The Joy of Trains

This post is to be filed under 'other places'. We are in the Czech Republic where my husband's family came from over a hundred years ago.

Here is Prague railway station in all it's art nouveau glory

where we are to set out on a small adventure.

These are the old ticket windows - the new station is below ground level and very modern Euro-chic.

The original lobby with Austro-Hungarian shields. 

Then the trains with links to all parts of Europe - so freighted with history.

Leaving the city behind

and the old snack bar, we arrive at Kutna Hora

where we discover a magical city 

that reminds me a little of a Tuscan hill town and I'll write more about tomorrow.

Doors and Windows in Gueliz/Marrakesh

Last Sunday morning we went up to Gueliz early, so all these photos are from the French colonial part of Marrakesh.

Gueliz is very different from the medina --obviously much newer -- but the bright clear Moroccan light and the love of color and decoration is very much the same. Here grille, tiles -and yes it is Astroturf!

This is the beer garden -- off limits to most Moroccans who prefer not to drink alcohol

 -- but much beloved by the ex-pat community.

As above

Yes, indeed. One is rendered quite speechless by pink and mauve with brown and tan tiles......!

Another abandoned shop quite close by.

Patisserie Marocaine glimpsed through the window. This will have to wait until after lunch.....

*

More About Florence

    When we lived in Florence more than thirty years ago I didn't have a camera and so have very few pictures of those long ago days. I am now making up for lost time.

   
     A  vinaio on via dei Neri. The chianti nuovo has arrived. Quite delicious -- even if the guy in the bar where we have breakfast says it's like spremuta (fruit juice).

    
     Early morning on the Ponte Vecchio before most people have got up.

   
     The fruit and veggies are so fresh and lovely.

    
    The colors just about pop out at you.

   
     If you have eaten your veggies, you certainly deserve cake and lots of it......

   
     Florentines take books and writing and printing and paper very seriously indeed as we all should.
     I have so many pictures they have spilled over here

Trip

I'm off to London this evening. These photos are from a previous trip.

Obviously, lots and lots to do. Family to see and museums and restaurants and hotels 

and all the sights and buses and bookshops.............

The sepia tone is meant to indicate nostalgia.......but really London

 is  much better nowadays than when I was growing up when it was

 grimy and a bit grim before it got to be fun in the 'swinging 60's'

Manhattan: My City Secret

I have been tagged by my friend Maryam in Marrakesh to share a secret about New York.
She had been tagged by Benji Lanyardo the columnist of The (UK) Guardian's excellent Travel Blog. Her task was to reveal a hidden secret in her very favorite city - Marrakesh.



Of course what I'm revealing first really isn't a secret at all.
Just thought I'd throw in a visual from Union Square today.



The cafe in the basement of the Neue Galerie probably isn't much of a secret either. But a wonderful place to go especially if you are trying out to be in an Edward Hopper painting.......
or for sharing secrets.



The unending escalators at the 42nd Street bus terminal have a certain metallic charm.



Here the Empire State Building tries to look mysterious and an eensy bit secretive.
I'm passing this tag on to Merisi whose Vienna inspires and delights me every day. Her beautiful post is up now. Enjoy!

Awards and Things

This is the first time I have ever posted an award on my blog. (I have had other ones - boast , boast - but was too dim to know how to post them).

Jennifer of Art Words Life both gave me this one.
THANK YOU!.....and told me how you post it! (Drag onto desktop and then post same as you do a photo.)
It's incredibly hard to single out people to give awards to since I go to lots of blogs for all sorts of reasons and enjoy all of them, as one does one's friends - for their quirks and individual views of the world.



One of the fun things about the blogosphere is that it allows us to have friends round the world.
So I'm handing this award on to:
M.Kate in Malaya whose blog La Vie Est Belle takes us to very exotic places indeed.
Louise of This is My Patch in England who know everything about gardening.
Tracey of Hey Harriet in Australia who thinks as I do on many things and organizes the very excellent "Shadow Shot Sundays".
Maryam in Morocco who has about a zillion awards already but deserves them since she has a super blog.
Britt-Arnhild in Norway who is a loyal blogging friend and uplifting spirit.
Maria in Austria of Let the Good Times Roll who walks through the hills outside Vienna whose lovely dog recovered from a viper bite.
And finally, Marja of Dutch Corner in New Zealand who writes lovely inspiring stories.
Now you have to chose 7 of your blogging chums to hand it on to and tell them.



This is a picture I took in the spring in the downstairs cafe at the Neue Galerie. I think it has a dab of the Hoppers about it.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Back in New York at last!
These pictures are for Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday - but I haven't got too many shadows in New York.
This first shot is of the unending escalator at the 42nd Street bus terminal that we use when getting a bus to go to visit our son. We are resolutely car-free in Manhattan and make some efforts to be 'green'.
For example living in an apartment with one boiler for 70 units is much more eco-friendly than 70 individual boilers.
Preach, preach.
How dull.



From a building on 13th Street where I have my hair cut, you can see the red brick of Chelsea Market - the huge old Nabisco factory on 15th Street.



Here schoolgirls have their lunch sitting on stone benches.............



..............and you can buy real Italian food and all sorts of "Imports from Marrakech".
We went to the newish "T-Salon" the other day - very swanky and stylish - but the iced tea wasn't cold and the breakfast tea wasn't hot. So we have crossed them off our list.



This last picture hasn't anything to do with shadows at all. Just a shot of Saturday morning in New York.
The paper, peonies and herbs from the green market in Union Square.
Real strawberries - small and sweet - which rival or even exceed the ones in Morocco.