Tagged With "Arab-Norman"

A visit to this church, almost exactly 30 years ago, is one of my fondest travel memories. I stayed on the island and went to mass, it was a dark and stormy night (really), the wind howled, we were welcomed in English, the only visitors present in the small congregation and I've never felt so included as a traveler. Part of what I remember was a distinct dip worn into the stone of the stairs on the climb into the church. It appears from the beautiful photo at the top of this page that the...

I'd not be surprised if the stones have been renewed; there is construction and reconstruction going on constantly (as it must have also in the Middle Ages). I cropped most of it out, but you can see some of the scaffolding in one of the pictures above.

Incredibly beautiful, and wonderful to see how well-preserved!

Thanks for the comment, PHeymont. As you know Sicily suffered a lot of bomb damage in WWII, but fortunately this chapel was not damaged. It underwent a cleaning/restoration about a decade ago and looks fresh and new. I've seen a lot of mosaics in my life and these are the best. Simply breath-taking in their fine detail. That and the beautiful stonework -- a highlight of our trip to Sicily!

Nice enough - but, in my opinion, a bazaar or souk needs the ramshackle element to be exciting. These places are far too tidy for my liking. They simply cannot match the atmosphere of the old markets in, say, Istanbul, Marrakesh, or Fez. Below is a shot of Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, a huge labyrinth of narrow lanes and passages.

Generally agreed, especially if you're really wanting to buy something. But when the temperatures is over 40C outside, and you're looking for a cool place to escape to, then this is a reasonable option. The canal system did make it more interesting than most malls.

Beautiful photos Kirsten!!

Bee-eaters are amazing birds. I've never seen more than one or two around, so it must be quite a treat to be at the edge of a migration of them! And they fly so quickly -- amazed you were able to get that last photo framed as well as you did. Thanks for sharing these.

Thanks, Marilyn!

It was pretty amazing... a bit dizzying actually to try and keep up with all of them!

    Travel guru Rick Steves likes to say (and I'm paraphrasing) that Italy either gets better or worse as you head south from Rome, depending on what you like.  If you like a quieter people, trains running almost on time, etc. head...

    I've visited dozens of wonderful churches in my life, some vaste and grand like St. Paul's in Rome or Westminister Abbey in London, others smaller and with a more intimate feel.  As a rule, I'm partially to smaller chapels and...

The Palazzo dei Normanni (in English, Palace of the Normans) was the seat of the Kings of Sicily during the Norman domination and todays houses the Sicilian parliament.

A raft of new buildings, including efforts by A-list architects such as Norman Foster and Frank Gehry will soon be going up around London's Battersea Power Station, seen below. After years of plans that have fallen through, this one appears to be...

The Abbey and Monastery Mont-Saint-Michel is, really, two places: the historic religious structures at the top of the island mountain, and the town below that supported it in ancient times and today. The town featured in Part 1; this time we're...

Oman is special. Where else on the Arabic Peninsula has some of the “Sinbad the Sailor” feeling survived?

We return to the UAE, where Kirsten Hines catches the first European bee-eaters to arrive on their migratory journey.

DrFumblefinger visits the Souk Madinat Jumeirah, a modern shopping mall designed to resemble a traditional Arab market.

Great piece and photos!

Love the photos!

DrFumblefinger shares photos of a statue, and a brief biography of Dr. Norman Bethune, a Canadian thoracic surgeon who became a hero to the Chinese Communist forces of Mao.

Jonathan L takes a last walk along the Seine, and visits the Arab World Institute