Austria - Vienna

The Parliament Building is one of many incredibly beautiful public buildings. They seem to stretch endlessly, block after block.

There are many beautiful churches in Vienna but this is not one of them.  It is the City Hall Building.

This is the beautiful church just one block down from the City Hall

An Art Museum is down the block.

Mozart's statue with the Mozart museum behind it.

Beethoven's monument with the museum behind it.

The world famous Vienna Opera House

The Schonbrunn Palace, the home of the Hapsburg dynasty since the late 1500's.

St Stephen's Cathedral is the most famous church in Vienna and the square around it filled with cafes and restaurants in one of the most popular areas in the city.

These horse drawn carriages form an essential part of city life with many songs and poems written about them and the drivers.

For serious sightseeing, the Hop On Hop Off bus is preferred.

During the Cold War, Vienna was a den of spies and espionage.  The movie, The Third Man, was filmed here with the classic scene of Holly Martens ( Joseph Cotton) holding on to the side of the ferris wheel for dear life while the evil Harry Lime (Orson Wells) wishes him harm.

Whether fighting spies or finishing a ferris wheel ride, the Irish pub and its Kilkenny beer will set you straight.

Switzerland - Geneva

Nothing is as reliable as a Swiss clock.

Or as unusual as this jet steam of water, a landmark in Geneva.

It has majestic natural sites like this.  

Or like this : Mount Blanc.

Lake Geneva

The historic old walled city is a man made site.

As is the main cathedral - St. Peter's

Clock Tower

The National Theatre

 The old city has returned.

Thank god we found a decent place for lunch.

There was a wall that ran for 200 yards honoring the founders of Protestantism.

At the end of the wall were pretty flowers

At the end of the walk, we found this ancient object, some say it was used for communications.  

Copenhagen - Denmark & Elsinore

We totally enjoyed our stay in Denmark seeing expected sites like the Little Mermaid and visiting an unexpected new place like the castle of Elsinore.

Like many European cities, Denmark has statues everywhere , especially in parks.

The "statues" on the top of this building forecast the weather way before there was TV and internet,  One of the statues would come out further than the other to forecast a nice day for a bike ride or a day to carry your umbrella.

We walked by the Royal Palace.

So much of Denmark still relies on the sea. The National Opera building was recently built here with funds from shipping companies.

It's not just the open sea but the canals or quays as they are called here provide livelihood and entertainment.  There were outdoor restaurants and cafes as far as the eye could see.

Sometimes, the quays are just a good place to hang out.

The quays provide great spots for pictures as this wedding party found out.  It is incredible how multi racial the major European cities have become.

With tourists from everywhere.

Elsinore Train Station

We thought we would spend the weekend in Copenhagen but we learned the famed castle of Elsinore was just a one hour train ride away. To tell the truth, I only knew it had a magical sound to it and it had something to do with Hamlet.  But why was it in Denmark ?  Shakespeare was an English writer.  Wait a second. Why did Shakespeare write a play about Hamlet - King of the Danes?


How strange the quirks of history.  Around 1000 AD, the historian Saxo Grammaticus s began to write the history of the kings of Denmark.  He wrote in Latin but his work was not translated into French and English until the 1500's.

Saxo wrote about one king who lived in the 900's.  He was murdered by his brother who then married the king's wife.  His son vowed to avenge his father's death.  He was named after his father: Hamlet.

Elsinore had may rooms and halls, one so large it was used to produce plays. In the 1500's, the Danes did not have professional actors so they imported them from England, especially from the Globe Theatre in London. When the actors returned, they were able to describe the castle to within the smallest detail for a major playwright , Shakespeare.

With this information and the history of Saxo Grammaticus, Shakespeare was able to write one of his greatest plays, one about a Dane who lived 500 years before Shakespeare wrote the play.  Many different productions of Hamlet take place at Elsinore every year.

Iceland

Iceland is a mountainous island nation in the north Atlantic Ocean, located between Europe and North America. Though not part of the continental mainland, the country is considered European. The name of the country - Iceland - may not be that appropriate: although 10% of Iceland is covered by glaciers, it has a surprisingly mild climate and countless geothermal hot-spots. 

Iceland is a stunningly beautiful place if you enjoy strange and desolate landscapes. Because it is so close to the Arctic Circle, the amount of daylight varies dramatically by season. The sun sets briefly each night in June, but it doesn't get fully dark before it comes back up again. If you go in December, it's almost 20 hours of darkness. 

 The Icelanders still basically speak the language of the Vikings. Iceland has received a great number of immigrants over the last 10 years. In the last 5 years the population of immigrants has doubled. Most of these people (from Eastern Europe and South East Asia) come for employment. Immigrants in Iceland are now well over 10% of the population, giving Iceland a larger proportion of immigration than Norway, Sweden etc. 

(Check Wikitravel - Iceland to know more)


I spent almost all my time in the capital city - Reykjavik  - except for a one day tour outside in the countryside.   Reykjavik has 75 % of the population but even so it is a quiet, stress free , walk around city.

Things I learned 

Reykjavik has one traffic jam a year !
I asked  the hotel clerk if I should leave early for the airport to avoid traffic or traffic jams . She responded "Don't worry. We only have one traffic jam a year and its in summer. Everyone goes camping on one particular weekend  and coming back Sunday night there is a traffic jam.

Icelanders Don't Use Umbrellas

The day I took this picture , it became overcast and I asked the hotel clerk whether I should take an umbrella . He said "We Icelanders don't use umbrellas. The rain usually comes sideways."  What do they do?  Well there is an old saying here "There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing"

The view of the city.

This church is magnificent in its architecture. In front of it stands the statue of Lief Ericsson who discovered N. America a few hundred years before Columbus.

Pizza, of course , is everywhere in the world. This was one of three pizza places I walked by.

We seem to find more Thai than Chinese restaurants in our recent travels.  That's a change.  The food was good but the waiters were all blond hair  and blue-eyed.  What part of Thailand did they hail from?

Colorful shops everywhere.

The Viking Shop sells interesting souvenirs.

Our tour guide, Julia, spent four years in New York City as the drummer in a rock band and then came back to Reykjavik to form a chart topping all girl band.

At the height of the cold war, Kennedy and Khrushchev held a crucial summit in this building in neutral Iceland.

This statue is called "Gateway to Hell" based on an ancient legend.  I was not pleased to see my Icelandic airline plane had the same name.

The view from the observation deck of a geo-thermal heating center. 

On our tour, we stopped at a thermal heating center which had an observation and educational center . This high school choral from Middle View California visited Iceland after competitions in Europe.  As a "thank you", they perform a song in every place they visit. They sang the best version I ever heard of "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?

The Great Geyser draws tourists 3 hours out from the city.  Most of Iceland is heated from geo-thermal sources.

The Golden Falls :  Legend has it the falls turn a golden color in bright sunlight reflecting all the gold thrown there by a rich man who did not want anyone to inherit his money.

Our bus traveled for hours past a lonely land of volcanos, lava pits and far flung  houses. Great for those who  want neighbors at an arm's distance.

At the end of the day, I prefer the warmth and charm of the city.