Europe Reflections Part 4: Taking my breath away

A few experiences and places that took my breath away:

Ste-Chappelle, Paris
The most exquisite of Paris' Gothic monuments, one enters the first chapel and is amazed. But that's not the real deal. One ascends to the top chapel, to be greeted by what Messiaen described as "the pinnacle of religious art", one thousand stained glass windows in the most brilliant blue.

Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
Monet's Waterlilies (Nymphéas) displayed in their intended light (diffused from above). The museum specifically does not allow photography, and tries to maintain quiet as much as possible to let all visitors experience the art, which is disaplayed in two oval rooms along the walls. I've never felt quite so much peace at looking at paintings before.

Musée Rodin, Paris
Probably one of my favourite museums out of the many I visited. For its peace, for revealing to me at the time that I enjoy sculpture, to see The Thinker, The Kiss, and the model of the human hand.

Grand Place, Brussels
The most beautiful city square in Europe that I saw. Big claim? See for yourself!

St Paul's Cathedral, London
Again, one can't take photos in here. Maybe it's the places that don't let you take photos that one really enjoys the experience in the moment. The grandeur of this building, but so beautiful, in its not over-the-top opulent way. My friend was right when she said that she loved it because it felt like it had clean lines, and was perfectly apportioned. The inside of the dome is beautifully decorated. The crypt is fascinating, with such luminaries such as the Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Arthur Sullivan and Christopher Wren himself are interred here.

Anne Frank Huis, Amsterdam
Actually climbing through the narrow corridors and stairs of the house where Anne wrote her famous diary while in hiding. The grim reality of being in hiding brought to physical reality.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin
The experience of actually walking through this maze created by Peter Eisenman is sobering. 2711 concrete columns rise from the ground, and one can see other people disappearing into the maze. One doesn't know how many people are in the maze at any given time, and the school group we saw enter seemed to be swallowed up by it. Walking through it, the undulating ground revealed the columns to be deceiving, as if the sky was closing in on you.

Dreikönigskirche, Frankfurt
To be perfectly honest, lots of OTT Catholic churches in Paris were like eating too much dessert - the opulence was too much to handle. Stepping into this church quite randomly, I was struck by its beauty in simplicity. Of course, it was beautiful in its own right, but the extensive notes for the self-guided tour (thankfully a version written in English) revealed a humbleness and serious, well-thought out theology for why certain traditional elements of the building are why they are, and why they're still relevant today. 



Of course, there are so many other places and experiences that were also magnificent that this (fairly short, in comparison!) post cannot begin to cover...