Cyprus Nicosea

Bill on the wall built by the Venetians. (of all people) Down there are the foundations laid down by the hospitaler knights.

A fairly standard round city, with arrowheaded ditch defences. The top half is controlled by the Turks, the bottom half is controlled by the Greek Cypriots.

A great church which is now a mosque.

The subtle modifications in the portico. Like the Lebanese trees...

It lights up really pretty at night.

Bill and Lorne enjoying their Christmas eve here in the Greek side. It was very busy here.

On the Turkish side, there are many medieval buildings. This looks like a caravan serai, but in fact, it is a little different....like a caravan serai, it provides rooms for the night, and shelter, with a great well in the centre, but what it actually does (or did) is provide water for the city and close outlying districts. Well it did, now it is a cool place where craftsmen rent space to sell their products. I expect to spend some more time in the days to come in this little place. It was late in the day when I arrived, and most of the craftspeople were packing up.

The well is that cute little building at the right in the above picture. In the background you can see some of the large "Ali Baba" water jars which are scattered about the courtyard.
The two inch iron bars across the middle of all the arches are a later addition...they keep the thing from collapsing in earthquakes. Good thing...

Prague

The Charles Bridge to your left, the beautiful river and the great castle on the other side. The castle is two kilometers long, and nearly a half kilometer wide, making it the biggest castle in Europe, and probably the world. The other side of the river is definitely the chi chi part of town. Its all cobblestone streets and half timbered buildings.
Tycho Brae lived and died over there, under the reign of the greatest of Renaissance Emperors, Rudolph the second. Alhough generally considered a bit of a backwater these days, only a couple of hundred years ago, this capital of Bohemia was the centre of culture for the world...a great rivalry with the city of Vienna only a hundred miles to the south helped to drive Bohemia to undreamed of heights of technology, music, and science. Now of course, we don't call it Bohemia any more, but rather, the Czech Republic, and it is STILL the centre of glass technology (who has NOT heard of Bohemian crystal?) and of course, hockey. The Czech Republic exports more hockey players than any other country except of course, for Canada.
I didn't take in a game when I was there. Pity.

Click on the images to enlarge. The top pic should be cropped to make it into a real postcard, but I rather liked the dichotomy of the ancient and the modern. That thing that looks like an anti-aircraft cannon covered in graffitti in front...well, its a telescope. And like most Eastern European items, it took my money and refused to work. Oh well, good thing the same can certainly not be said about the people who were as salt-of-the-earth as you can get! Somebody described the people in Prague as "battered but enduring". Maybe because I grew up in "next year country" out west and saw lots of the same kind of attitudes, I felt that I had a lot in common with them. Good people.

Malta pics

click on the images to enlarge...

Cospicua. One of the "three cities". They have grown together, as you can see in the below picture. The above pic is taken from just inside the old east wall, the building probably was owned by a wealthy noble way back in the day. The big double doors would open into a little courtyard way in back. The roofs are typical flat maltese roofs, with railings around them. I presume they would provide patios up there, and like many places in the Med, a place to sleep which would be comfortable and cool. The imagination follows the long dead noblemen (few of whom were actually born here!) who would come back from raucous meetings in Valetta and Fort St. Angelo as they tried to deal with Ottoman incursions, smuggling, piracy, and heresy.

Above, on an old gun emplacement in the walls of Valetta, is a poignant statue to the fallen war dead.

With the going down of the sun, we will remember them.