Potpourri - Versailles

Here are a few pictures from our day trip out to Versailles, the palace built by King Louis XIV in the late 1600's. Prior to that, the land was a royal hunting ground for hundreds of years. This was the home of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before they were beheaded during the revolution. The palace itself was huge and very crowded. The decor was very ornate. Lots of paintings, fancy wallpaper, frilly decorations, and ornate furniture. We did not take many pictures inside.

Some of the outside was decorated with gold paint. I think some of it was real gold. Louis XIV thought of himself as the sun king and had a bit of a Midas complex.

The gardens were spectacular. Click on this picture to see more detail. The fountain in the foreground is only the first prominent feature. The green lawn is probably 1/4 mile. The flat water in the background is about 1 mile long.

There were many fountains. The day we went was a fountain display day, so all the fountains were active (at least some of the time). I liked the deer with the projectile vomit-like display.

Marie Antoinette had her own little village built on a corner of the property. Most people have a simple little model doll house. Marie Antoinette had a life-sized version.

There were lots of neat garden features. There were also nice flowers. I liked the daisy-like flowers with the purple tints.

Here are some statues. The top is of Charlemagne, the regional king circa 800 AD. The lower picture shows me and Rene Descartes.

Well. that is about all for the pictures. Amy may post a few more that she took in various museums. I may post a few summary thoughts and some information about the conferences I attended.

Potpourri - Hungary

Here are some assorted photos from Hungary. The captions/descriptions follow each picture or set of pictures.

This is Keleti, one of the major train stations in Budapest. Our train to and from Pécs used this station. There is also a metro stop here. Overall, the public transportation in Hungary was very efficient.

Here is another picture of a metro car in Budapest .

Here is some of the typical large building architecture in downtown Pécs. This part of town has many buildings that are 100 years old. The newer parts of town have quite a few apartment buildings that are about 10 floors with very little charm and nearly identical architecture. There are also some nice residential areas. Many of the houses were stucco.

We did a lot of walking in Pécs. The conference hotel was a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. The town had many fountains. There were also many streets converted into pedestrian walkways. The walkways were usually quite full during the day and almost every cafe had outdoor seating.



These photos are from the countryside and winery area we saw on our excursion day. I'm not sure what the flowering shrub is, but we saw a lot of these in Hungary. There were varieties that had white, pink, and red flowers. The leaves were very rough, perhaps an evergreen. Since the climate there is similar to ours, I am wondering if I could grow one at home.

Here a three decorative tiles from the Zsolnay museum.

The above pictures are from the Vasarely museum. Vasarely is considered the father of op-art, essentially artwork that was abstract yet contained lots of visual stimulus or optical illusions.

This was a sculpture made of empty water bottles.



Here are some interesting sculptures we saw at the sculpture park on our excursion day.



A fountain on castle hill in Buda.



A nice area on castle hill.



A view of the parliament building from castle hill.



Some buildings in downtown Pest.



The name carved into the building reminded us of home.



This is the large market building in Budapest.



This is a decoration inside one of the large bath buildings in Budapest.