The Last Post

We're having a few days in Kuala Lumpur on the way home. Barry is still a bit feeble so we are only doing light sightseeing in between rests. Getting around in the heat is a bit tiring- particularly for him. But our body clocks should be on southern hemisphere time when we leave here.

KL is - like any Asian city I've seen - an interesting mix of sophistication & tall modern buildings and the grot & grime & smell of Asia not far away.

People are very friendly and helpful.

We will be home in a couple of days.

KL welcomes us- actually the Indian Prime Minister. He's here to open some festival in 'Little India', which is where our hotel is.

One face of KL
Another face.

The Petronas towers, which have become an icon of KL. Taken from the KL telecommunications tower observation deck. An air-conditioned stop with a great view.

Petronas towers from the ground.

We got around on the monorail- a station near our hotel. Better to be above the traffic, which is pretty busy & noisy.

Istanbul

This is the most exotic place we have been to. Previously Constantinople & Byzantium, so has a fascinating history, having been at the world's crossroads for many centuries. The only city which straddles Europe & Asia. And a huge city too- various sizes are given between 12 & 15 million. A New Zealand woman we met who has been teaching here for 15 years reckons 20 million would be more accurate - lots of unregistered people who are not legally residents. The skyline it dotted with minarets from the many mosques, some of which are magnificent. We hear the call to prayer from the mosques regularly through the day & early evening. We are in the old part of the city, which happily is close to most of the things we wanted to see. The new parts are all apartment houses, shopping malls & factories, so no different from anywhere else.Traffic is just mad. Crossing roads is a challenge & noise is incessant. Shopping is sensational- we have no room in cases to do much, but there is lots of lovely fabric & leather - scarves, bags, bedding & tableware. Beautiful ceramics & tiles and carpets & rugs galore, as well as metal & silver objects and jewelry of all sorts, cheap & expensive If we never see another carpet salesman it will be too soon!

Weather has been quite good- sunny & in 20's today, but getting very cool at night. We head towards Australia tomorrow for the last few days in Kuala Lumpur. We might find the heat a bit much there, which will be good preparation for the summer!

Train from Napoli to Roma. Found an English language newspaper so catching up on world news.

The Bosphorous - looking from European to Asian side. This is a serious shipping channel- being part of the link between Mediterranean & Black seas. Constant traffic of all sorts.

Sea of Marmara. Istanbul is at the spot where the Bosphorous strait meets this sea, so you can see both from many parts of the city, and also the Golden Horn which is a small natural harbour where they meet. Taken from terrace at Topkapi Palace, where the Sultans lived for 400 years (most of the time of the Ottoman Empire)

Blue Mosque, one of the largest & most famous. Can go in for a look, but it can be very crowded, and dress requirements mean queues are quite slow moving.

The Turks have always been great traders- in this geographic position they couldn't have been otherwise. This is a subway under a major road. Every subway & lane & road is a shopping opportunity.

A 4th century Roman aquaduct to bring water to Constantinople from surrounding mountains. There is almost a kilometre left standing- the busy traffic on Ataturk Boulevard goes through 6 of it's arches. The rest are used by more minor roads or businesses.

Important stuff, water- an extrordinary building feat, which must have been considered essential.

The Basilica Cistern, in the old city. One of the underground reservoirs which held water the aquaduct brought in. No longer in use, but has been restored and you can wander around it under the streets of Istanbul.

Every bridge & rock near the water is packed with fishermen. Every Turkish man & boy must have a fishing rod. There are still fish to catch, but are mostly small. The chaos of cars right behind them honking & trying to avoid each other don't seem to bother them. Not my idea of a quiet day's fishing.

A Turkish submarine travelling up the Bosphorous.

The Grand Bazaar. A maze of lanes with about 4000 traders selling just about anything.

Spice Market - a corner of the Grand Bazaar. Fabulous to look at & to smell.

There are heaps of stray cats here. They all seem quite well nourished, so I think they scrounge well -probably from the tourists. They sleep all day on ledges & motor bike seats & shelves & shop goods displayed on the street. They must be a nusciance to many.

All cafes & restaurants provide hookahs (water pipes) for customers. I'm told they smoke mixtures of tobacco & spices in them - 'nothing harmful'. The restaurants & cafes take a big slice of space- extend across the footpath onto the roadway to the point that 2 cars can't pass without one pulling over somewhere to make room. This seems ok with everyone, but progress through the streets is painfully slow for vehicles. Taxi drivers benefit I guess. And the cars park anywhere, so most footpaths are taken by cars, which leaves the pedestrians walking on the roads dodging the cars & buses. The area we are staying in has wall-to-wall restaurants & carpet shops. Don't know haow thay can all survive.

In Topkapi Palace, looking back over Golden Horn. The best views seemed to be from the Palace, which is on a headland where the three bodies of water meet.

One of the beautiful tile patterns from one of the many buildings we saw which have all different sorts of tiles by the acre on walls & sometimes ceilings.

Pompeii

We caught a fast train from Roma to Napoli (the last on our Eurail Pass) and a local train - the CircumVesuvia- to Pompeii. It does half circum-navigate Vesuvius, and travels south with the Bay of Naples on one side & the volcano on the other. Some good views - what you can see of them through the grafitti on the train windows.

This is the mother of archealogical digs. It is a whole town- the site is 62ha and 44ha has been excavated over the last 250 odd years. Happily it is quite well interpreted and you are given a map & some info with your entry ticket. Still easy to get lost in the streets & lanes, and a day is barely long enough. Audio tours are good at these sites, although we did our own more abbreviated guide book tour, and it still took the day. Got back to Rome quite late.

The cause of all the trouble- Mt Vesuvius.

A wider road. There are also many smaller lanes & paths.

Entry of a residence.

One of the 3 amphitheatres. In good enough nick to hold events.

Maybe a wood-fired pizza oven from 80BC?

A brothel. Stone couches in small rooms. There seems no doubt about this- the murals tell the story.

One of Pompeii's dogs- there are many of them. They are apparently all looked after quite well and a sign at the entrance gave a website for anyone wanting to adopt one.

Beautiful mosaic shrine

Not unusual to see groups at crossroads studying maps trying to figure out where they are.

Food vending shop.

There are many bits & pieces of mosaic floors, some are in really good condition like this.

This is a trough for cleaning & dyeing wool. The tradespeople who did this were called Fullers - there's a name derivation for you.

There are also many remnants of paint & murals. This is a particularly complete one.
The largest amphitheatre- more of an arena.

Peristyle courtyard garden in one of the better houses.

Barry checking out what looked like a beer shop.

Vineyard near the arena. The archeologist have found out a lot about the vines grown and how close together they were planted. These reproduce the originals, and Pompeii is producing wine again.

Roma

I suppose it's fitting that we should end up in this extraordinary city which dominated the known world for two millenia. And of course there's no avoiding old stuff. There's plenty here which dates back to centuries BC. We've been getting around on the very crowded subway trains or on foot. Everything costs in Italy- including toilets and water with meals. Food is good and prices cover the whole range, so eating is no more costly than other places we've been. Public transport fairly cheap.

There's a lot of singing in the restaurant below. Someone has turned up with a guitar and accordian & the customers are going through all the usual Italian songs. Might have to shut the window. We have an early start tomorrow to fly to Istanbul for the end of our time in Europe.

An almost 2000 year old 55,000 seat staduim - you may have heard of it.

Inside the Coloseum, showing the substantial underfloor areas. They had pulleys & hoists to get items from these 2 underfloor stories up to the stadium floor.

Went to the Vatican public areas. A bit of a bunfight getting into St Peter's Basilica, but it is a vast & opulent church & was worth the queueing.

Front of St Peter's with the Pope's balcony. You'll notice the picture of Mary McKillop.

Our reward - Michelangelo's Pieta, in St Peter's.

Barry at Trevi Fountain. Happy 'cos he's just got rid of some leftover Czech Krowns

Circus Maximus, below Capitol Hill, the heart of ancient Rome. There was a re-creation of a Roman Military Camp at one end & lots of men & women running around in elaborate costumes. Must have been some sort of celebration or anniversary.

There was a Museum costume van nearby, so these costumes must have some historic value.

There were many different costumes with shields & banners for many different legions & cohorts. There was such attention to detail with things like sandals & tent pegs. Blacksmiths were also making things.

Chain-mail costumes. Don't know how often Roman men & women dress up like this on a sunday morning, but it was very impressive.

Archers showing their skill.

Pantheon- a temple to all gods. Now used for Christian purposes. Built in 1st century AD and still the largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world. Those Romans knew a thing or two!

We've found it - in Rome!! Italian hotels are interesting. Can be very small (in our case in Rome - 5 rooms- and often family run) There can be many in the one building.

In Florence our hotel was on the 3rd floor and there was another on the ground & fifth floors.

Here in Rome we are on the 2nd floor, with a different hotel on ground & 3rd floors.

There's one across the road with 7 hotels in a 6 story building!!

Capitol Hill- the centre of ancient Rome. A large site right in the city centre, next to Coloseum.

Much of it excavated, but very poorly interpreted & managed. Fascinating to see a place where so much recorded history has occurred.

More of Capitol Hill

There are some amazing structures in there.

An idea of the depth of the excavations.

There are lots of these nifty little Smart cars here. They are a tad longer than a motor bike or scooter, and you often see them parking in motor bike spaces. But you also see them parked end-in in parallel car spaces, and they only jut out a little more than a car. They make good sense here where car parking spaces are difficult to find and the lanes are narrow & congested.