Here and There Blog

The thunder and rain finally happened and Milan cooled off. I hit the metro for the quick ride to the Piazza Del Duomo so I could say that I'd seen it. The Milan Cathedral - it's big, it's old. Looks good. Also in the Piazza is this sculpture. Full of  birds waiting for food. When the rain hit, everyone ran into the Galleria for cover. Out the other side is the Leonardo Da Vinci museum and a monument to him. That wraps up this trip. Headed home for the 4th of July weekend and attending to some much delayed home repairs.

I know I'm in Milan and I should be at the Duomo. I'm not. After all my great stops I am on brain overload and can't take another cathedral, church, or crowd. And it's sweltering hot and everyone is hoping for the promised thunderstorm. What to do? For a mere 4.50 euro, head off to the air conditioned Natural History Museum. The building is large, and all maybe 15 of us who were there had the run of the place. To all that, this is a pretty good natural history museum. The special exhibit was Dinosaurs! And let's not forget to see the fossils! And because it's an environmentally conscious place, the dangers of global warming and pollution. For one hour of wandering, this place is worth a visit if you enjoy natural history. My day started with the best intentions on the hop-on-hop-off but it was crowded and I didn't have a great seat. So when I was able to take a picture, it looked like this:

This morning started with clear skies but the humidity quickly built up as the clouds came in and the heat rose. It was time to climb towers and stairs, all of which lead to mountain views. This is from Tower 1. Of the three Towers, #1 and #2 are open but you can walk to Tower #3 and see it from the outside. Taking a break between Towers 2 and 3. Randomly at one of the museums, there was a small NASA exhibit. When Apollo 11 went to the moon, it carried a small flag from San Marino and the Republic received some moon rock. Amazing the things you learn about the space program. Looking out over the street walls to the city below.

The small Republic of San Marino, nestled in the mountains near Italy's coast is not an easy place to reach. I came from Tel Aviv via Istanbul to Bologna.  From there it was a 2+ hour train, followed by the luxury of a 30 minute taxi ride that took us directly to our hotel. Had we saved the money and gone via bus, we would have had a steep uphill climb with luggage. But what a beautiful place! It is worth the effort to get here. Beer with quite a view!

Just looking at a map and descriptions, you see a lot of "site of death or place of burial or tomb of" churches/structures/gardens. A couple places have claim to Jesus. Since I only made it to one, let's take a look. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is not only for Jesus. Various sections are claimed by Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Coptic Christians. The place is huge and quite fascinating. So many events claimed to have taken place on this spot and eventually a church was built up and over the land. On my visit several sections were under reconstruction and others were important to someone but had either no signs or descriptions. So here are the three that stand out for Jesus. 1) This might be the site is where he was crucified. There's a hole in the rock that was made for hangings in general. It would have been on a hill since there are markers in town that show the original city floor and it's quite below this. On each side of this cross, you can...

Mount of Olives - I was walking outside the old city walls in the hope of finding the Lion Gate entrance back in that would put me by a couple of churches that I wanted to see.  Some of the gates you go right in and others have security checks. My goal was no more security checks having done two already. (I failed to find what I was looking for and went back in via security check.) But I looked across and thought "hey, that's famous! It's the big Jewish cemetery at Mount Olivet!" And it was.  This is iPhone fail where I wished I had a real camera with me. Below: Also on the Mount - to the right is the Church of St. Mary Magdalene with the onion domes. The building on the lower left is Gethsemane where the Basilica of Agony might have been built over a rock where Jesus prayed before his death.  Some of this geography isn't making logical sense with all the churches claiming this and that but the tons of tour buses bring people in and solidify the story. Back...

The Al Aqsa Mosque is the holy spot in the old city for the Muslims. Situated to one side of the Western Wall this close proximity and need to share space isn't always peaceful. What was new to me was how much the Crusaders influenced this area when they were occupying it from 1099 for the next 9 decades. In this photo below, the bottom left corner shows people going to the Western Wall. Separation is only the walls and the winding walkways. On the other side of the Western Wall is the Dome of the Rock which is a shrine build over a sacred rock where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven. Walk 10 minutes from here and you'll find where Jesus took a similar trip. Looking out to the city beyond the walls from one of the lookout points. The area on this side of the old city is undergoing archaeological excavations. Even today there's more to be found underground

Jerusalem was a stopover on an unexpected work trip. With only a 20 hour layover and most of it at night, I had one sunset and one early morning to run around as much as possible. First impressions on this post - I came in at the Tower of David. Pretty imposing structure. Even though I'm across the street, it's still large. Street wandering took me to this alley with colorful mosaics. Sometimes the path isn't a path at all but narrow and shared with cars.  This was after hours so very few cars passed by. Even though the religious quarters are separate, there is a lot of mixing of heritage sites. Mosque nearing sunset.

Like I said yesterday, you're constantly looking up in Riga. You don't have too but you'll miss some of the more fun building elements. It's a beacon! In the case of cats, you do look down. Sometimes look across.

Put Riga down to one of the places that should be on everyone's radar for a visit but somehow isn't. A day in the old city provides for plenty of walking, photo ops, history, and art deco. Forget Tallinn and Vilnius, spend a couple nights in Riga. Even in peak summer season it wasn't crowded and most people seemed to be clumped up in tour groups which normally is annoying but it made it easier to move around for the solo tourist. I lucked out with a sunny day, not too hot, and good for the blue on blue of the buildings and sky. Riga's actually hard to photograph. You're constantly looking straight up, trying to find the perfect shot out of the sun. This is a city where a professional camera wins over the iPhone. Bring one if you have it!