And here’s what more-or-less the same part of the world looks like in the morning — pointing the camera in the opposite direction. Seems an OK place, Penzance — attractive, plenty of pubs — but it’s a long way out, and typical incomes in Cornwall are among the lowest in the whole UK. Being peripheral is not an economic asset these days: but the thing is, in some ways this is the centre of things. More on that tomorrow (if I remember).
After not finding much of interest in Southampton, I headed for the next city to the east, Portsmouth — a more agreeable spot. At least, to look at from across its Harbour, one of the greatest natural harbours in the world, and the explanation for why this has always been a naval base. The Spinnaker Tower, seen here, is 560 feet tall. I passed this point on my latest County Top walk, so feel free to look at that other blog for more photos and so on.
The photography in Iceland up to today had been unspectacular but that’s because the sun hadn’t been shining. Today… it was. This is Esjan, or Mount Esja, seen from Reykjavik across the fjord. The green pimple? No idea, but it’s cute.
I am in Ireland for a couple of days. Why? Just because I could, and I needed the head-space, and I like going to new places. I’ve been to Dublin before, but not here, which is Howth (pronounced ‘Hoat’ by the locals, seemingly), sitting on a headland just outside the city. If you’ve heard of it at all it’s probably from the opening lines of Finnegan’s Wake:
riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
Not that anyone’s actually read Finnegan’s Wake of course. Try it, you’ll see why.
At 69ºN, the world’s northernmost city provides boats, sea, birds, snow…. all that jazz. My last day in Tromsø. Hopefully, not the last of all, though as of yet I do not know when I will be back…
Today at 5.45 am (Norwegian time) there was a transit of Venus across the sun, the last such event until 2117. Through a series of lucky events, I did actually get to see it; not many people would a) be up at that time b) be somewhere where the sun was shining (particularly in Norway), c) have sight of it while sat in an airport departure lounge and d) have access to a pair of plastic, cheap children’s binoculars which nevertheless did project an image of the sun onto a whitewashed wall – on which the tiny black dot that was Venus was clearly visible. I did try to take a photo of it, but that proved beyond me, which I was disappointed about until reflecting that I was, after all, trying to take a picture of the dark side of a planet some 20 million miles away with a compact digital camera. So here’s another picture of an impressive astronomical object instead. (Chosen also for the novelty value of the time: one of the earliest shots on the whole blog.)
Being 42 