Norway Røros Mysterious Light Phenomena continue… September 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Canada, Destination, Hotels, Norway, Travel Insurance, Travellers Cheque, Travelling Bag , 2commentsThere seem to be various geological properties that recur frequently in zones that are prone to the appearance of these ‘earth lights‘ .’ Faulting is one of these factors, and faulting occurs around Hessdalen. Mineral deposits are another, and, of course, with Røros being famed for its mining heritage, it is not surprising to find that the area is heavily mineralized with all kinds of ores. (more…)
Avebury Village & Related Megalithic Sites: Remarkable Monument, Ceremonial Landscape part 3 August 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, England, Sightseeing, Tour, Travelling Bag, Trip , 4commentsOne way or another, therefore, it seems that the summit-terrace segment of Silbury had great significance. But what could that be? Patient research has revealed that it almost certainly relates to an astronomical effect that can be observed from Silbury.
Looking eastwards from the top of Silbury one can see the nearby ridge of Waden Hill, and, several miles beyond, the far skyline formed by the Marlborough Downs. In 1987, in early May the author observed that the sun rose in a slight dip in this far horizon. (more…)
Malta GGANTIJA Myth Temples August 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Beach Resorts, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsWORLD HERITAGE LIST NUMBER 185 ARCHAEOLOGY, EVOLVED, GEOMANCY
The GGANTIJA temples are situated near Xaghra on Gozo, a Mediterranean islanda few miles northwest of its larger neighbour, Malta. Although the combined surface area of these two islands adds up to merely 125 square miles (320 square km), the importance of the megalithic architecture which has survived there is ‘out of all proportion to the islands‘ size’.’ (more…)
Please to make a Hotel Reservation July 23, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Destination, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, India, Lodges, Motel, Passport, Tickets, Tour , 3comments“Excuse me, do you speak English?” “Oh yes, certainly.”
“I want to reserve three seats on a train from Calcutta to Patna.” “Please?”
“I want to reserve . . .”
“Where are you wanting to go?” “Patna.”
“Have you a reservation?”
“No. That is what I want.” “Please you wait over there.”
“I want to go during the day so that we can all see the countryside.” (more…)
The EXhilaration Adventure, real Hiking Mountain Trail, Kebnekaise Mountain Station continue… July 18, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, Motel, Restaurant, Sweden, Switzerland, Wellington , 2commentsIt was soon clear that the man had no idea what he was doing. He shouldn’t have been in the mountains. I asked him where his gear was. “Over there,” he said, pointing to the corner of the room. There was a tiny rucksack, a summer sleeping bag and a pair of Wellington boots. “Is that all?” I asked.
“Shit man, I didn‘t expect this. I came straight down the path from Abisko. It was beautiful the first two days. Which way did you come?”
“Over the mountains through Lapporten.”
“What was it like up there?”
“Cold and too much snow.”
“Where are you going?” (more…)
The EXhilaration Adventure, real Hiking Mountain Trail, Kebnekaise Mountain Station July 18, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Cars, Coliseum, Dolphinarium, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, Motel, Museum, Norway, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant, Round The World, Sweden, Trip , 2commentsThree of us got off the train at Abisko in the mountains of Swedish Lapland: two men and a dog. I sat on my rucksack while the dog and his friend strolled over to the station building. When they were out of sight I stood up, glanced at my map and took a compass reading. It’s difficult to look confident in the mountains, so I always check map readings when there’s no-one to question my judgment.
I was going to walk south through Lapporten to Kebnekaise — Sweden’s highest mountain, 7,000 feet above sea level — and on to Nikkaluotka, a Lapp settlement by a beautiful ribbon lake. If the weather was good, it would take about a week. If not, I told myself that ten days would do. (more…)
Not Memsahib July 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, Destination, Europe, Flight Schedule, Hotels, India, Lodges, London, Motel, Museum, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Rail Pass, Restaurant, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsEvery time I heard the word memsahib I wanted to take an ice-pick to the user. I’d gone on the Hindu trail clutching my libertarianism to my bosom, a cosy cocoon from which I could rationalise and contain the INDIAshrieks from the inferno — not that Dante, I’m sure, ever went to Calcutta. Very right-on. Very arm’s-length. But keep your liberal sensibilities Gandhi-pure? Emerge unscathed? Forget it.
Sympathy, empathy, had long since given way to simmering hysteria, cringing shame and a seething, at times uncontrollable rage which was generalised in its target but oh so localised in its pain. It wasn’t even a consolingly righteous anger at the pulverising poverty, the callousness of caste or the stalinisation of women — more a deep-seated disgust and hatred welling up from deep down and spewing out over all humanity, most of all myself . . . Well, OK, you try and make sense of the matchstick people of Madhya Pradesh, the execrable excrement of Bombay and Dehli, the obscene opulence of Jaipur jewellers, the blinding, vivid hues of Rajasthani women’s skirts — and all of it sinking in one great ubiquitous quicksand of suffocating, strangulating bureaucracy. (more…)
Getting High in the Yemen Question: how can you see London, Paris and New York simultaneously while sitting in a Remote Corner of the Arabian Peninsula? July 9, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Africa, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Europe, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, London, Museum, Oceanarium, Round The World, Tour, USA , 3commentsAnswer: adopt the national pastime of North Yemen and devote the entire afternoon to chewing the narcotic qat leaf. Our host, his eyes dreamy and his cheeks bulging with the drug, rocks with laughter at his own joke.
We had landed that morning to find ourselves catapulted into a medieval Manhatten, a confusing world of centuries-old mud skyscrapers and lavish exteriors that make a mockery of the Middle Eastern practice of living behind blank facades. Resting in a secluded courtyard we watch a veiled face peer out from behind a half-opened shutter high up on a crumbling wall. A basket lowers itself to the ground from a distant rooftop. A train of three camels, loaded down with bundles of qat, squeezes through a tiny alleyway and lurches past the massive studded door of a mosque. (more…)
Villages, Boats, Boulevards, Bars, Break in France and Italy, Aegean Tour continue… July 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Africa, Aquarium, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Cars, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Europe, France, Hotels, Library, Motel, Museum, New York, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant , 3commentsFabienne wakes us. She is pretty in a New York Jewish sort of way — cracked nose, olive skin, beautiful drooping eyes with lot’s of kohl, smoker’s teeth and bitten nails. Wrapped in a peasant blanket she talks of “le business” in Soho and Piccadilly — prostitution to pay for her drug addiction. Her arms are scars, dead veins with hanging skin which will take no more abuse, and so her ankles have become the focal point of her masochism. Corsica is vacation after hospitalisation in Amsterdam and, more importantly from her point of view, stamping ground of many Moroccans who come from the hash crops of North Africa to supply France from this paradise isle. (more…)
Villages, Boats, Boulevards, Bars, Break in France and Italy, Aegean Tour July 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Aquarium, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Cars, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Europe, France, Hotels, Museum, Oceanarium, Paris, Planetarium, Restaurant, USA , 3commentsNapeoleon greeted us when we arrived in the palm-fringed port of Ajaccio and disembarked onto the jetty. Corsica’s capital exhibits boulevards, bars and boats in honour of its most famous son. The white-glossed vessels glide out slowly with their cargoes of rich French and Italian mariners, perhaps south to Sardinia or Sicily before venturing upon Poseidon’s homeland in the depths of the Aegean.
We wound up into the mountains for three hours at the back of a stifling minibus, rucksacks on knees, to arrive at Petreto-Bicchisano to au-pair and keep shop for two months. The villages of bleached stone are perched on crags, almost indistinguishable in the dense green forests. Grey stones on distant, wispy mountaintops become crosses and tombstones as one ascends. Every village has its protective saint and little dark chapel. Children play in the street with its one-thousand-foot drop to the bronze river below. The old women in black do not shout warnings. It seems that one is born to Corsica with an instinct of its precariousness. (more…)
Indian Tour; as a Traveler, I went Across Indian Crazy Kumbh, it could happen only in India July 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, Destination, Europe, Flight Schedule, Hotels, India, Motel , 4commentsIt is the largest gathering of people in the world, it happens every twelve years and it could happen only in India. They come by train, they come by bus, they come on foot. But they come. They come to bathe in the Holy Mother Ganga. This year four million come to be in one place at one time. The place is Hardwar, the time is eight minutes past two on the morning of April 14th. It is unbelievable. It is unique. It is the great Kumbh Mela.
The Hindus love a good legend and the mythological beginnings of this unparalleled religious spectacle are no exception. Many moons ago, the son of Indra, king of the Gods, managed to retrieve (not unlike some sort of celestial “Repo Man”) a kumbh (pitcher) filled with the elixir of immortality that some demons had stolen from the bottom of the ocean. (more…)
Holiday Break, Adventure Boating Hidden Rivers part 1 June 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Beach Resorts, London, Motel, Museum, Oceanarium , 4commentsAs I climbed up out of the station the street stretched away uphill, shining under the lights like an old trouser seat. There were houses everywhere and scraggy trees, but I couldn’t see a pub anywhere. Thin drizzle peppered the thirsty pavements and I realised this was a hopeful start; I’d found a real, if repellent, suburb in an elusive city. I was standing in Salusbury Road, in Queen’s Park, in London.
Some of the shadowy nature of London is that one feels it ought to be well known. Anyone who can read can know London; from Dick Whittington to witty Dickens and beyond, every view is veiled with reference. (more…)
“In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia on the trail of the Lonesome Pine . . .” continue… June 28, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Beach Resorts, Cars, China, Destination, Europe, Georgia, Motel, New York, Turkey , add a commentI walk in the forest all day without seeing or hearing a soul. Now the going is flat; now I am scrambling over large rocks, across streams, up steep slopes. The forest is wide awake and I hear the continual muted plop of falling acorns, the piping squeaks of the chipmunks, the whistling of jays, the raucous bark of the slope-soaring ravens. Sound carries in the mountains. Now and again a heavier thud denotes the falling of dead wood, perhaps close by, perhaps way over on the opposite slope — the forest sheds twenty-five tons an acre every year. When I sit quite still, for several minutes, the wood mice emerge to explore me. The chipmunks, jaw pouches grotesquely distended with freshly garnered acorns, scamper stiff-legged and tail erect to where I watch; but they never look me in the eye. Water-thrush sit in the ninebark by my head. Bear, deer, bobcat and the emblematic wild turkey, are lurking in these forests unseen. (more…)
“In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia on the trail of the Lonesome Pine . . .” June 28, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, Europe, Georgia, Hotels, Motel, New York, Round The World, Turkey , add a commentThe Blue Ridge Mountains are the first ridge of the Appalachians as you cross the coastal plains from the Atlantic and step up off the Piedmont plateau. Famed in the Laurel and Hardy theme song, they rise fold on rounded fold of thick hardwood forest, to some 6,000 feet.
Three hours’ drive from the steaming sauna which is Washington in the summer, and 3,800feet up in the clear air of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lies the Wintergreen Mountain Resort. Perched a few miles west of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and the University of Virginia which he founded, the resort is stamped by a distinctive feature. The facilities are owned and controlled by the property owners, who have bought sites and built second homes within the Wintergreen area. The owners underwrite a management company for the resort, securing it against insensitive over-development and downmarket pressures with a degree of success which has made them keenly studied and imitated by leisure resorts elsewhere. (more…)
Hole in this sand June 25, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Africa, Beach Resorts, Cairo, Egypt, Flight Schedule, Hotels, Round The World, South Africa , add a commentIt is just an ordinary hole, as holes go. Dug in the sand. About six feet by eight feet. Fairly shallow. Just deep enough for four bodies. The beaches of the Côte d’Atlantique, west of Bordeaux, are pock-marked with similar holes.
Occasionally a black Mirage fighter streaks low across the blue sky. A reminder of other times, other beaches, when men crouched, helpless, among the dunes and craters. But these French pilots are probably on the look-out for nothing more sinister than well-oiled, succulent, brown breasts. And the only threat from the Germans comes when, naked and ruthless in pursuit of their volley-ball, they bound over your hole, spraying their recumbent fellow-holiday‑makers with sand. (more…)
Terrace’s Garden: WURZBURG continue… June 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Africa, Air Tickets, Asia, Beach Resorts, Europe, France, Germany, Hotels, Round The World, USA , 5commentsThe interior decoration of the Residenz was carefully considered, and for the central state rooms at least four different schemes were drawn up by scholars attached to the court. What was finally executed is a kind of distillation or quintessence of a vastly learned programme specifying a score of scenes illustrating the history of medieval Franconia. But who was to carry out the scheme remained a problem. The prince-bishops had insisted on the highest standards in the actual building, and they were determined to maintain these in its decoration. As a kind of trial run, the ceiling of the Garden Hall (a low cavern-like room in the Italian mkt terrena style immediately below the Kaisersaal) was entrusted to the Swabian painter Johannes Zick. But his figures turned out too heavy and he was summarily dismissed. More successful were the Rococo stucco decorations created by the temperamental Antonio Bossi for the White Salon that linked the Staircase to the Kaisersaal. (more…)
Terrace’s Garden: WURZBURG June 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, France, Germany, Hotels, Italy, Paris, Round The World, USA , add a commentIn spite of extensive damage by fire at the end of the Second World War, the Wurzburg Residenz remains the most important secular building in the Baroque style in Germany. This achievement speaks a great deal for the determination and intelligence of the rulers of the diminutive episcopal principality of Wurzburg. But the high standard of the Residenz in the constellation of European Baroque can be directly attributed to two men. The palace itself is the masterpiece of the court architect Johann Balthasar Neumann, who fused the traditions of the Bohemian and Viennese Baroque schools with new trends from France. In addition, the Wurzburg Residenz contains two stupendous fresco ensembles by the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). (more…)
The palace of Nymphenburg continue… June 7, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Belgium, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Europe, Gymnasium, Hotels, Library, Lodges, Museum, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant, Round The World, USA , add a commentIn 1716 Effner began the first of the four Rococo pavilions in the garden. This was the Pagodenburg, a product of the craze for chinoiserie that was beginning to sweep Western Europe. This little building has an interesting plan, which can be described either as an octagon with projections at four of the eight sides or as a Greek cross with the corners bevelled off. The exterior has an entirely French appearance and it is only inside that the Chinese theme is introduced. On the ground storey, the principal feature is provided by the blue Delft tiles in glazed earthenware, which the elector may have learned to appreciate during his stay in the Low Countries, though they are undoubtedly a cheaper substitute for Chinese porcelain. The upper of the two storeys has two pentagonal cabinets with lacquer panelling and furniture made by Parisian craftsmen in the chinoiserie manner. In the lounge, however, the purely European Régence again takes over in the fine wall carvings and silk brocade. (more…)
Charlottenburg: The interior is a superb example of German decorative art continue… May 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Destination, Flight Schedule, Hotels, USA , add a commentThe greatest gem was the so-called Goldene Galerie, probably the greatest single work of the northern rococo. Friedrich Wilhelm II began alterations in the Frederician wing, in accordance with the tenets of his time. The changes were principally on the ground floor and included two rooms in the Etruscan style, but Frederick the Great’s winter apartments at the front of the wing were also altered in a style with overtones of Louis XVI. One room with decorative grisaille wall-painting on the ground floor by Wilhem Hodler, which was covered over with wall-paper, is now restored on the floor above. A theatre was added at the extreme west end of the complex, and, in the grounds, a belvedere. Both of these were finally damaged in November 1943. In a single air-raid the central block and the Knobelsdorff wing were burnt out and the entire palace severely damaged — hurts so severe that restoration still continues. (more…)
Charlottenburg: The interior is a superb example of German decorative art May 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Aquarium, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Flight Schedule, Gymnasium, Hotels, Library, Memorial, Museum, Oceanarium, Paris, Planetarium, Restaurant, USA , add a commentThe relation of Schloss Charlottenburg to the now vanished Berlin Schloss and to Potsdam, is rather like that of the lost Whitehall Palace to Kensington and, say, Hampton Court. The Berlin Schloss with its Schluter decorations was wantonly removed after the last war to make way for the Marx-Engels Platz in East Berlin ; in Potsdam the Neues Palais and the Cornmuns survive more or less intact, the Stadt Schloss and the Garnison church are ruined, while Sans Souci appears virtually as it ever did. Sans Souci was the idea and creation of a single monarch between 1745 and 1753. Charlottenburg has a longer history over a much greater span of years and indeed it might be said that its story still continues. From the Berlin Schloss down Unter den Linden through the Brandenburg Gate, the road runs straight along the Charlottenburger Chaussee past the Rondel of the Siegessaule to a fork at what is now the Ernst Reuterplatz where the proud cupola of Schloss Charlottenburg rises on the right at a distance of about eight kilometres in all. (more…)