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Centre Pompidou – Notre Dame de la Tuyauterie

Centre Pompidou – Notre Dame de la Tuyauterie

Built 1977 on the initiative of then president of France, George Pompidou. Centre George Pompidou – Musée national d’art moderne as the proper name is, celebrates 40 years this year 2017.  It was not without controversy when it was built since it was a very modern and industrial looking building.  As the blog title indicate it was among many different things called Notre Dame de la Tuyauterie (Our lady of the pipes). This was mainly due to the exposed mechanical systems and…

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Don Quixote in Castile-La Mancha

Don Quixote in Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha is famous for, among other things, Don Quixote and his trusted sidekick Sancho Panza in the novels written by Miguel de Cervantes Saveedra (1547-1616), two volumes published in 1605 and 1615. The full title of the books are “The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha” or in Spanish “El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha”. This work is considered to be the first modern novel and it is also the most important novel ever published in the…

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Reserva de la Biosfera Ría Celestún

Reserva de la Biosfera Ría Celestún

In the Yucatan State in Mexico lies the city of Celestun, it is surrounded by mangroves and it is the place where you can find the Pink Flamingos and many other bird species. The Pink Flamingos in Celestun are Pink because of their diet high in high in pigments from alpha and beta carotenoid. The richest sources of these elements come from algae and different invertebrates that the constantly feeding Flamingos ingest. It is not only the Flamingos that are…

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Independence Palace
Independence Palace Saigon

Independence Palace Saigon

Saigon’s Independence Palace was built on the site of the older Norodom Palace. The Norodom Palace was built by the Governor of  the French colony Cochinchina and the Palace was finished in 1873. After the French surrendered to the Viet Minh in 1954 and agreed to withdraw its troops from Vietnam, the country was divided along the 17:th parallel into the Communist North Vietnam and anti-Communist South Vietnam. In 1955, a vote based on the principles of universal suffrage was…

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Ha Long Bay Vietnam
Ha Long Bay – Vietnam

Ha Long Bay – Vietnam

Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin in Northern Vietnam is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Vietnamese legend has it that the bay was formed when a Dragon fell to earth. There are just under 2,000 islands and rock formations in the bay and most all are uninhabited. Halong Bay is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. You can easily get there from Ha Noi and most of the companies that are allowed to operate…

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Sunset over Bangkok
Bangkok Oriental City

Bangkok Oriental City

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, was made the capital on April 21, 1782. It replaced Ayutthaya as the capital. Ayutthaya is located about 85km North of Bangkok, about an hour drive. Today only the ruins remain of the former capital. The first kingdom in Thailand was known as Sukhothai. It was founded in 1238 and was the most powerful under King Ramkhamhaeng in the 14:th century. Sukhothai later became part of the Kingdom of Ayuttaya which ruled Thailand and most…

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Angkor Wat Cambodia

Angkor Wat Cambodia

The Khmers that built Angkor in the 12th century 1130-1160 AD where Hindu and they dedicated the temple mainly to Vishnu. They were led by King Suryavarman II. When Angkor was converted to a Buddhist temple at the end of the 12th century, the Wat was added to the name. Angkor was built to be the capital city of the Khmer empire, but scholars have long thought that it was also meant to be the final resting place and tomb…

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Bauhaus Architectural movement is 100 years 2019.

Bauhaus Architectural movement is 100 years 2019.

“We want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast cars”. That was Walter Gropius’ statement regarding the reason behind forming the Bauhaus University. After the ending of the first world war during the “German revolution” when the Weimar Republic was founded and Weimar was the center of the German Enlightenment, the Bauhaus University was founded by Walter Gropius on April 12 1919. The University was founded by merging two art schools established by the Grand Duke…

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Canal to Russia

Canal to Russia

Lappeenranta in the Southeast of Finlandis beautifully situated on lake Saimaa and is connected to the Bay of Finland and Russia via the Saimaa Canal, built between 1845 – 1856. It was formally opened on September 7 1856. It was later overhauled and widened 1963-1968. The canal is 42.9 km long (26.7 miles). the difference in elevation between lake Saimaa and the lower laying Gulf of Finland is 75.7 m (248 ft). The Finnish part has three locks, the first…

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Atlanta art

Atlanta art

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta was founded in 1905 as the “Atlanta Art Association”. In 1926 the High family, for whom the museum is named donated their family home on Peachtree Street to be used to house the collection. An additional building was constructed in 1955. June 3 1962, 106 Atlanta art patrons were on a trip to France to, among other things see “Whistler’s mother” at the Louvre, and on the way home the plane crashed on takeoff…

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Cutty Sark

Cutty Sark

The Clipper Cutty Sark was built on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1869 for Jock Willis Shipping Line. It was originally designed to carry Tea from China to England and to do this as fast as possible. A Clipper is a three masted, square rigged ship with a narrow hull and a shallow keel, this was important when sailing up the rivers in China to load Tea. It was one of the last Tea Clippers ever built and also one the…

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London Royal Parks and Hyde park fishing

London Royal Parks and Hyde park fishing

St James’s Park in London is the oldest and most visited of 8 royal parks in the city. The lake has a “duck Island” and is home to many different bird species.       Hyde Park is London’s great oasis. People come to walk their dogs, ride their horses, sit on the benches, watch the birds, walk around, run around, ski around, ride their bike around, smell the flowers, listen to the birds  – and to Fish! Hyde Park…

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