Do you have any favourite buildings or structures that you have visited during your travels or perhaps one you would really like to visit?
I will start this thread off with one of Stuttgart’s most photographed buildings that we have just recently visited, the Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart (Stuttgart City Library). The new library of Stuttgart is a monolithic cube which gathers all the ancient libraries in one building. This building is the outcome of an international competition won by Eun Young Yi in 1999.
Having researched the building before our visit we were a little disappointed when we entered on the ground floor to be confronted with plain whitewashed walls of a central atrium extending up to the height of four floors. It is only when you take the lift to the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th floor, the top floor, that the building will then reveal its beautiful interior.
We weren’t sitting at the time, but the Independence Palace in Saigon was really interesting. Designed and built in the 60’s, and kept more or less original, it’s a real step back in time to some groovy architecture and decor, baby!
We visited Neuschwanstein Castle today, absolutely stunning! The castle is also said to be the inspiration for Disney’s “Cinderella” castle.
The castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner. The castle was intended to be a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the public shortly after his death in 1886.
I love Washington, D.C., for various reasons. A key one: It’s a big city without high-rises pressing in. It ended up that way, because:
Legally, few buildings are allowed to rise beyond 130 feet.
The man whom George Washington chose to plan the city was born French — Pierre Charles L’Enfant. He laid out streets wide enough for horses to pull cannons down, in case there was need to put down civil unrest.
A friend I hadn’t seen for years and I overlapped in Dubai and caught up for hours at the BK. (You can buy shortcut tickets to hang out on the top floors exclusively, away from the crowds, and sip sparkling wine, enjoy pastries and sandwiches and linger as long as you like.) The views were incredible and the experience was tranquil and super relaxing. You could see the shadow that the BK cast below, for instance:
Later, we went to Dinner in the Sky, where they hoist you up in a crane roughly to the height of the Tower of Pisa and slowly rotate you 360 degrees as they cook and serve you dinner while you’re harnessed into seats on a dining platform, enjoying Dubai’s skyline views.
Hi @luckycat La Sagrada Família in Barcelona is simply stunning and the beautiful colours that the stained glass windows produce when the sun shines through is simply breathtaking.
The stained glass windows at the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia also known as the Sagrada Familia, is a large unfinished Roman Catholic minor basilica in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia. Designed by the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), his work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica. Very often, the most colourful part of a Gothic cathedral is the highest reaches of the stained-glass windows, where there is more unobstructed sunlight outside. In the lower sections, however, where there may be shadows of trees or other buildings, the colour filter is less intense. This distribution often aims to offset one effect with the other, seeking a sort of balance, so that there is less filter where there is less light and vice versa. At the Sagrada Familia, however, it is just the opposite. Gaudi sought out maximum contrast. The most transparent stained-glass windows are those highest up, so that the light can stream in and illuminate the mosaics and golden vaults that characterise the nave. However, the illustrations and texts are in the lower windows, where visitors can see and read them better. In this regard, we can once again see Gaudi’s drive to surpass the Gothic style.
My fuzzy pictures don’t do justice to this UNESCO world heritage site on Russia’s Kizhi island. An idyllic setting, visionary churches. The island is one of countless ones on gorgeous Lake Onega. Well worth seeing.
About a decade ago, I took my parents back to my Dad’s ancestral village in southern China. It’s still very poor and the dirt-floor home where my grandparents lived with their kids (they had 13 total, though some died) had been abandoned.
The building is meaningful to me, because I value remembering where we came from. It makes me appreciate the most mundane things, and so much more beyond.
My Dad hadn’t been back in 60+ years, because his family left to pursue a better life in Hong Kong (then run by the British) and visits were limited by money, war and then communism.
My family eventually immigrated to the U.S., for which I’m super thankful. Girls and women often lived harsh lives in China. I’m of the generation when baby girls often were killed, abandoned, sold or given away, because Chinese culture heavily favored boys and many people were poor. (When I was born, one of my uncles told my Mom: What’s the big deal? It’s just a girl.)
When I travel around the world and see poor villages and such, I know there are people (especially women) who are no doubt smarter and harder working and yet often won’t get anywhere the opportunities I’ve had. And it’s not as if I’m any more deserving. I don’t take that for granted.
