Wednesday 28 December 2011

East Side Gallery



The East Side Gallery is a 1.3 km-long painted stretch of the former Berlin Wall along the Mühlenstrasse in former East Berlin. It is the largest open-air gallery in the world with over one hundred original mural paintings. Galvanised by the extraordinary events which were changing the world, artists from all around the globe rushed to Berlin after the fall of the Wall, leaving a visual testimony of the joy and spirit of liberation which erupted at the time.

Wall murals had previously been a highlight for visitors and a Berlin attraction for years but were only to be found on the western side of the Wall. The artists transformed the grey concrete rearticulating this into a lasting expression of freedom and reconciliation.

Some of the best known paintings such as “The Mortal Kiss” by Dimitrji Vrubel, of Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev’s mouth-to-mouth embrace and Birgit Kinder’s Trabi (Trabant) knocking down the Wall. They have provided popular postcard material until today. The paintings which still reflect the patchwork, eclectic and bohemian atmosphere of Berlin today are a mixed-bag of surreal images, political statements and graffiti-like effusions stretching from the Oberbaum Brücke to the Ostbahnhof.

The murals are under heritage protection. Restoration of over a quarter of the paintings which have suffered decay caused by defacement, weather and air pollution is underway. 

Font:http://www.berlin.de/orte/sehenswuerdigkeiten/east-side-gallery/index.en.php?lang=en 

Sunday 18 December 2011

Amsterdam canals






A bit of history


The city was founded around 1250 with the building of the Dam that gave it its name. ‘Aeme Stelle Redamme’ is Medieval Dutch for: ‘Dam in a Watery Area’.The Dam is still there as the heart of the city. But today this former barrier between the River Amstel and the “Southern Sea” is one of the few places in the center of town that you cannot sail a boat to. The last part of the river leading to the dam fell victim to land-traffic in 1922. The street that came in its place is still called ‘Damrak’, which is Dutch for: “Last section of the river, leading to the Dam.”Today, a subway line is being built in the old riverbed.

Middle Ages
The first canals were dug for water management and defence. As the city expanded in the Middle Ages, successive defence moats ended up inside the walls and lost their function. But they acquired an important new one: local transport of merchandise. The warehouses along the old moats could store enormous quantities of trading goods that could be`pipelined through those moat-canals to a harbour full of ships that sailed all over the world that was known in those days.

Golden Age
Trade exploded in the 17th century, Amsterdam’s Golden Age. In one very ambitious expansion project that took 50 years, the 3 main canals of the city were dug and the houses around them were built. Completed around 1660, it made the city grow to 4 times its size and gave it the most intricate and efficient system of navigable waterways in the world. A maze of connecting canals brought merchandise from all over the world to the doorstep of every canalside merchant.A fleet of thousands of small barges carried the goods from the big ships in the harbor to every corner of the city. More than a thousand warehouses on the canal-sides were supplied by these man-powered barges. On top of that, 9 specialized floating markets catered to the daily needs of 17th century Amsterdammers.In those days, more goods were moved on barges in the canals by human power, than would even be possible today with trucks along the canalsides.

Lost Canals
The 20th century needed space for cars and other land traffic. Many canals were filled in to make streets and parking spaces. Not without struggle: fierce protest had rescued the famous Seven Bridges of the Reguliersgracht already in 1901.But in 1955, a local police commissioner still submitted a serious proposal to the City Council to solve all traffic problems by filling up all the canals to make highways. He was almost tarred and feathered for it. Amsterdammers are fond of their Canals.


Amsterdam canals today
Almost half of the original water in Amsterdam was lost to landfills, but a full 25 percent of the city's surface still consists of navigable waterways. With 65 miles of ancient canals, Amsterdam is still the most watery city in the world.Today, the only cargo vessel on the Amsterdam canals is a unique package boat of Courier service DHL, but that will change in the near future.In 2008, Mokum Mariteam 's first electrically powered cargo sloops will deliver their goods in and around the city. A serious and very timely project to help fight air pollution and alleviate traffic congestion on the streets.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Parc des Buttes Chaumont








Thanks to the park's geographic relief with distinct elevations you have great panoramic views over Paris, including views over the Sacre Coeur. This makes Buttes Chaumont one of the Parisians' favorite parks, especially popular for strolls and picnics during weekends.

Before the 19th century the area was less attractive as it once featured gallows where criminals were executed. Later it became a lime quarry and until 1862 it was used as a public waste ground.That year, the site was bought by the city of Paris. Napoleon III decided to create a park in the working-class neighborhood which had just been annexed to Paris.He turned to baron Haussmann who designed the park together with Adolphe Alphand, a landscape architect. After four years of construction, the park was officially opened as part of the festivities during the Universal Exhibition in 1867

Font:http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/parcbutteschaumont.htm