A Burmese Buddha for Postcard Friendship Friday

Postcard from Bagan, Burma

This beautiful and intricate sculpture depicts 8 important events from the Buddha's life. It can be seen in Bagan museum (in the city of the same name) - which has some absolute gems on display even apart from this one.

Check out Postcard Friendship Friday on Marie Reed's blog.

W for Wanderlust, weddings, Wandering Pam

ABC Wednesday at mrs. nesbitt's again! This time the letter is W.

W is for this blog - Wandering Pam!

W is for the wanderlust that leads me to travel and to write about my travels on this blog.

W is also for something I saw quite a lot of on my last major round of travels - weddings!

This one I was actually invited to. The bride is Italian, the groom Indian, the ceremonies - mixed and a lot of fun! This is the Indian bit after the wedding vows exchanged in church.

This one I happened upon outside a castle in northern Italy. The couple are leaving the wedding - in a tuk tuk!

And this couple is leaving in a gondola! Where else - of course in Venice.

Quotable Thursday #9 - June 18, 2009

Please go over to Terataii to join this meme with a favourite quotation of your own. And read another quote from Nehru there.

Meanwhile, here's my quotation for this blog, also by Nehru:
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.
-- Jawaharlal Nehru

I couldn't agree more. And one way to widen the mind and the spirit is to travel, so I think this is a particularly apt quote for a travel blog.

The 3 Vs Tour: Verona, Venice, Vienna

ABC Wednesday. I'm posting early for V coz I'll be out of town and away from my main computer (with my pix) until after next Wednesday. Check out other entries at mrs. nesbitt's on Wednesday.

Last summer (2008) my husband and I did what we called our 2Ms and 3Vs tour: Manila (where we live), Milan, Verona, Venice, Vienna and back (via a faboulous town called Bergamo, near Milan, but that only happened because our flight from Vienna landed there rather than in Milan).

Verona is a beautiful old city steeped in history and culture, which come together in the annual summer opera festival held at the Arena, a Roman amphitheatre which becomes an immense open-air theatre. An opera such as Aida is such a visual treat in this fantastic setting that one almost forgets to enjoy the music! Verona is also the city of Dante (who wrote the Divine Comedy) and the setting for two of Shakespeare's plays.

Venice is known for the beautiful buildings on the Grand Canal, and the naorrower canals navigable by gondolas. But above all, it is a city of water, with its buildings anchored in the ocean, its beautiful churches and companiles (church towers) built on tiny islets.

And Vienna - a city of music, of opera, of beautiful old architecture. The city of Johann Strauss and the Vienna waltz.

The city of the Hapsburgs and their palaces, such as the Schönbrunn, built by Emperor Leopold I in the 17th century as a hunting lodge, with over 1,400 rooms! Austria’s much-loved Empress Maria Theresia had it expanded and redecorated in French Rococo style in the 18th century. The palace’s prominent visitors included Napoleon, who married Maria Theresia’s grand-daughter Marie Louise (as his second wife).

Postcard Friendship Friday

I'm joining Marie Reed's Postcard Friendship Friday this week with a card I just received from a friend. Do check out the other posts for this Friday at Cpaphil Vintage Postcards.

In this age of instant messages, it's rather nice to receive the odd postcard the old fashioned way, via snail mail. My friend Karishma is the only person I know who regularly sends postcards - I send them sometimes when from my travels. This is Karishma's latest, a picture of a Tibetan Tantric painting. The postcard doesn't tell us much about this painting, I'm afraid except to credit "Surendra's Tibetan Thanka Treasure" for it.

Quotable Thursday No 7 at Terataii

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
-- Shakespeare (Merchant of Venice)

This quotation shows that all human beings - of whatever race, community or religious persuasion - are basically alike and, by implication, equal.

Go to Terataii Reiki and Counselling to join this fun meme with a quote of your own, or simply to read what others choose for today.