Our Europe Tour in Pictures(4)- The Louvre, Paris

Madonna and child with the infant St John by Raphael (1488-1576), painted in 1507.


Woman with the pearl, painted in 1868, with the same pose as Mona Lisa.

The portrait of Infanta Margarita byDiegi Velasquez(1599-1660)

Self Portrait with a Ricinus Flower, by Albrecht Durer(1471-1528).

Portrait of Eransmus of Roterdam, by Hans Holbein the Younger(1497-1543)

Henriette of France as Flora.

Grande Odalisque

Diana resting after her bath, by Francois Boucher(1703-1770)

Liberty leading the people, by Eugene Delacroix(1798-1863). This was painted
to celebrate the day of July 28, 1830.(French revolution)

Status of Venus

Goddess of Victory

Hiew

Our Europe Tour in Pictures(3)- Paris

Paris, here I come.
I visited Paris twice, the previous time was in 1991 if my memory still serves me. I like Paris. Of the cities I visited in Europe, I like Paris best. The architectures, the parks and greens, the Seine River, the Louvre....

Tour Saint Jacques, a Gothic architecture, was erected between 1508 and 1522. Pascal has carried out many scientific experiments here.

The Panorama facing southeast from the Eiffel Tower with the Military School at the back.

The Palais Bourbon, the seat of the National Assembly.

The Church of Saint Eustache.


Place De La Bastille.
The July Column was built between 1831 and 1840 to commemorate the Parisians killed in the days of July 1830. The Bastille was demolished in July 1878. The Opera Bastille characterized by its curved glass facade, houses the main auditorium with rotating stage. This opera was erected on the site of the Bastille.

The Arch of Triumph is a landmark in Paris. Being not a French, I attach no importance to it. To me, it is a huge arch on a roundabout with 12 approaches.

Our Europe Tour in Pictures(2)

After posting the few photos we took in Roma, I managed to upload just over 100 photos out of the 600 over photos we took in the 2 week tour to Picasa2. These photos can be viewed from the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/tchiew2/Europe2008. Alternatively, they can also be viewed as slide show on my blog slideshow if you don't mind missing the captions.

There are places or spots or views of spots that we have not taken photos of for some reasons or other that are of interest to us or perhaps to you, I would like to show them to you here.



Simply because of its size, we could only manage to take photos of segments of the St Peter's Square. Here are two aerial views that will give you an idea of how big and breath taking it is. It is an ellipse whose greater diameter is 240 meters.

The temple of Saturn was one of the oldest temples in Roma erected in 497 BC but was completely rebuilt in 42 BC by the aedile L. Munazius Plancus.



We have no chance to go inside the Colosseum. But the thought of kings and so called noble and rich men watching their slaves fight each other to death like animals as a form of entertainment/game sends cold shudders through my spine. This happened 2000 over years ago. How much has humanity progressed since then? How much of that cruel mentality is still with us or people among us? I am pretty sure we have not yet completely transcended that mentality. It still exists in us in more subtle forms-we still have this master-servants mentality. Haven't you noticed that some of us wanted to treat our civil servants as maids? Haven't you noticed that some of our civil servants are assuming the masters' role in dealing with the public? Haven't you noticed that some house wives do not treat their maids as their equal fellow human beings? Let the Colosseum remind us of our animal constituent that we need to watch out for.



Piazza San Marco or St Mark's Square, Venice, was originally laid out in the 9 century AD. Framing the Square are unrivaled architectures such as Basilica of San Marco, the Palace of the Doges(Duke) and the Loggetta.

Head of Michelangelo's David.


In Firenze, there are many museums with collections of the world's finest arts. In sculpture, no one who does not know of Michelangelo and his work David. Have a look for yourself and make your own judgment. In painting, Alessandro Allori's Venus and Cupid is no less famous and fascinating. Arts make Firenze (Florence) a city I think I must visit while in Italy.

The dikes, the canals, the windmills and the tulips are the reasons for visiting Holland. We missed the Tulips in our visit. What a pity. Not our fault. We booked the first of May tour, but ended up joining the 29th of May tour because there were not enough participants earlier on. By June, the tulips were nearly all over. To make up, I uploaded this photo to show you how huge and beautiful the tulip farms in Holland are.

Hiew

遗爱人间

玉波叔2008年4月4日在吉隆坡去世的噩耗，于当天下午由他的谊女苏珊娜（黄玉霞）传来。听到长辈的噩耗，心里自然泛起特定情绪；但却没有惊奇。到底玉波叔已是九十二岁的老人了，而且好几年前中风后，行动不很方便，身体已大不如前，近几年来，更是时好时坏，不很稳定，大家心里都有数。

玉波叔设有刘玉波基金，数年来大力资助教育慈善事业。老人的逝世，自是社会的损失。4月14日 在斗湖出殡，执拂人众，自是预料中事。忝为刘玉波基金信托人，我自然也到斗湖去出席出殡仪式，永远告别玉波叔。

出殡当晚玉波叔的侄儿拿督斯里刘楚群代表家人宣布捐出马币一千一百万元给各教育宗教与慈善团体。玉波叔可以说是富甲一方，腰缠万贯，身后捐助教育慈善机构，是平常事。但一捐就一千一百万，在马来西亚，就是大手笔了。我相信这是一项刷新纪录，一项不易打破的纪录。

这笔善款，于2008年5月20日在斗湖刘玉波基金大厅由基金的信托人移交给105个受益机构。当天出席接收捐款的机构代表计99个。其中保佛中学获一百五十万元，斗湖公民学校一百二十万元，亚庇崇正中学五十万元，吉隆坡的马来西亚抗癌研究学会三十万元，斗湖新华学校二十万元，亚庇德教会二十万元，亚庇潮州公会五万元。虽然总数很大，但申请者众，无法分发每个申请者心目中的数目，则是预料中事，但移交的个别款项，都不少于一万元。

5月20日出席善款移交仪式的信托人共有四位，由他们移交99份善款与出席的受益团体代表们。

陶正记

Our Europe tour in pictures (1)-Roma

The tour took place from 29th May to 11th June 2008. We traversed Italy, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and England, in that order. Took many photos, but no guarantee we remember what they are.

And that applied to the very first photo I took, in Roma.

Monument to Victor Emmanuel ll. Started in 1885 and completed in 1911, to celebrate the splendor of the nation after the Unification of Italy.

The Basilica of San Pietro, St Peter's Cathedral, in Vatican. The biggest cathedral in the world.

Two St Peter's statues guarding the cathedral named in his honor.

The famous Michelangelo sculpture in St Peter's cathedral. 圣母和耶稣的雕像。

St Peter's Square. 梵蒂冈的圣彼德广场

The Arch of Constantine, next to the Colosseum.

The remain of the doubled wall Colosseum. 竞技场

The remain of the inner wall of the 2000 year old Colosseum. 2000历史的竞技场





If you are a regular movie watcher, you should be familiar with this site in Roma- the Trevi Fountain. When you visit this place, I bet your tour guide will warn you to be careful of pick pockets. If you love ice-cream, don't forget to spend $3 Euro to enjoy a cup of it.

The Barcaccia Fountain, near the Spanish Square, within walking distance from the Trevi Fountain. There is a street nearby along which shops selling branded goods are frequented by celebrities, particularly film stars.