50 Cities of the World

DVD Program Summary Samples written for Vision Films.

By Patricia Lamkin

 TOKYO

Tokyo is a dynamic city of contrasts:  the beautiful, precise dance and theatre traditions of Japans cultural past juxtaposed with starkly modern skyscrapers, elevated trains and traffic of epic proportions.  Stroll along the Ginza, a walkway lined with shops, discos, karaoke bars, restaurants, and famous for its Kabuki theatre.  Later take in some of Tokyo’s many ancient temples which still welcome the faithful: Yushima Seido, devoted to the 6^th century sage Confucius, or the Meiji Shinto mausoleum.  Nestled within some of the many formal gardens are tea pavilions, where drinking tea is elevated in a ritual over 500 years old.

WARSAW

Experience the romantic melancholy of Chopin’s Warsaw, with its ornate churches and monuments to past tragedies.  Tour the majestic Castle of Ujazdow, one many architectural wonders of the Italian Renaissance in this city.  In nearby Lazieky Park are open-air concerts, opera, ballet, and traditional Polish festivals with elaborate costumes of embroidery and lace.  The “royal road” to Wilanow Royal Palace is lined with 17^th and 18^th century villas and baroque churches.  Further south is the Church of the Holy Cross, famous for its lavish altars, and an urn containing the heart of Frederick Chopin.

AMSTERDAM

At the mouth of the Rhine lies Amsterdam, a marvel of Dutch ingenuity.  Here dams have transformed once useless marshland into farms, residential areas, and lush fields of tulips and hyacinths.  An excellent way to see the city is a boat-ride on the canals, flowing under some 1,300 picturesque bridges, such as the bascule Magere Brug. Quaint cafés, fragrant flower markets, ornate Dutch Renaissance buildings and charming windmills are among the many delights of this city.  At the Rijiksmuseum are renowned works by Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Pieter de Hoogh and Vermeer. Courteous bicyclists abound along Amsterdam’s tree-lined streets, a testament to the unpretentious atmosphere of the European capital of all liberties.

BARCELONA

Refurbished for the 1992 Olympic games, Barcelona offers both the charm of an ancient settlement and the beauty of a well-planned modern city.  Small squares and narrow alleys bustle with street artists and painters.  Imaginative plazas and parks -- once abandoned factories -- are alive with statues, fountains, sculptures and mosaics by Catalan masters like Antoni Gaudí and Joan Miró.  The main arteries of the city converge on The Placa de Catalunya, a large plaza with a medieval quarter on one side, and spacious 19^th century homes on the other.  Here begins the famous Rambla, a shady pedestrian avenue filled with newspaper stands, cafes, flower stalls, and culminating in a seafront monument to Christopher Columbus.  A visit to Barcelona is incomplete without a tour of the Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), Gaudí’s Neo-Gothic masterpiece, with its breathtaking spires, and modernist steeples.