For my new screen setup, I wanted some fresh, dual screen full HD – 3840×1200 pixel, to be precise – wallpapers. Due to lack of suitable landscape oriented images, I experimented with rotated motives. These are the results:
I know, I know, I write too much about those photos. I’ll try to be brief this time. The Nordic Museum reminds me of the Harry Potter castle with its many towers. I did not visit it, but its neighbour, the Vasa Museum. But more on that in a later post. Me being a total ship ignorant, totally missed that I had passed the Dannebrog Royal Yacht, one of only two remaining officially royal boats still in use. My hotel was located near the ferry harbour, leading to very peculiar traffic signs…
A spontaneous visit to CERN was surprisingly rewarding. I managed to sneak into the fully booked French guided tour. For the next two hours, we visited two spots: first was the historical synchro-cyclotron, which surprised with a well-produced animation of its inner workings, projected directly onto its skeleton. Then we went to the building above the ATLAS detector, which (of course) could not be visited directly. Instead, we saw another presentation. A small bonus was the direct view into the control room.
Apart from the historical centre (and CERN, of course), Geneva has many nice spots. Here is a sample of two days aimlessly strolling around.
When I stood on Queen’s Walk in London, next to the National Theatre (roughly here; btw: this is one of the few occasions where “here” is a sensible choice for a link text, but I digress…), I could not help but notice the abundance of lighting. So I opened the shutter and waved my camera around. Here are the (unedited, except for level adjustments) results:
Some details I noticed along the way.
They must have nerves of steel. Cycling in central London is a close contact sport. Narrow roads and dense traffic make it quite a challenge to go by bike. Nevertheless, I could not fail to notice quite a few cyclists on my first day in London. I even spotted the notorious #TrafficDroid (background story on Daily Mail).
Last weekend, I went on a mountain hike with my camera. Fortunately it didn’t rain, so I could take many photos of rocks, mountains and the sky. We started Friday evening, walking for three hours before arriving at the hut Alpenrose where we stayed for the night. The next day we had big plans: climbing up Schönbichler Horn and descending to the Schleigeisspeicher storage lake (above).
While the harbour looks great in the night, the valuable coastline next to the city is occupied by concrete, cranes and industry. The first two photos show both freight and passenger docks. The city itself is quite photogenic, thanks to bright lighting and organically grown buildings. The Plaça d’Espanya is one of Barcelona’s traffic nodes in the north-west. The cheapest connection to the airport (bus line 46) departs here. La Rambla is the main promenade, connecting Plaça Catalunya to the coast at Port Vell.
Barcelona’s university building in the city centre is quite impressive. The entrance hall reminds me of a gothic church, up the stairs it resemble a classic art gallery. Behind the main building lies a small park, which is crowded by cats. My impression: it must be inspiring to work there!
This museum for indigenous art from the whole world is located very close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. For me, it was one of few mandatory places to visit. It was absolutely worth it. The modern exhibition planning allows you to both visit everything in a linear tour, while still allowing to directly enter every corner of the museum directly. Decoration is minimal to not distract from the impressive exhibits. The next time when I visit Paris, this museum will be on my list again.
Happy new year! I spent the end of 2010 in Paris with some friends. One of the highlights certainly was the Louvre. We only had time to visit the Egyptian collection and the well-known paintings of the great masters. While the first collection was quite pleasant, the famous paintings were too crowded. Below are some impressions of the visit:
Both towns are worth a visit. Narbonne with its famous market hall and historic centre (mainly town hall and cathedral), Sête with its harbour, channels and the signature hill atop.
Last week I visited Austria’s capital city for the first time in my life. While the weather was not very pleasing — to say the least — Vienna itself kept its promise. It has a historic centre with many magnificent buildings like the “Burg” theatre, the opera. The town hall resembles a church with its many towers. Various churches and cathedrals wait to be visited, what I did with St. Stephan’s Cathedral, St. Charles’s Church. The culturally interested finds many museums and sights like Hunderwasser’s house. I visited also MUMOK, the museum for modern art. Its building resembles a monolithic black block from the outside.
Some impressions from my visit in the Italian town Sanremo. The old town rises up the hillside and features arches over tiny lanes, rendering it very dark. Near the coast there is a Russian church which looks bigger from distance than it really is. Finally, in the morning there is a big market on the central place which offers flowers, clothes and “original” watches from mobile traders.
After about 5 months of frequent visits in Nice it is time to post some photos. The city has much to offer: beginning with Place Masséna and the Avenue Jean Médecin which leads to the train station. In the neighboured side roads you can find spruce residential houses. The picturesque old town is located east of place Masséna. Its alleys house a significant number of restaurants, boutiques and galleries.
Directly beneath lies the Promenade des Anglais which connects the city with the airport in the west along the coastline. The Mont du Château offers a great view over both the harbour and the old town. There are other lookouts like the Cascade de Gairaut up the hills which rise in the north.
The Opéra de Nice currently stages the piece “Orphée & Eurydice”. It tells the famous myth of Orpheus who descends to the underworld to return his beloved Eurydice. Yesterday I watched the modern production; unfortunately it is forbidden to take photos during the performance…
Today I visited Grasse for the second time. The weather was fine so I could take another bunch of nice pictures from the town itself. On my first visit (in March) I had already visited the production line of Fragonard, an old perfumery.
Today both weather and time allowed me to go to the beach. I chose Juan-les-Pins (just next to Antibes) and was not disappointed. After 2 hours relaxing at the beach I decided to explore the headland in the south of Antibes. There you can find many villas, a public park and a marvellous coastline.
I had already uploaded those pictures to my flickr account. But as I should pay when I want to manage more than 200 photos there, I decided to move all of my photos here. So here is the reissue of my photos on the coast of Cagnes-sur-Mer:
