The amazingly beautiful day with blue sky and an occasional cloud floating by provides a perfect canvas for looking at the detailed spires topping many of the buildings throughout the city. These are just a few of them from the Old Town, before my battery died in the camera.
It’s Spring. We are back to double digits with beautiful blue sky and sunshine! Birds are chirping, people are out in full force on the patios eating ice cream and having iced drinks. It is absolutely gorgeous, and warm – and we love it.
Across the square from St. Elisabeth Church is St. Jacobs Church. The Gothic old-Franconian Church of St. James was originally the hospice church for the German Order. The original building was erected in mid to late 14th century. The Church was badly damaged during the war and was rebuilt with some alterations. The nave houses some […]
At the far end of the promenade leading away from St. Lorenz Church is a St. Jacobs Square on which two churches are built. St. Jacob and St. Elisabeth. The neo-classical church building is divided into three rooms. This is a square that is pulled apart in the middle and broken by a rotunda. The entrance and the […]
We are slowly beginning to understand how winter works here. When it snows, you get out to take a picture of it, because by noon most of it, if not all of it is gone. We had snow here now on and off for the last two days. There are places in the city where […]
We finally got a chance to see Kasia and Volker today, we have not seen Kasia since last year. We stepped out for a coffee at a movie theatre. We also found out that the movie theatre by our house, is the new Dolby Atmos theatre. Who knew! Now we are going to have to […]
And now for something completely different.
Once a normal wall, since the 1980s it has been filled with John Lennon-inspired graffiti and pieces of lyrics from Beatles songs. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as […]
After a lovely dinner on the Prague Castle side of town, in the same restaurant we ate last year, we went for a stroll to walk off the 4 tonnes of food we consumed before heading home. Let me see if I remember the meal. Beef goulash soup in a bread bowl, fries, potato mushroom […]
Tyn Church, or The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, dominates one side of the Old Town Square in Prague. The two 80m spires of this powerful looking, Gothic church (with a Baroque interior) can be seen from all over Prague. The oldest pipe organ in Prague stands inside this church. The organ was built in 1673 by […]
I have to say that after Paris, Prague is our second favourite city so far. Copenhagen is a close third. We mainly came back here to relax and of course to eat more fried cheese, and oh boy was it ever good. I think we are going to be back here at least one more […]
This is a city of Kafka as seen from the top of the City Hall Tower. Absolutely no one there, and unlike most towers we visited so far, this one has an evaluator! Naturally we elected to take the stairs – on the way down, to save a bit of time as we had to […]
Introduction to Life 101 in the Communist Block. We drag our children around these odd places to show them how we lived when we were their age. No iPhones or iPads or laptops, no video games and no internet. However, if you were lucky you could buy a block of chocolate once a month if […]
I am not implying that winter is over, I am simply saying that spring is coming. Glorious!
Today is the day when everyone in this family can measure their age with two digits. Joining the club is the littlest one – Evelina, turning 10 today and proud of it. Happy Birthday! Thank you all for your wishes, cards and gifts, it really made her day today.
This morning, we set off to do a bit of grocery shopping at our favourite store – METRO. When we got out onto the main road, there was police on every intersection, roads were closed off as were the turn off lanes to go left or right, businesses were shut down as well. We had […]
We are slowly thinking of what our summer might look like and here is our wish list. We did not include the cities we already visited because Google Maps is very difficult to deal with when it comes to dropping pins in the same city. A quick calculation shows: 9214 km and about 99 hours […]
Well, just to prove that our Italian groceries did indeed come from the back of a truck, here are the photos to illustrate. Basically, there was a small group of people that assembled in this parking lot. For any of you that lived through or are familiar with the days of PRL this really felt […]
This is a very common sight in Germany. It is true that Germans like they cars black and clean. Sometimes, you see a silver car or a white one, but mostly they are black and very, VERY clean. Can you spot the adventurous German here?
We have walked past this church many times on many walks to the old town. The kids walk by it everyday, twice a day, going to and from school. The church is considered a significant contribution to the baroque church architecture of Middle Franconia. The original medieval church was started in the early 12th Century, and was […]
In short awesome. On our way back after a bit of wondering around Paris we settled in our comfy seats in the first class. This time we were served dinner which was: pasta salad with tomatoes, goat cheese and broad green beans. Grilled beef with rice and vegetable ratatouille. For dessert lemon tart. Wine, water, […]
Paris was angry with us today, or at least that is what it seemed like to us. We got to the metro station this morning and it turned out that our 5 days metro passes have already expired. No big deal, we thought, we will just get a daily ticket. This metro station however, does […]
It is true that I can’t draw, or at least nothing more complicated than a stick figure, and I am ok with that. However, while at the Louvre, I spied this person making what appeared to be a brazen forgery of a rather famous and iconic painting, by a famous Italian artist of a famous […]
We had dinner at a local bistro, half a block away from our pad. Once again we did not get the picture of the best dish we had which was a trio of steak tartar. I will say this, and I am saying this for both of us – best steak tartar we had since […]
At first we were puzzled by what this line up was all about. Then we realized it was to the most beautiful A & F store located right on Champs-Élysées. That’s just crazy.
Old and modern, sights of Paris on a truly beautiful day.
This is our third visit to Paris, and our first visit to the Museum of Modern Art. A bit different than the Louvre but with its own merits. There was an intersting exposition of Azzedine Alaia dresses in the Matisse room as well as a whole host of other art that is just oh so very […]
Not far from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a little chocolate shop where they are serious about two things: chocolate and macarons. Today was the first time we managed to convince Boris and Evelina to try them and as it stands there wasn’t the time to take a picture of them as they […]
I am sure that there are a great many churches in Paris to see and explore. There are two however, that most people are familiar with. One is the famous Notre Dame and the other is the Sacré-Coeur. Most people will visit the Notre Dame and look at the Sacré-Coeur from the distance when they get to […]
We are out for a midnight stroll. It is absolutely crazy how many people are out. We decided to go towards the Eiffel Tower to ring in the New Year There were 1000’s of people and just as many Champagne bottles popping their corks at midnight. We had a nice walk along the Seine, saw […]
Yesterday was dedicated to culture today we are going shopping. On the agenda are BHV and ‘Galeries Lafayette’. In between the two is the City Hall from which you can see the Notre Dame. There was a huge ice ring in front of the city hall and despite the fact that it was +10C it […]
After a quick coffee at Carrousel du Louvre and a bit of well deserved rest we headed out to the Marais. This once again is a place we really loved last year so we went back for more this year. We had a wonderful dinner at a little Italian bistro for something different. L’Alimentari had some wonderful […]
While we spent more time last year looking at the paintings and the Egyptian exhibits, this year we looked at more sculptures. This is but a fraction of what the Louvre has to offer, from rooms full of tapestries large enough to cover a small house, to unimaginable amount of ornate gold trinkets large and […]
The beauty of the Louvre, or at least one of them, is that you can see a lot of stuff from any particular part of the world all in one place. The Louvre, does not have just one of something, it has 10s if not 100’s of these things. Be it old Roman vases or […]
Even though The Louvre is filled with a number of countless and priceless works of art, there are a few that draw more people than others. Those are Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast, the Sphinx, Liberty leading the People, Napoleon and of course the Victory which is my favourite piece but once that […]
While not a huge exposition – it certainly is a decadent one. Monarchs like nice things and these nice things are beautiful, exqusite and extravagant.
Part of The Louvre is dedicated to Napoleon, a man who collected a lot of the art that is currently on display here. I am not sure if opulent and ostentatious are words that do justice to his pad, but it is a start.
This was our favourite place at the Louvre this time around. We did not get to see this last year, this year then this was a double treat because there were almost no people here which was a nice change from the rest of the museum and the place is absolutely beautiful. This was also […]
One of the exhibits we saw today was a room dedicated to Greek Gods. The usual suspects, Athena, Apollo, Mars, Mercury etc. Larger than life in myth and in marble.
Today was a long day, we spent almost 12 hours out in the city. We had two objectives for today The Louvre for art and Le Marais for dinner. The Louvre is a place that is extraordinary in and of itself. Priceless works of art aside, The Louvre is magnificent on its own merit. […]
Getting out of the house for a walk is the only remedy for not just sitting and eating and eating and eating. We got out for another afternoon walk to work up an appetite and to explore more of Warsaw. On the Three Crosses Square surrounded by Hugo Boss, Burberry, Church’s, Ermenegildo Zegna, Max Mara, Coccinelle, W. Kruk, JM Weston, […]
On our short walk through the Old Town in Warsaw we walked by no less than 9 or 10 churches. Each nicer then the last. Some were empty, some were full of visitors, while others were at worship, some still were full of well wishers for the newly weds. Each different and unique with its […]
After a very late lunch we got out of the house for a walk – destination Warsaw Old Town. It was still +10C when we parked but the sun was already setting. It appears that at least half of the city of Warsaw had the same idea, Christmas walk around the Old Town. Warsaw puts […]
Feeling Gratitude and Not expressing it is like wrapping a present and Not giving it. A very Merry Christmas to you all, from all us here in Warsaw.
What used to be the second largest city in central Poland after Plock, is now a small medieval village of about 600 people just outside of Warsaw. The Gothic castle had great military importance, and was built like a fortress. The ruins of this castle, which was originally built in the early 11th century, are all […]
The Warsaw Uprising Museum is located in the Wola district of Warsaw dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The museum opened on July 31, 2004, marking the 60th anniversary of the Uprising. The museum exhibits are very modern but the layout of the museum is reminiscent of an old city streets which were boomed and destroyed during the war. This is […]
Despite our prefuse protests, we are 7 months in and in Poland for the 3rd time. However, having said that, this is the first time we are here for holidays. No passports, no paper work, no government offices to visit. We did an afternoon run leaving Nuremberg at 1:30pm and arrived in Warsaw at 8:40pm […]
Our first road trip this holiday season will be to see our family in Warsaw and to spent a few days with them and celebrate Christmas. We are hoping to get there later on tonight and start the holiday relaxation first thing Thursday morning.
We are going to be starting our holidays a bit early this year and doing a bit of travel. As such today when the school ends at 1pm we are picking up the kids and driving off. Our Nuremberg residence will be closed for the holiday season.
The Christmas Market is still in full swing with just as many people around the stalls as ever, so we avoid the main square like the plague. However, there are still some nice and quiet places around the old town where it’s nice and quiet and empty and serene. It is still quite warm, mostly […]
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