Europe Euphoria

In the past, various religious places like churches, chapels and cathedrals were beautified with stained glass windows, new altars and various decorations. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Piero della Francesca’s frescoes in Arezzo are the finest examples. But slowly the decorations of these religious places stopped as, with time, they seize to be the most appropriate settings for the modern art.

With a wave of contemporary art installations that unveiled in these religious places all across Europe, it seems that European artists are returning to these religious places. A Spanish artist Miguel Barcelo and the eclectic German painter Gerhard Richter are among the famous artists of the present era.

Last year, Barcelo completed a ceramic panorama for the St. Pere Chapel in the Gothic cathedral in Palma, Majorca. Gerhard Richter has created a dazzling stained-glass window for the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, which is scheduled to open on August 25.

The Portuguese painter Pedro Calapez is working for the interior of the new church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima, Portugal. The Church was designed by the Greek architect Alexandros N. Tombazis and is scheduled to open on Oct. 13.

Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and other major art institutions show the great work of Miguel Barcelo.

Mr. Richter undertook the task of designing the replacement of the stained glass windows that were lost during the bombings at World War II. He made the window for the Cologne Cathedral. The window is made up of 11,500 small hand-blown squares tinted in 72 different colors.

There are many other churches in Britain where there is an abundant amount of art - recently or soon to be installed. Whether these new installations herald a renaissance in religious art or not, these religious places are attracting a new group of people who are now considering these places as a wellspring of innovative contemporary art.

Source: The New York Times

Do you know, what is Tulip Craze? It’s a term that economists and market observers often use. No, doubt there are many tulips in Haarlem at present but there was a time when getting even a single bulb of it was difficult. During the 17th century, the traffic in tulips began as in state bonds and shares.

In the seventeenth-century tulips were popular and expensive item. The flower had been introduced to the region from the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. During the first part of the 17th century, the demand for tulip bulbs in Netherlands reached such a peak that enormous price was charged for a single bulb. The rage for tulips became intense, and every one was caught by the craze, and positively some were driven mad by it.

People started the trade of tulip bulb. They began to spend considerable sums in ornamenting their gardens with tulips. This taste for tulips promoted their rapid cultivation; everywhere gardens were laid out, studies promoted, new varieties of the favorite flower sought for.

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Popular interest had shifted from hobbyists and collectors to speculators and gamblers. People from all walks of life liquidated their homes and real estate at incredibly low prices in order to speculate in tulip trading.

To control this tulip craze, notaries and clerks were appointed, public laws were also developed. But people began to liquidate their tulip holdings. After reaching a peak, the tulip trade collapsed, tulip prices began to weaken rapidly. Soon, panic seized the market and tulip prices crashed.

In a short time the fever became general, on every side there swarmed unknown tulips, of strange forms, and wonderful shades or combinations of colors, full of contrasts, caprices, and surprises. The flower remained popular and even became a national symbol. Today Haarlem enjoys the exquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal of tulips in full bloom.

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Source: Telegraph

With the mention of the name of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the Nazi killing camps of World War II, we are tend to think the rain teeming these areas. Dorita Nicz, our guide whose two non-Jewish uncles were sent to Auschwitz for giving water to an escaped prisoner, led us to the otherwise serene and picturesque terrains of this place.

“I was a little girl, but I remember he never smiled,” said Ms. Nicz, a guide provided by Butterfield & Robinson. “He talked only to my grandmother, and he kept always a piece of bread in his pocket.”

Ms. Nicz took us through the concentration camps, recounting the horrors of the ‘killing camps’ where Jews were put inside the gas chambers faster than the Nazis could liquidate them

Butterfield & Robinson had a surprise in store for us when they arranged an interview with 86-year-old Kazimierz Smolen, a Polish partisan and survivor of five years’ imprisonment at Auschwitz.

The Nazi Party’s SS ( short for Schutzstaffel) had kept the inmates, including him, standing in a totally dark cell. Mr. Smolen and the other prisoners were made to do the bear dance by turning around in circles with their arms raised above their heads. When inmates stopped or lowered their arms, the SS beat or shot them.

The food given was marginal and most the inmates were forced to starvation where the food consisted of a quart of herbal tea in the morning and half a pound of bread in the evening and sometimes soup.
When Mr. Smolen was in a position to type, he was entrusted with the job of registering those who were about to be killed.

Image:globaldreamers , dletouzey, wikimedia

Via: The Washington Post

Next month Geneva is celebrating its summer festival, Fetes de Geneve. For ten days the people can enjoy the carnival rides, concerts, food stalls, variety shows and parades on the shores of Lake Geneva.

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It’s Geneva’s biggest festival and largest tourist event in Switzerland which incorporates lakeside parades, pumping techno nights and spectacular firework displays.

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The evenings are capped off with a fireworks show. The streets of the center burst into life with floats, parades and parties, street theater and entertainment with a program of concerts featuring international stars. For children, there is a clown parade and a funfair.

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This year, there will be over 120 live musical performances at the festival, including a famous Elvis Presley concert and a Pink Floyd tribute show. The festival runs from 2nd August to 12th August, 2007.

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Source: Just The Flight

The Isle of Wight is the perfect place to enjoy a relaxing break, at any time of the year. It’s a diamond shaped eye-catching island situated at the far south of Great Britain, sandwiched between France and the UK. With beautiful scenery and a wealth of fascinating attractions it’s a wonderful place that has much more to offer than you could possibly wish for on your break, there is something to interest everyone.

If you prefer to unwind and explore, it’s just the right place with lots to discover. Energetic people can enjoy windsurfing, sailing and paragliding. Also, you can enjoy a stroll in one of the vineyards, or the Botanic Gardens. There are many historical buildings where you can immerse yourself in culture, you can see animated dinosaurs and waxworks, hunt ghosts, visit castles and the rocket site where the rockets were tested that launched Britain’s first space satellite.

With large selection of hotels and bed and breakfast guest houses, the Isle of Wight has plentiful and varied holiday accommodation. Also, there is wide choice for those who seek the freedom of self catering accommodation. There are many top quality camping and touring parks throughout the island and you can bring your accommodation with you. So, whatever holiday accommodations you choose find it here on the Isle of Wight which is England’s favorite holiday destination.

The Isle of Wight is a wonderful place if you like walking in the fresh air. The scenery is magnificent and you can vary your walks as the mood takes you. It is famous for sailing and yachting also. If you plan a jaunt to escape the modern world, enjoy the lovely quiet rivers, or go for adventurous sports, I’m sure you’ll leave the Island having found exactly what you were looking for.

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Source: Telegraph

Estate Romana programme is a summer festival of Rome that offers jazz, rock, and classical music, film, sport, and theater. It’s a six week festival that runs from late June through early September. Although music takes the central stage but there is lot for art lovers also.

The ancient ruins of Rome such as Caracalla Baths, Michelangelo’s Campidoglio Square are used as the stage for these musical concerts. If you are a jazz fan, you can go to Villa Celimontana where summer-long Jazz festival is celebrated. Tickets vary depending upon the artists but generally it is about 20 euros.

Villa Ada is a place which holds the Roma Incontro Il Mondo, festival each summer. Tickets range from 6 to 15 euros and are available at last minute also. If you are looking for more classical experience, you can enjoy open-air opera and ballet amid the Roman ruins of the Terme Di Caracalla, the Caracalla Baths.

Patti Smith, Lou Reed, John Legend, Pink and Joe Cocker are among the famous artists who will perform this year. Also, there are some jazz and world music artists that will perform on various days throughout Rome’s many venues.

Tickets for Turandot and Swan Lake run from 25 to 110 euros. There will be 40 minutes comedy Caesar - More Than Just a Salad, on Friday nights. This festival is sceduled to get over by 15th August, so if you are great music fan, and don’t want to miss this wonderful festival, plan your trip now!

Source: IHT

Frankfurt, the most impressive city in Germany, known for having exciting festivals throughout the year is once again celebrating its Museum Embankment Festival (Museumsuferfest) this August.

It’s the annual art gala, a popular celebration of appreciating arts and culture of different nations around the world. The banks bridges of River Main are built into a big stage for artists, musicians, and Frankfurt’s items and artifacts from its majestic museums.

This year, the festival will be celebrated between August 24th and 26th at Money Museum which is located on the north bank between the Eiserner Steg and Untermainbrucke bridges.

There will be exhibitions, information stands and restaurants that will line the walkway of river bank. A quiz on the subject: Euro and Bundesbank will be the main feature of this years’ festival.

The range of open-air attractions includes stages for music and drama, exhibition stands, fun activities, a jazz garden and games for the children. Language is the theme of this years’ festival. So, you get a chance to explore how language can be used in art.

If you plan to stay in Frankfurt for more then a week, you can take in host of other attractions such as the famous folk fest with advanced rides that happens in September at the Ratsweg Festival Square. Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest international publishing trade fair is conducted at the city every October.

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Source: Just The Flight

Tourist will no longer be disappointed when they go to Berlin. They can now get to experience Berlin Wall and its history on a bike.

The City has recently built a trail along the 160km stretch of the wall. We all can remember watching thousands of people climbing the Berlin Wall and its fall on T.V in 1989, and, the reunification of Germany. The wall was bulldozed, the pieces were bought and sold and have become collector’s item. Today it is illegal to remove any pieces from the wall but every souvenir store or postcard shops sell them. The pieces, usually small grain or a tenth of an ounce, carry no proof of authenticity. What remained of the wall until recently was a cobblestone path.

Innovative Michael Cramer dreamed the idea of a bike path (a hugely popular city transport in the region) along the wall’s course. It took 5 years and a lot persuasion to build it, but the result is worth it. The trail circles old West Berlin and a lot of history along the way. You will cross Checkpoint Charlie famous for its 1961 standoff between Soviets and Americans. The Glienicker Bridge where captured spies were exchanged and the East Side Gallery that showcase 1.3-km of the remaining longest stretch of wall. It features murals by International Artists. Crammer himself conducts guided tours in summer or you could just go and discover it yourself with a guidebook.

If one wants a closer look, there are three museums exclusively on the Berlin Wall.

The Standing Museum is an open air and near the Gestapo Headquarter use to be. It runs along a potion of the wall tacked with wooden roof and frames. These frames carry posters with subtitles in four languages (English, French, German, and Russian) that tell the story from World War II to the Cold War and how the Wall was built.

The Berlin Wall Museum on Bernauser Strasse is excellent which a serious researcher will enjoy. There is an in-dept portrayal of key events from 1961 to 1989. It has a library with many good books and even magazines of that time. Situated on the border between French and Russian sectors it gives a complete reconstruction of a section of the wall complete with double barrier.

Checkpoint Charlie is downtown and the most famous point. The museum is more of an art exhibit with period military vehicles, paintings, and dioramas. It has a special section highlighting the struggle for freedom.

Pictures by: Tom Galvin

Locals appreciate Charles Bridge, the most popular tourist attraction of Prague in Czech Republic, with much pride. A landmark to history it spans the river Vltava between Old Town and Mala Strana. However, the mass tourism that the bridge attracts is it any good for it?

Tourism is part of the development of society, but it should also mean the interaction of cultures, through intermingling with the locals . With mass tourism this is not really possible.

Walking down the bridge towards the Old Town early one December morning, after a recent snow fall, Image credit

Gothic architecture and Baroque sculpture combine in the Charles Bridge. 30 statues and statuaries of saints line the bridge, bestowing beauty magic and romance to it. Packed with tourists, Painters and vendors, it stays abuzz with people and activity.

Charles Bridge at night

The bridge is 516 meters long and nearly 10 meters wide, resting on 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers, two of them on the Lesser Quarter side and the third one on the Old Town side.

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History of the bridge

In 1357, Charles IV started the construction of a new bridge. The supervisor of the project was Peter Parler, who also constructed the chancel of the St. Vitus Cathedral.

John of Nepomuk

The Charles Bridge, named after King Charles, was 502 meters long. Resting on 16 arches it was wide enough for 4 carriages to cross at the same time and would be the only permanent link between both riversides. Charles Bridge used to be the most important connection between the Old Town, Prague Castle and adjacent areas until 1841.

Today Prague is one of the architectural treasure-chests of the European Union and a magnet for mass tourism. At dawn, dusk or during the night, the bridge is a wonderful place to see fantastic views of a beautiful city and to meet tourists and locals alike.

Source: BBC

Every year the crazy people in Spain try to outrun the bulls, and every year a few fail. Seven people have been crushed and two were gored by fighting bulls during the second of the running of the bulls festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona.

The incident took place because several bulls slipped during the run on streets where night revelers had split a huge amount of diverse liquids. One of them slid and did an unconscious U-turn, thereby directly facing the runners.

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Modou Mbengue from Senegal, San Fermin bull herder, Francisco Itarte, a person in-charge of keeping the runs in order, a 23-year-old French man and seven Spaniards were among the seriously injured. All of them were treated in Pamplona’s hospitals; Modou Mbengue underwent an operation on his left forearm.

Since 1911, 14 people have been killed in the event the last fatality, a 22-year-old American, was gored to death in 1995. The second run of this years nine-day festival saw nine people being hospitalized, one of them in serious condition. On the first day of the run, an Australian man was gored in the thigh.

There are thousands of daredevils that still sprint, despite bloody second day of festival. I hope there are less cases of injuries and no death case this year.

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Source: MSNBC