Some Statues/Sculptures encounted in Europe

In Bratislava I nearly tripped over this interesting sculpture.

This was a life like photographer

This one was fun to join leaning on the seat.

This one had an important historical significance for the people of Slovakia but my little brain cannot remember all the historical facts that we were bombarded with on the tour.

A famous Slovakian leader.
"Angel of the North" near Newcastle in England. The largest steel sculpture in the world. Made for the people who worked in the steel industry in that area.

Statue of Mozart in Vienna. The city that he adopted.

Regensburg, Germany

Statues in Budapest, Hungary.

Sculpture in Ascona, Switzerland.

"The Fühlehung" in Thun, Switzerland.

There are many fountains in Bern, the capital of Switzerland.

Each fountain has a different sculpture.

"St George and the Dragon" in Nuremberg, Germany.

A monument in Rüdesheim to celebrate Germany's freedom from the French.

She is hard to see but it is the beautiful maiden, Lorelei, who sang and caused ships to founder on the rocks in the Rhine Gorge in Germany.

A soldier in Cologne, Germany.

A skeleton sculpture on a bridge over the Rhine in Cologne, Germany.

PYTHON HAS COCKATOO FOR DINNER

I have a blogger friend, Cindy, who lives in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Cindy is an artist and photographer. The other night she heard a squawking and commotion in her back yard, so she went to investigate. This is what she saw and photographed...........

....a python has caught a cockatoo for dinner. It coils around the bird and crushes it.
Then opens its jaws, which are not joined so they can expand to an enormous size........ ...and then the python starts to swallow the bird whole.

Squeeze and swallow.

Beak, bones and feathers and all.

Nearly all gone.

The last feather.

Oh, yum, that was hard work but delicious.

My belly is full.

Now lets go and snooze for a week until this has digested.
Here I come....ssssssssssssCindy for dessert, camera and all.

Cindy took 63 shots and the media was very interested. Read more on her blog at http://www.artistsblog.com.au/

Thank you Cindy for allowing me to use your photos on my blog.

BIRTHDAY BEAR

For those of you who have followed my other blog, some of this post you will have seen before. This post is to catch up my new friends who haven't heard about Birthday Bear.

We are ten old, wrinkly friends, who are retired or semi-retired. Five of us all used to work together and the other five are husbands and a friend. We didn't want to lose touch when we retired so we decided to meet and..........
......... have lunch or dinner when it was our birthdays. However we got disenchanted with all buying a present every time, and decided instead to give a Birthday Bear. It gets passed from one birthday person to the next each time we meet. The fun part is, that Birthday Bear has to be dressed differently each time, usually to reflect some aspect of the recipient's personality or life.
Last month it was Paul's Birthday. He is very proud of his Scottish heritage and spends a lot of time studying genealogy. He recently visited Scotland and met his relatives. So here is Birthday Bear with his Scottish Tam on his head and a bottle of Scotch whisky in his lap and he has opened his cupboard full of skeletons. We enjoyed lunch at Hog's Breath Cafe.
When it was Chris's birthday, Bear came dressed as a teacher of prisoners, as that is what Chris was doing at the time. Unfortunately for us, Chris and Bob have left our group to join the Grey Nomads travelling and working their way around Australia. We had lunch at the Blue Parrot on Macleay Island in Moreton Bay. When it was my turn, Bear came as a blogger together with her cardboard laptop and camera. She was also sporting identical glasses and white hair. We had lunch at my favourite Chinese Restaurant, Kam Koon.

Blogging Bear

Helen had just returned from a River cruise in Europe on the blue Danube, so Birthday Bear came to the lunch dressed in her sun baking bikini , sunnies and a holiday hairdo. She is sipping a cool drink watching the boat sail down the Danube. Lunch was at Fish 52.
Kathy loves bush walking and walking her dog every morning. Birthday Bear came in her jogging track suit with bum bag and water bottle. She was wearing a black sunhat which is Kathy's trade mark as well as the long blond plait. In her hand she had the dog lead. Lunch at Sunnybank Hill's Tavern

The first time Paul received Birthday Bear he was dressed as a fisherman as Paul loves fishing. Lunch at Runcorn Tavern.

On Bill's Birthday, Bear came as a videographer,with a white beard and glasses, holding a Swiss chocolate, Bill's favourite. Bear also brought a cardboard T.V. with a paper roll of a video. You could turn the handle and get the pictures scrolling.

But Birthday Bear got distracted by some chocolate coated lychees that Kathy made for Bill. Lunch at Runcorn tavern.

Ann is always off travelling around Australia on coach tours, so here is Birthday Bear in a coach, together with her maps and crocheting. Lunch at Runcorn Tavern.

George loves reading. One of his favourite authors is Robert G Barret, he has written a series of funny books with the main character being Les Norton. Les is a bouncer and is always getting into strife. Birthday Bear came to lunch as Les Norton, sporting a black eye and his baseball cap. He also brought a sequel to the series including George as one of the characters. Lunch at Michael's Chinese Restaurant.

When it was Bob's birthday Bear came in his camping gear. He had his tent ,Esky( ice box), he even had a campfire and frying pan with fish in it. He also had an Aussie camp hat with a fly net all around. He had a map of Australia as Bob and Chris are just about ready to set off on a tour around the continent. Lunch at the Services Club.

Now Mary enjoys a good night out. So this night we went to Jupiter's Casino for dinner and a show. Birthday Bear came in all her glitter, baubles and bangles ready for show night.

So now that you have met Birthday Bear. In future posts you will be kept up to date with it's antics. (and what silly seniors do when they are retired)

Holiday Videos

While I blog, Bill makes videos. He has some short clips of parts of our trip to Europe. Hope you enjoy.
http://wilbo43.blogspot.com/

Adventure in Europe 2008 FINAL PART Locarno, Ascona, Zurich, Hong Kong, Brisbane

Thursday 18 September

We left Zermatt and travelled by train to Brig where we changed trains for Domodossala in Italy. There we changed trains again, this time it was a small panoramic train which took us through the scenic valley,Centovalli, back into Switzerland to Locarno on Lake Maggiore.

It was a long trip about 4 hours and we were happy to arrive ready for our last adventure in Europe. We booked into our hotel, which was in a great position near the lake but can't rave about the hotel.
In the evening we went for a walk along the lake edge, it was very romantic, except I had developed a cough.

Friday 19 September

We went for a walk to discover the town. We are in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland and you can see the influence of the Latin love of colour in the buildings.

We walked up into the Old Town

This is a church tucked away in a side street. There is a church in nearly every street.

We found the funicular train and went up to the monks sanctuary called Madonna del Sasso.

It is still a monastery today. It is high up on the hill overlooking Locarno. It was very misty this morning.

It was Paul's birthday today so we tried to find somewhere nice for a birthday lunch. I had fruit curry and......

.....a bananarama

Then we caught the bus to Ascona. The bus company has an interesting anagram F.A.R.T.

Ascona is a beautiful town on Lake Maggiore, the old streets are full of art and craft shops and market stalls.

We walked down through the old town to the lake edge, where there are restaurants one after the other all facing the lake........

.........................which is very picturesque, as Carol and Paul noticed. I liked this spot so much I asked Carol to snap Bill and me there, which is now my blog's title picture.

Bill always wanted to retire here if we ever had millions of dollars to buy a place, but he is happy just to be visiting with his daughter.

We walked around the lake edge and found a ........

.......coffee. I remembered Kim's blog where she often has pics of her coffee breaks and thought she might like this one. Bill was telling us stories of when he used to come camping here with his parents when he was young. No camping ground here now.

We walked back up through the quaint streets and caught the bus back to Locarno. That night my cough got worse.

Saturday 20 September

We decided on a free time day today and mix with the locals. Carol and I strolled to the lake with Carol's sketching pad and pencils. We sat in the warm sun and sketched and I coughed.

Bill, Paul and Helen went to the town centre where there was a market and concert bands playing. We joined them for lunch.

We walked around the market and .........

.....I was fascinated with the tiny cobble stones.

That evening Bill and Carol took me to see a doctor at the hospital to get something for my bronchitis as I was worried the authorities would not let me fly if I was sick and we were flying home in 2 days. It was a very modern hospital and I didn't have to wait to see the very nice Italian speaking doctor. Luckily he could speak a little English too. He gave me a good check up, blood test, X-Ray and intravenous antibiotic. He prescribed pain killers and cough mixture. After paying 400 franks ($425 AD) we were on our way to dinner in the square with another concert. Then home to bed hoping to feel better in the morning.

Sunday 21 September

We were up early ready for ........

...our long train journey back to Zurich. It was a very comfortable train and almost empty. Everyone seems happy to be going home, especially me as I didn't feel any better. After about three and a half hours we were back in Zurich and time to say goodbye to our darling daughter. She caught a connecting train to the airport and flew back to London and her husband. It was wonderful to have her company for 15 days in such an exotic country.

Monday 22 September

We stayed over night in Zurich and filled in time waiting for take off time by sight seeing on the trams. At the airport I dosed up with pain killers, cough mixture and asthma inhaler. desperately hoping not to have a coughing fit while booking in or getting on the plane. Luckily I got on board without being identified as being unwell. Thank goodness I didn't have too many coughing episodes during the 13 hour flight to Hong Kong.

Tuesday 23 September

We arrived in Hong Kong at the same time as a category 8 typhoon. Our plane was one of the last to land before they closed the airport. Those with connections to Australia or anywhere couldn't go. Once again we were lucky as we had planned to stay overnight in Hong Kong to break the long journey home. So we were picked up by the Hotel transfer company and hurriedly made our way to the hotel. People had been told to go home and take shelter. There were hundreds at bus stops and train stations, with their umbrellas being blown inside out. The trees were bending over and we were soon in our cosy hotel. We were happy to have dinner there and go to bed.

Wednesday 24 September

The typhoon had passed but not my coughing so I stayed in bed, while Helen and Paul explored the local area. Bill found the hotel's internet corner. The plane wasn't leaving until midnight, luckily we had a late book out time at 4:00 pm.

After 4:oo we went for a walk and had dinner................

.........you can see I was a bit fuzzy.

We walked around the huge shopping complex close by. I found it a little easier to breathe in the humid air. The antibiotics weren't working and once again I was worried about being detected as a sickie and not be able to fly home tonight. At the airport I dosed myself up again and managed to suppress coughing until we were in the air. Eight hours later we were HOME.

It was one of the best adventures I have ever had, now that I'm better I only remember the great times we had.