Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Several years ago, Dan and I visited Barbados over Christmas. During the trip, we took the 80-mile tour around the perimeter of the island; one stop was Animal Flower Cave, named for the sea anemones that grow in the water there. It was pretty dark inside the cave, but several openings offered interesting views of the outside.

This is my contribution to Photo Friday, a weekly photography challenge.

My contribution to this week’s Photo Friday photography challenge, with the topic Stand Out, is another photo from our trip to Ireland in 2003.

This is part of the cemetery around Corcomroe Abbey in County Clare. It was a misty, overcast day, as it tends to be in Ireland. Of course, the benefit is the brilliantly green grass. We had a great time there and would love to go back.

I got these photos ready for the Photo Friday challenge last week, and then completely forgot to post them. So the Heavy theme is over now, but I’m posting them anyway, because I think they’re so perfect for it

A few years ago, Dan and I spent a weekend in Jim Thorpe, Penn. We took our bikes and kayaks, and the plan was to go kayaking the first day and bike down a railroad bed converted to a bike trail the second day.

We had car trouble on the DelMarVa Peninsula, so weren’t able to kayak, but we did the bike trip, and had a great time.

Jim Thorpe is a beautifully restored Victorian-era town with gorgeous Painted Ladies and fabulous views of the mountains. It’s an old coal-mining town that is now a tourist attraction for the history as well as the outdoor activities available. And they have amazingly delicious pierogies stuffed with mashed potatoes served with caramelized onions. Yum.

As we were wandering around downtown, we came across this giant lump of coal, aka anthracite. According to the plaque in front of it, it weighs 15,100 pounds and consists of 99 percent carbon.

Really heavy lump of coal

Plaque in front of lump of anthracite

I visited Turkey with my mom, my aunt Betty and Uncle Ray, and some friends of theirs, in May 2001. While there, we took a tour of Ephesus, an ancient Greek and Roman city that, in Roman times, was the second-largest city in the world, after Rome.

The tour guide told us that these symbols – a heart, a woman’s face, and a footprint – carved into the street, pointed the way to the town brothel. One’s foot had to be at least as large as the footprint in order to be admitted to the brothel. More Turkey pix are here: Turkey 2001

This is my entry in the Photo Friday Challenge. This week’s theme is Symbols.

On our last night in Florence, Italy, in September 2009, Dan and I went for a walk across the Arno River bridge near our hotel, to get a view of the river and the city from the other side. Such a beautiful city.

This is my contribution to Photo Friday, the weekly photo challenge. This week’s topic is Blurred.

I’m going through my photos from our trip to Ireland in 2003, and came across this one, which is perfect for this week’s Photo Friday challenge theme: Distant.

The Cliffs of Moher on Ireland’s western coast are 800 feet high at their highest point, and five miles long. We were walking up a slate staircase toward a guard house on a hill near the cliffs when I took this picture. Over a hundred years ago, the property owner built a wall of slate there as well, to prevent people from being blown over the cliff by the downdraft.

We were pretty amazed that people were permitted to walk around that hill to go out on that ledge, though. Below is a closeup showing cracking in the rock under his feet.

Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Fractured Rock, 400 feet up