Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
Between the exposition area of Bruxelles and the Atomium you can find a special museum dedicated to the design of things. The Design Museum is a wide collection of everyday items made from plastics: chairs, tables, TVs and much more. Even radical approaches towards common items are presented here and contribute to the fun. Additionally, there is a gallery exhibiting items from Belgian designers and changing exhibitions.
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Victor Horta was a Belgian architect born in 1861, creating art nouveau buildings. He enriched the city of Bruxelles with different houses in this fantastic style and four of them together form a UNESCO world heritage site. The best place to learn more about him and his work (and to enjoy art nouveau buildings and furniture) is his former house and workshop at the city quarter St. Gilles. When standing in front of the building you can’t really imagine the beauty that awaits you inside – you need to visit it.
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The Smurfs, Lucky Luke, the Marsupilami, Tintin, Spirou and Fantasio: Belgium is the main source for comics in Europe. Around 60 % of all books published in this country tell their story visually. Today Japanese mangas dominate the international market, but the Belgian comic characters are still beloved by many people worldwide. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Belgians celebrate them in an own museum, the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée.
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Communication is an essential part of everyday life. A good place to learn more about it is the Museum für Kommunikation at the Museumsufer of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was created by extending the Bundespostmuseum (postal museum) founded in 1958 and now covers all aspects of communication. A very entertaining museum that gives you the chance to travel back in time and see the means of communication you’ve used in the past.
Continue reading “Ruf doch mal an!”
The Museum Angewandte Kunst (MAK) of Frankfurt am Main is located at the riverside in the city center and is part of the Museumsufer. It resides in a modern building from 1985 but also extends to the ancient Villa Metzler from 1803. The MAK displays applied arts, which means applying design to everyday objects (in contrast to the fine arts, producing objects without practical use). Within the museum you can especially find items concerning interior design, industrial design, and crafts.
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What do Theodor Adorno, Paul Ehrlich, Anne Frank, Erich Fromm and Mayer Amschel Rothschild have in common? They were Jews living at Frankfurt am Main. The city has a long Jewish history dating back to the year 1150 and the traces are still visible today – especially at the riverside of the Main with beautiful houses and at the Börneplatz, the place where the main synagogue was burned down on the 9th of November, 1938. Two impressive museums commemorate the Jewish heritage of the city.
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What to do on Malta when it’s raining? Thats a question that nobody seems to be asking when coming to the island in high season when this situation occurs rarely. In low season I experienced days on which it was raining cats and dogs: the streets were flooded; people were sometimes turning the warning lights of their cars on because they couldn’t continue. Obviously even the road authorities of Malta don’t calculate with rain.
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A fortification at the sea, a national war museum, but most important: a place where important Maltese history has happened. The Fort St. Elmo sits at the end of the headland on which Valletta was built, between the entrance to the Grand Harbour and the Marsamxett Harbour. The fortification was built by the Knights Hospitaller but the location wasn’t perfect: when the Osmans attacked in 1565 they could enter the northern harbor and they attacked St. Elmo from the opposite side of the bay as well as from the higher areas of the headland.
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She is one of the Maltese national treasures: the sleeping lady. The statue was found at the hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, a neolithic necropolis. It is rather small but more than 4500 years old and seen as the representation of a goddess. Today you can’t visit her at the hypogeum which is nowadays a UNESCO world heritage site (and tickets are extremely hard to get), you can see her at the national museum of archaeology.
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In 2018 Valletta (and Leeuwarden) became European Capitals of Culture. This was a good reason to enhance the Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti (MUŻA) that was founded in 1974. It was moved from the Admirality House to the Auberge d’Italie bringing it closer to the parliament and city gate. Today it is located in a beautiful modern building and it’s fun to explore.
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