I’ve decided that when there aren’t so many flowers in bloom, small wonders can include lovely designer flourishes such as this statue – which I’m guessing must depict some fairy tale? – which adorns a bridge over a canal along one of my favorite walking and biking streets here.
These are all from a lovely morning walk in the Wiener Stadtpark (Vienna City Park) before setting out on our longer exploration of the whole Schönbrunn complex. Our hotel was just next to this park, which is smack in the heart of the city. Seeing how many monuments with sculptures of Vienna’s great composers (including Schubert, below), or other artistic flourishes such as the other sculpture below — entitled “freeing the spring” (more or less) and apparently depicting two men working to remove a stone that’s blocking a well or spring — reminded me that quite aside from being for centuries an important center of power in Europe, Vienna was also / has also long been a leading center of culture for centuries. In that “spa” building shown above are frequent waltz events, the waltz being probably the form of music and dancing most closely associated with Vienna.
Museum Fundatie, in Zwolle, as promised in the last post from this lovely capital of Overijssel province. Lonely Planet tells us this was once a neoclassical courthouse which now houses exhibitions of contemporary art and has a small permanent collection which “traces the trajectory of contemporary art through representative pieces.” I was there after closing time so haven’t yet seen what’s inside, but the contemporary additions on the roof are, as promised by Lonely Planet, “impossible to miss.” Yes, that’s a large gold bird, and we’re told that the larger roof addition is a “snail-shaped slug of a cocoon that sparkles silver in the sunlight.” To me it might as well be UFO that’s perching on the roof, but either way it sparkles and attracts the eye, indubitably. 🙂 This merging of older and newer architecture is a common and often visually stimulating architectural thing here, as shown in various past posts – and certainly a thing to watch for if you visit any city in the Netherlands, more or less.
This, dear friends, brings us to the end of the photos of the festival of light. Check out my first such post for more info about the festival, and consider visiting Amsterdam for a future edition of the festival!
I couldn’t help myself. Today was a sunny, lovely winter day, meaning that it’s only hot in the direct sun rather than unbearable. Immediately when I headed downtown for my usual Sunday-morning swim, I realized this was the day for taking photos, not yesterday. So, with apologies for the less-well-done shots yesterday, here are some other views of the same things, and a few new ones as well. I’ll spare you more captions, and more text. Comment or write if you want to know what anything is.
(so much world, so little time....) 