Nice, France and Monaco.....with the Monacos in February 2008

Every President's Day weekend I go on vacation somewhere with the Monacos in my office. This is the 2nd annual trip. In 2008 I went to Monaco with the Monacos....and Nice, France. Below are some photos of scenes in and around Nice Old Town and the coast.



This is the Fort du Mont Alban, an example of 16th century military architecture. Elton John has a house right down the street, about half a block from the fort.


We also went to an art museum. The first picture is the Museum of Art and History, Massena Museum, that just had really pretty grounds. We went to the 2nd one, the Fine Arts Museum, and that is where the pictures are from.



This is Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas Russian Orthodox. It was built by Tsar Nicolas in 1912. It was the first to be designated a Russian Orthodox Cathedral outside Russia.


And here are some photos from Monaco. The first is the famous Monte Carlo casino. We walked inside wearing jeans, even though it said "Proper Dress Required." We couldn't get past the lobby however, unless we wanted to pay a 10 Euro entrance fee.


This is the Les Grands Appartements du Palais, the home of the Monaco Royal Family. It was built in the 13th century. Like any good royal palace, they have a changing of the guard.


This is the Monaco Cathedral and the graves of Prince Rainier and Princess Gracy (Kelly) of Monaco.



This is the famous Musée Océanographique de Monaco, which was founded by Albert I in 1910. It contains specimens collected by Albert over 30 years of expeditions. It contains over 90 tanks, including a shark lagoon. It has beautiful views all around as well, as it sits right on the edge of a cliff. As a testament to how important Formula 1 racing is to Monaco, this museum is open everyday of the year except.....the day of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.


I went to Cannes for the day before I left France. Here are some photos from there, including the theatre where they hold the famous Cannes Film Festival, and the Palm Beach Casino where all the celebrities go while they are in town for the film festival.

Rainy Berlin in January

Some friends of mine and I went to Berlin over the weekend in January 2008. It was fun, but rained everyday. Here are some highlights from our trip.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church: The Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche was built between 1891 and 1895 to commemorate the first Hohenzollern emperor of Germany. It was designed by Franz Schwechten and had a 113-metre spire. The church sustained such bomb damage during WWII that the Berlin Senate decided to demolish the building in 1956. However, there was such protest in Berlin, that they decided to let architect Egon Eiermann design a reconstruction combining old and new elements. You can see that that spire was damaged and not rebuilt.

Victory Coumn: In Tiergarten park is Victory Column standing 70m high and weighing 37 tons. It is topped by "Golden Elsa." The monument commemorates Prussian victories between 1864 and 1871.

The Berlin Sculpture: Martin Matschinsky and his wife Brigitte Denninghoff were two of the European artists commissioned in 1987 to create a sculpture symbolizing Berlin at the end of the 20th century.

Schöneberger Rathaus (town hall) - on the balcony on this building (you can barely see it, but it is kind of where the side stop light is) is where John F Kennedy, on June 26, 1963, made his famous speech about being a jelly doughnut. He was trying to say "I am a citizen of Berlin" or "I am one with the people of Berlin" - which they say translates to Ich bin Berliner. What he said was "Ich bin ein Berliner" - which is apparently "I am a jelly doughnut." There has been much controversy over this, but I think it is accepted now that he was correct in the context in which he said it.

We went to The Story of Berlin museum, which included a tour of the underground radiation-proof bunker under Kurfurstendamm. It is capable of housing 3,592 people. I even tested out one of the cots. The map on the floor shows the countries that controlled each part of Berlin.

There are lots of museums in Berlin, including Museum Island, which houses a number of them, including the Pergamon Museum. Below is the famous Pergamon Altar, dating from 164-156 B.C.

Here are a few other exhibits from the Pergamon Museum, including Nefretiti "the beautiful Berlin woman."

This is Berliner Dom, Church of the Kaisers, or Berlin Cathedral. Berlin Cathedral is the former court cathedral of Prussia's royal family, the Hohenzollern. The original cathedral, built from 1747-1750, was demolished. It was rebuilt between 1894-1905, but heavily damaged during WWII. A simplified reconstruction then took place between 1975-1993. The main altar dates from 1850.

On this patch of grass is supposedly where Hitler died.

This is the famous hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby over the railing.

Here we are under the American Sector signs - entering and leaving.

Here is Checkpoint Charlie, the former border crossing point between East and West Berlin. It was here where Soviet and American tanks stood face to face, after the construction of the wall in 1961. From 1961 to 1990, Checkpoint Charlie was the only border crossing point for the Allies, foreigners, employees of the Permanent Representation and officials of the GDR.

This is the Reichstag, which was constructed from 1884–94 by Paul Wallot, since a representative building was needed to house the parliament of the newly-founded German state. The building was destroyed during the war and was rebuilt between 1961-1971, but was not used as the government building again until 1999 and has since been used as the seat of the German federal government.


This is the last remaining part of the Berlin Wall still standing.

These red stones are what formed the line between East and West Berlin, and mark where the wall stood. We were able to strattle the line and stand with one foot in West Berlin and one foot in East Berlin.

The famous Brandenburg Gate, or Brandenburger Tor. The Brandenburg Gate was constructed of sandstrone from 1788-1791, and is Berlin's only remaining city gate. After the wall fell, the Gate was reopened on December 22, 1989. On both sides, six Doric columns support the 11 meter-deep transverse beam, dividing the gate into five passageways. The Brandenburg Gate was surrounded by further buildings which were destroyed in the war. After the decision of Berlin' s senate on October 22, 2002, the Brandenburg Gate remains closed for cars, cabs and busses. It is said that the closer your embassy is to Brandenburg Gate, the more important you are. The American Embassy is the first building on the left that faces the gate (you can't see it in the picture).

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a year - geez has it been that long?? I am planning on updating the blog with all my travels from 2008 in one big posting. I have not had internet service at home, so it has been a little difficult. But I do plan to fix that soon. So keep checking in.