Tag Archives: travel

Places

Alexandria, Virginia

The city of Alexandria (Virginia, USA) began its life in 1749, as a port for Scottish and English merchants. Alexandria is located in Northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from southern Washington D.C. The city encompasses 15.75 square miles at an average elevation of 30 feet above sea level.

It was named in honor of John Alexander, the Scott who purchased the land in 1669, for 6,000 pounds of tobacco and cask, from Robert Howson, an English ship merchant. Howson had received it as a land grant from Sir William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, for bringing over 120 settlers from England.

The town was incorporated in 1779, and by that time it had become a bustling port, filled with brigs, schooners and ships who came there to trade in flour, hemp and tobacco. In 1789, the town was ceded to the Federal Government, to become part of the new District of Columbia. It was retroceded to Virginia in 1847. In 1852, it gained city status and a new charter.

By the time of the American Revolution, it was one of the principal colonial trading centers and ports. George Washington, America’s first president, maintained a town house in Alexandria, and was on its Board of Trustees. During the Civil War, it was occupied by the Union Army and was a major logistical supply centers for the federal army.

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Places

We stopped at Pizzeria New Croco in Cluj-Napoca last night, around midnight. Among other things, I ordered my usual espresso. It had a strong taste, the right aroma, a bit on the bitter side, but it was what I needed to keep me awake for a night trip that would last another few hours.

Taste-wise, this espresso ranks right up there with some of the best I’ve had in recent years. It may have been a little bitter, but it was its strong character that set it apart from some of the swill I’ve tasted at times.

Here’s a map of the restaurant’s location. They have a website as well, but it’s done in Flash, it takes forever to load, and you can’t shut off the annoying music that starts playing as soon as the site opens up.

Espresso at Pizzeria New Croco

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Places

New York City

This is a continuation of a post from 2007 entitled “A weekend in Manhattan“. In it, I promised more photos from New York were forthcoming. What can I say… I like long-awaited sequels… I kept that promise in part with “Manhattan, from the top of the Empire State Building” and “Walking out on hope“, but I didn’t get to winnow, process and publish all of my best New York photos until now.

Therefore, I selected 44 photographs which you can see here. The rest are in my photo catalog. I’ll start at the micro level first, looking at individual buildings, then I’ll show you a few New York cityscapes, taken from above and from the bay. Enjoy!

What’s perhaps the best known building in Manhattan?

For someone who’s seen and loved both versions of “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947 and 1994), this store is quite well known.

One of my abiding photography subjects — as a matter of fact, a principal subject of my photography — is architecture. I keep coming back to it. I love photographing interesting buildings. I spent most of my time in New York walking about, as I usually do when I go somewhere, with my camera in hand, looking at buildings and capturing what I found interesting. Continue reading →

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Places

Dobrogea, Romania

The province of Dobrogea is quite different from anything else you might see in Romania.

To the North, you’ll find the delta of the Danube River, the biggest and best-conserved European delta.

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Places

Italian road trip – Day 3 – Venice – Part 2

Part 1 of the Venice leg of our Italian road trip ended with our entrance into the Piazza di San Marco. That’s where this story begins.

As you can see on the map, the city of Venice isn’t made up of a single island, but multiple ones. This will prove interesting later on in the post, when you’ll see photos from the Campanile of the Piazza di San Marco (the Bell Tower). For now, let’s see what there is to see in the Piazza. As with the previous post, you can see the photos in the slideshow embedded below, or you can scroll down to see each photo and read my accompanying thoughts.

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