…when leaving Arusha. Photo by David Coleman. How to license & download this image. Kilimanjaro Tips / Books & Films You don’t need it for directions or trail maps–your guides will have you covered–but I found Alexander Stewart’s Kilimanjaro: A Complete Trekker’s Guide good for a sense of what comes next…
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Wordie House, An Antarctic Home Very Far Away from Home
…Island Dependency Survey, 12 September 1955.1 It must have felt like winter was never going to end for the men who signed up to go to the icy end of the earth and found themselves at Base F. They no doubt thought they were signing up for glamorous adventure–exploring new…
Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar
…he can wrap it up into a tiny package with an airplane-friendly carry handle. More than you wanted to pay? You’re in luck. He’ll do a very special price, just for you. The seemingly endless rows of storefronts overflowing with a staggering variety of merchandise of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar (or…
The Hanoi Hilton
…a continuous loop shows the prisoners being treated well, cooking Christmas dinner, even joking with their jailers. The prisoners should be so lucky as to be imprisoned by the Vietnamese, the narration says. And in an astonishing display of willfully missing the point, the narrator says that the POWs found…
Gallows Point Resort
…smaller and more self-contained than that–but also much more relaxed. And it’s a great place to see some stunning Caribbean sunsets and a convenient jumping off point to explore St. John’s beautiful beaches. I’ve been lucky enough to stay there several times now. Here are some shots I’ve taken there….
Up Close and Personal with the Great Barrier Reef
…from Lady Elliot. Flights leave from several points along Queensland’s southeast coast. Lady Elliot Island is not for everyone, and visitors will enjoy it far more if they go with realistic expectations. This is not a luxury resort where your every whim is catered to. They take the “eco” part…
Australian Parliament House, Canberra
…One has to wonder whether the decision was made just to punish everyone. It’s no wonder that some recent Australian Prime Ministers have chosen to spend more time in Sydney’s Kirribilli House than at Canberra’s official Prime Ministerial residence, the Lodge. Serving as the central hub of Canberra’s self-consciously planned…
Towamba River Valley, a Beautiful Spot in the Australian Outback
…just after the sun has disappeared behind the mountain ranges of Egan Peaks is looking straight down the Towamba valley from Towamba. It’s actually basically the same vantage point as the timelapse video below. The Towamba River Like many river systems throughout the Australian outback, the Towamba River is prone…
Ocracoke Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks
…colors. The barrier islands of the Outer Banks are almost entirely made of sand and lie low to sea level. That means, of course, that they’re very hard to see from off shore. And with the trade routes to North Carolina being so lucrative during the 17th and 18th centuries,…
Panama City’s Seafood Market (Mercado de Mariscos)
…are, where the freshly caught seafood is served up for your dining pleasure. These aren’t fancy joints. They’re essentially counters with plastic outdoor seating. Latin tunes blare over the speakers, and some have TVs jury-rigged under the canopy showing the soccer game of the moment. It’s more like Istanbul’s Karakoy…
Napoleon’s Last Headquarters
…table had been set for his aides-de-camp and several high-ranking officers, among them Colonel Combes-Brassard, the VI Corps chief of staff. In the course of the officers’ dinner, one of them spoke in a loud voice about the battle awaiting them on the morrow, and the emperor heard him. Napoleon…
The Antikythera Mechanism, The World’s Oldest Computer
…parts of the mechanism that have survived are seven large fragments and 75 small pieces, although it’s not entirely clear whether all of these small pieces belong to the mechanism. Originally, it contained at least 30 gears, dials, scales, axles, and pointers. On the surface of many of the fragments…
Granada’s Market
…I love morning markets, and I always make a special point to go to them if a town has one. They’re often one of the best ways to get a good dose of local flavor. They’re an essential part of the life-blood of the local community, and the…
Tulum, The Original Maya Riviera
…the tropical sun rising over the beautiful Caribbean Sea. And that is why the city was also known, so far as can be established, as Zama, meaning City of the Dawn. These days, it’s known as Tulúm, meaning “wall” or “fence.” When you arrive, you’ll quickly see why. Entering the…
Cruising Through Polar Bear Country in the Barents Sea
…along with the ice pack with the engines off (I also captured that on timelapse and will post it separately). Because the ice moves so much, the Norwegian Ice Service issues daily ice charts that are essential reading for safe navigation up here. I took this while we were off…
Fireworks in Chichicastenango
…of consciousness from everyone else. Sure, we could have all moved further away, but then where’s the fun in that? (For a different vantage point and to get a sense of the noise, check out this short video snippet posted by someone else who was there.) And this wasn’t some…
Vietnam’s War Remnants Museum
…poured in for its own use and for its South Vietnamese allies. Outside the building there’s also a display of the gruesome prison conditions set up first by the French colonial government and then adopted by the South Vietnamese government. Southeast Asia is not renowned for the comfort of its…
Ek Balam, Maya City of the Jaguar
…decorating the exterior of the Tomb of Ukit Kan Le’k Tok’. Many of these have been restored, but you still get an excellent sense of how grand and unusual it was originally. Rising over 100 feet and measuring about 540 by 210 feet at its base, the Acropolis dominates the…
Iglesia San Jose
…Viejo, by a mix of crumbling ruins and beautifully renovated buildings. Iglesia San Jose dates to 1673 and features a series of heavy, ornate altar pieces lining its walls and alcoves. But despite the draw of the Golden Altar, the church hasn’t been restored to the extent of some of…
Palace of Sintra
…It sits in the heart of Sintra’s old town. It’s well beneath the hill with the Moorish Castle, but it still manages to be out on a point, overlooking the surrounding countryside and the new section of Sintra. And it’s two large conical spires can be seen from…
Granada, Nicaragua
…does not consider Granada city to be a malaria risk area. But if you’re using Granada as a launching off point for nearby areas such as the islands on the lake, those areas might be quite different. And things change, so it’s a good idea to check with a specialized…
Defending Charleston Harbor
…effective piles of dirt. Now it’s as much bunker as building and has been restored to reflect several stages in its history. Different sections depict how it looked for the World War II-era Harbor Defense Command, the defense batteries in place from 1898 to 1939, the 1870s modernization to accommodation…
Panama City’s Biomuseo
…what’s what, and on one wall a large video panel displays an animation of what some of these animals would have looked like in person. For now, the audio guide section ends, so once you’ve handed in your handsets you can head downstairs. The Human Path The exhibit downstairs focuses…
Portugal’s Maritime History Museum
…of Portuguese ships and watercraft, decorated royal chambers, and ships’ cannons. Barges and Sea Planes In an attached warehouse-like building is a collection of royal barges, fishing boats, recreational boats, and seaplanes. The grandest of them, dominating the center of the massive room, is the Royal Barge built in 1780…
Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum
…Ho had read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945, and when it opened in 1975, it became hallowed ground. Apparently oblivious to the ceremonial similarities they share with the honor guards of royal households, goose-stepping Vietnamese soldiers in white dress uniforms stand watch over the entrance, switching…
Tarangire National Park
…Although it’s not as well known as its neighbors, the Serengeti or the Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park (pronounced Tarrangeeri, with those distinctive clipped vowels and the hint a rolled r’s of a Tanzanian or South African accent) is larger than the entire island of Zanzibar. But as…
The Citadel in the Imperial City of Hue
…is the South China Sea. American warplanes and helicopters launched strikes against North Vietnam from Hue’s airbase. And the U.S. Navy controlled the waters of the South China Sea, maintaining the supply lines so crucial to an army at war. For most of the war, Hue was held by the…
North Stradbroke Island, Australia
…year prompting an annual pilgrimage of whale watchers at Point Lookout, sea turtles come in near the rocky headlands to feed, and yes, there are sharks–quite a lot of sharks, actually. Great Whites cruise the coast and herds of bull sharks venture into the passage between Stradbroke and Moreton islands…
The Town that Defied God and the Government
…jumping off point for destinations in Guatemala’s highlands like Chichicastenango. There are a number of charming, and might I say, surprisingly inexpensive hotels scattered near the Parque Central in the center of town and plenty to see. And while there, you won’t help but notice some of the colonial churches…
Chichen Itza’s Maya Ruins
…do with their location. Whereas many of the European ruins are often in the middle of modern populated areas, making it easy to see the modern incarnations of those ancient times, (Pompeii and Herculaneum notwithstanding) many of the Mayan sites have been truly deserted for centuries and are surrounded by…
Flores, Guatemala – A Caribbean Island 100 Miles from the Sea
…Go Flores/Santa Elena is a great jumping off point for visiting Tikal Maya ruins, especially if you’re flying. It’s about an hour to Tikal by shuttle bus. Flores can get hot and humid, with Caribbean-like weather. It is, after all, the base of the Yucatan Peninsula (but without a sea…
Lemosho Route / Day 2
…we set off this morning at about 8:30–after a hearty breakfast thanks to our wonderful camp cooks–it was into the low 50s. I feel good as we set off, but that changes. There’s no point mincing words–today was bloody hard, unexpectedly so. Part of it was the terrain. During the…
Belem Tower, Guarding the Entrance to Portugal’s Global Empire
…defensive net to protect Lisbon Harbor, the hub of Portugal’s trading and naval empire. The tower, above all, served as a fort, lookout, and platform for dozens of heavy-duty cannons pointed out over the Tagus. It was built during Portugal’s golden age of discovery, from 1514 to 1520. It was…
Our Lady of Pilar Basilica
…Despite a checkered history, Our Lady of Pilar Basilica has survived as the second oldest church in Buenos Aires and looking none the worse for wear. The initiative for building the church came from two local entrepreneurs. The first, Pedro de Bustinza, from Sante Fe, Argentina, secured authorization…
Zihuatanejo’s Fish Market
…What’s not to love about a local fish market? With some notable exceptions like Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market that cashes in on its “world famous” fish-tossing performing fishmongers, fish markets have little place for niceties or pretension. With freshness being everything, the trick is to sell quickly…
Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo
…nearly 40 feet (12 m) high. At the base of the painting are sections of a life-size diorama depicting gory details of the battlefield, mud, dead horses, and all. Sound effects evoke the noisy commotion of the day. Dumoulin’s painting can, of course, depict only a composite moment of what…
9/11 Commission Hearing 8
…particular emphasis on the period from the August 1998 embassy bombings to September 11, 2001. The Commission heard from current and former top-level administration officials. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified,…
Istanbul’s Beautiful Mosques
…the altar of a Christian church, the focal point for worship is a comparatively simple mihrab, a semi-circular niche in the wall indicating the direction of Mecca. Where Christian churches are crammed with chairs and pews, the mosques have only open floor covered with a massive expanse of ornate Turkish…
Cu Chi Tunnels
…the area, a muddy moonscape devoid or any visible life. Signs now helpfully point out bomb craters left by American bombs. There are plastic dummies dressed in military fatigues, looking more western than Vietnamese and wearing uniforms that the Vietcong didn’t have. You can climb over a captured tank, posing…
Australia’s Blue Mountains
…of a long string of mountain ranges running almost the entire east coast of Australia known as the Great Dividing Range. The most famous landmark in the Blue Mountains is a trio of rocky spires known as the Three Sisters. Standing next to Katoomba and clearly seen from Echo Point,…
Maritime Museum of Denmark
…over the seas would play such a prominent role in Danish political and economic history. As you wander around Copenhagen and Helsingør, you can’t miss the huge variety of boats, from historic tall ships to modern leisure craft. So it came as something of a surprise to walk into the…
Sydney Opera House, Australia
…The Sydney Opera House, dominating Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour next to Circular Quay, is one of Australia’s most recognizable landmarks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the two main architectural icons of Sydney along with the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It serves as the venue not…
Ushuaia, The World’s Most Southern City
…known for its prison and its naval base. The naval base is still there–although it’s not huge–but the prison has long since been converted into a museum. Now the town’s main industry is tourism. While the region definitely has charms of its own, and serves as a jumping off point…
Town of 1770
…the crew spent the next week keeping the ship afloat, finally limping into a protected harbor to conduct repairs at what would later become Cooktown. These days, Seventeen Seventy is a sleepy little fishing town–actually, not much more than a village–fronting the lagoon’s waterfront. The area was originally named Round…
Hanoi’s Vietnam Military History Museum
…Perhaps more than any other country, Vietnam’s self-identity over the last century has been defined by war. First, it was ejecting the French colonials. Then a brief repulsion of the imperial Japanese. Then the Americans. As tragic and destructive as that history of war is, it is also…
Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico
…El Centro Mercantil. You can still see the direct legacy of its first owner, Sebastian Robert, in his initials on the grand staircase. If the Gran Hotel Cuidad de Mexico looks familiar, it might be because you saw it in a movie or on TV. It’s used as a location…
Highclere Castle
…house, you must go through this entrance.) Once inside, it can be hard to remember that the characters of Downton Abbey are just that–characters–for so much of the castle looks familiar. (At least the above stairs sections, that is. The below stairs parts are filmed at a film studio.) Wandering…
Athens is Paradise for Graffiti Artists
…paradise for the graffiti artists.” The city is in the middle of a graffiti epidemic. It’s a combination of high youth unemployment and underemployment, a general sense of unrest, and authorities being stretched too thin to do much about it. Frankly, the police have bigger problems. The result is an…
Lisbon’s Military Museum
…between Portugal and India. Next, you’ll be directed up the grand staircase and into rooms showcasing swords, early firearms, and armor. The Salas da Grande Guerra (Rooms of The Great War, or World War I) are a highlight of the museum—and they also seem to be some of the most…
The Dimotiki Agora in Athens
…day’s catches are laid out. Vendors yell their prices with their considerable lungs, trying to rise above the din to get the attention of buyers. Fish and seafood feature prominently in Greek cuisine, of course. That’s hardly surprising given that it sits right on the Mediterranean and Aegean, and there…
Niagara Falls
…you up into the swirling cauldron at the base of the Horseshoe Falls (see the first video below). You can also do a short walk on a paved path (with a safety railing) up closer to the falling water (see the second video below). There’s a similar path (with a…
Sydney Harbour at Night
…outcrops, and ringed by high ground. The combination makes for a spectacular place to put a city. And the layout of the city affords panoramic views from multiple vantage points of two of Australia’s architectural icons–the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The view from Kirribilli on Sydney…
The View from Ancon Hill
…a little further up again, you go through a security checkpoint. That’s because of who lives here, most notably, the residence of the Panamanian President is here on your right (out of view from the road, but you’ll notice the signs saying not to point cameras in that direction). You…
Paris Skyline
…For a big city–12 million people and counting–Paris doesn’t have the kinds of skyscrapers you might expect. Aside from a few carefully segregated clusters, most of Paris’s buildings aren’t more than five or six stories tall. That, of course, is quite deliberate. When the Tour Montparnasse was built in…
The Musical Instrument Museum of Brussels
…The Musical Instrument Museum (Musee des Instruments de Musique) in Brussels has a lot to see, but it has even more to hear. This is a museum for the senses. But not the usual ones. Sure, you can look at the exhibits. You can read them if you…
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
…Museum in Washington DC was a contender for the most-visited museum in the world, besting even long-established institutions like the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in London. In recent years, the annual tally has slipped somewhat,1 even if the Smithsonian Institution seems reluctant to relinquish the crown2, but…
The Beautiful Beaches of St. John
…year around and sits around 79 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit (26 to 28 degrees Celsius). When you visualize an idyllic Caribbean sandy beach framed by beautiful turquoise seas, there’s a good chance it’s going to look quite a lot like one of St. John’s picture perfect beaches. Not even those…
Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar
…offerings like spices, nuts, dried fruits, baklava, and, of course, Turkish delight (lokum) in the traditional rose water as well as just about any flavoring you can think of. But more and more the foods are getting displaced by shops selling goods with larger profit margins like jewelry and souvenirs….
Winter Charms of Old Quebec City
…easy. It involved a daring and highly secretive dash by ship across the Atlantic, dodging German U-boats. And at the atmospheric old bar buried deep in the hotel with views out over the Saint Lawrence, you can sip classic cocktails named after these famous while sitting in old leather couches…
A Colonial Town in the Heart of Maya Yucatan
…added appeal is that it’s also a great base for exploring the nearby Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and Ek’Balam, especially if you want to get the morning jump on the tourist buses rolling in from Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Given its great location in the heart of Mayan…
Oo Hmin Thone Sel Pagoda
…money and you can have a say in paint colors, adding tiles, or any of the thousands of design decisions that might go into making up a pagoda. Even for small donations, many temples have glass donation boxes where each is designated for a particular purpose. Oo Hmin Thone Sel…
Myinkaba Village’s Morning Market
…Which is why it’s all done and dusted by mid-morning. If you don’t have access to a kitchen to put any of the local ingredients to use but still want to sample some of the local flavors, head to the tea house on the corner at the end of the…
Australia’s Picture Postcard Beach
…course, it means beautiful ocean views for the holiday units along the shore. In the past several decades the Gold Coast has seen pretty massive population growth and has become quite built up with highrises. The area around it is also getting a lot of sprawl, with suburbia spreading west,…
An Oasis in Texas
…is a city that’s young, fun, and takes pride in being a bit off-kilter. It takes being off-beat probably more seriously than any place I’ve ever been. Lots of places are a bit off-kilter, but Austin has elevated it to an art form, self-consciously pushing it as the key to…
The Waterfront of Punta Arenas
…parallel well below the cities of Australia and New Zealand. Punta Arenas, which translates as Sandy Point, is a town shaped by the sea–by trade and by exploration. Ferdinand Magellan, the 16th century Portuguese explorer (sailing for Spain), may as well be the town’s secular patron saint. It’s not everyone…
Granada’s Parque Central
…is both a showpiece and a living, breathing public space. There are fountains and statues dedicated to mothers and to beloved Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario. And while it gets sleepy in the heat of the middle of the day, despite the shade offered by the covering of ficus, mango, poinciana,…
Hanoi’s One Pillar Pagoda
…The One Pillar Pagoda is almost a thousand years old. Sort of. In another in a long line of despicably pointless destructive acts committed by colonial military forces, the French destroyed the nearly 1000-year-old pagoda in 1954 on their way out. The Vietnamese government subsequently rebuilt it. The…
Tom Kean: The Politics of Possibility, a documentary film
…Governor Kean.” Philip Shenon (Reporter, The New York Times) “Tom’s very patient and he really works hard at understanding the other person’s point of view and asking himself, how can we reach an agreement? Those are really fundamental political skills that he possesses in an extraordinary way and clearly marked…
The River Outpost of Nong Khiaw
…bridge. Somewhere far below was the river. And then we were there. Seeing what Nong Khiaw was like would have to wait for morning. The town’s name is also sometimes spelled Nongkiau, Nong Kiau, or Nong Kiew. Even the sun’s rise didn’t initially help much. Not that you could see…
Australian War Memorial
…are often adorned with symbolic poppies. It makes for a quiet and solemn tribute to those who have died in war for Australia. Significantly and symbolically, it stands in direct and unobstructed line of site from Australia’s Parliament House. The second part is a museum dedicated to Australian participation in…
Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution
…a yellow colonial-style building that once served as the Trade Department Building in the Tong Dan area, just a block from Hanoi’s opera house. Its wide, tiled corridors are right out of 1950s Western government bureaucracy. Glass showcases have everything from weapons and flags used by revolutionaries on the front…
Ho Chi Minh City’s Reunification Palace
…size and the spacious lawns in an otherwise cramped Ho Chi Minh City, you can tell it was important. Designed by renowned Vietnamese architect Ngô Viết Thụ at the behest of then-president Ngo Dinh Diem (who didn’t live to see its completion), it’s a mix of Vietnamese modernist architecture. Inside,…
Lemosho Route / Day 1
…The crew is waiting at the trailhead for us. It comes as a bit of a surprise how many porters there are–many more than we expected. For our group of 6 paying clients, we have 34 porters, a head guide, and a tour leader. It seems rather indulgent at first,…
Nagayon Temple
…into English in various ways. You’ll also see it written as Naga Yon Hpaya. Nagayon Temple is about half a mile south of Myinkaba Village, close to Apeyadana Temple. If you’re heading down the Bagan-Chauk Road, it’s on the same side of the road as the morning market and opposite…
Yuri Gagarin Monument in Moscow
…Gagarin remained grounded. As he was described in his New York Times obit: Yuri Gagarin was a rather quiet man, mild-spoken almost to a fault. He had intelligent, dark eyes and bushy eyebrows. His forehead was broad and his nose snubbed, and persons who knew him said he had the…
The Churchill War Rooms
…the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia to house the US Congress in the event of nuclear war, the protection for Churchill’s war bunker came through secrecy, not from sheer strength. These bunkers were not impregnable to a direct hit from bombs above. It wasn’t until relatively late that an effort…
Harlech Castle
…water of the Irish Sea in Tremadog Bay lapped at the foot of the rocky crag the castle was built on, effectively providing natural protection on three sides. In the ensuing centuries, though, the coast has moved out. There’s now a golf course and glorified trailers that pass in this…
The Lakes of Hanoi
…bustling, industrialized city of several million people (estimates range from 3.5 to 7 million) in a country with a decidedly mixed record of dealing with environmental challenges, most of those lakes are severely polluted. It’s not unusual for thousands of fish to turn up floating belly-up on the surface. And…
Ngorongoro Crater
…is a zone of 8,292 square kilometers established in 1959 incorporating not just the crater but also Serengeti plains along with archeological zones where some of the evidence of the earliest humans has been found, and catchment areas. The distinction is to allow this one exception of mixed-use but to…
9/11 Commission Hearing 7
…Commission’s mandate. The Commission heard from current and former officials from the public and private sectors, concluding with testimony from Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security James M. Loy. In addition to witness testimony, four staff statements were delivered during the course of the proceedings. More information is available here….
The Colors of Antarctica
…orange on the necks of King and Emperor penguins. And because penguins eat krill, their white feathers can often be stained orange. Seals are typically some kind of grey, sometimes with spots, but elephant seals, especially in their winter coats, can be different shades of brown. And when they open…
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
…To appreciate the contrast all these changes made one must have known Brussels in the days before the war. It was not only the gayest but the happiest of cities. In the population there was a fine joviality, that joyousness that came down from the days when Rubens…
Market Day in Chichicastenango
…in their stalls space. And since the town is about 6,500 feet above sea level–this is the Guatemalan highlands–it can get pretty chilly at night for those sleeping in the street stalls. The local population is mostly K’iche’ Maya (hence the “Chichi” part, which is attached to the root “tenango”…
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul’s Byzantine Jewel
…The first questions every stranger asks as his steamer rounds Seraglio Point from the Mormora or descends the Bosphorus from the Black Sea are: “Where is Sancta Sophia?” “Which is Sancta Sophia?” To catch the earliest possible glimpse of its outline the eye of every traveler is strained……
Lemosho Route / Day 6
…were halfway up, standing on ice, looking down, you couldn’t help wonder how much good a helmet was going to do. Even looking up at the Western Breach from Arrow Glacier gives you a good sense of why it isn’t just a walk in the park. It’s not just that…
Phonsavan’s Morning Market
…with some working on Chinese rubber plantations. And the obesity rate in Laos is very low–only 2.6 percent, 179th in the world out of 191. By comparison, it’s about 33 percent in the United States. Luang Prabang and Vientiane aren’t typical of most of Laos. To see the frugality of…
The Mighty Maya City of Tikal
…convenient access point to the region is Flores, which has a small airport with flights from Guatemala City. There’s also a overnight bus from Guatemala City. To do the sunrise or sunset walks you’ll have to be staying at one of the lodges within the park itself. The ruins are…
Ushuaia’s Maritime Museum
…its original state as a jail (or presidio). It’s rickety, cold, draughty, and falling apart. You can only go so far into it before it becomes dangerous to walk on the rotting wooden floorboards. But it gives a vivid sense of what it must have been like to call this…
The Belfry of Bruges
…strike sparked a fire that destroyed the wooden top and damaged many of the bells. A new wooden spire was added, but it too burned—in 1741. At that point, they just gave up and decided that it looked good as is. So the Belfry that you see now is actually…
Boston’s City Skyline at Night
…the end of Long Wharf looking back at the city. At one point during the colonial era, Long Wharf was the busiest pier in America. It was also much longer at the time–in the centuries since, landfill has created reclaimed land, but originally the shoreline was up near Faneuil Hall….
Hoover Dam
…guides are careful to point out that the purpose of the dam is not to supply power to Las Vegas and that in fact none of the electricity generated at the Hoover Dam finds its way to that poster-child for consuming electricity with wanton abandon. And aside from generating electricity,…
Waterloo Panorama Virtual Tour
…the 100th anniversary of the battle. The painting measures 361 feet (110m) around and nearly 40 feet (12 m) high. To view it, you walk up some steps to a large raised dais area that provides a panoramic view of the painting. At the base of the painting are sections…
Mannekin Pis
…in case you’re thinking the whole thing sounds distastefully sexist, fear not. There’s now another statue of a little naked girl squatting to relieve herself across the other side of Grand Place (but it’s tucked away in a dark alley, obscured by a heavy grill, and generally much less impressive)….
Catedral Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
…Standing on the western side of Plaza de la Independencia (or Plaza de la Catedral), the Catedral Metropolitana de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (or Metropolitan Cathedral), is one of the largest churches in Central America. It dates to 1688 to 1796, but went through a long period…
On the Banks of the Blue Danube
…traditions and myriad performance venues, it is a prime destination for lovers of classical music and opera. And resplendent in lavish architecture, Baroque art, and wide boulevards, it is a pedestrian tourist’s paradise. Just outside the city center is the Schonbrunn Palace, the expansive summer retreat of a series of…
Chichicastenango’s Cemetery
…sure is colorful. Its brightly painted tombs and crosses stand out vividly on the hillside. The effect is quite different from something like stark white of the cemetery in Granada, Nicaragua. Like local churches such as Iglesia de Santo Tomas, next to the market, the cemetery is mixed-use, serving both…
Chattanooga and Ruby Falls
…I recently had reason to venture out to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and although I didn’t have a lot of time to look around, I was quite impressed with what I saw. It’s clearly a city that puts heavy emphasis on being “livable,” and so far it seems to be…
Vientiane, City on the Mekong
…China, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Down here, about halfway down the length of Laos, the river is wide. And it’s also relatively calm yet persistent–calm compared to further downriver near the Cambodian border, where the river becomes massive raging rapids during the rainy season. Unlike further north in Laos,…
The Blue Mosque
…wear while inside the mosque. On your way in there’s a good chance that you’ll get approached by people offering their services to show you around. Technically, guides in Istanbul should be licensed, so many of these others will assure you that they’re not a guide and that they’re just…
The Karakoy Waterfront
…It’s one of Istanbul’s real treats to sit on the waterfront of Karakoy sipping Turkish tea, Rika, or a cold beer and watching the sun setting over the striking silhouettes of the mosques across the other side of the Golden Horn. Ferries dance around on the water, while…
