Jade Buddha Temple, Shanghai

In the western part of Shanghai, a very modern and flourishing city, there is a venerable and famous Buddhist temple, Jade Buddha Temple. In 1882, an old temple was built to keep two jade Buddha statues which had been brought from Burma by a monk named Huigen. The temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately the jade Buddha statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928. It was named the Jade Buddha Temple.

The Jade Buddha Temple is a good place to go whether you are a Buddhist or not, the peaceful and transcendent atmosphere adds a kind of richness to our busy modern society.

We were lucky to see some monks chanting and I was able to film a short sequence of the rite:

Grand Gateway Plaza and Cotton’s Shanghai

Xujiahui counts as the biggest shopping and entertainment quarter in the southwest of the town. The shopping quarter is named to Xu Guangqi, a scholar of the Ming dynasty who lived in this part of the town. On a surface of 1.2 square kilometers are located Xujiahui the Grand gateway shopping centre, the Orient shopping centre, the Pacific department store, the Huijin department store, metro city and the Huilian department store. We visited the place by night to get some impressions of the colorful ad displays.

If you have time, check out Cotton’s bar for a relaxing evening and some cocktails. It is located in a three-story 1930s villa in the French Concession. It’s definitely worth visiting.

Grand Gateway Plaza, Shanghai Trip Details

London in June (4) – Camden Town

Camden is an inner-city district in the north of London. It is a very colorful place and a center of alternative culture like punk and Goth subcultures. If you stay in London you have to visit this district. I’ve never seen so many tattoo and piercing studios in one street.

The Camden Lock Village reopened in May 2009 so we were lucky to visit it. The market in general is very exciting and if you are there you have to eat in the section along the canal.

They have a vast range of different food from Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Italian etc.. and the places where you can eat it are special. See below:

More pictures of Camden Town.

London in June (3) – Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens

The correct name would be the The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew but usually one says just Kew Gardens. It is a vast collection of living plants (more than 30’000!) and the size is about 300acres. The entry fee is about 11 pounds. More pictures of Kew Gardens.

Rhizotron & Xstrata Treetop Walkway
This walkway gives you the opportunity to walk high above the ground through the tree canopy of sweet chestnuts, limes and deciduous oaks. If you are lucky you see birds, insects, lichens and fungi that rely on these huge organisms. The walkway is about 200 meters long and is really thrilling. You also have a great view of the vast 300 acres of Kew, as well as the London skyline. It is designed by Marks Barfield Architects, the architects of the London Eye. The pioneering structure of the Xstrata Treetop Walkway is an ingenious design based on a Fibonacci numerical sequence, often found in nature’s growth patterns.  And if you have forgotten what the Fibonacci numbers are, here the reminder : 0,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,…

Temperate House
The central part of the Temperate House was designed by Decimus Burton and finished in 1861. It was very expensive and because of financial constraints the construction of the two side-parts was delayed until 1899. It is the largest glasshouse at Kew and the world’s largest surviving Victorian glass structure. It contains plants from Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands and Africa. You can even walk up and view the trees and plants from above.

Waterlily House
It is the hottest and by far the most humid house at Kew. There was immediately a film over my lens from the camera. The Waterlily House contains a large pond with huge lilies surrounded by other heat-loving plants.

London in June (2) – Richmond

A nice day trip you can plan is to visit Richmond and on the way back Kew Gardens. Richmond sits on the south side of the river Thames. If you have a 7-Day Travelcard for zones 1 and 2 (and I remommend to buy one if you stay that long)  the return ticket only costs about 3 pounds. Below you can see the Richmond bridge which was built in the 18th century. 1937 they widened the bridge due to increasing traffic.

We enjoyed the Thameside walkway with the pubs, terraces and beautiful green parks. Again there were lot’s of squirrels in the parks..

Andrea attracting a squirrel…

London in June (1)

The Piccadilly Circus at night is one of my favourite places in London to take pictures. It’s so vivid and colorful that you have lot’s of opportunities to test different modes and parameters for your “perfect” shot. Below are a few examples taken without a tripod. I tried some different ISO values and aperture times to compare the results.

 
1/2s, f10.0, ISO 320

 
1/4s, f7.1, ISO 320

1/20s, f3.5, ISO 320

London – HDR Shots

The Royal Albert Hall. Made from a single RAW.

Piccadilly Circus at Night. Made from a single RAW. 

London Trip (1)

London is one of my favourite cities. We arrived at Stansted Airport and took the Stansted Express train to Liverpool Street (about 45 minutes). We stayed at the Hilton Olympia in Kensington which is easy to access via the tube station Kensington High Street. From there it is about 10 mins to walk. The hotel was wonderful and the breakfast fantastic. I will definitely stay there again.

We explored the city a few days and walked lots of miles Check out the track below.

 London City Trip Details

On the 30th April there was a flash mob from t-mobile at Trafalgar Square. 13’000 people met to sing karaoke,..maybe it’s a new record for the Guinness book. For a surprise Pink performed there as well and all in all it was a fantastic event.

 The full length of the first song is already on youtube.

See all pictures of the London trip in the gallery.

Rhodes 2008 (4 – Final)

West Coast
On the day we had to bring back the rental car we drove to the West coast via Archipolis, Eleousa, Dimylia and Soroni. The west coast near Soroni was more industrial and the beaches were mainly gravel and no sand. The whole coast was very windy and therefore there were lot’s of schools for kytesurfing and windsurfing. Personally I think the east coast with all the bays, sand beaches and less big hotels is more interesting. But if you are a professional surfer or want to learn surfing than the west coast is definitely for you.

Having the car for one week was not enough so we decided to rent another car for 3 days. We wanted to visit Rhodes by Night again and of course our favorite beach the Agathi bay (Golden Sand).

Rhodes 2008 (3)

Epta Piges
We read about Epta Piges and the lake in the forest which is reachable through a 200 meter long tunnel. It wasn’t that far from our hotel, so we decided to go there. Epta Piges, or also called Seven Springs is a place in a green valley where exactly seven springs build a (small)river. Again there were hundreds of tourist which came by bus to eat at the tavern near the river. However going through the tunnel was exciting. It was completely dark and so narrow that you couldn’t turn back even if you wanted to. The tunnel was too small for two people next to each other. We walked several minutes in complete darkness and partly very bad air (from the sweating tourists in front of us). The only noise you hear is the flowing water at the bottom of the tunnel. Unfortunately there was no lake on the other side, only a small dirty pond. So the month July is probably not the best time to visit this place. But – funny enough – nevertheless tourists were taking pictures of this dirty pond.

Rhodes
The ancient Acropolis of Rhodes (Monte Smith) and the old town of Rhodes were really fascinating. We went there in the late afternoon when the main heat was gone and we also hoped to see the sunset on the west coast. The light at about 7 pm was perfect for taking pictures. The contrast and the colors were much better than at noon. First we visited the Acropolis, the theater and the old stadium which was build at about 200 B.C. The stadium is still used today for sport events and as a jogging trail. If you have time watch the sunset over Simi. The changing colors and the reflections in the water is something you have to see.
The town Rhodes itself was amazing. The big walls around the old town and the bombastic entries with the towers look like as if they were built for a Hollywood movie. Most of the small alleys are maintained and while walking through you get a good feeling of how they lived hundreds of years ago.