Ladee's Travels

Another iPhone video.. I use these videos to make panoramic photos.  If you are receiving this in an email, click on the post title to go to the actual blog to see the video.

This are is next to the Great Wall. The bamboo pieces with the red string were each unique. And yes, that is a replica of a terra cotta warrior at the end. If you are receiving this in an email, click on the post title to go to the actual blog to see the video.

Yep. It is awesome. If you are receiving this in an email, click on the post title to go to the actual blog to see the video.

Denali Park, Alaska.

This is part of the story about our visit to the Chinese family home in Dalian.   Click here for the entire story. Video needs to be viewed from the Internet. Click on title.

This is part of the story about our visit to the Chinese family home in Dalian.   Click here for the entire story. You need to view this from the blog.

This is our delightful hostess from our visit to a Chinese home in Dalian, China.  Our translator was very helpful, as we would have been lost for most of the conversation.  The hostess's warmth and good nature were very evident. This is part of the story about our visit to the Chinese family home in Dalian.   Click here for the entire story. Notes from original post: This is a brief interview with our delightful hostess. You will need to click on the title of the blog post to see the video on the Internet if you receive this by email.

I don't know about you, but I have seen the video of the William and Kate wedding multiple times.  Here is a sampling of the videos taken in Hyde Park with 100,000 people.  I hope to share the emotion of the crowd as they witnessed the wedding.  Hyde Park was set up with three large screens, a great sound system, rows and rows of Port-a-Johns, and a huge semi-circle with food booths. It was a festive event! The crowd is quiet and listening to the vows, followed by cheers.

Time for a break and there is a great place to sit, take in the 5PM "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake), and watch the world walk by.  You will see a mix of tourists and locals walk by this location.

This post has several videos. Following Rick Steve's Vienna City walking tour, we stepped off of Graben to tour St. Peter's Church.  The text in the travel guide did not prepare me for what I was about to see, although you can see that there is fair warning. Leopold I also ordered this church to be built as a thank-you for surviving the 1679 plague.  The church stands on the site of a much older church that may have been Vienna's first (or second) Christian church. Inside, St. Peter's shows Vienna at its Baroque best. [Steves] [emphasis added] The church is squished in a side street. Normal and not too flashy.

After all of the churches and cathedrals that I have visited on this trip, St. Stephen's Cathedral did not fail to provide a breathtaking view of yet another fabulous cathedral. An interesting comment about the reconstruction is on the wikipedia site. The most visible current repair project is a multi-year renovation of the tall south tower, for which scaffolding has been installed. Fees from advertising on the netting around the scaffolding were defraying some of the costs of the work, but the concept of such advertising was controversial and has been discontinued. As of December 2008, the majority of the restoration on the south tower has been finished, and most of the scaffolding removed. Read more about this fabulous cathedral on wikipedia. The church was heavily damaged during WWII.   A gate was drawn across this section, probably in preparation for the upcoming Mass. I stretched through it and took these photos.  This is a high resolu...

Tram #2 was the direct route from the apartment to the StaatsOper (Vienna Opera).  The outside of the building was nice, but did not tell about the beauty that was to be found inside.  I saw the place where you line up to by the standing room only tickets, which are quite a deal at 3 euro.  You can go for one act, or as long as you want to stay.  As luck would have it, there was a tour in English in 15 minutes. Tours (6.50 euros) are the only way that you can get in the building further than the lobby.  The tour was a great idea, very informative, moved at a great pace to be able to take photos and hear all of the details.  I sometimes came up to the back of the group after lagging behind to take pictures.  There was another American woman in the same boat…we agreed that we would take the photos now and look up the details on the internet.  Great plan! Statue of Goethe in nearby park

This group entertained the outside diners at Einstein's.  They were really good and I was mesmerized watching them work together. At first I thought, oh great, someone else wants change.  Well, after watching, I dug out a handful of my coins and contributed to their entrepreneurial team. Rick Steves - Berlin information in book and digital format. (affiliate link)

Tina and I stopped for dinner at Chez Francis after our long walk to the Eiffel Tower and boat ride on the Seine.  Actually, "long walk" puts it mildly.  I told Tina that I would map out our journey for the day, and here it is.  Our path took us to Place Vendome, through The Tuilleries, Musee d'Orsay, Rodin Museum, Les Invalides, Eiffel Tower, Place d'Alma (where we took the boat ride on the river), then to Chez Francis.  Links to all of the blog details for these other places are listed at the bottom of this post. Click (or double click...one or the other will work) on the map to see it a bit larger. Then you can appreciate this little stroll.  Tina thought that we had walked 57 miles, but I think that she was being just a tad bit dramatic. It was a very agressive agenda today, and turned out to be a bit much. We took the Metro back to the apartment.  Good idea! A good meal, and then we were delighted with the Twinkle light show. The Go...