Dresden, Germany : reclaiming its past glory

Dresden is the capital city of the Saxony state in Germany.  It was a major cultural, economical and political center in Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe.  However, it suffered its deadly destruction before end of the Second World War.  The city was nearly levered off by the bombings of the Alliance air force.  After the Second World War, Dresden became part of East Germany. 

The city reconstruction works took half a century.  With the unification of Germany, Dresden has gradually reclaimed its past glory.  The city has rebuilt its economic and cultural importance.  Major historical landmarks have been reconstructed with great efforts.  You can feel the proud of the citizens who have made this happened.

Dresden Fraudenkirche (the Church of Our Lady), a Lutheran church built in the 18th century, is one of the city landmarks.  The church was destroyed by the bombings with only the status of Martin Luther remained.  After half a century, the church was reconstructed to its original form with parts of its remaining sandstones.

(Status of Martin Luther standing in front of the reconstructed Frauenkirche)

(Baroque style pipe organ restored in the church)

You can see status of Frederick August I around the city.  He was Saxony's Prince-Elector and developed Dresden to one of the major European cities in the 18th century.  He later reconverted to Roman Catholic and became King of Poland.  That is why you will find Kutholische Hofkirche (the Church of the Royal Court of Saxony) a Roman Catholic cathedral.  It is just within walking distance from Frauenkirche.

(Many beautiful paintings are kept inside the Kutholische Hofkirche)

(Kutholische Hofkirche has one of the largest pipe organ)

The Semperoper (the Opera House) is another beautiful architecture restored to its former glory. 

(Semperoper is still the best opera house in Dresden)

The Furstenzug (the Procession of the Princes) was lucky enough to escape the destruction of bombings in the Second World War.  It is one of the largest porcelain artworks.  Princes of the Saxony were shown in the 103 meter x 9.5 meter wall of porcelain tiles.

(Beginning part of the Furstenzug)

Dresden is located nearby the German Alps region.  It is one of green cities in Europe.  Within an hour ride, you can reach the green forests.  You can see the beautiful River Elbe flowing through Dresden and its suburb area.

Bled, Slovenia : a beautiful resort town

Bled is a small town in the Northwest of Julian Alps in Slovenia, bordering Austria.  The town develops around the beautiful glacier lake, Bled Lake.  It has been a resort for the European nobles and riches in the past two centuries.  It is still one of the major tourist spots for Slovenia. 

This fall, my wife and I had opportunity visiting this lovely place. 
We had lunch in the Bled Castle while enjoying the picturesque scenery of the Bled Lake.  There is a small island in the lake.  People can take a short boat ride to the island and visit the church there.  A few resort hotels are built along the lake with many other private resort houses around.

(Slow moving rowing boat in the Bled Castle below the Bled Castle) 

(Rowing boat is the only mean of transportation to the church in the island of the Bled Lake)

(Resort house along the Bled Lake)

(White swam swimming leisurely in the lake)

We enjoyed our leisure walk along the lake shore.  Then, we settled down in the hotel cafe for the afternoon tea and Kremsnita (a local favourite pastry).  We could see swam and duck swimming in the crystal clear lake.  There were also people practising rowing in the lake.  Four world rowing champions were held here in Bled.

(Resort hotel along the lake shore)

(Rowing boat cutting through the calm water surface)

Slovenia is one of the small EU countries with about two million population.  With its close economic and social tie to the former Austrian empire, Slovenia is better developed than other Balkan countries.  The French car marker, Renault, has a plant in Slovenia. You can find Renault cars everywhere in the country.  Automative export to EU forms an important part of the Slovenia economy.

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia : beyond the beautiful natural scenery

The first sight of the Plitvice Lakes National Park was beautiful and peaceful.  Layers of water moisture from early morning rain partially covered up the forests around the lakes.  When we walked along the wooden path on the lake shore, we felt that we were inside a picturesque paradise.

The Plitvice Lakes National Park covers about 300 square meters of natural forests, waterfalls and 16 lakes.  The park sits on the limestone area and forms the unique karst landscape. 

(Sign board at the entrance to the national park)

The 12 upper lakes are bigger in size and the 4 lower lakes are more picturesque.  The river Plitvica flows into the water system and creates the lake water fall (Veliki Slap).  Dissolved calcium carbonate turns water into milky white and forms the tufa sedimentation in the lower lakes.  With abundant water around, flora and fauna grow densely around the lakes and hill slopes.  There are many trouts in the lakes with ducks swimming around. 

(The lake water fall, Veliki Slap)

(Plants growing in the waterfall)

(Trouts swimming in the lake)

(Calcium carbonate precipitation on the surfaces of fallen tree trucks turned them into marble white)

The Plitvice Lakes National Park was recognized as a world heritage by the UNESCO early in 1949.  Each year, it attracts hundreds of thousand visitors to see its natural beauty.  It is now one of the major tourist destinations in Croatia and Eastern Europe.  Tourism business is important to the local economy.

If you look at the map, you will find the Plitvice Lakes are in vicinity to Bosnia-Herzegovina.  They are separated by few steep mountains.  

Before arriving the national park, we came through several villages along the road.  Many village houses were covered with bullet holes.  Few empty houses were lying idle among the villages.  Suddenly, this reminded us the bitter Balkan wars in the Ottoman - Hapsburg history and modern time.  The last crash just took place twenty years ago.  Local Serbs attempted to clean out their fellow Croats.  Ethnic fighting had brought great hardship to the local communities and made damages to the national park.  The national park was able to recover its glory just ten years ago.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin : museum management challenges

This fall, my wife and I were in Berlin.  We took this opportunity to visit the Pergamon Museum in the Berlin Museum Island. 

(Exterior of the Pergamon Museum)

One of the major exhibits in the Pergamon Museum is the Pergamon Altar, which is also called the Zeus Altar.  The altar was presented as quasi reconstruction from the rubbles unearthed in Pergamon of north eastern Turkey. This unveils master pieces of Hellenic art to the modern world.  Pictures of the altar and its marble sculptures appear in many many books on ancient Greek mythology, art and architecture.

(Visitors seeing the quasi reconstructed Zeus Altar inside the museum)

The altar is decorated with beautiful marble statues featuring the battle of the Greek gods and the Titans.  Visitors can watch these statues and recall the interesting Greek myths of Zeus, Athena, Venus, Cupid and other Greek gods and giants.  These are very fine examples of the Greek art.



The altar was first unearthed by a German engineer, Carl Humann, in Turkey about 150 years ago.  It was then brought back to Berlin.  Historically, this represented the rise of the Prussian power in the nineteenth century.  It is interested to note that the altar was taken by the Russians after the defect of Germany in the second world war.   The altar was returned to Berlin after absence for ten years.

We had been to Pergamon last year.  Obviously, the Pergamon Altar was missed there.  Instead, we were much impressed by its hillside theatre.  If the altar was restored on site, the impact would be much greater.

(Ruins of the original site of the Pergamon Altar)



(The Pergamon theatre can host thousands of spectators)

The Pergamon Museum also has many treasured historical artifacts of the Ancient Near East, including the famous Ashtar gate of ancient Babylon.  Similarly, Germans excavated the historical ruins in Irag a century ago and then quasi reconstructed them in Berlin. 

(Part of the Ashtar Gate)

(Reconstructed wall with its original bricks)

(Imaginary creature only found in Babylon - animal with snake head)

The collections of the Pergamon Museum are very impressive and of great historical values.  However, it still face many common museum management challenges.  It is an academic debate that whether such quasi reconstructions properly reflect their original forms.  These artifacts could be more meaningfully displayed in their original sites.  The legitimacy of the foreign hosts keeping these artifacts.

Tolo harbour, Hong Kong : hidden beauty of the colony

Hong Kong is better known as a great place for shopping and dinning.  Visitors coming to Hong Kong spend most of their time in the city areas.  Many of them see its beautiful Victoria Harbour and laser light show at night.  Not many of them venture out to see its country side.  In fact, Hong Kong has many more scenic places outside the city. 

We have recently experienced an enjoyable boat tour in the Tolo Harbour which is in the Northeast of Hong Kong. The boat tour starts from the pier near the Chinese University of Hong Kong. There are regular ferry services to outer islands through the Tolo Channel.  A round trip tour takes about 3 hours. You can enjoy the boat tour in leisure and watch the beautiful scenery along the way. 


(Ferry for the harbour tour)

(Natural beach along the harbour)

Accordingly to historical records, Tolo Harbour had pearl farms during the Ming Dynasty.  It was also the sea route for Chinese pottery export to Southeast Asia.  Except the two new towns, Shatin and Tai Po, the Tolo Harbour has kept its natural beauty mostly unchanged.

There is a national geopark in the Eastern side of the Tolo Channel. Here you can see the oldest rocks in Hong Kong.  Red sedimentary rocks were deformed due to earth movement.  With years of erosion, these rocks formed many different and interesting shapes.  

(Devils' fist in Bluff Head)

(Red beds landscape in Port Island)

Going further East, you will reach the Eastern most island in Hong Kong, Tung Ping Chau.  It means flat island in the East.  The island was formed by sedimentary rocks. The whole island is flat at about 100 meters about sea level. Besides interesting rock structures, there are many butterflies in the island.  Walking around the whole island will take about 2 hours.

(Siltstone in Lung Lok Shui, Tung Ping Chau)

(Abrasion canyon in the island)

(Stone watch tower, Kang Lau Shek, in the island)

Next time when you visit Hong Kong, you should reserve half a day for the Tolo Harbour tour.  You can then see different faces of Hong Kong.  If you are interested to know more about the geopark, you can look up http://www.geopark.gov.hk/.

Long White Mountain, Manchuria : in the border of North Korea and China

Long White Mountain, or White Mountain as called by locals, stands in the north-west border of North Korea and China.  The mountain is in fact a sleeping volcano.  The last eruption took place less than three hundred years ago.  The mountain is about 2,750 meters high.  Moisture from the Pacific Ocean turns the mountain top white with snow except the summer months.  We had run into a snow storm when we visited it in late May this year.

(Entrance gate to the Long White Mountain)

(Pine trees and silver birch covered by snow)

(Snow capped mountain top - with hexagon shaped rocks)

The White Mountain is a holy place for both Koreans and Manchurians. In their legend, their gods lived in the mountain. Their ancestors settled around the mountain long time ago.  During our trip, we saw many tourists from South Korea.  Few of them even prayed to the mountain. 

(Hanging snow cliff in the mountain top)

(Hot spring along the water stream)

(Beautiful water stream with snow covered rocks)

The Long White Mountain is rich in vegetation.  According to Roy Lancester, there are more species of vegetation in the Long White Mountain than those in the British Isles. (Lancaster, Roy. Plantsman’s paradise: travels in China. Suffolk, UK: Garden Art Press, 2008.) 

Ginseng is one of the well-known Chinese herb from this area.  Many local villagers sell ginseng and local herbs near tourist hotels. We were delighted to see few flowers already blooming in the early Spring.  They grew beautifully near the pine tree forest.  We saw them during our leisure morning walk through the forest.

(Beautiful pine trees and blue sky)

(Undergrows ready to bloom)

(Beautiful blow flower blooming under the sun)

Ontario and Quebec, Canada : leisure drive in the country side

Canada is our second home.  We have revisited this lovely country at least once every year in the past twenty years.  In particular, we like to drive through the country side in leisure.  This summer, we revisited Ontario and Quebec.  Beside seeing our families and friends there, we also revisited their beautiful country side.  Here we just pick a few photos for your viewing.  You may have already been there or you will like to visit there in the future.

Alqonquin Provincial Park in Ontario is one of the popular summer resort areas. It is a great place for camping, canoeing, watching wild lives or leisure walks in the wood. You can visit the Park in different seasons and see the colour changes in the nature.



(Ready for canoeing in the Canoe Lake near the West Gate of Algonquin Park)



(Camping in the shore of the Madawaska River)

(Swimming in the quiet Wadsworth lake)

The Ottawa Valley has been homes for many early European settlers.  English settlers stayed in the South side of the Ottawa River and French stayed in the North.  There are also few European settlement villages nearby.  If you drive along Highway 60 towards Ottawa, you will pass the small town Wilno which is the first Polish Settlement in Canada.  You will also see few motels and restaurants which are run by Dutch, German or Swiss families in the Outaouais area. Many diary farms can be found in both sides of the Ottawa River.  Traffic is light in the country side.  We like to drive through the country roads in leisure and enjoy the beautiful scenery. 

(Well maintained, wooded, century-old bridge near Fort-Coulonge)

(Restaurant operated by a German-Dutch family near Wakefield)

(Beautiful lupin growing along the road side)

Ontario and Quebec have many lakes.  They are great retreats for the Summer season.  In the 19th century, Ontario developed network of waterways for military and economic purposes.  Now, these waterways become popular routes for leisure boats.  We like to go for picnic near the water locks and watch leisure boats passing by.  This time, we stopped by Smith Falls and visited few historical sites there. Smiths Falls lie in the middle of Rideau Waterway which joins Ottawa, the capital of Canada and the St. Lawrence Seaway in Kingston.   


(Campers enjoying their stay in Smiths Falls)



(Tallest structure in Smiths Falls)

Each year, millions of tourists and local residents in Canada and United States visit Niagara Falls.  Most of them spend their time seeing the great water falls or trying their luck in the casinos there.  We like to drive through the Niagara Parkway between Niagara-On-The-Lake and Fort Erie.  The Parkway is peaceful and beautiful.  We find that this can be comparable only by the St. Lawrence Parkway between Kingston and Cornwall.  You can try these scenic drives next time you are there.

(Seeing the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side)

(Leisure boats docking near the Niagara Parkway)

(House along the Niagara Parkway)