iconick:biz
travelling blography

A return to Utah again with a couple of other states mixed in. Again for the geology but this time I was in charge of the trip. The last time I went I was struck by the incredible natural beauty of the land and again I was not disappointed. It is truly stunning. Mix it in with the very hospitable American people and it became a great trip. The photos below are limited due to the huge amount of work I had to do in the field.

The first was from a drive between two states, Colorado to Wyoming. There is an easy way, along the very dull interstate, or, what turned out to be, the hard way. The lesson that should have been learnt is to check the weather forecast before departing. Unfortunately, we did not and our route was through the …. National Park. The park climbs over what is left of the Rockies (?) and it turned out to be quite high, snowing and very cold! However there were some fantastic views to take in:

Utah is a state that is full of national parks. It is no wonder. The roads are peppered with lay bys for people wanting to take in the views such as this:

The landscape is also salted with engineering marvels such as the following. However, I think an effort has been made to reduce the environmental impact and successfully so.

Once again, the American mid-west was a joy and a jewel for the eye. I only hope I can go back there again.

Berlin, the capital of Germany and a very interesting place to visit. It has a heady mix a interesting architecture, fantastic art, fascinating history and great beer! I guess the great beer can be had in many other places but certainly not as cheap….I had a reasonable bottle of beer for 30c! It also has some very good food available (including the delectable curry-worst).

Aside from the beer and food, Berlin is a city packed with things to do. The one thing you cannot miss, because the evidence is everywhere, is the recent history. One of the most striking piece of evidence is the Berliner Mauer or Berlin Wall. Surprisingly, quite a lot still remains in the city either as part of The Berlin Wall Documentation Centre or as the East Side Gallery on Mühlenstraße. A lot of the wall has been exported, legally and illegally, to various presidential and historical museums, lobbies of hotels and corporations, to universities and government buildings, and to public spaces around the world. There is apparently quite a market on eBay too. The East Side Gallery is termed as an international memorial for freedom and consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world painted on the east side of the Berlin Wall (hence the name). Some works are funny or politically motivated with hidden and not so hidden symbols:

However, the majority are understandably quite sad verging on morbid. It is moving to walk along and read about each artist and their motivation. One piece which stands out is a simple list of the years in which people died trying to cross the wall. It is stark and should inspire you to go to The Berlin Wall Documentation Centre where they have not only a re-created section of the wall (seen below) with a watch tower and no-mans land in between, but also have numerous accounts from people living on both sides of the wall.

I guess there are two other stand-out pieces demonstrating the historical context of Berlin. They are picked for very different reasons. The first is Checkpoint Charlie where the stand-off between American and U.S.S.R. tanks took place during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. It is now a horrific example of tourist pandering with “actors” dressed in American and Russian uniforms trying to speak in their respective accents but failing terribly like Harrison Ford in K-19: The Widowmaker. There are mock checkpoints and it is always full of coach-loads of tourists buying tacky paraphernalia. In simple words, do not ever go there. The other stand-out example is the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas or Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It consists of 2,711 concrete slabs or “stelae”, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The slabs vary in height and so it is easily possible for them to tower over you when you are in the middle of the memorial:

It achieves the purpose the architect set out to do: to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. However, it is set in an area which has no signs telling the visitor what it is. There are certainly no signs about conduct around such a memorial and people were using the slabs as sun-bathing plinths or tables to eat their picnics on. At first I thought this was an insult. However, as I was walking through the memorial, which sucks away the noise of the city creating a very powerful sense of losing your hearing, I came across children playing in between the stalae. I thought it was a really nice reminder about how we should pay our respects but that life should also be cherished now.

Berlin is also famous for it’s art galleries. The most famous are situated on Museum Island which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and for good reason. In 1841 the area was designated a “district dedicated to art and antiquities” by a royal decree and it has never looked back. I think the most impressive is the Pergamon Museum which houses reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus. It is a jaw-dropping sight to see the Pergamon Alter reconstructed with the frieze around it. It is a must for any visitor.

Whilst there are many, many other things to do in Berlin, one thing you may not have thought about is the Tiergarten. It is an enormous park in central Berlin which houses many parliamentary and governmental institutions, including the new German Chancellery and the Bundestag in the Reichstag building. It is easy to get lost but is a really nice area which takes you out of the city completely.

Finally, we return to history and evidence of Nazi construction. Whilst every effort was made by both Allied forces and post-war Germany to remove any evidence of Nazi architecture, one piece remains undisturbed. It is now a great place to go a fly a kite due to the huge open space but the Berlin Tempelhof Airport use to be the major airport of Berlin and is considered an iconic historical airport. It is partly overgrown and has a hint of 28 Days Later about it but is an interesting place to visit and more importantly a great place to relax and get a tan!

I spent six amazing days in Lisbon over New Year! The city is beautiful. It is helped by the hilly topography which lends itself to some fantastic views. The people and the food are both really nice too!

First off we thought it a good idea to walk around and get our bearings. This way we could also survey some of the more common tourist hang-outs within the city centre – there are quite a few! The most stunning of which would have to be Castelo de São Jorge. It is a hilltop castle regarded as the site of Lisbon’s founding settlement. There have been archaeological finds dating back to 6th century BC but the remains today are from the Moorish era. It is not a complete tourist icon – it has gardens and a neighbourhood living within the castle walls which add to its appeal. Along with this is the commune of cats and, strangely enough, peacocks which live within the castle walls! The views from the walls give a really good impression of Lisbon and the size of the city. You also get a first glimpse of the Tejo River and the bridge that looks suspiciously like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Ponte 25 de Abril. You also get a glimpse of another monument which belongs somewhere else in the world, the Santuário do Cristo Rei.

You can actually go over the Tejo River to visit the Cristo Rei in Almada. The boat runs from Lisbon to Cacilhas and offers fantastic views of the Ponte 25 de Abril and Lisbon city itself.

There is a dedicated bus which runs up a very steep and long hill to the Santuário do Cristo Rei. It is worth the trip if only for view of looking down onto the massive bridge and the fantastic views of Lisbon city, especially on the ferry ride back. The restaurants are very popular with the locals around Cacilhas but we were not quick enough to avoid the queues!

That night we were fortunate enough to see the Ukrainian National Ballet perform Swan Lake at the Coliseu. Quite an enjoyable experience, especially for my first taste of ballet, but it was ruined by many people taking flash photographs throughout the performance. Nearby, in the Praça Dom Pedro IV, is a small alcove with a queue outside. It is unmistakable as there are always people around it drinking out of small, white plastic shot glasses. They are drinking a Ginjinha which is a Portuguese cherry liqueur. It has lived on for 150 years and is served with sour cherries. It is interesting but not something you would go back for again and again. However the handiness of an open bar is nice! That night we also ate at a restaurant called Bonjardim Rei dos Frangos – an obvious tourist trap with menus in five different languages, however the food was great and good value. They also specialise in Frango à Piri-piri which is essentially Nando’s chicken but so much better. The piece-de-resistance on the other hand was Picanha, a seasoned thinly cut rump steak with black-bean stew. It is mouth watering just writing about it and is one of the culinary highlights of Lisbon.

The next day we took a trip to the suburb of Belém – a magnificent place and many tourists flock here to see some amazing architecture and taste some incredible sweets. It is a great day out. The different parts of Belém, or the museum as it could be called, represent different parts of history seen through architecture. The start, one could say, is the Torre de Belém. This is an iconic, boot shaped fortress which juts out into the Tejo River built between 1514 and 1520 by Francisco de Arruda. It is considered the jewel in the Manueline architectural style and combines Moorish, Renaissance and Gothic elements into a relatively small defensive tower. It is now virtually on land due to the locals reclaiming it but when it was built, it was an island only 200 m from the northern riverbank and so set in a commanding position within the River Tejo. It is probably at its most attractive during late afternoon.

The other “must-see” of Belém is the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. It is one of the most beautiful and ornate monuments I have ever visited. Few of Lisbon’s monuments are so flamboyant. It was built in the beginning of the 16th century by Diogo Boitac and is a celebration of Portugal’s territorial expansion. It also houses tombs of people who helped make Portugal the great country it is, including Prince Henry the Navigator, Dom Sebastião and Luis de Camões who were laid to rest in the 19th century. The longer wing was built in the 19th century and now houses the Museu Nacional de Arqueológia. The inner court is also very beautiful and, whilst you have to pay, we thought it was well worth it.

Padrão dos Descobrimentos is a remainder of the monolithic and stands on the marina near Belém. It again juts out into the Tejo and was originally supposed to be a temporary monument erected for the 1940 exhibition. It is a pointed structure headed by Prince Henry the Navigator and is a celebration of Portugal’s expansion into the world. It is again well worth a visit in late afternoon after the Torre de Belém.

Other places to visit are the intriguing Centro Cultural de Belém which was erected in 992 and houses a wealth of interesting pieces. It also has a great cafe with a view of the Tejo. The final must see and taste is the Confeitaria de Belém. It has been serving Pastéis de Belém, a creamy custard tart, since 1837 and they are astonishingly good – an absolute must!

Another fantastic day out is Sintra. It is a bit further out of Lisbon but is very much worth the trip. If you are keen, like we were, you could squeeze in a trip to the Palàcio de Queluz which is one the same train line. It is like a miniature Versailles – an superb Rococo palace with formal gardens built by Dom João V as a summer palace in 1747-52. It was short-lived as a royal palace as the royal family fled to Brazil following Napoleon’s invasion in 1807. The royal family took with them much of the furniture and so, slightly unfortunately, the palace now contains mostly Napoleonic pieces reflecting the tastes of the late 18th century aristocracy. However, the interior is grand and the gardens are magnificent and are a very interesting little diversion.

Sintra itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as of 1995, and was the summer retreat for Portuguese kings from the 13th to the late 19th century. It seems to have built a different palace for each century – there are many of them and all are stunning! It is a hill station and as such is cooler than the city, very green and beautiful. It is surrounded by some incredible buildings and monuments which really have to be seen to be believed. You have two bus choices to go around Sintra. They go to different place and therefore we used both of them. The less touristy one is the small minibus. It takes you to further afield locations which, when we were there, were virtually deserted! Plus they were magical. Our first stop was Monserrate, the furthest away palace. It has absolutely stunning gardens with many exotic species on show and a Moorish-style palace to boot. This palace was cared for by English residents until recently and so the style shows their influence. It is not much talked about in guide books but it is well worth a visit!

If you take the minibus then you can get it back to the next stop which for us was Quinta da Regaleira. This is an incredibly extravagant palace built around 1900 for António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, an eccentric millionaire which comes out in the grounds of his palace. It is a neo-Manueline fantasy with mystic links to Freemasonry. The grounds are like every child’s dream – full of tunnels, secret passageways, grottos and tall, thin towers one can climb to look out for invaders! It is a magic kingdom come to life with the most impressive part being a deep well with a helical staircase running down to cross-cutting tunnels through the limestone rock. I could have spent days just exploring the vast mystical gardens.

There are three other palaces to visit in this relatively tiny town, but we only had time to visit one last monument and it had to be Castelo de Mouros. It is by far the oldest remnant in Sintra being an 8th century castle. It is easily viewed from afar as it is above the town on the highest hilltop. It was captured from the Moors by Alfonso Henriques in 1147. It was known to the Romans as the Mountains of the Moon. It was also partially re-built by Dom Fernando II in the 19th century but the majority of it seems set when it was built. It is bare but incredible. The views of Lisbon (if you are lucky and the pollution is not hanging around) must be incredible. You can easily trace the shoreline around the Lisbon area and it is easy to see why this was such a well used fort.

That night, back in Lisbon, we visited a Fado restaurant. This is a distinct tuneful melancholic music genre originating in Lisbon. Fado means “fate” in Portuguese and it is true to say that you do not know the heart of Lisbon until you have heard this music. It is considered the expression of the national trait of fatalism. However, it can also be up-beat and in the restaurant we went to we certainly heard both. Singers will wander in off the street to join the one viola player (an acoustic classical guitar) and one guitarra player (Portuguese 12-string guitar). Fado is going through a renaissance at the moment with more modern singers such as Mariza and others taking the music on a new wave. It is a treat to experience with your dinner and in the restaurant we went to, A Baiuca, it was like being in the music itself. This restaurant is very small so you have to book ahead but the experience and the intimacy of the venue is un-paralleled.

There are many museums in this city to go to – too many to go to. It would take a two week holiday just to do all the museums. However, the one you should consider going to is Museu Nacional se Arte Antiga which is Portugal’s national gallery. It features some fantastic works of art by the lesser known artists including St Jerome by Dürer and The Temptations of St Anthony by Bosch, both of which are possibly worth the trip to this museum alone. One last thing to do in Lisbon is to wander. You will see so many amazing sights and hear so many weird and wonderful sounds!

One last restaurant recommendation is Restô do Chapitô. It is set up in the hills below Castelo de São Jorge and is a spectacular restaurant. It was not in the guide books we had but the food was delicious. It was not the food which was the best bit but the view. The view is one of the nicest of Lisbon city I have seen. It was wonderful and I could have sat there eating and drinking in the view all night!

Before you even arrive in Oslo, getting there is spectacular. I took the train there from Bergen and returned by air. The geography between the two largest cities of Norway is magnificent, dominated by mountains and fjords. It is a long journey by train but is considered to be one of the best railway journeys to take in the world. The flight gives you an aerial view of one of the most stunning landscapes in the world! It is breathtaking and the picture below does not do the scenery justice.

Oslo is vastly different to Bergen. Whilst Bergen feels like a small town with a small centre dwarfed by the surrounding mountains, Oslo feels like a city. It has districts, trams and so much life to it. It has pockets of vibrancy dotted around the suburbs which shout less about functionality and more about personality. The climate is also vastly different to Bergen. The location inland, away from the mountainous areas and the Atlantic Ocean mean it gets warmer and less damp weather. This, combined with the personality, makes me feel Oslo has so much more to offer as a city.

There is so much to see and do in Oslo and the best way to do it all is by getting an Oslo Pass. We only had a weekend in Oslo so our trip was rushed. It was a shame because the city has a lot to offer. Oslo is dissected by a number of rivers related to the nearby Oslofjord allowing it to have the natural beauty of a bay. It also has numerous large parks throughout the city giving easy escape from any hustle and bustle you might come across. One of the best and most reputed is Frogner Park.

Frogner Park or Vigeland Museum is located in Frogner borough, Oslo. It contains many statues and a fantastic fountain designed by Gustaf Vigeland. The statues typically portray people engaging in various human pursuits, such as running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, and holding hands. However, Vigeland also designed some statues that are abstract, such as the “Man attacked by Genii” statue, which shows an adult male, fighting off a horde of mythological figures.

The museums are almost too numerous to list here. They are all fascinating and we only got to visit a few. But from Viking to modern history and art from all eras, Oslo has got it! You could see the Scream by Edvard Munch at the Munch Museum or wonder at Viking boat engineering at the Vikingskipshuset på Bygdøy (The Viking Ship Museum). Personally, I thought the most inspiring museum was the Nobel Peace Center. The Center tells the story of Alfred Nobel and the prize it distributes every year. Yes, it is controversial at times but the story behind it and the beliefs it holds are very important to our development. It is a very moving place with exhibitions exhibiting photographs, films and sounds about the fight against Apartheid in South Africa and on refugees and the work of humanitarian organisations working within the realm of peace, war and conflict resolution. I would say Oslo is worth of a visit for this museum alone.

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway and is generally cold and wet! I guess I am being slightly unfair in that statement but the weather is frustrating as the surrounding geography is so stunning! I have now been to Bergen twice, for a month in January and for three months over the summer.

January, believe me, is not the best time of year to visit unless you are a keen skier. Even then, the hours of daylight, at almost 61° north, are so limited that you’d be better off going to the Alps. SADs is common even here (with an average of 18.6 hours of sunshine for the entirety of January) and, whilst the rain is not so evident, the snow is permanent. The people make do though and try their best to have a good time.

The summer is much more enjoyable if you get a good weekend without rain! Rain is abundant with an average of 2,250 mm per year. This is because of the fantastic geography (which I will come onto later) pushing up moist air coming in from the Atlantic. One last astonishing fact on the rain in Bergen is that in 2006 rain fell on 85 consecutive days! That is a very depressing figure!

After that disheartening introduction you could be surprised to hear that Bergen is dramatic and a very popular destination for tourists. The geography of the area, the gate-way to the fjords, and the plentiful fish makes Bergen a joy! In the three months I was resident in Bergen I managed to do a few very enjoyable activities. And what a difference a bit of sun makes!

The city of Bergen faces the fjord of Byfjorden and is situated in a group of mountains known as the Seven Mountains. These are a walker’s paradise and provide some good climbing challenges. One famous and well used route is from Fløyen (320 m) to Ulriken (643 m). Well, actually the route should be from Ulriken to Fløyen, as Ulriken is the highest. However, us being uninformed tourists did it the far more exhausting route. We only figured this out as we were the only people walking towards Ulriken with a steady stream of people heading in the opposite direction. It was a good workout! What was even more foolish was the lack of water we took with us. All that aside, the views were stunning:

With lots of mountainous lakes to feast the eyes upon:

If you fly from Oslo to Bergen, the flight over the fjords and the mountainous landscape is absolutely stunning. It is hard to believe it is real and is one of the best views I have ever seen.

A trip through the fjords is wonderful. Bergen is well known as the “gateway to the fjords”. The most impressive, the largest in Norway and the second longest in the world is the Sognefjord. From mouth to its inland termination at a small village called Skjolden is 127 miles! The average width of the main branch of the fjord is 2.8 miles and is bordered by sheer cliffs which rise from water to 1000 m! It is breathtaking and almost surreal. However, the great shame and something that brings you back down to earth with a thump are the tourists. There are thousands of them all on organised trips. It is to be expected and provides a lot of money for the local economy but it really takes the edge off what should be a spectacular example of the forces of nature.

We started our trip with a train ride from Bergen to Myrdal (864 m). It is an impressive climb with plenty of views of fjords throughout and it forms part of the rail journey to Oslo. Myrdal is a very small railway commune composed of a few houses.

From Myrdal we took another train to Flåm. The Flåm railway line is well known and whilst it is only 20.2 km in length it descends from 864 m above sea level to just 2 m in that distance. In one word: steep! In fact it is the world’s third steepest railway with the steepest incline being 1:18 and is the world’s steepest unassisted railway. It was first conceived as a communications line between Sognefjorden and the main railway line which goes from Bergen to Oslo through Myrdal. It is composed of twenty tunnels, eighteen of which were dug manually, and took 24 years to construct! Now, it is a tourist trap with the views of stunning scenery being ruined by constant camera flashes.

The final leg of the trip was a boat ride on a high speed catamaran taking us from Flåm to Bergen with a number of stops on the way serving the various villages and towns which exist along the Sognefjord. It is a stunning trip even if the boat ride alone takes five to six hours! You can never get bored of the views.

Boston is the largest city of the state of Massachusetts. I chose to go to this city for the history – it is one of the oldest cities in the US. My time there was planned to be only a week but was extended to two due to the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland grounding all the trans-Atlantic flights! I could think of worse places to be stranded…

First impressions were one of surprise – it really is different to every other US city I have been to before. The buildings in the financial district are of course uniform with lots of glass. However, there are plenty of traditional buildings not to mention much of the residential housing which is made out of wood.

There are many official government buildings which have tours and tourist attractions – you will never be short of things to do. There are also walking tours re-tracing the routes of the colonial past. However, the tour I recommend is the Black Heritage Trail. It is very interesting tracing the role of African Americans through the history of the US. Whilst this role is so obvious it is still not celebrated or even mentioned to a great extent in many museums. And yet, one could say that what occurred in Boston during the 1700s and 1800s was the start of the abolition of slavery and the first steps to equality. The trail walks around the Beacon Hill neighbourhood attentive to certain buildings which housed people who fought for the end of slavery and worked to free slaves. A few of these houses have plaques to commemorate these people – the most shocking is that some do not because the owners refuse to have such a thing celebrated…..I guess there is still a very long way to go.

The Boston Red Sox, one of the most famous and oldest baseball teams. I was lucky enough to be in Boston whilst they were playing at Fenway Park (their stadium) so I went to a game. As my first taste of baseball I did not find it too bad. It was like a slightly quicker game of cricket, but with the same amount of drinking involved. It was not a hard game to follow but it was slightly boring towards the end – especially as it started raining and they had to wait a full hour before calling the game off!

The players have a lot of talent though – this is a snapshot of the opposite team’s pitcher warming up:

The tour of Fenway Park is also great. The club was founded in 1901 so there are lots of interesting facts!

One last thing to mention about Boston is the food. It is very good. I had lobster one night at The Barking Crab. I never had lobster before so I had to ask the barmaid for instructions but it was great! Met lots of people – there were lots of friendly people and I even had a song sung by the bar’s guitar player about my plight to get home! It was the same in Top of the Hub bar – a very nice bar towering over Boston with fantastic views – I even got an offer of accommodation from an old lady if I could not get home!! Very nice people indeed.

Boston is a pleasure – it may not be a bustling metropolis but it has plenty of character.

Louisiana! I have never been this far south before in the US and it was quite an eye opener. I am sure not all of the south is like this but New Orleans had the feel of badlands. Not in a bad way….just in a way that you got the feeling that anything goes…. This was also promoted in fliers and from shops and bars all over.

I think the most shocking was Bourbon Street. It was a mecca of pubs, clubs, strip joints and more bars. There were souped-up cars and motorbikes everywhere – even the police had souped-up interceptors – it was mad! Everyone was drinking, drunk, singing, throwing beads everywhere…it was hard to take it all in. In fact we just walked the street up and down a couple of times to take it all in….then we just joined in. If I’m honest, my time in New Orleans is actually a blur of hazily recollected memories. The fact that I was there to attend a conference for work was secondary. It was four days of carnage drinking hurricanes and hand grenades whilst staying in a very nice apartment in the InterContinental!

The food – well it was surprising. With all the fresh fish at their beckon call they had a tendency to deep fry a lot of it. The Po Boy (a sub basically) commonly contained deep fried shrimp. We went to ACME Oyster House, “a New Orleans original”, and ordered what was recommended on the menu. It was a plate of deep fried fish, shrimp and wait for it….oysters! Deep fried oysters covered in batter?!?!?!? I quite like oysters but to deep fry them seems a bit wrong to me…they certainly did not taste very good. I did get to try the famous Louisiana Creole cuisine with a Creole Snapper – it was good but I am sure there are much better to be had there.

That said I did venture out of the realms of the conference and Bourbon Street. It was mainly to sober up but also to trace some jazz. The city that was so famous for its jazz and lived on touristic posters of Louis Armstrong did not actually have quality jazz on tap. Bourbon Street was full of crooners doing renditions and there was no real music to be found. However, Frenchman Street is where the real music is. Some fantastic bands were playing in small crowded bars and street echoed with music! It was the New Orleans I imagined and it was great!

Sorry there are no photos – I would not have been able to get a steady shot if I’d tried!

As a side note, there is still plenty of evidence that Hurricane Katrina had occurred – the only way to see it is via the airport bus as it passes through the suburbs – many many houses are still abandoned and decaying with lots of flood wreckage lying about.

Moab is probably the most famous place in Utah. A contrast to the capitol, Salt Lake City, this place is the adventurers (and geologists) dream. It is very popular with tourists attracted to the National Parks. Many films have been set here including Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Austin Powers looking for the idyllic image of the “American west”. For the geologist is has a huge salt dome, well exposed faults, and generally spectacular geology. Plus for all the geologists a good pub is Eddie McStiff’s. The arches from Arches National Park:

Nearby is Canyonlands National Park which is a real treat also. It is a fantastic place just to drive through but you will always stop at something – the scenery really takes your breath away! We went at dawn to try and get some shots:

The red sandstone that is commonly seen and associated with such places as Moab and the Grand Canyons commonly contains Uranium. This is due to the reducing agents (e.g. carbonaceous material) held within marginal marine sandstones reacting with uranium and causing the formation of uranium minerals. As an ore it is very useful for both power and weaponry. The discovery of a “huge” reserve (considered as such at that time) in Moab by geologist Charles Steen coincided with the creation of the Manhattan Project around 1950. This turned Moab into a mining town almost overnight. Problem now is that the boom has ended, the mine has gone, but the legacy and the radioactive stock pile remains less than 1 km from the town! In fact, they have to douse the pile with water every day to prevent contaminated dust getting loose and spreading over the town or getting into the water supply!! The government don’t seem bothered to do anything about it as it would cost millions of dollars to clean up…

That is a shame because the national parks in this area, Arches and Canyonlands, are spectacular to put it mildly. We were fortunate enough to go on a flight tour of Canyonlands and some of the photos are below:

Utah – quite a fantastic state to visit for a geologist – which is why I went there with the university I am currently attached to on a field trip.

It is a unique state I believe. Not that I have visited many US states from which I can base this on but because of its religious identity – the Mormon Church. It has such a strong following that it impacts heavily on daily life. For example, beer is not generally stronger than 3.6% and while it is possible to get stronger spirits, it is discouraged, not advertised or even on show in shops. In fact to buy alcohol you must have your passport to hand – even if, as some of my lecturers, you were nearing pension age! This was a most distressing discovery on arrival into Salt Lake City! However one place I must give a shout to is Squatters. The beer is great (even if it is weak) and it has the best hot chicken wings I have ever had – they are immense and I would happily spend a week in SLC just to get my hands on those again!

It was, however, the geology and geography of the land which more than made up for its spurn of modern life which I was accustomed to. Our first stop was a place called Price. On the way we managed to get extraordinarily lost. This was not so much of a problem in the city as they are designed in a grid system and so easy to navigate. However our wrong turn led us to Provo – a nice town and the third largest in Utah – and on that day, receiving quite a vigorous demonstration by the Tea Party. An eye opener to say the least – the anti-Obama slogans, whilst some bordering on racism and others just plain idiotic, were numerous!

Price was, as expected, a plain town. In the heart of “carbon county” it’s uses were, as such, a mining town. It also had a terrible Chinese restaurant which was labelled as a Chinese restaurant but did in fact have a menu consisting of tastes from around the world. None of these tastes were in any way enjoyable and some just were not edible! The country around Price though was spectacular. High sandstone cliffs cut by valleys allowing the display of fantastic sedimentary structures.

Our next stop was Green River. This place could only be described as a truck stop – a single road lined with motels, petrol stations and eateries with one that is open 24 hours! It is set in the most magnificent scenery with cliffs and canyons cross cutting. It is also the home to Ray’s – a fantastic eatery which serves a lot of meat! The menu was sparse but the portions were not – you could order a 22oz porterhouse steak or double pork chops (each one was 12oz) amongst other things. It was meat overload – very tasty but hard to consume in one sitting. The Truck Stop restaurant was also a great place – you could have any type of meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) at any time of the day or night – food was great and the service was very nice to.

Our last day in NYC and we were feeling ginger to say the least. The extravagances of the previous night were lingering and not in a good way! Still there were places to visit – as there always is in NYC. One place that is not always on the list but is equally fascinating is Roosevelt Island. Formally known as Welfare Island and before that Blackwell’s Island, it is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east and has a total area of 147 acres. Most of the residential buildings on Roosevelt Island are rental buildings. To get there one has to use The Roosevelt Island Tramway which is an aerial tramway that spans the East River and connects Roosevelt Island to Manhattan.

A very curious place in the centre of a bustling metropolis this place seems the extreme opposite. Yet another unexpected view of NYC to see.

The New York Subway is a good place to get some photos:

New York City is truly a fantastic place to visit. But I need to go again. You need months to fully get this city under control. All the galleries and museums are a week’s trip. Then to get to know the local attractions is another. Then to see all the weird and wonderful is another week. It has everything and anything. Not all of it you will be thrilled to see but that is what comes of such a unique city. It really is a special place and has whatever you might like.