B-52 Lake, Hanoi

Today, in an ordinary Hanoi neighborhood, resting in a small pond, are the remnants of a B-52D downed on December 19, 1972. Callsign Rose 1.

Operation Linebacker II, conducted over 11 days in December, 1972, against Communist targets in North Vietnam, was the largest aerial bombardment conducted by the U.S. Air Force since the end of the Second World War. The entire crew of Rose 1 survived the shootdown and were confined in the infamous Hanoi Hilton (Hoa Lo Prison). Then Repatriated.

Rose 1 remains. Silent, rusting.

Spišský Hrad

Standing above the north eastern Slovak town Spišské Podhradie and the village of Žehra, is one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. Built in the 12th century, it was a regional political, administrative, economic and cultural center owned by Hungarian royalty.

Originally a Romanesque fortification, it enclosed a Romanesque palace and a three nave Romanesque-Gothic basilica. The castle was doubled in size in the 14th century and completely rebuilt rebuilt in the 15th century; another Gothic chapel was added. The castle was deserted in early 18th century and burned down in 1780.

It has been in ruin since. Magnificently so.

Graffito, Hanoi

I'm not sure that I'd classify the street stencils which decorate the flat surfaces in Hanoi as graffito. More commercial signage for a full range of services -- laborers, goods, and who knows what else. Tight, compact, everywhere. Some places more than others. They must work, given their abundance and seeming permance. There seemed to be no sign of attempts to cover or hide anew.

Therefore, a part of Hanoi's street life. I observed absolutely no other attempts to mark, deface, express. Communism. Okay, commercial graffito. Allowed.

Flea Market Sofia

In an area in front of Sofia's Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral there is a daily flea market. It is quite a sight to behold. Religious icons. Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins -- some real, some fake. Relics from the two world wars. If one looks closely, there certainly are a tremendous amount of left overs from a specific German U-boat. Fakes? Old cameras. Long forgotten utensils. And then there are Warsaw Pact era memorabilia. Uniforms, hats, medals, binoculars. Miniature bronze busts of Lenin, Stalin. Fascinating. Buyer beware.

Ägyptisches Museum

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin (Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) is home to one of the world's most important collections of Ancient Egyptian artifacts. The museum originated with the royal art collection of Prussian kings and the first objects were brought to Berlin in 1828 under Friedrich Wilhelm III.

My first visit to the museum was breathtaking. I experienced ancient Egyptian culture as I could not have imagined. I browsed through ancient sculptures, busts, masks, mummies. Human and animal. And common, everday personal items. Used eons ago. Combs, brushes, mirrors, jewelry, toys. I gazed upon the face of Nefertiti and was not distracted by the single eye. I contemplated Julius Ceasar's brow. And I strolled through the endless scrolls and hieroglyphs of the Egyptian underworld.

These were real people with sophisticated accoutrements. Thousands of years ago. This was not the beginnings of civilization, this is civilization. Evolution or de-evolution. I had to re-evaluate my historical paradigms.

I've heard that this portion of the museum in now closed. I hope that is not the case. Or at least that it has been relocated and open to the public somewhere else.

Monkey Island

There have to be many islands named Monkey. The one I visited is a short boat ride up the Amazon River from Leticia, Colombia.

Yes, lots of monkeys on an island. Better here than in a research lab.

Ancient Streets

If you have had a chance to walk around an old European centrum, you've no doubt come across cobblestone. Or just stone. Ancient streets. Stones which may have been laid hundreds of years ago. Yet here they lie. We walk, perhaps stumble. Our shoes may or may not accomodate such surfaces. But back then?

One must admit that there is a degree of charm to these surfaces. Quite utilitarian as well. To get to plumbing beneath, simply remove stone, fix, replace stone. I have a theory.

Graffito, Seville

Honoring Salvador Dali. Most appropriate.

Sabbatical

I've decided to take a year off. A sabbatical. To unplug from the world and reinvent myself. Plan the remaining chapters of my life -- I hope there will be more than one. Good ones. Plus an epilogue. Perhaps a sequel.

I've scheduled blog entries for the time that I am away. More as therapy for me. And to remind you that I am coming back to pick up where I left off. As well as myself. I need reasons to return.

I leave you with a bit of El Tubo graffito. Zaragoza, Spain. Enjoy.

Graffito, London

Obviously inspired by Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange."

Another Wood Church

This is a rural wooden church near Murzasichle, Poland.

Murzasichle is located in the south and has magnificent views of the High Tatra mountains.

Leticia's Market

Markets define locales. My experience has been that if one wants to obtain an immediate feel for a place, walk its market. The market place in Leticia, Colombia, located on the bank of the Amazon, is no different. Except for the fact that a majority of its shoppers arrive by boat.

This market place was obviously representative of the fruits of the Amazon -- fruits, vegetables and meats.

Door, Bulgaria

Doors, windows. Gates. All common. Some can be quite interesting. This one is apparently the entrance to a shoe shop in Hissar, Bulgaria.


Hissar is the site of an old Roman spa and resort in central Bulgaria, sacked by invaders from the north in the 3rd century AD. Recreation for the affluent, lost forever. Locals still haul away and consume its waters. Apparently for medicinal purposes.

Europe's Castles

Neuschwanstein Castle must be one of Europe's most imposing castles. A a 19th-century palace located on a rugged Bavarian hill, it was commissioned by Ludwig II as a retreat and an homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. Oh, to have such a muse -- and such a retreat.

The good news is that there are thousands of similar structures, the homes and get-aways of Europe's vast nobility. Most are impossible to get inside, and the few that are accessible, some do not allow internal photography. Such as Neuschwanstein.

Many more external views will follow.

Leticia

If you ever make it to Leticia, Colombia, you will feel as if you've traveled to one of the more remote destinations on Earth. Reachable only via a 2-hour commercial flight from Bogota (Aerorepublica), this tropical town is the gateway to virgin tropical rain forests and several indigenous Amazonian tribes. For me, my visit to Leticia was my personal "National Geographic" moment.

Given its locale, it is surprising that Leticia has a population of over 35,000 inhabitants. It sits on the northern bank of the Amazon River and is the capital city of the state of Amazonas. The Brazilian frontier and the neighboring town of Tabatinga are very close to the east; Peru begins on the opposite bank of the Amazon.

As a last vestige of civilization, Leticia obviously has an airport, as well as a hospital, several hotels and restaurants. Telephone and Internet service are surprisingly good. But beyond the city's borders, it is literally the law of the jungle.

If you need a taste of nature in its purest form, Leticia is an impressive destination.

Crab Island

Cross the Destin, Florida, bridge anytime during the Spring through Fall and you will see Crab Island. Well, it's not an island and I don't think that there are any crabs there. Apparently at one point, according to local lore, it was a crab breeding ground. Today, Crab Island is an underwater boating and party spot located just to the North of Destin's bridge. The water is relatively shallow, mimicking a sunken island. This is where locals anchor their boats to spend the day frolicing -- snorkeling, swimming, playing catch. Local vendors service the crowd, often as large as 200 boats, via snack barges.


Holiday weekends are a little crazy on Crab Island. In fact, I've seen an episode on the TV show COPS dedicated to a holiday weekend at Crab Island. Enjoy but be careful.

Trekking Turkey

I have several friends and acquaintances who have transversed Turkey's Lycian Way. One of my friends, who is an amateur entomologist, spent a summer collecting insects along the trail and even discovered a new specie of ground beetle. But what caught my attention was the fact that The Sunday Times has listed the Lycian Way as one of the top ten walks in the world.

The Lycian Way is 500 km hiking trail which stretches from Fethiye to Antalya, around part of the coast of ancient Lycia. Let me think about this. I can wander along territory which was once the Lycian League -- the cities of Xanthos, Patara, Myra, Pinara, Tlos and Olympos and Phaselis?

Okay. The Lycian Way is now on my "to do list."

Saint Peter's Castle

Asia Minor is home to an abundance of historic Medieval fortifications. The Castle of Saint Peter (Petronium), located in the southwestern Turkish city of Bodrum, is a prime example. Built by the Knights Hospitaller in response to the threat of invasion by the Seljuk Turks at the beginning of the 1400s, its location has been a fortified site since 1100 BC. It is also the probable site of the King of Caria's Palace of Mausolos.

As was a common practice of the period, marble columns and reliefs from the nearby ancient structures were used during the construction of the castle. Unfortunately this included materials from the Mausoleum of Maussollos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Although a few sculptures from the mausoleum were integrated into the castle for decoration, which justify a visit, in less than a century and a half, all remaining portions of the mausoleum had been demolished, removed or used as a building materials.

Within the castle walls, each regional sub-group of the Order had its own tower, each with its own distinct style. Hundreds of coats of arms and unique marks are scattered throughout the fortification -- symbols signifying areas assigned for maintenance and defence. Sub-orders were responsible for manning these areas with sufficient numbers of their soldiers and knights.

For over a century Saint Peter's Castle was an important castle of the Order and it served as a fortified refuge for all Asia Minor's Christian community. Today, given Bodrum's hot summers and mild winters, it is a perfect refuge for the intrepid traveller.

Graffito, Belgium

A couple nice examples of street art in Belgium.

I wonder if the red face in the upper left-hand corner is a self portrait of the artist?

May Day

For us in America, May Day has several different meanings. Perhaps it is predominantly a Cold War era meaning. Communism. 1 May parades on TV in Moscow, Beijing. The worker -- the mistress of the state. But the true meaning of the first day of May by far out dates the minds of Marx, Lenin. Mao.


In central Europe, May 1 is celebrated by the delivery of a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before. Boys making statements to girls, her family. Fertility. On leap years, it is the responsibility of the females to place the maypole, though the males are still allowed and encouraged to do so. And they do.

Villages and towns also celebrate in like manner. A group of men forage forth, with the appropriate beverages with which to imbibe. They select, decorate and erect the appropriate monument at prominent public places. Celebrate.

King Tut

A brief interlude while I'm prepping a blog entry on Berlin's Egyptian Museum. Here, comedian Steve Martin's 1979 tribute to Egypt's Tutankhamun.

Würstel Stand

Street food in Vienna, Austria, is special. Würstel stands -- hot dogs. In the bun or not.

I prefer würstel without the bun. Whole or sliced. With mustard. Sauer kraut, bread. Stand and eat. Then move on. Hits the spot.

Vang Stave Church

The Vang Stave Church (Świątynia Wang), located in Karpacz in Poland's Karkonosze Mountains, was originally built in the Vang parish, Norway, around 1200. When the parish built a larger, more suitable church, it was sold and re-erected on the Continent in 1842.

This structure is an 800-year old four-post single-nave stave wood church. Exquisite. Easily reached by car from Dresden, Prague or Wroclaw. Bonus.

Europe's Wooden Churches

When one thinks of Europe's centuries-old churches, stone structures come to mind. Cathedrals, chapels. But certainly there was a time when wooden churches populated most of Europe. Perhaps their heyday was in the early Medieval period. However, some very unique examples still survive, albeit off the beaten path. In lesser known areas in Central and Eastern Europe.

If you've never had the privilege to see or step inside a one, the experience is quite unexpected. Darker. Seemingly older. Naturally, wood ages differently than stone. The old buildings literally talk as the wood expands and contracts -- snaps. Haunting, yet appealing. And these structures are shared across denominations. Roman Catholic, Greek or Russian Orthodox. Protestant.

One can imagine meticulously surveying extant examples in Finland, Russia, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania and the Balkans.

Galileo's Finger

Most visitors to Florence, Italy, visit the standard sites -- the Cathedral, Michelangelo's David or the Ponte Vecchio.

But only true geeks stop in at the History of Science Museum. It is filled with a wide range of scientific instruments from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Here reside Galileo's telescope, microscope and compass; his official portrait and a vast collection of obstetric models. Amongst other things. I'll avoid getting graphic but some of the exhibits were rather intense.

But I was quite surprised to stumble across Galileo Galilei's right middle finger. Mummified and prominently displayed. Now I know that relics of saints are common in Catholicism -- portions of bone or finger displayed near alters, etc. But I could not help but wonder if there is any connection between the fact that the Roman Catholic Church forced him to recant his heliocentristic pronouncement and this display. Ultimately, the Roman Inquisition forced him to spend the last years of his life under house arrest.

Is this a last act of defiance?