Thank for your well wishes on the safe trip to Europe 3 weeks ago. I hope to share some lovely pictures from the Mont Blanc and Berlin with you.
Just one day before the trip I received my new Canon Powershot SX40, so absolutely over the moon that more vivid and fabulous pictures could be taken with my enhanced camera.
Chamonix-Mont Blanc is just one of those places on earth which offers a taste of paradise, everywhere I looked there is this picturesque view of the mighty Mont Blanc and its sister peaks.
I caught my version of the same picture posted in this post. The difference is I took it in early morning, while the other one is late afternoon.
My husband and two boys walking at the Merlet Animal Park in Les Houches, facing the Mont Blanc and Le Boissons glacier
Mont Blanc at 35 times zoom.
The following plaque commemorate the infamous Nazi book burning ceremony held in the evening of May 10, 1933 at Bebelplatz in front of the Humboldt University. It was instructed by members of the SA (“brownshirts”), SS, Nazi students and Hitler Youth groups, on the instigation of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. The Nazis under the leadership of Adolf Hitler burned around 20,000 books, including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and many other authors.
A line of Heinrich Heine is engraved in the plaque, stating “Das war ein vorspiel nur wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen” (in English: “Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people“), which prove to be true in the atrocities committed in the Holocaust.
Sachsenhausen concentration camp in north of Berlin, a prototype of many to come around Europe during WWII.
Concrete blocks that remember “The Murdered Jews of Europe” is scattered at the corner of the Berlin Tiergarten “Central Park”.
This must have been what it feels like looking through the Berlin Wall……
During the cold war era, this amiable scene of the two is beyond imagination. These are just several mascots stationed in front of Brandenburg Tor to earn a few Euros from tourists who wish to take pictures with them!
The pictures above proved that all the more reason we should have the United Nation to keep peace. As I looked upon the Swiss and United Nations flags flapping against the wind in Geneva, a surge of emotion flood including conflicting feelings of pride and sadness. There is yet so much to do and wonder if we are any closer to achieve a peaceful world of united nations……
Gorgeous travel photos! I’ve been to Berlin, but never to Switzerland, so I liked getting a peak through your eyes. Looks like your new camera takes really great pictures (which I always think are the very best souvenirs you can have from a trip!), so I’m glad it managed to arrive just in time for your trip.
Posted by Steph | June 24, 2012, 2:20 amSteph,
Thanks for the kind words. That’s all the souvenirs I have got since we travel light. I hope your travel itinerary includes Switzerland because it is beautiful…(but expensive!).
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 1:20 pmGorgeous pics, I love the one with the snowy mountains. That was great, getting your new camera just before leaving for a holiday! Looking forward to more pics.
Posted by Delia (Postcards from Asia) | June 24, 2012, 10:30 amDelia,
There are probably more pics but hope you won’t get bored looking at mountains after mountains! would you? lol
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 1:21 pmBeautiful pictures! I especially love the one with your family, nicely in red, white, and blue against the green/grey of the grass and the mountains.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
Posted by Judith | June 24, 2012, 11:57 amJudith,
Yes that’s my family in primary colours against the green grass and the white mountain! Thanks.
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 1:22 pmGraet photos! I’m the opposte to Steph – I’ve been to Switzerland, but not Berlin. I’ve never been to any concentration camps or WWII memorials in Germany. I’m sure I’ll go one day, but I imagine it is a very emtional thing to do.
Posted by farmlanebooks | June 24, 2012, 12:21 pmJackie,
It would be emotional but worth a look. Berlin is surprising in a good way. Very vibrant, alive and spoil for choice, albeit the dark history it’s a city that no one will ever be bored!
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 1:23 pmwonderful picture Jov ,all the best stu
Posted by winstonsdad | June 24, 2012, 1:10 pmThanks Stu!
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 1:23 pmFantastic photos! I so want to travel to Switzerland and Berlin again, it’s been about 15 years since my last trip there.
Posted by Helen | June 24, 2012, 7:41 pmHelen,
Oh you have to Helen! Some things never changed, but I think Berlin did. 🙂
Posted by JoV | June 24, 2012, 7:53 pmI was in Berlin more than 10 years ago and I was struck by how little they acknowledged their history – I took a city tour and the Wall was never even mentioned! So I am glad to see they seemed to have moved forward in that regard.
Posted by booksnyc | June 25, 2012, 12:19 amBooksync,
Thanks for dropping by. Mention or not, Berlin Wall is one thing in a tourist mind to take a look at it. It’s glaringly the landscape of the city, but yes things have changed since, there is a wall memorial and other on-site historical information, depending which part of the wall you are visiting. 🙂
Posted by JoV | June 28, 2012, 6:11 amThank you for sharing these photos and experiences JoV looks like you had a great and really interesting trip. A lot of these places I would like to visit myself.
Posted by jessicabookworm | June 26, 2012, 9:24 amJessica,
Aww.. I hope you do get a chance to visit them one day. It’s beautiful. 🙂
Posted by JoV | June 28, 2012, 6:12 amOh wow! What a beautiful place! I love mountains – and your photos are breathtaking! Sigh…now I wish I can pack my bags and go somewhere, anyhere.
Posted by Soulmuser | June 26, 2012, 2:11 pmSoul,
Yes, pack your bags now! lol 😀
Posted by JoV | June 28, 2012, 6:13 am