Thursday Thoughts – Art Nouveau Villas

Wherever I travel, I love to walk among architectural big or small wonders. In Łódź, on our last day, I found a guide about famous houses in the city. Not much time left, but I just had to see their famous Art Nouveau gem.

Villa Gallery, a house built in 1903 for the manufacturer Leopold Kindermann from Łódź, is listed on the prestigious Iconic Houses platform.

The global list of outstanding architecturally-significant houses is created by the Amsterdam-based Iconic Houses Foundation.

The aim of the Iconic Houses organisation is to popularise knowledge about 20th-century great architectural designs, gathering documentation on them and promoting the idea of opening such buildings to the public.

Only the houses that are open as public museums can enter the Iconic Houses list.

Among the list of most beautiful houses of the 20th century, there are icons such as Antonio Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye in Poissy, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in Arizona, as well as the houses of Alvar Aalto in Helsinki, and Victor Horta in Brussels, Theo van Doesburg in Paris, Arne Jacobsen’s in Copenhagen and many others, all considered milestones in the history of modern architecture.

Just to look at the elaborate details is magical. The iron gates were magical wonders.

The windows, and the visible – or hidden – sculptures really kept your eyes alert.

I met with some great difficulties trying to photograph the house – high gates and impossible angles. But I hope you get a hint of the beauty of the villa. It made me long for Bacelona and Gaudí, again…

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Memories

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Memories

After a wonderful, one month long, trip to New Zealand 2011, suddenly our tour guide from The Lord of the Rings tour in Wellington turned up for our Midsummer celebrations in 2012. And he brought a girlfriend as well. One of the best Midsummer events ever!

 

 

CFFC: Funny

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Funny

Surprise, surprise!

Why do you feed reindeer on the road? Because you have all the time in the world when you are on vacation, because it is fun…and you seem not to care if they get hit by a car. Quite a few of them were limping and were in no hurry to leave the road.

Macro Monday – In My Windows Today

I guess everybody knows this little beauty as Epiphyllum

…but its real name is Schlumbergera truncata (false Christmas cactus as a house plant

This is my beloved yellow lady!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #20: Open Sesame – Doors and Doorways

Tina’s challenge this week is for us to find doors – and maybe to open them…or at least making you want to find out what is hidden behind them.

“Doors can lead you to other worlds, or to what is behind what is in front of you.”

Stephanie Torbert

I like that quote from Tina’s post, because I like word play, and my doors are simply a diverse gallery of some favorites from my travels. All of them works of art – natural or man made. In the header, the enigmatic doorway to Rila monastery in Bulgaria.

Bhutan

Tibet

The Moroccan desert – where the doors are the woven, striped and checked ”carpets” on the left hand side.

Spain

Latvia

Sweden

Sweden

 

Please remember the Lens-Artists tag to be seen in our Reader section. For more information about our challenge click here. And don’t forget to join Patti for her challenge next week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word in November – y3

For Paula, at Lost in Translation, I am always lovingly waiting! And gratefully learning something new from every Pick a Word.

Cerulian in the header

Palatial

Comic

Spurting

Radiating

 

Thursday Thoughts – Things That Caught My Eye in Łódź

I love things new and things old, architecture and juxtaposition of styles. Things dilapidated, things science fiction, things…Well, maybe we all do. Hope a mix will be enjoyable this Thursday!

 

A walk in contemplation…

– as always…

The old Jewish cemetery

Abandoned places in the middle of the city

In between old and new apartments – he was selling fresh fruit and vegetables

One of the many impressive street art works – this city is considered one of the major cities in the world for graffiti artists

View from the new railway station