Madrid - Front facade of a house. Even regular houses have fancy decorations.
Madrid - Another apartment building
Barcelona
Barcelona - Sagrada familia....constantly under construction since so many years!
Barcelona - buildings are decorated so well.....most have a character of their own
Barcelona - This used to be an umbrella factory....has been converted to a museum now. The structures on the wall are umbrellas!
Barcelona - Another view of the museum. Next to La Rambla
Barcelona - People dress up and perform gigs all along La Rambla
Barcelona - Edward Scissorhands!
Barcelona - Poble Espanol. Effort to recreate the feel of an authentic spanish village
Barcelona - Inside Poble Espanol...another building. It was just amazing to see the building structures. We went to see Flamenco dance here....unique experience!
Antibes - beautiful waterfront. Very scenic!
Antibes again
Antibes - view from Antibes overlooking waterfront. Bill Gates has a house close by
Antibes - has one of the few most visited ports. Lots of celebrities come in their yatchs and park here.....Al Fayed Dodi is a regular
Barcelona - Poble Espanol again
Barcelona - Inside Poble Espanol
Barcelona - Small street inside Poble Espanol
Barcelona - Gaudi's creation
Barcelona - Gaudi's another creation. These structures is on top of a building and represents knights
Barcelona - Gaudi. Represent Knights
Barcelona - Palacio Musical.....this is where a lot of shows happen.
Barcelona - Palacio Musical ......amazing interior!
Barcelona - Palacio Musical ...... really beautiful
Barcelona - Exterior of a building
Italy - Island of Burano. Village of fishermen.....each house in the village is painted in bright color. It's a unique village.
Cannes - Marylon Monroe's picture painted on a building
Cannes - the film festival was starting the day we visited. The red carpet being rolled out in the background.
Cannes - amazing energy .....one can feel the power of money here!
St. Paul De Vence - This is a inside of a 11th century hilltop village
St. Paul De Vence - It is such a small village but has been around for so long and is still in such a good shape...it's amazing!
Inside St. Paul De Vence....amazing to imagine how people must have lived here. The streets were so narrow...you could probably hear footsteps inside the houses :-)
St. Paul De Vence ...another amazing view. No wonder painters like Renior visited this place
Monaco - right outside the royal palace
Village of Burano.....This place is famous for the colourful houses and hand made Venetian Lace.
Burano.
Burano....front door of a house....I just wanted to wander in the narrow streets for a few hours and not come back!
Florence - Duomo... the 4th largest church in the world
Florence Duomo - the outside of the church is unlike any other building that I've ever seen.....this took a very loooong time to be built
Duomo....there was a huge line to get in. The inside paled in comparison to the outside ;-)
The carving close to the entrance of duomo
Florence is supposed to be the hub of artistic activity
Florence - Plazzio Vecchio. Inside the Royal palace....the ceiling was painted
Florence - Palazzo Vecchio...another room's ceiling
Florence - Palazzo Vecchio...yet another room's ceiling
I was just looking up all the time :-)
Madrid - Palacio Real.....amazing to see the ceiling of all these palaces painted with such great details...wonder how the painters did it? Did they lie on their backs up on a platform on top of a huge ladder....
Madrid - Palacio Real. what a way to spend money.....thi is just the ceilings....the walls were not any less. .....And Palace of Versailles is supposed to be so much richer than this!
Map of apna own Hindustan. Wonder if any of our kings had any maps of the western countries at that time!
My madness for ceilings continues...
Leonardo Da Vinci
This was carved right at the corner of an ordinary street
Oppsite duomo....covered with gold water. This is carved on the door panel...fine detail
Madrid - amazing exterior
Madrid - Spanish style architecture
Madrid - close to Prado
Madrid reminded me of Delhi. This place specially was very similar to Connaught Place in Delhi
Madrid - One of their main churches
Madrid - We went for the "real" bull fight
Madrid - Beginning of the Bull fight. We could not sit through the kiiling and left after 2 bulls were killed mercilessly.
This bull died very soon after I took the picture
Madrid - Palacio real
On the way from Paris to Nice in the eurorail
The route was very scenic....the traing went right next to mediterranian sea
We took these pictures from the train
Nice - Cours Saleya...hub of all sorts of restaurants
Nice - have never seen water so blue.....loved it!
Nice again
Nice - the beach does not have sand....is a pebble beach
Nice - straight out of a vacation guide :-)
Monaco - we saw only high end cars. I had not never realized that people have so much money and love to show it as well...who are these people!
Monaco - Palace
Monte Carlo - the casino is in the background
Monte Carlo Casino - Gambling and Car racing .....hmmm
Monte Carlo casino front side
Monte Carlo - fantastic place for enjoying in the middle of no where.
Florence - Duomo carvings on the door
Eiffel tower - Having seen it so many times, was still majestic
Went nuts taking pictures of Eiffel Tower
Paris - Montmartre .....inhabited now by local artists. Once you climb up, the view of the city of paris is fantastic
Paris - Montmartre. There is just this different energy in Paris
Loved this place!
Montmartre again
Paris - wandering in different areas....found this fountain
Paris - Another famous landmark NotreDame!
Notre Dame entrance details
Notre Dame
Notre Dame entrance
Notre Dame - These have been around for so many years ...and still almost intact
Inside Notre Dame
Nice - feel relaxed just looking at the picture :-)
Nice from hill top
Port of Nice.
Nice - people parasailing and having fun. All people did was chilled out on the beach during day and went to bars/restaurants in the evening....perfect vacation spot!
NIce - Cours Saleya....This place is full of eating places!
Nice - View from top of a hill close by
Nice - tried to capture a curving street from far
Nice - the amateur photographer in me
The stained glass from inside Noter Dame
Great view of Notre Dame!
Ahh.....the famous view of Notre Dame!
Paris - Etoile Arch. Napolean decorated this with carvings after his wins
Paris - Arch of Etoile is world's largest roundabout (12 roads meeting at this point)
Another view.....was reminded of India Gate!
The ceiling carved with roses....no wonder parisians are proud of their taste
Arch of Etoile
Isn't that familiar?
I was also amazed by the lamp posts everywhere.
the photographer in me
amazing to see such statues everywhere
Moulin Rouge!
Inside Louvre Museum
Artifact from Egypt .....one of the pharoahs
Ceiling fever continues....
Louvre - artifact from egypt
Louvre - artifact from egypt...have only seen these on discovery channed so far
Louvre - this is from Iran. First time ever I saw anything from Iran in any museum
This too is from Iran
More artifacts from Iran.......Lourve is the best museum of the world...it's huge!
Napolean's apartment
Outside Louvre
Louvre's common entrance under the pyramid
Boat ride in River Seine
Eiffel tower right before sunset
Eiffel tower - lighted up
Later in the night
Street sign in paris
Went for a walking tour through the streets fo paris
saw this gem on our walking tour
A regular public park in Paris
Rome - entrance door for one of the cathedrals
Rome - Inside cathedral of St. Mary of Maggiore
The dome from inside
Rome - Premier of Pirates of the Carribean - III. We waited for some stargazing
We went to our first ever Opera in Rome
Rome - Next to Colosseum...this is the Arch at the entrance of Roman forum
Roma - Roman forum ...the ruins are over 2000 years old. This the only temple structure that is still almost intact.
Roman Forum again. All the main goverment buildings were all located here. The Roman aquaducts are amazing....even in these ruins we found cold drinking water at multiple places
These 3 pillars are from before 400 BC!
Another temple structure
Lone pillar. World's first mall in the background.
Roman Forum - view from palatine (where the powerful people lived)
Roman forum in Rome - this is where Julius Cesar was assassinated
Inside Colosseum - this is just magnificent and so grand! All the stadiums are based on the blueprint of colosseum!!
Colosseum is maginificent
Colosseum again
Colosseum from outside....
Another view from outside
Trevi Fountain!!!
You'll find statues like this at street corners
Trevi during night...all lighted up! This place is always very crowded.
St. Peter's in vatican is the world's biggest church
About to enter St. Peter's
A shot of the statues on top of the church. The cross is about 15-16 feet long....looks small from the ground :-)
Ceiling inside St. Peter's...... painted in white & real gold
Dome inside St. Peter's.....richest church as well
Inside St. Peter's
A better view of the dome
Replica of one of the paintings. These are actually made of glass mosaic so that the colors don't fade over a period of time
St. Peter's......wonder how much money does the trust really have!
Marble statue....look almost real!!
The way to the crypt is from below the statue.
Names of all Popes since the first one (St. Peter's). I heard people say that when this is filled, world will come to an end .....still space from quite a few names :-)
God of Wine!!
Sistine Chapel...have never seen anything like this before
Sistine Chapel - II
Sistine Chapel - III.
Sistine Chapel - IV.....it continues.
:-)
Sistine Chapel again...the walls and ceilings in each room were extraordinary...lot's of art work from Michelangelo
Amazing art work
Oil Painting...was just mesmerizing!
Room 3 of Sistine Chapel. Wish India could maintain the historical buildings as well ...
Sistine Chapel....I saw everything through the camera lens while clicking pictures
Ceiling in one of the rooms....amazing attention to detail
Sistine Chapel continues..
More
Stained glass window in Vatican museum
over 2000 years old....the italian tiles are still intact. This is an open market where trading happened on a daily basis
View from top of a hilltop village
Eze....another hilltop village in France
Street in Eze
Venice - buildings are decorated quite well
Venice - walking through a narrow lane
Close-up
Imagine...step out of the house ..straight into a boat! That's the way of life in venice
Rialto bridge in front
Venice - Grand Canal
Parking of one of the main modes of transport....gondolas.
People have even maintained gardens....life is not that easy anyways...on top of that!
Front side of a building ... amazing efforts taken to make their houses stand out..
Same building
First 24 hr. clock I've seen. St Mark's square
St. Mark's in Venice
Gondolas parked! what a sight...people just went nuts taking pictures....me included :-)
Venice - St. Mark's ...view from Doge's palace
One of the bridges
Houses from Grand Canal
St. Mark's and Doge's palace...main spot in Venice
side street :-D
Market next to Rialto bridge. The fresh fruit was so tasty...
Narrowest street from the whole trip....people can walk in each direction but only in a line
Venice .....inside the island
Venezia..
Inside the island
Life is not really easy here. Even Bicycles are not allowed on the island....walk or take the boat!
Roman forum - first mall of the world
Rome - in one of the main squares
Rome - Pantheon....the beam of light is so distinct
Rome - another church close to pantheon
Pantheon
Pantheon again
