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The beautiful Topkapi calligraphy area of the museum at the Topkapi palace is something not to be missed. I have never seen words used in such beautiful ways to create amazing works of art. All of these photos you have here are calligraphy, they are words shaped into things that are of course imagined. Take your time when you go there to imagine how carefully they must’ve created these to present to the sultans in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. Enjoy these photos with Bill Smale Adventures.
A lot of what you find in the Shetlands is Picts, Vikings and horses. Well, that’s not exactly true because most of what you see are sheep and quite a few cows but not many horses. But the Shetlands is well known for the Shetland ponies which are nasty little horses actually, speaking from experience. The Picts were Celtic people who were called “Picts”” because they tattooed themselves and the Roman people who came across them named them for the “pictures” they had on their bodies. In these islands you will find a lot of nice people but mostly sheep and beautiful countryside which has such an ancient geology, igneous and metamorphic structures with a lot of limestone as well. There are many standing stone configurations where you might want to time warp into the past. But you will also find many Viking structures and references to horses.Anyway here are some Pictures with Bill Smale Adventures.
The Sutherlands’ Dunrobin Castle is representative of the wealth, status and power of that family. It was these people who took over alot of the Highland areas for sheep farming and displaced the population to either working for them or moving outside of the sheep herding areas often to the seasides where they had no skills and where the farming was often impossible. Many of those people got on boats and left for the US, Australia and Canada and never looked back. It was a very sad time in the history for Scotland but it was a great time for the countries they went to since they brought their traditions and especially their music which became an important and integral part of what we now call “American music”. This castle is one of the nicest ones I’ve ever seen and it is extremely well-maintained. If you are in this area it’s one of the places you really must visit.
When you travel to Scotland try to make time to visit the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands. When you’re out and about in the Orkneys you will find some really beautiful landscapes and you will also I think be surprised by how many ancient people travel to this windy and cold series of Islands. The weather is very difficult but it is a very fertile, geologically ancient with bountiful seas. But when you visit you should have a car since local transport is not really adequate for short intensive visits.
Prague is the most beautiful city so if you were looking for a city in Europe with history, beautiful streets, beautiful buildings, ancient history told through what you see and a place you can get around easily and not get tired of looking around for at least a week then Prague is your city. So look through these photos with Bill Smale Adventures.
Walking the beautiful beach side of Budva you will find a place that is growing to become a mini Riviera in Montenegro. This town and the area around it has tourist attractions including some ancient Roman ruins, some churches and beautiful ocean views. I found it to be one of the two places in Montenegro I really enjoyed and decided to extend my stay partly because the accommodations had this beautiful view you can see below and it was just very relaxing. Enjoy the photos with Bill Smale Adventures.
Wonderful old town Skopje of North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia and after they broke up with the other parts of the republic they named their country Macedonia which raised the anger of the Greeks sense Macedonia was the kingdom of Alexander the great who was physically occupying an area south of Macedonia which is now in Greece so the Greeks forced them to change the name to North Macedonia. That’s an interesting turn on the litigations against names which extended to “champagne”, “Parmesan cheese” and “, “camembert”, oh and not to forget “Budweiser”. Skopje is the capital and is famous for its old town and large buildings proclaiming it’s history and culture.
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Investigating the Blue Mosque in Istanbul is one of the top things on the list of tourist attractions you really need to see. It is free to enter and you might really enjoy just finding a place to sit and looking at all the beautiful artwork and calligraphy for which mosques are famous. You can visit here now with Bill Smale Adventures.
Frankly, Belgrade was a little bit of a disappointment. I was expecting a much more interesting atmosphere with more old town feel. Plan your trip in advance so you get the more interesting sites all at once.
Explore the ancient city of Dubrovnik while relaxing around Clearwater in the bay and the ocean nearby. This is a really enjoyable city to walk around. When you first get here you don’t immediately see the ancient city inside the fortress. That is the real draw of Dubrovnik. The transportation is very good so it’s easy to get around at that means you can stay some distance from the old town. So explore ancient Dubrovnik with Bill Smale adventures.
