maremagnum

yummy yellow Monday

2009-11-09T08:21:00.000+01:00

Mellow Yellow Monday

A quick post - but delicious, nonetheless - with a shot from last week's short visit to Lisbon.

Pastel de Nata or Pastel de Belém is a small cream tart found throughout Portugal’s pastry shops or cafés. Casa Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon was the birthplace of this creamy dessert, and there they’re called Pastel de Belém, after the name of this Lisbon’s area. Since 1837, locals have come here to get them warm out of the oven and sprinkle with the cinnamon and powdered sugar.

What the wiki says about them can be found here. And I found one recipe here

photohunt: m i l i t a r y

2009-11-06T17:46:00.004+01:00

photohunt is hosted by tnchick

The only military I am fond of: Beatles' Sargent Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band , seen earlier this week outside the MUDE – the Museum of Design and Fashion downtown Lisbon, publizising the current exhibition:" It's forbidden to forbid!" (until Jan 31st, 2010), which takes us on a journey back in time to the late 1960s and early 1970s through a presentation of around 60 exhibits interweaving design and fashion with cinema, literature and music (therefore The Beatles!) to create a rich portrait of that period.

Sorry the picture is against the sun, the back of the figures was a mirror, that explains the sun reflections on John, Ringo and Paul.. .

The museum is located on the Rua Augusta, Lisbon's main pedestrian street, which leads to the Triumphal Arch you see here and onto to the Comercio Square, in the center of the square is a statue of King Jose I showing him on horseback.

Early birds: tnchick is already up, she is early this week!!!

postcard friday: square in Lisbon

2009-11-06T08:08:00.001+01:00

Postcard Friday

The Praça Dom Pedro IV is a busy square of Lisbon. Once used as a cattle market, a public execution center, bullfight arena and carnival ground, is now a preferred meeting place of Lisbon natives and tourists alike. It was quite smoky this week as I was visiting, since the street vendors were roasting chestnuts.

In the center of the Praça is the statue of Dom Pedro IV, a Portuguese king who proclaimed Brazil independent from Portugal and became Brazil's first Emperor as Pedro I. I briefly looked at his biography and I was surprised to read that, although he only lived to be 36 years of age, he was married twice, he had 8 children...and 9 illegitimate children...

Lisbon Guide

castle

2009-11-05T07:39:00.002+01:00

Theme Thursday: c a s t l e

Castle of São Jorge overlooking Lisbon, the city where I spent the last 5 days. The castle is located atop the highest hill in the historic center of the city, its oldest parts date from the 6th century.Source.

I was trying to decide where to start blogging about Lisbon, Theme Thursday came to my rescue!

bags

2009-10-30T07:15:00.003+01:00

photohunt is hosted by tnchick

bags

- Nautical : The sagging or bulging part of a sail.

- Slang : a. To fail to attend purposely; skip: bagged classes for the day and went to the beach.
Source

I am stretching it like that just to use a picture I took last weekend (the Med after a heavy rain), which was manipulated to include a tiny Halloween goodie bag . My bags are packed as I will be gone for a very short while, leaving early on Saturday. Pls leave your direct link, specially if you have multiple blogs, I will be returning visits asap. Thank you and Happy Halloween!!

urban bat

2009-10-29T06:56:00.002+01:00

This is not a Halloween decoration but a street lamp in Barcelona's main boulevard Passeig de Gracia. The architect was Pere Falqués i Urpí and the 31 lamps integrated with benches are 103 years old. Can you spot the bat below at about 10 o'clock??

Update: although inquiring minds want to know, I cannot find the reason for the bat online...but I will keep trying!

looking down

2009-10-27T06:51:00.001+01:00

I sometimes watch my step and I look down... then I found this. There used to be a pole here of some sort, only the aggresive maritime environment caused heavy oxidation...

beach flora

2009-10-26T06:56:00.001+01:00

Macro Monday

I will formally introduce it to you once the blogosphere tells me the official names! seen last Saturday, close to the Med.

tied hearts

2009-10-23T04:24:00.007+02:00

photohunt is hosted by tnchick

traffic

2009-10-22T07:33:00.007+02:00

Theme Thursday: traffic

Tourist traffic inside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, heading to admire this amazing mosaic I first saw in my highschool art textbooks... I simply couldn't believe my eyes, I stood in front of it for long, long minutes...

(click to enlarge)

The Deësis mosaic (...) probably dates from 1261. It was commissioned to mark the end of 57 years of Roman Catholic use and the return to the Orthodox faith. It is the third panel situated in the imperial enclosure of the upper galleries. It is widely considered the finest in Hagia Sophia, because of the softness of the features, the humane expressions and the tones of the mosaic. The style is close to that of the Italian painters of the late 13th or early 14th century, such as Duccio. In this panel the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), both shown in three-quarters profile, are imploring the intercession of Christ Pantocrator for humanity on Judgment Day. The bottom part of this mosaic is badly deteriorated, probably due to rain since the mosaic is next to the windows. This mosaic is considered as the beginning of the Renaissance in Byzantine pictorial art. Source.

brought to you by the letter N

2009-10-21T06:30:00.038+02:00

ABC Wednesday : N

Notice the neat ceiliNg!

Pls click to enlarge! Another perspective from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Did I mention it is huge? there are some 4,000 little shops and it has more than 50 streets, so it is very easy to get lost. The good thing is that the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, such as pottery, jewelry, leather and carpet shops. There is much, much to see, I am glad I didn't miss the ceiling! (which wasn't always this neat!)

shopping

2009-10-20T06:30:00.012+02:00

Ruby Tuesday

At the Grand B*azaar!

blue apotropaic

2009-10-19T05:25:00.001+02:00

Blue Monday

Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye has resulted in a number of talismans in many cultures. As a class, they are called "apotropaic" (Greek for "prophylactic" or "protective", literally: "turns away") talismans, meaning that they turn away or turn back harm. Source

This is the talisman seen all over in Turkey, in all sizes, as magnets, in jewelry, all manner of decoration, you name it!

looking up

2009-10-16T15:33:00.015+02:00

photohunt is hosted by tnchick

This week's theme is a free choice....since I was in Istanbul last week my choice is a view of the Blue Mosque, a fascinating place and hard to photograph to do it justice. Pls click to enlarge for an overview of the decorations!

pink sky

2009-10-15T08:54:00.005+02:00

True Colours Thursday is hosted by Blue

This week's color is pink ...I only like this color in nature, that's why I like this shot of Istanbul at dusk (straight out of the camera). Seen last weekend.

how about some tea?

2009-10-13T07:08:00.006+02:00

Ruby Tuesday

Back from Is*tanbul, where I had many of these small glasses of tea...

Updated, because inquiring minds want to know...
- this is the traditional way to serve tea: in a tea glass placed on a saucer. The painted saucer seems to be the very traditional one, see here.
- It was black tea, very much the way I like it. I didn't find it too strong and I could drink it black (no sugar) as I always do with my teas. Turkish people always add sugar!!

A word of thanks and a short break

2009-10-08T01:57:00.028+02:00

Thank you very, very much for your kind birthday wishes - you certainly made my day!

I was busy and had no time to blog yesterday. Today isn't much different as I am flying to Istanbul for 4 days in a couple of hours. Business meetings are scheduled for next week but not for me, the early retired one: I'll return home before they begin.

Enjoy the weekend, I know I will!!

a happy day to you and happy birthday to me...!

2009-10-07T05:00:00.001+02:00

lighthouse

2009-10-06T06:00:00.016+02:00

Ruby Tuesday

Our 10-day Germany trip ended in Hamburg, where I took this picture close to the Elbe River.

from the street gallery

2009-10-05T08:40:00.003+02:00

Blue Monday * Mellow Yellow Monday

"Peace to every living being on earth, look after everything which needs life ". Painted for Lorenz, Luca, Livio, and for all children of the world, according to the bottom line. Excuse my free and unprofessional translation, poetic words are not my strength!! This is one painting - from about 100 - from the East Side Gallery in Berlin, probably the largest open air gallery of the world : After the Wall came down in 1989, hundreds of artists from all over the world gathered and transformed the eastside of the Wall that had been untouchable up to now, with their paintings, giving the Wall a new face in a new time.

It is a fascinating place and an international memorial for freedom. More on the gallery here. More images can be seen here.

photo hunt: words

2009-10-02T19:16:00.003+02:00

photohunt is hosted by tnchick

Backwards words... the glass façade of Berlin's central train station - Berlin Haupbahnhof - as seen from the inside. It is the main railway station in Germany since 2006, Europe's largest two-level railway station, and the largest crossing station in Europe: about 350,000 passengers travel through this station each day in more than 1,800 trains daily.

Photographed during our 10-day Germany trip in September, Days 6-7 in Berlin.

Click to enlarge for a view of the train station during Christmas 2006, courtesy of the wiki. More wiki info here.

Fenster

2009-10-01T08:06:00.002+02:00

(pls click to enlarge!!)

Day 5 of our 10-day trip to Germany found us visiting Erfurt and Weimar. In Erfurt we saw this newly renovated building, a red house from the 16th century Renaissance with the name Zum Breiten Herd (link in German only)- House of the Wide Stove, built in 1584. The ground floor was in fire in July 2008, that explains the house renovation. (I am always amazed about the things the net can tell us!)

Here is a closer picture of the top window and the decorations, including the Gaffköpfe (staring heads) and the figure of a servant on the very top.

And a cultural moment in which this blog shows you Goethe's home in Weimar. He lived here from 1782 until his death in 1832.

window views

Down by the riverside

2009-09-30T05:04:00.069+02:00

I took many panoramic pictures of the Moselle river, since I can't pick out just one, I included several in the collage below. The Moselle is a river flowing through France, Luxembourg and Germany.

Watery Wednesday

German towns along the Moselle River are: Trier, Bernkastel-Kues, Cochem and Koblenz. I took the above picture from the castle in Cochem.

And last, but not least, here's an expression for Jientje's "A Thousand Words in Idioms":

Sell down the river :If you sell someone down the river, you betray their trust.

ruby red custome

2009-09-29T03:46:00.072+02:00

Still on Day 3 of our 10-day Germany trip earlier this month. It was Sunday and there was a huge wine festival in Bernkastel*Kues. We were there to watch the festive parade going through the market square, which is completely surrounded by these lovely half-timbered houses, dating back partly to the 17th century.

The float from a place called Kardinalsberg (cardinal's hill) showed much ruby red, it wasn't easy to photograph as I am petite and the crowd was large!!

Ruby Tuesday

Day 3: the Moselle river

2009-09-28T06:12:00.080+02:00

Day 3 of our 10-day Germany trip in September with a rental black M*ini (it wasn't pink, Horsoon!) found us in Longuich, right by the Moselle river . This is the first picture I took of the river (click to enlarge, see the sign?? Mosel) , from the bridge during our short walk after breakfast, with vinyards in the background. And a nice statue, which I forgot to photograph more closely...

On our way to Bernkastel-Kues (next post!) we just had to stop to take a look inside the Festzelt (party tent). Little did I know I was going to find huge yellow decorations there:

Mellow Yellow Monday

The banners hanging from the ceiling displayed quotes related to wine, and wine tasting, the first one reads something like "God didn't want the good wine to go to waste, that's why he gave us thirst "...oh, well, it rhymes in German!

And we also found a cute little guy for Blue Monday.