Happy Hearts

Here's to the strong hearts of people all over the world who are helping others live better lives. May kindness prevail!

These photos were taken at this cute shop in the heart of Vienna; I think the sign reads, "Die Vermischte Warenhandlung," which, according to Google Translate, means, "Mixed were the treatment" or "The Miscellaneous Goods Act" or "The Mixed General Store," depending on how you capitalize the words. No matter how you mix or translate it, I wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day!

The Sounds of Pisa's Baptistry

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower for the Duomo (cathedral) and on the other side of the Duomo stands the also-leaning Baptistry of St. John. The Italians, design-oriented as they are, managed to fly in color-coordinated pigeons to model for tourist photo-shoots (I think this is part of the Duomo, but I can't really remember):

The baptistry is Italy's largest and many of its mosaics are best seen from the balcony:

I marvel at the skill of the persons who designed, carved and did the mosaic-work on this panel:

The arches and balcony of the baptistry hold a secret:

They do not interfere with the magnificent resonance of the building, and perhaps even enable the sounds to swirl around. The guide demonstrated (please excuse my broken camera; it seems to have the hiccups):

Look, Lean but Don't Linger by the Bells

So, back in Italy, here's the iconic image of Pisa's Leaning Tower which, by the way, is open again after being closed for renovation and stabilization for eleven years. It takes some doing to get this photograph as you have to wind your way around nearly every tourist taking photos of each other, arms outstretched...

"holding" the structure up:

The tower is the bell tower for the adjacent cathedral and baptistry:

The white marble tower, Torre Pendente di Pisa, was built over 177 years and was restored to a safer tilt from 1990 to 2001 by digging soil out from underneath the high side.

Beautiful accents:

I thought you might like to see the tower's lovely, worn steps. They were definitely easier to climb in some places than others, presumably the assistance of gravity as you climb toward the low side makes the difference. It's amazing to think of the many people, rich, poor, famous and not who have climbed these narrow steps, among them Galileo and Mark Twain.

A lower balcony provides a nice view, a good chance to catch your breath, and a place to let the descending visitors pass:

The cathedral and baptistry are next to the tower:

A view of Pisa from the top:

I heard an announcement being made over a loudspeaker but could not hear what was being said. It was being repeated in different languages so I thought I'd move toward the center of the tower to hear better and maybe understand a word or two. Then, just as I was standing this close to the bell, straining to hear the announcement, I figured out what the speaker must have said: "If you're smart, you'll move away from the bells because they are about to strike noon." CLANG, CLANG, CLANG....

Pisa's Rare Illuminated Manuscripts

It's easy to associate Pisa, Italy with its famous leaning tower. However, did you know that in the Middle Ages Pisa was the leading center for illuminated manuscripts? Adjacent to the tower, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo holds these rare and beautifully detailed pages, many of them religious hymns:

Please click on this photo to see the amazing fine detail around the letter; I suppose today we'd call it doodling:

Real gold was used for decoration:

There's a Mountain Out There!!

Vienna sits in a geological basin in far eastern Austria, and gray, cloudy skies are common from November through March. Yesterday was an unusually warm and beautiful day with glorious clear blue skies. As I headed for the U-Bahn from the Vienna International Center, I noticed something I had never, ever seen from anywhere in Vienna during the past 4-plus years of living here. Is that a MOUNTAIN???

No...surely I would have noticed a mountain before! Maybe it's like some desert mirage that vanishes as you approach. Walking closer and putting my little camera on full zoom, it appears that there really is a mountain that I suppose is at least sometimes visible from Vienna. Perhaps one has to be in the right place at the right time to see it. I'm guessing it's Schneeberg, the largest mountain near Vienna, and I feel very lucky to have seen it. That's the St. Francis of Assisi Church in the foreground with the Riesenrad ferris wheel to the side.

Biking and Strolling Along the Ring

Lined with palaces, museums and chic coffee houses, Vienna's Ringstrasse, with its multiple rows of trees, pedestrian and bike paths in addition to its tram tracks and roadway, is one of Europe's grandest boulevards. This was taken on a recent, hazy afternoon near Stadtpark.

Riesenrad Night

Vienna's giant ferris wheel, the Riesenrad, built in 1897 and rebuilt after sustaining considerable WWII damage, is one of Vienna's cherished landmarks and an important part of the Vienna skyline. Its large, enclosed, wooden cars can hold twelve persons and can be rented out for special dinner parties. We walked through the Prater, the park where the Riesenrad is located, one recent evening.

Chairs at a nearby cafe were reminiscent of the Riesenrad: