Old Town of Poznań

Poznań is the largest city in Western Poland. It has been founded in 1253 and for the next five hundred years it has been guarded by city walls.

Nowadays you can only see the ruins of the wall.

The building next to it is a fire station so you may say that it is a special place for the safety of the city also today.

I only hope that the fire brigade does not rely on these old fashion pumps.

If the walls would not be a protection enough, the people of Poznań made sure that they have two powerful guardians. They even put them in their coat of arms. And they did not chose modestly since they selected Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Let's walk to the Market Square. It is surrounded by very nice residential buildings in vivid colours.

The most important building is of course the Town Hall, with its tall towers.

Now look carefully at the little door over the clock.

It is opening! And something is getting out of there!

These are goats!

And they do not seem too friendly to each other.

Around the Town Hall you can see several statues. Some are religious ...

... while others are definitely pagan.

In this building you will find the Museum of Literature.

Finally, a monument dedicated to a horse! It commemorates the fifteenth regiment of uhlans, the first regiment of cavalry in the Wielkopolska Uprising.

Though obviously, the most popular animal monument in Poznań is this one ...

Look at the clock on the wall, it is time that we move on.

Our next point of interest is round the corner. I will show it to you next week.

Warsaw Zoo

I have realised recently that over the last few years we have visited several zoos. But we have never seen the Warsaw zoo. The weather is getting nicer so I hope that you fancy a little walk in the animal kingdom. The lane is large and comfortable.

Next to the entrance you can see some seals. They do not seem over excited by all the visitors that they take pictures. Most probably they are not on Instagram and do not care about followers and likes. 

A bit further we reach the Australian corner. First the emus ...

... then the kangaroo.

But what really stope my heart is this little kangaroo sitting in his mother's pouch. Technically, his out, conquering the world with his eyes and hands. But his back is safely protected close to mommy.

My human family just run after some ice cream. And I was amazed by the colours of this peacock. I do not think that I have ever seen one like that. 

The zoo is the house to some monkeys and apes. The baboons reside outside.

The gorillas were hiding inside. 

The elephants have a relatively larger territory so it is not easy to take a good selfie with one of them. 

But you can always try to get close to a rather nice representation of it. 

Next to the elephants you can find a rhino. His horn was cut off to protect his life. I think this is the saddest thing that I have seen since long. 

Actually zoos in general have something sad in them, being in reality some sort of prison for the animals. But it is also true that thanks to the zoos, some of the species were saved and can expand, like the European bisons. 

Plus they never have to worry about anything and can simply relax like this alpaca. 

Or maybe take a swim like the hippos.

If you enjoy the water and the sun, I propose we sit for a moment next to this fountain and enjoy the calm around us. 

Just make sure that you do not sit on a crocodile!

Bengaluru holy and ancient sites

Let' start our today trip around Bangalore at the gate, where everything started. In the first half of 16th century, Kempe Gowda I, a chieftain of the Vijayanagara Empire, founded the modern Bangalore. One of its first building was the Bangalore Fort.

Let me introduce you to Kempe Gowda I and his horse.

Let's enter the gate.

In fact all that remains of the fort is the Delhi Gate and remnants of two bastions. After they captured the fort in 1791, the British started dismantling it, a process that continued till the 1930s. Most of it is visible on the picture below.

Together with a small holy cow.

The last ruler of Mysore, the kingdom Bangalore was part of before English invasion, was Sultan Tipu. Let's visit his palace.

In fact it is a Summer Palace, so it is quite open.

The structure was built entirely teak and stands adorned with pillars, arches and balconies.

There are beautiful floral motifs embellishing the walls of the palace.

It is believed that Tipu Sultan used to conduct his durbar (court) from the eastern and western balconies of the upper floor.

And there is a hinduism Kote Venkataramana Swamy temple just next to it, built in 1689 by King Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, then ruler of Mysore.

This is the entrance to the temple.

In fact there are plenty of hinduist temples around Bangalore.

Some of them are not even higher than the buildings nearby.

This is the entrance to the area sourounding one of the most important hinduism temples, the Big Bull temple.

But people of different religions also can find places for their prayer.

Like very European in the style St. Patrick's Church.

or one of the main churches in the city - St. Mary's Basilica.

I hope that you have enjoyed our trip to Bangalore. It is a huge city so we still haven't seen everything. Maybe we will visit it one more time one day.