On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:04:31 +0100, d4g4hd@yahoo.co.uk
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
>Alan S wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:35:11 +0100, d4g4hd@yahoo.co.uk
>> (David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
>>
>> >Alan S wrote:
>> >
>> >> On Mon, 9 Apr 2007 17:47:59 +0100, d4g4hd@yahoo.co.uk (David
>> >> Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)) wrote:
>> >[]
>> >> >In addition, travel time for me isn't just dead time- I spent most of
>> >> >the trip over reading up on Venice, and most of the trip back reading up
>> >> >on classical mythology for work!
>> >>
>> >> For various reasons, not the least being our distance from
>> >> the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of never
>> >> returning, I travel the same way. I plan the important
>> >> "nodes" but leave flexible periods between. If we enjoyed a
>> >> city or area - we stayed a day or two longer. If it began to
>> >> pall quickly, we left after a day or two. Thus we ended up
>> >> spending only one night in Slovenia but several weeks in
>> >> Germany and the USA, with at least four or five days in most
>> >> of the countries we visited.
>> >>
>> >> I must admit I enjoyed Venice more the first time when it
>> >> was all new and wondrous to me; but my interests are more as
>> >> a naive tourist (most places we went were totally new to us)
>> >> and a lay student of ancient history than as a student of
>> >> classical mythology.
>> >
>> >Venice isn't really interesting from either point of view surely?
>> >(Ancient history or classical mythology.) I think one reason I got more
>> >out of this visit was because of recent visits to cities colonised by
>> >the Venetians- e.g. Koper, Pula and Rovinj.
>>
>> Actually, that was the history I found interesting, as I
>> first saw it after wandering the Argolid, which they once
>> controlled.
>
>Ah, OK- I assumed by ancient you were going a bit further back. The
>Istrian cities also have Hapsburg influences, so it's a really
>fascinating mix.
>
I'm afraid I never reached those, the closest we got was
Trieste.
But I'd include the Argolid castles as fairly ancient. Take
the Larissa Castle overlooking Argos as an example. In the
bricks and stones of those walls even my untrained eye could
see foundations the same as those at Mycenae and various
stages of re-building in the different stones and bricks
laid by successive conquerors from that era on. Just part of
that succession included the Greeks, Romans, Templars,
Venetians and Ottomans, sometimes several times each.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_GGuBLqgIbHs/RXJ7EvatxBI/AAAAAAAAAC0/9Qc7DZWrwtE/s1600-h/041.jpg
Maybe next time to the others. The eurodrive lease
arrangement had no insurance cover in the ex-Jugoslav
states, apart from Slovenia.
>[]
>> >By the way, I noticed something a bit odd- or maybe not. When we weren't
>> >'going' anywhere in Venice, we didn't get lost. When we _were_ going
>> >somewhere, we immediately got lost. :)
>>
>> Aah - you discovered something we proved often on the trips
>> - you can't be lost if you don't have a destination.
>
>Even more than that- I really did know where I was going, and where I
>was, when I didn't need to! :)
>
>> Even if
>> you have just driven down a road which became a track which
>> became a field with a shepherd gesturing oddly...
>>
>> In Venice getting lost was often more interesting than being
>> in a crowded piazza.
>
>Agreed. BTW, not to nit-pick, but I was interested to read (I might have
>known it before, but forgot!) that Venice only has one piazza- the
>obvious one. The others are called campos.
Hey - nit-pick. I've mentioned my impressive foreign
language skills in another post:-)
Cheers, Alan, Australia
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