Japan - The first pics

It's not my first posting from Japan (the three former postings about North Sea Jazz Festival were also posted from Japan), but it is my first posting about Japan since we've been here, or better posting with some first pics which were made during our stay here. It's just to give you a first impression, because there are many pics that I took and it's also a lot of work to sort them out and in the mean time I have to do some traveling and take pictures too.

I won't bother you right now with too much background information. The first five pics were taken at the Kawagoe festival where we went on a daytrip the first weekend of our stay in Japan. It's a well known festival in Japan which attracts many visitors.

The 6th pic was taken at a temple at sunset near where my mother in law lives.

The 7th pic was taken during a trip we made from November 22nd until 29th where we visited Aomori-prefecture and Sendai in Miyagi prefecture. This pic was taken at a trip to Shirakami, an Unesco World Heritage. The pictures 8 up to 15 were taken at a trip from Oirase river to Towada lake. This was absolutely gorgeous, despite some rain in the afternoon. It was a walk of about 11 kilometres, but it took us 8 hours (including rests and short breaks) to finish it. Not because the walk was so heavy, but because there were so many photogenic points. I shot two 4 GB memorycards during that day.

Besides resizing the pics haven't been photoshopped. It's just to give you a bit of a first impression. There will be plenty more pics to follow. I only don't know exactly when. We are almost halfway our stay and we have a pretty busy schedule. Hopefully the pictures will make you hungry for more later. For now enjoy the pics.

(click on the pics to enlarge)

Bavaria (part 5) (Update)

Next series of pictures. This time from Linderhof Palace. An update with a little more backgroundinformation will follow later.

(Update)

Here is a little more backgroundinformation about the Linderhof Palace and some of the pictures I shot there. The palace is the smallest of the three palaces (Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof) that were built by Ludwig II of Bavaria. We visited Linderhof Palace on the second day of our two day trip after we visited Neuschwanstein castle (see for info and pics this posting) and Hohenschwangau castle (see for info and pics this posting) on the first day.

Linderhof was the only palace that Ludwig II saw completed during his life. Although a lot smaller there are many references at Linderhof to the Palace of Versailles near Paris. The palace of course was made famous by Louis XIV, who was admired very much by Ludwig II. The sun as a symbol of absolutism can be found everywhere in the decorations in the different rooms of Linderhof Palace.

The pictures below shows the palace and parts of the gardens and surroundings. Picture 5,6 and 7 shows the famous Venus Grotto, an artificial dripstone cave, with a small lake and with wall paintings with images from opera's from Richard Wagner. On picture 7 you can see the boat in which Ludwig II was rowed while the grotto was illuminated in different colours.

On Picture 8 you can see the Moroccan House and on picture 9 the Moorish Kiosk. For a bit more backgroundinformation you can check the Wikipedia page of Linderhof.

Bavaria (part 4) (Update)

Next series of pictures. This time from and around Neuschwanstein Castle. An update with a little more backgroundinformation will follow later this week.

(Update)
This time a little more backgroundinformation with the pictures that I took in and around Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the castles built for Ludwig II, the Bavarian fairytale king who lived from 1845 to 1886. The castle was meant as a retreat for Ludwig II and was also an hommage to Richard Wagner, Ludwig's inspiring muse. The castle is probably Germany's most photographed building and one of Germany's most popular tourist places. Every year it attracts more than a million visitors. We combined our visit to Neuschwanstein Castle with a visit to the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle.

Although it's a very commercialized and overorganized tourist place it certainly was worth a visit. Although it sure was bombastic the interior was not so over the top baroque or kitsch as Linderhof Palace and Herrenchiemsee Castle (pictures of these places you'll find in later postings).

Ludwig II never saw the castle completed. Actually the castle hasn't been completed until today. Many of the rooms remain undecorated. Short before Ludwig II died only 14 rooms were finished. Most of the decorated rooms contains wallpaintings with sceneries from the legends of the Swan Knight Lohengrin, which story was made into an opera by Richard Wagner under the same name. Besides Lohengrin you also find sceneries on the walls from Tristan and Isolde, Tannhäuser and Parzifal, which stories were all made into operas by Richard Wagner (for information about these operas check here, here and here).

The most impressive room for me was the Throne Room, a room with the resemblance of a Byzantine church. The weirdest room was the Grotto, an artificial dripstone cave and an allusion to the Venus Grotto in the Hörselberg near Eisenach. A larger sample of the Venus Grotto can be found at Linderhof Palace. I'll show pictures of that in later postings.

Despite it's medieval looks on the outside the castle, the castle was provided with a lot of new technologies of that day, like electricity, running water, heating pipes etc.. Ludwig II was the patron of modern inventions. His palaces were the first to use modern conveniences.

More information about the castle and the other rooms can be found here and here.

Below you see some of the pics that I took from the castle and the area around it. On the second picture you see the Marienbrücke, The Mariabridge, from where I took picture 6 and 7. It's an excellent view point. Picture 9 was taken from the window from our Bed & Breakfast place where we stayed the night after we visited the two castles. On the left you can see the illuminated Neuschwanstein Castle and on the right the illuminated Hohenschwangau Castle.

The last 6 pictures were taken near the area of the castles. The last three pictures were taken from/at a mountain (which name I forgot) close to the castles. On picture 12 you can see both castles as seen from the cablecar to the top of the nearby mountain. This mountain is also a popular para/hangglidingspot.

On the last picture you see our friend Frank with a local well known paraglider and a complete madman when it comes to paragliding.

My wife N. reading about Ludwig II

Updates

My Bavaria postings part 2 and 3 have been updated with some extra backgroundinformation about the pictures and subjects related to the pictures. I also added a few extra pictures. There are also new Bavaria postings in preparation plus postings about other (day)trips that were made after our Bavaria trip, which will be posted the next coming days. So feel free to come back and check.

A little more patience

It's been a while since my last posting. About 7 weeks since my last post. The keyword was (and still is): BUSY. And when there was a bit time I didn't had the energy. It's not that I didn't had anything to post. On the contrary I would say. Still have more pictures to post from our trip to Bavaria, Germany and pictures from a visit to Camp Westerbork, the zoo at Emmen, a daytrip to Maastricht and a 4-day visit to Vienna, Austria last week and I shot pictures this weekend at an open house of Theo Jansen a fascinating engineer/artist who makes socalled kinnetic art. You'll find out more about it later.

I'm preparing some posts this week, so I hope I've catched up by next weekend.

See ya later!

Bavaria (part 3)

Didn't had time yet to update the backgroundinformation from the pictures of my previous post. It's coming, but it takes a little more time. Here are some new pictures from our last trip to Bavaria, Germany. For these pics there also will be an update with some more detailed backgroundinformation. What I can tell right now is that these pics were taken at Burghausen and Hohenschwangau Castle. Enjoy!

(Update)
The first three pics are from the old city centre of Burghausen. The first one is just a funny sculpture. The second one is a sign with a kind of abstract devil on it. It says Cabaret des Grauens, which means something like Cabaret of horrors, but it sounds more scary than it is, because it's just a local theatre. The third one is a picture from the "Stadtsaal", another local theatre.

When we we're staying at our friend Frank's place (who lives in Burghausen) he drove us around to some sightseeingplaces. Besides Passau, which was our arrival city by train (see for some pics of Passau part 2 of my Bavaria postings) he took us mostly to places that were related to the Bavarian King Ludwig II, because my wife N. wanted to visit most of these places. She has a more than average interest in this fairytale king who is also known as the "Swan king" or the "Mad king". I'm not sure if he was really mad or was just an oversensitive person whou couldn't deal with the stress that was involved with his kinghood and was also struggling with his homosexuality all of his life. Fact is that he was a tragic figure in my opinion.

The Italian director Luchino Visconti made an interesting movie about the life of King Ludwig II. The fully restored over 4 hour version gives a very good impression about his life and courtlife in 19th century Bavaria. The movie was shot at original "Ludwig"-locations, like Hohenschwangau castle, Neuschwanstein castle, Linderhof palace etc...

Below you can see some pictures that were shot at and around Hohenschwangau castle. Pictures from the other castles and other "Ludwig"-locations you can see in later postings of our Bavarian trip. On the last picture you see a far away shot from Hohenschwangau castle that was taken on the way to Neuschwanstein castle.