Once again, Christmas time is upon us and many public spaces of Brussels have been decorated with festive lights. This is a view of the prestigious Louise avenue, which was among the first in the city to prepare for the winter sales. I especially like the play of light created by the reflection in the parked cars. Today a lot of snow has fallen and I bet the street looks even nicer with the ground covered in white. Happy holidays, everyone!
Yesterday I had a change to visit the famous Van Buuren House in Uccle. It is an art deco villa constructed by a Dutch banker David Van Buuren as a personal residence back in 1928 where he lived together with his wife Alice. On the outside the house appears to be typically Dutch, however on the inside it is full of custom made art deco furniture and contemporary carpets as well as paintings by Gustave van de Woestyne and other renowned artists. Originally the house was designed to host two bedrooms, however later the guest bedroom was suppressed in order to give room for a magnificent bronze hanging lamp by Gustav Klimt in the main hallway. The gardens adjacent to the house are simply incredible in their refinement and are actually much larger than they appear – part of the garden is dedicated to a small labyrinth. This house is definitely a must see for those who are interested in early XXth century design!
Piazza della Republica in Rome. This photo is about a year old, but I decided to upload it because I consider it my first successful night shot. It is also the first time I used a tripod – one of those 12 cm telescopic things they sell to tourists. If you have unsteady hands like I do, it is very difficult to do something decent under bad lighting without support. That tripod has crumbled under the weight of my SLR shortly after that shot was taken, but has since been replaced by a full size aluminum one.
Yesterday I went to see the “Fighting the Box” expo at La Centrale Electrique – the European center for contemporary art on place Sainte Catherine. This expo is part of the 2010 Design September initiative. In this beautiful space Belgian designers have exposed their works, showing the design process evolving from the initial idea to the final product destined to be industrially produced. It shows a dialog between art and technology and the designers’ efforts to create outside of the box. Very positive impression, will defiantly return to the center for other expos.
This palace is quite close to the Jemma el Fna square. It has some amazing decorations inside, on the floors, walls and ceilings. Some of the tiling done in the palace looks really nice. There are plenty of places inside that provide a nice shade in the summers heat.
The palace looks nice but it is in desperate need of restoration and if this was done it would look a million times better.
There was an entrance fee of 10 dirhams.
Text taken from virtualtourist.com
A spice vendor’s stand at a souq (a commercial quarter in an Arab or Berber city) in Marrakesh. All souqs are specialized and grouped together by craft: there one for spices, textiles, glass, iron, wood, dye and many others. Walking around this labyrinth of winding narrow covered market streets is definitely a picturesque experience, however it sometimes could be tinted by the overly pushy vendors. Also beware of the local youths which will follow you at the pretense of showing you around, while actually attempting to snatch your wallet as soon as you get distracted.
Djemaa el Fna, the main square of Marrakesh literally transforms at sunset. The space, which is relatively empty apart from the freshly squeezed orange juice vendors during the day, really livens up at first signs of sunset. A multitude of food stalls get assembled to cover the bigger part of the square entirely in less than half an hour. As the air cools down visitors arrive and chose a stall to sit down and eat. A variety of dishes is offered on the menu: soups and salads, grilled meat and vegetables as well as local classics such as tajine and couscous. All that is accompanied by drinks from the Coca-Cola company, which seems to be paramount in Morocco, mineral water or tea. Surprisingly enough, with the level of hygiene and the raw mean lying around for hours in the open, I didn’t even get food poisoning after eating there.
Probably the best part of this whole experience was the moment when all the stalls started hooking up their lighting systems – basically wire garlands with evenly spaced white light bulbs on them which plugged into the power outlines provided for that end in the square floor. After that the whole place magically lit up creating a mysterious carnival atmosphere which made my late night dinner all the more enjoyable.
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