Thursday, December 31, 2015

Afternoon in Nuremberg

We arrived early afternoon in Nuremberg and walked into town to sample this Medieval City. It has many bridges and squares and some of these still had Christmas Markets. The modern sculpture, Ship of Fools, by Jurgen Weber in 1987 appealed to me for its inscription making an appeal against environmental destruction, war and violence. The sculpture is based on Albrecht Dürer's woodcut illustrating the 1497 edition of Das Narrenschiff by Sebastian Brant. It depicts a boat - a nutshell with two fools masks at front and rear - as a metaphor for the threatened world. After visiting a couple of churches we walked up to the Castle and took in the view over the city including the semicircular Congress Hall - never fully completed as part of the Nazi Rally Ground area -now a museum.






Vienna Day Part 3

This last post from Vienna shows images from around the Hofberg Palace and St Stephans Square as night comes and with it fog. My favourite was the first image taken of a lady who had lost her dog (we eventually found it) taken with a 12mm Samyang Fisheye which is sharp centrally but falls off a bit at the edges giving a great effect for night photography. I loved the way in images 6 and 7 the colour palette matches so well - everyone in red or yellow - no green or blue to spoil the harmony. Next stop Nurembourg for one night then a short break midjourney in Cologne and home.


Vienna Day Part 2

We got to the Parliament Building in time for a few shots of the very ornate statues before the sun started to set. Next was the Rathaus and the Hofberg Theatre - you can see from the clock on the tower that the shots cover 30 mins - in that time it went from daylight to dusk and gave some great opportunities as the lights came on always a shame it doesn't last longer. More dusk shots to follow in part 3. (We are now back in the UK so will attempt to complete the tour photos in the next day or two!)



 

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Vienna Day Part 1

The day started foggy abut the sun soon broke through to give a clear sunny and relatively mild day. We went straight by U-bahn to Prata - their main entertainment area with the big wheel. We then walked back into the City to St Stephan's Cathedral. We very much enjoyed a trip to Stadt Park with all the statues including Johann Strauss and Beethoven. We travelled by train to Schonbrunn Palace - this was too crowded for us but a few snaps before walking back into the City past the Technisches Museum and a welcome lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant!