tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12740837593182892052024-03-08T11:27:11.276-08:00Mediterranean CentralDemianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-49798142476544160802014-12-30T14:03:00.001-08:002014-12-30T23:52:48.042-08:00Repatriation, for real...This past week my assignment in Italy ended and I'm currently in the process repatriation to the US after living overseas in Italy and Japan since early 2008. Repatriation is the process of returning to ones place of origin or citizenship, this is basically what I'm up too. I'm not quite sure what to expect, hope not much has changed. <br />
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I can almost say that I'm coming to America with nothing but $20 in my pocket and something like a dream but this not quite in the same spirit as a true immigrant story. I have a plan, but under a certain amount of scrutiny it seems to lack specifics other than i hope the bus system in greater Seattle works. <br />
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My move from Italy was a little less complex compared to my departure from <a href="http://pacificwestside.blogspot.com/2013/03/repatriation-kind-of.html">Japan</a>, this is mostly because I had a furnished apartment in Italy, a lot less stuff to get rid of. This bag has a ceramic Pumi from Grottaglie in it, lets see if it survives the trip to the US.<br />
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My last afternoon in Grottaglie was very nice weather, I was able to enjoy the view of old town from the roof of my apartment for a few minutes. A week later this city was covered in snow, something that did not happen last winter.</div>
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I'm moving to Seattle, but to my friends and family in the mid-west, I hope to visit soon. </div>
<br />Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-54072227412088665522014-12-20T09:19:00.000-08:002015-01-21T19:51:48.354-08:00Zaragoza, SpainZaragoza, is between Madrid and Barcelona very easy to visit from either city.<br />
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Of course the best way to get here is high-speed rail, this is the train departing from Barcelona Saints Station.</div>
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This is Zaragoza main station.<br />
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Spain was once ruled by the Moors of Northern Africa, this was one of their Islamic fortified palaces called the Aljaferia.<br />
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Very beautiful inside, this was built in the 11th century.<br />
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Today, it only cost 5 euro to break through this fortification.<br />
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Not far from the palace is the Basilica–Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar and the piazza Nuestra Senora del Pilar.<br />
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Mid-evil mass transit.<br />
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The Piazza Nuestra Senora del Pilar had a christmas market, this morning was a low fog over the city and the top of the basilica.<br />
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This the Catedral del Salvador or Cathedral of the Savior, they would not let me inside because of mass... I tried the explain, well, yeah, I'm here for mass. But they did not believe my because I think I look to much like an American Tourist trying to sneak past the door person.<br />
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Looking across the stone bridge over the Ebro river.<br />
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A stone relief, I think Francisco Goya made this, but in this case they years on the relief makes no sense. So maybe this is not a Goya.<br />
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Goya is not from Zaragoza but he is from a town not far from here. I think Zaragoza adopted him.<br />
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Another view of the Puente de Piedra and the Basilica.<br />
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Crazy wall art.<br />
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I was walking down a quiet street when I started hearing lots of music. Turns out the piazza San Pedro Nolasco was having a beer and music festival. I like how they pained the side of this building too.<br />
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The Zaragoza train station is amazing and large. The platform is on the lower level.<br />
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But the few coffee shops that are in this building are on the upper level. You can only enter the lower level of one side of the building so you need to plan time to walk from the cafe to the platform so that you don't miss your train.<br />
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Oh-yeah, Zaragoza is known for Tapas, Tapas are everywhere. For now Spain was the last country I visited in Europe before leaving Italy and I think it's my favorite European country outside Italy. Hope to visit again soon.</div>
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#EatTapas</div>
<br />Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-4777035597163690672014-12-20T09:11:00.000-08:002015-01-20T21:25:02.820-08:00VeneziaVenezia is unique, most cities have similar features but as soon as roads are replaced with water similarties go out the window.<br />
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When I took this photo I assumed Pinocchio was from Venice but I did a little research and it turns out he is from Firenze. This window display is kind of misleading.</div>
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No roads, all over are canals with foot bridges.<br />
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And of course there are gondolas all over, but I think these was mostly a taxi service for tourist. I don't think I saw a local taking a trip on one of these things, I joined the locals.<br />
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The Piazza San Marco is an amazing space. You walk down a small walk way and turn a corner to enter this area and when you do it really takes your breath away.<br />
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Looking south-ish from Piazza San Marco.<br />
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Gondola parking, along the water front of the Piazza.<br />
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A lamp in Piazza San Marco.<br />
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This is the main water way that cuts through the center of the main island. It's really busy in the morning, boats making deliveries all over.<br />
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The water taxi is a more practical way to get around.<br />
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Not far from Venezia Island is the Island of Monroe, this area is famous for glass making.<br />
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Italian Pigeon. <br />
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An old church in centro Venezia.<br />
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Looking east along the Rio di Sant'Alvise.</div>
Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-89303428861724019002014-11-15T11:22:00.001-08:002014-11-15T23:04:15.575-08:00Bologna!! <div style="text-align: left;">
Bologna is a city in northern Italy. Because of my plan to visit San Marino most of my time in Bologna was after sunset but I did make an effort to wake up early Sunday morning and had a few hours to see the city before returning to the South. Here is the two towers, the short one is The Leaning Tower of Bologna.</div>
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This clock was in the centro Piazza Maggiore.<br />
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A statue of a horse wrestling with man.<br />
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The sign say central station over to the right but for sure central station was in the opposite direction. This really confused me.<br />
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This was the rail area of Bologna, it was actually a confusing area.<br />
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Qsteria La Matta, or crazy women, good place for dinner in Bologna. This is not far from the central station.<br />
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Sunday morning I found time to walk around centro Bologna.<br />
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Lots of art everywhere.<br />
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Very old fresco of Jesus.<br />
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A small church in centro Bologna.<br />
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The leaning tower of Bologna seems to be more fun than Pisa.<br />
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Me infront of the tower, I did not bother to take a photo of me trying to prop up the tower.<br />
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The two towers are in a small square, it's difficult to backup far enough to get a good photo of these things.<br />
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The leaning is more aggressive compared to the Pisa tower.<br />
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you can see the pin at the base of the tower, in the ground that keeps this tower from toppling over.<br />
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One last view as walking away from the tower and towards Piazza Maggiore.<br />
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Fountain of Neptune. This is more or less the original fountain.<br />
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This is the Operation Safe Streets or Operazione Strade Sicure... keeping the streets safe but I can't tell how official they are.<br />
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This is Franklin D. Roosevelt Piazza.<br />
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Kind of boring, just a car park, but none the less, Franklin D. Roosevelt Pizza. Europe seem to really like old school American Presidents.<br />
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When ever there is nice weather, people set up shop on the street. Stop traffic and sell coffee.<br />
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One last view of Bologna, time to rush to the airport.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-3638498494616333552014-11-10T14:09:00.000-08:002014-11-10T14:37:18.103-08:00Touching Clouds in San MarinoIt never crossed my mind to check the weather or more specifically the cloud ceiling and visibility for the day I decided to make a trip to San Marino. Why would I? When I woke up the weather was nice outside blue sky with scattered clouds.... San Marino is a micro state within the boarder of Italy, I think the 3rd smallest country in Europe. The only mass transit option, that I'm aware of, to get here is a bus from the Italian city of Rimini. This is the bus stop sign in Rimini, not far from the Burger King.<br />
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This is the transit authority of San Marino station near the Rimini Burger King. You can purchase round trip bus tickets from the lady sitting at the table. I'm not sure what the guy is doing but he seems to also be part of the bus ticket program.<br />
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You can also get a map of the city of San Marino. If you look close you can see where the country of San Marino is on the small blue map of Italy.<br />
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The city of San Marino sits at 750 meters above sea level, about twice as high as the Sears Tower in Chicago. As the bus got closer and closer to the city center it quickly got foggier and foggier. But this made sense it was still kind of early morning. I was thinking this fog would burn off by 1pm.<br />
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The bus drops you off just outside the walls of centro. As you enter the city you quickly come up on piazza's and small walking roads.<br />
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And as I was hoping the fog would clear it became obvious that this was not fog but actually just clouds rolling through the city. Around noon visibility dropped to under 30 meters or 100 feet.<br />
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I think other people actually checked the weather and decided not to visit, it was kind of a quiet day in San Marino.<br />
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All over the city is statues and painting that make reference to the story of San Marino.<br />
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There are three towers, I visited one, was able to see the second one for a few seconds and the third never saw and tourist can't visit.<br />
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For a few seconds some voids started showing up in the clouds allowing a clear line-of-sight to the ground below. You can get a good idea how high this city sits.<br />
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Not so useful today.<br />
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The second tower, De La Fratta Cesta became visible for a few seconds. I was really lucky to be where I was on the first tower to get this glimpse of the second tower.<br />
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This is a view of the court yard inside tower one. You can see the small church in the court yard.<br />
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Second tower again, the clouds are starting to roll back in. Third tower, no clue where it is! <br />
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Just a few minutes later the clouds rolled back in.<br />
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The city of San Marino!<br />
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Amazing how fast clouds can move.<br />
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The bell tower of tower one.<br />
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Although San Marino is not Italy it also does not have any Starbuck shops, kind of like Italy. This allows for independent coffee mug makers to take hold within the city.<br />
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Looking down an alley. <br />
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This statue is a World War II memorial. The Republic of San Marino was neutral during the war although the British did accidentally bomb parts of the country. <br />
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The natural history museum, free to visit I think.<br />
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This is the Statue of Liberty! This is in the town square, the Public Palace is in the background but you can barely see it across the square.<br />
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Inside the palace is very beautiful and no clouds.<br />
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Abraham Lincoln bust inside the Palace. He was an honorary citizen of San Marino and wrote a letter to the city in 1861. I was hoping to bump into a member of Parliament, ask if I could get honorary citizenship too. But they were not out walking around this day.<br />
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Another quiet path through San Marino.<br />
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Piazza Titano, this is in the center of the city centro.<br />
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Later in the afternoon the clouds did not go away but the street lights around the city came on.<br />
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Statue of a ballerina in a park.<br />
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I took the 4:45 bus back to Rimini.... About 40 minutes before sunset.<br />
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Cloudy day is still a good day to visit, you are not so distracted by the amazing view looking away from the city, you can really (only) focus on the city in front of you. </div>
Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-23359717877947033402014-11-05T13:47:00.001-08:002014-11-05T13:47:30.386-08:00Bucharest This past weekend I made my farthest trip into Eastern Europe, the city of Bucharest in Romania. The first thing you notice when you visit this city is the Palace of Parliament, the largest civilian building in the world... Most expensive too.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This building was the idea of the Romanian communist President Nicolae Ceaușescu, it was a bad idea. Infront of the palace is a large area for people to gather and one of the most impressive boulevard water fountains I have ever seen. Ceaușescu did not live to see the completion of this building. Michael Jackson was actually the first person to give a speech form the balcony Ceaușescu built.</div>
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Along the length of the water fountain was a tree covered walkway. <br />
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Ceaușescu wanted the boulevard Unirii, this fountain is in the center, to be the best boulevard in Europe. And although this is a few millimeters wider, I think people consider Paris Champs-Elysees boulevard to be nicer... Of course, Chicago Grand Boulevard is #1.<br />
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All over Europe are free walking tours of cities, Bucharest has an independent company providing the tour. Tour guide was great, she knew everything about Bucharest and Romania. <br />
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Romanian Orthodox is the main religion in Romania, my first time visiting an Orthodox church and I found a food market inside. I think they were even selling wine, bread for sure.<br />
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This is the oldest new church in Bucharest, it's called Biserica Sfântul Anton and has been rebuild dozens of times. <br />
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The building itself is not so old, but the relics inside date back to the 1500's.<br />
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Bust of Dracula.<br />
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This is another small Romanian Orthodox church in Bucharest. As explained by the tour guide, churches are small because of the relationships are formed between the families of the church and the priest. Large churches can't form the same bond.<br />
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This building is unique because you can still see the bullet holes from the 1998 revolution on the top horizontal wall of the building. Look close.<br />
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Inside the Palace is amazing but not amazing, very simple.<br />
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If you tour the palace you get to see 2% of the building, or 4 rooms. Most of the rooms toured are diplomatic or ceremonial. This room was a diplomatic room, the room inside the room is used by the translators.<br />
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This stair case was rebuilt seven times in order to please Ceaușescu. <br />
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The palace was built from Romanian sourced material, including all the marble. <br />
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A ceremonial room.<br />
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This was suppose to be Ceaușescu head of the communist party room, but it ended up being the human rights room. The wall to the left contains a secret escape passageway.<br />
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Back outside the palace.<br />
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The tour guide described this as the most beautiful building in Bucharest that you can't tour inside of... closed to the public.<br />
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This is another building closed to the public, it's for military parties and such. But of course, it can be rented.<br />
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This is the statue in the center of Revolution Square, I'm not sure wha that hut is doing to the left of the statue, but the smoke coming from the hut smelled horrible.<br />
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In the back of the square is this building and balcony. Nicolae Ceaușescu gave his final speech from this balcony but from this photo you can see that's it's not really an amazing balcony. But if you watch the video on YouTube of the final speech, the angle from which this balcony is shown looks like it's ten times higher than it really is. That's propaganda. <br />
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Another square near Revolution Square.<br />
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I visited Bucharest during the Romanian Presidential election. After carefully studying all the presidential posters thought the city, I support Victor Ponta. Go Ponta! This guy definitely spent the most on posting posters.<br />
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It turns out, Victor Ponta now faces Klaus Iohonnis in a run off election. I guess we need to wait to see who wins.</div>
Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-50984843141906595142014-10-12T10:39:00.004-07:002014-10-25T10:26:43.486-07:00Driving the Amalfi CoastGrowing up and until a few years ago I was not aware of the Amalfi coast. Now I have driven the Amalfi coast twice, once from the west and the second time from the east. First thing that happens when you drive from the east is you miss this left turn, even with GPS. Seriously, all this sign needs to be is a large arrow with two words, 'Costiera Amalfitana' or just SS 163.<br />
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That left turn runs right into the Piazza Vietri before going onto the road of Amalfi.<br />
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I have posted in the past about the town of Amalfi but not the drive there. The drive is both terrifying (as in crazy) and beautiful.<br />
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During the drive you pass many little towns which is great for the passengers in the vehicle, but as the driver you mostly need to ignore.<br />
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Amazing views.<br />
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Looking back on the town of Cetara Salerno<br />
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If you are going to drive the Almafi Coast, you might as well use a BMW 1-series 118D! Urban trim, this car is not available in the US. There is a good place for lunch with easy parking at GPS 40.635591, 14.678170, I recommend the grilled fish.<br />
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This is the city of Maiori.<br />
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Looking west from Maiori,<br />
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Enjoying a 40 minute stop at Maiori. Don't mess with the parking police, they check.<br />
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The Maiori 'boardwalk'.<br />
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If you are going to visit this area over night might be easier to use a bus.<br />
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Back on the road towards Amalfi.<br />
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Approaching the city of Amalfi, traffic is not to bad.<br />
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This city is beautiful. Words can't really describe it.<br />
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But you need to be careful with traffic little mopeds are always trying to pass on your vehicle blind spot.<br />
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But once you park you can relax, I have a post from last January about the city of Amalfi.<br />
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View of Amalfi port.<br />
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Looking back on the port during a few seconds when the sun peaked through the clouds.<br />
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If you are planning on driving the coast, try to get behind a bus. These massive vehicles clear the way of everything. You might think it's slow but it's not.<br />
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Nice! I'm just going to follow this bus.<br />
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I need to figure out how to just relax at a bus stop when I'm a senior.<br />
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Passing through another small city.<br />
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The coast is 40Km long, but even the BMW GPS got confused. It tried to keep up while I drove mostly in 2nd gear, but it would sometime lag compared to where the car was.<br />
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Getting near Positano. I want to sometime visit Positano in the summer but next time I'm taking the bus.<br />
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This is the drive through Sorrento, after leaving the Amalfi coast.<br />
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Little mopeds everywhere.<br />
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Other mods of transportation too.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-90147152312575488272014-10-11T13:34:00.001-07:002014-10-11T13:37:36.881-07:00Italian BarbershopIt you are planning on visiting a barber shop in Italy for a haircut, this is the Italian translation you are looking for: più corti ai lati, più lunghi sopra.<br />
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If your Italian is limited, once you say the above phrase, that's about it for your input for your haircut. If you ask a friend for how to ask for a haircut and they don't say something like the above phrase, beware, they just told you to ask for the pattern of a soccer ball to be shaved into your head. Especially if the phase includes the words 'pallone da calcio'.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-18865566060016734752014-10-11T06:42:00.000-07:002014-10-11T06:42:16.102-07:00Mayor of Martina FrancaThis is Francesco Ancona, Mayor of Martina Franca.<br />
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It's not clear why he is cutting the ribbon, there is nothing really new on either side of the ribbon. But it's being cut, for this kind of event you need a marching band!<br />
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This is the arch where the ribbon cutting took place. Before and after the ceremony, the arch looked just like this.<br />
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Old town was quiet during the ceremony.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-314581162635974802014-10-11T06:13:00.000-07:002014-10-11T06:13:34.338-07:00MateraOn the northern edge of southern Italy is a town called Matera and the ancient town of Sassi, not far from where I live in Gtottaglie.<br />
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Depending on where you park and what day it is the first thing you walk up on is a local market, lots of old things.<br />
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Lazy dog at the market. It was difficult to find a tourist information office at Materia, not far from the market or this lazy dog is a 0.50 euro WC, at the lower level of the stair case if a pile of maps. This is probably the best place to get a map of Matera.</div>
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A man playing an accordion in front of Santa Lucia.<br />
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The church of Saint Francis of Assisi, also known as San Francisco.<br />
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Around the corner from the market are streets that lead down into the ancient town of Sassi.<br />
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This town is amazing, I can't imagine the look of this place has changed much over that past 1000 years.<br />
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This is also famous as the location that Mel Gibson filmed the movie the Passion of Christ [POC] at.<br />
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Being the Sassi are valleys that lead up to the city. In the hills around the city you can see caves, places where I hope people use to live.<br />
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The back side of Matera's Sassi.<br />
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Through out the town are structures built into the side of mountains, like restaurants and homes, this is a monastery and church. POC filmed a few scenes in this cave. <br />
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Looking up from the low lands of Sassi.<br />
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A very small church, this did not even have an information sign outside the front door.<br />
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Another view of Sassi.<br />
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All throughout the city is details craved into stone. This is a lizard head carved into a larger statue of a replica of the Sassi.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-86735649533682763642014-09-10T12:00:00.001-07:002014-09-10T12:11:31.001-07:00BernI have wanted to visited Bern, Albert Einstein realized the theory of relativity by looking back on a clock during a tram ride to somewhere and I have wanted to check out this clock.<br />
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Much like the rest of Switzerland Bern is beautiful.<br />
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Everywhere you look (except for construction on that tower in the distance) looks like a postcard.<br />
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Through out the city of Bern are statues and fountains in the middle of the street. <br />
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And large board games, I have seen large chess sets a few times around Europe. This is something the US desperately needs, don't worry, no one steels the chess pieces. F.T.P = File Transfer Protocol.<br />
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Outside the Einstein Museum.<br />
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A bust of Einstein, this was part of the tour of his museum. His nobel prize in physics is also on display here.<br />
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The stairwell to the museum.<br />
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But the main reason I made an effort to visit this city was to see this astronomical clock. This is also called the Zytglogge and is a UNESCO world heritage site.<br />
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View through the arch under the clock.<br />
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When you look at this clock its difficult to appreciate the mechanics behind it, the gears that makes this thing keep time. Looking at the clock you can see what time it is, what day it is, what day of the month it is and a few other things. </div>
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But I was also able to take a tour of the inside of the clock tower and this was amazing. This has been in operation since 1580. Warning, I'm about to nerd-out on gears....<br />
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And looking at it, it's amazing that someone was able to figure out the engineering behind it without the aid of computers or other electronic ways of cheating (like a TI-85 calculator). But I guess this is the basic setup of any pendulum driven clock.<br />
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From the main gear in the center of the room are other gears that run all over the tower that runs the clock face and astronomical clock face. This gear updated the day of the week.</div>
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This is kind of the same photo as above but at the time this photo was taken the gears were going crazy. Everything was moving and making noise.<br />
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This gear ran part of the show put on by the clock, it blows a wistle (you can see the bellows) and it also spun in a circle little statues of bears.<br />
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Outside many people gather to watch the show put on hourly by the clock,<br />
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The seven or so bears.<br />
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Just like any other cuckoo clock this things runs with weighs.<br />
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This clock can run for 28 hours, in a 24 day this provides 4 hours for winding of the clock. The city of Burn has contracted someone to take care of this, everyday. The way the tour guide described it, the person responsible for winding the clock has no day off. This is one of the weights used by this clock.<br />
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The top of the clock tour has a nice view of Bern.<br />
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Both East and west facing, you need to open shutters too see outside. The tour guide yells up 'close the shutters please' when everyone is done looking outside.<br />
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The overhead wires for the tram.<br />
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Looking towards the Bern church.<br />
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I got a little confused, I'm not sure what this gear is doing.<br />
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But this is the gear that runs the clock on the outside, the clock above the astronomical clock.<br />
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This was the house, skinny building in the middle, where Einstein lived.<br />
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Looking back on another gate to the old city.<br />
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Another large board game, I watched these guys for a few minutes and could not figure out what they were playing. They kept moving those white and black pegs around the edge of the boxes.<br />
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Statue of Jesus in the train station.<br />
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Need to look at the board to see what the next train to Zurich was. I took the 16:32 IC intercity train.<br />
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I think 16:32 was rush hour time, very busy on the platform.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-82404825264144972032014-09-07T02:40:00.001-07:002014-09-07T02:40:32.151-07:00Liechtenstein<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: start;">Liechtenstein is a small country, sandwich between Switzerland and Austria, so small that it does not have an airport or train line within the boarders of the country. As a tourist you need to take a bus from the neighboring Swiss city of Sargans to reach the capital of Vaduz. </span></div>
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Visiting makes for a good day trip from Zurich, from Zurich central station you can go direct to Sargans station where the Liechtenstein Bus is waiting to take you over the boarder.<br />
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The bus drops you off right in central Zaduz, the city is actually really small, you can visit almost everything within three or so hours. From the bus stop, it's not a far walk to the information desk where you can get a map that points out where the stamp museum is, the castle and other attractions.<br />
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This is one of the statues hidden a courtyard of an office building.<br />
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Looking up from the main street you can see the castle, I was under the impression this was something you could visit.<br />
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So I walked up the path to the castle. Along the path are signs that explain the history of Liechtenstein, the governmental, political structures and other information we were never taught in school but could learn by checking out the Liechtenstein wikipedia webpage.<br />
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Half way up the trail was a directional sign post with two arrows pointing in two different directions with the same word on it. Wanderweg must mean path but this was obvious... So obvious that I determined it must mean something else.<br />
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The Vaduz lookout!<br />
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Looking down on Centro Vaduz. The street running through the center bottom of the photo is the main street. The white tent is a market, around the market are restaurants and shops, lots of ways to spend money.<br />
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The castle. It turns out the Prince of Liechtenstein, the royal family I guess, lives in here. And as a result you can't visit the castle or walk on the castle grounds. This was not made clear at the trailhead leading up to the castle.... but it's still worth the hike, you can always talk to the guard at the castle gate. <br />
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Another view looking over Vaduz<br />
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The Liechtenstein Stamp Museum if free to visit and has a water closet.<br />
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This is the piazza outside the Liechtenstein Government Building. It's also the start of the walking path.<br />
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Balzers? Who names these cities?<br />
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Back over the boarder is the city of Sargans, Sargans has a castle too but this one you can visit.<br />
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Non-Italians trying to make wine. Good luck.<br />
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Sargans is a small town in a valley at the base of the Alps, everywhere looks like a postcard.<br />
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Yep, must be Switzerland.<br />
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Looking back towards Liechtenstein, this must be the swiss main defense against Liechtenstein. The town at the left base of that mountain in the distance is Balzers.<br />
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This should be on the list of best places to enjoy a local pint. The mountain behind me is in Switzerland, it's called Mt. Gonzen. The trail to the summit of Gonzen is on the other side of the mountain, so that hike was not really considered.<br />
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If you look really close, you can see another castle in the distance, it's on the summit of a small hill in the center of Balzers.<br />
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This is the Castle of Balzers. It seems like someone lives in there too.<br />
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It's okay to walk back to Switzerland or as the locals call it Schweiz. Open boarders!<br />
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This is the Liechtenstein side of the bridge.<br />
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This is the boarder, it runs along the center of that river.<br />
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The Switzerland logo is kind of boring.<br />
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Liechtenstein nailed it.<br />
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One more view over Vaduz.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-39516391152242922962014-09-01T12:49:00.001-07:002014-09-01T12:50:04.495-07:00CopenhagenI was able to make a quick visit to Copenhagen, my stay in the city was just over 24 hours, I did not even have enough time to visit neighboring Malmo, Sweden. I never saw this before but Copenhagen has outdoor foosball tables all over. Since I saw these outdoor pitches, I have noticed them in other cities too, like Zurich. I guess you need to bring your own ball.<br />
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The Christianborg Palace, the royal horse stables are here too. The large area in front of the palace is a show grounds and riding school for horses.<br />
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You can get around with a boat.<br />
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The Stork Fountain in the center of the main shopping street in Copenhagen. This is actually not a good time to visit this city. They are installing a new subway system (or something) and at most of the major intersections is construction. The construction also blocks walking paths though out the city.<br />
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Another palace in the city is the Amalienborg, this palace has guards.<br />
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It's a large open area with four building of the same shape in each corner.<br />
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In the center of the open space is another house monument. <br />
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By chance, I visited during changing of the guards, they must do this daily. If you are going to visit, it would be good to find a formal schedule for this event.<br />
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Nyhavn Street is a small canal lined by restaurants and shops.<br />
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The buildings along the canal are very colorful, looks very dutch. This was by view during lunch, fish-n-chips.<br />
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Another part of town is the Copenhagen City Hall, this area is notable because of a bunch of crazy statues.<br />
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Not sure what this is.<br />
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The city hall is on the right, it is also a great open space but much of this area is heavy construction right now.<br />
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I thought this was an outdoor photo gallery, but it turns out it's just advertising for Slovenia.<br />
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Bikes are a very popular form of transportation in Copenhagen and much of central and northern Europe. Some bikes had yellow tape on the rear wheel, I assume this is like a boot, maybe these bike are illegally parked or abandon. <br />
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Fountain of the Golden Apples. <br />
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The main station is very easy to use and right in center of the city.<br />
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The correct spelling of Copenhagen.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-55066496352798231462014-08-24T08:43:00.000-07:002014-08-24T08:43:34.276-07:00DublinThis was the view from my hotel room at the Shelbourne, a historical hotel that dates back to 1928, located in the center of Dublin.<br />
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I ended up not spending as much time in Dublin as I expected too, this was a result of traveling outside of Dublin in Galway and the areas south of Dublin like Greystones. <br />
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This is the exit of Dublin from Heuston Station the morning I traveled to Galway. The next morning I returned to the same spot, checked my luggage into locker and went to the Guinness storehouse and museum which is almost across the street from Heuston Station.<br />
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The tour offered by Guinness is rather amazing, it's a really thorough account of the history of Guinness and the process to make Guinness. The tour also includes the 9000 year long lease signed by Mr. Guinness for the land the factory sits on.<br />
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A few fermentation tanks.<br />
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The museum part of the tour had really cool model boats, used at one time to export Guinness.<br />
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The end of the tour includes a pint. As she poured these beers she made the point that these were the freshest two Guinness' in the world.<br />
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The bar is the top floor of the factory, the view looking over Dublin is very nice. Very relaxing.<br />
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You can see rain off in the distance, almost in every direction.<br />
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Good-bye Guinness factory, thanks for the tour!<br />
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Outside of the factory is Dublin. This is the Spire of Dublin. It's a 121.2 meter tall spire in the city center. A previous monument called Nelson's Pillar was here until it was destroyed by the IRA in 1962.<br />
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You can also see the spire from the O'Connell St. Bridge. This bridge is notable because it is called the only bridge in Europe that is wider than it is long.<br />
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Daily protest, Dublin says No to almost everything.<br />
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Trinity College campus.<br />
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This is a good place to find shelter when strong rains hits without warring.<br />
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I also made an effort to visit St. Patrick's church.<br />
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The interior is amazing, dates back to 1191.<br />
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Nice stain glass too.<br />
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A statue of St. Patrick. <br />
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A view of the outside of my hotel, the Shelbourne.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-39440566251881603362014-08-23T08:27:00.000-07:002014-08-23T08:27:43.933-07:00Dún Laoghaire and Greystones, IrelandSouth of Dublin is the towns of Dún Laoghaire and Greystones, it's easy to reach these areas along the coast using the DART train from central Dublin. Never considered this, but hey, might be fun career change. But I don't think Irish language uses the word 'fancy' very often, that sounds more like British.<br />
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Dún Laoghaire must be Irelands first line defense against England. Cannons ready.<br />
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There is a long pier that runs out from the mainland at Dún Laoghaire.<br />
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You can walk to the end of the pier and visit the base of a lighthouse. It takes about 20 minutes or so to walk out to the end of the pier, along the route you can get some ice cream and other snacks.<br />
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This is the tunnel to the lighthouse. It started to rain as I approached the lighthouse so I took shelter under here with a couple of other people who did not have an umbrella.<br />
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Good place to park a boat.<br />
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This is kind of the understatement of the year.<br />
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A nice quote from Samuel Beckett, I assume he was writing about this area.<br />
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South of Dún Laoghaire is the town of Greystones.<br />
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A DART train departing from Greystones station. You really need to watch the schedule, only one or two trains per hour leave from here.<br />
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Greystones is a small beach community too. There is also a town along the back side of the beach with restaurants and shops.<br />
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You can see the danger in the painting of surfers below, look at that strong sun, those kids better be Sunning Smart.<br />
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Sun Smart! I think this is a really important sign for local people.<br />
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Another thing I learned during this trip, the body of water between Ireland and the United Kingdom is called the Irish Sea. I guess it's not that I did not know what the name of this body of water was I just never thought about it before.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-32583279696389283012014-08-22T11:33:00.002-07:002014-08-22T11:33:58.297-07:00Galway, IrelandIreland was kind of a difficult place to reach from Southern Italy until earlier this year when Ryanair started to offer twice a week direct flight from Bari airport. I was able to take a long weekend and visit Dublin but before spending to much time in Dublin I went direct to Galway. First things first, you need to get to Galway, I decided to take Ireland rail from Dublin. Trip was around 4 hours but it's nice, train cuts a straight line through the center of Ireland and offers free Wifi. During the trip you can see the country side and sheep everywhere.<br />
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One of the reasons I wanted to visit Galway was this was a city John F Kennedy visited and made a very popular speech. This monument makes note of this event and marks the spot in Eyre Square (park) where he spoke.<br />
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This steel structure is also in the park, I like stuff like this. We need to paint this thing orange like the one in Detroit and Chicago.<br />
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Galway was surprisingly crowded. The city center is filled with restaurants and shops, everyone seem to be out and enjoying the shops.<br />
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Water safety is very important in Galway. A Stolen Ringbuoy - A Stolen Life... Can't really argue with that.<br />
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Houses along the waters edge are beautiful. <br />
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This is the Spanish arch, a very popular tourist spot in Galway. I actually walked though the Spanish arch while looking for the Spanish arch before realizing there it was.<br />
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There are also open air markets all over the city. Markets sell things like souvenirs, vegetables...<br />
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... and of course the best fresh fish in the world. <br />
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Boat on the left, for sale. This boat was made in 1943 by the famous master boat builder named Jack Tyrell. Last 50 footer strong boat in made by this guy in Galway. Not sure how much but for a second I thought to myself, hey that might be a fun restoration project.<br />
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If I'm ever lost at sea, which I barley ever go on a boat so I should not be. But if I am lost, I want to be lost on an Irish flagged boat, all over Galway and I assume all over Ireland are moments to people lost at sea. <br />
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Ireland is also very green. It rains often here, daily, so rugby pitches always look perfect.<br />
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So look at this sign. It's at the entrance of the Mutton Island Causeway and I thought to myself "cool, a causeway and the gate is open."<br />
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Walked to the end of the causeway to find the gate to the island closed. <br />
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You can see how far the walk was by looking back to the mainland of Ireland... It's off in the distance.<br />
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View looking west from the causeway towards Salthill.<br />
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This is a park between Galway and Salthill and on this monument was one of the saddest stories I have ever seen carved in stone. If you want, you should be able to click on the image and read it, but be ready, it's sad.<br />
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On the rocky water front of Salthill.<br />
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A perfect pint in a small bar at Salthill.<br />
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Galway is very serious about Salmon farms. This sign encouraged me to go do some research about farmed Salmon.<br />
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I only stayed one night in Galway and had to wake up early the morning of the second day to rush to the train station. The city was empty and quiet, these alleys were numerous between my hotel and the train station. <br />
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The Kings Head, a popular bar in Galway. As I passed this bar at 6:45am on my way to the train station, three people rang the bell and entered. Not sure what was going on.<br />
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One last stop at the JFK memorial. <br />
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Two ways to spell Galway. I arrived at the station about 30 minutes before the train left for Dublin, not much to do at 7am.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-56818403342938392302014-07-02T13:53:00.001-07:002014-07-02T14:00:49.523-07:00Villa CastelliFrom central Grottaglie, about 6 roads radiate out to somewhere else, and one of these roads is route SP24 to Villa Castelli, a very small town about 6km away. I'm trying to ride my bike more often around southern Italy and decided to visit V. Castelli. Between Grottaglie and V. Castelli is the boarder between the province of Taranto and Brindisi.<span id="goog_2067870625"></span><br />
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V. Cast is a very small town and as you enter one of the first buildings you notice is this one. I think it's a house or maybe a ristorante.<br />
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This is the main square, it's so quiet Sunday, early afternoon<br />
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Behind the main square is this ledge looking over the valley, I had to bike up from the low lands in the background. Biking home was almost no work, mostly downhill.<br />
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To the east of the main square is another monument, you need to cross a bridge over a valley to get here.<br />
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Opposite the main square is a road that leads to the main church.<br />
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Church is called Chiesa Di San Vincenzo De' Paoli, built in 1898, so it's kind of new.<br />
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The road between the square and church is also very quite, very relaxing afternoon.<br />
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Domes of churches in Southern Italy are very beautiful, great tile work.<br />
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<span id="goog_2067870624"></span>Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-70074095022902485692014-06-15T14:42:00.002-07:002014-06-15T14:47:21.923-07:00ViennaAll over Europe are amazing churches and I have visited many of them, so when I visited Vienna I decided I would try to visit other places and not focus so much on Cathedrals. But ultimately I went on a church-crawl... But before visiting churches I needed to figure out how to use Vienna's trams and mass transit.<br />
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This trams are old and old school. These are about as old as the trams that would be in Detroit today if they were not all sent to Mexico city.<br />
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The first site I visited was Maria-Theresien-Platz, kind of a large public square.<br />
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Next to this square if the famous unsthistorisches Museum but I did not visit the museum inside this building. </div>
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Theseus Temple is an old neo-classic building built in the early 1800's, it use to house a statue but today it is a rolling art show.<br />
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This is the current art show, bunch of little ceramic cups.</div>
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And not far from the temple is the Katholisches Pfarramt Votivkirche or the Votive Church. This is now my most favorite church in Europe, they are not so serious and have lots of fun things on display.<br />
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This church of course has wonderful stain glass.<br />
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This is the stain glass leading up to the museum.<br />
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This is the top of the stair case at the entrance of the museum. You are not allowed to take photos in the museum but the museum contains the Antwerpener Alter from the 1400's. Amazingly there are very few photos of this alter on the internet, now I wish I would have sneaked a photo.<br />
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The church had a spot where you could kneel down and pray to a Japanese anime cartoon or a statue, it's no problem at Votive.<br />
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More stain glass within the church.</div>
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This church also had an art-piece of mirrors.<br />
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Outside the church is the Sigmund Freud part, BC part is near SF part and of course no fun, all you are allowed to do is throw away your garbage.</div>
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Old school trams.<br />
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I wish I could read what the white text next to the plaque says.<br />
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But I was able to piece together what the plaque says, 'in memoriam to the here during the Nazi era for political reasons executed women and men'<br />
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So far, #1 Mexican food in Europe is in Frankfort, just google Chipotle. But for sure #2 Mexican restaurant in Europe is Los Mexikas... But unlike most Mexican restaurants around the globe you need to make reservations for Los Mexikas or arrive exactly when they open. Dear Los Mexikas, please drop the need for reservations, please calm down.<br />
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The second church I visited was St. Stephen's Cathedral.<br />
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This church was a little more serious.<br />
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Again, this church interior was amazing.</div>
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But between the area where you sit and attend church behind the pews was a gate, this was the first time I saw something like this, but this date did help to keep me away from the Alter.</div>
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Central Vienna has drinking water.<br />
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It was not super hot outside but there was a constant line for water. <br />
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Italian car.<br />
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The last church I visited was St. Peter's Church, again amazing structure.<br />
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The main priest of this church was at the front door meeting guest. I did not get his name but there was photos of him with the pope in the entrance area of the church.<br />
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If you are in Vienna, it's worth making an effort to visit St. Peter's Church.<br />
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It's not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's always difficult to take a photo of a large building in a small outside square.<br />
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The gate of Hofburg Palace, this opens up into a piazza.<br />
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Vienna mini copy of Rome's Trevi Fountain... nice try.<br />
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Vienna also had a nice bird house area, this was not far from a fairly good American style Chinese restaurant called Sternzeichen near Rochusgasse station.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-31852518699327957132014-06-10T14:15:00.000-07:002014-06-10T14:15:05.344-07:00The Loyalty Box, AustriaThis is amazing, newspaper boxes in Austria are nothing more than plastic envelopes with a secure coin box (secure as in it's locked and usually bolted to something, like a sign post).<br />
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These paper boxes are all over the place too, shown here are areas around Vienna but I also passed through Wiener Neustadt and they had these things too.<br />
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Think about it, your typical US newspaper box takes coins and once you insert the correct amount you open the locked box and take one paper. But why? Maybe the US newspaper box is an overkill, it's way to complex. This is not much different, you insert the correct amount of change, flip open the open envelope and take one paper.<br />
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So, this would be a great social experiment. For example, looking at this Loyalty Box, if the envelope contained 10 papers and the cost of each paper was 2.50 euro, at the end of the day that little coin box should contain 25 euro. I think this is what happens in Austria but I wonder if this would hold true in other random cities around the world?Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-79276835637716161022014-06-04T14:24:00.006-07:002014-06-04T14:24:53.018-07:00Sopron, Hungry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Most first visits to Hungry is to the city of Budapest, but I was not far from the border city of Sopron so I went here first.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Slovakia welcomes you to Slovakia, Hungry welcomes you to Sopron.</span></div>
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'Centrum' or the city center is very small in the city of Sopron, it's not difficult to find the main square. Just outside the piazza is the clock tower called the Firewatch Tower... Built in the 12th century.<br />
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You can walk up to the observation deck of the Firewatch Tower and it's worth the effort. But you need 1200 Hungarian dollars for the ticket, if you have just Euros like I did you need to go find a ATM. These are the pendulum weighs for the clock in the tower.<br />
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Stairs never end.<br />
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But once you reach the observation deck, the view is amazing and relaxing. Looks like a cartoon.</div>
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After visiting the tower I walked south down the street called Uj Utca, on this street was a recycling festival.<br />
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For example, it is cool to convert a garbage bin into a couch.<br />
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Also along this street is an old Synagogue with a museum.<br />
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Lots going on, ECO and Synagogue.<br />
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The museum is very nice, this was my first visit to a Synagogue I think. It explains the history of Jewish people in Sopron as well as Soprons place in larger Europe.<br />
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Right outside the Synagogue another famous Church called Orsolyita.<br />
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This is the plaza outside of the Church.<br />
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Train station stain glass window. This looks like it was made in the 70's.<br />
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I wanted to take the 2:40pm train back to Vienna, but when I arrived at the station I quickly learned that this train was canceled. I had to wait one more hour for the 3:38 direct train to Vienna. I went for another walk, here is a Hungarian post box! I did manage to find my way back, but the direct train to Vienna that leaves 38 minutes past the hour has construction on parts of it's tracks. Half way into your trip you need to exit the train and take a bus to another train on the other side of the construction. I recommend taking the route backwards to Vienna that you took to get to Sopron. If you use google maps to determine the best route, google maps is not aware of the bus thing. It's best to pass through and transfer at Wiener Neustadt station. This is the situation at least for now. </div>
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-15136997136866444302014-06-03T15:04:00.000-07:002014-06-03T15:06:26.907-07:00Bratislava!This past weekend I visited Vienna but before going I noticed that the country of Slovakia and Hungry were not far from Vienna. Did a little research and decided to visit Bratislava and Sopron as day trips from Vienna, the first day trip was Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. The train I took from Vienna had a short 10 minute layover at Bratislava-Lamac station. I know that I would need to transfer here but I thought it would be to a bus, but luckily it was to another train direct to central.<br />
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WELCOME TO SLOVAKIA, up until last week I was not planning on ever seeing this sign!<br />
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First things first, I took a bus from the train station with the intention of getting off at central, but I missed that target and ended up at a park-and-ride that was located next to a large shopping mall on the opposite side of central. I had to exit the bus, pass under a bridge and travel back to central, pass back under the UFO.<br />
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Found it, central Bratislava.<br />
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I like this statue, its of a man at work.<br />
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Central Bratislava is small and easy to get around.<br />
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Central even had a small market, I looked around and determined I did not really need anything.<br />
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Another view of centro.<br />
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For a long time I did not have a map of central but if you walk around enough you will find directions to the information office. You can get a free map at the office and some basic information about were to visit.<br />
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The 15 meters sign to Budweiser is funny because Budweiser beer is not American. The Budweiser brand is a domestic Czech beer, Budweiser US was second to use this name. So as a compromise, US Budweiser in Europe is called Bud and beer called Budweiser in Europe is the original Czech beer. Either way, if you are in Slovakia, Bud/Budweiser is an export. But Budweiser beer consumed within countries near Czech Republic is as good or better than Bud beer in the US. It was explain to me that Budweiser is not stable enough to export long distances from Prague. <br />
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The interior of St. Martin's church, it's very nice.<br />
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The church in the middle of the photo is the exterior view of St. Martin's, this is the view form top of the hill of where the castle is located. <br />
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Castle main gate.<br />
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The flag of Slovakia, atop the Bratislava castle. I had to walk up a bunch of stairs to see this view.<br />
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This is outside the castle, this structure is not so old, I think it was recently rebuild (< 100 years old)<br />
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This is a memorial for Russian solders who liberated this city during WW2. </div>
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It's located on top of the highest hill within the city limits but worth the visit, it's kind of a relaxing quiet place to visit.<br />
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Me with Slovakia in the background.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-60007554408677889842014-05-19T12:20:00.001-07:002014-05-19T12:20:44.629-07:00Grottaglie Monument to the FallenThis monument is in a park that is usually closed to the public, but on a random weekend about a month ago the main gate was open.<br />
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The statue up close, the engraving is for his children of the homeland.</div>
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I also like the statues around the door of the main church in Grottaglie.<br />
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I'm not sure what animal this is but he is doing his best to keep that pillar in the air.<br />
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This is the statue in the upper right of the door.</div>
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-32545830269811048682014-05-12T14:38:00.000-07:002014-05-12T14:38:27.808-07:00Gothenburg, SwedenMy first visit to Sweden and Scandinavia was to the city of Gothenburg, locally spelled Göteborg. It's easy to find your way around the city, maps are everywhere.<br />
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Since the mid-90's I have wanted to visit Gothenburg, in my previous job, I worked with engineers and managers from this area. I was lucky to be able to find my previous co-workers and meet them for dinner. <br />
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I was also lucky in that my full day in Gothenburg, the rain stop and the sky cleared. The day I landed in the city was rain, kind of like Seattle, next day was sun and a few clouds.<br />
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The first place I visited in the city center was the botanical garden of Trädgårdsföreningen.<br />
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The garden is small, not quite large enough to isolate it from the car sounds of the surrounding city.<br />
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The green house reminds me of the green house on Belle Isle in the city of Detroit.</div>
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The interior of the green house keeps it tropical.<br />
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A block along the main street, just to the left or right of this intersection was bars and restaurants like Hard Rock.<br />
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All over the city is art and statues, this is a Sweden's Second City view on gun control...<br />
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The Gothenburg Art Museum allows photos of the collection, below is an old painting of locals enjoying the afternoon.<br />
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World's safest limo.<br />
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Just outside the city center is the Skansen Kronan, one of Gothenburg's original fortifications. <br />
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I really wanted to visit the interior of this structure but by the time I arrived here at 4:30 it was closing and not letting people in. In the past the city was circled by fortifications but most have been removed for economic expansion. Luckily this one was not in the way of anything.<br />
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Very imposing structure.</div>
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The Skansen Kronan is atop a steep hill, this is the view from that hill. It's worth the effort.<br />
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At the base of Skansen Kronan is the neighborhood of Haga.<br />
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Haga is a historical district, it's a really nice place to visit and relax. <br />
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It's not very difficult to find 'main street'.<br />
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This building was an old factory converted into apartments.<br />
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Very quiet streets.<br />
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At the base of Haga is a plaza, this is the fountain in the middle of the plaza.<br />
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Art or Laundry?<br />
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No matter where you are, who you are, what time it is, you can always be a pimp if you are rolling around in a car like this. This guy drove past where I was sitting like nothing special was going on.<br />
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This is Gothenburg Centalstation, you can take a train from here to Stockholm.<br />
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Gothenburg is also very well known for it's tram system, here is tram 10 just hanging out in central plaza.<br />
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The Clarion Hotel Post is not where I stayed but this was the original post office of Gothenburg. The statue on the three post in front of the hotel is see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, a copy from Nikko, Japan.<br />
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NFC Fried Chicken, N must stand for Nordic. <br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-37331160365287338592014-05-11T11:46:00.002-07:002014-05-11T11:46:36.235-07:00Southern Archipelago of GothenburgSouth of Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, is the Southern Archipelago and the island of Brännö. The port is about a hour tram ride south from the city center, the Island I visited is another 20 minute ferry ride from the port.<br />
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If you have a Gothenburg tram day pass it also works for the ferry, the timing worked such that as I arrived at the port, the next ferry was to the island of Brännö. I asked the ticket desk attendant and she recommended this would be a good place to visit.<br />
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Ferry's proudly show the flag of Sweden.<br />
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The ferry makes a few stops before arriving at the port of Brännö-Rödsten, the route to the port passes closely between other islands.<br />
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The island i scattered with cute little homes.<br />
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The ticket office person recommended visiting at least two places on the island, one was a look-out-point and the second was a cafe. I decided to walk to the look-out area first, just follow the signs to Utkiken... Which I assumes means lookout area.<br />
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Atop the hill was this little hut, it was locked.</div>
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But looking inside, the walls are covered with photos and there appears to be a guest book. I was not able to sign the guest book since the door was locked but if someone visits this place and it's unlocked, please leave a note for me. <br />
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This is the view looking out over the sound.</div>
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I was very lucky to have great weather on the my full day in Sweden. The day before, when I landed it was raining and I believe it was raining for weeks before my visit too.<br />
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Lots of houses have these very artistic mail boxes.<br />
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Also on the island was a museum, but the museum was also closed except for a small closet on the side of the building which contained a bookstore. If you leave 5 Kronor (Swedish dollars) you can take a book.<br />
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I had only an hour and a half to stay on the island before the return ferry arrived. If I missed the next ferry it was an additional 2 hour wait for the second one. After visiting the look out, I went to the cafe but by the time I got to the cafe it was to late to order food. So i decided to have a local beer and a cookie.<br />
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The cafe also had statues of boats and other marine things all over the place.</div>
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The return ferry was different from the one I arrived in.<br />
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Returning to the port of Saltholmen.<br />
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1274083759318289205.post-10881215985249071262014-04-27T11:01:00.001-07:002014-04-27T11:07:52.721-07:00Massafra CavesThis was my second visit to Massafra, a city just north of Taranto. The first visit was to the city center, this visit was to the famous Massafra caves and the Madonna Della Scala.<br />
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This is one of few valleys that run through the city of Massafra, the tour today will go down into this valley where the church and caves are located.<br />
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Next to the church is a crypt with many old frescos, this is one of the Madonna.<br />
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I think these frescos date back to the 1700's.<br />
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These are the stairs, or the 'della scala' that leads down to the church at the base of the valley. The legend is that it's not possible to count how many steps this stair case has. No mater how careful you are, if you count steps walking down, you will always get a different number when you try to verify your count by going up the staircase. </div>
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The church Santuario Della Madonna Della Scala was completed in the year 1731.<br />
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The interior is simple, but hey, this structure is over 280 years old.<br />
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The back of the church is the trailhead that walks thought the valley and onto the caves.<br />
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There are many caves with many ways to enter. The cave we were given a tour of used a ladder to get to the first floor landing.<br />
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But the first floor landing was just a transfer to a second ladder that leads up to the main floor.<br />
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The caves are amazing, these were all carved out of the valley walls. Years ago people lived in this area of Massafra but for a numbers of reasons including many earthquakes the caves are not abandoned.<br />
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You can look across the valley and see other caves.<br />
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This particular cave was huge with many rooms. To enter some rooms you need to pass through little openings.<br />
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No one was sure what the little pockets cut into the wall were for but I assume at one time they were filled with statues or decerations. <br />
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I was walking around the cave with my head kind of kept low, although this room had a a high ceiling other rooms did not, I wanted to avoid walking into a rock.<br />
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The path between the cave and church was nice too, very nice nature.<br />
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The current set of stairs that lead down to the church was built in 1899, about 160 years after the church was complete. I was wondering what was in the stairs place before the current stairs.<br />
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Massafra is not a place you would normall visit but if you have time it's worth the effort. To tour the caves, I think you need to contact the mayor or information desk to schedule it.</div>
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Demianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14675404803330133787noreply@blogger.com0