Thessaloniki

A former railway, turned into park, two and a half stories above ground. Just across the river near the Gare D’Austrelitz is this interesting building. Though the clouds were rolling in, there was still some time in the afternoon to get a few external shots of the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens.

The Museum of Carnavalet is an excellent museum in the Marais detailing the history of Paris. Even more remarkable as a city run museum its permanent collections are free to visit. Just down the street is the parish church of St Paul and St Louis As well as the Church of Saint Gervais It’s just…

On my last few days in Athens I had a chance to go to two great museums. The first was the Museum of Byzantine and Christian Art. Then on to the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture The stopping by the Greek Parliament to see the guards and the tomb of the unknown soldier. And as…

It’s great to be back in Istanbul. I can switch from endless churches to endless mosques. Starting with the Blue Mosque which was being restored when I visited in 2022, so you could glimpse very little under a lot of scaffolding. It is now glowing and beautiful. No shortage of crowds enjoying it. Less than…

Bucharest’s massive parliament was originally designed to bring a very large, centralized communist government together under one roof. It was another five years after the revolution before it was completed and used to support the emerging democracy. With 1100 rooms it is the second largest building in the world and the heaviest building in the…

Located not far from the Paris city limits (where height restrictions wear off) is an area called La Defense. It has a history as a business centre dating back to 1958. According to Wikipedia: La Défense is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district, covering 560 hectares (1,400 acres), for 180,000 daily workers, with 72 glass and steel…