Continuing the series, if I see a peepal tree somewhere, you can be sure I’ll take a picture of it. I found this one in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia:
Were medieval cities planned?
It seems unreasonable to think that the streets in medieval cities were somehow planned. But when I travel through medieval cities, I can’t help but notice the large number of small streets that are optimally laid out to frame a view of the large, central cathedral.
This one is Santiago de Compostella, in Spain (from which you can see the Cathedral of St. XXX):
This one is Mulhouse, in Alsace, France (from which you can see the Cathedral of St. Etienne):
And this one is Paradeplatz, in Zurich, Switzerland (from which you can see both the Grossmünster and Frauenmünster cathedrals):
Is this just coincidence – or are these cathedrals and towers visible because they were designed to be visible?
Happy Cow
You just can’t take a bad photograph of a good cow!
This one is very happy because she is standing on the steps of the Chamundeshwari Temple.
What goes up doesn’t always come down
This is the world’s highest water fountain, the Jet D’Eau located in Geneva, Switzerland, which sprays the water to a height of 500 feet:
But what goes up doesn’t always come down: the water is sprayed so high and with such intensity, that what comes down are not drops but just a very fine mist.
Brooklyn Bridge
There are quite a few perspectives from which the Brooklyn Bridge looks fantastic. Here I captured the bridge from below:
And here I captured it from its deck:
Amazing Ants
I ran across this termite mound in Bandipur, near Mysore:
At least when I was there, the park had wild tigers that could roam at free will; I never saw any, but I saw plenty of their footprints.
You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here:
Infinity Pool
Recently I posted a picture of the Infinity Pool from below, and here it is from above:
It’s designed in such a way that, when you are in the pool, you can’t see the edges and it feels like you are floating in space.
Church in Florence
Surveying Switzerland
Unless you are a history fanatic and like to research strange things on the Internet, there’s no way you’ll be able to guess what this Pyramide de Napolean is. It was erected in 1804 under the Reign of Napolean, and it was used as part of a project to do a geographical survey of Switzerland:
Manhattan Bridge
This is the Manhattan Bridge, and with its clean lines it actually one of my all-time favorite bridges. Built around 1909, it is actually the world’s first bridge to use reinforced concrete.
A not-so-useful matrix about intercultural differences
Sometimes a graph can be invaluable to elucidating and understanding a complex topic; sometimes, less so.
At first glance, this graph looks quite useful:
But if you think about it . . . it’s really nothing more than common sense.
Lady Liberty
I really like this picture because I took it while on a boat tour of Manhattan. There was really only a 1-2 second window of opportunity, and hopefully I nailed it!
Sheep, heath, gorse, moors – and high-tech radar!
Recently a friend took me on a tour of Yorkshire, England, including the famous Yorkshire Moors. But the most stunning part of the landscape was a huge radar installation, operated as part of a giant system deployed in the Cold War to protect the U.S. against nuclear missles:
At first, it was a bit difficult for me to understand why a radar installation in northern England would be much use to safeguard the U.S. But when you look at how the different systems overlap, it becomes quite clear:
Solothurn Seagull
A seagull cruises the Aare River in Solothurn. In the background you can see the the St.-Ursen-Kathedrale:
Solothurn is both a village AND a canton (national state) in Switzerland, and it’s name dates back to around the year 0 AD, where it was known by the Romans as Solodurum – so it is amazing how things like names can persist over thousands of years! And you won’t find many German speakers here: like most areas in this part of Switzerland, the locals speak the Bernese version of Alemannic (a more advanced, evolved version of high German).
World’s most amazing church?
This is one of my favorite photographs that I took of a church in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. But this is no ordinary church. This is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:
There are so many amazing things associated with this church – my blog is too small to hold them all! Top of the list: Christians will immediate cite this as the location where Jesus was crucified, and where his empty tomb was discovered.
By my favorite fact is an historical one, not a religious one. The Church is locked in the evening and opened again in the morning, and the holders of the key (the lockers / unlockers, if you will) have come from the same family (the Nusaybah family) and have been doing this job since the seventh century. Amazing! I’ve found the best place to read more details about this amazing story is the wonderful book by Simon Montefiori, entitles Jerusalem: the Biography.
Swiss barn
I think this barn is actually in Leichtenstein, along the Hohe-Köpfe-Steig:
Indian Aqueduct
If there is one thing that India has done longer and better than just about any other country, it is innovative aqueducts. Some of the most famous aqueducts are centuries old, such as in the historical city of Hampi; others are still intact after hundreds of years, dotting the rural Indian countryside.
And some of them are quite modern, such as the Varasun Aqueduct:
Helping to provide valuable water from the Kaveri River to farmers as part of a much longer (135 km) canal, the aqueduct is 1.8 kilometers long and towering at an unbelievable height of 16 m.
Poachies
Even though we are living in the 21st century, and have been for some time, still from time to time I discover something so simple yet so mind bogglingly cool:
A True World Wonder – ಶ್ರವಣಬೆಳಗೊಳ
In my opinion, the 60-foot-tall statute of the Indian god Bahubali (sometimes called Gommateshwara), carved out of a single piece of granite and located high on a mountain, is without doubt one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
Here’s the top part of his body – and if you look closely, you can see the visitors on the tower just above his head:
Here is the lower part of his body – and again, be sure to look at the size of the people near his toes:
But if you want to visit ಶ್ರವಣಬೆಳಗೊಳ, also known as Shravanabelagola, it won’t look like these pictures. I was VERY fortunate and priviledged to be able to visit during the Jain religious ceremony called Mahamastakabhisheka, which is only held every 12 years!
Unfortunately, there is so much about this holy site that I do not know. I’ve never been able to find any documentation about who created the statute and why, how long it took, and how they managed to transport it intact up a very high and very steep mountain.
Prime Meridian in Spain
The Prime Meridian is the universal definition of 0-degrees longitude – but did you know that until recently, there were different prime meridians in use, such as the Greenwich PM and the Paris PM? I only learned this a few minutes ago, when posting this picture I took on the AP-2 highway, near Candasnos Spain between Zaragoza and Barcelona:
You can see the Cypress trees on both side of the arch, which are a well known sight in southern Europe.
It is wonderful that the Spanish would build an arch – but it is a bit sad they didn’t also add a turnoff, so that you could stop and enjoy the moment less fleetingly.
Indian art
People who visit India for the first time are always amazed at the tremendous artwork that adorns rather simple objects, like buildings and vehicles. Here’s a good example:
It is amazing to watch the artists at work: it’s all still done by hand using an airbrush and other simple tools.
A very secluded medieval town
If you’ve ever visited the very end of the Mississippi River, then you know how it is: a truly exciting environment, unbelievably remote, and visited by very, very few people.
The medieval town of Aigues-Mortes is the French equivalent. It’s a beautifully preserved medieval town, in the French region known simply as The Camargue, where the Rhone River forms a delta emptying into the Mediterranean Sea:
Interestingly, this is the spot where famous 7th Crusades were launched in 1248. But today the locals are more interested in shopping for bread
or bowling
rather than marching on Jerusalem!
Schloss Lichtenstein
This is Schloss Lichtenstein, also known as Lichtenstein Castle, in Southern Germany:
Interestingly, it is not a very old castle, as far as castles go. Everything you see here was built around 1840:
And that probably explains why the stone figures are in such good condition:
Peepal tree in Goa
Continuing the series, if I see a peepal tree somewhere, you can be sure I’ll take a picture of it. I found this one in Goa:
Christkindelsmärik
Unless you’ve been to Germany, you may not know that the German towns and cities all have Christmas markets in the weeks preceding Christmas, filled with stands where you can buy small gifts and stalls selling food and Glühwein (a hot mulled wine).
That’s the nice part. The not-so-nice part is: Christmas markets and Christmas itself in Europe doesn’t have the history of music that you find in America. I always think Christmas in Germany could be improved with more traditional music.
But anyway, the best known market is not in Germany at all, but in Strasbourg:
And if you have good eyes you will have spotted that it’s not Markt but Märik, which is the word for market in the Alemannisch language – less commonly spoken in Strasbourg today, but still the lingua franca among Switzerland’s many unique dialects.