The proper spelling of “Meroe” is actually “Meroë” but I lack the ability to produce such a character with my keyboard and do not wish to “cut and paste” the proper spelling of the name in every time. Anyway, on to some background: Meroe served as the last capital of the Kushite Kingdom that based … Continue reading
While in Brazil, we spent the majority of our time based in the fishing village of Lagoa Azeda. Lagoa Azeda is very, very far off the tourist track which is just what we wanted. It is first and foremost a fishing village: I walked around the village when we first arrived to give you a … Continue reading
Maxim magazine recently voted Brazil as the “Hardest Holiday Destination” with the following explanation: Beautiful beaches, the land of silky football and home to the World Cup in 2014; it sounds like a perfect place to visit. According to Government travel advice, ‘Levels of violence and crime are high. Outbreaks of violence, particularly aimed at … Continue reading
The power pole unfortunately obscures it, but George W. Bush’s face is on the head of the snake: These lost a bit of their impact for me when I was informed that the government pays people to paint these murals of anti-American sentiments: The picture isn’t entirely clear, but that is a crushed and bloody … Continue reading
We spent several days based in Maceio with Brandon and Amanda. On one of these days we decided to walk down the beach to the Port of Maceio. That would be down here, although you can’t really see the port in this picture and it was taken on a different day. But, trust me, it’s … Continue reading
Brest is a grim city. A very Soviet-style city dominated by large industries. Nevertheless, the people can be good fun. In this pub pictured below a group of guys started chatting to us in passable English. They started with the preliminaries – where we were from, what we were doing there and such. They soon … Continue reading
This was Kosovo less than two years ago: Naturally, it would appeal to me to check a place like this out. Now, I recognize that Kosovo is an obscure conflict to most Americans, even during the 78 days in 1999 when the United States was pummeling the place with bombs and cruise missiles. So, I … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 