Setubal has an affluent air, the fourth biggest port in Portugal, a busy modern (redeveloped) city centre and a harbour full of swanky boats. I became concerned that it was rather like Cascais which I did’t care for at all but a bit of probing into the streets beyond the centre really paid off.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Portugal, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies, Doors and Windows, Doors of Portugal, Lisbon, Setubal, UNESCO
Welcome to my new project – Washing Lines
I spotted this one in Marrakech.
There is a real basic pegging out error here. Can you spot it?
Peg sharing! This is when one peg is used to secure two items of washing. It looks sloppy and untidy because in my opinion each item should be hung with two pegs (same colour of course) and completely separate from each other so that they dry properly. I would be ashamed to peg out like that.
It is a Challenge. Feel Free to join in.
Posted in Africa, History, Marrakech, Morocco, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies, Marrakech, Monday Washing, Washing Line Challenge, washing Line PegsWashing, Washing Lines
I came across this interesting high rise building in the business district of Milan.
It is called The Bosco Verticale or vertical forest and is the brainchild of Milanese architect Stefano Boeri and uses more than twenty thousand trees and plants to adorn two high-rise buildings from top to bottom.
They certainly look good but their practical purpose is to absorb CO2 and help tackle city pollution. It may be spectacular but it looks like a maintenance headache to me.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, History, Italy, Natural Environment, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies, Balconies of Italy, Climate Change, Culture, Global Warming, Life, Milan, Vertical Forest
You don’t see many balconies in Iceland, neither the weather or the landscape is conducive. This one looks rather precarious, a good job that alcohol is prohibitively expensive.
Approximately three-quarters of Iceland is completely barren of vegetation and plant life consists mainly of grassland. The only tree native to the island is the northern birch but most of these are only a memory now because humans of course have damaged the delicate ecosystem as these birch forests were heavily exploited over the centuries for firewood and timber. Deforestation resulted in a loss of critical top soil due to erosion, greatly reducing the ability of forests to re-establish themselves. Today there are very few trees in only a few isolated areas of the island and none where we were driving.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, History, Hotels, Iceland, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Akranes, Þingvellir National Park, Balconies, Bill Bryson, Borgarnes, Reyjkavik, Whalefjord Iceland
In 2007 we took a train ride from Salzburg to the nearby village of Hallstatt. I liked it immediately. The village was thoroughly charming and I was straight away prepared to accept its claim of being the most attractive village in Austria
The village is set on piles driven into the lake with an intricate system of intersecting timber ramps, butresses and ascending terraces like hanging gardens creating an air of mystery and the eeriness of mirage, a village that seems to be almost lost in the middle-mist of folklore and fable. The mountain flanks rise sheer from the lake, leaving no room for a road and all but the smallest of vehicles are prohibited from entering the centre of the village.
We walked through streets with houses sometimes built into the mountain, sometimes hanging on to the mountain and at other times on top of the mountain and on the other side they were built right up to the edge of the lake.
Posted in Austria, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies, Hallstatt, Lake Halstättersee, Lake Traunsee, Salzburg, Train journeys, Train Travel
Have Bag, Will Travel 