For The Love of Travel

My favorite places, photos and stories

September 22, 2017
by Lids
Comments Off on 18/9/17, around Prague

18/9/17, around Prague

Pařížská Street is considered the most exclusive – and expensive – street in the whole of Prague. The street links the Old Town Square with the Cechuv Bridge and on both sides it is lined with mainly Art Noveau, beautifully decorated residential buildings, most of them were built in the first decade of the 20th century.

The beautiful St. Nicholas Church at the Old Town Square was completed in 1735, and replaced a parish church mentioned in records dating back to 1273.  St. Nicholas is a Baroque church, the interior of which was inspired by the chapel of St. Louis-des-invalides in Paris. The delicate stucco decoration was executed by Bernardo Spinetti, and the frescos by Peter Adam the Elder. The sculptures are by Antonín Braun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Franz Kafka (lovely statue) was a novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20thC literature, exploring themes of alienation, anxiety, guilt and absurdity. 

Delicious mushroom risotto (with gorgonzola foam) lunch – all that I needed to keep me going! 

Lots of walking around today and a leisurely river dinner cruise  tonight.

September 21, 2017
by Lids
Comments Off on 17/9/17, Petrin Lookout Tower, Prague

17/9/17, Petrin Lookout Tower, Prague

Arrived late afternoon and thought I’d capitalise on good weather to get onto the cable car and a view over the city….thwarted by railway officials telling me I needed czech money and no, euros wouldn’t do! Didn’t mention that I could use card machine….I went in search of an ATM, got local currency, came back…and there was a horrible queue.  Lots of muttering under the breath!!!!! Finally got to the top, and lovely views..well worth the angst.

At the foot of Petřín Hill one can find a monument by sculptor Olbram Zoubek in cooperation with the architects Zdeněk Hölzel and Jan Kerel.  The base of this monument is a staircase, on which seven figures descend. However, the farther away the figures are from the lowest stair, the more ruptured their torsos appear, with missing limbs and broken chests. This monument is the Memorial for the Victims of Communism that was unveiled 12 years after the fall of communism, in 2002. 

September 21, 2017
by Lids
Comments Off on 16/9/17, around Berlin

16/9/17, around Berlin

If you’re a museum person, you can easily keep yourself busy in Berlin for weeks. There are all kinds here – history, art, culture, and just plain weird – currywurst museum, anyone? I knew I had to visit the Topography of Terror, a museum chronicling the rise of the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and the aftermath of the war through photographs and stories, located on the former site of the headquarters of the SS and the Gestapo.

Walking through the Topography of Terror museum is like being unable to put down a really well-written book. And the photographs, always my favorite thing to pore over in the history books, have been chosen with care and appropriately reflect this time period, even at its ugliest. The images sometimes are so appalling that the second my eyes landed on them I had to look away, and the stories beneath them are so heart-wrenching that I felt

compelled to read each and every one, lest someone’s story be forgotten. These are a few of the images that I felt captured the essence and the horror so fully that I haven’t been able to get them out of my head – a man refuses to salute with other workers at the launch of a German navy training ship, Hamburg 1936;  soldiers from a concentration camp relaxing with female camp attendants on “time off” 1942;  young boy surrenders to SS during Warsaw Ghetto uprising 1943; young women reach out to shake hands with Hitler, Breslau 1937; German task force executes Lithuanian jews on the outskirts of Kovno Ghetto; the sneer/smile on the face of the German soldier at the Jewish man’s humiliation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the grim Topography of Terror museum visit, sat outside in the sun and my attention was drawn to a balloon hovering in the sky very close by, which had the word “Die” emblazoned on it. Not a great marketing slogan I thought, but when the balloon turned slightly and I saw it was actually “Die Welt Balloon” (“the World Balloon”)…a strong steel rope attached to a basket allows you to hover 500 feet in the air and to enjoy a panorama over the city. On my way there, a demo happened out of nowhere, celebrating diversity. Sun was shining, great demo, perfect day.

 

 

 

I thought I’d do weird…Currywurst- it’s inspired a museum, a musical composition. This is the distribution of the chain through Germany! A dish of sliced and grilled pork sausage with a sauce consisting of ketchup and curry powder – the snack was first created on September 4th 1949 in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, by the German woman Herta Heuwer.  At the time, the area was under the control of the British. In the post-war period,  Allied soldiers were introducing new foods and eating habits to Germany, such as Americans eating tomato ketchup with steak, which was adapted to eating sausage with ketchup. Curry powder was brought over by the British.   My view….pork sausage and mustard still a winner!! The little sampler you got after your tour of the museum was enough for me, had to pair with a prosecco for lunch! 🙂

Strolled past Check-point Charlie, the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin West/ East crossing point during the “Cold War” (1947–1991). 

Berlinische Galerie (of Modern Art) had an exhibition of Swiss artist Christine Streuli’s latest work which I wanted to see….loved the chromatic intensity, patterns and shapes, quite surreal.  Not so much Monica Bonvicini’s offerings (a wall of steel scaffolding – her work explores the relationship between power structures, gender and space – don’t ‘hear’ what she’s trying to convey through the scaffold medium!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delightful onsite cafe for coffee and mango and passionfruit mousse cake after the museum visit.