This may not be as realistic as the trompe l’oeil building we saw in Poznan, but it’s very welcoming! Ce n’est peut-être aussi réaliste que le bâtiment trompe l’oeil que nous avons vu à Poznan mais c’est très accueillant !
Author Archives: avril
Postcard #26 – Miltenberg, Germany
After a six-hour drive from Görlitz yesterday, we were delighted to be cycling along the Main River in the evening but we were not expecting the sheer beauty of the little town of Miltenberg, which is given two lines in one of our guidebooks and not even mentioned in the others! My favourite house is below. This …
Postcard #25 – Baroque & Renaissance Doorways in Görlitz
Görlitz has a surprising number of very beautiful baroque and Renaissance doorways. The first is the most richly sculpted while the second is the most popular among tourists. It was discovered quite fortuitously in the 20th century that someone standing on the left of the arch could hear quite plainly what was being whispered by …
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Postcard #24 – Görlitz
Gorlitz is on the German-Polish border. This is taken from the Polish side looking forwards the German side. The Polish town is called Zgorzelec but is very different. The second picture is my favourite building in Gorlitz, built in 1550, with its two sundials. It used to be the Ratsapoteke or Town Hall Pharmacy, but …
Postcard #23 – Churches of Peace in Swidnica and Jawor
I did not post a photo yesterday because my server was down which was frustrating because we visited one of the most extraordinary churches I have ever seen – not the outside, which was not particularly impressive, but the inside. Unfortunately, there is a lot of lighting which does not make it easy to take photos; …
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Postcard #22 – The Panorama, Wroclaw
The Panorama, measuring 15 x 114 metres and executed by a group of painters headed by Jan Styka, was originally presented in Lviv in a special round building in 1894. Depicting the Battle of Raclawice, it was taken to Wroclaw after World War II but the subject was considered too patriotic by the Soviets and …
Postcard #21 – Rural houses in Poland
When cycling around the Polish countryside, we’ve seen a lot of old timber houses but the roofs are always fibre cement, flat iron and occasionally currugated iron which obviously can’t be the original material. Today we visited a very interesting outdoor museum near Opole on our way from Krakow to Wroclaw and we were able …
Postcard #20 – The Barbican, Kraków
The photo I would have liked to post today was not possible. We visited Wawel Castle which has the most extraordinary stamped and dyed leather-covered walls but unfortunately no photos are allowed and we were under close surveillance. The barbican above, built in 1498, is just outside what remains of the city walls which were …
Postcard #19 – Krakow
Unlike Warsaw and despite the terrible extermination of 200,000 Jews who were confined to a ghetto, Krakow remained relatively undamaged at the end of World War II, sparing most of the city’s historical and architectural legacy. Above is the Renaissance Cloth Hall in the main Market Square, and below, Wawel Castle, which we intend to …
Postcard #18 – Lancut Castle
Today we stopped off in Lancut on our way from Zamosc to Krakov and I fell in love with this extraordinary castle. It’s nothing special from the outside but the inside is amazing. My photographs do not do it justice. We have seen so many castles in the last 20 years that we’ve become a …