Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle

One of the hidden gems of Frankfurt - the Kleinmarkthalle (Small market hall).  A perfect place to get fresh produce, livestock and goodies from all over the world.

Royal Observatory in Greenwich

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has trove of history, including setting the standards for units of measurement and also making astronomical observations discoveries.

As you can see in the photos, the definition of a foot, yard, longitude and time was defined here.  Later when the international organizations standard were developing the ISO standards, Paris got the measurement of length and weight (with meter and gram as the base units) and Greenwich got to keep time (GMT) and Longitude (latitude is measured with the angle of sun and stars, but longitude is a man made measurement)

A childhood dream to stand along this line

Royal Victoria Dock

The Royal Victoria Dock was one of the largest's dock built.  It was a busy place, until the widespread use of container ships.  At that point they were too big to enter London and a new port was built outside the city.  Now UK's largest exhibition center, new airport and new apartment complexes are built to give a new life to this part of London.

Trafalgar Squage

A nice view when leaving the National Gallery overlooking Trafalgar Square and Nelson.

Painted Hall of Greenwich

It's amazing to think that this was designed as a mess-hall for retirees of the Royal Navy.

And the stories goes that this was not enough for them...

2013 New Years in London

The celebration as seen from Lambeth Bridge, looking at the London Eye.

Kröller-Müller Museum

The story goes that the husband wanted a hunting ground, but the wife wanted a fine art museum.  So the compromise?  Build the fine art museum in the middle of the large hunting ground.  Now the grounds are a natural part, and the museum is best accessed with the free bikes with a relaxing cycle though the large park.

Inside the museum is the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings.

In addition, it has one of the largest sculpture gardens in Europe.

I simply love the architecture of the museum, with the simplicity of Dutch design and nature.

St Patrick's College

Ireland is known as a Catholic country, and nowhere more so in Ireland this can be said than St Patrick's College in Maynooth.

Walking around is an amazing experience in the tranquility and tradition for a institution that was established in 1795.

BMW Welt

Munich is known for many things and one of them is BMW.  In fact, the BMW logo is the Bavarian flag.  Oddly many Germans consider Munich to be a village in comparison to Frankfurt, the Rhein Valley and Berlin.

What's really cool is when you buy a BMW, you have the option of picking it up at the specially built receiving center where people give you a tour of your new car and the option of getting export plates to have fun on the Autobahn before heading home.

Also is included a ticket to the BMW museum, where they have a nice collection of the older and future prototypes.

View from Deutsches Museum

The view from the observation floor on top of Deutsches Museum is quite nice view of Munich.

I like the weather instruments on the tower

View of Munich altstadt

The English gardens in the distance

Partnach Gorge

The gorge in Garmisch is not the biggest, but it's quite accessible and once you pass it, it's an amazing hike!