the ci­ty of Cologne by the col­lec­tors Peter and Irene Lud­wig" *. And Franziska loves the arts, as all of my regular readers know. So, let's dive in into this wonderful (to the author's opinion) collection of "crossdressing and arts" photography.   * fr...