Cahokia Mounds, the Late Woodland Culture continue… September 28, 2008
Posted by dodo in : America, Central America, Destination, Hotels, Map, Memorial, North America, Sightseeing, Tour, USA , 2commentsMound 72 is most interesting, even though today it seems a fairly insignificant ridge of earth. Excavations revealed that at the precise point where the meridional line passes through the end of the mound, a huge pole — about three feet (1m) in diameter — had been erected. Radiocarbon dating of material in the eight-foot (2.4m) deep pole (the pole had clearly been very tall) gave a date of AD 950 for the time when the pole was placed in the ground. The excavations also showed that the mound had been constructed from a series of earlier submounds that were then reshaped and covered over to give the long ridge form. (more…)
Teotihuacan, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Street of the Dead September 28, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Destination, Egypt, Geographic, Guatemala, Hotels, Map, Mexico, Museum, Round The World, San Juan, Tickets, Tour, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsThis great and urban and religious centre, 30 miles (48km) northeast of modern Mexico City, was given its present name by the
Aztecs who encountered its awesome ruins. In Nahuatl, the language the Aztecs spoke, Teotihuacan means ‘place of the gods’, or, ‘the place of the creation of the gods’. This great site, dominated by two pyramids, was ‘regarded by the Aztec as the original source of civilization and government, and the place where cosmic order was established.” In Aztec myth, Teotihuacan was where Nanahuatzin, a dying god, jumped into a ceremonial fire which the four creator gods (representing the Four Directions) were too fearful to enter. (more…)
The Ruined Mayans City of Chichen Itza continue… September 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Central America, Destination, Hotels, Mexico, Museum, New York, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsThe Caracol (the name means ’snail’ because of the structure’s appearance and interior winding staircase) exemplifies this involvement with Venus in particular and the heavens in general. The structure consists of a cylindrical tower on a two-tiered rectangular platform, and it was probably Mayan originally with later Toltec- influenced additions. The upper part of the tower has crumbled, giving an appearance coincidentally reminiscent of modern domed observatories. This probably helped speculation over a long period about possible astronomical aspects to the building. Some of this speculation has been shown by fairly recent research to be wrong, but Anthony Aveni can now claim that Chichen Itza is one of ‘the most secure examples of the incorporation of a horizon-based astronomy in architecture’: (more…)
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…)
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…)
Is there any way to make Air Travel safer? September 13, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, Flight Schedule, Hotels, Travelling Bag , 3commentsSince the inception of the jet era, flying has become much safer because of innovations like computerised flight simulators, expanded radar coverage, and high-tech devices that warn pilots of such things as nearby aircraft, threatening proximity to terrain, precarious aircraft altitude or flight angle, and wind-shear conditions. The industry is continually finding new ways to make flying safer through better pilot training, better aircraft inspection and maintenance techniques, and new safety technologies. In the next century, for example, all commercial jets will use satellites to navigate and communicate their positions to air traffic controller on the ground — a tremendous advantage over ground-based navigation aids and radar that lose “sight” of planes once they fly beyond the horizon. (more…)
One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage continue… September 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cars, Destination, Europe, Hotels, Museum, Rail Pass, Tour , 5commentsThese geomantic stones had associations with certain alignments and the axial centres of towns. The Domnapf location not only had typical Blue Stone connotations with ancient judicial rules, as indicated above, but also expresses this geomantic role as its presence on this alignment attests. Furthermore, it was from this spot that the layout of the streets of Speyer was arranged. The omphalos point.
Maximilianstrasse was created at the time of die cathedral in the eleventh century as a Via Triumphalis, linking the west gate — the Old Gate or Altportel — and the west porch of the cathedral. The German Emperors and the newly appointed Bishops of Speyer used it for their ceremonial entrances into the city. (This is a medieval continuation of the link between kingship and straight alignments.) (more…)
One day in Germany Speyer Cathedral, World Famous Heritage September 10, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Belgium, Europe, Germany, Hotels, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Scotland, Sightseeing, Switzerland, Tickets, Tour , 3commentsSituated in Rhineland-Palatinate, this extensively rebuilt Romanesque structure is the largest cathedral in Germany. Although it dates from the eleventh century, the origins of the site are much older.
To the Celts it was known as Noviomagus, and the Romans called it Civitas Nemetum. The cathedral has evolved on a former pagan holy place, for the site was occupied by a Roman temple dedicated to the Celtic goddess Nantosvelta. It is even thought `probable that buildings from the Roman period were converted to construct the church’.’ It is likely that the site was considered sacred ‘even before the Roman temple was built’ . (more…)
A Day in Narnia, a Night in Phang Nga continue… September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Bangkok, Germany, Hotels, Tour , 3commentsNext morning in the market, shopping for a picnic, our struggles with the phrasebook brought an English-speaking Thai to our rescue, explaining that the quail eggs we had bought were raw, but could be cooked for us in the soup cauldron wherever we took breakfast. And the performance with the nails and the knives? A thanksgiving. All those who went through the ordeal had at some time survived an accident or illness when their lives had been despaired of. In gratitude they undertook to walk the nails and climb the knives every year until they died. They spent the day chanting and dancing, and when they came to walk and climb they could be heard speaking Chinese, a language none of them could speak during the rest of the year. (more…)
A Day in Narnia, a Night in Phang Nga September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Bangkok, Hotels, Tour, Trip , 3commentsOn the village green in front of the Chinese Bhuddist temple a fairground was being erected. The skeleton of a Ferris wheel loomed; shooting galleries and hoopla stalls were being knocked together.
The purpose of the structure immediately outside the temple was not so obvious. The men hammering it together had beckoned us, beaming, inviting inspection. A raised wooden runway, carpeted with the pin-sharp points of six-inch nails hammered through from the bottom, ran out 50ft and ended in a bed of nails laid on the grass. At the foot of the bed, guyed by wire ropes, a forty-rung ladder rose vertically. The rungs were steel knives, blades up. (more…)
A Second Shufti at Jordan September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Airlines, Damascus, Hotels, Museum, Tour , 3commentsThe Queen beat me to it — she got to Petra first! But I doubt if she had as much fun. There was she, a horse- loving woman, bumping through the Siq in a Land Rover, wearing a skirt and hat. Whereas touristy me — town-bred and with no more knowledge of nags than a few donkey- rides sixty years ago — I rode high and proud on Suzy, a two-year-old Arab who was full of wind and nervous at moving so slowly.
Holding my back straight and clutching the plaited strings that had once been reins, I felt as intrepid as Stark, as hardened as Lawrence, as much the explorer as Burckhardt. I was there — at last! (more…)
Luxury Jet Air Flight, the true beginning of Jet-powered Flight September 5, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Hotels, London, San Francisco, Tour, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsJet engines derive their thrust from the reaction to the discharge of hot gases. The jet engine uses a very simple three-stage process to develop its power (or thrust as it is known). It “sucks, burns and blows”!
During the first (”suck”) stage, the jet engine uses very powerful compressor fans to suck great volumes of air into the jet engine casing and compress it to a high pressure. Jet fuel is then mixed with this high- pressure air in a combustion chamber and it is ignited to burn at a very high temperature (the “burn” stage). This very hot gas expands rapidly and is forced out of the rear of the engine producing the force that pushes the aircraft forwards. (more…)
A Visit to Dominica September 1, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Caribbean, Hotels, Rail Pass, Restaurant, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsA strange thing happened this year. A man I’d met only twice, a bit of a loner, invited me to go with him to the West Indies. I fancied him so I said yes.
I knew of Dominica only as the birthplace of Jean Rhys, a writer I deeply admire. Now when I read about the island I discovered that it is volcanic and mountainous and is the last refuge of the Carib Indians, the descendants of proud cannibals who starved to death rather than accept the fate of slavery. It is one of the wilder places on earth and contains rainforest, and boa constrictors. (more…)
One More Burmese Day August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Asia, Europe, Forex, Hotels, Rail Pass, Singapore, Tour, Trails, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsAt five in the morning Rangoon shakes off sleep. Paraffin lamps cast pools of sputtering light on the wet streets. After a night of drizzle, the city murmurs as though sound, like the dust, has been cleared from the air by the rain. The lamps wheeze. In a café doorway a man slaps chapati dough on to a board, and stacks the rolled balls into ranks. A boy yawns and adjusts his lunghi. He oversees a water tank parked in the road. Water splashes from a faucet into a jerrican, and when it fills the boy sluggishly replaces it from a line of empty ones. A truck, far off, grinds gears and whines, coming slowly closer. (more…)
The Drums of Nefta continue… August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Destination, Hotels, Sightseeing, Tickets, Travel Gear , 3commentsWe both met Walter a few days ago. He is a German working at a doctorate on the post-colonial development of the region. He has lived here for eight months and knows more about the town than the Neftis, who are infuriatingly vague when it comes to giving directions. He knows nothing of Brigitte Bardot’s visit but confirms that President Bourguiba used to stay at our hotel, though he now spends two months every year at the Sahara Palace.
Mercifully Walter and Marianne soon exhaust their mutual stock of Arabic and, in the silence that follows, we all become aware of a faint constant drumbeat in the medina. Walter says that it is probably a wedding but suggests that we investigate. We leave, and Marianne stays behind picking at a fruit salad. (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…)
Backpacking in Mani August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Greece, Hotels, Tickets, Tour, Vaccinations , 3commentsFive hundred drachmas for the room: the matter was soon settled. Just over £3 for a generous bed, a vine-clad balcony with a splash of bougainvillea, two lemon trees in the garden below, and a view over olives to the sea — not a bad deal. Then the old lady took me firmly by the arm and led me into the bathroom. She pointed to a large hole in the ceiling. The sight of it seemed to provoke in her a torrent of recrimination. She spoke fast, too fast for my rudimentary Greek. What was she trying to convey? ‘You can’t get a plumber these days, not for love nor money. “You simply can’t trust the workmen any more, can you?’ Together we contemplated a knotted cord dangling from the black hole. Ipárhi Fero zestó?’ I persisted tiresomely, ‘Is the water hot?”Zestó, zestó,’ she echoed shrilly, irritated by a fatuous question, and launched into another dramatic monologue with a wealth of expressive gestures. Then suddenly she was gone, leaving me to ponder along the unpredictable and intractable nature of language as a medium of communication. (more…)
To the Middle of Nowhere August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Destination, Hotels, Moscow, Restaurant, Round The World, Tickets , 3commentsThe train from the Back of Beyond is about to arrive at the Middle of Nowhere. A week out of Moscow across Siberia and five time zones later you somehow land up in landlocked Mongolia.
Galloping horses, endless deserts and grassland steppes. People with faces like unworked mahogany stand around in their tunic-like costume and ill-fitting boots with turned up toes. All are heavily wrapped against searing Siberian of Genghis Khan, Marco Polo and winds which bear `living’ Buddhas. (more…)
