We docked in Itea for a visit to ancient Delphi, the site of the major Greek oracle.
We docked early this morning in the small port town of Itea, for a morning visit to the ancient oracle of Delphi. Will the weather on our trip continue to be this amazing? Maybe we can find the answer here! Read on and check out the photo gallery.
A brief visit to the ancient site of Olympia, where the Olympic Games were founded (and held every four years).
We docked for a few hours in the small port village of Katakolon, our first stop in Greece, where a short bus ride took us to the original “Olympic Village”. This place, Olympia, is the site of the ancient Olympic Games, a purpose-built village used once every four years, where the athletes would gather to train and compete. Once again, the weather was spectacular and we enjoyed a lovely guided tour around the excavated ruins and accompanying museum. Read on, and check out the photo gallery.
We anchored in the bay of Naxos as the first rays of the sun struck the steam billowing from the craters of Mount Etna.
I rose early to watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean sea, sitting with my tea and pastries in the café at the rear of the ship as it cruised slowly into the port of Naxos, Sicily. The sky was totally clear and the wind completely calm. As the day brightened and the lights from seaside Sicily towns faded, Le Bougainville dropped its anchor in the harbor, where Mount Etna dominates the surrounding hilly landscape. When the sun finally rose above the sea behind us, its first rays illuminated the cratered peaks of Etna’s 10,912’ mountain summit – and the steam clouds emanating from its five active craters. Read on, and check out the photo gallery.
A quick visit to the ancient Greek city of Siracusa (Syracuse) in Sicily.
After a calm overnight cruise from Malta to Sicily, we arrived just before sunrise in the port of Catania, with the aim of spending the morning visiting Siracusa (Syracuse), the modern capital city of Sicily and the site of ancient Greek and Roman cities. It was colonized by Greeks in 734 BC, and “for some time stood as the most powerful Greek city anywhere in the Mediterranean.” Read on and check out the photo gallery.
A two-night visit to the historic capital of Malta, a tiny island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean.
We began a week-long World Affairs cruise of the Mediterranean with a short flight to the small island country of Malta, which sits in a historically strategic location in the Mediterranean sea. This tiny island country has been inhabited for over 5,000 years, and has been settled by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Spanish, French, and British, not to mention the pre-historic communities who left behind the world’s oldest free-standing stone structures. Malta’s culture and language are thus a unique mixture of many influences.
Read on and check out the photo gallery.
A daytrip to the Italian corner of Switzerland, with a hillside hike culminating in a tremendously long suspension bridge.
The weekend weather forecast for Zurich and all of northern Switzerland was looking rather wet, but I really wanted to squeeze in one more hike before the fall chill sets in. An officemate suggested Bellinzona, the capital of the Italian-speaking corner of Switzerland – the canton of Ticino. This small city is often overlooked next to its glitzier lakeside neighbor, Lugano, but has a lot to offer. UNESCO recognizes its three medieval castles as a world heritage site, and the surrounding hills include a web of well-organized hiking trails. Read on, and check out the photo gallery.
I made a quick visit to Oxford University to give a research talk in the Computer Science department. My schedule allowed a bit of extra time to explore, and (with the help of two generous graduate students) I was able to see some of the major colleges within the university, as well as some of the main shopping district. The campus (and town) is impressively old, with elegant academic buildings at every turn. A quick climb to the top of the tower on University Chapel gave me an excellent vantage point to see the overall layout, and one student’s tour included a stop in the Hogwarts dining hall – better known as Christchurch College dining hall. Impressive place! More photos in the gallery.
I made a quick visit to Cambridge University, to deliver a talk in the Computer Science department and to visit colleagues there and at the neighboring Nokia Labs. The schedule allowed me a little time to wander the courtyards of Jesus College, where I had spent the night, and its beautiful chapel – the oldest building still in use at Cambridge. (Astonishing, in this 250th year of Dartmouth College, to visit a university that was already five hundred and fifty years old when Dartmouth was founded.)
I decided to walk from there to the distant CS building, through the streets of Cambridge. (Sadly, most of the historic campus exists in walled compounds, like Jesus College, only open to members of the university.)
It was fascinating to walk along streets named after famous scientists, or for that matter, through the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematics. (Not far from the Bill Gates CS building or the Gordon Moore library, actually.) Lovely day!
A visit to Bletchley Park, the fascinating location where the British cracked the Enigma cypher during WWII.
Every computer scientist must visit Bletchley Park! And, for that matter, anyone interested in computing history, spycraft, or World War II. While on a short trip to London, we spent Sunday afternoon on a brief visit to this fascinating museum at the once-secret site where the British cracked the cryptographic codes of the Germans, during the war, and where, in effect, the modern computing era had its beginnings. The story was the subject of the recent movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Read on, and check out the photo gallery.
When hiking in the mountains one must occasionally have faith in the weather – starting out enmeshed in dense valley fog, only to climb into a spectacular day above the clouds. This was one of those rare, magical days, when we topped a ridgeline and encountered a mountain view more spectacular than any I have seen in 45 years of hiking, with the major peaks of the Berneralps spread across the horizon above a sea of undercast clouds. Breathtaking! Read on for the full story, and be sure to check out the photo gallery.
David Kotz 