Monthly Archives: July 2012

Prague: two Sarajevo moments

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

somwehere in an old building at Prague castle, to my surprise, there was a window with a notice on it saying: this is where the Defenestration of Prague happened. The what? Took me back to when I was 17 and … Continue reading →

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Prague: beaten track

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

what is it with Prague? On paper it ought to be the most attractive big city in Central Europe, out-beautifying Budapest and even Vienna. If those three cities had been goddesses and Paris only cast his eyes above two metres … Continue reading →

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back on the main line

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

On the train from Dresden to Prague, making its way from Berlin to Vienna, I got a shock: plugged back into the high voltage European backpacker circuit, every compartment filled with people half my age in big groups doing it … Continue reading →

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Dresden: new masters

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Maybe it’s just me, but starting from about 200 years ago – around JMW Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, then the Impressionists – painting starts to make much more sense than most of the stuff I was writing about in the … Continue reading →

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Dresden: old masters

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

The Alte Meister art museum is apparently one of Europe’s most significant. It’s chocka with gut-busting Rubens numbers and superbly executed but entirely standard portraits of forgettable – and forgotten – 18th century wigs, along with stacks of alternately – … Continue reading →

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Dresden: the Saxon one percent

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Upstairs in the Royal Palace of the Kings of Saxony is a spectacular collection of Ottoman weaponry, from the days when the Turks had Hungary and threatened Vienna. Downstairs, the so-called Green Vault: two floors of unbelievable and unnecessary trinkature … Continue reading →

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Dresden: twice risen

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Sad though it may seem, Dresden’s greatest claim to fame these days is probably that it was bombed pretty much out of existence by the RAF on the night of February 13th 1945: There are lots of modern buildings interspersed … Continue reading →

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Leipzig

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

Sunday lunchtime, grey sky, almost no-one in the streets. a young nutter sat on the pavement, cheerfully declaiming. An entire Russian brass band busking, and all the other buskers within earshot playing along; later, a six-piece English rock band with … Continue reading →

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the Pharaoh’s fist

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

a chill Sudanese lion from the Pharaonic period, in the British Museum: but check out this Pharaoh’s fist, from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, a little over 3000 years ago: and if you didn’t much fancy being subject to that, your … Continue reading →

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home soil

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

I landed in London at 6 in the morning. People are really friendly. Everything moves slowly, and there seems so much space and time between objects. Almost nobody employed in London, apart from the guys with the green fluorescent waistcoats … Continue reading →

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