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View of Westminster Abbey from the London Eye
London
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We traveled to Europe for the second time in
September 2015. We went to see more of Europe and to visit with Sean
and Louise in Ljubljana, Slovenia. We flew out of Toronto on Saturday
of Labor Day Weekend and arrived in London around 9:00 Sunday morning.
After standing in the customs line for nearly 90 minutes, we made our
way to the train into London.
We stayed at the London
Marriott at County Hall. The hotel is across the Thames from
Parliament. After dropping off our luggage we walked toward Buckingham
Palace to pick our tickets for our tour on Monday. After lunch, we took
a bus to the British Museum. We managed to stay for nearly two hours,
but we were all dead tired from the lack of sleep on the flight over to
London.
The
three pictures above are of sculptures from the pediment of the
Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The sculptures were done nearly 2,500
years ago (think about how to sculpt the gowns in the first picture).
They were done to fit into the triangular space of the pediment so the
sculptures get shorter toward either end.
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| An Easter Island Sculpture |
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On Monday, we toured Buckingham Palace
(about a mile from our hotel). We did the Palace and the Gardens
directly after that. Both tours were well worth it. We had an audio
tour inside and a guide (human) in the Gardens tour. The group size was
limited such that you did feel jammed in like I did when we toured
Versailles in 2013.
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| Taken
by the Queen herself (honest...I didn't have the heart to tell her that
she cut us off at the knees...other than that, it's a pretty good
picture) |
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| With the taxis in front, this picture looks like it could have been taken 20 or 30 years ago. |
Monday afternoon, we toured the National
Gallery. We couldn't see parts of the museum due to an "industrial
action", (a strike) but I still enjoyed seeing this museum. The
National Gallery is home to over 2,000 paintings. Like the Louvre, it
was near impossible to get near the top ten paintings (due to folks
having to take selfies with masterpieces). Below is my photo of a
painting by Canaletto done around 1740 and below that one of my photos
from present day Venice. Not much seems to have changed.
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| San Marco Basin on Ascension Day, British National Gallery |
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| Taken from the Basilica di Santa Maria |
The present day photo is taken from the
other side of the Grand Canal. I am thinking that the Canaletto had to
have the benefit of seeing Venice from the water or well east of Saint
Mark's Square.
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| From the front of the National Gallery, looking toward Parliament and Big Ben (one of my favorite pictures) |
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Tuesday
was our London Pass day. We ended up doing Westminster Abbey in the
morning at the Tower of London in the afternoon. We also got to ride
the water taxi from Westminster to the Tower of London and back (about 2
miles one way). Westminster is a Gothic style cathedral, with high
walls, narrow pillars and large windows. After the tour, I didn't think
of it as a church, but as a cemetery. Hundreds of famous (and
thousands of not so famous, and more than a few infamous) people laid to
rest there. I spent more time looking at the floor than the walls, the
altars or the ceiling.
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| Sorry about the truck and car. They both pulled up seconds after I arrived. |
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| A side view, showing the buttresses |
On Tuesday afternoon, we went
to the Tower of London. The tour was a bit cheesy, but I was in the
mood for cheesy by that time. We had a Beefeater conduct the tour. In
order to gain this duty, you have to have served in the military for 25
years. They live on the grounds with their families and conduct the
tours. The Tower was the royal residence for hundreds of years and the
first buildings on the site were constructed by William the Conqueror in
the ten to fifteen years after his conquest of England (1066). The
Tower also houses the crown jewels. After the tour of the Tower of
London, we toured the Tower Bridge (took the elevator up and the stairs
down).
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| The White Tower (this was the main residence) |
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| The Jewel House (where the crown jewels are on display) |
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| The White Tower again |
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| Armor of Henry VIII, from his more portly later age |
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| The Tower Bridge from the Thames |
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The Tower Bridge, taken from a window in the White Tower
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| The London Eye, from the Westminster Bridge |
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On Wednesday morning, we rode the London Eye, the
giant Ferris Wheel constructed as part of the London Olympics. The
wheel goes around at 1 mph so it really doesn't stop to let passengers
on and off. It is like getting on an escalator. The first picture of
this post is from the London Eye.
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| From the gangway up to the boarding ramp |
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| Liz and Susan waiting to board |
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| Parliament and Big Ben (before coming to London, I didn't realize that Big Ben was the clock tower for Parliament). |
Wednesday afternoon we headed back out to Heathrow
for our flight to Ljubljana, Slovenia. We were going to use Ljubljana
as our home base for the rest of the trip. In addition to seeing some
of the sites of Slovenia, we planned a couple of two-day trips from
there. On Wednesday, 9 of the 12 Lufthansa flights from London to
Frankfurt, Germany were canceled due to a two-day pilot strike. Ours
was one of the three that was not. It actually made that section of
Heathrow much more pleasant, however, the chance that the three
remaining flights would be canceled made most of Wednesday a lot more
stressful. The Frankfurt airport was also deserted as we made our way
to our connecting flight.
Slovenia
Thursday, we drove to Lake Bled, about an hour from Ljubljana.
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| From path up to the castle constructed into the side of hillside |
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| From shore directly in front of the cafe where we had lunch |
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| The church on the island in the center of Lake Bled |
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| You can see the castle on the far right side of the picture |
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Salzburg
On
Friday, we drove to Salzburg, Austria (about 3 hours). Salzburg was
the filming location for the Sound of Music. More than that, it is a
typical Bavarian town. On my trips to different European cities, I like
to imagine if I could live in that city. Salzburg is definitely one of
those places (as opposed to Paris, which was a definite "no" for me).
The first few pictures are attempts to show some of the Sound of Music
sites. I am not a Sound of Music expert so I am not qualified to point
out which particular part of the movie where these sites were used, but I
hope that those viewing these pictures will recognize these locations
(I was told where to take a picture and I did that).
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| The gates to the Lake where Maria and the children fell out of the boat |
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From the graveyard (at the Convent) near the end of the movie
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Below are some other pictures of Salzburg (that is, not necessarily related to the movie).
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| The main aisle of the Dom Cathedral |
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| From the castle (Hohensalzburg)... |
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| Old Salzburg (from the Hohensalzburg castle) |
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| Schloss Mirabell Palace (taken from the castle...see the earlier photos for close-up views of the gardens) |
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| From the wall of Salzburg, looking east |
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From the wall looking west
The Salt Mines and Konigssee |
Saturday
morning we toured the salt mines, which are actually located in
Germany, not Austria. During our trip the Syrian refugee situation
seemed to change daily. Crossing the border into Germany, we were
briefly stopped. It was long enough for the border officials and
determine that we were boring American tourists and not Syrian
refugees.
In
the salt mines, you ride a sled type train (you straddle the car like
you are riding a horse) to first lower levels and then have the option
of sliding down wooden slides (which we did) to the lower levels of the
mine. Here is our current top candidate for our Christmas card photo.
(P.S. no photos were allowed in the mine).
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| Who you gonna call? Salt mine tourists? |
Saturday
afternoon, we drove a little further into Germany and spent the rest of
the day at Konigssee ("King's lake"). It was crowded as people were
enjoying the season's last warm weather. The mountains surrounding the
lake are nearly 9,000' above sea level. Hitler's Eagles Nest overlooks
this lake at the more commercial end of the lake. The pictures below
were taken after a nearly one hour boat ride to the far end of the
lake.
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| Come on, one pretty awesome selfie, right? |
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| Sean and Louise |
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My
favorite picture of Konigssee...it is my desktop photo. Notice how
clear the water is to show the reflection of the boat house.
Piran |
Sunday,
after lunch in Salzburg, we drove back to Ljubljana. Monday was more
of a rest day, but we did drive to Piran. Piran is a Slovenian town
located on Slovenia's 30 miles of Adriatic coastline. It looks more
like Italy, but is still very much part of Slovenia.
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| View of St. George's |
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| View of St. George's |
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From our rest top on the way back to Ljubljana...no "Susan" or "Tom" in the Coke Zero cabinet...
Padua |
On
Tuesday, we headed to Italy. Again, we were stopped briefly at the
Slovenian/Italy border. It was a bit longer stop, but no longer than a
minute or so. Padua is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe
and Saint Anthony's Basilica. It is also home to the Scrovegni Chapel.
Below is a picture from the outside and one from the inside pasted from
another site. The interior is painted by the artist, Giotto. It is a
much smaller version of the Sistine Chapel, with stories of the Mary and
Jesus. The frescoes were completed in 1305.
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| Piazza Prato della valle |
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Palazzo della Ragione (built in 1219)
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| Saint Anthony's Basilica |
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The Basilica was begun shortly after Saint Anthony's
death and finished in 1310. It houses his tomb. Its mass schedule was
on the hour in the morning, with several more masses in the afternoon
and evening.
I enjoyed Padua very much. Again, a nice
sized town, with thousands of college students. For me, lots of folks
on bicycles, from the very young to the ancient ones.
Venice
Padua
is only 30 miles from Venice, so...we decided to spend the day
(Wednesday) there. We had perfect weather. It was warm, but not too
oppressive. It was crowded, but I am sure not as much as during the
true summer season.
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| The Doge's Palace |
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| The bell tower of Saint Mark's |
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| Saint Mark's |
On Thursday, we drove back to Ljubljana, flying back to Toronto Friday
afternoon. We had one night where we were chased inside from the rain.
Other than that, the weather was near perfect.
Ciao.
