I posted some photos of interesting sights from my recent European trip only a few days ago. We saw a lot of castles and churches, but we also some some unique things. I am here again with some fun stuff. This first photo is of a stuffed horse that we saw in the Nymphenburg Palace museum near Munich. 
This next photo is a pair of Lederhosen that I saw in a department store in Passau, Germany. I always associated these with German bands, but I saw men who weren’t in a band wearing them.
I had never seen this done before, but it seems to be quite popular in European cities. Couples buy locks and put their initials on them and hook them to the railings on bridges to signify their lasting love. Our tour guide joked that you see more combinations locks these days.
When I saw these jelly shoes on a table outside a store in Vienna, I had to take a photo because I remember how much my girls loved their “jellies” when they were in elementary school. I didn’t look at the price, but I’m sure they were more than I paid for my girls’ shoes almost thirty years ago.
In Bratislava I saw this statue that looks like a man coming out of a manhole. I have no idea what it signified, but it definitely drew the attention of passersby. Many of them got down on the ground to have their photo taken with it. Not me.
While we were in Budapest, we went to the huge market. It was what I would call a super super market. One of the food booths sold Langos, which is sort of a fry bread. They put sour cream and garlic on the bread, and then you can pick numerous toppings. My husband put mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach on his. At least part of it was healthy.
Here I am with this statue of a horse that appeared in Vienna between the time we visited there with the river cruise and the day we returned on our own. I don’t know how it got there, but lots of people were taking photos with it.
I seem to have a bit of a horsey theme going here. We discovered this unusual statue hanging in a mall in Prague. It’s a knight riding an upside down horse.
This is a photo of a washing machine/dryer. It does both. It was in the apartment we rented for two nights in Prague. We attempted to do our laundry. The first load nearly fried my shorts and Capri pants. Even ironing did not take out the wrinkles. I couldn’t read the instructions, so I tried to guess how to turn down the temperature on the drying cycle. When I did some of my husband’s clothes, they were still wet at the end of the cycle. We couldn’t figure out how to only do the drying cycle, so I turned up the temperature and ran it again. Still, they weren’t dry. We resorted to letting them hang overnight and using the hair dryer to blow them dry.
Lastly I discovered a new disease while we were gone. Golfer’s Vasculitis affects walkers mostly over the age of fifty who walk for a long time in high heat. While we were in Europe, they were having a heatwave. During the first ten days of our trip, the temperature ranged from 95 to 102 degrees F. It was HOT even for folks like us from Arizona. We were hoping to get out of the heat. The joke was on us. Here’s a photo of one of my legs after a long day of walking in the high heat. The rash is the result of Golfer’s Vasculitis. I walk a lot, but I usually stick to early mornings when the temperatures are more moderate.
What interesting or unusual things have you seen on a trip?
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
It’s been fun taking this trip with you virtually, though I’m sorry to hear of the weather and the rash. Are you planning books set in Europe? That would be fun :)
I’m with Val. Europe? Oh yes! I’d love to do a tour there someday.
Valerie, I have a few ideas floating around in my mind, but I have some other stuff I have to finish first. :)
Sally, if you get the opportunity, you should definitely do it. I learned so much, and the history puts a lot of current politics in perspective.
Oh my, I’m a little like you Merrillee in that I love to find the unusual things on our trips! The out-of-the ordinary places, things, people :-) My mom, who resides in New Zealand now (since 2001), came out 2 years ago to visit for a month. We took a trip up to see my sister-in-law and niece who live in Washington & went downtown Seattle for the day. We were walking along the waterfront, explored the Pikes Place Market & went into several shops….we happened to see a statue made from old scrap metal pieces in the shape of a penguin! And then went down gum alley, just like the name says, people actually put chewed up pieces of gum on the walls along with interesting pictures or artwork (graffiti too). Got a few pieces of gum stuck to our shoes to boot…lol!! The downtown area is a very interesting place with it’s share of unusual things to see….you could even take a ghost tour….not my cup of tea, however!
I loved seeing all the pictures of unusual things you have posted here. Especially that stuffed horse….I’ve seen a lot of stuffed things in my life, but never a horse :-) And that washer/dryer combo….yeah….I probably couldn’t figure it out either, lol!! Thanks for sharing some more of your neat pictures, I’m sorry about your the heat rash on your leg…looks painful :-(
Trixi, gum alley does sound interesting, but I hate getting gum on my shoes. I don’t know how old that horse was, but he looked a little worse for wear closeup. The rash wasn’t painful at all. It didn’t itch or anything. If I hadn’t looked down at my leg, I would never have known it was there. I did a google search to find out what it was. Hubby had it, too.
Thanks for sharing your pictures – love that you took photos of unusual items. I want to know more about the knight riding an upside down horse – there’s a puzzle! So glad you got to go and that the rash didn’t stop you seeing things. We went to Europe years ago, when my son was stationed in Germany. We were told the temperature would be similar to October temperatures in Missouri so didn’t have coats or even heavy jackets and it was freezing the whole time. Like you, we still had a great time!
Hi Merrilee, I’m glad you had such a good time on your trip, sorry about the rash though. I’ve heard that countries don’t like the locks and have tried in vain to stop it.
That’s weird about the upside down horse. Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Jenny
Diane, I’m glad you enjoyed the photos. We also were in Germany a number of years ago, and we wore jackets the whole time we were there in June. I have no idea why the upside down horse.
You’re welcome, Jenny. I’ve enjoyed sharing. This year because of the heat wave and lack of rain, the northern part of the Danube was so low that the boats couldn’t sail on it.
I googled “knight riding upside down horse” and found several theories. Here’s one: The sculpture is a mocking reference to the more famous equestrian statue of King, and later, Saint Wenceslas which sits in Wenceslas Square, and possibly a mocking nod to Czech president Vaclav Kraus, although the artist will not say what his intentions were.
Diane, thanks for looking this up.
One of my rented homes in London had the combo washer/dryer thing (and even in a three-bedroom house, the machine was in the kitchen because there was no separate laundry room). The advice I was given was never to use the dryer … and you’ve proven why.
Memorable things seen? Well, this one is close to home but twice every week I drive past a tourist information centre that looks like a hobbit hole. Really. It’s in Matamata, New Zealand, which is the closest town to Hobbiton (yes, you can visit).
Merrillee, thanks for sharing pics from your European vacation with us :)