art from the archives

Bronze Age Farm

Part of the Vitlycke Museum, a World Heritage site in Tanum, Sweden.

As a complement to the Museum, there is the reconstructed Bronze Age Farm where the visitor can watch as well as participate in diverse activities such as the making of bronze objects, pottery and food. The scholarly approach taken in the reconstruction ensures that the farm is used very effectively for school groups and are arranged to cater for varying degrees of prior knowledge and desired instruction. Usually, we are keeping animals like sheep, pigs and steer in the farm

Rafiki

My Stepmom's African Gray parrot. He can imitate the sounds of anyone and anything. Quite amazing. He will also bite your finger if you get it too close as my granddaughter discovered quite painfully.

Ingrid Bergman's house

Ingrid Bergman, the legendary actress.

Fjällbacka, Sweden. The flag flying meant that her 90some odd years old husband was in residence. The guide on our boat vividly remembered her coming here and participating in the town events. The eagle statue on the rocks outside her home in the archipeligo. The guide spoke of it being an Eagle but when I look at it close up, it looks more like a dove. There is also a bust of her in the town of Fjällbacka which is on the mainland.

Swedish sunset

They can take forever in the summer time. They do not start until about 10:30pm and can last for at least 1.5 hours...at least in June. Spectacular.

Steam Engine - The Henry Ford Museum

Greenfield Village, Detroit.

From Wikipedia:
The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute), in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, USA, is the nation's "largest indoor-outdoor history museum" complex. ^[2][3] Named for its founder, the noted automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his desire to preserve items of historical significance and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses a vast array of famous homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana. The collection contains many rare exhibits including John F. Kennedy's presidential limousine, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, and the Rosa Parks bus.

Travel Photo of the Day- NZ

Window in Christchurch, New Zealand

Travel Photo of the Day - Sante Fe, NM

Statue at art gallery, Sante Fe, New Mexico

Travel Photo of the Day - Berlin

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.

From Wikipedia:
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (German: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial (German: Holocaust-Mahnmal), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square meter (4.7 acre) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38m (7.8') long, 0.95m (3' 1.5") wide and vary in height from 0.2 m to 4.8m (8" to 15'9"). According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.

Travel Photo of the Day - Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin.

College students portraying the guards that previously held this post prior to 1989.... plus some HAM in the middle.

Travel photo of the day - Prague

Castle guard, Praha, Czech Republic

Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, making the city one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, receiving more than 4.1 million international visitors annually, as of 2009^[update]

Travel Photo of the day - Stockholm

Stockholm by the light of the moon.

Travel Photo of the day - Detriot

Greenfield Village, Detroit

Travel photo of the day - Austria

Peter's Cemetery, Salzburg, Austria

Petersfriedhof, or St. Peter's Cemetery, is the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. It is a worthy attraction in itself, but many visitors come to see the place where the Von Trapp family hid out in The Sound of Music.

Queenstown Harbor, New Zealand

The Ernslaw

The TSS Earnslaw is a 1912 vintage twin screw steamer plying the waters of Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand. It is one of the oldest tourist attractions in Central Otago, and the only remaining passenger-carrying coal-fired steamship in the southern hemisphere. (wikipedia)

Flowered statue, Munich

A couple of blocks away from MarienPlatz, we stumbled across this flower adorned statue. There was no explanation of who she was or why she had lovely fresh flowers draped upon her. Pity. I would liked to have known more of the story.

MarienPlatz, Munich

MarienPlatz Square

Fountain images from the square, 1 block from our hotel.

"Right near the Altes Rathaus is a small fountain, the Fischbrunnen or Fish Fountain. Originally designed by sculptor Konrad Knoll in 1864, the fountain was completely destroyed during World War II. It was rebuilt in 1954." (quote from above link)

Torreby GC clubhouse

Torreby Golf Club, Munkedal, Sweden

The host course of the James Cup. See the Canadian flag? It was so nice of them to display it. There were 2 players from Canada. This was the day we experienced all 4 seasons in one day. Literally true. After this day they had a heat wave. Sweden has not heard of "Air Conditioning". Repeat after me... Air Conditioning... you know... those machines that turn HOT air into splendidly COOL air? It became very uncomfortable. I had not brought enough clothes to change 3 times a day because of ... what do ladies do again?... oh yeah... SWEAT! I think that ladies are purported to glow... or is it glisten? However, when it is in the mid 90sF and you are walking miles and miles every day... all you can call it is SWEAT. Ewwwww.... sniff... Ewwww....

The clubhouse was beautiful. It is the former mansion of somebody or another. I cannot remember who, but, he built a pretty cool house for himself. (Cool as in swanky nice... not cool as in air conditioned cool...sigh)

Sweden

Sweden has a law that states that everyone may have free access to all its islands in the archipelago. In truth, they are more rocks than islands. If you are a fisherman, you may build a cottage on the islands. So... they do... and... they are all red.

Resident Swan family-Grebbestad Sweden

Mom and the fam.

Dad

Early morning mist

TanumStrand, Sweden
The red color is ubiquitous to this coast, at least. It seems to be everywhere. Someone told us that it is the only color of paint made in Sweden and no one is allowed to either lighten or darken it. I do not know if that is the true story, however, this color will always make me remember Sweden.

The view from our balcony

TanumStrand, Sweden... near Grebbestad.
This time of year it is light almost 24 hours per day. Sunset was around 10:30pm and sunrise was around 2am.

And the band played on

We had to change trains in Plzen, Czech Republic, between Munich and Praha(Prague). We were welcomed by this band playing such tunes as Yankee Doodle Dandy and other such well known faves. I do not know what merited this prestigious welcome, but, it sure was fun. Maybe this is high school band practice? Their outfits are so cute.

More Fussen, Germany

Neuschwanstein. The castle King Ludwig II built. It is the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Picture taken from the upper bridge. Take the bus up to the bridge and then take a short hike down to the castle. After touring the castle, walk down a few steps and take the horse drawn carriage back down to the bottom. if you are adventurous, it is a wicked 30 minute hike up and down from the castle. Neuschwanstein is about a 2 hour train trip out of Munich. Even though the castle was never finished, the opulence is amazing. No expense was spared.

Fussen, Germany

Hohenschwangau Castle. Crazy Luddie's childhood home... "Crazy Luddie" being King Ludwig II. I took this picture from Neuschwanstein, the castle Crazy Luddie built. For some reason he found it necessary to build his Monument (Neuschwanstein) above that of his father's.