Travel theme: Doorways

This week’s travel theme from Ailsa’s blog ‘Where’s my backpack?’ is Doorways. Very late to the show this week, and the first time in a long time that I have posted to the travel theme.

I love doors and the efforts that people go to as a decorated entrance to their [choose type of construction] house, castle, temple, church, apartment… And I have so many door photos in my travel stash – no wonder my wife wonders what I shoot at sometimes. Here is my go…

Starting in the Royal Palace of Bangkok, Thailand. Yes that is real gold!

Still in Bangkok, but really a world away, is this beautiful entrance into one of the buildings at Jim Thompson’s house.

A little further east, to the beautiful city of Kanazawa, Japan. This is modern Japanese architecture at its best, and I love the curtain pattern.

Further east, to the heart of the country is the imposing doorways at Nijo Castle in Kyoto. This was the power base for the shogunate for centuries.

Over in Europe, and I could have done this whole post on doorways in the Old Town of Tallinn, Estonia. This was my favourite with intricate carvings.

Across the pond by ferry, and this was the doorway entrance to our hotel in Helsinki, Finland on the same trip. The ceiling paintings are the highlight.

In Paris, France, there is a treasure trove along every street of doors – modern, classical, and some antique. But this caught my eye in the 8e arrondissement. I love the metal work and the little critters all over the “branches”. Someone wealthy lives here!

In the Mediterranean, the stunning island of Santorini, Greece has doors of all shades including pastels. Beautiful island…

 

The historic university town of Cambridge, United Kingdom has some eclectic architecture. But these three simple entrances were what caught my eye.

Finally the door with all the irony in the world. It was not the door so much at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, USA – but the stone carvings on either side. The symbols of communism at the very centre of heart of capitalism.

 

 

Travel Theme: Silver

This week’s travel theme from Ailsa’s blog ‘Where’s my backpack?’ is Silver. I didn’t realise how tough this week’s travel theme would be. I take a lot of photos of gold stuff, and colourful stuff, but you never see a lot of silver stuff. What I really wanted to find in my photo travel archive was a gleaming P-51D Mustang fighter plane, but alas donuts. But I did find some so here goes. As usual the images in this post link to my larger photos on Flickr.

Starting in Australia first, I really like this photo that I was lucky enough to capture in Caloundra, Queensland, Australia. The beachside “boardwalk” has lots of cool street furniture and these oversize silver taps add to the aquatic theme of the beach. The couple were not inserted, and I think make the photo.

Off to Japan, and  the Fuji TV building in Odaiba, Tokyo is one of the many iconic buildings design by the renowned Japanese architect Kenzō Tange. This photo really doesn’t do the building justice with its silver sphere on the top floor walkway.

Further South in Kyoto, Japan, is a temple called Ginkaku-ji – also known as the Silver Pavilion. This building was supposed to be covered in silver likes its sister building the Golden Pavilion, but they ran out of money (back in the 15th century). So it is not the building which is the highlight so much as the perfectly manicured grounds.

Across to Europe and in Paris, France we have La Géode at Cité des sciences technology museum. It is a spectacular silver sphere which doubles up as high technology digital cinema showing cool Imax sort of stuff. The thing is 12 stories high! You can see from the sky that it was a perfect day to spend in a museum.

If you ever go up to Northern England and one of my favourite cities Leeds (and home to the mighty Leeds United) is one of the best military museums in the world – The Royal Armouries. There are so many pristine suits of medieval armour on display, you almost get lost in there. I love this display of a knight in his silvery armour with battle mace in hand ready to do damage. I would love to go back to visit when they put on the jousting display in full kit.

Finally, in New York City, arguably the most beautiful skyscraper is the Chrysler Building. It’s art deco finish is soooo beautiful. I particularly like the gargoyles.

I have to post one more photo, I wouldn’t say no to one of these that I got close to at the Paris Auto Mondiale (motor show) back in 2004. The perfect mix of McLaren and Benz.