Author: kenritley

Hampi Ox

kenritley

How could anyone not love animals like these – majestic, proud, stoic. I took this snap at Hampi, an archeological site so incredible there are warning signs everyday “Danger! Your mind may explode!”

Saline-les-Bains

kenritley

Saline-les-Bains blows your mind, because it shows you an aspect of medieval history that you probably had no idea about. Or at least, that I had no idea before I visited it. Over a thousand years ago people discovered that the water flowing up from underground springs was salty. So even as far back as 1115 they created “saltworks” to collect the water, dry it, to obtain salt.  One interesting learning for me was: salt was not required for human health or flavoring, but rather this was the only known method of storing fresh foods (such as meat and fish) over the winter. A family living in Middle Age Europe required around 25 kg of salt per year!

The Mt. Niesen Supervolcano is calm – and the tourists and blissfully unaware of the massive dangers

kenritley

All geologists and volcanologists now recognize the horrible dangers that the Mt. Niesen supervolcano poses. This volcano, located in the middle of the Berner Oberland, will one day erupt (not if, but when) – and when that happens, most of central Europe will be extinguished, if not by the lava then by a meters-thick blanket of ash.

Although you can often see steam emanating from the cone at the top, today it is quite dormant and calm:

And as this snap shows, the tourists on the boat are “blissfully unaware” of the tremendous dangers that lie just behind them – dangers so real and severe that they will one day lead to Europe’s total destruction! 

Garbage in Bern

kenritley

I find this kind of interesting. The word “steit” is written here starting with “st…” but it is pronounced “scht…” – so it is quite interesting why some words in Bärndütsch are written like they sound (e.g. chunnt dri) but other words (e.g. “steit”) are not written that way.

This may be one of those mysteries that nobody probably knows the answer to!