A renaissance man for the twenty-first century!
This photo is a well-known sight for anyone who’s been to Esslingen am Neckar, a wonderful town in Southern Germany:
Interestingly, there is a similar scene in Strasbourg – and next time I’m in Strasbourg I will take a photo of it. I am curious whether this is just coincidence – or maybe it is the same artist?
I was recently in a wonderful historic town in Southern German, Esslingen am Neckar, and I took this picture of a nice red house. I think it is the so-called Altes Rathaus – but I am not 100% sure.
You just can’t take a bad photograph of a good cow!
This one walked down a long narrow street in Mysore, stopped briefly to look at me, then turned and continued along his way. Unbelievable. I hope he was successful in whatever he was trying to achieve.
This is the world famous Devil’s Bridge, high in the Gotthard Pass region of Switzerland:
What I’ve never understood? The historical plaque talks about this gorge being uncrossable until recently, but this entry tells a slightly different story.
I think the most amazing room in the Herriot Musuem is the kitchen, which guests are free to enter and examine. It is a 100% accurate reproduction of how the kitchen would have looked in the 1930’s.
Some items are instantly recognizable: such as a bag of flour or a tin of salt. Some items take on a new light when you see their intended purpose: such as a cabinet that today would hold decorative plates, but back in the day displayed mason jars of canned food. And some items were a real mystery (and still are): the clothes drying rack positioned above the wood oven is a wonderful idea – but was it only used for drying clothes, or also for adding a bit of humidity to the room?
Also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, after the Ottoman ruler who ordered it to be built, it is the landmark in downtown Istanbul.
The Cameron Highlands in Malaysia are fairly well developed these days, but back when I first visited in the early 2000’s they were still fairly undeveloped and remote. In this snap, the mayor of the Cameron Highlands (far right, also doubling as my driver) and I just returned from a jungle walk, and we stopped to smoke something with a local farmer. I am not sure what we smoked, but it was wrapped in a bamboo leaf, and as you can see from our expression, I think it gave us a rather delightful feeling.
Built in 1348, the Galata Tower looms above the Istanbul skyline.
I took this snap just north of Bangalore, on the way to the so-called Nandi Hills.
You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here:
This photo was taken by a friend when we visited the city of Mysore, India, in 2006. I am showing it here because even though I did not take it myself, it is still one of my all time favorite snaps. The donkey somehow reminds me of Marvin the Robot, from HHGTTG fame.
These are the famous Apostles, Saint James, Saint Peter, and Saint Thomas:
Technically, I am referring to Saint James, son of Zebedee, since there is a second apostle also named James. The Spanish people call Saint James by a different name, Santiago, and he is buried in a cathedral I visited in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela:
Saint Peter is probably the most famous saint, having been killed not just by crucifixion, but by crucixion-upside-down, in this Roman square that I visited, now known as Saint Peter’s Basilica:
But I’m not sure if anyone really knows where Saint Thomas is buried. According to the locals, Saint Thomas travelled to India and eventually reached Chennai, having died and been buried somewhere quite close. There is a famous church I visited there, known Saint Thomas Mount:
Saint Thomas is known as the Patron Saint of India – but unfortunately there is some dispute as to whether these claims are true. I hope they are true, because it would make the people who believe them very happy.
So by coincidence and not by plan, I’ve visited what may be the final resting place of 25% of the twelve Apostles.
This is the Burj Khalifa. At 2’788 feet, it is the tallest structure in the world.
I was on holiday here during the hot summer month of August – which, by the way, is a great time to get good deals on airfare and five star hotels!
And this is the Tokyo Sky-Tree. Coming in at 2’080 feet, it is the second tallest structure in the world. I took this picture during the peak of winter season in Tokyo – also a great way to save money on airfare and hotels.
So I guess I am quite fortunate to have seen the top two tallest structures in the world!
This is Hannibal:
And this is Salamanca, in western Spain:
The cathedral somehow looks a bit tilted, so here is a second photo to assure you that it is not tilted. It also shows the Roman Bridge, which (unbelievably!) was built in the first century AD:
I believe this is the first city that I’ve ever visited that was originally conquered by Hannibal. Needless to say, I could not find any elephant footprints anywhere, although if you have sharp enough eyes, you can see some storks:
The famous fictional books All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot and set in the Yorkshire village of Darroughby were actually written by Alfred Wight and were based on his veternary practice in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Thanks to a good friend I got a wonderful chance to see this town.
This is a historical picture of Thirsk, what James Herriot before WWII would have seen:
And this is Thirsk today:
So you can see, it hasn’t changed much. Interestingly, Dr. Wight wasn’t intentionally trying to trick anyone. There were very strict laws in England at the time that prevented doctors and veterinarians from advertising, so it was necessary for him to change the names and places.
PS. What I find fascinating is the color variation you can see on the lower photograph, which approximately follows the original road shown in the top drawing. Are we seeing visible signs of the archeology? Only one way to find out: dig a test trench!
If you are ever in the southwest of France, do not hesistate to visit Rennes-le-Chateau. Although the tourists flock to the nearby historical city of Carcasonne, Rennes-le-Chateau will impress you even more.
What is this place? It is an unbelievably isolated hill station that has a 360-degree panoramic view of the Languedoc region in Southern France. It’s a long, lonely one-hour drive up a very steep one lane road.
Historically, the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (and later, the book-turned-movie The Da Vinci Code) put Rennes-le-Chateau on the map. According to this book, the local priest in the 19th century discovered a buried treasure that gave evidence that Jesus and his wife (Mary Magdalene) settled in southern France.
Is the story real? Who knows? But . . . if you travel to Rennes-le-Chateau you will realize how unbelievably hidden and remote this place is – so in my view, it would make a wonderful location for a buried treasure, if one ever existed.
Nancy in eastern France is well worth a visit, due to its rich history and old buildings. But the most fascinating thing I like about it is its very unique public transportation system, known as “tramway on wheels.”
Built by Bombardier, these trams are really more like buses then trains, since the power is provided by two overhead lines (not a single line with the rails acting as ground).
There is something quite frustrating about some local South Indian farmers I’ve met.
But first, this is the largest ant mound I’ve seen in India (or anywhere else for that matter):
I spotted this one just outside of Tiruchappalli (or more commonly called Trichy, as the locals call it). If you don’t know it, Trichy is famous for its white rice – and the locals say the taste is so good because of the special properties of the soil. So, I guess it would only be natural that the ants enjoy this great soil and build super-mounds like this one!
But what’s so frustrating about some local South Indian farmers? I could never find any farmers (or locals for that matter) who referred to these as “ant mounds” or “termite mounds.” If you ask the locals, they will always tell you they are “snake houses.” OK, probably they make nice homes for snakes – I don’t dispute that. But it always makes me wonder if they know who the builder was, not just some of the tenants!
You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here:
While driving through Lorraine, France, I discovered many, many bunkers that looked identical, like this:
But as you may know, Lorraine is quite far from the German border and the famous Maginot Line, which was a series of bunkers to defend France against the German army in World War II.
So what are these bunkers, and why were they built?
After a bit of Internet research, I discovered that this area in Lorraine was the previous boundary between France and Germany, dating back the FIRST world war, World War I. In fact, France invaded Germany here, and the Germans built a series of fortifications to defend against the French. The previous link shows a terrific map of the border:
On the one hand, it is too bad that historical artifacts like the ones I saw are not labelled, so visitors can learn why they are there. But on the other hand, with the help of the Internet a little “amateur archeology” is fun . . . and I didn’t have to dig a test pit or extend the trench.
(PS. There are still some interesting mysteries. For example, why were all the bunkers identical? Probably to make building them fast and easy – but did the German army have a “bunker kit” that distributed the materials to the various construction sites? Or, were the bunkers all built by the same team?)
I am not a Mormon. But as fate would have it, in both Northern California and Washington DC I was travelling by automobile and got lost, and both times I wound up at an impressive Mormon temple. This one is in Northern California,
and this one is in the Washington DC area.
Well, technically termites, not ants – and despite having lived a few years in Southern India, I still never learned much about the various species – but you can generally recognize them by the shape of their mounds. I discovered this one somewhere between Bangalore and Shravanabelagola.
I remember reading somewhere that these mounds grow on average as little as 1 cm per year – and if that’s true, these are very old mounds.
You can see my other Amazing Ants photographs here:
While travelling through Rajasthan I was able to watch the sunset from Mount Abu. I am not sure why, but watching the sunset from Mount Abu is famous, and lots of people come here to do it. I was there in high summer (temperatures over 40 C, although much cooler on the hill station), and all the haze you can see below is due to wildfires raging all over Rajasthan.
But what I really like is a photo that a family asked me to take of them. It was unplanned and unstaged and unscripted – and it was a bit unusual because they never asked me to send the picture to them, just to take it – but it makes a very nice “generations” picture:
This is known as “the shot” of the Taj Majal. Normally you’d find around 2 million tourists here, all vying for this shot. The secret to having the place to yourself: come in the middle of high summer. The temperature when I was here on this day was over 45 C.
Thionville, probably not in any tourist books, but a small and quiet town, definitely worth visiting if you are in this part of France.
