ISRAEL

I am leaving tomorrow for a one week tour of Israel, aimed mainly at visiting the places relevant to Christianity. In broad terms this means visiting all interesting zones, with exception of the Neguev and Eilat. I will also try to visit all, but one, of the 6 WH sites in Israel (plus of course the old city of Jerusalem, but this site has been proposed by Jordan and is classified separately by UNESCO).
It will be my second stay there, including Palestinian territory - but on the first one I only visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

VALENCIA

My two-times experience tells me Valencia definitely deserves a visit and by this I mean more than just two or three hours of strolling around the historical center.
If you go for futurism pay a visit to Santiago Calatrava's multi-fonctional City of Arts and Sciences and cross the bridge over the dry river to walk on the gardens.
If you go for ancient streets and lots of people during business hours try Barrio del Carmen for churches, including the cathedral, medieval towers and comtemporary restaurants and taverns with plenty of fish to be eaten and paid.
If you are, as is my case, more addict to World Heritage sites go first to the Llotja de la Seda, a XV/XVI architectonic masterpiece in rich late Gothic style where silk has been traded for long. A disappeared earlier building nearby was the oil (olive oil) exchange. This means, I assume, that at a certain point in time economic evolution, or development as our state of mind prefer nowadays, led to silk becoming more wealthier than oil and showing it in stone and prestige.
The picture shows the huge Sala de Contractació with its twisted columns in a rather dark mood (silk is not traded there anymore, just visitors go forth and back, so there is no need to carefully read the contracts).

TAXILA

I went twice to Pakistan in official missions as staff representative of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament. The second time the pourpose of the visit was to have bilateral political discussions with the Pakistani Parliament. On the last day of the mission one of the meetings was cancelled and I suggested that, on condition of giving up the lunch break, the European Members and officials could visit the Taxila World Heritage site, some 30 kilometers west of Islamabad, on the way to Peshawar. Our hosts promptly endorsed the idea and some half an hour later the bus was on the road - and my camera in the hotel.
Well, I had not studied much about the site, except that it was archeological and not that far from the capital. Too little I knew! Taxila is indeed a composite site of several ruins which spread along many kilometers: different civilisations succeeded one another in the area, but not exactly by superposing their locations. In short there are ruins of three cities in three different time periods, plus stupas and monasteries.
On arrival the european team was greeted by the Museum Director, a very knowledgable lady who guided us on a long and comprehensive tour of the fantastic riches of the house, namely the Gandara ones. Gandara art, the specialists say, is a "cultural syncretism between the classical greek cukture and Buddhism", originated through the presence in the region of the Alexander the Great armies. It was emotionally and intelectually very rewarding to see so many greek-like stone marvels with oriental motives. After the museum tour there was no more time for field visits, except an en-route quick glimpse of the Bhir Mound - because it can be seen from the road.
The attached picture, from the Pakistani Parliament photographer, shows our team with the Museum Director. One of the Members is Mr. Jacques Santer, who has been Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission.

VATICAN, 3 YEARS AGO

The post dated the 25th July stated that I was in the Vatican 55 years ago.
I was also there 3 years ago, the last time so far. The European People's Party hold its Congress in Rome in 2006 and the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament had a so-called "external meeting" (out of Brussels), which I attended. An audience with Pope Benedict XVI took place in the Vatican Palace during these events, as shown: I am on the left side of the picture.
I have crossed the quiet borderline between Italy and the Vatican in some more occasions - in one, namely, me and my wife went to the terrace above St. Peter's Basilica and had a fine view of Rome from the balcony, in-between the statues of Christ at the centre, John the Baptist and eleven Apostols standing in the upper part of the façade, with the dome on the back.

QATAR

Oil reach, like every country else in the Arabic Peninsula, Qatar has also become natural gas rich these last years, so there is no shortage of capitals and new housing projects and megalo-developments, neither surely of sand. I visited Qatar in 2005 for several days, which allowed me to walk a lot (strange by local standards, with hot days and petrol absolutely inexpensive!)in the capital, Doha, and to visit out-of-town interesting features with a rented car. From the Al-Corniche Street to the Fort, in central Doha, and from the Zubarah Fort to the port of Al Khor, from the camel racing track to the Sheik Faisal Museum, from driving aside huge chemical or oil plants to high dunes south of them, I paid a visit to more or less every thing worth of.
(The high building on the middle picture is the hotel where took place in 2001 the initial negotiations of the World Trade Organisation known as the Doha Round)

ROME, 55 YEARS AGO!

I never thanked enough my parents for what they offered me in 1954: a trip to Rome, my first visit abroad at the age of 13. I was studying at the Salesian school in Estoril and that year Domenico Savio, one of the early pupils of (later Saint) John Bosco, the Salesians' founder, was to be raised to sainthood by the Pope. The Portuguese Salesians organised a bus excursion and some places were opened for their pupils, if the parents were willing (and able!) to pay the costs.
So a fully loaded 50's version of a bus left via Madrid, Barcelona, Marseilles and Genoa in order to arrive in Rome on the eve of the great day, the 12th June 1954.
Of course a passport was needed for the trip, which I had not till then, but I feel to surely astonish those less than 50 years old by saying that also visas were needed for each country entered: Spain, France and Italy (not for Vatican!). The three visas had to be properly stamped in the passports before we left, plus parental authorisations for the minors. I proudly kept the passport for long after it lost its validity - and probably still have it in some place. If and when I recover it, I will post a picture of one visa - I think it will be interesting for those younger to see what looks now a strange oddity.
From Lisbon to Rome it was merely drive and sleep, including punctures and motor problems (no confortable coaches at the time, neither highways!). Then in Rome, after attending the celebrations in Saint Peter's Square, we had two or three days for visits of the italian capital. That's what the picture shows: I am the smaller boy, with the cap; the young adult is (now) Father João de Deus, who has been working as a missionary in Timor-Leste, Baucau area, for many years and whom I had the pleasure and honnour of having lunch with last Summer; the other boy is (now) Professor Encarnação, a renowned academician of computer technology in Darmstadt, Germany, whom I use to meet once a year when our then collegue and now friend Manuel Ferreira conveys they schoolmates for a sardinhada (sardines lunch plus a lot of drinking and eating) at his home near Cascais.

FLORES

Bad weather in Flores! Rain and a lot of mist over the horizon! Well, not something realy unforseen on these islands in the middle of the Atlantic.
This is my third day in Flores, one day before I left for Corvo, two days since I returned.
In Portuguese "Flores" stands for "flowers" and it just deserves the name. I find a lot of landscapes connections with Madeira: every thing looks green, water is in abboundance, steepy roads are plenty. A difference, anyway: cows are much more present.
On the way from Santa Cruz to the northmost village, Ponta Delgada, I took a detour to visit the Fazenda Forest Park, where peacocks seem to replace the guardians. On the way back the team decides to go inland and we finish stoping three times to observe different "caldeiras", which are old craters turned lakes.
Going south the following day we stop at five of six miradors, the first to see the port of Lajes from the high cliff above. After Lajedo and a high view of the west coast, we are surprised by clouds which block any views, so we pass by Rocha dos Bordões without seeing it; two hours later we return and are then greeted with a view of this vertical grooves lava formation. In the mean time we descended to Fajã Grande to have a look at several very high waterfalls and to get the nearest possible view of the Ilhéu (islet) de Monchique, which is the westmost point of Europe and stopped at lovely Aldeia da Cuada, a small abandoned village now transformed into a tourist resort.

CORVO

I am writing this entry from tiny Corvo Island (425 inhabitants seems to be the official figure and a single old-looking village is clearly the truth). Having arrived yesterday morning from Santa Cruz das Flores with a small safe boat (maximum 12 people; I had no previous booking, but only 11 others had made reservations, so I proudly took the last place) I searched for some guest house or private lodging and was immediately sent to Mr. Rita's COMODORO guest house, which by far overtook my level of expectation. Remember this if and when you decide to come here. Mr. Rita excelled in sympathy and service and proposed me to join a french couple for a visit up to the "Caldeirão" in his open commercial car - which I accepted of course: after all I came also (mainly indeed) for that. So I had a head-against-the-wind fine climbing with fantastic weather: sunshine and blue skies above, majestic blue sea down the mountain. "Caldeirão" is the old crater of the volcano which created the island, nowadays fully dorment. Corvo and Flores do not have active volcanos because they stand on the american tectonic plaque, while the other Azores islands are on the unsettled eurasian one.
I am still enjoying yesterday's offer - because today we got mist and rain, which is quite fair for having a real picture of what the Azores climate is all about. From COMODORO's verandah Flores is now fully invisible, while it was so majestic all the previous day!
Tommorrow is day back to Flores, I hope. The sea was so calm with very gentle waves on the way here (beyond my expectation as well), but this is no guarantee the same will happen tomorrow.
It's wait and see, plus obviously wait and sea and, has the food here is good, it's also wheight and see.

DOÑANA NATIONAL PARK AND EL ROCIO

With a total of 41, Spain is one of the biggest contributors to the 890 World Heritage sites: I have already the majority of the spanish sites on my personnal acount and in March this year added one more: The Doñana National Park, in Andalucia, which out of curiosity is the Spanish site most near to Portugal. The Park is on the right bank of the lower part of the Guadalquivir river and also borders the sea for a lot of kilometers. A notable variety of biotopes is available: lagoons, marshlands, dunes, both fixed and mobile, scrub woodland and maquis, plus lots of birds, namely herons. Visitors only can go inside in guided tours and are taken in busses which can afford to be driven on sand and climb dunes.
Just bordering the Park fences lies the very typical village of El Rocio, famed for the spectacular Pilgrimage of the same name, with many pilgrims riding horses from far way and families travelling on covered wagons pulled by horses as well. It is said that about one million people do this annual religious exercise. The rest of the year, like when I went there, the place is much quiet, but visitors and pilgrims are not missing anyway.

MOUNT ST. HELENS

Probably many still remember the shocking news of 1980 on the eruption of this Mount, situated in the State of Washington, USA. Because of its symmetry it had the nickname of "Fugi-san of America", then on 18 May that year a catastrophic earthquake and eruption caused a stunning avalanche of melted water, mud and rotten trees, which killed dozens of people and distructed properties, bridges, roads and railways till far down. The mountain's summit collapsed around 400 meters and the circular crater turned into a horseshoe-shapped one; all vegetation, mainly pine forests, was instantly blown down and/or buried.
The area was later converted into a national Volcanic Monument and has observations points for tourists. Some vegetal life has slowly begun to reappear kilometers from the crater and further afield pines have been re-planted.
You can see two images of my visit there in 2008: one shows St. Helens from the nearest observation point (visitors can not go beyond), the other shows the base remains of a huge blown tree which still stands were it was devastated 28 years earlier

MALTESE EXPERIENCES

My first visit to Malta happenned in 1992. I strolled for long in Valletta, which has probably the biggest fortress in the world and is located in a really vintage point, at the tip of a peninsula in the middle of a bay with a very short way-out to the sea. I did the same in Mdina, the old capital in the middle of the island, inside another smaller fortress from where we can observe the sea in several directions. Malta is so much linked with wars, invasions and the likes that city-fortresses are indeed the main tourist attractions. Gozo, the second island in size, has also its walled city, Victoria, almost perfectly put in its middle.
Second visit was last Summer, a relaxed week with my dear wife, finnaly not so relaxed because we travelled a lot around, using the extensive buses services; they are the best way to mix with locals and are a real experience in themselves. I strolled again in Valletta, Mdina and Victoria, with a bonus comming from having taken a hotel in St. Paul's Bay - a mushrums-like location for foreign tourists.
The country has three World Heritage properties inscribed. No one misses of course one of the theree: the City of Valletta. The others, out of the rushing tourists paths, are the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, in Paola, outskirsts of Valletta and the Magalithic Temples, seven in total, spread over the two islands, of wich we visited Gozo's two Ggantija temples and the Tarxien ones in Paola. As for the Hypogeum it was a matter of persistence and faith on fate. On arrival we were surprised to be informed it was essencial to pre-book well in advance ( maximum 10 visitors per hour!): the first visits were available ... fifteen days ahead, after our return. Unless you take a seat and wait for some possible no-show. We came the next day, waited and waited and my wife managed to go. We came again the following day and I managed too. My recommendation for anyone going to Malta: this Hypogeum is a real must, you feel going back four and a half millenia in time to understand how our ancestors were able to rig limestone blocks and build underground structures in a succession of floors.

L'AQUILA

These days L'Aquila is being much talked about, because of the G8 meeting - a major annual political event which was moved there, from originally foreseen La Maddalena, Sardinia, in a show of remembrance for the terrible earthquake which devastated L'Aquila not long ago. The city has a long experience of earthquakes in view of its location on a seismic area.
I visited it and had one night there (also in La Maddalena, by the way!) around 15 years from now. It was night number 2 and last of a weekend around Rome, which had already taken me to Terni and Rieti. I remember it as a quiet medieval and barroque downtown standing over a valley to the west on a steepy hill, which I climbed upon arrival. I also remember the landscape from the train which took me from Rieti, passing through excelent and green rugged zones. And the view of the Gran Sasso, highest peak of the Apennines, in the north-east distance.

PONT-AVEN

I once crossed the South Finistère, via Quimper, on my way forth and back the Pointe du Raz. On the return I took a short detour from the main road to Lorient in order to visit the small town of Pont-Aven. Just to have a quick glimpse of the places which so much enchanted painters around the end of the XIX century, to the point that painting critics created the concept of a "Pont-Aven School". Gauguin painted at least one of the many local water-mills, called "Le moulin David". It may well be, although I am not sure, that the mill in my picture of 2007 is the very same, restaured of course, Gauguin painted possibly in 1888. Does anyone knowledgable of the Pont-Aven details can confirm or infirm this? Please e-mail me at jsm6@sapo.pt
If the water-mill is not the same, well, the river Aven is definitely the same.

TURNING THE BACK TO AUCKLAND

The young japanese couple asked me to take a picture of them, which I did. Then he asked me if I wanted him to reciprocate. I said "yes", turned my back to Auckland and he took the shot. This happened in Rangitoto Island, twenty minutes away from the city by ferry. I was on a viewing platform dominating the bay of Auckland and just meters from the rim of the local extinct volcano, after climbing the 260 meters high from the ferry, part on desolated black lava terrain, part on forest which has developed since the eruptions finished.
Turning the back to the city was merely for pictorial pourposes: I enjyed Auckland so much and walked a lot in its central area. It is not every day, even even year, that one has the chance to visit in-town craters of volcanos, like Mount Eden, where a rather unnusual view awaits the visitor. From there you can see two different seas: a bay belonging to the Pacific Ocean to the east and a bay which is part of the Tasmanian Sea to the west. Another more human feature: people on the streets seem enjoying life in a very much relaxed manner. New Zealand style, I suppose.
I would not matter to visit it again - but without the stresses of an european visitor short of time for so much to see.

MONTENEGRO

These days Montenegro is a small fully independent country; it was not (yet) when I went there. It was still part of Serbia & Montenegro, which was the name at the time of the new and slimmed Yugoslavia, legal successor of the old "standard" Yugoslavia of comrade Marshall Tito. Difficult to understand? Of course, it's the Balkans!
From Kotor, where I had my night, I took a bus to Cetinje, the original capital during the previous life of Montenegro as an independent country (1878-1918). Somewhere before the road leaves the coast and begins climbing the mountains I decided to make a stop-over, to have a glimpse of an unnusaul kind of village, or little town: Sveti Stefan. It'a a small fully-built walled island, except that it is not an island, because a causeway links it to the mainland. At the end of the causeway an entrance gate, like in a fort, waits the visitor and you need to check-in: Sveti Stefan has been transformed from a fishermans village into a town-hotel.
It remains nevertheless a charming spot.

THE WORLD HERITAGE: NEW SITES

The UNESCO's WH list got a kick-off in 1978, when the 12 initial sites were inscribed. Every year a specialised committee meets to decide on new inscriptions, the respective Member States where the sites are located being solely able to submit candidacies. After the 2009 meeting, just finished in Seville, the list is made of 890 sites. A dedicated admirer of this cultural concept since some years, I make efforts to visit as many sites as I can: although I have not updated the figures since some time, I assume having visited so far around 375/380 sites, which represent more than 40%. The sites added this year are 13 and of those I have been already in 6: the Wadden Sea (coastal areas of Netherlands and North-West Germany), the Dolomites (Italy), the Stoclet House (Brussels), the Cidade Velha ruins (ex-capital of Cape Vert ), the Hercules Tower (La Coruña) and twin-towns La Chaux-de-Fonds/Le Locle.
The annexed picture shows Kizhi Pogost, a wooden church in Russia's Lake Onega, which I visited in 2007.

PETRA

UNESCO describes it as "one of the most precious properties of man's cultural heritage". I would not desaggree after having visited it. The ancient capital of the Nabataeans has been inscribed in the World Heritage list since 1985; has also been declared one of the New Seven Wonders of the World by world-wide voting in 2007.
Petra is a grandiose festival of rock and architecture in an unique combination: the "buildings" are indeed not built, but escavated on the rock. I think I can call it "negative architecture".
In 1845 John William Burgon wrote a long poem about Petra, which apparently he never visited and had just heard described by others:

But rose-red as if the blush of dawn,
that first beheld them were not yet withdrawn;
The hues of youth upon a brow of woe,
which Man deemed old two thousand years ago,
match me such marvel save in Eastern clime,
a rose-red city half as old as time.

I took a lot of pictures during my visit. Instead of the classical ones, showing the frontage of buildings or the tombs, I add to this note two more unnusual ones, which portray the strange colours of the rock and the rare configuration of the east entrance, which acts as a waterway when there are (rarely) heavy rains. You will note that there is more than the red and rose Burgon referred to. He should have visited Petra for the sake of the colours' truth