I’ll Have Another, Please
We had had a great day driving south from Berlin to Rothenburg. But when I ordered “warm raspberries” from the dessert menu at our hotel restaurant, I wasn’t sure what I’d get. And when this was served, a great day became almost perfect. Fresh raspberries and creamy vanilla ice cream – it doesn’t get much [...]
Memorial To the Murdered Jews of Europe
Not too far from where Hitler’s Chancery building stood and close to where Hitler committed suicide in his famous underground bunker, lies this unsettling memorial to all of the Jews who were murdered in Europe. This memorial was dedicated in 2005 and has been controversial because some say the memorial doesn’t attempt to answer questions [...]
The Girls of Rothenburg
This was a nearly candid photo but one girl spotted my camera and acted uncharacteristically — she smiled at me! This is not normal dress for children in this town; it just happened that on the evening we were there, There was a dress rehearsal for a pending religious pageant. Rothenburg, by the way, is [...]
Arbeit Macht Frei
The Germans that we encountered in our visit there were polite, friendly and happy. They showed respect to us even when we made mistakes due to ignorance of their laws and customs. So when I walked through the famous “Work will make you free gate” at Dachau, I wondered, as many others have, about the [...]
On A Mission
This is a Greek kitten, discovered on a back street on the island of Mykonos. He/she is oblivious to my camera and refused to stand still for the photo.
The Orb of Power
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” hit the theaters in 1975. The sophomores in my world history class were born 20 years later. And yet, when I show a photo of this symbol of power of the Holy Roman Emperor in my history class, someone inevitably says, “That’s the Holy Hand Grenade,” which is what [...]
Neither Holy, Nor Roman, Nor An Empire
The title of this post is from a statement made by Voltaire about the Holy Roman Empire, which was founded by Charlemagne in 800 AD. Even though the HRE may have had dubious value, the Emperors had great clothes and nice crowns. This is one of several in Vienna, Austria. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the [...]
Efficiency
Sometimes this blog attempts to be an artist enterprise but I’ll have to admit that after over 700 posts, I’m running low on art. So today I am using this blog to document evidence of a lifestyle very different from our big-pickup-4-wheel-drive-our family-of-4-has-5-cars mentality. What you are looking at is a cute, yellow car parked [...]
Deux Amis
We were free men in Paris, unfettered and alive, posing somewhat awkwardly in front of a structure that is anything but awkward – the Nortre Dame de Paris. I handed my camera to a passing tourist. So I guess that this isn’t really my photo is it? When I give my camera to a stranger [...]
The Bird Man And the Child
I was with a group of students in the Montmartre district in Paris and as we were walking down the steps of the Sacre Couer Basilica, I looked down and saw this man and this apparently mesmerized child. This isn’t the only photo of a child marveling over birds. What is it about birds that [...]
Walls of Glass
The most famous Gothic cathedral in Paris is the Notre Dame de Paris. But I think St. Chapelle is the most beautiful, primarily because there is so little stone and so much glass in the walls. When I walked into this structure the first time, I stood for several moments in amazement. This structure was [...]
What Kind of Coffee Do They Serve Here?
Some of my readers will know right away that this “coffee house” sells more than coffee and that’s why there is an age restriction. I was looking at the photos I took in Amsterdam a few years ago and decided to post this. What do they serve here besides coffee? They serve pot in a [...]
One Particular Harbor
There are thousands of “safe harbors” in the islands that spread out along the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia. This particular harbor (to paraphrase a song title by Jimmy Buffett) is on the west end of the Island of Hvar, which I have visited twice. I’ve mentioned in another post that Deb and I hope to [...]
Grief
I have 53,319 photos in my primary digital photo library. These are photos I have taken between 2002 and the present. I don’t expect you to be impressed with this number – I’m not sure I am. I think many of these photos should be discarded. But, because I run out of things to post [...]
Back To Paris
This is the palace at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, France. In this photo I am showing obedience to the principle of “zones” in a landscape photo: the idea that there is something in the front, something in the middle and something in the back. I guess it makes something that is two dimensional seem [...]
Mummy Cases
This is the Egyptology area of the Neues Museum (New Museum) on what is called “Museum Island” in Berlin, Germany. It may look like the museum was empty when I took this but it was actually fairly crowded. I got lucky to have the room to myself for a moment or two. Canon 5D 1/40s [...]
A Beautiful Cataclysm
Santorini is one of the most glamorous islands anywhere in the world. The glamor of its setting and of the white villas, hotels and restaurants perched on steep cliffs looking west over the Aegean sea are what attract tourists like me, my wife and my students, who were there in 2004 on a cruise of [...]
Ian the Ex-Pat
We had driven off the “beaten path” while exploring the Greek island of Corfu a few years ago. As is often the case, we came to an intersection at a small village with one sign pointing south saying that our destination was that way. But there was another sign on the same pole pointing north [...]
Our Portuguese Friend
One of the best discoveries of all of our travels to Europe is a small village in Portugal north of Lisbon with stone houses that have been converted to small apartments for tourists. The name of the little town is Aldeia da Mata Pequena and we stayed in the apartment named “Caso do Jasmin.” Among [...]
Old Stone Faces
There is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled “The Great Stone Face” which I remember being assigned by a teacher who scared me more than any teacher I ever had. As I remember her, she generally wore an expression of menace and she never smiled. In my mind, she was the real “Stone Face,” [...]
Hvar Chamber Of Commerce?
Just to make it clear, I am not employed by any organization that represents Hvar tourism. Or Croatian tourism. But I am a fan of Hvar, Croatia. So here’s yet another shot of venerable gray stone walls and fragrant lavender. If you noticed yesterday’s post, I had said that I didn’t know where the city [...]
Hillside Town – Hvar Island
Here’s another photo from our visit to Hvar Island a couple years ago. Once again, Deb and I ventured off the main road to find this photogenic locale. I’m afraid I don’t know its name but I do know that it wasn’t too far from the city we were staying in, which was Vrboska.
Wood Piles and Satellite TV?
This photo was taken in a small Croatian city south of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Instead of driving through town, Deb and I turned off the main highway and wandered through the residential area, which included these moldering Soviet-era apartment blocks. Scattered in this neighborhood there were several serious woods piles like this, in [...]
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