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…)
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…)
Climbing, Riding, Sightseeing Midnight on Mont Blanc continue… July 2, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Cars, Europe, Germany, Greece, Hostels, London, Memorial, Mexico, Motel, New York, Travel Insurance, Travelling Bag, USA , 3commentsBernie pulled on the rope and cursed me for stopping; I plodded on. My feet hurt.
Four days later, the train heaved its way out of the valley towards the end of the Bionnassay Glacier. Through the glass I stared at the pine trees and the brilliant meadow flowers. The carriage filled with the perfume of tourists, up for the day, and the sweat of climbers, rucksacks balanced on their knees, all heading for the Blanc. When the track wound alongside a cliff the small girl sitting opposite looked out in disbelief as the trees gave way to nothing. She pulled her eyes away in fear and looked around the train — the view there was worse, rucksacks, hairy knees, ice-axes, unshaven climbers lost in contemplation of the weather.
We arrived at the top station and the train disgorged. Tourists wandered slowly across to the cafe or to the viewing platform from which they could look up at the great bleak sweep of the mountain opposite. Down the valley the world became more sane, as the stone desert below the glacier gave way to meadows and woodland. (more…)
Traveling alone, Rail Journey triple alliance part 1 June 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Motel, Pacific, Peru , 4commentsI do not recall how much my memories of that night-time journey were the creation of fitful dreams or the stuff of actuality. The blackness of the night and my own fears were real enough as the lights of the bus probed the landscape, revealing steep escarpments and the outlines of vertical cliffs. Sometimes, peering over the side of the bus, I caught sight of the ghostly white caps of Pacific rollers coming to spit their fury at a continent. The bus swept down the hills and then ground its way up another hilltop through a succession of sandy switchbacks. I kept thinking of the drunken Cary Grant in North by Northwest, as he strove to bring his car under control. Was our driver chewing coca leaves, as so many long distance drivers did in Peru, to ease the burdens of an eight-hour journey? I looked around the bus at the crumpled figures managing some sleep. Two rows in front of me a Japanese man slumped against a girl with a shock of auburn curls. A strange couple, I thought. (more…)
Malmaison: the Favourite country residence of Napoleon and Josephine May 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, Egypt, Embassy, Flight Schedule, France, Hostels, London, USA , add a commentMalmaisonis not a palace. Yet Napoleon lived there during the dawn and the decline of his tumultuous career; Josephine loved it, improved it, and when destiny turned against her, retired there and finally died there. And so, by virtue of its owners, Malmaison deserves a place here.
It was a charming residence, built about 162o, just outside the village of Rueil, and it had been inhabited in turn by several families, the last of which was the Le Couteux de Moley. Abbe Delille described the stream which crossed the park in verse and regretted not having spoken more of this delightful spot in his poems on ‘Gardens’. Madame Vigee-Lebrun, who dined there in 1789 with Abbe Sieyès and several other enthusiasts of the Revolution, told how: ‘Mr de Moley inveighed against the nobles; everyone shouted, held forth . . . Abbe Sieyès said: In fact I believe we shall go too far.’ (more…)
The Quirinal: The most venerable of the palaces in this city of palaces May 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Aquarium, Art Gallery, Beach Resorts, Coliseum, Destination, Dolphinarium, Egypt, Flight Schedule, Gymnasium, Hostels, Hotels, Italy, Library, Lodges, Memorial, Motel, Museum, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Restaurant, Round The World, USA , add a commentThe Immense Complex of the Quirinal Palace was the summer residence of the Popes until 1870 when it was seized by Vittorio Emmanuele. He died there in 1878 after receiving a message of pardon from the Pontiff he had outraged. The palace remained the home of the kings of Italy until 1946 and is now occupied by the President of the Italian Republic. Although the Savoyards endeavoured to remove the traces of the former occupants of the Quirinal, replacing the papal arms wherever possible with their own, the palace is essentially a monument to the taste of its builders, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Paul V and, to a lesser degree, Alexander VII and Clement XII. With its great irregular piazza it is among the noblest examples of that union of the baroque and the antique upon which the character of Rome so largely depends. (more…)
The Alhambra: Cool courtyards of the Moorish kings overlooking Granada May 12, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, Destination, Greece, Hostels, Hotels, India, Library, Lodges, Memorial, Motel, Museum, Travel Insurance, USA , add a commentIt is the imaginative setting of the Alhambra which stars the originality of the Arabs and not only demonstrates them as being decorators of genius but, above all, eminent poets in the siting of their fortresses. Seen from the heights above Albaicin, the rectangular geometry of the twenty or more towers shows a magnificent Cezanne-like rhythm of descent down to the ravine below. Though sharp black stabs of tall cypress trees give some hint of the many hidden courtyards, yet for all its intricacies the Alhambra remains secret and even austere, as compared with any trellised and domed rose-pink Moghul palace. Together with the gardens of the Generalife, the setting of this unique citadel is further enhanced by a magnificent backdrop — the perpetual white-capped brilliance of the Sierra Nevada, shimmering against the cloudless turquoise sky. (more…)
Sintra: The palace of the Portuguese sovereigns in the Moorish style continue… May 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Cars, China, Destination, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Lisbon, Lodges, Morocco, Motel, Portugal, USA , add a commentMost of the interior of the palace is likewise typically Manueline in its treatment of certain features, notably Moorish carpentry (alfarge) and ceramic (azulejo) techniques adumbrating future developments. Over sixty different designs of azulejo are represented, from the simple green-and-white chequer-board, reminiscent of Persian work, on the walls of the Hall of Swans, to the intricate raised pattern of dark-green vine-leaves and turquoise-blue acanthus in the Patio of Diana, a little courtyard with a fountain bearing a graceful figure of the divine huntress. (more…)
Sintra: The palace of the Portuguese sovereigns in the Moorish style May 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Beach Resorts, Cars, Destination, Embassy, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Istanbul, Lisbon, Lodges, Motel, Portugal, Round The World, Travellers Cheque, USA , add a commentThe Alhambra itself cannot well be more morisco in point of architecture than this confused pile which crowns the summit of a rocky eminence and is broken into a variety of picturesque recesses and projections.’ This description of Sintra Palace, which William Beckford entered in his journal on Sunday, September, 2,1787, has been echoed again and again by subsequent visitors, who have thereby, consciously or unconsciously, subscribed to the tradition that the building dates from the period of the Saracenic occupation of Portugal.
Many of its features are indeed strikingly Moorish in design, especially the pair of conical chimneys resembling giant Kentish oast-houses — oriental relations to that of Glastonbury, and distant cousins to those that adorn the seraglio of Abdul the Damned at Istanbul. (more…)
The Escorial: Nobility without arrogance, majesty without ostentation continue… May 9, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Austria, Beach Resorts, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Library, Lodges, Motel, Restaurant, USA , add a commentReligious observances and the arts were Philip II’s two hobbies and much of the last fourteen years of his life was spent in decorating the Escorial. His choice of artists — Italian Mannerists of mediocre ‘talent — was not fortunate, though the frescoes of Castilian victories over the Moors in the Hall of Battles, although drastically restored, have much interest and charm. Little now survives of his collections of drawings, maps, architectural designs and natural history specimens, and the parks, pavilions and herds of deer with which he surrounded the palace, have all disappeared. Even his collection of relics has suffered depredation and its chief treasure, a feather from the wing of the Archangel Gabriel which Beckford saw, `full three feet long, and of a blushing hue more soft and delicate than that of the loveliest rose’, is no longer mentioned. (more…)
Kronborg: Hamlet’s pinacled castle at Elsinore on the Baltic shore April 23, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Air Tickets, Airlines, Beach Resorts, Denmark, Hostels, Hotels, Lodges, Memorial, Museum, Sweden, Travel Insurance, Travellers Cheque , add a commentKronborg is situated outside Elsinore, on the coast, forty kilometres north of Copenhagen, and on the promontory farthest to the north-east of Zealand. Although close to Elsinore, Kronborg is not really, and never has been, that town’s citadel. Even more than is the case today, Kronborg in former times stood apart from Elsinore. In those days, as the old pictures show, the open stretch between the castle and the town was still broader, and the great fortifications then as now surrounded the castle only, while the town remained defenceless.
Kronborg stands at the narrowest part of the Sound between Denmark and Sweden. On the journey by sea from the north towards Copenhagen the towers of the castle are the first thing to come into view. In former times this sight certainly more often than not gave cause for mixed feelings, especially to captains of foreign merchant vessels. For, from 1425 until 1857, the ships had to cast anchor at Kronborg and there pay a toll for passage through the Sound, both sides of which until I 66o were Danish territory. As this toll yielded a large revenue, which went direct to the King’s own privy purse, the Danish kings bestowed great care on Kronborg, which by virtue of its guns was expected to ensure payment of the toll. (more…)
