Photos

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Banana Paradise

So while in Kerala recently during the Onam festival, it was a visual delight to see the abundance of bananas on display everywhere I looked.

Shops were decorated for the festival.

Bananas outside. Banana chips inside.

Bananas everywhere.

Here a chip, there a chip, everywhere a chip, chip (just had to add this line owing to its lyrical quality)

Is it any wonder we Malayalees have mastered the art of making banana chips & it is such a massive industry in Kerala?

Photos below were of just one shop.

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Rheingau, Germany

Rheingau, Germany- hill country in the region of the River Rhine, one of the longest rivers in Europe.

We got a great opportunity to go on a drive along this river.  Enjoyed the terrific views of charming houses on the hillside, castles &…sparrows.

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Leipzig, Germany

Photos from a very short visit to Leipzig…

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Skid-in! Ice Palace, Jungfraujoch

Jungfraujoch, one of my favourite places in Switzerland was exhilarating to say the least. While  there I visited the Ice Palace, which was super cool…literally too!

The Eispalast or Ice Palace is a terrific experience. After you enter in, the smile on your face gets frozen in time & while you try to oooh & aaah at the novelty of the experience &  ice sculptures around you…be careful. You really have to watch your step else you may just slip,  fall  &  find yourself ski-dding all the way down the icy corridors…nothing like a free ski sans the skis 🙂 Don’t go soooo fast that you frip on srippery glound.

Unsolicited advice – make sure your shoes are able to walk you across ice without slipping.  For the extra care needed to walk on this surface, I wouldn’t encourage elderly folks to try it. 

 

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Dom Cathedral, Cologne

Köln in German, or Cologne in English, is Germany’s 4th largest city. Eau de Cologne (Water of Cologne) that is known & used the world over, was birthed in this city. The city is  famous for the  Cologne Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Church.

Here are some photographs I captured of the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche St. Peter und Maria if you read the details on the Wiki link).

A World Heritage Site, work on the Cathedral commenced in the year 1248. It is supposed to be Germany’s most visited landmark (details in the link above) & it is alleged to house some relics of the Three Magi who visited Jesus  after His birth.

I was fortunate to have visited this Cathedral with its rich Gothic architecture, historic & religious significance.

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Guten Tag Berlin!

Berlin, circa 2008…

What I enjoyed about this city –

–  getting to see history at close quarters

–  getting to actually see the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall

–  the graffiti which captures the spirit of the city, carried in an earlier post  Street Art

–  being a part of the 200,000 odd crowd which thronged the Tiergarten to witness Barack Obama’s speech 

–  walking through the famous Brandenburger Tor

–  staying in East Berlin at Prenzlauer Berg,  über cool & youthful spirit,  home to students & artists

–  the sidewalk cafés of Prenzlauer Berg which served those amazing desserts

–  getting to attend George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess Opera…terrific

–  art, history & culture blend in

–  truly Berlin, truly enjoyable.

Hover over the image for a brief description of some of these pictures.

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Grim Reminders of the Holocaust – Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

I have often wanted to know more about the suffering of the Jews & atrocities committed against them during the Nazi regime. It was therefore only natural to want to see a real concentration camp if that were ever possible.

During my visit to Germany this became a reality & I was able to visit an old concentration camp which is now a well preserved musuem. It stands as a cold reminder of one of  man’s worst crimes against humanity.

Located outside Berlin is the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg.  A former Nazi camp, it serves as a grim reminder of the extent of  man’s depravities…& the suffering endured by millions of  Jews as a result.

For those interested in reading more on this topic, I would recommend the following books – The Diary of Anne Frank,  Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl &  The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.

Thank God for freedom!