Doge's Palace

Venice is full of vitality and...paradoxes, and the most obvious paradox is that a near landless city has become renowned for its architecture (of all things!) ......

Venice

Venice had no choice of how much land should be allocated to which element, no say in the matter whatsoever. Created on - or out of - 118 small islands, it had to throw itself on the mercy of the god of the sea, Neptune...

Amsterdam

​"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet...", and so far Kipling's simple and powerful description almost applied to the natural and man-made wonders featured in this blog...

A Lady in Blue

Pondering over the reasons of some museums being more popular than others is a pleasant distraction provided by, essentially, idle curiosity. After all, there is a variety of plausible answers none of which can be proven or disproven convincingly...

The Courtauld

Knowledgeable guides specializing in walking tours are invaluable when it comes to uncovering local hidden treasures - and yet, even they would usually overlook what might be called a given city's "worst kept secrets".

Walking Tours

The quote is from a brochure published by and agency called "Walking Around London". The agency promotes those and other guides without employing them, because all the guides are freelancers coming from all walks of life...

Sherlock Holmes

While the Rock Circus looks completely in place in London, and Marie Tussaud's first permanent exhibition took next to no time to become that city's "number one attraction", both museums can be easily imagined elsewhere...

Marie Tussaud

Impressive and famous as it is. London's Rock Circus is, in a way, a byproduct of another renowned institution created by a French immigrant who had barely escaped with her life during the so-called "French Revolution"...

Rock Circus

Planetariums were not meant for entertainment but rather created for scientific and - later - educational purposes...