What amazed me about the city is when you’re walking around Palermo you see a lot of things that you probably don’t expect to see. Sicily has been left behind economically in comparison to other places in Italy and the tourism has not been that robust. But I see a big change in that and a great improvement and many new building projects and renovations going on. You will see some poorer parts of the city right next to a newly renovated and beautiful church or a very nicely decorated Trattoria or bar. This is a great city to walk around and to just go around the backstreet to see what you can find. You need at least three days in the center to start to see some of the interesting attractions. Here are some of them.
This is a statue being renovated at the Royal Palace a back alley restaurant with food already prepared. This is a Sicilian eggplant dish and a Limoncello with very fresh bread. The people sitting next to me were from England and we had an interesting discussion. This looks like a duk duk but the driver was playing Randy Travis country music which I found refreshing.The New gate Some well-known fellow who is dressed like a medieval Viking but it seems it might be King Philip the fifth of SpainHis crest One of the interesting Piazza with a few churches of Norman and Arabic architecture. I took a shot when the Carabinieri (national police) were driving through.Santa Catarina ChurchA good picture menu I went to a local café and they had homemade deep-fried rice balls with other stuff inside. It was a good little breakfast Street Art very close to my apartment Not much much thickness to the topping but very tasty and the crust was crunchy so deliciousThis narrow alleyway is where I often eat, near the apartment A small Piazza near my apartment These pathways became roads hundreds of years after the buildings had a foundationThis spaghetti vongole which delicious. It had a buttery tasteThis kid with the sunglasses just looked like a mover and shakerGood prices and the food is pretty goodYou can find better food somewhere in the city but for the price performance and the closeness to the apartment this has been a good choice and they are serving me well as a repeat customer Calamari with a Campari spritzI don’t think this place is open anymore. I would’ve liked to at least look at the menu Walking around Palermo I found this is my favorite café with different kinds of morning bread with coffee. I usually order café Lungo which means “long coffee”. So it’s just espresso with a little more water.This is a café LungoThe different pastry offerings at my coffee shopThis is a statue in front of the church at Piazza San DomenicoThis is a church in this Piazza which is getting a new façade it seems Trying to look more distinguished with face hair. I wonder if I will get more respect?
In Palermo you have many fascinating things to see which I never would have imagined. The last time I visited the city i was trying to enter with a rental smart car. As I got towards the entrance to the city and found a small coffee shop I stopped and walked a little bit and saw cars parked every which way on the street and the sidewalk. Not one car was free of scratches or dents. I decided I didn’t want to have a problem smashing up my rental car so I decided after the coffee not to spend time in Palermo. One very interesting tour I decided to take was the Palazzo conte Federico, the Royal palace of Count Frederick. I highly recommend this tour to you since you might get the chance to meet the prince, which is just one of his titles. You can even book to stay at the palace since it has 25 rooms including many bedrooms.
Plaque on the wall The entrance is very unassuming and looks slightly rundownThe 1930s race car often driven by Conte Federico. You can see the many sponsors of his racesYou see his name on the side of the car You can see this hubcap is clearly marked for the right sideAnd this one is marked for the left side The Federico family crest The princes mother is an equestrian and a performing professional singer this is the future count. His father is still alive and at 87 he is hoping to do some more racing. The future count has many titles depending upon the areas of land they used to own. But in the 1950s with land reform under the republic the king was exiled and the royalty had their land distributed. So the titles reflect no more land ownership except for the Palazzo. He gave us his tour.The family still lives in the palace. Here you can see some of the original but redecorated wooden ceiling. Much of the building was destroyed during the bombing of World War II.The original kitchen with the pizza oven, of course, during World War II a lot of the contents disappeared and we were told a significant amount was hidden in different places and when they went back they found nothing.This is from the original Norman Tower. The family is with origins dating back to Barbarossa and the Viking king Roger from the 900s. This tower was built in the 1100s and is one of the corners of the palace. You have to walk about 1 mile to get to the ocean now but when this tower was built the ocean came up right next to the tower and it was used for defensive purposes. here is some later decoration on the outside of the tower which is now inside the house created by Arabs and Spaniards who occupied the city at one time.
this is in Turkey not too far from Ankara. I recommend visiting here to see the history of the Hittites that would be good to hire one of the local tourist guides waiting at the place where you pay for entrance.
This town in the Champagne area is a really cute town to visit and they have a nice champagne winery to visit. Enjoy the photos with Bill Smale Adventures.
Our guy is showing us the different bottle sizes. He confirmed that the largest bottle size is not the one used to celebrate at the races.Down in the caves you can see how these bottles are stored in order to get the yeast to settle so they can extract it. Sometimes the extraction is done by hand.The shows a bottle with yeast that still needs to settle. Yeast venting As with all wine caves this one is nice and cool. It was pretty warm outside. These are the three types of grapes used for their champagne at Châlons en Champagne. Only the Chardonnay grape is used for the Blanc de Blanc.This shows their vineyards throughout the champagne area. The front entrance A parking mushroom Old houses on the river Beautiful old churchA Chinese restaurant named Angkor . I wonder if they’re playing with the Cambodian Temple complex name.Typical French perfume shop Beautiful old buildings in Châlons en ChampagneI think this lights up in the evening Making sure this building doesn’t fall while they are putting up a new building beside it.Pipe organ in Eglise Collégiale Notre-Dame-en-VauxBeautiful stained glass window The original remains from the church One of the original stone panels A memorial for war dead the map of the canal and locksThe different locks in the canals in France allow boats to travel all over the country a boat travels up to the lockThere is a control light indicating whether they should enter or waitThe boat passes the first lock and up to the administration window The boat owner ties the boat to the stanchions to make sure it’s not moving too muchWhen the lock is filled she can then untie the boat and proceed through the next lock This is the front lock gate Why not go fishing? a beautiful old building
After 10 days in Paris staying with a friendit was time to move on. I had this idea to see a number of castles and this town, Blois, France, seem to have a number of castles in the area so off I went. But when I got downtown the bus schedule seemed to be sparse for the castles. By 11:30 the buses had already left and there wouldn’t be any others until the afternoon at about four or five so I decided to spend the day walking around town. What I found was very interesting. There is a castle here built and occupied by many of the kings of France for the past 800 years and there are different kinds of architecture depending upon when the structures were built to serve the king of the time. And of course there are some interesting churches and a beautiful town with a Tudor like architecture of plaster between wooden beams and supports. So I highly recommend visiting this small and very interesting town.
Here is the explanation of the fleur-de-lis usage by the French royaltyThis is the whitest station I have seen in a long timeThis is a memorial to the 1901 to 1906 conflict possibly concerning the movement to separate church from the operations of government. In 1905 France became a secular country.I think this is the statue of the goddess Diana of wild animals and the Hunt.St. Vincent de Paul Church. I liked the Romanesque statue presentations in various parts of the church. This was a very interesting way to present figuresYou can see the preferred light blue color of the ceiling which was often used by royalty This altar was also very interesting with the various statues and the framing of the portrait in the middleThe church from the outside When you look at the hotel name “Hotel de France” it is reassuring to note that there is a hotel in France Château Royale de Blois
Blois royal château, built on a promontory high above the River Loire, forms the heart of the urban community. Around it is a bustling old town shaped by its history as a 16th-century royal town. There are several ways of getting to know Blois, a town of artistic and historic interest. You can follow itineraries indicated by brass studs on the ground, take a guided tour, or simply stroll along the streets or up and down the steps. Its diverse heritage spanning a period from the 12t to 20mh centuries, its links with. the Loire that is listed as a World Heritage site, its wide range of museums to suit all tastes, and its gardens with their breathtaking views constantly give visitors and locals alike a chance to see the town from a different angle.
The castle entrance The beautiful castle entrance decorations with a king on a horse this structure was built by François I In Blois, France and occupied by Catherine Medici. Catherine left Italy, Florence, to become a queen of France and I believe one of the Strozzi family also went to France with her. My interest in this is that my great grandmother was a Strotz from Luxembourg and my great aunt claimed they were descendants of the Strozzi family of Italy, closely tied to the Medici family. No one has proven either way the veracity of this claim by my great aunt so I am spending time here and there trying to uncover the truth.This is a really beautiful staircase The farthest structure was built by Gaston of Orleans as he laid claim to the title of King after the death of the current king. However, his nephew was born and it was decided he would become the future King, Louis the 14th, the one who built Versailles.You can see the porcupine emblem above the door which it seems indicates the ability to shoot quills and conquer any adversary. in the chapel you see this beautiful ceiling with the light blue of the French royaltyThis medieval structure as a defense battery remainsHey beautiful view of the town The square corner building is left from the medieval times. The structure was built by Louis XIIThe staircase was built recently but the inside decorations were finished before the building was suspended due to the inability of Gaston to become king and inherited enough money to finish the project
Gaston d’Orléans, the son of Henri IV and Marie de’ Medici, commissioned one of the greatest transformations that the Château underwent in the 17th century. King Louis XIII’s brother and for a long time heir to the throne, he became Count of Blois in 1626 and lived there from 1634, when he launched the construction of a huge palace. The works were directed by the architect François Mansart. In 1635, a new main building was constructed at the rear of the courtyard, taking the place of the “Perche aux Bretons” building. But in 1638 the works were brought to a halt. The birth of the Dauphin Louis (the future Louis XIV) put paid to Gaston’s status as heir to the crown and to a large proportion of the financial resources granted to him by the King. Although incomplete, the new wing is a manifesto for French Classicism. It has a projecting central pavilion, a colonnade, perfect symmetry, three storeys, each with a different classical order, and two superposed pediments, all emphasising the sense of verticality. If the project had been completed, the Louis XII and François I wings would have been razed to the ground and replaced by new buildings. Gaston set up his apartments in the François I wing rather than finish the works. He died there in 1660. The Gaston wing remained an empty shell until the Château was turned into barracks at the beginning of the 19th century.
The beautiful fireplace on the ground floor of the François structure Some remaining artifacts are displayed here but the explanation says there are not many left since quite a few if not most were badly damaged since the king had to move here and there to remain control of his realm, stashing many objects in trunks and carried by carriages.One of the remaining trunks Day to day life followed a rhythm of daily prayers. The fervently Christian King and Queen attended daily public masses in the chapel and also had an oratory in their residence to allow them to pray in private. The windows of this oratory, commissioned in 1858 by Duban from the master glassmaker Claudius Lavergne, were inspired by Michel Dumas’ sketches. The Saints shown with their symbols all had a link to Catherine de’ Medici and the Valois familv.The King’s bedroom where he used to accept visitors A beautiful view of the town A porcelain violin A very old town A former main street Church of Saint Nicholas under repair The main altar I really love this windowEach of the different alcoves had different color themes for the stained glass windows which I found to be very beautiful and creativeA display of the varying window concepts
Just across the border from Luxembourg and a short train ride you can enjoy a short stay in Nancy France. I had no idea what to expect in the city. It had some fairly interesting things to see so I think it’s worth a day trip. It’s very easy to get around and it’s not a large town center. So at least when you tell people you visited France I think it’s fun to tell people you visited in Nancy France.
the topping on the entrance gateThe entrance gate to the Stanislaus PlazaStanislaus was the big cheese in LorraineOne of the entrance gates. The French love to use goldIt seems obvious that these large streets were made for a large gatherings to enter, entertain and then exit. These entryways are very large. Every town seems to have a hotel de Ville. More than a hotel it seems to be the city HallThis was the best of Viennese coffee I have ever hadPitaya is a chain of Thai restaurants in France but they have their own concept of Thai food. It’s actually a Poké bowl. In Thailand they don’t put the main dish on top of the rice, they serve it on the side next to a plate of rice. This is a pretty fun name for a what? I didn’t really find out but I think it’s got something to do with cheese. But it reminds me of how I used to call my dog DC when I wanted him to come home. I would say “cheese” this way. A little hint, he loved cheese.at the museum this was the one piece of art that caught my eye. I found it an interesting portrayal of a feast on a farm. Noticed the fellow on the far right with this gigantic piece of bread he is slicing to serve people Many of the beggars in France have a long explanation of why they need money. This guy even had a T-shirt indicating he had been running for a long time in Japanese
