The beautiful streets above are located again in Moulin, that typical medieval village I went to visit some years ago. There are lot of houses and details that were really well preserved through the course of the years, as you can see also from the other pictures below:

sitting right in the middle of the town this huge gothic cathedral was really beautiful, even if I can’t remember his name, but I remember well its giant dimensions and its gothic decorations, like this “gargoyle” that you can admire below:

all in all, really a town full of history and culture, with lots ot offer, even if isn’t a very popular town, surprisingly.

The next day we went to visit another place called Chateaux Chinon, located in the same area but a few km north, bordering the natural park of Morvan, at 700m on the sea level. Even this small town had a particular feeling, even if wasn’t so rich in historical monuments as Moulin: the fact that was so close to a natural park, and the surrounding mountains made it a very cool place for the nature-lovers like us.

The picture above represents the town hall, in the middle of the town. Not bad, don’t you think? it was full of green zones with various flowers and plants, all around it.

So this trip in Bourgogne, one of the less known areas of France, came to an end. I have mixed feelings and memories of it: the great historical monuments, the medieval atmosphere, but also the cold and rainy weather (due to the period I went to visit). Still if you love nature, history and good wine (it is one of the best french region for wine production!) I recommend you take the time to make a trip in Bourgogne: you won’t regret it!

Anyway, probably we’re the only italians that had a winter holiday in Oberammergau, and not to ski! yes you read it well, we only had need to relax after the stress of the daily routine, and we found a nice environment-friendly holiday apartment, completely built with wood, warm and cozy. For only 35 eur / day, it was included also a sauna and bike rental (even if being winter we didn’t took advantage of it).

We arrived in the late afternoon, and we did a short walk in the town, since as you may know in winter gets dark early.

In the dusk light a curious figure attracted our attention: the vase-woman ! it was a very bizarre “sculpture” made entirely with vases, just in the middle of the town!

vasewoman, the new super hero!

The next day we decided to ignore the weather challenge (it had snown a lot during the night) to reach the Neuschwanstein’s castle, to see how it was during the winter (we had already the luck to admire it during summer). On the road to reach it, we found a very nice church in the plain before the castle that had a very particular atmosphere, you can see it in the picture below.

a small church in the winter landscape, with menacing cloudy sky behind…

At last we were arrived in front of the huge castle, that was magnificent even with all that snow and the cold (in Bavary can get very cold during winter!). Already from some distance the view was great, but we decided to leave the car and walk even more near.

Neuschwanstein during winter, like in a fairy-tale!

Unfortunately when we reached the Marienbrucke bridge, the perfect spot to take a picture of the castle, the sun was already going down so the light wasn’t really good to take photographs. Add to this that my digital camera isn’t exactly professional, and you can see the bad result in the picture below. I tried to fix it with Photoshop but unluckily that’s the best I could get

Neuschwanstein during winter, seen from the bridge of Marienbrucke

As I told you in my other blog, the S.Alessio Oasis is located very close to the famed “Certosa di Pavia”. Since I heard a lot of good things about it but I’ve never been there, we decided to go visit it that same day in the afternoon. In the picture above you can see it from the parking, the first sight the visitor has once he arrives. Really majestic, don’t you think ?

When we went to visit it they were renovating a part of it (was 3 years ago) as you can see from the picture above. Probably now the works will be already over.

The dimensions of this complex are really huge…

And the interiors are very beautiful as you can see…

I like in particular those combinations of colors, between blue and gold. I’m not an art critic, but that was the thing I liked more…

We’re now inside the monastery, which is really wonderful. There’s a long arcade with a green field in the middle and other buildings belonging to the huge architectural complex.

I consider the picture above one of the best one I’ve ever taken. The geometries, the blue of the sky and the white-red colors of the building, and at last on bottom the green of the gardens… all merged together in what I consider a really nice photo!

Inside the Certosa there is, beside the usual souvenir-shop, also another shop were the friars sell their “alchemic potions”! yes, things like infusion to lose weight, to calm down, to depurate yourself, and so on. But also very good liquors!

For further informations, go visit the official site of Certosa