Dusseldorf

In keeping with my extensive backlog of photos from Europe (even though lots of fun stuff has been happening in Australia!) - I give you m day in Dusseldorf.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't gorgeous, but at least it wasn't raining. Walking through the glamourous shopping district, the Konigsallee. I wouldn't touch those shops, but the river was lovely.


This is just along the Rhine promenade, with the Alstadt (Old Town) in the distance, including St. Lambertus church.


Dusseldorf was full of statues and sculptures, old and new. I kept m eye out for the 8 "pillar saints" but only found 4.


The Tourist (looking up at the Rheinturm).


The Photographer.


One couple.


The other couple.

The wonderful old statues could be found all over as well:




Walking through Dusseldorf is never boring - there are fantastic old buildings, with centuries of history like the Schlossturn:



The Kunstammlung, home of a huge modern art collection:


The Tonhalle, once an observatory and now a concert hall:


Church and modern art sculpture, co-existing:


The Media Harbour is where you find the really far-out modern architecture, including the works of Frank Gehry:







I had a lovely stroll through the Hofgarden, where I saw the brave little crocusses starting to bloom:


and I got a pleasant little surprise when I ran into some fellow Canadians!

Bonn

Pat and I took a day trip to Bonn, the birthplace of Beethoven. It was overcast and it rained a little, but it was a good day to visit museums, which Bonn has in spades!

First off was the Beethoven Haus, which is the house Beethoven was born in and grew up in. It's now filled with instruments he played, his hearing aids, original sheet music and the notebooks he used to have conversations with people. We couldn't take pictures inside, but I took plenty outside.







Next, we hit up the Museum Koenig, the natural history museum. Following that, we went to the German history museum, which was interesting but almost entirely in German, so we puttered through the Humour/Satire exhibit and then headed across the street (most of the museums were on the same block) to a very interesting and thorough exhibit about Napolean at the Art and Exhibition Hall. We couldn't take any pictures of the exhibits, but they were really well done!

Bonn had so many beautiful little streets and buildings, we honestly could have taken a picture of every street, but it wouldn't be able to capture the atmosphere. Everywhere breathed history, it was too cool.







Little German fruit market. They also had cheese, meat and bread. After all, it was Germany.



Parting shot: Beethoven statue. Rumour has it Beethoven actually hated his hometown, but they still love and worship him there. I definitely enjoyed my time there.

Cologne, Part 2

I'm so backed up! I have so much more to post! The best part is, I've been doing awesome fun stuff and taking more photos. So, keep coming back to this blog because this is where the action is. Or will be. My excuse is that it takes my computer forever to upload photos. Anyway, I have some free time now so here we go.

Cologne, Part 2: The German Experience

Cologne is most famous for, obviously, Cologne. So I headed over to the Glockengasse 4711, where the sell the famous Eau De Cologne.



It smelled amazing in there. I bought so many bottle of EDC, it is such a lovely fresh scent, and I am not a perfume person. Looking at the museum area, there was a plaque listing the awards it has won.



Look a little closer:


The Australian connection strikes again!

There was one day I decided to head to the zoo and aquarium. I had two cameras with me and they both ran out of battery about halfway through the zoo! There were so many beautiful animals including the exotic grizzly bear and raccoon. There was also a litter of baby capybaras and some beautiful okapi, which I'd never seen in real life.

There were about 14 elephants. The littlest one was very affectionate towards the others:


Camels, relaxing:


And Mom, here you go: Meerkats, meerkats, meerkats!!






The Hohenzollern Bridge is the famous bridge that crosses the Rhine, connecting Cologne proper with Cologne Messe/Deutz. The tradition is to write your name and your lover's name on a lock, lock it onto the bridge, then throw the keys into the Rhine.


Here I am on the bridge, holding Pat's beer for him. Again, public drinking it totally acceptable. And it was the afternoon, so it was even more totally acceptable. There were so many locks.


If you're ever in Cologne, it's definitely worth a stroll to look at all the locks. And you can have a look for me and Pat's!

Cologne, Part 1

This will be my first of at least six posts about the last four weeks. Pat and I went on globe-trotting adventure to Germany, Holland, Scotland and South Korea. Pat won a working grant to go to the city of Leverkusen, which is in between Cologne and Dusseldorf. He was working 8 - 4 on weekdays for two weeks, while I played tourist, since it was our first time in mainland Europe.

I spent most of my time in the city of Cologne, known there as Köln or Kölle or Colonia. There was so much to see, not the least of which was the gigantic Dom Cathedral. The whole city is a mixture of Roman, medieval and turn-of-the-century architecture. Just a sampling of the buildings I saw:













There was plenty to do in Cologne. I visited as many museums as I could, including:

The Wallraf-Richartz Museum , which had a Cabanel exhibit as well as works from Cezanne, Monet and plenty (as in a whole floor or) of Gothic religion works.

The Kolumba Kunstmuseum, which was all about displaying quirky modern art together with ancient religious pieces in the same setting, which gives you a different way to perceive all the art. It didn't always work, but it was a very neat way of doing things. It was built on the ruins of the St. Columba church, which are still there on "permanent exhibition. That was very cool.

Museum Ludwig, which housed loads of modern art like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. There was also an exhibit of Australian Aboriginal art which made me smile since many of the pieces were by artists I've seen here in Brisbane!

There was also the Museum Of Applied Arts, which was filled with art as it appeared throughout the years on furniture, pottery, tapestries, dishware and decorations. Unfortunately very little of the descriptions were in English, so I had to make do just looking at all the pretty things!

Pat and I went to the amazing and delicious Chocolate Museum and the fascinating Roman-German Museum, check out the pics on his blog for those!

There were a whole bunch more on my list that I didn't get to see, because everything in the city shuts down for KARNEVAL!! Karneval takes place for the 6 days before Lent. Everyone dresses in costumes, drinks in public and there are 5-hour long parades where people throw candy from floats and exchange flowers for kisses. It was so much fun!!


A big part of Karneval is walking around with a large group of people who are all dressed the same.


Me, with a giant pig. Maybe a pink donkey. Either way, he was warmer than me.



The beautiful fan dancers!


Here I am enjoying a snack out of the Grosse St. Martin church. I must confess to eating a lot of "pommes frites" when I was in Cologne. Fries were everywhere, cheap and delicious, with a variety of sauces (my favourites being curry ketchup and peanut satay). But I also found the loveliest little (and probably only) vegan restaurant in Cologne, a place called Well-Being, which I went to four times. It was decently priced, centrally located and the fellow who worked there spoke passable English. Not to mention how delicious and full of vegetables the food was (real vegetables, not deep-fried potatoes).

Just North of the city centre you'll find the Cologne Zoo, the Botanical Gardens and the Sculpture Park, which is like an open air art museum!




Bunnies can also be found enjoying the sculptures.


Cologne is most famous for the Dom Cathedral. The church is so huge, the first time I saw it I strained my neck staring up at it. In this way it's hard to get lost in Cologne, because you can always find your way back to the main train station by spotting the spires of the Dom. Pat and I climbed all the way to the top and got a fantastic view.

That's all for now. In my next installment - perfume, animals and love-locks. Auf wiedersehn for now!

Before and After

The internet is very slow today. Check out Pat's blog (www.patswalkabout.blogspot.com) for some crazy flood pictures. I haven't taken many because I've not been out and about much the last little while. We went to see South Bank & Kangaroo Point yesterday.

This is the pelican statue I took a picture of about a year ago.



This is the pelican statue, taken yesterday.


The maritime museum also it's "dry dock" wet for the first time in also 40 years.

Before:


You can see the huge Diamantina down in the empty lower level.

After:

The Diamantina now looks like she's ready to cast off.

It's been a strange few days. Pat has gone to help our friends gets what few possessions they can out of their place now that the water has receded. I'm trying to do as much laundry as possible just in case anything happens to the water supply. I also bought plenty more non-perishable food items. Supplies are starting to get lower in the supermarkets and importing is going to be tricky/more expensive. Clean-up is going to take months. The city will take ages to recover from this, but the lessons learned from 1974 prevented this from being an even bigger disaster.

If you can afford to help, please do. We are ok but there are plenty who are not: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

Melbourne, part 2

Melbourne is full of amazing architecture and old buildings, not to mention plenty of art galleries (many of them free). I took a trip to the State Library of Victoria, which house about five smaller galleries within it, as well as plenty of books!


Outside the State Library


Inside the State Library!


Across the street, I still don't know what this building is!


Inside Melbourne Central, a shopping mall of epic proportions. It was probably a good thing I didn't have too much spending money!

Just a few of the amazing buildings around Melbourne's central business district:






Everywhere you turned, there was another little alleyway full of coffeeshops, restaurants and stores.

I also went to the beautiful National Gallery of Victoria.

There were plenty of amazing exhibits on permanent display, but I went primarily for the Gustave Moreau exhibit.


Famous for his paintings of unicorns and pretty ladies.

When I was in the ACMI, I just happened to see a few pieces from my favourite movie ever, Moulin Rouge!, including the prop windmill from the opening as well as the dress Nicole Kidman wore for the Elephant Love Medley. Not the best photo, but I was so excited to see it in real life!
,

A panorama shot of Federation Square, from off to one side.


I spent a relaxing hour in the Queen Victoria Gardens. Here is a statue of Queen Victoria, surrounded by roses of every colour. It was a beautiful day and it smelled amazing.


There was a clock made of flowers and greenery that actually told the time accurately. Very cool.


Melbourne's amazing. Now that the weather is nicer, I feel like I should explore Brisbane more. I know there's plenty to be seen!