In the traditional region of Franconia, in state of Bavaria, Germany

 'I do not seek. I find.” -- Pablo Picasso

=========
(in the traditional region of Franconia in the German state of Bavaria) Franconia, in the northwestern part of the state (with a history that dates back to at least the 8th century), is a region characterized by its distinctive culture and language, and may be roughly associated with the areas in which the East Franconian dialect group, locally referred to as "Franconian" (Fränkisch, in German), is widely spoken. Somewhere between Ingolstadt and Nuremberg, Bavaria’s accent mellows, the oompah bands play a bit less boisterously, and wine competes with beer as the favorite tipple. This is Franconia (Franken) and the Franconians, who inhabit the wooded hills and the banks of the Main River in Bavaria’s northern reaches, are a breed apart from their more brash and extroverted cousins to the south. Having lived and worked in and around this part of Germany for some 15 years of my adult life, I usually recommended (to lots of visiting friends and professional associates) that the city of Würzburg -- featured here -- should be their first stop on any trip to Franconia. (Set on the vine-clad banks of the Main River and embellished with beautiful baroque masterpieces and delightful Franconian wineries, the lively city of Wurzburg serves as an especially suitable starting point for a trip along Bavaria’s Romantic Road.) With its pleasing harmony of history, culture, and wine, this university city and former royal seat is idyllically located on Main River, offering a vibrant atmosphere while exuding an endearing charm. A Baroque city offering southern German flair and Franconian hospitality, Würzburg's architectural masterpieces from various eras shape the cityscape. Even from afar, the two imposing towers of St. Kilian Cathedral (one of the largest Romanesque churches in Germany) point the way to the city. Other famous landmarks include the Würzburg Residence with its Court Gardens and Residence Square (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Marienberg Fortress and the 180-meter long Old Main Bridge, which is lined with impressive statues of saints. Gracefully straddling the banks of the river amid many vineyards, the location alone is reason enough to visit Würzburg. (Although most of the city was destroyed in World War II, its postwar reconstruction has been quite thorough.) Other landmarks include the round church within the courtyard of the fortress, which is one of the oldest churches in Germany (from 706). Würzburg’s Romanesque cathedral, consecrated in 1189, and restored after World War II, recalls the city’s former status as the capital of an ecclesiastical principality. Other notable medieval churches include the Marienkapelle, the Neumünster (with a Baroque facade), and St. Burchard’s, and among many fine examples of the Baroque and Rococo styles are the Hauger Stiftskirche and the Käpelle, a pilgrimage church (by Neumann). The present University of Würzburg was founded by Bishop Julius in 1582.

In the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands

 “Once a year, go somewhere you’ve never been before.” -– The Dalai Lama

===========================================
(in the Netherlands) The city of Utrecht is found along the Kromme Rijn (Winding, or Crooked, Rhine), Oude (Old) Rijn, and Vecht rivers and the Amsterdam–Rijn Canal. Its original Roman name, Trajectum ad Rhenum (Ford on the Rhine), later became Ultrajectum, and then Utrecht. The city still has many buildings that date back to the early Middle Ages. Until it was overtaken by Amsterdam in the Dutch Golden age, Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands. It was (and still is) the See of the Archbishop of Utrecht, the most important Catholic leader in the Netherlands. The University of Utrecht is the largest in the country. One of the unique features of the city is the wharf system in its inner canals. Before the city was fully canalized, parts of the Rhine River flowed through the city center. Most prominent of the historic buildings is the Gothic Cathedral of Saint Martin, the construction of which lasted for some 260 years, beginning in 1254. The city was chartered in 1122 and had a city council as early as 1304. Utrecht’s greatest prosperity was in the 11th and 12th centuries, but throughout the Middle Ages it remained the most powerful and important town in the northern Netherlands. Under its bishops, it became the capital of a powerful principality and a cultural, commercial, and industrial (mainly cloth-weaving) center until it was surpassed by Amsterdam (26 miles [42 km] northwest) in the 15th century. These days. Utrecht has lots of museums, including the Central Museum (art, history, archaeological findings), the Netherlands Railway Museum, the Netherlands Gold and Silver Museum, the Clock and Watchmaking Museum, the Museum of Modern Religious Art, the Old Catholic Museum, and the National Museum “from Music Box to Barrel Organ.” All that remains of its Cathedral are the transept and tower, the latter being the tallest church tower in the Netherlands). The cathedral’s nave collapsed during a storm in 1674 and was never rebuilt; the chapter room, which is joined to the church by a Gothic cloister, is now the main assembly hall of the university. Other longstanding churches are Jans Church (founded in 1040), Sint Pieter’s Church, Nicolai Church, Jacobi Church, Buur Church, Geerte Church, and Sint Catharijne Church (1468; now the city's Roman Catholic cathedral) -- all in a variety of styles reflecting numerous additions and/or restorations. The Paushuize (Pope’s House) was completed in 1523 for the only Dutch pope, Adrian VI, who was a native of Utrecht. The city’s 17th-century Maliebaan is one of the finest promenades in the Netherlands. In the 19th century the old city ramparts were made into parks, which soon resulted in the development of modern residential districts.

At Schloss Neuschwanstein, a castle in the German federal state of Bavaria, Germany

 "I am the Autumn, when "the frost is on

The pumpkin, and the fodder's in the shock."
Within the fields are piles of golden corn;
And apples - yellow, red, and green and gold -
In luscious richness hang upon the trees.
The wayside pond and ev'ry bowing hedge
Are fringed deep with bittersweet and fern.

The cattle browse amidst the residue
Of grass, on browning fields o' er hill and vale;
While solemn blackbirds and the cawing crows
Convention hold with grave and scolding rooks
Where once the wren and robin filled the choir.
The boastful cock rings out his "chanticleer"
That greets the lighted lamp, presage of dawn.

O'er all the lilting earth, the eye takes in
The forest, meadow too, and then the hill:
And afar - the mountains where are outdone
The rainbow's color, shades and brilliant hues:
All red and crimson, purple, saffron, too;
Magenta, orange, blue and yellow bands
So well shot through with evergreen and bronze.

Along the garden walks, the marigold,
Coxcomb, and mango red, bow low their heads:
And, here and there, amidst the ruin's waster
Where beauty's temple rose among the flowers
Petunias old and golden glow still peep
And wait the harder stroke to lay them low:
While brighter, colder grows the moon each night:

From blackened chimneys wisps of smoke curl out.
There is a crispness and a tang in all
The circumambient air that brings new thrusts
Of frost, and wind and sun and stars:
Bright, sunny days, and colder, deeper nights.
Of all the days, the months, and seasons of
The year my hours bring gayest thought and cheer."
-- Autumn Days, by Sanford N. Carpenter
===================================================================
(at Schloss Neuschwanstein, a castle in the German federal state of Bavaria, where “every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree(*)."
-------------------
*An excerpt from this short poem: "Fall, leaves, fall," by Emily Brontë (who lived but a brief 30 years, from 1818-to-1848):

"Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
–
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day."

In the city of Innsbruck, capital of Austria's federal state of Tirol

 "If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would still be in the Austrian Alps, yodeling." -- Arnold Schwarzenegger

=================================================================
(in western Austria) One of Europe's most idyllic cities, Innsbruck is nestled in the heart of the Alps. The capital of Austria's federal state of Tirol, it is found on the Inn River, at the mouth of the Sill River, in the Eastern Alps. Coveted by empires and republics throughout its history, the city was the seat of the imperial court of Maximilian I by the end of the 15th century. Explore the Tyrolean capital's history at Archduke Ferdinand II's 10th-century Schloss Ambras, the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum, the grand 15th-century Imperial Palace and Maximilian I's famous Golden Roof. First mentioned in 1180 as a small market town belonging to the Bavarian counts of Andech, it developed rapidly because of its strategic position at the junction of the great trade routes from Italy to Germany, via the Brenner Pass, and from Switzerland and western Europe. The bridge (Brücke) over the Inn originally carried this traffic and gave the city its name and its insignia. Innsbruck was chartered in 1239, passed to the Habsburgs in 1363, and in 1420 became the capital of Tirol and the ducal residence under Frederick, the duke “of the empty pockets.” Napoleon granted the city to the kingdom of Bavaria in 1806, and during the War of Liberation (1809) four battles were fought around Berg Isel, a hill immediately to the south, by Tirolian patriots led by Andreas Hofer against the Bavarians and the French. The Old Town area has narrow streets lined with medieval houses and arcades. One of the most famous buildings is the Fürstenburg, with a balcony with a gilded copper roof, allegedly built by Duke Frederick and refashioned by the emperor Maximilian (around 1500). Other notable landmarks include the Hofburg, on the site of a 15th-century ducal residence) and the Franciscan, or Court, church, containing the mausoleum dedicated to Maximilian I and the tombs of Hofer and other Tirolian heroes. The university was founded by Emperor Leopold I in 1677, and its great library was a gift of the empress  Maria Theresa in 1745.
+ The jagged rock spires of the Nordkette mountain range are so close that within minutes it’s possible to travel from the heart of Innsbruck to more than 2000 meters above sea level -- and alpine pastures where cowbells chime. Summer and winter activities abound here, and it’s quite understandable that some visitors only take a peek at Innsbruck proper before heading for the hills. But to do so is a bit unfortunate, for Innsbruck is in many ways Austria in microcosm: its late-medieval Altstadt is presided over by a grand Habsburg palace and baroque cathedral, while its Olympic ski jump with big mountain views makes a spectacular leap between the urban and the outdoors.

In the Borromean islands, on Lago Maggiore in northern Italy

 "'Lost' is about a bunch of people stranded on an island. It's compelling, but kind of tiny. But what sustains you are the characters." -- Carlton Cuse

===========================================
(on Lago Maggiore in northern Italy) On the south side of the Alps, Lake Maggiore is the second largest lake in Italy. Since the climate is mild year-round, the area is filled with Mediterranean vegetation and exotic plants. (Lake Maggiore was featured in Ernest Hemingway's infamous novel, A Farewell to Arms, when the protagonist and his lover must row across the lake, to escape the Italian Carabinieri.) Lake Maggiore is bisected by the border between Lombardy (east) and Piedmont (west). Its northern end is in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The lake is traversed from north to south by the Ticino River, and its other principal tributaries are the Maggia from the north, the Toce from the west, and the short Tresa from Lake Lugano on the east. Off the western shore are the famous Borromean Islands, geologic continuations of the Pallanza Promontory. (Lake Maggiore is known for its warm, mild climate.)
+The Borromean islands are a group of lake islands just off the shore from Stresa, a town on the western shore of Lake Maggiore (in a broad gulf on this shore, a bit separated from the main lake). Three of the islands can be explored, and they are quite popular with visitors because of their pretty villages, villas, and gardens. The three that can be visited are Isola Bella, Isola Madre, and Isola dei Pescatori (another one, Isola San Giovanni, is not open to the public). Featured here, is the most popular of the islands with visitors, Isola Bella ("Beautiful Island"), where you can see the grand baroque style villa and gardens of the 17th century Palazzo Borromeo and a charming little village with narrow cobbled streets winding between ancient houses. Until 1632 the island was just a rocky crag occupied by a tiny fishing village; in that year Carlo III (of the influential House of Borromeo) began the construction of a palazzo dedicated to his wife, Isabella D'Adda, from whom the island takes its name. He entrusted the works to the Milanese Angelo Crivelli, who was also to be responsible for the planning the gardens. (The works were interrupted around midcentury when the Duchy of Milan was struck by a devastating outbreak of the plague.) Construction resumed when the island passed to Carlo’s sons, Cardinal Giberto III and Vitaliano VI; the latter in particular, with the financial backing of his elder brother, entrusted the completion of the works to the Milanese architect Carlo Fontana -- and turned the villa into a place of sumptuous parties and theatrical events for the nobility of Europe. (The completion of the gardens, which were inaugurated in 1671, was left to his nephew Carlo IV.)

In the Pyrenees mountains, in the northwestern part of the province of Lleida, in Spain

 "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself." -- Alan Alda

==================================================================
(in the Pyrenees mountains, in the northwestern part of the province of Lleida, in Spain) Found in the scenic Val d’Aran (Aran Valley) in the middle of the Spanish Pyrenees, the village of Arties is surrounded by lush green meadows in Summer and snowy white peaks in Winter. The Aran Valley is considered by those "in-the-know" to be a pristine paradise, perfect for those who like to enjoy the great outdoors, where cycle paths, ski slopes, walks in thick woods on the trail of wild animals, and so much more, can be delightfully enjoyed. Val d’Aran also offers a lot of culture, a rich eno-gastronomic (food and wine tourism) tradition and many great possibilities for soothing relaxation. (In 2014, Aran Valley was the first mountain destination in the world to obtain the certification of sustainable tourism, as a “Biosphere Destination” by the Institute of Responsible Tourism, (a body associated with UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization). 
+ The hamlet of Arties, in the valley, is lined with colorful houses that are connected by old cobbled streets exuding the look-and-feel of many long-bygone centuries. Seemingly disconnected from the world, however, Arties is an ideal destination for romantic escapes, or solo retreats for a bit of quiet time to rethink the meaning (or purpose) of life, if any, while inhaling refreshing samples of cool mountain air. The road at the end of this charming village -- at the confluence of the Valarties and Garonne rivers, in a small widening of the Valley that's dominated by the peak of Montarto (at 2,833 meters) -- leads to the head of the Valarties river where Lake Mar (Lake Tort de Rius), a lake of glacial origin is located. In the old center of the village stands the parish church of Santa. Maria de Arties, a Romanesque structure built from the 11th to the 12th centuries; its elegant bell tower was added around the turn of the 14th century. To the north of the town, to the right of the Garonne river, the church of San Juan de Arties, is a Gothic building of the late14th century, with an octagonal bell tower -- which now serves as a museum facility that hosts traveling exhibitions. {To the south of Arties is the chapel of San Pelegri, with a small bell tower and a semicircular apse.)

At Montserrat, a mountain in the northwestern Barcelona province of Catalonia, Spain

 “I would sooner be a foreigner in Spain than in most countries. How easy it is to make friends in Spain!” -- George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

===================================================================
(in Catalonia, Spain) Montserrat, a mountain in the northwestern Barcelona province of Catalonia, is found just west of the Llobregat River -- northwest of Barcelona city. Known to the Romans as Mons Serratus (“Saw-Toothed Mountain”) and to the Catalans as Montsagrat (“Sacred Mountain”), it is famous for its unusual appearance and the Benedictine monastery of Santa María de Montserrat. Jagged, barren pinnacles of reddish sandstone and conglomerate, formed by erosion, rise from the mountain’s base, and it is cloven by ravines; the monastery stands on the edge of the widest of these, the Malo valley, at 730 meters. Christian hermits of Santa María were residing on Montserrat when the Benedictine monastery of Ripoll was granted jurisdiction over them, in the year 888. From the 11th to the early 15th century, a regular priory flourished here, and it obtained independence as an abbey in 1410, the status of which it has held almost continuously ever since. The present basilica was begun in 1560 and the monastery in 1755, though these were extensively rebuilt after their destruction by French troops during the Peninsular Campaign, in 1812. Catalonia's most renowned monastery, Monestir de Montserrat, was established in 1025 to commemorate local shepherds' visions of the Virgin Mary, accompanied by celestial light and a chorus of holy music. (In 880, a group of the shepherds' children allegedly saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains.) Today, a community of 55 monks lives here. The monastery complex encompasses two blocks: on one side, the basilica and monastery buildings, and on the other, tourist and pilgrim facilities. Admirable monastery architecture lining the main Plaça de Santa Maria includes elegant 15th-century cloisters and a gleaming late-19th-century facade, depicting St George and St Benedict in relief. This mountain is still home to one of the most important religious sites in Spain, which houses an ancient wooden statue of the Virgin and Child that was supposedly carved by St. Luke, taken to Spain by St. Peter, and hidden in a cave during the Moorish occupation. The statue was first found in 880 and has since been venerated by numerous pilgrims, who attribute many miracles to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

At Chateau de Versailles (Palace of Versailles), France

 "I’m a man of simple tastes, I’m always satisfied with the best." – Oscar Wilde

=================================================================
(in France) Versailles, the former unofficial capital of France, is found about ten miles (16 km) from Paris. Although the Chateau de Versailles (Palace of Versailles) has been known as the epitome of luxury for centuries, seeing it in person is quite a memorable experience. Once the French royal residence and center of government, and now a national landmark, the original structure was primarily a hunting lodge and private retreat for Louis XIII and his family. In 1624 the king entrusted Jacques Lemercier with the construction of a château on the site. At the direction of Louis XIV, the residence was transformed (between 1661 and 1710) into an immense and extravagant complex surrounded by stylized French and English gardens. The additions were designed by such renowned architects as Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who was also responsible for the other major project at the end of the Sun King’s reign: the Hall of Mirrors. Robert de Cotte, and Louis Le Vau. Charles Le Brun managed the interior decoration. Landscape artist André Le Nôtre created symmetrical French gardens that included ornate fountains with “magically” still water, expressing the power of humanity -- and the king -- over nature. With its chandelier-laden Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) and approximately 2,300 rooms filled with paintings, tapestries and other treasures, this attraction in Versailles welcomed eight million visitors in 2019.
+ Featured here (to the right side of this photo) is the (north wing of the) Royal Chapel, Louis XIV’s last major construction project. Built on two levels, it is one of the jewels of the Palace of Versailles (along with the Hall of Mirrors). Officially announced in 1682, the work did not begin until 1699, and was completed in 1710. The resulting Chapel is a treasure of sacred architecture and an impressive showpiece of the Arts of that time. On the building's exterior, there are the Corinthian pilasters (pillars inspired by antiquity and topped with plant decorations), and the numerous statues that top the balustrade. Inside, there is an uninterrupted vault that prominently features the frescoes, while the free-standing columns let in bright light from the large panes of clear glass -- a luxury at the time.. On 05 June 1710, the completed Royal Chapel was blessed by the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal de Noailles, who consecrated what many consider to be Louis XIV’s spiritual legacy.
+ After the French Revolution, Napoleon largely neglected Versailles, and Louis XVIII and Charles X merely kept it up. Louis-Philippe, however, made great alterations, partly with help from patrons in the United States. His biggest contribution may have been the creation of the Museum of French History (on the left of this photo), which was consecrated “to all the glories of France” in an inauguration on 10 June1837, which marked the first celebration at Versailles since the Revolution.