Sint Maarten/Saint Martin and Anguilla Islands

Saint Martin is located in the eastern Caribbean.

Saint Martin is split between two nations, France and the Netherlands. We also did one day trip to the island of Anguilla, which belongs to the United Kingdom.

Marigot is the largest town on the French side of Saint Martin.

Houses of Saint Martin.

Anguilla island

The beaches on Anguilla are spectacular, without a doubt the best white sand beaches I have ever been to. The water temperature was perfect, not too cold, not too warm either. Because we visited at the beginning of the winter high season, the beaches were empty.

Prague, Czech Republic (2013)

Charles bridge with the Prague Castle in the background.

My twelve day European trip started in Prague. I have been to Prague before but this time around was my first time visiting in early Spring, only to be welcomed with one of the coldest Spring in record! It was below freezing point when my plane landed around 10pm.

Prague is an amazing city to visit. The old town is small enough that you can walk quite easily to most tourist attractions. The route from the Old Town through Charles Bridge and up the hill towards Prague Castle is probably the best route to both experience and get a feel of what the city has to offer. The old town still has a medieval feel to it with winding and very narrow streets, and once you get to the Prague Castle, looking back towards the city offers spectacular views.

View of the city from Prague Castle. Note Charles Bridge and one of the gates to the old town.

Entrance to Prague Castle.

On day #2 I started my day with a tour of the Prague Castle, one of the top attractions in the city. The castle dates back from the 9th century and it has since been the residence to all Czech rulers including Kings and present day presidents. Note the guards at the entrance, there is a changing of the guards at noon everyday.

St Vitus Cathedral, with its pointy spires.

Inside the fortress is the massive St Vitus Cathedral, along with the Old Royal Palace, Royal Garden, and the Picture Gallery.

Inside St Vitus Cathedral.

Inside St Vitus Cathedral.

John Lennon Wall.

As I was making my way to the city from the castle I stumbled upon this wall filled with graffiti. It supposed to be a symbol of peace and love, inspired by John Lennon. The wall has been painted over several times only to be re-fill again with graffiti.

Charles bridge connects Prague Castle with the Old Town.

Charles Bridge.

The saintly statues that line Charles Bridge are copies of the originals (most of which are housed inside the National Museum).

Half way through Charles Bridge there's the statue of St John of Nepomuk. It's said that touching it will bring you good luck. This explains why it's so shinny!

Also in this bridge only steps away from the statue of St John you will find this. It's now filled with love-locks.

Old town bridge tower, one of the gates to the Charles Bridge.

Prague's Old Square.

Old Square with Tyn Church and the Astronomical Clock.

Astronomical clock.  

 The Astronomical Clock was built in 1490 and it still ticking! Huge crowds gather around it to see the chiming of the hour with the Twelve Apostles passing by the window above the astronomical dial. I have actually seen it playing and it's not that impressive...

Eastern market at the Old Town Square.

On day #3, I spent the morning visiting the Strahov Monastery. Apart from having excellent views over Prague, the monastery main draw is the baroque Strahov Library. Not far from the monastery is the Miniature Museum, which offers a collection of miniature artworks, who can only be enjoyed by looking through a microscope! In the afternoon I spent my time visiting the Stenberg Palace, which offers a collection of 14th - 18th century European art (Goya, Rubens, Rembrandt).

View of Prague from the Strahov monastery.

Strahov Library. Photo taken from[2].

Wenceslas Square.

In the evening I was meeting with my friend Kamila. Kamila and I met in Italy during a summer camp in Lovere, in the Lombardy region in northern Italy. Our point of meeting was Wenceslas Square (picture above). This massive square dates from the 14th century. Throughout the years it has been the place for big public announcements (such as the founding of the independent Republic of Czechoslakia, 1918) and or demonstrations. 

 On day #4, I spent all morning visiting the Jewish Quarter in Prague. This place used to be a Jewish ghetto. The site now has the very popular Jewish Museum, which is composed of the Jewish cemetery and several synagogues. In total there are 6 important Jewish sites. I read that this museum is the most visited in the city.

Jewish Museum

Jewish cemetery.

In the afternoon, I then made my way to yet another museum of art, this time the Swarzenberg Palace.

To conclude this photo essay, I will leave you with more photos of the city of Prague and the historic center taken from atop the Old Town Hall Tower.

References:

1. Pocket Prague. Lonely Planet, 2012.
2. Photo of the Strahov Library taken from here.

Tuscany and Florence

I arrived in Rome from Prague. This was my second visit to Rome, and thus I only spent about 2 full days in the city. I was staying at a hotel walking distance from the Rome Termini station. The train into Florence took about 2 hours. After my stay in Florence I took another train into Milan and from there, a short flight into Germany and from there back to the states. I remember arriving close to 10PM at the train terminal in Milan (Milano Centrale), it was drizzling (early Spring is the rainy season), and I had forgotten to print out a map of where the hotel was. I remember thinking, how could it be this hard to find if when I booked it online it looked a block or two away from the station. After wandering around with my heavy backpack I decided to stop at a hotel and asked for directions, sure enough, the hotel was a block away from the train station, I had just gone a bit too far. I remember having to wake up around 4:30AM in order to catch my train to the airport, it was about 45min ride, and I had to take an early flight to Germany. It all went smoothly and I didn't loose my flight.

Tuscany - land of rolling hills with Cypress trees and vineyards against yellow fields. That was my preconceived idea of the Tuscan region. Since it was still winter time, the landscape was rather greenish as this was still the wet season. About the city of Florence itself, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't have much time to prepare for this trip so upon arrival in Rome I bought the DK Travel Guide for Florence & Tuscany. I still used Google to narrow down the major points of interests and with the help of the guide I could find out more about the sites.

My train from Rome arrived at about 9:00am. I stayed at the Florence Rooms B&B, which was located within a block from the main train station. The guy at the hotel spoke Spanish with a Mexican accent. He was really friendly and let me check-in a couple of hours before the official check-in time, which was nice as I had expected to wait till noon as the previous hotel in Rome did already. The room included WiFi as an amenity but the signal was too weak for it to be useful.

Basilica di San Lorenzo

My first stop was the Basilica di San Lorenzo. What's so important about this is that this was the parish Church of the Medici family, a very powerful family that controlled the city during the 15th century. The family helped financed much of the construction and it's considered a milestone in the development of the Renaissance architecture. Both Brunelleschi and Michelangelo worked on this building. The Medici Tombs were built by Michelangelo and they are on display inside the Church.

Duomo.

Not too far from San Lorenzo I came across the Duomo or cathedral of Florence. The building itself is massive and the walls are actually in white, green and pink Tuscan marble. I learned that one of the key achievement that sparked the Renaissance itself was the construction of the Dome itself. Because of the scale of the building it required to build the largest Dome ever built without scaffolding. The Medici family supported Brunelleschi financially so that he could work on the solution of one of the biggest problems in architecture at the time. There are about 463 steps to the top, and as you climb it, one can see an inner shell that provides support to the the outer shell. I also learned that Brunelleschi used the Pantheon in Rome as reference.

Entrance to the Duomo.
.

Inside the Duomo.

Frescoes inside the Duomo.

After visiting the Duomo I made my way down to the Piazza della Signoria. This is probably the best Piazza or Square that I have ever seen, and what makes it unique is the display of outdoor sculptures gallery in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace or Town hall).

Piazza della Signoria with Neptune Fountain in the foreground.

Neptune Fountain (1575).

The Neptune statue is supposed to have water running through it however, I over heard a local explaining to a group that ever since the flooding of 1966 fountains are no longer running water as that would remind the people of that event! (I am not sure if that story is true)...

David by Michelangelo. The original was
 moved into the Accademia.

Perseus holding Medussa's head (1554).

Rape of the Sabine Women (1583).

Palazzo Vechio (1322). If you look closer
you can see the statues.

A word or two about Renaissance art, which is what most people think about this period. The artistic revolution started in Tuscany from the 15th century onwards (Donatello, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, etc). Often, artists were supported by wealthy and cultured patrons such as the Medici. Inspired by Roman art, artists brought a rebirth to their work. They started using hot colors, elongated forms and deliberately contorted poses (often very complicated poses). They also mastered how to apply the math of linear perspective to create the illusion of spatial depth. I also learned that most art masters have apprentices working for them. So, for a big project that would cover an entire wall, the master artist would concentrate on the most difficult areas (usually face expressions, and poses) and the apprentice would concentrate on the background or easier tasks. I wish I had taken better samples but these two are the best examples I have.

During my second day I scheduled one of their tour of Tuscany on a vespa. I already knew that I wanted to do one of the tours (most likely on a van I thought), so when I saw that they also had the Vespa tour I quickly jumped in. The group was quite big about 14 others, mostly from the US but there was a group from Australia as well. Below are some of the pictures that I took during the tour. The tour itself lasted about 5 hours, lunch included (we visited a local winery and we had 2 wine tasting there).

References:

1. DK Eyewitness Travel. Florence & Tuscany. 2011.