creepy religious stories abound

i don't remember the name of this dark gothic cathedral in the streets behind the old town square in prague, however the recollection of the horror at having a shriveled old human hand which was proudly pointed out, by our walking tour guide, hanging on a chain from the ceiling as evidence of a religious miracle is still crystal clear in my mind. allegedly it is the hand of a thief who came to steal a statue from the church and the statue came to life (the religious miracle) and grabbed hold of the thief's wrist - so he cut off his hand to make an escape. creepy.

perhaps i just like the quiet

the irony is not lost on me at all that despite harbouring a well-developed suspicion and deep loathing of religion, that i do love the architecture of churches and am fascinated in their history. please don't mistake fascination for admiration - i am also fascinated by world war II history. this photo is taken of the inside of st stephen's cathedral in vienna. amazing catacombs lie beneath, entombing the skeletons of thousands of plague victims. the stuff of horror movies.

old school advertising

appealing streetscape in prague. ordinarily i loathe the painted brick look but this is stylish. which is saying something given it's a billboard for foul pepsi. i wonder if mands would love the painted brick in our living room so much if i did it like this. somehow i think not :)

i love haggis

twice, and over ten years apart, i did an almost identical 3 day minibus tour from edinburgh up through the highlands and lochs to the isle of skye then back down returning to edinburgh. why? because i loved it so much the first time round! in 1996, it was love at first sight, making scotland my favourite country in europe. then in returning to scotland over a decade later i couldn't resist doing pretty much the same route again, and why not with the same company 'haggis adventures'. the tour again passed through the truly breathtaking sight of glencoe. driving into the start of this massive valley, with two misty massive mountain ridges towering up on both sides, you feel like you are instantly transformed into an ant - you literally feel so small in comparison. this photo gives some idea of this perspective, if you look carefully you can see a teeny tiny itty bitty yellow line in the bottom right hand corner of the photo, this is the haggis bus. it is an amazing place.

art, um, autumn

part of loving trees is that i really love autumn! this is an image showcasing the natural beauty of berlin - the stunning tiergarten in full autumn glory. this massive city park stretches for kilometres through the old west berlin right up to the brandenburg gate and the reichstag. mands and i were staying in a hotel near the fringe of the park so many a time we walked through it on our wanders to various sights in our week in berlin. nature is art.

barb(aric) wire

this is the remains of a wall at sachsenhausen, a concentration camp north of berlin. i don't really want to say anything more other than the grey clouds in the background are appropriate. i only took a handful of photos when i visited this site. it still makes me feel sad to think about it. actually the one other thing i will say no country or race is without a chequered history or a mistake.

the hills were alive

one morning we walked up the hill to the castle overlooking salzburg to take some photos, and as we returned we noticed an unmarked path leading off through the trees and decided to have a little look. for the next few hours we wandered the trails meandering through autumn coloured forested hills and it was lovely. 

the quadriga & victoria

having spent a day walking throughout central berlin, mostly in the old east berlin, then the sun was setting on brandenburg gate just as we were walking beneath it. there is so much i could say about berlin, but essentially i just love it. what a gritty, dark but also beautiful city in a seemingly constant state of transformation, it seems both ancient and modern all at once, it is living history, more so than anywhere else i've experienced.

city of contrasts

early on in our trip and by accident we came across a series of 'free' walking tours hosted in a number of the major cities in europe. they are a lot more interesting and quirky than the bog-standard bus tour packed with seniors ;) during the one we did in paris, we were taken into the courtyard of the palais royale, near to the comédie française and the bibliothèque nationale, where we saw daniel buren's 1986 installation of black and white pillars of varying lengths. this is something we probably wouldn't have come across otherwise and was a fascinating modern contrast to the renaissance-style architecture all around - somewhat similar to the glass pyramids outside the louvre. 

rising above it all

i would love to say 'look at that cool hot-air balloon ride above the lovely old city of prague which we went up in to see the city, river and castle from a lofty height'. but i can't. because we didn't. usually i can talk mands into doing most things which she doesn't think she wants to do (but then she realises she does!) but not this time alas. maybe next time. definitely next time. are you reading this mands?