Fresh, Grilled Salmon

To offer a bit of a contrast to my "Bangers and Mash" post from a few days ago, I thought I'd show you the kind of food I ate while in Portugal. This excellent meal was served in a small, unassuming restaurant that we visited twice while in Lisbon. Everything was fresh and very good. It may be crass to talk about prices but I think I paid around $10 for this.Check out some of my London/Portugal 2010 trip photos here

The Old Stone Wall

Like many of my photos, this photo was a bit of an afterthought. Deb and I had been out for a drive and I slowed to take in the scenery. And, though the sun was shining directly into my camera, I decided to take a shot of the little stone wall and the wild flowers (and colorful weeds) beside the road.Two things strike my about this scene. One is the stone wall, which is probably at least a century old. The labor and the time to construct this are rewarded by the longevity of the project.The other thing that strikes me about this place, is that it is only about 45 minutes north of Lisbon, the largest city in Portugal. And we are in a very rural setting. It is not unlike driving a few minutes north of Watertown and finding a landscape that is quiet and relatively free of people.Check out some of my London/Portugal 2010 trip photos here

Bangers and Mash

I don't play with my food much any more. But I do take photos of it when I'm traveling, especially if I encounter a particularly delightful meal. This meal qualified, though it may seem gross or obscene to some of you. Bangers and mash? Yes, that's what they call it in England. Americans would call it sausages and mashed potatoes and probably wouldn't serve it this way. Presentation is everything!Check out some of my London/Portugal 2010 trip photos here

The Music of Sheep

Every morning a shepherd (no relation) would bring his musical heard of sheep within view of our small 4 room stone cottage near Evoramonte, Portugal.The music that we heard wasn't the bleating of the sheep. They were quiet. Instead it was the clanging of the mellifluous bells that hung around their necks, which chimed in a multitude of tones.This was no performance for tourists. It was instead part of the rhythm of rural Portuguese life. For the two traveling Shephards, it was magical.

A Rainy Night In London

It had rained lightly all day on our last full day in London. We had enjoyed a pint at the local pub and were heading back to our hotel. I began taking photos of the traffic that was passing and got lucky when a double decker bus came by. Rain and red double decker buses both seem like London icons to me.

Old Friends?

After two weeks of travel to London and various places in Portugal, I thought I'd return to my photo blog with the last photo on the memory card in my camera. It happens to be a photo of me taken by Deb in the Amsterdam airport. My smile is not due the joy I am feeling because, after two weeks of fresh-cooked food served deliberately in small restaurants, I can once again enjoy overpriced, homogenized cheeseburgers and an M&M McFlurry (which I'll admit was very good).My smile is more about having the opportunity to pose with Ronald MacDonald's arm around me. It's as if Ronald, a US export, were saying, "Welcome back to 'civilization.'" Though we all know that fast food is not the epitome of US culture. Right?Incidentally, this isn't the first Ronald MacDonald photo to make this blog. Click here to see Ronald in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

05-28-10 The Mask of Agamemnon

This is the so-called "Mask of Agamemnon" discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, the German adventurer and archaeologist. It was discovered in the grave circle on the acropolis of the site of ancient Mycenae in Greece.This golden face was discovered in a royal tomb by Schliemann, who imagined it to be the face of Agamemnon. Agamemnon ruled Mycenae during the time of the Trojan War and was married to Helen (who "launched a 1000 ships"). The tomb the mask was found it is probably not the tomb of Agamemnon, though. This golden object and many others are housed in the Archaeological Museum in Athens. It is well worth the visit if you are in Athens.

The Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain

Here is another art museum interior in my infrequent "Art Museum" series, this time from the Prado in Madrid, Spain. The group is standing in front of one of the more famous paintings in the Prado's collection. The name of the painting is "Las Meninas," which means "ladies-in-waiting." The main subject is the infanta Maria Teresa, who later married Louis the XIV of France. (Yes, he was the "Sun King" who built the Palace of Versailles.) The artist is Velazquez.Maria is a cute little girl in this portrait but as one source I read said, "she outgrew her cute phase and came to look like the rest of her family." Many of the Hapsburgs were notoriously ugly, but perhaps none more so than her step brother Charles II, who was also the product of many generations of close inbreeding.Consider this: Charles was the son of Mariana of Austria and Philip IV of Spain. These parents were not only related, they were uncle and niece, which meant that his grandmother was also his aunt. Charles' mouth was so deformed, he had trouble chewing his food. Thanks a lot Mom and Dad (or Uncle and Niece)!If you are still intrigued by all of this, check out the intertwined branches of the Spanish family family tree.

Pardon Me!

This is not the kind of photo I generally post here. But today I will make an exception. What's wrong with the picture? Aside from breaking several aesthetic and technical rules of photography, it is a model shoot. And I don't do model shoots. But here's the story behind this photo.I was wandering the streets of Mykonos when I noticed a boat in the harbor. It was clearly a photo shoot of some kind. And so I photographed the event from . . . the backside. The thing that fascinates me about this picture (aside from the nice little white boat) is that there are five people present on this boat. The roles of the model, the captain and the photographer are obvious. But what about the two other men? Are they artistic directors? Agents? Close personal friends? And the real question is: Are they getting paid? The man at the front of the boat certainly seems to enjoy his work!

Shadow and Light

Deb and I were strolling through a small side street in a village in Croatia, when I saw this vine, which wasn't all that exceptional. But what I liked was how the setting sun struck it is such a way to make enlongated and curving shadows. The texture and muted color of the wall helps this shot, too.

Starting the Day Right

A cup of cappuccino topped with foam and nutmeg. Life is good. I took this photo last summer in our hotel on Dugi Otak, Croatia.

Old Stone

I posted a stone carving from a building in Chicago yesterday and observed that it was done in an "era when there was time, talent and money to hand carve decorations for skyscrapers." The building you are looking at is another sort of sky scraper: it is the Notre Dame de Paris. It is the most famous Gothic Cathedral and it took over a 100 years to construct. It, too, was done in an era when there was at least time and talent to construct such buildings.The carvings in this photo are over 1000 years old.