London, March 2009

Buckingham Palace
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

My London visit has come to a conclusion. I made two mistakes with this visit. First, I did not schedule enough time to see more of the city. London is a huge city with 1000+ years of history and I did not even see half of it. Second I did not allow for time spent at the places I did visit.

I spent a couple of hours at the National Gallery and a couple of hours at the Tower of London. I walked to both places so I could see more of the city and I did not allow for the time needed to move my 62 year old bones across the city. The next time I visit London I will know better.

London proved to be a friendly city. Buckingham Palace, pictured on the left, is constantly packed with tourists. Many of them were teenagers, which prompted me to wonder why they were not in school.

When you think of the history of this place and the people who lived here, names such as King George III and his African ancestored wife Charlotte, Henry VIII, who had Ann Boelyn beheaded, Queen Elizabeth, all of them, and Queen Victoria, you realize that much of the history of the western world was dictated by people who lived in Buckingham Palace.

Trafalgar Square was undergoing maintenance and construction but was still a lovely visit. I walked the Buckingham Palace mall to get to Trafalgar and it was a lovely walk indeed. With verdant St. James Park on one side, the wide boulevard was lined with the flags of Great Britain and Mexico, whose President was visiting the Queen the day I was there.

Britain has a lot of statues and memorials to its famous generals. These men made possible the saying that "the sun never sets on the British empire". There were statues to men who had succeeded in India, China, Burma, South Africa, and France in the Napoleonic wars. There were no statues erected for Generals Clinton, Howe, and Cornwallis, who presided militarily over the loss of the American colonies. This is only further proof there are no honors or awards for second place, especially in war.

The Tower of London, a United Nations world heritage site, is a forbidding place and I can only imagine the horror for people who were sent there centuries ago. The crown jewels are stored here and it is still used as a fortress, as it has been for since it was built. The Romans first used this site and the British have improved upon the work of the Romans. Once used as a prison and execution site for enemies of the crown, it is now a monumental tourist trap.

I walked across the Tower of London bridge and crossed the Thames river, one of the world's great rivers. I also walked back to the hotel, or at least as close to the hotel as I could get before my feet, legs, and back gave out and I was forced to hail a cab.

The only bad spot in London was when I went to a restaurant named Olivo for dinner. The owner met me at the maitre'd's stand and informed me that he was full. I could plainly see that 3/4ths of the restaurant was empty and when he noticed me looking at the empty chairs, he told me he could seat who he wanted to seat. I told him I could plainly see how full he was, what with most of his customer disguised as empty chairs. I don't know if he had a racial problem or an appearance problem. I was dressed in a black baseball cap, black jacket, and blue jeans. Of course he could have just said my attire was improper but he did not.

All in all London is a great place. A diverse city with many different ethnic groups living and working together, it was also a clean city with a friendly populace. I had numerous conversations with people I did not know about America, Bush, Obama, and futbol. I cannot wait to visit the city again.

Click on the photograph to see a complete set of pictures from London. Now it is off to Calais, Lille, and Paris on the channel train.

Tumacacori

Tumacacori
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

As Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino and his party approached the Pima settlement of Tumacacori in January 1691, they rode the wave of a century of expansion northward along New Spain's west coast corridor.

In 1767 King Charles III of Spain, for political reasons, abruptly banished the Jesuits from all his realms. The Franciscan, who took over the missionary effort inherited the woes that had frustrated the Jesuits: restless neophytes, Apache hostility, disease, encroaching settlers, and lack of government support. The Tubac garrison was transferred to Tucson in 1776, and by 1786 only a hundred Indians remained at Tumacacori.

Click on the photograph to view more pictures of Tumacacori National Historical Park.

Venice - Day Four

Today we left Venice for a tour of Torcello and the island of Burano, both near Venezia. We rode up the Grand Canal and took a leisurely one hour boat ride to Torcello. The centuries old church there is rich in history and one of the shrines of the Catholic church. Photography was not permitted in the church but we did receive a history of the church at Torcello and were allowed to tour the grounds, where photography was permitted.

After Torcello we took a ten minute boat ride to Burano. This very colorful island village is a must stop for anyone visiting Venice. The richly colored village is a photographer's dream. I walked practically the entire island and just had a grand old time clicking away with the camera.

On day five we visit the Jewish ghetto, which does not mean the same thing ghetto means in the US.

Venice - Day Three

The sun rises the same way, everyday, in every place on the planet. What is different is what is located underneath the sun. The sun rising over the Grand Canal in Venice is indeed a beautiful sight. Shimmering off the blue water and casting a rosey glow on buildings that are hundreds of years in age is truly beautiful.

One of the side benefits of shooting photographs at sunrise in Venice is there are no crowds. The wharf at Venezia goes from shoulder to shoulder crowds during the day to practically deserted at sunrise. For a photographer shooting at sunrise this is nirvana. You can go anywhere and the only crowds you encounter are at the choice shooting locations, where we all smile, nod hello, and hope the photographer who beat us to the best spot does not linger long. Fortunately in Venezia there are many places for such photography.

Venice - Day Two

Day two in Venice was every bit as exciting as day one. We started off the day visiting the Rialto market. Fresh vegetables, fresh meats and fish, fresh fruits and a lot of people were everywhere. The peppers in the photograph to the left were just some of the many foodstuffs available.

We then took a water taxi across the canal so we could visit the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo. This church is not only a house of worship but it also holds the remains of many of Venice's most prominent citizens down through the years. That is down through hundreds of years. There are folks buried in sealed cases in the floors, there are people entombed in caskets on stands on the walls, and photographs or paintings of many of these folks are located next to or underneath their grave. Our guide said many of these people just did not want the world to forget them.

We also visited the architectural museum at Arsenale and saw some of the many architectural ideas Italians have for living in limited or tight quarters.

Photographs are being added daily to my flickr page at http://flickr.com/bdinphoenix.

Venice - Day One

Day one in Venice came to a close with a nice dinner at a family restaraunt and a group meeting at our hotel. The flight to Venice was a long one but US Airways showed three different movies and served two meals, or at least some material on trays that looked like food.

The trip from Marco Polo airport in Venice to the hotel villa igea was a 45 minute ride in a water taxi that circles the lagoon that Venice resides in and then journeys up the Grand Canal. It is a wonderful sight seeing trip and a portent of things to come.

The water taxi stops about 50 yards from the hotel villa igea and after checking in I went walking and photographing. There are tourists everywhere. These folks come from all over the world as Venice is a popular spot for European holidays.

I got a look at the canals and St. Mark's church as I went on an approximate one mile circular walk with my hotel as the central point. There are small alleyways and bridges crossing canals everywhere. There are a lot of small shops and the usual tourist traps designed to separate you from your money.

This really looks like a great place and I am looking forward to exploring more of it.

Night lights

Night lights
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

I have been to Chicago before this but this city is always interesting. Its lively downtown area is in sharp contrast to my home city of Phoenix, Arizona. There are people on the street everywhere in Chicago, as opposed to Phoenix where there is almost no one on the streets. The restaraunts are lively and Chicago cuisine sure has a well earned reputation for quality. I really like this place.