Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Santuario Nuestra Señora de El Carmen, Bogota, Colombia

This is the interior of Santuario Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Candelaria, the old Centro neighborhood of Bogota, Colombia. Mass is just about ready to start.

The exterior has that same red-and-white-stripe motif.

After several trips to Bogota trying to get inside this beautiful church, I finally was able to get inside in April 2018.

Phot-o' the Day: Warner Bros. Studio Back Lot; Burbank, California

Back in 2013, after the school year had ended, I took the Danish student to Burbank, California, for Warner Bros. studio tour. We took the whole tour. Lots and lots of building facades. The tour guide would say this facade was the such-and-such in one TV series, and the some-other-such-and-such in some other TV series, none of which I watched. I've long ago forgotten which buildings go with which unwatched 90s TV series.

So I don't recognize any of these buildings from any TV shows or movies. It's extremely unlikely that the entire street ever appeared in a single shot, since the incongruous mishmash of buildings is because shooting is supposed to occur only in front of one facade.

Phot-o' the Day: View from Castle of the Most SNP; Bratislava, Slovakia

Experts agree that the Most Slovenského národného povstania, or "Most SNP," "most" being the word for bridge in several Slavic languages, is the ugliest Communist-era relic in the greater Bratislava metropolitan area and, in fact, may be one of the ugliest bridges on Planet Earth. It is so ugly that it crosses the line into being "endearingly ugly." It is also called the "UFO Bridge" because of the hideous flying saucer like structure atop the one bridge pillar. (I think it's now a hipster restaurant.)

This is the view of the Danube and the Most SNP from the grounds of Bratislavský hrad, Bratislava's plain, pedestrian castle. Bratislava is a beautiful, fun and interesting city to spend about two days in. It is worth the trek up the hill to the castle grounds, but only for the view of the Danube.

Visited October 2011.

Phot-o' the Day: Norm in Desert Bloom Park; Las Vegas, Nevada USA

It is unusually early in the calendar for it to be this scorching hot in Las Vegas. So we get out for the morning walk unusually early in the day. Cool wet grass is the best antidote to hot summer sun, even when the hot summer sun is shining bright and hot before 6:30 a.m.

Phot-o' the Day: Ghanaian Children's Coffins; National Museum of Funeral History, Houston, Texas

The funeral dancers from Ghana have become a pop culture meme.  Surely you've seen them: the pall bearers who are dancing while carrying the coffin of a departed. For those of us who have visited the excellent National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, Texas, we've known that the Ghanaians have a non-traditional, almost whimsical, attitude toward the funeral ceremony.

I learned this from the display of children's coffins at the museums. Birds, crabs, fish, race cars, ships, helicopters, all coffins for the young departed, My personal favorite was the leek:

Visited December 2015.

Phot-o' the Day: The Grand Canal After Dark; Trieste, Italy

The Grand Canal of Trieste. It's not particularly grand. And it's not really a canal. It's an inlet that goes in about four city blocks and stops. But it does photograph nicely, whether by day or at night.

It is time to plan a big trip for the fall, when everything everywhere should be re-opened. This is a perfect time to go somewhere I've wanted to go to, but have avoided because of the crowds. There's a good chance that even with re-opening, crowds will be slow to come back. So this is not the year for an "off the beaten path" vacation destination. It's time to beat that path senseless.

I've already booked my flights for Italy late in the year. It's time to see more of Italy than Trieste, that weird quirky finger of land stretching out from northeastern Italy along the northern shore of the Adriatic. It's time for Rome and the Vatican.

Memorial Day Phot-o' the Day: Mold for the Iwo Jima Memorial; Harlingen, Texas

The original mold for the United States Marine Corps War Memorial, a.k.a., "the Iwo Jima Memorial," is on display in front of the Iwo Jima Museum at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.

Visited December 2008.

Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris; Paris, France

In memoriam on the Memorial Day weekend.

This is Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral, on an island in the Seine River in the middle of Paris, France. I visited in June 2016, although I did not actually visit. I walked past. I only had a limited number of days in Paris, and the line to get into the cathedral was long, so I decided to save Notre Dame for my next visit to Paris. It stood for several hundred years, so it was always going to be there, right?

Unfortunately, there was a massive fire in the roof area at the beginning of Holy Week 2019 and they are still assessing the damage and shoring up the structure so restoration can begin. These cathedrals may be built of stone, but there is a whole lot of wood in the framing and that was the tinder that fed the fire. The restoration itself has not yet begun and there still is not absolute certainty that the cathedral can be saved (although I understand that the optimism that it can be restored is much higher than it was a year ago).

May there be a resurrection after the restoration.

Phot-o' the Day: Reed Boats on the Beach; Huanchaco, Peru

Huanchaco, Peru, is a beach town in northern Peru that is known for two things: reed boats and the best ceviche in all of Peru. The reed boats are "parked," there on the left. As for the best ceviche in all of Peru, it was a cruel twist of fate that I reached the place with the best ceviche during a period of severe gastro-intestinal distress.

To the beach for Memorial Day weekend. Visited April 2018.

Phot-o' the Day: Shoes on the Danube Bank; Budapest, Hungary

This is the poignant "Shoes on the Danube Bank" memorial in Budapest, Hungary. This is to honor those the thousands killed here, along the banks of the Danube, by the Arrow Cross, the indigenous Nazi party of Hungary. The killings took place mostly in December 1944 and January 1945. Those killed were predominantly, but by no means exclusively, Hungarian Jews.

Why shoes? Those who were being executed were ordered to remove their shoes before they were shot. The bodies would fall into the river and be carried away by the current. The shoes here are correctly-sized, 1940s-style shoes cast in iron.

This is located on the Pest-side bank of the Danube River in Central Budapest. I visited here in May 2010.

Phot-o' the Day: Place Saint-Jean; Vieux Lyon; Lyon, France

From one cathedral to another in Vieux Lyon.

This is Place Saint-Jean, the plaza in front of the entrance to Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in the lower part of the Old Town section of Lyon, France. On the hill, towering over the plaza, is La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. Two huge, beautiful, ornate churches with a boatload of awesome restaurants in between them, all in the Old Town section of Lyon.

Visited June 2016.

Phot-o' the Day: Rower; Lake Bled, Slovenia

A rower on the lake. The lake is Lake Bled, Slovenia, as evidenced buy the island with the church on top in the background.

If it seems like Lake Bled is the subject of a lot of Phot-o's the Day, that's because it is. It might be the most photogenic place I've yet visited. This is from the September 2014 visit.

Phot-o' the Day: Sandong F7 Liuli Paifang; Beijing, China

This is Sandong F7 Liuli Paifang on the east side of Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

"Paifang" means "gateway." As for the "Sandong," the "F7," and the "Liuli," I do not know. Where it is a gateway to or from: I do not know. But I do know that is a lovely green color.

Phot-o' the Day: Walking on Skólavörðustígur toward Hallgrimskirkja; Reykjavik, Iceland

This is the view walking up Skólavörðustígur in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland. (Yes, I did cut-and-paste that street name from Google maps. There is no way my English language keyboard could do even half the letters in that word. And that's one single street name.) At the end of Skólavörðustígur, and in the center of the picture, is the ultra-modern Hallgrimskirkja, the "kirkja" at the end being the Icelandic word for "church," and the "Hallgrims" at the front referring to an Icelandic poet of that name. It is nominally a "cathedral," but I'm not sure how religious it really is.

Reykjavik is a small town, as European capitals go. The population of the city is a little more than 120,000, which means than it is home to about one-third of the total population of Iceland. So, by Icelandic standards, it is a megalopolis.

Visited June 2016.

Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Altar de Oro, Iglesia de San José; Panama City, Panama

The Iglesia de San José, in Panama City's Casco Antiguo neighborhood, is an historic church built in the 1670s. The church otherwise may be modest, but there is one thing about it that is not, in the least bit, modest. It is the Altar de Oro, or the Golden Altar.

The church is located in the Casco Antiguo neighborhood of Panama City, Panama. This is the "old town" neighborhood not far from the downtown. This is not to be confused with "Panama Vieja," the original human settlement on the Isthmus of Panama, located near Panama City's International Airport (which must be how those first human habitants got there), which is just archaeological ruins that are in a very ruinized state. Casco Antiguo is not in ruins. It has historic architecture combined with restaurants and nightlife. It's the Panama City version of the French Quarter, but without the stench.

Visited November 2013.

Phot-o' the Day: Alpaca at the Huaca Pucllana; Lima, Peru

Today's photo is an alpaca at a huaca. And not just any huaca. This is the Huaca Pucllana in the upscale Miraflores neighborhood in Lima, Peru. The Huaca Pucllana is a giant pyramid that was buried in plain site in the City of Lima for several centuries, until it was discovered in the 1970s. It is an active archaeological site.

And it has alpacas. Because why not?

Visited April 2018.

Phot-o' the Day: Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee; Chiemsee, Germany

This is a palace on an island in a lake in Bavaria, Germany.

The palace is the Neues Schloss Herrenchiemsee, or Herrenchiemsee New Palace. The island is Chiemsee. The lake is Chiemsee. The palace is located in Germany's Bavaria. Because of construction, when I was there, it was a complicated combination of bus and train riding to get there. Construction on the palace began in 1878. I believe construction still is not complete. It is a work in progress.

The builder of the palace was King Ludwig II, the famous Mad King Ludwig, better known for his Disney-like (actually, Disney-copied) Neuschwanstein, which also is in Bavaria, but the other direction from Munich. This was supposed to be his Versailles knock-off. Say what you will about Ludwig II. The man may have been mad, but he sure knew how to build tourist infrastructure.

Visited September 2014.

Phot-o' the Day: Bahia Chica beach; La Paloma, Uruguay

It was a beautiful sunny day in the Uruguayan beach town of La Paloma. It was mid-November when I was there. It was too early for it to be "in season," so the town was empty.

Here is your northern hemisphere translation. Mid-November in Uruguay is the same as mid-May. Latitudinally, La Paloma is at 34 degrees, 39 minutes south. On the Atlantic coast of the United States, this is pretty much precisely the latitude north for Morehead City, North Carolina, just south of the Outer Banks. So mid-November in La Paloma is the same as mid-May on the North Carolina coast: beautiful, not quite summer, empty (well, "empty" like it was in the 1980s when I lived in Virginia).

Visited November 2013.

Phot-o' the Day: Porta Nigra; Trier, Germany

The Porta Nigra (translation: "black gate") is an ancient Roman tower, built around 180 A.D., as the point of entry into the Roman city of Augusta Treverorum, which is modern day Trier, Germany.

Trier claims, with legitimacy, to be the oldest city in Germany. It is located on the banks of the Moselle River, which means it indisputably has the best wines in all of Germany. What a surprise that an Old Roman settlement in Germany became Germany's preeminent wine producer. All guarded by the Porta Nigra.

Visited December 2018.

Phot-o' the Day; The Stari Most of Mostar; Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This is the Old Bridge of Mostar in the Herzegovina part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The bridge crosses the turquoise blue waters of the Neretva River, linking the historic Turkish sector on the left and the Croat/Catholic sector on the right.

The Old Bridge was built in 1566. This is not it. The original Old Bridge was destroyed after standing for over fur centuries during the Homeland War fought during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. The destruction of the historic bridge horrified the combatants and populations on both sides of the war. After the war, the Old Bridge was rebuilt, using as much of the stone from the original structure as could be salvaged from the waters of Neretva.

Visited April 2010.

Phot-o' the Day: Walking on the Herbert Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska USA

In Juneau, the "thing to do" is to take a helicopter out onto a glacier, usually the world famous Mendenhall Glacier. The Mendenhall is world famous because it's the one everyone's heard of. Yes, I am substituting a tautology for analysis because I don't know why the Mendenhall is the most famous. Perhaps, like a Kardashian (or, to use an older allusion, a Gabor), it's famous for being famous.

I did what everybody else does when in Juneau. I took a helicopter to a glacier. Only me, being a non-conformist, went to the Herbert. Actually, I went to the Herbert because that's where the helicopter went. There were reasons why the helicopter pilot chose the Herbert over the Mendenhall. That reason has been lost to the ravages of time. Actually, I think the Mendenhall was fogged in that day and the Herbert wasn't.

Visited July 2017.

Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Interior of Crkva Sv. Petra; Petrovina, Croatia

This is the interior of Crkva Sv. Petra (Church of St. Peter) in Petrovina, Croatia. This is the small village in Northern Croatia from which my father's family migrated. As befits a small village, it is a small church.

All church records were destroyed by the communists, so there was no tracing family history here. Yugoslavia wasn't as hostile to the church as were the communists elsewhere (except for Poland). You were allowed to go to church in the former Yugoslavia. You would not be arrested or imprisoned if you did. However, according to the priest who opened this church up for us to see, you would never get promoted beyond an entry-level job or otherwise advance.

Visited September 2014.

Phot-o' the Day: Casa Terracota; Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Casa Terracota in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, is a house ... made out of terracotta. Inside and out. It looks like what would have happened if Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect, had been hired to do set design for a Flintstones movie. I'm not sure of the purpose of prostrate mannequin in the foreground. It's art.

Villa de Leyva is a four-hour bus ride north of Bogota. It is so worth the trip.

Visited November 2017.

Phot-o' the Day: Mitad Del Mundo Monument, just north of Quito, Ecuador

Only two months ago, I was in Ecuador on a five-day, five-night mini-vacation. This was right before we were all locked down in place with the coronavirus pandemic. It seems like two years ago at this point,

This is the Mitad Del Mundo monument, the "Middle of the World." This marks the point where, in 1736, using the best technology of the day, the Geodesic Mission of the French Academy of Sciences determined to be the precise location of the equator. They were off by about 240 meters. I am not criticizing the French team by being off by 240 meters. Quite the contrary. I think it is absolutely amazing that using technology from the early 18th Century that they were able to measure it that close.

The current Mitad Del Mundo monument was built in 1982. It replaced a much smaller version of the same design that had been erected in 1936.

Visited March 2020.

Phot-o' the Day: Giant Heads of Presidents; Houston, Texas USA

In a lot north of downtown Houston, underneath freeway overpasses soaring above at least a hundred feet off the ground, is one of the greatest sights on Planet Earth for those of us who are American history nerds, especially American Presidential History nerds.

It is a lot filled with the giant heads of most (if not all) of our former presidents.

Apparently it is a working artist's shop. It's hit-or-miss when you get there as to whether the lot will be open, so you can wander around the heads inside the fence, or whether you will be stuck admiring the heads through the chain link fence. It's an awesome experience either way. But, of course, it is awesomer when you are inside.

I believe these are the heads of James A. Garfield (L) and Benjamin Harrison (R). It's a guess, but an educated guess. We had four presidents with full beards during the Golden Age of Presidential Facial Hair. The other two were U.S. Grant and Rutherford ("Rutherfraud") B. Hays. The heads are too thin for rounded visage of Ulysses Grant, but not thin enough for Rutherfraud. Benjamin Harrison was a nothing, which really is standard for legacy admissions. Garfield died very young due to medical incompetence. He may have been the most amazing and intelligent person ever to have served as U.S. president, including even Mr. Thomas Jefferson. Garfield was multi-lingual and ambidextrous. He could simultaneously translate what he heard into Greek and Latin, writing down the translation in one language with his right hand, and the other language with his left. Top that all you other presidential geniuses.

Visited December 2015.

Phot-o' the Day: Madeira Wine in Blandy's Attic; Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

I'm now three days into playing in the fourth quarter of my life. This is the last post about the festivities-equivalent during the lockdown birthday.

The other part of the birthday fun was opening a bottle of Madeira. I brought one lone bottle of Madeira back from my trip to Madeira. I was saving it for good. I grew up always saving everything for good, and there would never be an occasion "good enough" for the good stuff, and so the "good stuff" would rot. So I decided this was the occasion that was "good enough" for opening the bottle of Madeira.

I bought the bottle of Madeira at Blandy's, in downtown Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Blandy's is one of the major producers of Madeira wine on the Madeira island. Madeira is aged in warm attics. The photo is from one of those warm attics filled with Madeira aging to the proper age. Pictured are giant oak barrels that were sipping on Kentucky bourbon in the good ol' USA in a previous life. This life is now all about the Madeira. For an oak barrel, it would be like moving one paradisiacal part of heaven to another.

Visited September 2017.

Cat Phot-o' the Day: Simone The Cat; Las Vegas, Nevada USA

And Simone The Cat is the features Cat Phot-o' the Day.

We have reached a breakthrough in cat fashion photography here this morning. Simone The Cat, for the first time ever I believed, actually sat still long enough to take not one, not two, but three non-blurry photos. She wasn't happy. But I'd rather get the Evil Eye (Evil Cat Eye? Cat Evil Eye?) and a clear photo than the Evil Eye and a blurry one.

Dog Phot-o' the Day: Norm The Dog; Las Vegas, Nevada USA

I was accused on Facebook of posting an insufficient number of pictures of Norm The Dog. Guilty as charged! There is no such thing as a sufficient number of pictures of Norman.

Here he is enjoying an early morning sunbath, before the temperatures get too hot later in the day.

The COVID-19 lockdown has been going much better for Norman lately. In the last week or so, far more people (and dogs) have been out on the street during his morning and evening walks than had been the case up to that time. Life is good.

Phot-o' the Day: Culver's of Bullhead City; Bullhead City, Arizona USA

For the last 48 hours or so, I've been talking incessantly about the occasion of my 60th birthday. I was supposed to be in the midst of a two-week trip to Israel and the Holy Land (with a side trip to the Republic of Georgia in the middle, since I was all the way over there anyway and flights from Tel Aviv to Tbilisi were cheap cheap cheap). That, obviously, didn't happen, thank you coronavirus. But I still wanted a big adventure to ring in the 60th. What to do? What to do?

The solution to all of the problems in the world -- well, at least those under my direct control -- was a road trip. I took a 90-mile, 90-minute drive down to Bullhead City, Arizona, for the closest Culver's to my Las Vegas home. The restaurant itself was not open, but the drive-through was. And that's good enough if you've got a Culver's craving. For the record, I had a mushroom and swiss butterburger, with a side order of fried cheese curds, as the main course. And I had a blackberry and marshmallow creme concrete for the frozen custard course.

The photo is from my November 2019 visit.

Phot-o' the Day: Pletna Boat; Lake Bled, Slovenia

Ten years ago today, I was at what may be the most beautiful place on earth I've visited so far: Lake Bled, Slovenia. What was the occasion? My 50th birthday. One half century on the planet.

I wanted to do something "big" for my 50th. You only get one of those (at most) per lifetime. I decided to take a trip to the land of my ethnic heritage, Croatia. I added Lake Bled, Slovenia, to the itinerary because (a) it looked beautiful in pictures and (b) I had a weird dream about it and thought I should check it out. The logistics of the trip put me in Bled on the occasion of the actual 50th.

And today is 10 years later to the very day.

I had taken only a couple of international trips before this, if you don't include Canada. (Calling Canada an "international" trip is like someone in Italy saying they've been to a foreign country because they went to the Vatican.) I used to think that I did not need to go out and see the rest of the world because there was plenty within the United States that I had not yet seen. But, by the time of my 50th, I had seen almost everything I wanted to see in the U.S., at least in the lower 48, and I thought I heard the rest of the world calling me. I've done at least one international trip a year in the past decade (and, in one, 2018, three!). You never know when the ability to travel is going to be taken away from you, whether because of finances, health, global economic collapse, or pandemics. I expect to be able to travel internationally (and within the good ol' U.S.A.) for many many more years. But there are no guarantees. So I plan accordingly.

Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral; Vienna, Austria

Light a candle for me. Today is my last day of being "middle aged." Tomorrow, I pass a point of demarcation and enter the fourth quarter of life (or, if you prefer baseball, the late innings).* I turn 60.

These particular candles were lit inside St. Stephen's Cathedral, the enormous and tall Gothic church that anchors the historic core of Vienna, Austria. Visited December 2018. When I was still middle aged.
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   * A footnote to explain my quarters/innings analogy. If we get 80 years on this planet, each 20-year period would be a "quarter." As of tomorrow, I will have completed the first three quarters. I do hope the game goes into overtime after the end of the fourth quarter! If you prefer to use innings, then each decade of life is an inning. Traditionally, the middle innings would be the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, with the sixth inning ending the sixth decade. The seventh inning is considered "late innings."

Phot-o' the Day: Prada Marfa; outside Valentine, Texas USA

One of my absolute favorite roadside attractions I've ever had the pleasure of driving past. Prada Marfa. It's not a real Prada store. And it's not really in Marfa, the town known for those mysterious, unexplained glowing lights.

This is a public art project installed alongside U.S. 90, just outside Valentine, Texas, in the middle of nowhere, West Texas. I've been to lots of middles of nowhere over the years, and no place does "middle of nowhere" better than Far West Texas, in that desolate No Man's Land that makes up the six-hour, full-tank-of-gas drive between El Paso and Big Bend National Park. (And yet they look so close on the map).

Visited December 2008.

Phot-o' the Day: Korean War Memorial; Washington, D.C.

It's May Day. So today's picture relates to the first war we fought specifically to quarantine communism. This is the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., near the Lincoln Memorial. We fought the war from 1950 to 1953. The war did not end with peace or a peace treaty. It ended with a stalemate that continues to this day.

I took this picture on a visit to Washington in November 2006. I only now noticed that large military helicopter hovering in the background. Adds to the atmosphere, no?