On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature is for Balloon Juicers who are on the road, travelling, etc. and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades. As the US mainland begins the end of the Earth day as we measure it, many of us rise to read about our friends and their transient locales.
So, please, speak up and share some of your adventures, observations, and sights as you explore, no matter where you are. By concentrating travel updates here, it’s easier for all to keep up-to-date on the adventures of our fellow Commentariat. And it makes finding some travel tips or ideas from 6 months ago so much easier to find…
Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!
Should you have any pictures (tasteful, relevant, etc….) you can email them to [email protected] or just use this nifty link to start an email: Start an Email to send a Picture to Post on Balloon Juice
Another week, one less to suffer under mein hair!
I miss Colorado.
Since there’s a theme right now of old photos, here’s me with my paternal grandparents near Lausanne, Switzerland in 1971. They were the kindest, most forgiving and encouraging folks, even though they were from a different time. They wouldn’t have understood so many things today but they saw the same currents take hold when their children were teens. Dominance and scorn for the weak infected their children (not theirs, but neighbor children, friends, etc. were drawn to summer German youth camps where indoctrination was in-force). They were simple Swiss, local-minded and neutral, but that doesn’t mean blind. In my childhood, those WWII-era stresses were still easing; when will ours?
To my father’s dying day, he’d hurl “profiteurs de guerre” out at rude drivers with the right plates when we were in the German-speaking cantons, and it wasn’t until long after he was dead that I understood the anger and frustration that French-speaking Swiss near Geneva felt against the German-speaking, more banking and industrial-focused Swiss living closer to Germany. Companies that profit from misery and hate are evil.
On a lighter note, you can’t tell from this picture but I expect this is Pully (Canton de Vaud) and there are some incredible white wines for miles in front of the the lens. To the right, not too far, is Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). Man has lived in this area for well over 5,00 years, first on floating platforms in shallow-water reed beds. There are Roman ruins, and genes, here at the border of France and Switzerland.
Should you have the opportunity, try a Fendant. It’s the best white wine Switzerland has to offer, and truly is delightful. Nothing to save, enjoy it fresh and appreciate the few tiny bubbles.
The neighborhood I grew up in Washington D.C. had (and still does, barely) some community stairs to go directly up hills. People don’t use them anymore – everyone’s got a car, and fewer people use buses, so there’s less foot traffic going up, and the trolleys stopped in the 1960’s. People traffic is a big difference between an almost-suburban neighborhood and something developed like an urban area.
Enough about me – onto meander:
I comment on the site under the name “meander.” I’d like to contribute
some photos and commentary about the stairways of San Francisco:To help pedestrians handle the steep hills, San Francisco has more than 350
stairways. Since many of the stairways are in non-touristy residential
areas, visiting them can give a view of the city and its surroundings that
many tourists (and even locals) miss. The book “Stairway Walks in San
Francisco,” by Adah Bakalinsky is a comprehensive guide.These three photos are from walks I took on Russian Hill and Telegraph
Hill. The two foggy photos are from a walk on Russian Hill — the morning
fog was just starting to burn off so I got some classic San Francisco
atmosphere. The sunny photo of the Bay, Yerba Buena Island, and Bay Bridge
is from a walk up the Filbert Steps, a narrow multi-hundred step stairway
from the waterfront to Telegraph Hill (Coit Tower). There are places to
rest and quite a lot to see, like stunning Bay views, gardens, birds, and a
film noir filming location (the apartment building in “Dark Passage”).As you walk the stairways of Telegraph Hill and Russian Hill, listen for
the chattering of the famous “Parrots of Telegraph Hill”. The birds, which
are mostly cherry-headed conures, spend most of their time high in trees,
and are therefore more heard than seen. I haven’t read the “Parrots..”
book, but can testify that the movie based on the book is fantastic.
And to finish things up, Friday favorite otmar:
These are some pictures I took while walking over the hill in the center of Tallinn today
Wow, it’s another world! Thank you otmar, and do travel well. We love your pictures and can’t wait to see more!
And for any other readers so lucky as to live or recreate somewhere of interest, please send in your pictures and stories. We all gain a little by seeing and sharing your world. Have a great weekend – there’s lots in store for next week.
Elizabelle
Wonderful post. Love hearing about your grandparents, and your dad with the “profiteurs de guerre” zinger. Would that more people paid attention to their forbears’ experience — the real history — and learned from it.
And will look for some Fendant. Had never heard of it, but it sounds refreshing.
Good to hear about that book on SFO stairs and their views. There are stairs all over the place in Barcelona (it’s quite hilly — one street near Park Guell has an escalator built into it) — and I have been enjoying the views of the city and Mediterranean one can see from on high.
Beautiful photos, as always. Happy first Friday in June, all.
PS: I put up a story about “Doctors Gone Wild, Pennsylvania Man edition” on the previous thread. Did not want to hijack this one with that lunacy, although it’s certainly about a road trip. :-)
raven
Big Sky Mind. . .
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
Love the hilly SF views.
Morfydd
What wonderful photos!
I’m off to Wave Gothik Treffen, where tens of thousands of goths descend onto a welcoming Leipzig. The music is great, the people are nice, and the city is full of interesting museums, many of which are free for WGT attendees.
This also always occurs right after the Wagner festival, so they open up one or two operas to attendees for free. They don’t open up the expensive ones, so these tend to be rather ridiculously staged, but the singing is good. (My friend, leaning over to whisper: “why are the naked bodybuilders pouring chocolate pudding over themselves?” Me: “I think it’s a metaphor about oil politics. Just roll with it.”)
Will post photos (of attendees, not bodybuilders) as the miid strikes.
satby
These are the nicest threads to wake up to! Wonderful photos all, thank you.
Quinerly
Wonderful post! Thanks for sharing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
I do find myself wondering how many people mentally kick historical figures daily for locating a prison in such a scenic spot as Alcatraz.
Would make a lovely spot for a walking park with architecturally pleasing public pavilions and facilities.
rikyrah
Beautiful pictures and wonderful memories of your grandparents.
MomSense
Beautiful photos this morning.
Barbara
Lovely post. I spent a lot of time a few years ago in San Francisco and we sought out some of these stairs. But those pictures of Tallinn — I spent a magical day in Tallinn when touring the Baltic region a few years ago. For a single day, I have such wonderful memories, ranging from a tour guide willing to talk about what it’s like to live next to Putin’s Russia, meeting a couple who probably could have served as prototypes for Siegfried and Brunhilde while I was touring the 1000 year old town hall, which just happened to have an exhibit of Northern European masterpieces from the Golden Age, to ending the day going up in a tethered hot air balloon ride. We weren’t the last ones on board but I would not have been sorry to miss the boat and stick around. When I was with the group (which my husband and I left after an hour or so), the guide talked to us about how much it meant for Estonia to be part of NATO. A woman who I think was from Texas or Georgia by her accent made a loud comment about how, hopefully the next American president (as in, not Obama) would be strong and forceful enough to actually stand up for our allies. Every time I think about her I want to scream.
Al Swearengen
“I miss Colorado.”
I don’t. I haven’t left.
Good series.
meander
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: I have never looked into the siting of Alcatraz, and you’re right, it could have been a wonderful ‘city’ counterpoint to the other islands in the Bay. You have Angel Island, which is mostly natural — there are just a few buildings at the landing sites, some of which were used for immigration processing, the “Ellis Island of the West”. Ferries run to Angel Island during the summer a few times a day from San Francisco and possibly Oakland. Then there is Yerba Buena, which is small and mostly serves as the tunnel site for the Bay Bridge. And finally, Treasure Island, an artificial island built in the 1930s for a world’s fair and taken over by the military in WWII. It’s a relatively bleak place right now, lots of old military buildings — but magnificent views of SF and the Bay. The military turned it over to San Francisco and SF has big plans for a redevelopment, with lots of housing, offices, and open space. You can reach the Yerba Buena and Treasure Island by car of course, but they are also connected by bike path to Emeryville in the East Bay on the Bay Bridge Bike/Walk trail (bring your ear plugs).
mere mortal
This is good.
I suggest you always include the first picture above the fold. It doesn’t take much space and makes the series a little less dry for those who don’t click through.
quakerinabasement
That Colorado photo–Collegiate Peaks?
Bokonon
@Al Swearengen:
Live there too! There seem to be a number of us Colorado people on this site.