Burlaki on the Hudson

Barcelona is competing with Paris for the title of “the city I know really well despite never having lived there”. But the lion’s share of my exploration of the city occurred on a trip where I wanted to be as non-touristy as I could, so most of our photo archive consists of shots of famous locations.

Some of those shots are really impressive, such as this perspective across Plaça d’Espanya towards Palau Nacional (on the right), which takes in the elaborate fountain at the center of the grand square, one of the two Venetian towers that guard the entrance to Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, and the palace itself on the slope of Montjuïc hill. What you cannot really see in this shot is the Font Màgica, directly on this line of sight but turned off during daylight hours, whose lighted musical performances at night are a real treat.

A more subdued shot on the left is of the towers of the Basilica of Sagrada Família, one of the defining masterpieces of the Modernist giant Antoní Gaudí, which is finally nearing completion after over 130 years of construction. A church like no other in the world, its brightly-lit interior finally stopped being a perpetual construction site just a couple of years ago, but there is still remaining work on the spires, which should number 18 when finished, according to Gaudi’s designs.

If you are in Barcelona for the first time and your schedule allows only one visit to a famous landmark, it would be hard to choose anything over Sagrada Família.

Whenever I am in Barcelona, I always budget time for a stroll along the entire length of Las Ramblas. Yes, it gets incredibly crowded by tourist throngs; yes, you would be ill-advised to sit down at one of the sidewalk cafés (the food is mediocre and the prices are outlandish); yes, you have to constantly keep an eye on your belongings (pickpockets abound). But the circus-like atmosphere and the unparalleled people-watching opportunities are worth it.

The biggest traffic obstructions on Las Ramblas are the crowds near the live statues, of which you can find around two dozen at any given time along the boulevard. Here are a couple of examples.

 

      

 
Off Ramblas is located the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, commonly known by the last word of its long name. It is a large public market smack in the centre of the city which offers not only a variety of local products, but also several interesting foodie experiences at some of its stalls. We recall with fondness our lunch at Pinotxo, a tapas bar positioned near the market entrance that appears in the shot on the left, which happened almost a decade ago. The proprietor, Juan, looked each patron in the eye and offered his choice of dish. Nobody argued – we didn’t either – as it was well-known that everything Juan prepared was delicious. Our “choices” did not disappoint. It should be noted that while I abhor standing in line (the tiny bar had a dozen seats, and there were at least two dozen people desiring a meal) I would gladly suffer that for another meal at Pinotxo. Unfortunately, on my last visit to La Boqueria, the stall was shuttered, but possibly that was due to August vacation time; internet search suggests that the bar – and Juan, who must be in his seventies by now – is still going strong.

One of the things I especially like about Barcelona is its wide boulevards in the Eixample district. The shot on the right is really nothing special, but it does convey the feeling of open space that I catch on these streets. It is the view along Passeig de Gràcia, the emblematic Eixample thoroughfare that houses several important Modernist buildings.

The buildings themselves are one of the biggest attractions in the city. And not just the famous ones such as Casa Milà or Palau Música Catalana (although, if you were in Barcelona for the first time and your schedule allowed for only two visits to the famous landmarks, the second after Sagrada Família, for me, would be the Palace of Music), but other less celebrated edifices as well. I’ll conclude this essay with a shot of one of such buildings on the Gràcia.
 

 
A brilliant city, Barcelona!

Pictures, Travel

Several dozen Cancun and Chichen Itza photos from the recent vacation have been added to our gallery. Use the Gallery link on the right or click here.

Pictures, Website Bulletins

Budapest is a beautiful city, often grand, occasionally quaint and charming, striving to outdo Vienna quite a bit, and reminiscent of Paris in its central Pest area. There are plenty of impressive sights on both banks of the Danube.

We’ll start with one of the emblematic sights of the Hungarian capital, the Parliament building.
 

 
It often features in the “definitive” shots of the city, dominating the surroundings along the Pest riverbank. I like this perspective of it, taken from the deck of a river-cruise ship, the best of all – it feels all the more palatial from here.

The Heroes Square is a grand place adorned with monuments to Hungarian greats.
 

 
Located a handful of metro stops away from the river, the square is the gateway to the vast City Park, with several museums and tourist attractions nearby.

High up above the Buda Embankment, the Fisherman’s Bastion is a delightful architectural stylization that offers fantastic views over the city.
 

 
St Stephen’s Basilica may not be as old as the Catholic shrines elsewhere, having been completed only about a hundred years ago, but is nonetheless architecturally imposing, especially when approached directly on Zrinyi St.
 

 
It seems borderline blasphemous to use the term “favorite” for a sight that commemorates a great tragedy, but I find the memorial below to be one of the most evocative of the Holocaust victims anywhere.
 

 
These cast iron shoes give remembrance to the Hungarian Jews who were ordered to take their shoes off before being executed on the banks of the Danube near the end of the Second World War. Profound in its simplicity and symbolism.

Budapest is full of architectural specimen of different styles. Our records did not capture what this next building is famous for, if anything, but the contrast with the neighboring late-20-century apartment building is quite interesting.
 

 
And here is one of the better-known examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Budapest, the Gresham Palace, a hotel nowadays.
 

 
The palace sits in front of the Chain Bridge, another one of the symbolic sights of the city.
 

 
Ironically, I do not find the bridge especially breathtaking, while giving it props for being the first suspension bridge over Danube built in the middle of 19th century. Maybe, I’ve seen too many bridges.

But I surely have not seen enough of Budapest. To be corrected eventually.

Pictures, Travel

Once upon a time, before digital cameras and for the first couple of years after converting to digital, our approach to travel photography was: Let’s take a lot of pictures of ourselves in front of interesting sights, and buy plenty of postcards depicting those sights in their resplendent beauty. The simple rationale was that there was no way we could take exceptional-quality shots with our low-end travel equipment, so why waste the film – and later, the limited storage capacity - on attempts to capture something grand.

Our only to-date visit to Vienna occurred during that period. Although the Austrian capital is one of my favorite cities in the world, we do not have any meaningful Viennese landscapes authored by us in our archives.

What we do have is a veritable gallery of my lovely wife posing in front of various important landmarks, such as the shot of her on the square in front of the breathtaking Town Hall building (on the right), or with the remarkable and unusual St Charles’s Church prominently in the background (on the left).

Then, there is the next shot, which does feature the Rathaus again, but is a hands-down favorite for reasons that transcend the location or the majestic architecture.
 

 
It was taken on the meadow that comprise part of Heidenplatz, the huge open public space outside of the Royal Palace.

Among the impressive architectural landmarks, the Burgtheater holds its own place well.
 

 
The next shot is not of any specific sight, taken on the elevated landing next to the Albertina Palace. Rather, it gives a reasonable illustration of what the architecture of the Imperial core of the city looks like.
 

 
Another such illustration, in another part of the historic Innere Stadt, can be seen on the shot taken at Judenplatz.
 

 
And here is the collage I once made from postcards that brilliantly reveal those major Viennese sights. In addition to Rathaus, Karlskirche and Burgtheater that appeared in the shots above, there is also the famous Vienna State Opera House on the lower left.
 

 
One day, we’ll make another journey to Vienna – and I’ll take hundreds of photos of its Inner City squares.

Pictures, Travel

As promised, below is a selection of photos taken on my tour of Chichen-Itza.
 

 
Very impressive, but tinged with disappointment. I was looking forward to climbing to the top of the Great Pyramid, only to learn that visitors have not been allowed to do that since as far back as 2005. Something about too many falling accidents, including fatalities. Given that I passed on the opportunity to visit Chichen Itza while vacationing on Yucatan Peninsula in the past – the last time, in 2004 – I was quite dismayed when learning of the restriction.

Nonetheless, a fascinating place!

Pictures, Travel

Going through recent Oscar contenders, I find another movie that I like well enough but do not hold worthy of an Oscar consideration. It gave me a glimpse into inner workings of a baseball franchise, which I always find fascinating (although I have little doubt that the eponymous book on which the movie is based goes much farther in that respect), but spent way too much time focused on solitary emotions portrayed by Brad Pitt.

I have a feeling that only a baseball fan can have an immersive experience with this film. Natasha watched with me mainly because of Brad and I had to pause the disk on a couple of occasions to translate baseball lingo for her. “National pastime” or not, I know a fair number of naturally-born Americans who are indifferent to sports and to baseball in particular, and I am not sure that Pitt’s customary excellent display in a dominant leading role would compensate for the specificity of the setting and the plot in terms of overall appreciation.

If anyone found otherwise, please let me know.

Movies

Once in a while, we decide to go for a beach vacation. It’s a pretty long while. Our last such vacation was a week-long stay on the Costa del Sol in 2008, but that included two day-trips and a couple of other excursions to strip the holiday of its “lazy” designation. The last true lazy vacation we had occurred as far back as 2004.

This time, we were dead set on spending a whole week on a beach by the sea. So we went to Club Med in Cancun.
 

 
We found there not only the azure sea and the white sandy beach, but also plenty of activities to choose from. Here are just a few samples.
 

  

 
Not shown here are windsurfing lessons, snorkeling by the coral reef, kayaking, and tons of other forms of entertainment, most of it at no extra cost. One member of our party, which included four families of friends, went for a half-day scuba-diving trip. Another person decided to take a break from lounging in the sun by going on an excursion to Chichen-Itza.

Ah, yes, sightseeing. If you guessed that it was me who decided that a vacation is not good enough without at least one attempt to see something new, you know me too well. The fact that nobody else from our group shared my enthusiasm for leaving the beach behind for most of the day did not stop me, especially since on previous occasions of being on Yucatan Peninsula I bypassed the opportunity to visit Mayan city. I’ll put up a few pictures from the tour in the next post.

A great active lazy vacation! Some people already started talking about doing it again next year…

Family & Friends, Pictures, Travel

Some people come to Rome for its millenia of history. Others may be attracted by the treasures found in the Vatican Museum as well as a number of less-known galleries. Yet others explore architectural beauty of its many churches and palaces.

Me, I come to Rome for its squares.

We’ll start with a night-time view of Piazza Navona.
 

 
The large rectangular square, which follows the shape of a 1st-century stadium, has not one or two, but three elaborate fountains. It is not exactly my favorite Roman square, but it is certainly one of the most photogenic. So here is another shot of it, surprisingly not looking too busy in the middle of the day.
 

 
And, of course, spires piercing the skies. The obelisk crowns the main fountain on the piazza, called the Four Rivers Fountain, and the church is Sant’Agnese in Agone.
 

 
A different kind of square is Piazza del Popolo. Besides being round as opposed to rectangular, it is much more open. The huge obelisk at its center is surrounded by four small fountains. This is the view onto the square from a viewpoint on Monte Pincio.
 

 
In the distance, you can see the dome of the St Peter’s cathedral. We’ll see it again from other perspectives.

One of the busiest but nonetheless one of my favorite squares is Piazza della Rotonda, where the requisite obelisk with a fountain is facing Pantheon, a uniquely well-preserved structure built nearly two thousand years ago.

Whereas most of the architecture from the Ancient Roman times reached us mostly as ruins (whether in the Coliseum or at the Forum, you really have to give your imagination a workout to be able to appreciate what the structures looked like in their heyday), Pantheon stands more or less in the same shape as it was designed in 118 AD. It had its re-incarnations as a church and, at present, a historical monument, but it has not been rebuilt since then.

Leaving aside the obvious attraction of the Pantheon as a major point of interest, here is a quirky chance experience that you might have there. If you ever find yourselves around Pantheon during rain, observing falling raindrops inside the building is simply fascinating. The roof of the structure has a large circular opening that is the only source of light in the building, but in addition to sunlight the rain gets in as well. The floor directly underneath the opening is laid with an almost unnoticeable incline, so that the water flows towards the drains rather than accumulates in puddles. When it does rain, the raindrops fall to the floor as though in an aerodynamically-created cylindric tunnel – and you can practically follow the descent of distinct drops even during heavy rain.

The shot at the left is the view towards the center of Piazza della Rotonda from the entrance to the Pantheon. Just an illustration of how busy the place looks on a sunny day.

For some reason, I do not have a good shot of the magnificent Piazza San Pietro to include here. It’s a real shame because the square is as regal as anything you can imagine, an instant “wow”-inducer. Nonetheless, the eponymous Basilica, the most-sacred Catholic shrine in the world, features on many of our photographs, towering in the background. Below is a relative close-up, taken from the roof of Castel Sant’Angelo.
 

 
From the same vantage point, you can take in this amazing view over the city and towards the mountains.
 

 
The conical roof near the left edge of the picture is the Pantheon. The white palace with identical statues capping its wings is the monument to the first king of the unified Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II (the exuberant building which looks out to Piazza di Venezia is colloquially known to locals as “the typewriter” or “the wedding cake”). If you have really good eyes, you can spot the top tier of the Coliseum peeking at you immediately to the left of the wedding cake. And slightly to the right of the monument, the lone tower marks Palazzo Senatorio at the top of the Capitoline Hill. Plus the numerous church domes, of course.

Rome was famously built on seven hills, which becomes obvious in certain spots. For instance, the view on the left is the perspective towards St Peter’s from a corner of Piazza de Quirinale that marks the top of the Quirinale Hill. From here, it looks like we are level with the cathedral’s dome, just as we were when we looked onto Piazza del Popolo.

The shot on the right is a perspective that goes up, not down, taken from the bottom of the Spanish Steps on Piazza di Spagna. This is normally one of the most crowded pedestrian areas in all of Rome, so I count myself lucky to have been able to catch it at a comparatively quiet moment.

The church of Trinità dei Monti at the top of the steps may not be a point of interest by itself, but it holds its place at the summit gloriously.

To the left is the view exactly perpendicular to the one before, showing the small but unusual fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps and the perspective towards another one of the dozens of columns and obelisks found on Roman piazzas.

There are plenty more enticing squares and fountains in the center of Rome that I could include here: the traffic-burdened Piazza Barberini with understated but sublime Triton Fountain; the not-exactly-square intersection of Via di Quattro Fontane and Via XX Settembre with a fountain signifying one of the four seasons built into each corner building; the noisy Piazza Campo dei Fiori, where a monument to Giordano Bruno is surrounded by a lively market; the grand Piazza di Venezia, dominated by the aforementioned “typewriter”, which has a couple of fountains of its own; and so on. But that would stretch the limits I set for myself in this series.

So, I’ll close this photo-essay with the shot of probably the most famous – and definitely our personal favorite – fountain in Rome: Fontana di Trevi.
 

 
Beautiful. As is the Eternal City itself.

Pictures, Travel

Last weekend we went for a movie screening of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, shown as part of New York International Children’s Film Festival. Lifelong Beatles fan that I am, I have never actually seen the movie in its entirety before, so it was a treat (followed up by a nice dinner with friends at an Upper East Side eatery).

I actually do not think Yellow Submarine is a kids movie – there aren’t that many general-audience jokes or visuals in it, the songs from the eponymous album that all get an airing during the film are all centered around adult concepts (All Together Now is a notable exception; even All You Need Is Love can hardly leave a proper impression on a small kid beyond the title line refrain, IMHO), and some flashing imagery may be disturbing even for adults.

Nonetheless, my 11-year-old daughter after watching the movie is suddenly completely hooked on the Beatles. She had me put my entire digitized collection of the Fab Four songs onto her iPod and, according to her, is currently listening to nothing else.

I find her mostly unprompted affection for the band quite amazing. Considering that they disbanded more than 40 years ago – the music was way too different then.

On the other hand, therein probably lies the perfect explanation. The music kids listen to today can hardly stand any comparison to The Beatles.

A reason for me to smile.

Movies, Music

OK, let’s next pick a city that would present me with a welcome problem similar to what I had with Florence or London – plenty of photographs to choose from.

We’ve been to Paris many times, and repeatedly professed our love for the city on the pages of this blog (most recently as part of a movie review). In our time there, we took tons of pictures and plenty of videos (even producing a Paris-centric music video). Vast majority of those are of instantly recognizable sights and edifices, so I’ll stay mostly on the touristy side with this Parisian essay.

We’ll start with that obvious symbol of the French capital, the Eiffel Tower. Say what you want about it aesthetic impact on the city, but it is a tremendous feat of engineering prowess. I have to admit, though, that when Parisians complain about the tower being visible from practically everywhere in the city, they have a point. One of my favorite perspectives of it is from the edge of the Place de la Concorde, where it fits in together with various monuments and pillars.
 

 
In the center of the shot above, but way in the background, you can see the two columns that happen to adorn the most opulent of the bridges over Seine. Here is a closer look.
 

 
This is Pont Alexandre III, named after the father of the last Romanov, built at the end of the XIX century. Another engineering marvel of the times, and gorgeous too. In the background there is the dome of the St Louis Cathedral, which headlines the Invalides complex.

The next shot is one of my favorite perspectives in all of Europe. The famous Champs Elysées runs in a straight line from Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concord, where the 3400-year-old Luxor obelisk marks the square center, and then is sort of continued by the wide main alley of the Jardin de Tuileries, which runs all the way to Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in front of the Louvre. With a better equipment, one can take in the entire length of the way from Louvre to Arc de Triomphe in one shot – about two miles of distance. With my tourist-grade SLR, a pretty good view from the Tuileries pond is still possible.
 

 
You can even see the silhouettes of the buildings in the financial district of La Défense, another couple of miles beyond the Arc de Triomphe.

Notre Dame de Paris hardly requires introduction, being another of the iconic Parisian sights. For an interior view of a place of worship, nothing beats nearby Ste-Chapelle, but the exterior shots of Notre Dame are simply majestic, especially in night-time lighting.
 

 
I am a big fan of the following view of the edge of Île de la Cité, with Seine prominently in the foreground and Notre Dame’s spire piercing the sky in the background.
 

 
There is a shot in Midnight in Paris with Owen Wilson walking along practically the same stretch of the riverbank.

Another instantly recognizable church in Paris is Sacré-Coeur Basilica at the top of the Montmartre hill.

Montmartre arouses mixed feelings in visitors. It is fun and vibrant, and climbing the staircases towards the Basilica is among my best-loved things to do in Paris, but it can also be oppressive and stifling with the number of tourists and those locals who aim to take advantage of visitors. For instance, you always stand a fair chance of being accosted by walk-about artists who offer to draw your portrait right there in the street – I suggest you firmly refuse and continue on your way; the fact that they roam the streets as opposed to having a stationary location on Place du Tertre does not speak in favor of their abilities, and once you agree to pose you’d find it hard to avoid paying them for their middling efforts afterwards.

On the other hand, the blocks surrounding the Basilica and the nearby Place du Tertre are famously quaint and tranquil. You will need to descend some distance to get back to vibrancy and noise.

On the right, there is a very different view of Sacré-Coeur, after the fall of darkness through the streets from the center of the city. It looks surprisingly close from here, being still more than a mile away.

Something more amusing than the standard tourist fare? No problem! Since we are very partial to French bread and pastry, we tend to look out for boulangeries and patisseries on our walks around town. I definitely count the signs announcing this specific variety of stores among my most favorite sights in Paris. But one day, we came up to a store that clearly had an identity problem.
 

 
Either that or I am way out of the loop on the modern clothing brands.

There is something distinctly Parisian in a simple shot of buildings alongside the Quai des Célestins as seen from Pont de Sully. After all, central Paris is all built at nearly uniform height with nary an exuberant exterior decoration in sight.
 

 
I’ll be the first to admit that Parisian architecture in its mass does not qualify as beautiful, but I find it always comforting and never detracting from the overall romantic feel of the city.

Back to famous attractions. Versailles, well outside of the city boundaries but nearly a must for at least a half-day trip for an infrequent visitor to Paris, is an especially magnificent sight when fountains are in operation (which, unfortunately, only happens on weekends during summer).
 

 
The top level of the palace is barely seen in the background because of the layout of the gardens. If you do not spend too much time admiring the palace until you approach it via the wide staircase that connects the vast lower grounds with the upper gardens, you are in for a major sensory jolt as the monumental façade floats in on you with each ascending step.

The Luxembourg Gardens are a favorite place to take a break from it all. Just commandeer a spare chair and enjoy the scenery.
 

 
On one of our visits to the city, we took the RER train from the airport to a stop nearby, and literally crossed the gardens as our very first steps in Paris on that particular occasion. The sight of it brought a feeling of returning back to something very cherished. Sort of like coming back home after a long absence.

Yeah, I can easily identify with Midnight in Paris‘s Gil.

Pictures, Travel

It is brilliantly made. It deserves all of those non-acting Oscars that it received and probably a couple more (I loved the score and the overall editing was superb, but those two awards went elsewhere). And it directly speaks to our love of cinematography as a magical art form – the sentiment I share with uncounted movie fans.

Against that background, the few nitpicks I have about the visually arresting story of a gifted orphan in search of his purpose in life appear minor. Mostly, they have to do with plot devices that I find superficial. For instance, Hugo is looking for a message from his deceased father, and his only remaining link to him is the old notebook; that notebook may have been burned by Monsieur Meiles or not, but as soon as searching for it leads the boy to the old drawings related to the cinema, it is completely forgotten, as is the father, really.

I was also left a bit fuzzy on the timelines. The events are seemingly placed somewhere between the two world wars, with the fallout from WWI having a significant impact on Georges Meiles. Even if we push the story to the late 1930′s, it has been no more than twenty years since the end of that war until Hugo meets Meiles. And yet, both the depiction of Monsieur Meiles as at least a septuagenarian and several references to “long-long time ago” suggest that more time should have passed.

But those are truly only nitpicks that speak primarily to how I process what I see in movies rather than to how good or bad the movie is. These few loose ends are nicely counterbalanced by the mind-blowing imagery and the incandescent vignettes with just a handful of secondary characters that richly bring the train station to life. There are few lines that these characters speak – in fact, dialogues are definitely secondary to visual imagery throughout the movie – but that only serves as a perfect illustration of how movies allow us to see things that we would otherwise have not seen.

And the flashbacks of the early silent movies production process – reenacted with enough passion and mischief to be both funny and fascinating – are pure gold for a history-minded spectator.

Highly recommended for dreamers of all ages.

Movies

We never pass up a chance to walk through a street market. Sampling foodstuffs, stopping to admire craftsmanship, checking out odd or antique objects on display – there is little in the form of free entertainment that beats that experience. Yet, we practically never buy anything, not being much into collecting things that we probably do not need. We take pleasure in browsing without the added gratification of acquiring stuff.

Street art galleries exacerbate that dichotomy. I love paintings – in another life, given more resources, I would have been an art collector. In my existing life, the only paintings that I can afford to buy are sold on the street markets (not counting an occasional neighborhood garage sale), and I always stop to browse. And almost always let my pragmatism win and refrain from buying anything – after all, a painting bought in the street will almost certainly end up as a relatively expensive souvenir rather than an appreciable asset.

One time, on Montmartre’s famed Place du Tertre, I vacillated for nearly half an hour in front of a beautiful painting of just the kind that I love. By the time I finally decided to let my impulsive desires trumpet my pragmatism, the artist had already sold it to someone else.

While in Cracow a few years ago, we came across a colorful open-air art gallery near Florian’s Gate at the edge of the Old Town. Here are a couple of pictures with different degree of focal length.
 

 
A connoisseur undoubtedly will point out that knock-offs, kitsch and no more than average skill predominate on this display (as is the case at any other such gallery). And yet, for an amateur art lover such as myself, there are plenty of works that strike my fancy.

So I did find one painting that I especially liked. I even inquired about the price. 750 zloty, which at that point was equivalent to about $150. Not too expensive – but I dithered. In any case, I did not have enough cash in my pocket, and instead of going in search of the nearest ATM, we continued our leisurely stroll around town.

Eventually, as we decided to spend some time on a bench in the main city square, Natasha and Becky somehow talked me into going back and buying that painting. I must have had a really wistful expression on my face. And I gave in. We stopped by an ATM, got the cash, and went to Florian’s Gate half expecting the painting to be gone from display.

It was still there, but the guy who gave me the original price was nowhere to be seen. I asked another of the sellers who were all lounging in garden chairs near the center of the exposition. He said, six hundred and fifty. I asked, six hundred even? He agreed. An equivalent of $120 exchanged hands, he took the painting down, wrapped it in some paper, and we were on our way again.

When we got back to the hotel that evening, we realized that the painting was too big in size to transport with us on a plane. I figured it would not survive traveling with the checked-in luggage but also had no desire to spend as much money again to ship it to our address in London, especially since it was attached to a simple wooden frame that would have to be replaced anyway. So I ended up taking it off the frame and fashioning it into a tube, wrapped into a lot of clothing, so that it could fit into our biggest suitcase. Felt a bit of a smuggler, to be honest.

The painting arrived in pristine shape. It’s been hanging in the choice spot in our London house and then in our New Jersey house ever since.

It even partially featured in one of the photographs that I posted in the last year or so. If anyone is adventurous enough, you can try to figure out on your own which painting it is based on the photographs in this post and the partial one from the archives herein. For all others, here is a part of that open-air gallery, which I snapped to remember the painting at the moment when it seemed I would not be buying it. Top row, second from right.

I love that painting.

Memoirs, Pictures, Travel

I’ve heard it many times in the past that performing at the Carnegie Hall in New York always features among the major highlights of a musician’s career. Well, one of my children have gotten it out of the way at a pretty early stage. Becky and her high school choir participated in a program at the Carnegie Hall earlier in the week. With her name in the playbill, she officially arrived…
 

 
Here is a less-than-perfect mobile phone photograph of what the auditorium looked like before the show.
 

 
I suspect that there will eventually be videos of the performance available through the usual sources. If/when that happens, I will be sure to link it.

Children, New York City & Environs

This year, my movie viewing habits prevented me from seeing any of the Oscar-nominated films ahead of the awards ceremony. Even those of the nominees that were already out on DVD did not find its way to the top of my Netflix queue until now. So the very first nominated movie arrived in my mailbox on the Monday following the Academy Awards.

I do not believe Midnight in Paris rises to the level of an Oscar winner, so no qualms here that it did not win anything beyond the original screenplay. But I liked it a lot nonetheless.

Then again, I am an admitted francophile. More importantly, a Paris-o-phile. The movie starts with solid three minutes of nothing but the lovely sights of the city with background music. Nothing else, not even the starring credits. I was instantly hooked.

The movie continued to use instantly recognizable – for us, at the very least – Parisian scenery throughout its duration, and I can easily identify with Owen Wilson’s character’s desire to live there. It was also full of excellent interaction between the characters of just the kind that I enjoy in Woody Allen’s movies. But the plot left a number of questions regarding the fantasy at its center open, and it took a couple of turns that I found inexplicable. It also got a little bit drunk on its own concept and introduced too many passing – but famous – characters that added little to the proceedings, IMHO. From that point of view, I will possibly challenge even the screenplay Oscar once I get to see other contestants.

In short, it is a charming ode to Paris, so highly recommended for those partial to evocative urban scenery. Aficionados of dialogue-driven dramedies will like the movie as well.

Movies

A second entry in a row brings me to a city that I undoubtedly like a lot, but somehow do not have a wide range of pictures of to share. With Madrid, the reason for that shortage is somewhat inexplicable, since we have hundreds of good-quality pictures taken there. But majority of them have us in the frame and those that do not fail to rise to the designation of my favorites.

So I am mostly left with various shots of one the central squares of Madrid, Plaza de Cibeles. Those I have aplenty.

 
This is Fontana de Cibeles with the cathedral-like Palacio de Comunicaciones (also known more recently as Palacio de Cibeles) in the background. Probably one of the most famous and emblematic sights of Madrid.

On a number of grand squares in the Spanish capital, the fountains are out of the reach for pedestrians, sitting in the bulls-eye of the circular vehicular traffic. So the closest you can get to the magnificent Cibeles fountain is from the seat of a taxi, which is how the picture above was taken. A seconds-earlier-taken shot, from a different perspective, is below.
 

 
Here is what the plaza looks like from a pedestrian vintage point.
 

 
Beyond the fountain is the dome of Metropolis, one of the standout buildings in a dense architecturally-striking area, presiding over the convergence of Calle Gran Via and Calle de Alcalá.

And the next view is again the Cibeles Fountain, as seen from the lookout platform at the high point of the Cibeles Palace.
 

 
I couldn’t leave just one single location named as my favorite in a city as beautiful as Madrid. So here is another lovely sight: Natasha by the boating lake in the main public park of the city, Parque del Retiro.
 

 
Definitely one of my favorites!

Pictures, Travel

Remember how at the end of this meme I promised to catch up “in the next year or so” on some of the yet-unread books on that list? Well, I am happy to announce that six months in, I managed to check off one single entry.

Of course, me being me, I could not just go in and read a single book when it happened to be part of a series. So, after reading Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, I proceeded to reading the other three books in the original Ender tetralogy, and then the Shadow tetralogy for good measure. So, it’s eight books in six months, not one. Considering how little time I set aside for book-reading these days, it is not a bad return, if I say so myself.

I planned to pen a review of the series since around the second book. What I ended up with is a whole bunch of gripes and a few things that I distinctly liked. So, I think of this post more as “assorted reflections” rather than a true book(s) review. If interested, feel free to read below the fold.
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Books

Our itineraries took us to Amsterdam just once on our journeys, and it was during the unfortunate period of time when we did not yet quite catch on to the fact that our main camera produced inexplicably grainy and blurry photographs in the best of lighting conditions. It was replaced almost immediately upon our return from Amsterdam, but the damage remains. There aren’t that many good pictures of Amsterdam in our archives.

Different people would have different associations when hearing the name of the city, but my first one is undoubtedly canals. Not narrow, picturesque and constantly disturbed by passing boats and gondolas as in Venice, but wider, tree-lined, placid, almost serene in comparison with city streets. Very little traffic on them, beyond a tourist boat. Most other vessels are stationary houseboats.
 

 
We considered renting a houseboat for our stay in Amsterdam, but opted instead for an apartment in a canal house, not unlike the one in the following picture. The narrow stairways between the floors, coupled with an absence of a toilet on the bedroom level, forced some hilarious night-time adventures that we frequently recall.

But the gabled houses themselves are a beauty.
 

 
In my opinion, Amsterdam is remarkably short on monumental architecture for a city of its stature. Even the main city plaza, Dam, can hardly compete with major public spaces elsewhere in Europe. But the canal houses definitely make up for that shortcoming. We tried to pick different walking routes everywhere we went, and had a chance to admire many examples of the architectural style that is unique to Amsterdam.

You can see a beam sticking out from the middle part of the gabled roof in the picture above. That is actually a common feature of the canal houses. It is a hoist, to lift furniture to the upper floors through the windows. The narrow staircases are impossible to navigate with anything larger than a small suitcase.

My fondness for impressive tall buildings was well served by several great churches in Amsterdam, among them Westerkerk.
 

  

 
On the left, the church is seen from the deck of the Houseboat Museum (which is a curious enough visit to be worth the small entry fee). The middle is an early-evening close-up. An on the right, one of the views from the top of the building. Getting there requires some luck and determination, as the flow of visitors is extremely limited. But for those who like vistas of a city from above, the effort is rewarding.

Amsterdam is a well-known city of bicycles, and one finds bikes parked pretty much everywhere, including along every available spot of railing on any given canal bridge. They all need to be secured with anti-theft devices, and we were explicitly warned not to ever leave our rentals unsecured.

But the city is not just cycle-friendly, it is practically cycle-dominated. Traffic laws and signage favors cyclists above all other modes of transportation. We had several occasions of sitting at a red light in our car while a seemingly endless stream of bicycles was moving in various directions. Then, there are alleys where only the bikes can operate.

Pedestrians, by the way, do not get any privileges versus cyclists. In fact, one crosses a busy cycling lane at her own peril. Unless, of course, one is smart enough and patient enough to walk to the nearest intersection with a traffic light (as opposed to someone from New York, like me, who crosses the street where convenient, not where regulated). The traffic light on the left is not a curiosity at all, but a standard implement at many cycling crossings.

Yup, this entry is lacking impressive photography. All the more reason to look forward to eventual return to Amsterdam.

Pictures, Travel

A bit overdue, we went to see the 09/11 Memorial in downtown Manhattan on Saturday.
 

New York City & Environs, Pictures

When you lived in a given city for several years but you always approached it as a kind of “tourist”, targeting specific points of interest, never failing to admire the scenery, and practically never walking down its streets without a camera in hand, you end up with much more than a dozen of visuals that you can call “favorite sights”. When I decided to make London the next installment in this series and gathered my favorite pictures from our time there, I ended up at first with over a fifty photographs. Cutting it down to reasonable size proved to be a painful exercise.

In the end, I stopped at a bit over a dozen shots. Some of them featured in the past in London and environs category, but barring a stray exception, they do not specifically focus on famous landmarks even when said landmarks appear in the shot. Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London – I dropped these and other locations because you can freely find thousands of shots of them on the web, and also because while I will no doubt enjoy seeing them again one day, they probably will not bring back as many memories or feelings as the selection below.

We will start with a pretty obvious tourist stop, though. Trafalgar Square.
 

 
Since we actually lived in the Southeast part of London, several miles outside of the city center, we frequently came to the city via commuter rail line that terminated at the Charing Cross station, a hundred yards or so from the edge of Trafalgar Square. On many occasions, we crossed the square on foot, or lingered on its expanse. This is not a very exceptional shot, but it illustrates the busy nature of the square pretty well, and I can vividly imagine an excursion around the city with a visiting friend that would start here.

The next shot approximates a pretty awesome sight of Big Ben seen through the humongous wheel of the London Eye as a Southeastern commuter train approaches the Hungerford Railway Bridge. We never managed to properly capture the sight through the train windows, so one day I made a point of capturing a similar view from the playground at the foot of the London Eye.
 

 
This next composition is one of the aforementioned exceptions, focused around major landmarks. This is Millenium Bridge running towards the imposing dome of the St Paul’s Cathedral. I just like this shot too much to leave it out. Especially considering how many times we strolled along the Riverside Walk in good weather and admired this view.
 

 
The shot below also features a couple of well-known landmarks, such as the Bank of England and the cone-shaped top of 30 St Mary Axe, also known as The Gherkin (or the “pickle building” as my kids called it at first). This view is quite emblematic of the solemnity of the City of London as I remember it.
 

 
Everyone who have seen pictures of London is undoubtedly familiar with the iconic view of the Tower Bridge as seen from the riverbanks. The perspective of the bridge as one crosses it is much less commonly seen in photography. Which is one of the reasons this is among my most favorite sights in London.
 

 
A shot of the Parliament from this angle is also not a common sight – most of the photographers prefer to have the Big Ben tower in the foreground, and shoot from under the London Eye. This is taken from Lambeth Palace Road, while on the upper deck of the tour bus. Natasha and I were on our reconnaissance trip to London in September of 2006. It was not my first time in the British capital, but it had a special feel in terms of excitement and anticipation before our move across the pond. We were preparing ourselves for having these sights to be a regular part of our lives, and this particular shot evokes that memory like no other.
 

 
A typical corner of West End, this is New Row running into Martin’s Lane.
 

 
The hanging flowerbeds are an archetypal exterior decoration for pubs and restaurants throughout the country. One of my biggest photographic regrets of those years is taking too few of these pictures around England.
 

 
Craven Passage is a lowered walkway underneath the Charing Cross station. I always found the perspective from the bottom of the staircase rather different.
 

 
The next shot is one of the feel-good memories – and I am not a skater myself. This is the Somerset House skating rink, where I took the children for a splendid hour on ice during Christmas of 2007. The mansion itself is one of the second-tier tourist attractions in the city, boasting a pretty good paintings gallery.
 

 
Moving out of the city center, this is the view towards Canary Wharf, where my offices were located, from the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Inexplicably, I cannot locate any shots of the same vista from the top of the hill in the Greenwich Park, which provides a significantly more dramatic perspective. All pictures we took there were with one of our visiting dignitaries in them. Still, this view approximates the one we lingered to take in on probably a hundred occasions.
 

 
A considerably less dramatic view is next. This is Abbey Road. As a lifelong Beatles fan I was pleasantly surprised one day to realize that our good friends lived right around the corner from this intersection. We walked across the street at the same spot where the Fab Four had shot their famous album cover quite a few times.
 

 
My thoughtful eldest child presented me with a blown-up poster of the album cover a couple of years ago, which hangs in my study. Despite the nearly 40-year interval between that picture and mine, I can still see the resemblance. The white garden fence remains the same, even if today it is practically completely covered with handwritten notes from the fans who make pilgrimage here.

You are unlikely to set foot in Blackheath if you come to London as a visitor. It is a picturesque village abutting a large meadow in Southeast London that was close enough to our place of residence to host us one way or another almost weekly. This tranquil pond in one of its corners stirs many good memories.
 

 
Becky went to school literally a couple of minutes away by foot from this spot. She walked by here more frequently than any of us.

My parting shot is not a vista or even a street corner. This mushroom stand happens to remind me of the fantastic feast for senses that is the Borough Market.
 

 
Quite a few great memories in these pictures. I’m making this enjoyable for at least one person, for sure.

Pictures, Travel

I don’t get these victory parades. You stand in the crowd for several hours. You block passage for people who actually have business walking down the streets that the mob you’re part of is blocking. You have to exercise a significant bladder control above and beyond your normal exertion. And then a bunch of double-decker buses with people whom you’ve never seen in your life goes by, interspersed with some marching bands. And a few floats carrying your conquering heroes. Only the floats move at such a brisk pace that you can at best get just a glimpse of the people you came to see. Total cumulative amount of gratification: sixty seconds, tops.

I guess I am just not a hard-core fan, for all of my overall interest in sports.

The bright side for me and my co-workers was in the fact that the office windows come out directly onto the parade route. So, for about an hour, everyone including senior managers dropped what they were doing and lined up by those windows. A nice break. I made a few dozen shots, but none were exciting. I am posting one picture solely as a proof of participation.
 

New York City & Environs