SKYWATCH--Gas Works Park, Seattle

Gas Works Park  is  one of the best places in Seattle to get a view of some of the city's skyline. Of course, you can get a view of the old gas works, too...and the sun behind.

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SKYWATCH--In Seattle, can't you tell?

In Seattle through mid-July; new grandson---see yesterday's post.  Note the snazzy new color of the Space Needle, which is actually the way it was when first constructed.

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SKYWATCH -- Black and White

In contrast to yesterday's colorful post, here's another view of the statue of The Victor in Kalemegdan Park in black and white. These stairs that I am standing on lead down to the part of the park known simply as lower Kalemegdan that lies outside the fortress walls.

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SKYWATCH--The Avala Tower

In the background on the hill stands the newly-constructed Avala Tower that was leveled during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. If you want a little souvenir of it, you can buy one of these.

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SKYWATCH: The Needle....

The Space Needle through the legs of a sculpture at Seattle's Sculpture Park.

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SKYWATCH--One reminder, one monument

The title might seem redundant, since monuments do remind us of the past. One year ago last May I gave you this other shot of a monument standing on the site of a former WWII concentration camp for the extermination of Jews and Rom (gypsies), located on what was the the Old Belgrade Fairgrounds. Sadly, in this image, you can see that vandals have destroyed the plaque.

More importantly in the background rises the Fairgrounds' tower, which was used by the Nazis as a surveillance tower. Today the buildings, largely in ruin, of the Old Fairgrounds are occupied by refugees from the wars of the 90's over the territories of the former Yugoslavia, and several Rom families.

Sunny sky in this photo, but figuratively skies were anything but that back then.

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REFLECTIONS WEEKEND--Needle in the windows

The Space Needle reflected in the windows of the new Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's windows.

See other reflections at James' REFLECTIONS WEEKEND.

Two landmarks

A totem pole in Elliott Bay Park stands in contrast to Seattle's Space Needle.

The Čukur Fountain: Now you see it, now you don't

The bronze statue seen on the right is of a Serbian boy, who was killed in 1862 by occupying Turks in a skirmish over who had drawing rights from this fountain on Dobracina Street in downtown Belgrade. The boy's death initiated a movement for the liberation of Belgrade and other Serbian cities from Turkish rule.

This post goes out to a young Serbian lady from the US, who had written me for a photo of the fountain. I can only partially fulfill her request, since the statue you see above was stolen several months ago, and fortunately found, but very damaged. It is to be repaired and replaced soon. (I photo borrowed from another source on the Internet, whereas the photo with the wreath in honor of the missing statue is mine.)

ABC Wednesday "I" is for "information"

The above is called the Little Pyramid, and it stands in the center of Belgrade's pedestrian street, Knez Mihailova, right in front of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. The pyramid bears an inscription saying that Belgrade’s geographic center is situated at 44 degrees 49 minutes and 14 seconds of the northern geographic latitude and at 20 degrees 27 minutes and 44 seconds of the eastern geographic longitude, at an altitude of 116 meters.

So there's your information for today! See how others have interpreted the letter 'I' on ABC WEDNESDAY.

Sunday Bridges -the tram bridge and the Memorial

I've posted this in HDR for a more dramatic effect. The lighting was bad when I took this photo, and the HDR brings out the colors. The green bridge with the red tram is commonly called the Tram Bridge, but it can be driven over, too. It links New Belgrade with the older part of the city, and leads directly to the train station. I've posted about this monument that stands on the site of a former WWII concentration camp when I first started my blog.

Hey! If you are viewing my blog through Mozilla Firefox, be sure to look up and see the new little Serbian favicon I finally figured out how to install...sort of....with a help of a friend. It doesn't show up on most versions of Internet Explorer, for some reason.

Check out other bridges at Louis La Vache's Sunday Bridges.

Wall of tormented souls

This is a mystery post, for try as I might, I cannot find out what this wall represents. The faces are carved on the ends of wooden beams. No sign on it, and Googling all sorts of combinations yielded no results. I can only hope one of my readers, Knez, is reading this and can help! He seems good at finding things out, so if you're there, Knez, what is this? In any case, this wall/monument stands at one end of a park at the intersection of two main thoroughfares, not far from Tito's Tomb. Most likely it is to those who died in one of Yugoslavia's many wars, but which one exactly, I do not know.

That's Saint Sava's cathedral way in the background.

The Eternal Flame(s)

Here is a shot of The Eternal Flame that you can read about here and here. In this photo I took three days ago, you see the tip of the tower reflected in a puddle created by recently melted snow. The days since there have been very spring-like...no surprise; it's officially spring today! Hurrah! Where's the color??

This post is part of Newtown Daily Photo's Reflection Weekend.

Say what?

I'm afraid there's not much respect for public property here, as can be seen from this monument dating from 1961, when it honored the first conference of non-aligned countries. It was restored in 1989 for the ninth conference, but since then....

Skywatch Friday--Floating by the Needle

Viewed from a friend's house in West Seattle. He has this gorgeous view, albeit sometimes without the parachutist, every day...

I'll be posting again from Belgrade September 2nd...



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Moskva, Mimosa, and Mailbox!

I posted something about Hotel Moskva here , and just recently mentioned it here. I took this photo through a window of a department store across the street a few days ago. Belgrade still looks pretty gray, but you can see a mimosa seller on the lower left of this photo, right next to another mailbox I found!

About the hotel: Hotel Moskva is a four star hotel and the only hotel in Belgrade that has no room or apartment number 13. It has had over 36 million visitors in the past 100 years, including celebrities like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Yves Montand, Robert de Niro, Jean-Paul Sartre, Miloš Forman, Yasser Arafat, Ray Charles, Richard Nixon, and Rebecca West, to name a few.

Check it out on Youtube ! And check out Marie's and many other Postcard Friday postings by clicking here .

Skywatch Friday-Landmark Lineup

Still cold, but sunny now. This couple is walking in part of the vast Ušće park in New Belgrade. Visible behind them are several landmarks that I've shown you before. From left to right you have The Eternal Flame, then the Beogradjanka building, which used to house a department store and offices, the rounded dome of Saint Sava Cathedral, the Ušće Tower, which had been bombed in 1999 and now is a fancy office building (renovated!), and under the crane is the site of a huge new shopping center, which will feature IKEA, among other shops. WOO-hoo.

Join Skywatch at: http://skyley.blogspot.com/

ABC Wednesday: Radovan on Vido Island, site of Blue Grave

Today "B" is for "Blue Grave," as explained further on. Here Radovan is standing in front of the Serbian Mausoleum on Vido Island, just off the coast of Corfu Town. During WWI, Corfu served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there across Montenegro and Albania from Serbia which was occupied by the Austrians and Bulgarians. As a result of their long march, a large number of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and different diseases. More than 5000 of them were buried at sea (known as the Blue Grave or Plava Grobnica) near the island of Vido. A monument of thanks to the Greek nation was erected on Vido island by the grateful Serbs in the 1930s. The Greeks were not the only ones to aid the Serbs during WWI on Corfu. The French and British also came to their aid, treating the ill and wounded in their hospitals and establishing schools. Behind Radovan you can see a poster in French and two in English. This photo was taken in the Serbian House, which houses the Serbian Consulate and is also a museum about the Serbs' WWI experience on Corfu.