More photos from Dobrogea

Quite a few years ago, I published this gallery of photographs I’d taken in the province of Dobrogea in Romania. I’ve been going through my catalog lately, re-discovering the places I’ve visited and photos I haven’t yet edited, so I thought I’d put together another gallery of photographs for you.

You may know that Dobrogea is thought of as flat place, wide and mostly arrid — great for agriculture — and it certainly is that, but there are some spots in it that can look quite different. Did you know that Dobrogea has mountains and they’re the oldest in Romania (quite possibly some of the oldest in Eastern Europe as well)? They’re so old and worn down by time that they look like hills. You’ll get to see them here, including the biggest one of them, Altantepe.

Enjoy the photos!

Outside the village of Mihail Kogalniceanu, on the road to Constanta. The mountain in the distance is Altantepe. There was a productive gold mine there in the past.

A flowering plant from the nettle family, in spring.

Lichen growing on a hillside rock in the region of Gura Dobrogei, Romania.

A jet airplane shoots past the moon in plain daylight.

An old, old mountain in Dobrogea, worn down by winds and winters.

Dobrogea, Romania

Dobrogea, Romania

An old mountain in Dobrogea, Romania.

Places

A jaunt into the Danube Delta

Years ago, we took a quick day-trip into the Danube Delta which involved some boating (hence, rowing). It was a fun little trip to the edge of the Delta. It was early spring, so the full beauty of the place wasn’t readily apparent, but that also meant that there were no mosquitoes, which was a huge plus for me. Enjoy the photos!

A villa sits on an island in a man-made lake near the Danube Delta, in Dobrogea, Romania.

Reeds waving in the spring breeze.

Herd of goats

An oar strikes the water, making a splash. This is a very short exposure, which freezes the splash mid-air.

The convoluted and twisted branches of a tree are set against a bright blue sky.

Ligia stands by a lake, dressed in a black blouse and jeans skirt.

Places

A hike through the hills of Moldova

These are photos I’ve taken during a couple of hikes through the hills near the village of Strugari in Moldova, Romania. Here’s a map of the area.

A map of the region around Strugari, Moldova

It was the middle of March (the 14th and 15th) and spring had just arrived. Most of the grass was dry and leaves hadn’t sprouted yet. As a matter of fact, no buds were even apparent on the branches of the trees in the area. A friendly little mutt that belonged to friends of ours accompanied me on the hikes (you can see him in the photos). A late snowfall introduced an element of adventure to one of the outings. It’s lovely to be in the middle of nowhere and to be suddenly surrounded by myriad falling snowflakes. A magical quiet sets in, sounds are muffled and a feeling of wonder takes over.

Enjoy the photos!

Puffy white clouds cast shadows on the hills and valleys below on a sunny winter morning.

A thick forest of conifers cover the hill in the background while a quiet little stream winds its way through thickets and sparse trees in the valley below.

Moldova, Romania

Atop a large hill, a wide plateau is used for farmland. In winter, it sits unused and barren.

Tall grass, blown every which way by the wind and dried by the same, covers this abrupt hillside somewhere in Moldova, Romania.

Tall grass, dried by the long winter and downed by strong winds, on a hilltop somewhere in Moldova, Romania.

A crumbling old country house sits unused at the bottom of a hill in a little village in Moldova, Romania.

A late winter snowfall starts to cover the hills and valleys.

© Raoul Pop. All rights reserved.  Available for licensing and purchase.   Website - Raoul Pop.  Photo Catalog - Raoul Pop Photography.

Snowfall caught me in the middle of a walk in these hills, somewhere in the region of Moldova, Romania.

A shepherd tends to his flock of sheep on a distant hilltop.

Places

Italian road trip – Day 5 – Crossing Italy from Grottammare to Rome

After a hearty breakfast, we explored the Grottammare fortress and beach, then got on the road to Rome. That’s right, that day we planned to cross the whole of Italy, from the coast of the Adriatic Sea almost to the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, which we would reach on our sixth day after exploring Rome. I believe we took the route highlighted on this screenshot from Google Maps, the one marked with blue.

Route from Grottammare to Rome

We crossed the mountains, took a quick tour of Tivoli by car and could not stop anywhere, apparently there was some sort of local holiday that day and the streets were packed with people. Since I was driving, I have no photos from there. We pushed on and reached Rome just in time for the evening traffic, which meant it took till after dark to reach the historic part of the city. Because at that time things like online maps viewable on phones and GPS navigation and being able to do instant searches for hotels on phones weren’t available, we had a most stressful time finding a hotel. They were all full or were asking astronomical prices. We finally ended up paying a taxi driver to lead us to a hotel by driving ahead of us. By the time we were in our rooms, it was past 9:30 pm, we had spent most of our day in our car and most of that in terrible city traffic. But we were grateful to finally have a bed to sleep in and a shower with hot (or somewhat hot) water.

Now you get to enjoy the photos. If you’d like to see the other posts from our trip, here are days 1, 2, 3 (part 1 and part 2) and 4; and here’s the overview.

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

A black cat from the medieval city of Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

Adriatic Sea near Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

A wonderful and sociable tomcat from the medieval city of Grottamare, Italy. Remarkably similar to our own Bubu.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Another adorable cat from the medieval city of Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Adriatic Sea, Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Grottammare, Italy.

Artesian fountain, Grottammare, Italy.

Grottammare, Italy

Over Grottammare, Italy.

Grass, after rainfall. On the road between Grottammare and Rome, Italy.

On the road between Grottammare and Rome, Italy.

An ancient castle and town, nestled on a tall hillside in the mountainous Abruzzo region of Italy.

In the Abruzzo region of Italy, on the road to Rome.

You get a real sense of the size of these mountains if you look at the little village nestled at their footsteps. On the road between Grottammare and Rome, Italy.

A town nestled at the foot of the mountains in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

Taken from one of the hillsides surrounding Tivoli, Italy.

Above Tivoli, Italy.

Above Tivoli, Italy

Rome, Italy.

Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy.

Rome, Italy

Places

This morning’s hoar frost

Hoar frost is a strange term, isn’t it? It comes from Middle English, circa 1300, is actually spelled “hoarfrost” over in England, and it means exactly what you’ll see in the photos I took this morning in our garden. Enjoy!