it was a glorious late summer day when i visited siena, just one of the approximately 170, 000 international visitors this year…and it seems like they all decided to come on the same day. the city was a veritable anthill! it seemed as though the place was an outdoor museum instead of a working town in tuscany. nonetheless, it really impresses with its unique beauty.
on the turkish riviera, antalya, basking in the anatolian sun. only now getting around to processing the italian photos. lovely as it is here, i must admit, florence is one of my favourite cities. the beauty, history and lifestyle are intoxicating.
duomo cupola, fırenze…this fabulous building was arresting from afar, heart stopping up close.
ufizzi, firenze…cheap and excellent food, expensive galleries and antiquities. cant have it all.
alexander the great
more duomo…took a lot photographs of this dainty colossus
firenze by night, monumental
firenze by night, quotidian
poseidon, national gallery, florence
my generous and gracious host, Piero Bongiorno
an international school, i believe
national gallery, palace courtyard
national gallery, interior
cafe, former site of old fish market
fresco, firenze
franciscan monastery, tuscan hills
my favourite church in florence…forget the name at the moment but will consult the camera geotag.
will post siena next…and it was spectacular!
kas, turquoise coast, turkiye…no golden fleece yet but having a memorable time sailing to olympos. welcome shore leave after being chased into harbour by high winds and very lumpy seas. local cafe enjoying an efes pilsner and a coarse-shag turkish tobacco. the star-full sky through the masts last night was special. feeling lucky!
Beth: what’s that lump on your cheek?
Daniel: a mosquito bite.
Beth: it doesn’t look like a mosquito bite.
Daniel: must have been a spider or something.
Beth: well, whatever it was, I think it laid eggs in your face.
so many photos to post, and i havent been very diligent about it. it does take some time to select, prepare and post the pictures, specially after ive first had to back them up and upload them to photobucket for safekeeping. so i’ll get on with the breathtakingly beautiful alps, so i can catch up to siena. i’m excited about some of the shots i got there.
switzerland can be very expensive, happily the cheese, beer and alpine touring are not. for 30 bucks you ride a gondola up to vistas you havent seen since you last watched The Sound of Music, then they unceremoniously hand you a ‘bike’ with no seat or pedals, a scooter really, and send you back down at top speed.
if it werent for having to stop so often for picture-taking, you would reach absurd speeds and likely have a wreck. they didnt even mention the pedestrians, local traffic (yep, some folks actually live up there) and the odd farm vehicle.
the scale of the alps is dizzying, dwarfing the rockies and coast range especially. the photos simply cannot convey their colossal presence.
despite the perfect swiss-alp themepark appearance, switzerland really surprised us pleasantly. yes the trains and buses are on time, and i mean you can literally adjust your watch due to their precision, but it was much less regulated in many ways than back home. people are treated as responsible adults and for the most part they respect that freedom by not abusing it.
the eiger, mönch and part of the jungfrau were visible from our vantage point.
our day trip to gruyères, yes where the cheese comes from, was beautiful on a smaller scale…thats up next.
i wasnt sure what to expect…we drove up in the rain. i hadnt been to france in so long and didnt realize what an important pilgrimage it was to me. the clouds broke just as we arrived and the sun came out. i bought some gauloises and lit up. that smell! (memories of paris). the beauty of the town struck me. i heard french conversation and an accordion playing a piaf tune. and wept. the intensity of the emotion surprised me but i couldnt contain it. i was home again.
little venice, colmar, france. totally charmed by this intact, medieval, french town.
cruising the canals of colmar, france.
colmar, france
oh, look, its beautiful down there too. Beth and sister Emma. colmar, france
everywhere you look. colmar
lovely square commemorating a revolutionary hero who was instrumental in saving the town from an aristocratic revolt. they are revolting, those aristos!
couldnt stop photographing this town.
wooden roof tile detail
the old town is so consistent and theres lots of it. cant say ive seen anything like it.
colmar
detail on a 600 year old building containing a wine shop. yes, oh yes, i went in. and it was good.
the wine shop wherein i was delighted by how affordable good cote du rhone was. grapes grown in the region and sold directly by the vintner’s coop. quite a day!
heading into the altstadt (old town) in ennetbaden, parts of which date from the early 15th century. we crossed the limmat river on a 300 year old covered, wooden bridge visible in this shot.
heading into the old town along narrow cobbles and 300-500+ year old structures
decorative soffit; this house dating from late 1400s
another limmat crossing, this one iron.
banking district, frankfurt am main
the grand man himself, Goetheplatz, frankfurt am main
Beth, Liz crossing the rhein with kaiserdom in background.
dreikönigskirche, church of the 3 kings, apple wine quarter, frankfurt
kaiserdom st. bartholomäus, frankfurt
a most memorable meal prepared by our host Andreas of LaDiva (http://www.ladiva.de/index.swf)
Schuch’s apple-themed restaurant…apple wine display.
hauptbahnhof, frankfurt am main
Frankfurt to Baden by rail. wine country south of Freiburg, hills beginning to heap up before the alps. very cinematic, the countryside moving through a window frame.
280 Km/h deutschebahn train we took from germany to switzerland.
Frankfurt bahnhof (train station)
rooftop cafe (Babalú) Reykjavík
i simply could not stop photographing this lutheran church
little red riding hood, local art gallery, Reykjavík
geothermal seawater pool, Seltjarnarnes, iceland
Seltjarnarnes, iceland
Seltjarnarnes, iceland
Mosfellbaer, iceland
‘Elisabet Ivansdottir’, Mosfellbaer, iceland
‘Artur’ night club?, Reykjavík
geothermal pool, Kopavogur, iceland
Kopavogur, iceland
Reykjavík
Keflavík airport