NYC By Night

Traffic rushing past the Times Square Subway, and the lights of 42nd Street

One thing about New York, I wouldn’t want their electricity bill… The neon lights that make the city so spectacular by night must be expensive to run.

Views down 42nd Street

I ended my first day in New York by going up the famous Empire State Building. The entry to the building is a little deceiving. You need to queue a total of four times to get up to the top (well the 86th floor anyhow) – first to go through the security check, secondly to buy a ticket, thirdly for the lift. And when you think that you’re about to get out at the top, at the 80th floor, you get out of the main lift, and need to queue again for the lift to the observatory. Crazy stuff… The view, however is worth it. Difficult to capture the view with a camera (I was a little scared of dropping it – I had a feeling that my camera wouldn’t survive a fall from the top of NY’s tallest building) but it’s such an awesome sight, the view out over the five boroughs and lights as far as you can see.

The Chrysler Building and Times Square from the Empire State Building

After descending the building, I wandered up through Times Square. From above, the Square glows from thousands of advertisements, cars, theatres and restaurants. It’s not so much as square as a parade of lights, stretching for a few blocks. Times Square on a Saturday night was filled with people, out and about – so many that the crowd stretched from the sidewalk onto the first lane of traffic – which was largely closed off to vehicles by the traffic police. No special event, just an ordinary Saturday night in summer.

Hersheys at Times Square, and bank advertising

Mosaic in the Times Square Subway station

Churros in the capital

Amor on the Paseo del Prado

The last stop on the Spanish agenda was Madrid - the capital, and almost bang smack in the centre of the country, on the plains known as the meseta. Madrid is a fairly large city, around 3.5 million or so, and originally was made the capital, as the King at the time feared the power of the church in Toledo, which was the more obvious choice for a capital.

Left: Palacio Real, Madrid. Right: Palacio Real, Aranjuez

Lavender in bloom in Aranjuez

During the time we had in Madrid, we visited the Palacio Real, an ornate Royal Palace, the Palacio Real and gardens of Aranjuez. There is a piece of music, Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo which I have always enjoyed, and I was pleased that visiting the place gave me the same feeling as the music, a place of calm and retreat. We hardly saw another soul while we were there (admittedly during siesta time).

Posing with the suit of Armour at Toledo's railway station, and Puente del Alcántara

We also visited Toledo, which is known as the Imperial City. You see much of the Moorish influence in Toledo, while at the same time, a city recognisable by the Vatican as the seat of the church in Spain. The cathedral in Toledo has a great collection of artworks, particularly by El Greco as well as many other treasures. We also visited the famous El Greco work, El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz (The Burial of the Count of Orgaz) in the Iglesia de Santo Tomé and the Mezquita de Cristo de la Luz, a mosque that was later converted into a church with some nice frescos. We finished our trip to Toledo waiting in one of the most impressive railway stations I've been to (even compared to the Russian metro!!).

Interior of the railway station - tiling and stained glass windows

Back in Madrid, we visited the Monasterio de la Dezcartas, sponsored by a rich Austrian and her friends at the time of the Habsburgs in Spain where I managed to understand much of the Spanish language tour, surprisingly. I also had some time to visit the Museo del Prado, a world class museum of art (which has, as one of the highlights, Velazquez's Las Meninas. While we were in Barcelona, we got to see Picasso's work of the same name).

I think that our already late eating times got later still in Madrid... Nothing like waiting till 10 or 11pm for dinner... and on one night, we even followed with late night churros and chocolate, a Madrid must. Yum!

Late night churros and chocolate at the Chocolatería San Ginés,

and an artist replicating the works of the Museo del Prado

Vienna - Home of Rex

The Riesenrad at the Prater - a site often featured in Kommissar Rex!

I visited Vienna over a couple of days before Christmas.

This was my second trip to Vienna, one of my favourite cities in Europe. Vienna is such a beautiful, cultural and cosmopolitan city... and also the home of one of my favourite TV shows, Inspector Rex (or Kommissar Rex) - I even have a personalised 'paw print' from one of the Rex dogs, and am responsible for getting my whole family into this show.

Left, Votivskirche and right, Stephansdom

I have many things that I love about Vienna... This time I met up with a friend who took me to one of the oldest restaurants in Vienna, where we had a lovely traditional Austrian meal. I was also lucky enough that my good friend Bindu, was travelling through Vienna with her husband, so I got to spend some time with them as well. I did quite a bit in my couple of days there - I went to the Schoenbrunn Zoo, wandered around the grounds of the Schoenbrunn palace, visited the Prater - one of Moser and Rex's hangouts (unfortunately I didn't run into them that day...). I also visited Stephansdom and Votivkirche, the cemetary with memorials to the likes of Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Brahms, and almost got blown into the Danube.

Bindu at the Danube, and Schoenbrunn Palace

Bindu and I also had fun roaming through the Christmas markets, and I also got to do a spot of shopping...

Bindu and I - rugged up for the snow and rain

Can't wait to go back again - Vienna is such a great place!

The Riesenrad of the Prater, and the Burgtheater

Hotel Sacher - home of the delicious and chocolatey Sacher Torte

The hills are alive... in Salzburg!

On my trip through to Vienna, I dropped into Salzburg for a couple of hours. I have visited Salzburg once before, in the middle of summer, so it was great to see it covered in snow. There is no subtlety to the seasons in this part of the world.

The view over Salzburg old town from the Hohensalzburg fortress

During my time in this pretty little city, I took the walk to the Hohensalzburg fortress, as can be seen on the top of the hill in the photo below, wandered the Christmas markets, visited the Salzburg Dom, and wandered through the frozen Mirabel gardens (of Sound of Music fame...)

The tourism bureau of Salzburg seems to push two angles prominantly - the home of the Sound of Music, and the home of Mozart. The Mozart angle is particularly amusing, as he spent much of his life in Vienna, and was not really made "at home" in Salzburg. Still the city seems to love him now, right down to the shop windows full of Mozart kugeln (Mozart balls - a chocolate made with marzipan) to Mozartplatz, with a statue of the man himself in the centre, and decked out with an ice-rink for the winter. Whatever the reason, Salzburg is a great city, a beautiful setting, and charming gardens and shops.

The Mirabell gardens, at the moment completely frozen over with a heavy layer of snow. Probably not the best time to run around singing "The hills are alive..."

The Salzburger Dom roof, and the view from the pathway up to the fortress

Here I am climbing the hill to the Hohensalzburg fortress, and two others doing the same

The view along the Salzach river