Tag: <span>travel</span>

Markets are always great places for photos, especially when there is great food. And when you goto a market in an Afrikaans area, you are assured of plenty of great  food shooting opportunities.

This particular market was in the park directly across the road from  our holiday house in Langebaan. Langebaan is a small seaside holiday village on the West coast about an hour from Cape Town. Like most small town markets, it had an eclectic collection of great food, lovely hand-crafts and rubbish. It amazes me how you can see wonderful food and beautiful carvings right next to miscellaneous junk from somebody’s recently cleaned up house. And I am not talking about  old antiques. No, this is just junk that nobody wants, but is still for sale on the off-chance that somebody might buy it. And have you noticed how all markets have at least one junk stall?

Anyway, lets straight past the junk to the good stuff.

Big yellow blocks of Boere-kaas (farm cheese)

Chocolate cupcakes

Handmade dark chocolate cupcakes

hand-made pepper grinders

Handmade pepper grinders

These pepper grinders are hand made from tree branches, resulting in grinders that have a natural variation in shape and size. If you examine the quality of these grinders, and the hard work that went into the turning and varnishing of them, it is difficult to really put a fair price on them. They are truly beautiful.

samosa

These samosas were a little unexpected at an Afrikaans market (especially vegetarian samosas), but nevertheless they were freshly made, crispy and  excellent.

Like most small markets you can walk through and see everything in about 1/2 an hour. Will you life be unfulfilled if you miss it? No. Will you have an enjoyable 1/2 hour delay if you are driving past? Yes, worth the visit, but don’t stay too long.

Go hungry!

Cape Town Food and Drink Travel

This is the last of the current batch of USA shots.

One of the highlights (excuse the pun) of our time in Delaware was our flight in Marc’s aeroplane. He is the proud owner of a Diamond Air DA40 aeroplane, which is incredibly cute! We took off from Wilmington Airport, and took a 40 minute trip over Delaware Bay.

DA-40 during the pre-flight check

A technical aside, for those of you that say the iPad is just a toy, the flight plan was logged using an iPad, and maps of the airport, runways and flight were on the iPad during the flight (in addition to the Garmin flight deck stuff in the aircraft).

 

Ready to go – (Photo by Lois Strachan)

The trip was great fun an uneventful (which is a good thing), two days later we were braced down for Huricane Irene, so it was a good interlude with the wonderful weather.

HDR shot of the aircraft, a copy is now on the wall in Marc’s study :-)

Coming in to land on runway 19 (ie 190 degrees on the map).

While the runway looked very short, it can easily land a 737, it is over 2km long. The trip was fantastic, and definitely a highlight of our trip. Thanks to Marc for taking us on the trip, and a huge thanks to both Marc and Patti for looking after us so  well during our (extended) trip. Hope to do more flying soon.

 

 Last shot, just before takeoff

Cape Town HDR Travel

Bingo the Dragon

My niece Cameron has a rather strange pet (well I think it is). It is a bearded dragon, probably about 15″ long, including the tail. His name is Bingo. Yes, Bingo! It reminds me of the horse that death rides, who we all know is called Binky.

Bingo does not live in Cape Town, he has a heated little house in Cameron’s room in Johannesburg, and his favourite food is silkworms.

Here are a few more pics.

Travel

Side canel in Venice – this is one from the archives. I just found this photo from a recent trip to Venice, and it had somehow avoided being posted in the past. I think that it is worth sharing, so please enjoy.

Travel

Here are a couple of old shots that I have been using to play with textures. The first is of the Colosseum in Rome, and the second of the Pantheon. Please let me know which versions you prefer; the “before” or “after” shots (just leave a comment).

Colosseum with texture

Colosseum without texture

And now the Pantheon…

Pantheon with texture

Pantheon without texture

Travel

Believe it or not, Cape Town still has a steam train or two in operation. This particular train belongs to Atlantic Rail, and they run a service every Sunday from Cape Town to Simonstown and back. She is a Class 24 locomotive (No. 3655), and is so majestic as she drives past.

At R220 per person it is an expensive trip, but it still looks like a very civilised way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

You can book or find out more details on the Atlantic Rail website.

Cape Town

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The Rialto Bridge is the oldest of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. It was build by Antonio da Ponte, in 1591, after almost 100 years of thinking, discussion, proposals and planning. So if you think that city planning today seems to take forever, don’t complain!

During the planning process, several plans for the Rialto Bridge were submitted, including a plan by Michelangelo, which was not used. While I have seen many pictures of the bridge over the years, I was a little surprised at how small it really is, having said that the whole of Venice is really small. You could easy walk end to end in 45 minutes (including the obligatory getting lost; which will happen at some stage).

The Rialto Bridge is right next to the Rialto Market, selling fresh produce and sea food to the locals and tourists. Never the less, it is a beautiful and spectacular bridge in the heart of Venice, and a wonderful location to wonder around for a couple of hours.

ps: A pity about the Graffiti on the right :-(

HDR Travel

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The famous Trevi Fountain in Rome. Although the fountain is really beautiful, this is the part of Rome that made me feel most uncomfortable. There were hordes of people in a rather confined area, and far to many shady vendors walking around. It just felt like a ripe place for some pick-pocketing.

Having said all that, we didn’t have any problems. The fountain is very beautiful, made up of water gushing over wonderfully carved marble statues and figures, creating both a soothing and cooling effect.

The popular story has it that if you throw a coin into the fountain, your return to Rome is assured. Although I did not throw a coin into the fountain, I certainly plan to be go back to Rome.

Travel

Vatican City (like the rest of Italy) is incredibly accessible and aware. It is also free to disabled people. Lois and I bought tickets online several weeks before our visit, which is the best way to avoid the entrance queues. Anyway when we arrived, they promptly sent us to the front of the queue’s, refunded our tickets, and gave us complimentary tickets. You can easily spend several days in the museum’s alone; there is simply so much too see, from Egyptian mummies, to frescos, artwork and astonishing statues. The highlights of the museum’s themselves being of course the Sistine Chapel. Alas, I do not have any photos of the Chapel because they asked us to refrain from taking pics inside, which I respected.

I was however allowed to take pictures inside St Peter’s Basicalica, so here are a few highlights.

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The outside of one of the most beautiful dome’s in the world.

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The dome from the inside of St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, designed by Michelangelo. Although he died before it was complete.

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Detail of the artwork and architecture. The writing is over 7 feet tall.

St Peter's Basicalica - detail

More detail

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Finally, Michelangelo’s Pieta. The Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus.

HDR Travel

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This was a remarkable building to visit. Even tough I have seen it many times in books and magazines, seeing it in for real was a remarkable experience. The sheer scale of it was staggering. It soared into the sky, far above my head.

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This is where the citizens of Rome watched the gladiators fight each other to death, kill exotic animals, and slaves would try to win their freedom.

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Despite popular belief, it was not where Christians were fed to the lions.

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And to think that it was build almost 2000 years ago, and is still (at least mostly) standing is inspiring. I also realised that it will be there long after I am not.

Travel