Burlaki on the Hudson

With apologies to a couple of friends who made it their home in recent years, Zurich is nice, not more than that. It does not possess a wealth of monuments or significant architecture pieces, counting on being charming rather than impressive. Although I habitually put it on top of the list of European cities I would not mind relocating to (on the strength of both its location in the center of Western Europe and its significant job market in my particular field), I cannot convincingly designate a must-see spot in all of the city.

All of my favorite sights of Zurich are views of the riverbanks of Limmat, which separates the core of the city into roughly the “old town” and the “financial district”. Banks’ buildings may be stately and remarkable in their own fashion, but they are well hidden by the pretty houses and churches that line up the quays, so you probably would not be able to tell which side is which. Not that you need to.
 

 
The last picture is of the twin towers of Grossmünster, the dominating feature of Zurich’s skyline.
 

 
Climbing up one of the towers for a commanding view over the city, the lake and to the surrounding mountains is one thing I would recommend to any visitor to Zurich.

I don’t plan to go back to Zurich anytime very soon, but surprisingly, looking at the pictures, I feel a bit of a pull…

Photography, Travel

On one of the rare nowadays intraday weekend excursions, we went for the first time to New Jersey’s Grounds for Sculpture, in Hamilton Township, about 45 minutes drive away from our house. It is a sizable park that contains open-air exhibition of several hundred post-modern works of art (plus a couple of indoor galleries, a restaurant, and facilities for formal events). A pleasant way to spend a few hours outdoors in good weather.

Here are a few examples of the artwork.
 

Art & Culture, Photography

For some time now, my middle child has been entertaining herself with making short movies using her webcam and the basic video-editing software installed on her PC. She asked me to put up her latest “trailer” here on the blog.

Enjoy!
 

Children, Family Videos

The Valley of Loire, home to a few hundred castles, is a fascinating destination for a Western history and architecture buff, who I make pretenses to be. We’ve been to the area more than once, visited all major points of interest and a fair number of minor ones, and definitely marked a few of the castles as our favorites.

Our top favorite is Château de Chenonceau.
 

 
Frequently dubbed a “Castle of Ladies” on account of being associated with a number of important women in French history, it is an exquisite piece of architecture. With a long wooded alley leading up to it and majestic formal gardens fronting it, it is as fairy-tale-like castle as they come. It also spans a river – albeit a small one, called Cher.

Our second favorite is Azay-le-Rideau.
 

 
This castle is smaller, more intimate, maybe not as regally serene, but still awfully picturesque.

The largest of them all – and an obligatory stop on practically any castle-viewing itinerary – is Château de Chambord.
 

 
Built as an official royal residence in 16th century, it has several famous architectural details, among them the double-helix staircase rumored to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci, and the elaborate masonry of its roof, with a fantastic assemblage of towers, cupolas, gables, lanterns, and chimneys. A few of the castle and roof details.
 

    

 
While the main attraction of Loire Valley is undoubtedly its castles, there are hundreds of quaint, charming, vivid and photogenic corners all over the area. Places where I feel inclined to linger and take in the serene beauty.
 

  
 
  

 
A significant portion of “lesser” castles (not châteaux, but rather domaines) exist nowadays as hotels. We stayed at a couple during our visits to the Valley. Here is a view of one of those, Hotel Domaine de la Tortinière, near Tours, which attempts to blend historic magnificence with modern facilities.
 

 
One other of our favorites is Château de Villandry. What it lacks in presentation from a castle standpoint, it compensates for with its incomparable gardens.
 

 
Those are just a few favorite castles. I am omitting Chaumont, Cheverny, Langeais, Blois, Amboise, Usse, and dozens of others, each with its own unique and fascinating features. Loire Valley is the land of the castles like no other.

Photography, Travel

Wales is the land of breathtaking landscapes, magnificent castles and quaint towns. We only made one trip there, visiting several places of interest over the course of a few days, and brought back a significant number of photographic memories. I was pleasantly surprised with how many shots I had to choose from for the purposes of this essay.

I’ll start with one of my favorite vistas.
 

 
It is the view over the town of Aberystwyth from the nearby elevation called Constitution Hill. The town nestled by the bay and the coastline that continues into the background, in my mind, are very much emblematic of Welsh scenery.

A slightly different view, although no less typical, is of towns of Conwy (roofs in the foreground) and Deganwy (on the far bank), separated by the Conwy River.
 

 
And here is the rooftop view of the town of Caernarfon.
 

 
The above picture was taken from the high walls of the Caernarfon Castle, one of the most fascinating and storied fortifications in all of Wales. In its current form, it dates back to the late 13th century, when then King Edward I defeated the Welsh army. Here is a look inside.
 

 
On a given day, the otherwise empty castle hosts a number of artisan stalls that perform demonstrations of their crafts. There is also a guy dressed in medieval garb, who walks around the place and introduces himself as its master mason, James of Saint George, offering various trivia about the castle to the visitors. Here’s him chatting us up.
 

 
The Cardiff Castle is one of the largest in the land, as behooves a major city, and in parts more ornate, but it left a lesser impression on us somehow. I did like how its small old keep rose to the skies, nonetheless.
 

 
And here is a view onto another castle, the one in Conwy.
 

 
Although yours truly admittedly prefers man-made wonders to nature-made ones, on our cross-Wales drive we did stop at a couple of nature-made points of interest. One of those was the place known as the Devil’s Bridge, comprising of a trail around a gorge with several waterfalls.
 

 
That shot is marginally deceiving, as you lack a point of reference to recognize that the water flows practically on a vertical plane. The couple of lookout decks seen on the right side of the stream are connected by stairways that run at roughly 60° incline.

The final shot in this selection is of the artificial Mediterranean village of Portmeirion, familiar to some as the setting of a 60′s show called The Prisoner.
 

 
It may strike some as too spurious to be worth a look, but its flamboyancy provides a singular contrast with the otherwise rugged and reserved scenery found across Wales.

We packed a lot of fun and near a dozen stops into the few days of driving across Wales, but I am sure we left a lot more to be explored.

Photography, Travel

A recent article in Salon reminded me of something I briefly mentioned during the Beijing Games four years ago and then expounded upon during the Vancouver Winter Games two years ago.

In one recent two-hour stretch of primetime viewing, I managed to see several final serves of a volleyball match, five or six swimming semifinals and finals, and a dozen of gymnastics performances focused entirely on American athletes and a few of their main competitors. Total action time: Around 20 minutes. The rest? Taken up by the usual mix of cheerleading from the broadcasters, re-cuts of all-too-familiar backstories, “How does it feel?”-type interviews, replays from every possible angle, and a minute of commercials for every 30 seconds of competition.

Not unexpected. Not even infuriating any longer after so many Olympics on NBC. Kinda… pitiful. So much of the Olympic spirit and glory is lost in the NBC coverage, replaced by artificial made-for-TV drama, it’s just sad.

On the other hand, I did find something amazing in a commercial, believe it or not. One AT&T spot used the footage of a recent swimming race and the world record set in it to punctuate its message. The commercial aired for the first time practically right after the race, Rebecca Soni’s win in 200m breaststroke. The announcers commentary was exactly what I heard during the race, and the new world record that the girl in the commercial wrote up as her new goal was exactly the time Soni set. Even if you account for tape delay of 5-6 hours, and accept that most of the commercial was taped in advance, it is still impressive that a flawless national-network-level ad can nowadays be finished and published in such a short period of time after the real-life events take place.

Sports