Friday, September 10, 2010

Some Photos of Capri Island

As you know, I was in Pozzuoli on ritrit till Monday. If the ritrit can be interesting for you, you can visit my dedicated to Yungdrung Bon blog to see the photos. Here I wanted to show you some photos of Island Capri. Everybody probably knows about it and I will not write much to present it to you.

Here is the island seen from the train that goes to Naples, near Torre del Greco. You can see Sorrento coast too. Both are rocks with not too much place to live. That is why all the VIPs of all time liked to live in such places.







These next photos I took in Pozzuoli. It is surprizing how near is the island if you look at it from so distant places these are about 50 km between them.



Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Musicians Sealed In The Castel Of Salerno

Oh yes, it's a terrible story about the destiny of some persons that lived in the castel of Salerno. I'll show it to you, all in the photos I've made just some days ago, on August 27. :-)))

The castel of Salerno was created to control the territory from the highest place over the town and it was used mostly for the defence. All the plan of the fortress that included the understanding town is so efficient that it was not necessary to live in the castel. The princes went only when it was necessary there, I think.




Some years ago the castel was repaired and now it's a splendid place where to go for a walk -with typical plants of the zone, some species of animals, normally living in the wild places here, and views that literally make you forget everything.



On the photo is the port of Salerno with a cruise ship in it and the Amalfi coast in the background.

The castel gave hospitality to a Festival of the classic music this year, and they decided to close musicians in the rooms of it. One artist told a love story of a princess Liutpranda to the guests and they were guided through the rooms, accompained by the classic and medieval music. There were many journalists, TV and many persons that wanted to partecipate on this event. Many of the guests, we too, thought, it will be a guided visit of the castel, but they wanted to present the musicians in this special way.



We wanted to see the castel before the show began and understood the idea of the presentation after we saw these strange cloistered artists:







They like to close the artists, the responsables for the tourism in the municipality of Salerno, you know. Some years ago they closed painters in a Cistersian monastery for a month. The painters had to create their artworks and than they could go out from the cloister.
You had to see those opuses! I think, they did not give them to eat too. Or maybe invented other kind of torture. At least it was the impression after I've seen what the painters created in that month.



Saturday, August 21, 2010

Unknown City Beijing

Writing about the cruises that begin in Japanese ports, I found an interesting name of a city in China: Beijing. I've never heard about it and wanted to learn more. The first information I've seen in internet was a collection of photos of a couple of travellers with the explanations under every photo. So, I knew many interesting things.

The couple visited Forbidden City, the largest palatial complex in the world. There is a Temple of Heaven built without any nail or beam inside the complex. The Emperors prayed to have good year and waited for signs of good auspices on Chinese New Year there. You can see the Emperors in the procession every year even today. Sure, those are only shows to attract visitors but it has to be interesting to see, I think.


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The next point of the itinerary of the couple was Tiananmen Gate, than they visited cooking courses for foreigners hold directly in the street. Imagin how interesting it is! I've never heard about such invention in other touristic places.

There is one of the largest and most important in the world Buddhist temples there, Lama Temple of Geluk School, where there are many treasures very important for every Buddhist; and there is a Chinese Muslims' Mosque (Niujie Mosque). I was surprized to read about it, I did not think there are even Chinese Muslims! And the building is interesting too, it comes from 996.

It's possible to visit Yuanming Yuan, ruins of the Old Summer Palace (ah, all royalities had summer and winter palaces!).

Do you like works of Franch architect Paul Andreu? Very beautiful airy buildings all over the world. There, in Beijing, you can see his Center for the Performing Arts.

Ладья
«Ладья» на Яндекс.Фотках

And there are Beihai Park, a royal garden, Happy Valley, an amusement park, Beijing Zoo, where there are pandas and other rare Chinese animals, 798 Space Gallery a place for contemporary arts. You can visit Beijing Planning Exhibition and walk over the relief models of the city, the world's largest steel structure -the National Stadium, and surely the Great Wall.

Wow, but will it be enough a shore visit to see all these interesting places?

I was very curious: where is this city? And from the next site I learn it's... Peking!
By the way, did you know that Peking is one of the 4 historical capitals of China? Every dinasty had own capital: Beijing, Nanjing, Chang'an and Luoyang.

And to make this more inviting for you: if you look for cruise discounts and want to embark on October 25 , it will cost you only... you will not believe... a third part from the normal price of the cabin... And Ocean view? Have you seen the oceanview cabin price???