Author: kenritley

What’s worse? The incredible bogus drawbridge of Vincent Van Gogh – or his own bogus buggy?

kenritley

With this blog I would like to bring a true mystery to the attention of the art world – showing that one of the all time masters of art was, in fact, a con man.

First things first: this is the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh,

He lived in the south of France, and he made a number of paintings of tiny, almost microscopic horse-and-buggy on a mammoth drawbridge, just outside of the city of Arles:

He did this paintings in the late 1800’s.  Sadly, the Germans destroyed this bridge, along with many others, during World War II.  But thankfully for tourists, a “bogus drawbridge” has been built to take its place. It is NOT easy to reach – well off the beaten path – so if you ever get here chances are, you’ll be the only one here to be looking at it!

But now we get to the fun bit – unless you are an art historian, in which you might find my opinion on this to be offensive if not downright hypostasy.

If you compare the tiny size of this bogus bridge to that of the monster size drawbridge in his paintings, Van Gogh has grossly overestimated the size of the bridge – or else grossly underestimated the size of the horse-and-buggy crossing it. In both cases he made a gross error – and I find it amazing the public has not spotted this egregious error until now!

When backs are better than fronts – 6

kenritley

Continuing the series, it is quite usual in architecture for the front side of an object (the facade) to be the most embellished and visually interesting.

But sometimes that doesn’t happen.

In a recent blog I provided a good example of this by the amazing, incredible, almost unbelievable Wülflinger Unterführung – a passageway at the Winterthur train station whose very existence is clouded in intense mystery, and whose tiny design and very steep steps would prevent it from being implemented today:

Well, if you find yourself in Winterthur – and if you are NOT afraid to enter deep, dark places, then you will be greeted by an amazing example of “backs are better than fronts.”

Because this is no ordinary passageway!  It is lined with railroad-related works of art, such as this:

And this:

Rise of the machines – the AMAZING French Robo-Stores

kenritley

Continuing the series, in the event of a zombie apocalypse France is really the place you want to be.

There are now many “superstores” that are not accessible to people at all. You do all of your shopping online, 100%, then you drive to the warehouse where it is loaded automatically into your car:

If you can open the trunk of your car remotely, then in fact you can obtain your groceries or other items without making any physical contact with either zombies or French citizens.

Rise of the machines – the AMAZING French Robo-Hotels

kenritley

France would be almost the perfect country during the next global pandemic, since it’s possible – without too much inconvenience – to live life here without having to interact directly with other human beings.

Fully automated grocery stores are one example. You order your groceries on their website from your home, and when you drive to the store they are all ready to be loaded into your car.

The amazing French robo-hotels are yet another. The chain called B&B is one of my favorites (but there are many others):

The rooms don’t use a key for entry; rather, they have a little touchpad into which you enter a code to open them.

As shown above, and in more detail below, outside the hotel there is a kiosk. You can use your credit card to order and pay for your room – and the machine will print out a paper with the code to your door.

Amazing Grasse: medieval village of perfume

kenritley

The French culture is obsessive compulsive in many regards.

For one, there are a few villages that are not just well known for a particular trade, but in fact are obsessive about it.

Theirs in central France is one example I’ve blogged about. 90% of all cutlery in France is made in the tiny village of Thiers.

Grasse in southern France is another.  Here is a snap I took while in Grasse, overlooking the valley below:

Grasse’s claim to fame is the perfume industry. Almost two thirds of all scents in France are manufactured here.

Brain exploding experience – Gordes!

kenritley

If you have a brain and you like your brain, and you don’t want your brain to accidentally explode, then you should best avoid this place!

Because visiting Gordes in Southern France is a truly brain exploding experience!

Here is a snap is the spectacular village of Gordes, located in Southern France:

The village dates back to Roman times and is located high on the top of a rock outcropping. Over the centuries the stone buildings and the rock outcropping itself have merged and melted into one another.

I’ll post a few more pics when time permits but with a long delay in between. Too many snaps of this place, too frequently, and there is a good chance your brain may explode!

 

Unbelievable plague of birds in Southern France

kenritley

While driving across the French countryside in Southern France, I happened upon an usual sight – a dark gray cloud that I though was smoke from a fire.

But as I got nearer, I realized it was no smoke and no fire, but rather thousands upon thousands of birds!  This sight was so spectacular I had to stop and take a snap. The birds you see here are just a tiny, tiny fraction of them – many, many others were located on the other side of the building. Conservatively, I’d have to estimate there were at least 1 zillion birds:

Now, I’ve seen beautifully choreographed flights of birds in the skies above Rome, tracing out Lissajous-like figures. But this was nothing of the sort. It was a chaotic mess.

I have speculated about plagues of swallows in France. Sadly, I am not a bird watcher, so I can’t tell you why these birds gathered here, in the middle of winter, and what exactly they were hoping to accomplish.

Sighting of the top secret AURORA spy plane over Switzerland!

kenritley

OK, I don’t know if it is or if it isn’t, but here’s a snap I took with my mobile phone in Bern, pointed east towards Geneva and France:

What you can see in the center are tiny bits of contrails – in fact, there were many more of them but they started to disappear by the time I could get out my mobile phone and take the snap.

These “doughnuts on a rope” are the tell-tale signature of something called a scramjet engine.  And the only suspected vehicle thought to sport a scramjet engine is the top secret Aurora hypersonic spy plane.  Did I find one in the skies over Switzerland?

Interestingly, although the existance of the Aurora hypersonic spy plane has never been confirmed by the U.S. government, in fact scramjet engines are very well known. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a top program for aviation engineering, and a good friend of mine told me a story about them testing a scramjet engine in a large hangar – in which a dog was accidentally locked into the hangar. After the test they discovered the dog, dead – but the amazing part is that all his bones were liquified by the intense sonic pressure waves of the scramjet engine.

The incredible Wülflinger Unterführung – DISCOVERED!

kenritley

Here is it, a tunnel steeped in great mystery and known to extremely few people, located at the train station in Winterthur, Switzerland:

Even many residents who’ve grown up in Winterthur and have spent their whole lives here do not know that this incredible place exists!

You may ask, what is it?

The platforms at the main train station in Winterthur all have exactly two access and egress points – except for Platform 6/7.  Platform 6/7 also has the usual two exits – but in addition, at the very far end of Platform 6/7 there is an exit that is only known to people willing to walk the hundreds of meters to this end of the platform. It is not visible from the platform – and it is not documented anywhere. In fact, its existence is very conspicuously hidden!

When was it built? I don’t know – but I expect very few people know.

Why was it built?  I don’t know – but I expect even fewer people know.

How many people use it?  I don’t know – but I expect very few people use it. It is otherwise invisible and totally hidden to the public.

But . . . inside the tunnel there are AMAZING WONDERS that I have photographed and will be sharing in upcoming blogs!

Basel Herbstmesse – 4

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These look like ants. But if you look really closely you will see they are not ants – they are people of the Swiss city of Basel:

You might ask how I came to photograph these ant-like people of Basel.  During the Basel Herbstmesse there is a big tower that has a big elevatable platform. You board the platform when it is at the bottom:

This is the platform en route to the top:

And here’s what it looks like when the platform is at the top. To the people in the platform, their fellow citizens below look like ants – but remember, they are not ants, they are the people of Basel!

Marco Polo was here – maybe, just maybe

kenritley

This is the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo,

I have not researched this personally, but I read somewhere that at one point he stayed in the Swiss city of Bern, in the area known as the Matte:

This is the area where farmers would bring their produce in the middle ages to be sold in the city of Bern, so interestingly the merchants of this area developed their own language, Mattenenglisch, that was not understandble outside of their community, so they could keep their negotiations a secret. There are many such examples of dialects created for this purpose around the world.

Petronas Towers

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This is a snap looking up at the Petronas Towers buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:


They are nice towers, to be sure. And underneath the towers is a very nice indoor shopping center filled with many fabulous restaurants.

But for a long time Malaysia has tried to portray these towers as one of the world’s tallest. This is far from a true statement, as anyone with experience with tall towers knows just after standing under them and looking up.