On my last evening in Paris in June 2006 I was walking to the Opéra Bastille, feeling somewhat sorry for myself because I had already turned in my bicycle to the rental place, and would have to leave Paris the next morning. I was walking through the Place des Vosges, Read More …
In 2006 there were several news reports of bad fires in Paris. As I wrote that year on the now-defunct website VirtualTourist: “I don’t know if there are really more fires here than elsewhere, but maybe there are because of all the old firetrap buildings. “I happened to see this Read More …
Scheinfeld is a happy town in the Steiger Forest in Franconia, northern Bavaria. You can tell it’s a happy town because some internet-savvy person has written “:D” with a felt-tipped marker in the upper left-hand corner of the sign. Up on a hill overlooking the town there is a castle Read More …
In the database of the now-defunct website VirtualTourist (VT) there were four places in Germany called Frankfurt. One was a large city in Land Hessen called Frankfurt am Main, which is best known for its huge, noisy airport. Frankfurt am Main is where I live and is also the home Read More …
All you loyal readers of my Markt Bibart post (thanks again to both of you) will no doubt recall that there are 386 towns in Bavaria which bear the official (modern) designation of Markt (= market), meaning that they have some slight degree of regional importance. Because of a quaint Read More …
When I finally returned to Paris in February 2011, I was pleased to find that the Vélib’ bicycle transit system was in good shape and still going strong after three-and-a-half years of operation. I bought a weekly ticket and traveled around Paris exclusively by Vélib’. Didn’t use the Métro once Read More …
On a Sunday morning in June 2015 I rode over to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées to have a look at an event called Les 24h de Vélib’ = The 24 hours of Vélib’. Why it was called that I don’t know, since it actually lasted only twelve hours, from 8 am Read More …
In 2004 I posted a ‘tip’ on the now-defunct website VirtualTourist about the central railroad station in Stuttgart. Little did I know, at the time, that the fate of this station would later turn into one of the hottest political issues in Germany. My original ‘tip’ read as follows: In Read More …
This ‘Museum on the River’ in Antwerp was opened in 2010 after fifteen years of preparation and construction. I don’t know how much it cost or how controversial it was or is, but I was surprised to find that it is strikingly beautiful and evidently quite popular with locals and Read More …
We 21st century folks are so accustomed to doing everything electronically that we tend to forget about (or not even know about) the amazing mechanical devices our grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents used to use. From music boxes to player pianos, musical clocks to orchestrions, barrel organs to self-playing violins, Read More …