Steg for steg : Step by step: A step abroad

Sunday, January 13, 2008

A step abroad

Now it's time for skiing http://skiingstepbystep.blogspot.com/ . It's also time to summarize some travel events from last year.

September, 2007
Suitable shoes are needed when traveling around. Shoes are not only made for walking, hiking, running and dancing. Shoes are also made just to make the body more elegant. Shoes have to be made in different sizes for differnt people. A nice designed shoe can be a sculpture, enlarged like this one. When arranged in the middle of the street to ensure that everybody can see it's strange form, maybe someone will ask why ladies have to wear so high heeled shooes.

If you notice what is inside the shoe, you have to go to Florence on your next holiday.
In the city of Prague I also met the famous dancing couple Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, this time as dancing buildings. The original house was destroyed during bombing in 1945, the new one is created by Frank Gehry and finished 1996.

Behind the former "iron curtain" in the heart of Europe cultural heritage treasures has been rediscovered by western travelers. Zwinger Palace in Dresden, partly destroyed during the second world war, is one of them. Zwinger -means 'interspace' - was built in the first half of the 17 hundreds in Baroque architecture. Its courtyard was used for court festivities, tournaments and fireworks. In this solemn atmosphere, where sculptures surrounds you on all sides, you really don't walk on the grass. In the next city we are also reminded on the "iron curtain" where remnants of The Wall still can be seen. And this piece of art is painted on "Die Mauer":

"There are still other walls to be unbuilt/erased", as emphasized on the next painting on "Die Mauer" .

In Berlin we happen to meet the United Buddy Bears Exhibition - The Art of Tolerance. The slogan of the exhibiton is: "We have to know each other better......it makes us understand one another better, trust each other more and live together more peacefully."

On the polar bear this text by Albert Einstein was painted; "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding" . Myself, I add: - "step by step".

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Summer, 2007
Today our Earth climate is our common challenge. In a globalized world Environmental problems are international issues who needs to be solved by collaboration. The italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro has illustrated our situation in sculptures called "Spheres". I have locateted one of the spheres at "Piazza della liberta" in Pesaro, Italy, where this picture was taken. A similar sculpture is located in the Vatican museum, another outside the UN building in New York.

Even if we are all part of the global village, there are small villages where the local idetity still has survived. The villages in Cinque Terre, Italy are of this kind. But do they have a sustainable future? Where is the harbour for fishboats, and can vine produced from vinestocks in these steep rocks give them enough income? Is global tourism a nessesary basis for their existence? Here is Manarola:

Vernazza (next picture) is the favorite village for many tourists. From here it is easy to come and go by train. On a narrow path through the National Park of Cinque Terre there is only a few hours walk to the nearest villages, Corniglia (south) and Monterosso (north). I wish I were back here some time.