Tag Archives: Germany

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 end of the road (for now)

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

From Trencin, another train journey, this time across the Czech Republic to Prague. Prague was undeniably beautiful, especially the buildings: but a tourist zoo: I guess I arrived 15 years too late, i.e. just in time for the opening of … Continue reading →

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aside: a German on holiday

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

I took this photo while eating lunch in a cafe in the main square at Győr. Note the German tourist at the far right of the photo, and the state of her underwear. This went on the whole time she … Continue reading →

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through the Iron Curtain

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

There is no doubt that Vienna is quite a mind-blowing town when it comes to art, even if (judging from the work in the Secession House) it looks like it might be living off its former glories (but perhaps that’s … Continue reading →

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Mitropa

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

is there such a thing as Central Europe? Once you leave France something definitely changes, but is that only because France has a unique sense of its own identity? Or is there a continuity among the lands to the East? … Continue reading →

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