Norway Røros Mysterious Light Phenomena September 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, France, Hotels, Museum, New York, Norway, Rail Pass, Sweden, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 2commentsThe town of Røros is inscribed on the World Heritage List because of its mining heritage. It owes this, of course, to the mineral resources of the surrounding landscape, and because it is that landscape, the natural aspect of the area, that concerns us here, this choice from the List is a little different in kind from the other entries selected for this book.
The valley of Hessdalen is situated about 19 miles (30km) northwest of Røros, reasonably close to the border with Sweden. It is sparsely populated, with fewer than two hundred inhabitants scattered in farms amid the isolated wildness of the place. Despite its remoteness, the Hessdalen area put itself ‘on the map’ because of an outbreak of extraordinary light phenomena, which commenced in the closing months of 1981 and which were witnessed on and off for a few years thereafter. (more…)
Pass by German Aachen Cathedral continue… September 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Hotels, Ireland, Istanbul, Italy, Jerusalem, London, Museum, Paris, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour , 3commentsAmong the classical texts translated at Aachen was the highly influential treatise by the first- century Bc Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio, in which the principles and traditions of earlier architecture, secular and sacred, were incorporated. The palace chapel can be seen to be essentially Vitruvian in nature. It followed Vitruvius’ octagonal scheme (which involved geomantic consideration of the ‘eight winds’). (more…)
Pass by German Aachen Cathedral September 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cars, Destination, Dubai, Europe, France, Germany, Hotels, Museum, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Travel Gear, Trip , 2commentsThe location now was occupied by Aachen, adjacent to the modern borders of France and Holland, was resorted to even in prehistory because hot springs occur there. Exactly how far back into antiquity the place had importance is unknown, but the Celts were certainly established in the area by the time the Romans discovered the springs. The waters were sacred to the Celts and dedicated by them to the healing god, Granus. The Romans called the site Aquis Grani. They built bath complexes and shrines. Some houses edging the Hof, a triangular space a stone’s throw northeast of the cathedral, were built on first and second century AD Roman masonry, and part of a well sanctuary was uncovered. (more…)
The Drums of Nefta August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, France, Hotels, Rail Pass, Tour, Trails, Trip , 6commentsIt is late evening and Marianne, Walter and I have just finished a large couscous washed down by several bottles of heady local wine. My companions start talking in Arabic again and I have the depressing sense of being a hick tourist fallen among real travellers. Wine- numbed and bloated, I lapse into silent recapitulation of what has brought us here.
I met Marianne on Jerba, an island claiming mythic status as the place where the Sirens held Ulysses. I too was becalmed, though the Sirens were inaudible. I would take bus trips from the island to towns in southern Tunisia but they never lasted longer than a day. Their chaos and squalor did not compare well with the pristine beauty of Jerba and, as a lone male out of season, I was prey to a horde of street hustlers. On Jerba I had made it clear that I was not in the market for anything and they left me alone. (more…)
Airline/ Flight Travel Jokes August 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Air Tickets, Airlines, Cuba, Embassy, Flight Schedule, France, Las Vegas, London, Scotland, Tour, Trip , 3commentsI took my wife to France by airline travel last year. You know how it is — you always take something with you that you don’t need.
Florida has two main industries, tourists and alligators, and they skin both of them.
Travel broadens one — so does sitting at home in an armchair.
This is a wonderful town. When I arrived here I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t speak, I had very little hair and people used to lift me from my bed — I was born here. (more…)
Geomantic feature of the ancient Tower of London, Secret face of Britain’s Capital City August 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, France, Hotels, Ireland, London, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails , 3commentsMost people today think of the Tower as the sinister place built by William the Conqueror where prisoners were kept and tortured, and where illustrious heads rolled, including those of Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey. Over the centuries, in addition to being such a notorious place of confinement, the Tower has served as a garrison, a palace, a zoo, a mint and an observatory. The Tower continues to house the Crown Jewels and other royal regalia, but this important spot in London’s geography goes back much further, and is referred to in the medieval Welsh texts known collectively as The Mabinogion, which record themes much older. To the Celtic Britons, the site on which the Tower stands was Bryn Gwyn, the White Mount, ‘White‘ meaning holy. The White Tower, the central keep of the site and the original part of the structure to be built, recalls this appellation. (more…)
Not on the Itinerary continue… August 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Brazil, England, France, Hotels, Round The World, Tour, Travel Clinic , 3commentsNow I felt well under par. Lying on the bed, which was very old- fashioned but deliciously comfortable, I thought of my home, my Queen and my country. The time was now about nine-thirty, and I must have looked ghastly, for a young nurse who popped in with a set of pyjamas sized up the situation in a second and popped out again, running down the corridor calling for help. (more…)
Greece Delphi: the Sacred Centre, the Navel of the World continue… August 8, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Cars, Europe, France, Hotels, Motel, Museum, Rail Pass, Tickets, Trails, Travelling Bag, USA , 3commentsThe village of Kastri was built over the site of the sanctuary and this proved a problem in the nineteenth century when archaeologists wanted to examine the famous oracle site. International rivalry developed over the excavation rights. France won, but at the expense of rehousing all the villagers of Kastri at another site, New Kastri (now the modern Delphi), just over 1/2 mile (1km) to the west. French archaeological investigation has gone on to a greater or lesser degree ever since. (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…)
My Perugia Travel Diary continue… June 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, Art Gallery, Asia, China, Coliseum, Denmark, Destination, Dolphinarium, Egypt, England, Europe, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Gymnasium, Iceland, Istanbul, Italy, Library, Memorial, Morocco, Museum, Norway, Oceanarium, Paris, Planetarium, Poland, Restaurant, Round The World, The Nile , add a commentMass cremation pits containing ashes and charred bones indicate that he feared a plague, but Carthaginian skeletons with all their teeth have been disinterred as well as the tombs, yielding cataphracts as well as bones, of thirty Carthaginian nobles.
Spello, the most appealing of the Umbrian hill towns, is still enclosed by Roman walls with five gates, the main one bearing the legend “Splendidissima Colonic Julia Hispellum” over the arch. According to Spellan tradition, a phallus carved in the inner wall of the Porta Urbica does not celebrate Orlando’s (Roland’s) amatory prowess but the range and perfect arc of his actus mingendi. Spello is noted for its restaurants and truffled cooking, its steep, winding, and narrow streets—all one-way only—its Roman towers and amphitheater. A Vocabolaro del Dialetto Spellano, compiled by NicolettaUgoccioni and published here last year, contains, at a thumb-through guess, 20,000 words in current usage—by a population of only 6,800. (more…)
Ambitious attempt: CASERTA continue… June 15, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Aquarium, Art Gallery, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Flight Schedule, France, Gymnasium, Hotels, Italy, Library, Museum, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant, Round The World, USA , add a commentImmediately opposite the Great Staircase to the west stands the chapel, which, at the king’s request, repeats the scheme of its counterpart at Versailles. Although Caserta evokes Versailles in concept and ambition, this is the only part of the palace that directly imitates its French predecessor. As at Versailles, the main theme is stated on the gallery level, where coupled Corinthian columns march in stately procession towards the apse. But despite this common feature, the characteristically French ambulatory has been omitted and the proportions of the whole have been to some extent lowered.
The central peristyle also leads to the royal apartments that occupy the south front and the short wing leading to it. (more…)
My Dairy of Korea Travel June 13, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, France, Hotels, Japan, New York, Restaurant, Seoul, USA , add a commentNo sooner does midnight flight 007 take off for Seoul than the stewardesses change from military uniforms and New York-style indifference to flower-patterned kimonos and oriental manners: quick, short bows at every contact. A “heavy snack” is served: hors d’oeuvres (ginseng root), a “starch” course (”France fried potatoes”), bulgogi (marinated beef), and kimchi (fermented pickle of cabbage). The menu reproduces a Yi-dynasty (1392) embroidery of the mythical bird Bong Hwang, which “luckily foresaw coming catastrophe of the country.” The pilot’s English and Korean are indistinguishable, but the all-night TV advertising of duty-free products is mercifully silent. (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 June 7, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, France, Hotels, Italy, Netherlands, Paris, USA , add a commentThe palace of Nymphenburg on the outskirts of Munich owes its present form to the desire of the Elector Max Emanuel (who reigned from 1679 to 1726) to create a Bavarian counterpart of Versailles. We may be grateful that things did not turn out quite as planned, for Nymphenburg has interesting features not found in the French model. In fact, the principal delight of Nymphenburg lies not so much in the main course, so to speak, as in the dessert—the four delightful garden pavilions that rank among the finest examples of the Rococo style in Europe.
Max Emanuel did not start his palace from scratch : an earlier building had been erected by his mother Henrietta Adelaide of Savoy, who received the manor of Kemnat in 1663 as a gift from her husband. (more…)
Blenheim Palace June 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : France, London, Museum, USA , add a commentBlenheim Palace was given by the British nation to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, in recognition of his great victories over the armies of Louis XIV. Of these, the Battle of Blenheim on the Upper Danube, where he collaborated with Prince Eugene, was the first and most brilliant. In recent times, Blenheim has acquired added lustre from its association with Sir Winston Churchill, who was born there on November 30, 1874. The historical significance of Blenheim is matched by its architectural interest, for the palace represents the culmination of English Baroque, a style whose real value has only recently been recognised. (more…)
Splendour Versailles continue… June 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, France, Museum, Paris, USA , add a commentLouis’s vanity, however, was not inexhaustible. Once a year he felt the need to retire to Marly where a much easier regime was in force, and spirited young duchesses were even allowed to bombard him with bread pellets during supper. At Versailles too, he felt the need for greater intimacy. For this purpose he selected a small pavilion on the site of the former village of Trianon, which was enlarged to make the Grand Trianon in 1687. During the summer the king organised little dances and suppers there, to which he invited a few select guests. (more…)
Fontainebleau: The Golden Portal of Gilles Le Breton continue… May 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, France, Museum, Paris, USA , add a commentPrimaticcio’s masterpiece, the great Gallery of Ulysses, has unfortunately disappeared. It stood on the south side of the White Horse Courtyard now occupied by the Louis XV wing. The basic scheme was the same as that used by Rosso in the Gallery of Francis I: scenes chosen from Homer’s Odyssey were set off by elaborate stucco frames. Until its destruction in 1738, artists travelled from all parts of Europe to study the sixty subjects that unfolded along a gallery 160 feet long. Today our only record of the gallery are tapestry copies and a few drawings and engravings. (more…)
Fontainebleau: The Golden Portal of Gilles Le Breton May 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : England, Europe, France, Paris, Spain, USA , add a commentThe Golden Portal of Gilles Le Breton, which bears the date of 1528 on one of the capitals. Although the rules accepted for the classical orders have been carefully observed, the piecemeal arrangement of the parts is typical of the early French Renaissance.
The vast, rambling palace of Fontainebleau was a favourite resort of the rulers of France from the 12th century until the end of the monarchy in 1870. It reached the height of its glory in the middle of this long period—in the early 16th century—when Francis I assembled a brilliant team of artists and decorators to enlarge and embellish the palace. Later additions, though they sometimes entailed the demolition of earlier parts, were nonetheless marked by a conservative spirit opposed to any fundamental reorganisation. (more…)
