Rhodes, Greece Idyllic sunset

Idyllic, originally uploaded by Katarina 2353 - rarely present in the next 2 weeks.

Rhodes(Greek: Ρόδος, Ródos, IPA: [ˈro̞ðo̞s]; Italian: Rodi; Ottoman Turkish: ردوس Rodos; Ladino: Rodi or Rodes) is a Greek island approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007[2] of which 53,709 resided in the homonymous capital city of the island.

Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today Rhodes is a tourist destination.

The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead, 79.7 km (49.5 mi) long and 38 km (24 mi) wide, with a total area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres (541 sq mi) and a coastline of approximately 220 km (137 mi). The city of Rhodes is located at the northern tip of the island, as well as the site of the ancient and modern commercial harbours.

In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief term of exile on Rhodes, and Saint Paul brought Christianity to the island. Rhodes reached her zenith in the third century, and was then by common consent the most civilized and beautiful city in Hellas. In 395, the long Byzantine Empire period began for Rhodes, when the Roman Empire was split and the eastern half gradually became a Greek empire. Although part of Byzantium for the next thousand years, Rhodes was nevertheless repeatedly attacked by various forces. It was first occupied by Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672. Much later, Rhodes was retrieved for the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade.

In 1309 the Byzantine era came to an end when the island was occupied by forces of the Knights Hospitaller. Under the rule of the newly named "Knights of Rhodes", the city was rebuilt into a model of the European medieval ideal. Many of the city's famous monuments, including the Palace of the Grand Master, were built during this period.

The strong walls which the Knights had built withstood the attacks of the Sultan of Egypt in 1444, and of Mehmed II in 1480. Ultimately, however, Rhodes fell to the large army of Suleiman the Magnificent in December 1522, long after the rest of the Byzantine empire had been lost. The few surviving Knights were permitted to retire to the Kingdom of Sicily. The Knights would later move their base of operations to Malta. The island was thereafter a possession of the Ottoman Empire for nearly four centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes

Link to Kyles blog :)
http://www.metavophoto.com/blog/14-splendid-sunrise-sunset-photos/

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler






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NYC Skyline in HDR

NYC Skyline in HDR, originally uploaded by The Talented Mr. Nimo.

The building form most closely associated with New York City is a skyscraper (a pioneering urban form first used in Chicago) that saw New York buildings shift from the low-scale European tradition to the vertical rise of business districts. Surrounded mostly by water, the city's residential density and high real estate values in commercial districts saw the city amass the largest collection of individual, free-standing office and residential towers in the world.

New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles. These include the Woolworth Building (1913), an early gothic revivalskyscraper built with massively scaled gothic detailing able to be read from street level several hundred feet below. The 1916 Zoning Resolutionrequired setback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below. The Art Decodesign of the Chrysler Building (1930), with its tapered top and steel spire, reflected the zoning requirements. The building is considered by many historians and architects to be New York's finest, with its distinctive ornamentation such as replicas of the 1928 Chrysler eagle hood ornaments and V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the tower's crown. A highly influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its facade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building(2000) is an important example of green design in American skyscrapers.

The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses, townhouses, and shabby tenementsthat were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930. Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835. Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a far-flung network of quarries and its stone buildings have a variety of textures and hues. A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the presence of wooden roof-mounted water towers. In the 1800s, the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could burst municipal water pipes. Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, including Jackson Heights in Queens, which became more accessible with expansion of the subway.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler

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Samos, traditional music, awesome sunset!

Musicians on Samos: Dimos singing on Pefkos beach from Peter Molz on Vimeo.

The singer/guitarist Dimos Kassapidis works during the summer season on Samos island, mainly in big hotels in Samos-Town or near Pythagorio.

Here he performs just for fun at Pefkos beach in the south of Samos island in Greece.

Whenever I'm on Samos, Dimos and I visit the Seitani beaches in the north-west and, on our way back to Pythagorio, there is one route where we stop at a place called Pefkos in the early evening. It is a small bay with a narrow beach, mostly pebbles, but mainly because of the beautiful views and the good fish tavern we drive to this place.

The beach is located next to Balos beach in the south of Samos island.

Video taken with Canon XM2 in the summer of 2007. Edited with iMovie09.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler

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Restoration of the Parthenon

Restoration of the Parthenon, originally uploaded by dfworks (on leave).

The Parthenon (ancient Greek: Παρθενών) is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Athenian Acropolis. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered one of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of ancient Greece and of Athenian democracy, and is one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of restoration and reconstruction.[1]
The Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena, called the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon was used as a treasury, and for a time served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin. After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque in the early 1460s, and it even had a minaret. On 28 September 1687 an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures, with Ottoman permission. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, where they are now displayed. The Greek government is committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece, so far with no success.

In 1975, the Greek government began a concerted effort to restore the Parthenon and other Acropolis structures. The project later attracted funding and technical assistance from the European Union. An archaeological committee thoroughly documented every artifact remaining on the site, and architects assisted with computer models to determine their original locations. In some cases, prior re-construction was found to be incorrect. Particularly important and fragile sculptures were transferred to the Acropolis Museum. A crane was installed for moving marble blocks; the crane was designed to fold away beneath the roofline when not in use. The incorrect reconstructions were dismantled, and a careful process of restoration began. The Parthenon will not be restored to a pre-1687 state, but the explosion damage will be mitigated as much as possible, both in the interest of restoring the structural integrity of the edifice (important in this earthquake-prone region) and to restore the aesthetic integrity by filling in chipped sections of column drums and lintels, using precisely sculpted marble cemented in place. New marble is being used from the original quarry. Ultimately, almost all major pieces of marble will be placed in the structure where they originally would have been, supported as needed by modern materials.
Originally, various blocks were held together by elongated iron H pins that were completely coated in lead, which protected the iron from corrosion. Stabilizing pins added in the 19th century were not so coated and corroded. Since the corrosion product (rust) is expansive, the expansion caused further damage by cracking the marble.
All new metalwork uses titanium, a strong, light, and corrosion resistant material.

Valencia, Spain ....The Twilight Knights

The Twilight Knights, originally uploaded by egold.

When I saw first time these fantastic Calatrava’s creations, my imagination immediately transformed these buildings into the helmets of two gigantic knights hiding under water and guarding this beautiful city - Valencia... It was not twilight time but it was dark atmosphere around and I called them The Twilight Knights... After that I saw them many times by different conditions but my first impression was the strongest...

Actually the names of these two buildings are El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía and L' Hemisfèric...
In 1989, the president of the Valencian Generality, Joan Lerma, assumed the idea of José María López Piñero, professor of history of the science of the University of Valencia, to build a scientific museum in the lands of the Garden of the Turia river that bordered the road with the mulberry trees. Lerma entrusted the creation of a team that articulated the project and that visited spaces of similar characteristics in Munich, Canada and London to devise a project of evident pedagogical appearance: an atom would serve of guide to the visitor to show him all the facets of the nature.
In May of 1991, the council approved the transfer of lands; four months later presented the project designed by Santiago Calatrava and at the end of that year gave the green light to the constitution of a public business, who served as the constructors of the bridge. The projects were initiated by the end of 1994. The team that had designed the museum did not see eye to eye with the form in which Santiago Calatrava conceived the building. Therefore, a couple changes were made.

In April of 1998 the complex opened its doors to the public with L' Hemisfèric. Eleven months later, the president Eduardo Zaplana inaugurated the Museum of the Sciences Prince Felipe, although the works were not finished. The museum was opened to the public twenty months later. December 12, 2002, was the opening of L' Oceanographic, the largest aquarium built in Europe. And October 8, 2005 the El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía was opened, but it lost its initial condition of headquarters of the Valencian film Library to be become the opera house of Valencia.

All complex of many buildings and bridges named The City of the Arts and the Sciences (in Valencian: Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències). It’s a cultural, architectural complex of entertainment for the city of Valencia and probably is the best architectural creation of our time.

Isola Bella (Italy)

Isola Bella (Italy), originally uploaded by ! . © Angela Lobefaro . !BUSY :-( BUSY. !.

©Angela M. Lobefaro
DO NOT Download or use my photos without my written permission.

Shot taken by Max in Turin, during Gadi's gadihext great 10 days visit in Italy! Thanks so much Gadi and Smadar for your kind visit!!
We enjoyed your company in Italy!

Isola Bella is one of the Borromean Islands of Lago Maggiore in north Italy. The island is situated in the Borromean Gulf 400 meters from the lakeside town of Stresa. Isola Bella is 320 meters long by 400 meters wide and is entirely occupied by the Palazzo Borromeo and its Italianate garden.

History

Until 1632 the island—known only as l’isola inferiore or isola di sotto[1]—was a rocky crag occupied by a tiny fishing village: but that year Carlo III of the influential House of Borromeo began the construction of a palazzo dedicated to his wife, Isabella D'Adda, from whom the island takes its name. He entrusted the works to the Milanese Angelo Crivelli, who was also to be responsible for the planning the gardens. The works were interrupted around middle of the century when the Duchy of Milan was struck by a devastating outbreak of the plague.

Construction resumed when the island passed to Carlo’s sons, Cardinal Giberto III (1615-1672) and Vitaliano VI (1620-1690); the latter in particular, with the financial backing of his elder brother, entrusted the completion of the works to the Milanese architect Carlo Fontana and turned the villa into a place of sumptuous parties and theatrical events for the nobility of Europe.

The completion of the gardens, however, was left to his nephew Carlo IV (1657 -1734). They were inaugurated in 1671.

The island achieved its highest level of social success during the period of Giberto V Borromeo (1751 – 1837) when guests included Edward Gibbon, Napoleon and his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, and Caroline of Brunswick, the Princess of Wales. It is said that Caroline, having fallen in love with the place, did her best to convince the Borromeo family to sell her Isola Madre or the Castelli di Cannero islands; in the event she established herself on the banks of Lake Como at Cernobbio in the Villa d’Este.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isola_Bella_(Lago_Maggiore)

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler

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Terminal 4, JFK

Terminal 4, JFK, originally uploaded by The Talented Mr. Nimo.

John F. Kennedy International Airport (IATA: JFK, ICAO: KJFK, FAA LID: JFK) is an international airport located in Queens County, New York in southeastern New York City about 12 miles (19 km) from Lower Manhattan. It is the top international air passenger gateway to theUnited States and is also the leading freight gateway to the country by value of shipments. The airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the two other major airports in the New York metropolitan area, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia. JFK airport is the base of operations for JetBlue Airways and is also a major international gateway hub for Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Ninety airlines operate out of JFK. The airport is named after John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

In popular culture

As one of the major international gateways in the United States, JFK possesses a high profile in popular culture. The British Invasion began with the arrival of The Beatles at JFK in 1964, who held their first American press conference at the airport.

Notorious B.I.G. references the airport's code name in the song "Going Back to Cali." The theme song of the 1960s comedy TV series Car 54, Where Are You? contained a line reading: "There's a scout troop short a child, [Nikita] Khrushchev's due at Idlewild," referencing the airport's previous name, Idlewild. In his one-man show Red diaper baby, Josh Kornbluth's eccentric communist father insists on referring to JFK as the "Bay of Pigs Memorial Airport". JFK is also mentioned in the U2 song, "Angel of Harlem", as well as the song "The City" by Joe Purdy. In the Simpsons episode $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)" Mr. Burns builds the 'Spruce Moose' a parody of Howard Hughes's 'Spruce Goose' airplane, which he claims will fly from New York's Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in seventeen minutes. A futuristic version of JFK was featured in The Fifth Element. In I Love Lucy, Lucy misses the USS Constitution bound for Europe and is forced to take a helicopter out of Idlewild Airport. Idlewild Airport was also mentioned in a "Twilight Zone" episode in which a plane en route to Idlewild travels through time.

Many films have used JFK as a setting:

• Live and Let Die (1973) depicts James Bond arriving at JFK on a Pan Am 747.
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• Zombi 2 (1979)
• Moonstruck (1987)
• Three Men and a Baby (1987)
• Big Business (1988)
• Coming to America (1988)
• Bonfire of the Vanities (1989) shows a complicated shot of Concorde landing here, documented in the book The Devil's Candy.
• Goodfellas (1990) depicts the 1967 Air France Robbery and 1978 Lufthansa heist that are both unsolved major robberies conducted at the airport.
• Quick Change (1990)
• The Wedding Banquet (1993)
• Turbulence (1997)
• Final Destination (2000)
• Catch Me If You Can (2002) features scenes of JFK during the 1960s, including several scenes filmed in the original TWA Flight Center (old Terminal 5).^[51]
• Kangaroo Jack (2003) (cameo appearance)
• Anger Management (2003) (Featured Pakistan International Airlines 747 in background)
• The Terminal (2004) was set at JFK airport, but interior scenes were filmed on mock terminal movie sets, while exterior scenes were filmed at Mirabel International Airport in Montreal.
• Taxi (2004)
• White Chicks (2004)
• Friends (2004) (series finale)
• School for Scoundrels (2006)
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) depicts the title character arriving at JFK.
• Build It Bigger (2007)
• Bee Movie (2007) shows a plane carrying roses landing at Terminal 4.
• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
• The Visitor (2008)
• Brüno (2009) features the American Airlines baggage claim in Terminal 8.

info from Wikipedia

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler






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Yellowstone, MT., USA

Yellowstone from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

Shot entirely with my Nikon D90 during our recent trip to Yellowstone. The last scene is from the cabins we stayed at on Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone, MT.



http://www.ffwdtime.com



A big thanks to everyone who likes this video, 10k views in 3 days just blows my mind!

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler

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Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor, Scotland

Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor, originally uploaded by antsplan.

Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor, Scotland. (Trans - Red peak, Big Herdsman of Etive)

My absence from Flickr has actually been a total break from photography, not just photography, everything really, all of the crap that we let into our daily lifes.

Anyway, I walked the West Highland Way last week (Milngavie to Fort William - 95 miles in 5 days) with some very good friends and had an absolute blast of a time. It pretty much rained for the entire trip and on the day we finished it kicked off a week of superb weather here in Scotland. I only took a P&S camera which ran out of battery after two shots !!! Thankfully the rain prevented any photo opportunities in any case.

When I got back home, I was itching to be away again so I headed off to Ardnamurchan with my wife, baby and dog.

I was able to take this picture on the way there on what was a glorious day for normal people but perhaps a tad harsh for us photographers. Still pleased with the results mind you.

Taj Mahal, in the Dusk

Taj Dusk, originally uploaded by brexians.

The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

from wikipedia

Πεθυμια ταξιδιου ...οραμα αλλαγης ...πορεια μπροστα!

Sofia Strezou 

Πεθυμιά ταξιδιού
Να ταξιδεύεις επιθυμούσες
σαν εκδρομή να κατακτoύσες
τα μονοπάτια του νου
να καταλάμβανες τη σκέψη
σαν με ζεστό πηλό να έπλαθες
για να υπερασπιζόσουν το μοίρασμα
ανατέλοντας πίσω από υγρά μάτια.
Ερχόσουν δίπλα μου
στην ατέρμονη αναχώρηση
εκεί που ακόμα δεν έχουμε πάει
να κολυμπάγαμε
στα βαθιά του ονείρου.
Για ν' ακουμπήσω κι εγώ
στη δική σου θάλασσα
παρακάμπτοντας την αδυναμία μου
να χαθώ σε ερυθρά απογεύματα
ν' αγγίζω ζεστές μέρες στο σώμα σου
κι ύστερα με δάκρυα
να σβήνω καιόμενους βάτους
θερίζοντας γλυκά
τα στάχυα της νιό...

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu
Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler






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