Lee's Myth: August 2014

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Group Hike - Beacon

More photos (including random cairns, cool fungi and intrepid hikers) after the jump...

Group Hike - Cold Spring

Raptor, circling

Cairns on the Notch Trail

Fungi

Frogs on a log

ready for his close-up

Top of the branch

Butterfly

Bee

Heron amidst the algae

Hikers' conference

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

World's Fair Lecture - Central Park Armory

G-san was really plugged into the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the 1964 World's Fair, and we ended up making three trips to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. This lecture, however, was held more conveniently at the Central Park Armory.

My somewhat cryptic notes of the lecture include the following decipherable factoids:

Bumps on the Unisphere help ease the wind load.
Until two years ago, the caller ID on phones in the former World's Fair Administration Building identified them as "World Fair Administration" (I think he said these were pay phones, but I'm not 100% sure about that)

For some reason, I also jotted down "Column of Jerash" (a gift from King Hussein of Jordan, originally erected in 120 A.D. and "one of the few true antiquities publicly displayed in New York City’s parks") and "Lev Zetlin engineer" (who was responsible for the New York State Pavillion, among other things). I have no idea what I meant by "Ebb vtl impact".

They had a few exhibits as well:

"Aries" by Paul Manship, 1964

The accompanying notes explained: "These two bronze animal zodiac figures were once part of Paul Manship's gilded bronze Armillary Sphere, created for the New York World's Fair of 1964-65. The Armillary Sphere stood in a small circular pool between the Unisphere and the New York City Building. ... In the 1970s it was vandalized and these two pieces stolen, and in 1980 the remainder of the sculpture was taken in a brazen theft. In 1990 Taurus and Aries were recovered from private collections."

"Taurus" by Paul Manship, 1964

Paul Manship apparently died in 1966, so he did not have the opportunity to see the vandalism and theft.

A horse from the carousel, on display in the stairwell

I also liked this photo of the George Washington Sculpture from the 1939 World's Fair:

It was apparently 65 feet tall, including the base. The statue was not built to last, however; it was "made of provisional plaster molded around a steel frame" and thus "could not be salvaged or replicated, and like most of the Fair's statuary did not outlast the fair itself."

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Athens: The Grand Finale

Black Sea Navigation: BULGARIA: [Nesebar] [Varna] ROMANIA: [Constanţa]
TURKEY: [Sinop] [Bodrum] [Istanbul: Basilica Cistern] [Istanbul: Topkapi] [Istanbul: Haigha Sophia]
GREECE: [Limnos] [Meteora] [Thira] [Athens: Acropolis and Plaka] [Acropolis Museum Highlights]

I had approximately 28 hours in Athens at the end of the trip. We who were lingering in Athens said our initial farewells to the remaining octet, who were headed in divers directions.
After some initial consultations, we decided to take the metro to the hotel, which was a good idea, and also decided to walk from the port to the metro station, which was a bad idea. (A taxi driver told us it was a very close and entirely walkable "300 meters," while a parking lot attendant told us -- with a far closer approach to the truth -- that it was 2-3 kilometers. We believed the taxi driver, since he seemed to be speaking against interest.)

Then again, while it was a bit of a schlepp to the metro with our luggage, it was very easy once we got there. They have large, clean, functional elevators for entry and exit, and for changing trains from one level to the next. Presumably they re-did everything for the Olympics, but it all works very smoothly, putting NYC's largely wheelchair-inaccessible subways to shame.

The staff at the Philippos Hotel were friendly and accommodating; they stowed our luggage for us so we could go touring until our rooms were ready, and they told us we could help ourselves to the breakfast buffet. (We'd already eaten, but the coffee was very, very welcome!)

We started with the Acropolis, although unfortunately we went at the hottest and most crowded time of day. We also ran into two logistical quirks, which we probably could have avoided if we'd actually read a guidebook or something before going. First was the problem that they only accept cash at the ticket booth (no credit cards) and they don't have ATMs on-site. We had enough cash to purchase the tickets, but unfortunately, the person we'd dispatched to stand in line for tickets was the one without cash. Grrr. The second wrinkle was that the "four-day ticket" to multiple locations including the Acropolis only allows you to enter each location once during the four days. So our dream of popping back in to the Acropolis first thing in the morning before the crowds hit was unfortunately crushed.

More after the jump...

Day 13: What They Talk About in Thira When They Talk About Thermal Springs

City on a Hill ... or a Caldera

Day 12: Bodrum, Turkey

The Bodrum Castle / Bodrum Museum Of Underwater Archaeology reminded me strongly of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, mostly due to the seemingly random (but exquisite) bits and pieces of architecture and statuary that littered the place.

More after the jump!

Day 10: Meteora

The most amazing thing, to me, was the rock formations themselves. It was cool to see the buildings perched atop the rocks, but - wow! The rocks! The landscape!!!!

Monastery atop a Monolith

Day 9: Is Limnos a Liminal Space?

Our first port of call in Greece was Limnos. We decided it was a beach day.

"It's a beautiful morning! Up and at 'em!!!!"

After

Before

Perfect Alignment

I think this is one of the ports where we took a tender to shore, which somewhat limits mobility. We got a recommendation about which beach to go to, but first we decided to climb every mountain.

See the flag up there? It marks a summit to conquer before the beach!!

Are we almost there yet? An interim view of the town.

Fortifications to fortify us for the continued ascent!

Oooh - a cave!

A little more altitude...

Views enough for everyone, 360 degrees.

Hiker in Arch, with Greek Flag

Holding the fort

The descent seemed to take longer than it should have, but of course it was getting steadily hotter as the day wore on. So we headed on to the beach. As recommended, we passed by the first two options and went for beach #3. It was nice - not too crowded, plenty of free beach chairs and beach umbrellas, very pleasant. My brother set off on a 10-mile run (?!) while my sister-in-law and I settled on to a nice shady beach chairs. I was reading Dune on my iPad for a free Mythgard Academy class. I'd actually bought two copies of the book (paper and ebook), but I finished the ebook on the trip, so I never ended up cracking open the paper version.

Hard at Work: Wheelbarrow Edition

In between splashing and building sand castles, the girls found a rocky area with a lot of sea urchins. At their urging (the girls, not the sea urchins), I swam out to go look at them (the sea urchins, not the girls). It was pretty cool! And there were no re-enactments of my experience stepping on a sea urchin in Fiji, so it was all good.

After a while, I went on a quest to find a W.C. There was nothing obvious in the vicinity, so I kept going. And going. And going. (I was sure I'd find something eventually.) Finally, at the end of yet another beach area, I found a ruined building that had formerly contained toilets - the signs were still on the doors - but it was clear that the building had long since lost any claim to plumbing or other amenities; it would have been an open question whether I could have made my way to the remnants of the door without the structure itself collapsing around me. So I turned back - and probably not a moment too soon, as my companions were starting to worry that I'd been gone so long.

We decided to get lunch at one of the cafes on the beach - the food was absolutely delicious. We got a few different items, including a Greek salad to share. I was imagining the sort of anemic pre-packaged excuse for a Greek salad that you'd see in an American beach town, but this was Greece. The salad was freshly made, with huge slabs of feta cheese, perfectly ripe red tomato wedges - everything could have been picked from the garden that morning.

Back on board, my brother resumed reading The Fellowship of the Ring to the girls.

That night, I quizzed them about Strider: Do you think he is going to turn out to be good, or bad? (I got one vote each way.) They were aware that he had a secret of some kind, so I asked them their thoughts about that. No spoilers from me, though!!

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Day 8: Istanbul - Topkapı Palace

We spent the morning at Topkapı Palace, and this turned out to take all the time we had available to us. Just how big an attraction is Topkapı? Well, simply by chance (if chance you call it!), we randomly ran into my brother and sister-in-law, and my cousin and her son. And here we thought we'd have the place all to ourselves.

The initial areas were nice enough - they were so fresh-looking by comparison with the Hagia Sophia, that I assume they have been recently restored.

We went into most of the galleries featuring jewels, armor, and more. Some of it was really cool. But they frowned on photography there, so it's all undocumented.

Hollowed out by lightning? Or carved out for a romantic nook?

The highlight of the day was the Harem, for which they extort an additional entrance fee. But it is stunning and well worth it.

In this room, I started out admiring the trompe l'oeuil on the dome... only to realize it was everywhere, including on the architectural details (particularly an apparent niche in the wall) that I'd at first taken for real!

A garden of delights

Painted columns and vistas

This, too, is flat. ENTIRELY flat.

Every room had its delightful details: paintings, carvings, and mosaics. I took a lot of pictures of corners, where several lovely patterns would meet.