Do You Need Color to See the World?

We love seeing different locations around the world and their images are definitely framed in our minds. However, as we were growing up, we used to see images of famous locations and not all of them were taken in color. Does seeing a landmark like the Eiffel Tower in black and white take away from the beauty or sense of awe? We have shared some of our favorite landmark photographs previously, but here we take the same images and are sharing them in both color as well as black and white. When you look through the images, does your opinion change of the landmark based on whether it is in color or not?

Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore in Black and White
Big Ben
Big Ben in Black and White
The Great Sphynx
The Great Sphynx in Black and White
Washington Monument
Washington Monument in Black and White
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Leaning Tower of Pisa in Black and White
Eiffel Tower in Autumn
Eiffel Tower in Black and White

Mixing the Old with the New in Historic Cities

In almost every historic city that you visit, there will be an old town area where the buildings have been preserved. There is often another part of the city that is new and modern and they are usually in different parts of the city so that the traffic associated to tourists and that of the businesses can be kept separate from one another. Every now and then, though, you will find a historic building right in the middle of the modern skyscrapers. It is often a church, but not always as it could just be a historic landmark. The juxtaposition of the two can sometimes be visually interesting.

Church in Chicago with a Skyscraper Rising next to the Bell Tower
Old and New Side-by-Side in Cologne, Germany
Modern Paris as Seen from the Eiffel Tower
New Artistic Awnings in Old Cairo

We have seen several examples throughout our travels, especially in Germany where so much of the cities were rebuilt after WWII, but it certainly isn’t limited to European cities. We have seen many interesting examples here in the United States, especially in Chicago, which is a city with a rich history of its own. We find the contrasts to be so striking that we often pause to take a variety of photographs to capture the differences and similarities between the old and the new.

Another Bell Tower and Skyscraper Image, but in Denver
New and Old in Frankfurt
Apparently We Really Like Building Towers Transitioning to Skyscrapers
Gothic Church and Glass Tower

Some of Our Favorite Landmark Photographs

We often look back at our photographs, usually when writing about a place that we have visited, but often just to consider displaying in our home. We have a digital frame that does a slideshow of our pictures. One of the famous landmarks that we don’t have here is the Statue of Liberty in New York City. We do have photographs of the statue, but they were taken pre-digital camera days and we haven’t gotten around to scanning them to our computer. Everyplace that we have visited has a special place in our hearts, but these photographs are ones that most recognizable to almost anyone.

Eiffel Tower in Autumn

Big Ben

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Great Sphinx

Colosseum in Rome

Washington Monument

Mount Rushmore

Empire State Building with Statue of Liberty in the Background

Parthenon in the Acropolis of Athens

Golden Gate Bridge