Friday, July 26, 2013

Scotland 2013

Here are pictures of Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills.

Glasgow Cathedral
Glasgow Cathedral again
Inside Glasgow Cathedral
View from the Glasgow Necropolis
Another view from the Glasgow Necropolis
From a gravestone in the Glasgow Necropolis
Tom Smith in Glasgow

A view of Edinburgh from the Pentland Hills
Another view of Edinburgh from the Pentland Hills

The Pentland Hills proper

View from a bus stop in Edinburgh

Friday, July 20, 2012

Korea 2012

Yi-Kyong and I stayed several weeks in Jeju-do and Seoul in May and June of 2012. Here are some pictures from Seoul.

A statue at Dosunsa, a mountain temple in Seoul
Many small statues at Dosunsa
Little statues at Dosunsa
Each statue has a name
A coin collector at Dosunsa
A statue at Dosunsa
Unusual statues at Dosunsa
A fish picture at the family house in Seoul
A row of shops near another temple in Seoul, Hwagyesa
A meditation building at Hwagyesa

Paris

In March of 2012 Yi-Kyong and I flew to Paris and stayed there for a few days. Here are some pictures.

Unknown buildings in Paris

Trees in the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden

Another view of the Jardin des Plantes

The Seine

A building in Paris

Locks on a bridge

Notre Dame Cathedral
Notre Dame Cathedral at night

Another building in Paris

The Eiffel Tower

Pyramid at the Louvre

A picture inside the Louvre

Another view of the Louvre

I think this is an entrance to the Louvre

A picture in our hotel room

A view from our hotel balcony

Another view from our hotel balcony

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Edinburgh images

A park next to Princes Street near the train station. See below for a close-up of the monument on the left.

The city's monument to Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe, Waverley, Rob Roy, and other works.

A plant in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Business as usual

An interesting quote I came across last night:

"When an opposition gets into office and the king trusts him with the exercise of his power, the farce is at an end, and after a few awkward apologies, and a few ineffectual votes with old connections by way of consistency, the business of government is expected to be taken up and carried on in the usual way ..."

(from
http://www.infobritain.co.uk/Gordon_Brown.htm
)

This was said by William Knox in 1789 but it applies to present-day British prime ministers and describes the Obama presidency to a T. What difference is there between George W. Bush and Barack Obama other than their rhetoric?

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Edinburgh Castle

Yi-Kyong and I visited Edinburgh Castle today, which sits on top of volcanic rock near the center of the city. The camera magically fixed itself, so we took some photographs of the castle and other things in the city.



An old building in the castle.

A view of the city from the castle. In the lower left is the castle's dog cemetery.

A human being posing as a statue near the castle entrance.

A rainbow over the Firth of Forth seen from our room window.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Scotland

We arrived in Scotland via Dublin last Saturday. Since then we've been looking for a new apartment and exploring Edinburgh.

Alas, since we don't have a home yet, it's difficult to appreciate Edinburgh. We've been to several neighborhoods, looking at various "flats," but I've still seen only a fraction of the city. Also, I broke our camera while packing it, so this will be a text-only blog for a while.

My impression at this point is that Edinburgh is a city of stone, with few exceptions. Most of the buildings have blackish stains on them - I guess from smoke or engine exhaust or both. The castle and crags seem to dominate the city, although we've visited neither.

There are people from many countries here; we've heard people speak French, Spanish, German, and Chinese, to name a few. Come to think of it, they could all be Scotish, but I think that's unlikely. On the other hand, there is a huge number of visitors here for the annual August festival, so this may be unusual. I'm curious to see what the city will be like when it's over.

There's a nautical feel to the place too, especially since the seagulls are very noisy around our room, and we have a view of the sea - I think it's called the Firth of Forth. I'm still not sure what's what here. There is plenty more to learn and see and do. I'll try to post more here in the coming days.


Sunday, October 10, 2010

Mt. Halla and Beyond

We started climbing Mt. Halla at about 6:45 am today. We got to the top 4-5 hours later and didn't reach the bottom until around 5:00 pm. The way up was easy enough, but we took a different path on the way down and it was very painful. Still, there were spectacular views on the way down. Yi-Kyong, her sister, my brother-in-law and myself made the climb.




The crater at the summit of Mt. Halla


The way down 1 (Jeju City is in the background)


The way down 2


The way down 3


The way down 4