Thursday Doors/FOTD: Schoenbrunn Palace

July 7, 2019 On our second day in Vienna (and 2nd to last day of our Grand European Tour cruise!), we visited Schönbrunn Palace. This 1,441-room palace was the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers and is a major tourist attraction in Vienna. The palace in its current form was built in the 1740s-1750s during […]

Sculpture Saturday: Open House Chicago 2019

For Mind Over Memory’s Sculpture Saturday, here are some sculptures I captured during Open House Chicago last October. Street art At Zen Buddhist Temple Sculpted steins at Dank Haus At Elks War Memorial At Wintrust Bank, Old Town

Lens-Artists #82: Capitals & Capitols

The Lens–Artists photo challenge this week has a guest host, Viveka, whose topic is capitals. On our road trips around the United States, we try to visit as many capitals as possible – not just the capital cities, but also their capitol buildings. I have a series of posts featuring some of the capitols we’ve […]

Melk Abbey and Town

July 5, 2019 Today we docked at Melk, a town on the Danube known for its abbey, which sits on a cliff overlooking the town. A bus drove us up the hill to tour the abbey. The Benedictine abbey was founded in 1089. A monastic school was established in the 12th century and the library […]

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Leading Lines

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #80 is about leading lines. Leading lines are one of the “rules” of composition: There are indeed “rules” of photographic composition, which like many other rules, are made to be broken. Whatever their skill level or experience though, understanding and knowing when to use the “rules” of composition can be helpful for […]

Thursday Doors: A Walk Through Schärding, Austria

On the 4th of July, the day we spent the morning in Passau, Germany, we opted for an afternoon tour to the small town of Schärding, Austria (population approx. 5,000). Passau and Schärding are essentially border towns. We even crossed a bridge on the Inn River that had a small metal plaque in the middle […]

January Squares 15: Sunlight on Stained Glass

Stained glass windows are pretty even from the outside, but of course, more glorious from the inside when the sunlight shines through them! The photos below were all taken at the majestic and wonderous Cathedral of Cologne, Germany. The windows there were spectacular! Becky’s January Squares, ____light

January Squares: Jerusalem Twilight

For Becky’s January Squares with the topic _____light, this is a sequence of three photos taken from a lookout (Mt. Scopus, I think) when we first arrived in Jerusalem. The sun was setting, below the horizon, so these are views of Jerusalem at twilight. The Golden Dome on Temple Mount takes center stage in this […]

January Square 8: Fancy Overhead Light

For Becky’s #JanuarySquare Day 8, here is another overhead light (specifically, a chandelier) at Musee d’Orsay in Paris, France. This was in a room called Salle des Fêtes (Reception Room). Here are a few more photos of this elegant room. I was surprised to find this in a museum of art. But I guess an […]

January Square Day 2: Overhead Lights

For Becky’s January Month of Squares with the theme __________light (words ending in “light”), here is a hanging overhead light at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo. It casts cool shadows on the ceiling too! This hotel used to be a palace, so it has lovely Arabic decor. Several months ago, I published a post with […]