Category Travel
Waiting for Summer
Another brutally cold day. Environment Canada tells me there is an “Extreme Cold Warning in Effect.” I’m thinking of summer vacation and the Atlantic Ocean at Ocean Park, Maine.
Hagia Sophia III – Looking Around
Just some random pictures taken at the Hagia Sophia to give you a bit more of the flavour of the place. I am a big fan of digital photography, though I admit mine was a forced conversion: my beloved Canon FTb camera, which I had owned for more than 20 years, was stolen a few […]
Hagia Sophia II – Frescoes and Mosaics
Christian art can be an inconvenient truth at times. When Constantinople fell, and the Hagia Sophia was converted from a church into a mosque in 1453, the conquerors had to decide what to do about the frescoes and mosaics. With all the publicity in recent years over the various drawings of Mohammed that have spawned […]
Hagia Sophia I
It has had multiple uses: first as a church, then converted to a mosque and now is a museum. Whatever its function, one thing is certain: the Hagia Sophia is impressive. We tend to forget that Turkey, which is today 98 per cent or so Muslim, was once the centre of the Christian church, and […]
The Costs of War
When we toured the First World War battlefields in the Ypres area of Belgium last summer, the enormity of the human toll was apparent. The numbers are staggering. Daily casualty figures were measured in hundreds or thousands as more than a half a million men died in combat on Flanders fields in four years of […]
Two Bad Boys of York
The sign in the pub window caught my eye as we walked past and I snapped a picture with my phone. I meant to go back and find out more, but that didn’t happen in the four days we spent in York last summer. Next time I guess. Probably everyone in Britain knows who Guy […]
The Buckle Church
Anything free when you are traveling is a good thing, given that travel can be so expensive. Of course if you don’t know it is free it kind of defeats the point. That is the case of the Buckle Church. The church is part of the G Tokali Kilise (The Buckle Church) is the oldest […]
Up, Up and Away – III
As we headed into the van for our hour-long balloon ride over Cappadocia, my friend Mike asked “so how much does this cost?” I told him we had a discount – 150 Euros each. The look on his face said it all. He doesn’t have my stinginess, but he’s not a spendthrift either. I could […]
Up. Up and Away – II
Cappadocia is one of the top three places on the planet to go for a hot air balloon ride, or so I have been told (the others, if you were wondering are the pyramids in Egypt and the Loire Valley in France). And for very good reason – the view is spectacular. I had never […]
Up, Up and Away – I
I am noted for my frugality. I make no apologies, and for the most part have no regrets about pinching pennies. Mind you, my idea on what is worth spending money on has changed a little bit over the years. In 1986 I was in Paris for the first time, and like any good tourist […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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