The island of Magerøya is now connected to the Norwegian mainland by a bridge. Prior to that bridge’s construction, anyone wishing to see Nordkap, the northernmost point in “mainland” Europe (it’s an island, but a close-coastal island, I guess is how they justify that?), had to take a boat. I took most of these from the tour bus which took us from Honningsvåg along the windswept landscapes and rocky coastal plains up to Nordkap.
Concertgebouw’s “Mahler Pavilion” in Vondelpark (live streaming for anyone wanting to enjoy the music but hadn’t gotten tickets), past which I biked after the bittersweet enjoyment of the very last concert in this year’s Mahler Festival with Sam.
If it was 20 to 30 minutes after take-off from Kirkenes at 11am on the 27th of January…this must be Finland, so I’ve added a new category. (Now maybe I’ll have an added incentive to finally get on ground up there. Hmm. Watch this space.) As promised, photos of cold and snow as a chiller for anyone needing it.
Above, shortly after 8am on the 23rd of January, roughly two minutes before our boat crossed into the arctic circle. Below other mountainous coastal shots from the following hours before we docked at Bodø…including Gary with the ship’s spotlight illuminating the arctic circle monument behind him.
Our very, very last photos from that lovely visit in Switzerland’s Ticino canton last year. Above and several below from Locarno; also a last shot or two from Melide, Bissone, Campione d’Italia and Morcote.
Last photos from Bodø, which was our first port call after entering the arctic circle in the wee hours of 23 January, and is both the capital and the largest city of Norway’s Nordland County.
The last remaining part of the second city walls of Brussels, the Porte de Halle (FR) / Hallepoort (FL) / Halle Gate (EN) is now part the Royal Museums of Art and History, ergot Ah, Royalty material. It was originally built in the 1300s, same general time frame as the Keep at Vincennes. It’s been remodeled often since. I happened past it during my walk to the train station after some meetings in Brussels back in April.
In earlier posts from Vincennes, we told you about the Keep, which you see rising to the right above. We also promised to tell you more about the later buildings which you could see in a few shots taken from inside the Keep. Herewith those last explanations and indeed pretty much last photos from Vincennes. Louis XIV, often referred to as the Sun King, built The King’s Pavilion above in the 1650s. (Along with the Queen’s Pavilion, behind me when I took this photo but visible behind construction scaffolding in a few other shots below. Sheesh: royal spouses apparently aren’t satisfied with different bedrooms, they want whole different buildings, in this case on French tax budgets. No wonder those French peasants started their revolution – and no doubt the Bourbon descendants rue the fact that they hadn’t yet drawn enough attention to immigrants as the cause of all problems, in order to direct the guillotines away from royalty and towards far more defenseless individuals. Of course, for our North American first nations, we immigrants sure as heck were the root of some pretty major new problems.)
But back to old Sunny, the King: his was the last royal court to live at Vincennes. Unsatisfied with Vincennes’ proximity to the actual city of Paris, he built and moved to Versailles, deeper into the suburbs, about thirty years later.
(so much world, so little time....) 