OK, that didn't work. howz about this? Last one, i promise.
Dagmaraka -- What beautiful photographs! The village and town looks so nice and settled. The castle looks a little forboding -- is it now a museum or something open to the public?
The castle has an exquisite furniture museum and lots of temporary exhibitions - Central Europe in the year 1000 was on during last summer, simply breathtaking. There is an old well, too, dug out by a Turk who fell in love with a native maiden. Her father told him he can only have her if he builds a well on the Castle square. The Castle is on a rocky hill, but his love was so deep, he dug for years and found water in the end, along with loads of gold. The legend says him and his maiden turned into treas at the Castle square for reason I can't recollect (or was it a different Turk at a different castle?).
Maria Theresia, the Empress of Austrian Empire lived at the castle, as well as other members of the Habsburg royal families. Bratislava was a corronation town, the capital of Austria-Hungary for 153 years while Budapest was occupied by Turks. Ooops, somebody stop me, at high school I used to be the city guide, we had competition called Know Your Town, you know. I had to be a part of that. It seems some of the stuff is still somewhere in my head. Who knew.
It is used for official occasions too these days - Parliament openings, receptions, etc. They are renovating it - castle burnt in 1811 and was renovated in 1959, at the haute of the communist regime - what was not destroyed yet got leveled by the government then. There are vast archeological researches around the area (it was populated by Kelts 4,000 BC and became a castle in 800, thus there is a lot to research). Biting my tongye, enough for now!
Ooooooooooops, piffka, you asked about the Spis Castle, not Bratislava castle. Anyhooo, safely ignore all above. Spis Castle is the largest castle in Europe, a ruin now, although parts of it are preserved. There is a museum of arms and canons and such stuff. It was built in 12th century and belonged to Hungarian/Slovak nobility. Ruined by Turks too, though.
Pretty Cool Stuff!!! Thanks Dag!
dag, The SIS Castle reminds me of a mountain in Monument Valey of Utah.
Also, thanks for sharing the photos of your home. c.i.
Here's my contribution of the Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey taken from the London Eye last month. I think it's one of my best pictures of London from my last trip. c.i.
And a watery one, if you like to see sea.
http://www.asc.com.au/weather1.html
Dagmaraka -- Well, I was talking about the big castle on the hill. I didn't actually see another. So, confused about which was the Bratislava castle, I found another photo. Hope you don't mind. Thanks for the tour, I thought it sounded fantastic. I love it when big old buildings are open to the public good. Temporary exhibits are especially appealing to me as they show the museum is not just a mausoleum but also a living classroom.
One of the websites I went to claimed this was the best castle to visit in all of Europe!
PS -- Sorry, Husker, I know that wasn't a webcam! Here is is a great link for lots of webcams...
webcams in Washington (with links to other states)
YES! 'Tis quite the castle I ranted about. If you take a close look, the lower buildings on the right of that castle, those with that round tower, yes those, well those used to be the castle stables. Now they serve as the Parliamentary Institute (dept. of information and analysis) and parliamentary library. I worked there for a year! home sweet home indeed. the job was not that great, but man, the cafeteria there, and the goulash soup you could have for lunch for some 20 cents, best on earth! Views are OK, right? Or does it need to be a webcam? Anyhoo I appreciate the interest, makes me all teary in the eye, oh that may be from all the yawning, 3am, time for bed, presto!
Well, this is my all-over-favourite webcam (not near to me, but still in Germany):
http://www.storchennest.de/en/index_live-video.html
While we don't have a webcam here in my village (just photos, like
and the one in the town only shows a stupid street, I'll post the webcam in the nearby university:
http://towercam.upb.de/
Walter you could have done one of these:
:wink: , husker.
Actually, this camera view
shows Paderborn cathedral in the background. And exactly there is the place, where King Charles the Great (Charlemagne) met Pope Leo in 799 ... .
(Which, of course, can't beat a sunrise in Honolulu
)
pueo, Great Honolulu pics. Thx, c.i.
BTW, good to see Duke's statue still in place. It's nice to see some things stay the same. c.i.
I couldn't get to see the Hawaiian sunrise, a screen said I wasn't authorized, but I loved Pueo's link to the islands. Why have I never gone back there???
Walter -- That pool looks good. Is it a favorite place for you?
Goulash soup for 20 cents? What a deal! My mom used to make what she called goulash... beef with corn and tomatoes... but it was more of a stew than a soup (and came from an Iowan farm girl with Scottish ancestry). Here's the "castle" where I used to work... the one on the left, Suzzallo Library on the University of Washington campus. It is a webcam, but I don't know if this image code will allow it to change or not. As any UW alum can see, neither the mountain
nor the fountain are showing, or "out" as we say. The probability that both the mountain, ie. Mt. Rainier, would be visible and the maintenance crew would have Drumheller fountain flowing was a fun task for statistics students and probably maths as well. When both are in view it is quite spectacular. Here's the link... there is a v. short movie associated with the webcam:
UW Webcams
