Original plan was to get the car in Naples and use it only to drive to and from airport. We looked at the maps, parking, traffic etc. and realized that in order to save time, it is best to drive to the buried city of Herculaneum first and enter the archeological site as soon as it opens. From there drive to Pompeii and finally drive back to Sorrento to the hotel, change and go to the Kayak starting point.
The morning traffic was surprisingly not bad to Ercolano where the Herculaneum buried village(or town) was. Once there, we missed a turn and ended up in a one way street that was as wide as the car. Pretty much had to fold the mirrors and drive through that lane and make it to a wider lane. Then folks directed us to the right parking spot. It was harrowing.
Nothing compared to what those poor folks felt in 47 AD when they were all buried in ash in a few moments.
Thanks to that event, we get to see what their life was like. The walls, the floors, the amphoras, statutes, frescos, graffiti, everything was just fascinating.
If you ever go to the Amalfi coast do not miss seeing Herculaneum. It may be smaller in size than Pompeii, but the houses and villas are grander. This was the rich peoples area of the time and you can clearly see the difference. By the time we got out of this place the temperatures were already climbing.
Here are some photos.. took me some time to process them in HDR. Knew when I shot them that it will need HDR processing, so did not worry about the light at that time.
A long video of this site.. there was so many rooms and I tried capturing 10 second clips of every room or new thing and it all added up to almost 10 minutes!
We got some bottles of water outside the parking lot and made a dash to get to Pompeii after this. We were told to expect long lines everywhere, traffic and a parking nightmare in Pompeii.
This day was going to be a busy one. We had been warned. There were three things to cover as part of the tour and two things we added to the list before being dropped at the airport.
We woke up at 4:30 and got ready. Our bags were packed and the porters got it to the van. The amount of offering to the porters was predetermined just like the offerings to various gods during temple visits. We complied. The porter gods smiled on us. The suitcase with the broken wheel had made it this far.
It was a special day. One of two days the sunrise is smack dab in the middle of the square hole in Karnak temple. This used to be a big festival in olden days. The Egyptian locals made it a festival again for tourist purposes. We made it in through security and the German language tour was still wrapping up.
there were a few hundred people blocking our view and I had no chance. Still held my camera up to take a timelapse and was hit in the ribs a few times by jostling tourists. Did what I could..(you can see it in the video)
The sun did its glorious thing without making a fuss. We started walking through the temple once it was up.
Had to increase the shadow lighting to get this image. those stories on the walls with the sun rising between them is marketing genius. Makes it look like the Sun is approving the story!
The night tour with the sound and light show did not do justice to the magnificence of the temple. They also did not cover enough about Queen Hatshepsut and how she rebuilt this place and started lighting up the temple, brought the two gold tipped obelisks to Luxor, etc. etc.
This women had done more good for Egypt's people than all those Pharoh's before her put together. It was not about the kings and gods.. It was about improving the lives of citizens. She got that!
However her step son who later became king worked hard to erase her from Egyptian memory. A female ruler blessed by Egyptian gods did not fit their narrative. So within a generation, it was erased in mainstream media of the time. However thanks to shifting sands and the Romans and others who didn't care who ruled what when, some of her legacy has been preserved.
Walid took us to a special spot where the sunbeams come down in a dark chamber..it was scary to walk to the center as we didn't know where the ground was. Should have been challenging for folks to build the place!
A candid shot of us trying to stop the photographer from continuous clicking. Walid was filling up my memory by taking 25 shots a minute!
This temple at Karnak used to be all color. There is still some color on the pillars that has survived millenia and it is just amazing. When we imagine non faded colors on pillars and ceilings this size, one can only wonder!
As a Mylapore kid who was awestuck by Kapaleeshwar temple when my mom or grandpa would take me there, it still holds a special place in my heart after 50 years. Now imagine what a walk through this temple in all its colored glory would have meant to kids in those days!
Maybe the Egyptian government should think about restoring at least a small section of this temple to the original colors (if they can figure out what pigments were used and how to color them in the past!) and let us get a true sense of this awesomeness!
This is yet another place that has to be seen to be believed. If you are making plans to visit Luxor, try to be there on the Winter solstice and watch the sunrise at Karnak! It is true the sun rises every day and keeps moving, but a temple built thousands of years ago to align the sunrise to the solitice is worth watchng! A lot of science and engineering went into this!
Granite is not an easy stone to carve or carry!
A few HDR shots..
A video highlight of the Karnak temple visit..
The grand finale from the night's sound and light show was a focus on the statue around which people would walk counter clockwise 7 times for luck..
We enjoyed this temple complex thoroughly. After this on our way out we got some tea/ coffee at a restaurant / gift shop which was very nice.
Then we went back out to the van. It was time for the next stop which was supposed to be yet another highlight!
It was announced to me late last evening that we will be going to Mission peak in the morning.
So... I went!
The yoga had to be pushed to evening and my "live" singing plan took a nose dive. However, was glad I went because it was really beautiful outside! Mission peak seemed very different. It was alive! There was water in marshy ponds! Ducks and cows and baby baby cutie calf walking around.. songbirds everywhere! The skies were putting on a show and given we started hiking before 7AM, the diffuse sunlight made for great pictures!
Was treated to some nice chai, once we reached the top! That was the other highlight of the hike!
We also took a few detours today to go some other trails on the way that we never explored before. We were treated to some amazing views .. and I got the park bench photos again..
Timing is everything.. going forward, going to hike this peak in late Jan, right after it rains..
Felt on top of the world this morning.. (and again this evening after doing a Bikram Yoga class! The rest of the group didn't have to do that.. so it was a challenge for me.. but I am actually feeling great now after all that exercise in one day)
and for some nature pics and panos..
the rolling fog made the pictures even more interesting..
the same water we passed on the way in.. but on the way out.. there were cows..and glorious clouds!
