Violet’s Watercolour Travel Diary

I always have such grand plans of relaxing when we travel. This time I went to the effort of making my own diary to paint in and everything… and barely used it because we were so busy! I am so not good at relaxing!

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20506

I made the book by cutting watercolour paper to size then clamping them together and gluing the spine to another piece of paper.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10015

 

Once it was dry I folded the edges over and glued them down.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10016

 

Then it was time to paint the outside to personalise it for the trip.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10018

 

I went with a pink and purple gradient on the spine.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10021

Then filled in the rest with a sketch of Zurich and the title.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10027

 

Before we left I covered it in clear contact so it didn’t get dirty.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book10028

 

Of course I didn’t actually get much time to use it at all… I painted this on the first flight…

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20507

 

In fact flights were almost my only painting time >_<

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20509

As you can see the second leg of the journey wasn’t as glamorous as the first!

 

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20510

I’m normally fine with flying but after 21 hours of being in planes plus the 4 hours waiting around in airports plus the time we were awake before we even left our house for the first flight I started to feel a little worse for wear.

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20511

I had a little bit more time in Germany and managed to sketch this after our archery adventure sometime between watching How I Met Your Mother in German and drifting in and out of consciousness.

 

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20512

I managed to do this sketch while looking at the actual view along the lake which was nice haha!

Beautiful-Travel-Note-Book20513

 

And there ends how much I painted on the trip… Next time I swear I’m going to lay on a beach somewhere and do nothing but sip fruity drinks and paint…. next time >_>

Beautiful Scenery From The Grand European Expedition

Something else Europe had? Awesome scenery! Everywhere looked like a postcard. It made me wonder if people think that about any country that they don’t see day in day out.

For example this was the bus stop we waited at in Germany. It was covered in fog and still freaking scenic!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux4431

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10191

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10459

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux6

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10479

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10544

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10215

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10175

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux4851

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10188

The man-made details in natural settings were beautiful too.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux1

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux3

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux20153

 

Also this was adorable, this cat had his own play house/bed in the local park!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux20199

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux2

 

It was foggy on the way to Germany but the border was still beautiful.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10547

 

And tiny dew drops on spider webs!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10554

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10557

 

Germany was a bit foggy in general in the mornings but it had a real fairy tale vibe about it!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux4

 

Of course when you add a sepia filter it looks like the beginning of a horror film. When we were driving back to Zurich we drove down a dead end and then another dead end and I started having some serious Silent Hill flash backs.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10687

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10663

 

The view from the cable cars at the snow field was amazing!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux5

 

 

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10731

Lake Titisee was beautiful.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10770

 

This was the view from our second hotel.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10837

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10913

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10838

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10894

 

The windows at the archery place were iron bows!

 

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10612

We took a walk down to the edge of the late and it was even more beautiful. The lake was so reflective.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10947

And there was this little hidden door. I wondered what it lead to because it went into the actual mountain *_*

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10935

 

In my head it leads to this beautiful house on the hill.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10940

But back to the beautiful lake…

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10979

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10949

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10986

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux10987

 

So cute.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux20008

 

And of course Germany had lovely details as well.

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux7

 

And everything looks more magical in the rain!

European-Scenery-VioletLeBeaux20023

 

Beautiful Architecture From The Grand Europe Expedition

You guys know how much I love looking at interesting architecture so it wasn’t really a shock that most of the photos I took on our trip were of some really amazing buildings. Zurich is a city much like Melbourne which is a mix of very old and very new. It’s interesting seeing the two mix together in a city that is very proud of it’s heritage!

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-4127

The morning we arrived in Zurich we were just in time for the sunrise and it made everything even more beautiful.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-

This was the view from the bottom of our hill up the the hotel the B2 Boutique, it’s the white building on the left in front of the big tower.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10162

 

The tower up close:

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20089

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10164

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10250

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10257

There were some really cool statues on the building as well like this lady/dove and the stork below.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10359

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10403

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10367

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-5

 

I want lamps like this in my dream house.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10381

There were so many tiny cute lane ways around the city!

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10391

 

We explored down the lanes and they were full of tiny shops, apartments and mini restaurants.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10399

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10405

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10416

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10466

 

Further out from Zurich things became more traditional and cottage-y. The border between Germany and Switzerland was adorable.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10536

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10550

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10564

 

I love this style of building with flowers in every window.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-10567

 

This was our second hotel, it was the same style.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20004

Everything inside was wooden and matched perfectly.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20007

This was one of my favorite shots from Germany because it’s the perfect mix of old and new buildings and if you look closely, the second half of the old building is reflected perfectly in windows of the modern building.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20197

 

Back in Zurich things were more modern but still with beautiful classical style.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20096

 

There were a lot of details which were gilded too, the whole city shone in the sunlight.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20120

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20105

I’ve just noticed that the truck in this shot has “Angst” written on it… I wonder if that’s what it’s delivering XD

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20121

 

So many steep hills and buildings with little window shutters!

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-4

This was a model of the huge actual church behind it.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20132

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-3

 

I found myself constantly looking up to find more details.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20190

 

There were little water fountains everywhere as well. I thought they were just fancy fountains but I saw a lot of people drinking from them and filling up water bottles.

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20195

 

And ending on something a little whimsical, here’s a gigantic bull painted blue on the second floor balcony of a hotel ^_^

Beautiful-Architecture-Europe-20221

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close