sashura

Portrait Gallery

We are not big fans of large art museums (sorry, mom!), but figured we had to go to at least one. I picked one that had something interesting about it besides the art - the building itself. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery opened in 1889 and is the world's first purpose-built portrait gallery space.

The ceiling of the main hall:

We expected to find only painted portraits there, but they have some sculptures too.

James Maxwell (the Maxwell's equations in PDE):

Sir Walter Scott:

Robert Louis Stevenson:

Mary Somerville - the world's first ever scientist! The word was invented for her and used first time in the English language in a review of her 1834 book "On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences".

Museum library:

St. Giles Cathedral
(free, no lines)
Founded in 1124 and pre dates most of the buildings in Edinburgh. The existing building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century. Plus, destroyed a few times here and there by the British army.

Crown steeple

Foggy night and colored lights on the crown steeple:

Edinburgh Castle

Tickets are included in the Explorer Pass, but one has to reserve entrance time. If you absolutely have to see it in the morning, make reservation really early, when I started looking at them there were no mornings left for more than a week ahead. I think this is because they run free tours in the mornings, or maybe there is another reason as well. One more thing about timing: at 1 pm every day they fire a modern(!) cannon from the castle. If you want to see/hear it, make sure you are there by 1, if you want to avoid it - plan accordingly :)

Veiw of the city from the castle wall. The big grey roof in the middle is the train station.

The Scottish Crown Jewels’ are on display in the castle: the Crown, Sceptre, and Sword of State. There is a pretty long line to see them, but it is moving really fast - you just walk past a glass case with the treasures and move on. No photography is allowed there, so not my picture:

The Honours of Scotland (the oldest crown jewels in Britain, including the Crown of Scotland) went missing in 1707 and were spectacularly rediscovered 111 years later on February 4, 1818. Fearing they would be taken to England after the Act of Union, officials locked the regalia in a chest within Edinburgh Castle's Crown Room, and their location was largely forgotten. Sir Walter Scott (yes, the writer) suspected the jewels were still hidden within the castle and obtained a royal warrant to search for them. On February 4, 1818, after breaking through walled-up doors and forcing open the great oak chest, Scott and his team found the crown, scepter, and sword intact and wrapped in linen.

Current Location: Edinburgh

Second trip to North Berwick happened on a nice sunny day, I think it was the first time we saw sun in a week.

There are a few different options for these trips, all of them start at the same place: Scottish Seabird Centre. It's a 20 min walk from the train station, so no need for busses or anything like that. You have to book this beforehand and probably should do it rather sooner than later - they do sell out. By the time we figured out that we wanted to do it the only one that had three seats for the right day was the Seabird Catamaran Cruise which is a bit over 1 hour long and goes around the island of Craigleith and the Bass Rock.
Bring binoculars! And a long lens if you are shooting (I didn't have one. Oops!😢)

That day there was some big golf tournament two stops from Edinburgh, so the train station looked absolutely crrazy when we were leaving. This was the only time when we had to STAND in the train.

Jellyfish in the water in in North Berwick! Somehow, I thought it should have been too cold for them there.
This is Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) it really has four bright purple horseshoe-shaped gonads; it's not an artifact:

Puffins. The pictures are very representative of what can be seen without binoculars from a boat:

The Island of Craigleith - completely covered in

View of the Tantallon Castle (see previous post) from the water:

Bass Rock and the lighthouse:

A huge colony of gannets:

The baby! See the fluffy one at the bottom with a black face?

Other side of the island - same birds, different light:

A cave:

Razorbills (Alca torda, гагарка):

This is an European Shag (Gulosus aristotelis, хохлатый баклан) - a pretty common bird in Scotland.

Current Location: North Berwick, Scotland

North Berwick is a small coastal town about 30 min train ride from Edinburgh. It just happened that we went there twice - first time to see the castle and then a few days later for a boat tour to see the puffins.

Tantallon Castle
The directions said to take the train to North Berwick, then take a bus. We are not big fans of busses, so we figured that if we see the right bus when we get there, we will take it, if not, there is an uber. Well, we got to the North Berwick station, didn't see anything even remotely looking like a bus stop, and tried to call an uber. There were NONE available. Not like we would have to wait for it for 20 min (which under the light rain wasn't ideal in itself), there were no uber cars at all anywhere in the area!

OK... We looked at the map again and went to where the bus stop might have been. It was there, it even had the right route number, #20, listed on it, but it didn't say anything about the direction. And there was no stop on the other side of the road either. Hm... There was only one person waiting for the bus besides us, so we asked if this was the right direction to get to the castle. Turned out she was from Texas, so she knew not much more than we did. While we were trying to figure out the schedule or any details at all, the bus #20 came!

Next step was to talk to the driver to figure out the correct direction. His English and mine were so far from each other that I could understand maybe every forth word, if that. But after asking every question three times we figured out that it was the wrong direction, but he offered us to take that bus to the end of the route and then return back on the same bus. OK, sounds good! Better to sit in a bus than wait under the rain.

Ten minutes of riding narrow one-way streets and the bus came to an end stop. The driver left to stretch his legs, and the Texas girl asked if we were going to pay for the tickets again.
- No... He said the tickets are good for the whole ride.
- I *think* he told me that I would have to pay again.
- Hm... Let's sit tight and see. If he wants another payment, I am sure he will let us know.
He didn't say anything, so we didn't pay again. But when we were finally leaving, I *think* he said something about letting us ride for free out of goodness of his heart. Well, this is my interpretation of what I heard, and I stand by it! If he was cursing us, that's on him :)

The Tantallon Castle was the least restored of the ones we had seen. And it was gorgeous! Rain or no rain we climbed on every tower and got down to every basement that was available.

The rock island in the back is one of the islands the boat tour took us to later on. At that time we didn't know yet that we were going to see that lighthouse up close.

The weather:

And then it was time to get back to the train station. The bus stop was easy to find, but google maps said that the next bus was coming in 50 min. And the walking time to the town was about the same. So, we figured we might walk just as well.

View of the castle over the oats fields:

Cold sea:

Potatoes in bloom:

Wheat:

After walking for about 40 min we got to a bus stop, still outside of the town. Someone was waiting there for the bus, google said that the bus, the same #20, was supposed to be there in 5 min, so we decided to wait for it. In 4 min google said that the bus just left the previous stop and was arriving on time, in 7 min it said that the bus ... just departed. Oops! It must have been an invisible bus! Good thing we didn't stay to wait for it by the castle! As it was, we were almost back in town by then.

North Berwick:

The train!

Current Location: North Berwick, Scotland

A few words about various tickets before I start on the castles.

Trains
The only reasonably priced multiday pass that I found was for three consecutive days. Since we didn't have a set plan on when we were doing what it didn't make much sense to buy it, so all out tickets were bought online the morning of the trip or the night before. Always bought two-way ones - the outbound was for a set time and return is for the rest of the day. In theory, there is an app that can handle the tickets, but for whatever reason it didn't want to work on my phone and after the first trip I was glad it didn't work. On many station one needs to show tickets three times: to get to the train, on the train, and then on the other end to get out of the train station. So, if you are like me and don't always keep your phone charged, it might be a problem.

But there is one more way to get tickets: you buy them online, get a code, and then at the station print them at the ticket machine using that code. It was fast, easy, worked every time and we never saw any lines at the machines. In theory, one can skip the part of buying tickets online altogether and do everything at the station, but the only way to find the schedule is to go to the same site that sells tickets, and if you are already there, then why not buy them?

Museums
Many of the museums in Edinburgh are free, but almost all of the castles require payment to enter. We got
Explorer Passes for everybody (£48 each for adults, a bit less for a family with kids under 15) and it was very much worth it. In all castles they sell tickets for a specific time, so make sure to still go to the individual sites and "purchase" free tickets with your Explorer pass! The more popular the place, the higher the chances are that they will want to see and scan both - the Explorer pass and the time slot registration.

Stirling
Our first trip out of Edinburgh was to the Stirling Castle.

Getting there: 50 min train ride from Edinburgh, then about 20 min walk to the main gate.

The town:

Part of the walking path is between two walls - one has vegetation on top; another one has plants growing right out of it:

Right after the entrance, but still technically outside of the castle walls is a beautiful Queen Anne Garden:

Cannons, of course:

There are free tours run by volunteers in period costumes, which are rather loud and annoying, but if you see a volunteer without a group in front of them, feel free to ask them anything and you will get a 20 min private lecture exactly on the topic you are interested in and without all the silliness. Though be ready for a very strong Scottish accent as these people are definitely locals. At times I felt like first few months in the US - people could easily understand me, but I had absolutely no idea what they were saying :)

Here is one of the volunteer tour guides with a group:

Usually, the Palace outside of the castle, but at Sterling there was enough space within the castle walls to put the Palace in there. All Scottish palaces that we have seen had the same structure: a set of three rooms on each side, one side for the King and another for the Queen:
- The Outer Hall. A large and fairly public room.
- Inner Hall - a smaller and a more restricted area where audiences were granted with the King or Queen.
- The Bedchamber. It had a bed, but nobody really slept there. It was used as a space to recieve the most trusted inner circle visitors.
The actual bedrooms for sleeping were located on higher floors, and nobody was allowed in.

The picture above with the tour guide is an Outer Hall.

The throne in the Inner Hall:

The ceiling:

These are all modern copies of the round wood carvings that are believed to be there. Some survived and on display in a different part of the castle, some are created similar to the ones found in other palaces of the same time.

Ouside Palace walls:

Random views:

Current Location: Stirling, Scotland

We were booking ат the last minute and hit a jackpot with this apartment - it was literally the only choice, besides hotels, and it turned out to be perfect.
I didn't find anything on Airbnb, so had to book on Booking: 219/5 High street (/5 is Apt.5)

Right on the High Street, which is the middle part of the Royal Mile.

Technically, they call it the second floor, but it is the third floor from the ground - the apartment with blue shades was right below us. Easy check-in - a code for the gate then there are 6 lockboxes attached to the wall with apartment numbers on them.

The staircase. Looking down from our door:

Looking up:

I posted on Facebook a crazy set of labels inside the apartment, but I deleted the pictures after posting, so it will have to be a link: a link.

Unusual features: window locks and window handles (we later saw the same locks and handles in a castle, so it looks like something traditional to the area).

Open:

Closed: pull it down and screw the cap until it doesn't fit in the opening.

Handles:

Views of the High Street from the living room and one of the bedrooms:

Views down the hill from the other bedroom. Mornings and late evenings seemed to have less clouds/rain. Same small window, different days:

The slight negative of living with windows facing the main tourist street is the amount of music that was played during the day. But with closed windows (or in the back facing bedroom) it was ok. Plus, they stopped pretty early.

Current Location: Edinburgh

Previous parts in LJ: Scotland 1, Scotland 2
I might or might not eventually copy them here, but for now links to LJ are better than nothing.

Highland Cow is the state animal of Scotland. Well, technically it's a unicorn, but cows should be if they chose a real living animal, not a mythical one. The toys, t-shirts, photos, magnets and everything else with their images is sold on every corner.

So, we had to see them, preferably not in the zoo. The closest to the city place that I could find was Swanston Farm.

The farm's website said that the nearest train station is the one in Edinburgh and recommended to take a bus instead. We chose uber, 25 min ride sounded better than figuring out how the busses work (later on we found out it was a very good decision as busses are unpredictable at best.)

The cows here are used only for conservation grazing - the farm is trying to restore native trees and in order to do that needs to keep other vegetation at bay.

They use their long horns to scratch their backs and sides!

There are golf courses all around the farm and an Alpine Coaster about an hour walking distance away. But taking a ride in an open cart didn't feel like a good idea in the rain, so we called an uber and headed home.

In case my pictures look too sunny, this is a more realistic view:

Current Location: Scotland

Test 123

There are quite a few people offering birdwatching tours in the area. We went with Esteban (506-8685-598 two) and it was a great choice! We started at 6 am by the coffee shops and then get to the Curi Cancha reserve by 7, when it opened.

All tour guides use spotting scopes on tripods, so if the bird is sitting still in one place they can point the scope at it and let everyone take a look. These scopes are much stronger that any binoculars and than my 500 mm lens, plus it is possible to take a cell phone picture through it.

After the tour Esteban sent us list of all the birds we have seen. His list has 56 species, I have pictures of 18 :))

Great-tailed Grackle, lives in Mexico and Central America.

( Read more... )

WISCONSIN
Steffen Orchards
N633 McIntyre Rd, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538
(920) 563-9608
https://www.steffenorchards.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SteffenOrchards/

INDIANA
Garwood Orchard
5911 W 50 South LaPorte, Indiana
219-362-4385
https://www.garwoodapplefarm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/garwoodappleorchard
https://www.instagram.com/garwoodorchard

MICHIGAN
Lehman's Orchard
2280 Portage Road Niles, Michigan
269-683-9078
http://www.lehmansorchard.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Lehmansorchard

Prillwitz Fruit Farm
7196 E Main St, Eau Claire, MI, United States, Michigan
(269) 461-6720
https://www.facebook.com/PrillwitzFruitFarms
2025: tart cherries started July 1

Topkapı Palace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace

Text from wiki:

This cathedral-sized cistern is an underground chamber approximately 138 metres (453 ft) by 65 metres (213 ft)[4] – about 9,800 square metres (105,000 sq ft) in area – capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water.[2] The ceiling is supported by a forest of 336[5] marble columns, each 9 metres (30 ft) high, arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns each spaced 5 metres (16 ft) apart. The capitals of the columns are mainly in the Ionic and Corinthian style, with the exception of a few Doric capitals with no engravings. One of the columns is carved with raised pictures of a Hen's Eye, slanted branches, and tears, and resembles the columns of the 4th-century Triumphal Arch of Theodosius I (AD 379–395), erected in the 'Forum Tauri' Square, today's Beyazıt Square. Ancient texts suggest that the tears on the column pay tribute to the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the Basilica Cistern.[citation needed] The majority of the columns in the cistern appear to have been recycled from the ruins of older buildings (a process called 'spoliation'), likely brought to Constantinople from various parts of the empire, together with those that were used in the construction of Hagia Sophia. They are carved out of different types of marble and granite.[1]

Fifty-two stone steps descend into the cistern which is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 4 metres (13 ft) and coated with a waterproofing mortar. The Basilica Cistern's water came from the Eğrikapı Water Distribution Centre in the Belgrade Forest, which lie 19 kilometres (12 mi) north of the city. It traveled via the 971-metre-long (3,186 ft) Valens (Bozdoğan) Aqueduct, and the original 115-metre-long (377 ft) Mağlova Aqueduct, which was built by the Emperor Justinian.

The weight of the cistern is carried on the columns by means of the cross-shaped vaults and round arches of its roof.

The Basilica Cistern has been restored several times since its original creation. The first repairs were carried out in the 18th century during the reign of the Ottoman sultan Ahmed III in 1723 by the architect Muhammad Ağa of Kayseri. The second major repair was completed during the 19th century reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876–1909). Cracks in the masonry and damaged columns were repaired in 1968, with additional restoration in 1985 by the Istanbul Metropolitan Museum. During the 1985 restoration, 50,000 tons of mud were removed from the cistern, and platforms were erected to replace the boats previously used for touring the cistern. The cistern was opened to the public on 9 September 1987. It underwent additional cleaning In May 1994. Then in 2017 it was once again closed for restoration and earthquake-proofing, reopening to the public in 2022.

Current Location: İstanbul, Стамбул, Турция

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fener

Patriarchal Church of St. George

St. George, after whom the church is named:

Mosaics:

Christmas tree in the courtyard:

Bulgarian St. Stephen Church
After the original wooden structure suffered from a fire, the larger current building was constructed at its place.

An international competition was conducted to produce the prefabricated cast iron parts of the church, won by an Austrian company, R. Ph. Waagner. The prefabricated elements, weighing 500 tons, were produced in Vienna in 1893 to 1896 and transported to Istanbul by ship through the Danube and the Black Sea.

Metal details screwed together:

Made in ~~China~~ Vienna:

Armenian church
Surb Hreshtakapet Armenian orthodox church was first built in the 13th century as a Greek orthodox church known by the name of Ayia Stradi. In 1627, it was given to the Armenian community, who renovated the church in 1628 according to the inscription plaque behind the altar. The wooden church was largely damaged during the great fire of Balat in 1729 and was torn down in 1831 for the erection of a stone church. The construction of the church was completed in 1835. The current church has preserved its presence till today, in its 1835 form.

Abandoned building across the street from Surp Hıreşdagabet

Old Greek School
Phanar Greek Orthodox College or Phanar Roman Orthodox Lyceum (Turkish: Özel Fener Rum Lisesi), known in Greek as the Great School of the Nation and Patriarchal Academy of Constantinople (Greek: Μεγάλη του Γένους Σχολή, Megáli toú Genous Scholí), is the oldest surviving and most prestigious Greek Orthodox school in Istanbul, Turkey. The school, like all minority schools in Turkey, is a secular school.

History
Established in its current form in 1454 by the Patriarch, Gennadius Scholarius who appointed the Thessalonian Matthaios Kamariotis as its first director. It soon became the school of the prominent Greek (Phanariotes) and other Orthodox families in the Ottoman Empire, and many Ottoman ministers as well as Wallachian and Moldavian princes appointed by the Ottoman state, such as Dimitrie Cantemir, graduated from it.

The current building was designed by the Greek architect Konstantinos Dimadis and erected between 1881 and 1883.

Kadıköy is a district on the Asian side of Istanbul. We took a ferry to get there, but there is also a tunnel that comes to that area. The main feature of the district is the market:

Danny found a chess caffe, so we went there as well.
the street:

The first time we went there, it was empty, so had to play among ourselves:

There are two ways to get on the water here: one can take a ferry ($0.75 each way) across Bosphorus or take a tour boat that goes for a hour or so along the strait and listen to the tour guide along the way. We did both, the ferry more than once as it is much easier to get to the other side this way rather than taking the bridge which is rather far from us.

The ferry:

For some reason every time we were on the water somebody was feeding the seagulls. Never seen this in other parts of the world, but here it is a thing to do on a boat :)))

Random views:
Galata:

Wave breaker:

A couple of night views from the ferry:

Ferry inside. It has three levels, two covered, one on the roof. We usually were on the open level, but I don't have any pictures of it, this the bottom level when we were coming back late and was too cold to be outside.

Current Location: İstanbul, Стамбул, Турция

Hagia Sophia Museum - skip it!! Zero stars out of ten from me. The museum is made up of two floors, one consists ONLY of video recordings talking about history of the building in the style of bad school video aids. You literally go from room to room, watch videos projected in the walls and listen to the commentary through the provided headphones. I gave up after the second room and asked to be let out of there. They offered to walk me directly to the second part of the experience - the actual artifacts collection. That was more interesting, but pretty small and not worth the time or the price. Here are a few pictures from the artifacts exhibit:

A small collection of Russian icons:

An Armenian silver arm for a relic (empty:

An explanation on how Russian icons ended up there:

One of the metal icons:

And that's about it.

Hagia Sophia
Ignore the skip-the-line tickets - the only line they have is for the security check and you can't skip it no matter which group you are coming with. There are no tickets, so there is no additional line to get any tickets. On December 25 the security line took us about 25 min to get through.

Women need to have their heads to be covered. There are a few vendors selling headscarves outside of the masque and then another one after the security. The prices outside of the walls are $1.50 to $10, so no need to bother to buy something beforehand. If you are wearing a hoody just pull it up, that's enough. We didn't know that, so both Natasha and me got scarfs. I wasn't sure how exactly to wrap it, do I need to hide all the hair? only part? so the saleswoman helped us to do it. Turnes out the hairline needs to be covered, but on the sides it's ok to have some hair showing.

Inside one is supposed to take off the shoes. Had to take a picture of the number on the cubby to know where to look for them afterwords :))

We were ones of the last tourists that were allowed to the main floor. In couple weeks the second floor (the balcony) will reopen, but the main floor will permanently close to those that are not there to pray.

Maria is hiding behind the curtain:

An angel - one out of four still has a face:

Current Location: İstanbul, Стамбул, Турция

Woke up and went for a walk at about 10:30 pm - most stores and restaurants were still open till midnight, maybe later too.

The rest of the kids decided to stay home :)

Current Location: Стамбул, Турция

Western half of Istanbul is split in two parts, North and South, by an inlet called Golden Horn and Galata Bridge is one of the bridges across it. The name comes from the Galata district/tower on the North end of the bridge. Sinc that's where we are staying, it is the closest to us. The bridge is rather new, from 1960s, but it is the forth one in the same place. The current one has two levels - the lower level is filled with fish restaurants end to end and the top is lined up with fishermen.

Hagia Sophia - view from the bridge:

Looking North at Galata:

Random views from the streets between the bridge and Hagia Sophia: trams, people, restaurants, stores.

Roasted chestnuts and corn are sold together:

The Land of Bakhlava:

Pomegranate juice. First time I have tried it freshly squeezed like that in Jerusalem, then in Georgia, now here:

The classic view that is on every other postcard: Galata

Views from our roof:

Current Location: İstanbul, Стамбул, Турция

Glacier Bay National Park - rain, rain, and a bit more rain.

The next day Hamilton Glacier was under a bright sun!

White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad https://wpyr.com/excursions/

A narrow gauge railroad built between 1898 and 1900, the cars are a mix of the restored originals and modern replicas, the locomotives are new, our was finished in 2020.

Organizational notes:
- you can buy tickets through your cruise.
- you can buy tickets directly from the company, either beforehand online or on the day of at the train station. From the company is cheaper and you most likely will have fewer people in your car as they separate those that are coming off a cruise and their direct clients.
- the White Passs roundtrip takes about three hours, there is no getting off the train. There is bottled water available in each car and a restroom. No passport is needed for this trip as you are not getting off the train in Canada.
- they also offer combination tours: ride the train to a trailhead, hike for 3-4 hours, catch the returning train back. If you want to hike higher than the sea level, it might be a good way to get to a reasonable altitude.
- for better views on the way up you want to be on the left side of the train.
- don't book this trip planning to return really close to your ship leaving! Out train got stuck for an hour when something failed and they had to run a draisine (a motor powered one) with supplies from the city up to the train.

One can't walk from car to car, but every car has open platforms on both ends, so it is possible to watch the scenery without the glass.

On the Skagway station: