It’s not every day that you can walk through embassies or residences of ambassadors, but that’s exactly what happened this past weekend. Doors Open was an event where more than 100 heritage buildings, museums, embassies, and other fascinating eye-candy opened their doors to the curious public for a limited time only.
You can bet I jumped at the opportunity to snap some shots, rainy or not. (It was.)
At the Embassy of Croatia: A massive sculpture wrought of metal. There was a nearby sculpture of a hanging pineapple, but this was more impressive.
A swanky residential apartment that was built in 1936 and once housed ambassadors, dignitaries, and other VIPs. It remains a high-class residential apartment even if no one can order a meal to be sent upstairs to their room from the basement kitchen anymore.
This might look familiar to a lot of people – the interior of the central train station in the city, back when trains were the transport of choice. A tunnel connected us from this hall to one of the premiere hotels just across the street.
A view of The Official Residence of the Swedish Ambassador from the backyard. The inside just looked like a very big house, but it did have a lovely view of the river.
The Apostolic Nunclature, or as my friend refers to it: “The Pope place”. The Pope apparently stays here when he visits our city. We weren’t allowed inside but I was sufficiently impressed by the grandeur of the building only to realize when we got closer that this was just the gate.
The actual Apostolic Nunclature once you got past the gate.
The interior of Laurier House, where two of the country’s leaders once dwelled. The pink chair is from the Louvre.
The “billiards room” a la Clue in the Laurier House.
The view out of a window in the kitchen of an architectural firm
Decorations inside of the High Commission of South Africa
A decorated ostrich egg
In total we visited maybe 12 buildings in one day and managed to stay dry mostly of the time.
Yet another way to be a tourist in your own city!
Stay tuned for more photos in the next post.
