Dawn

Dawn over the alps Feb 23rd

Snowshoe climb in the Jura

Here are some photos of the Mont Rond summit in the Jura, climbed yesterday in my snowshoes - gorgeous weather and great views from the top over Lake Geneva to the Alps to the south, and to the north over the Jura.

Looking NE to the Col de la Faucille (Sickle Col)

Jura to the North

more Jura

Looking SW along the ridge. A little cornice on the left but the snow has all whited out.

Me with the alps - Mont Blanc is just above my left ear.

Summit white out. Cloth cap on sticks - first flat cap to summit Mt Rond.

Summit knoll from just below.

View across to the alps and Mt Blanc.

Mont Rond is an extremely high mountain and a very challenging climb. It took me 3 hours there and back sustained only by a cheese sandwich and flask of tea. But it was worth it for the views...

Hijaz Railway Station, Damascus

The Hijaz railway is perhaps most famous for being attacked by Lawrence of Arabia during the First World War (because its owners and users, the Ottoman Empire, were allied with Germany). Wrecks of trains blown up by Lawrence and his comrades in arms can apparently still be seen lying by the side of the tracks in Saudi Arabia. 


Originally intended to run from Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Mecca, to facilitate pilgrimage (the Haj), the railway never reached further North than Damascus, so this railway station, built in 1913, became its terminus. 


The railway is today largely abandoned although there have been periodic initiatives to re-start it, largely derailed by the region's political instability. Apparently some of the trains are still in working order. One of them can be seen outside the station in the main picture. 
It's a narrow gauge railway and the trains were made in Switzerland.


These pictures are from my visit in December 2009.


For more detailed info on the Hejaz railway, click here.

Ticket Hall (now a bookstall) - wonderful woodwork and colours.

Le Guichet

The Ticket Hall

Palace of Westminster - October 2011 early morning

Sunset, Dubai, 2010

They don't make them like this anymore...

Lion doorknocker, Damascus

Here's a charity that raises relief aid for Syria.help syria now

Summit of Mont Rond in the Jura - whited out but you can see the cornice and the snowy ridge stretching away.

Detail of war memorial, Divonne-les-Bains.

The most recent name is of one who died in 2010, very sadly. For how much longer will we send young people to be killed in wars?

Omani Dagger (Khanjar)

This is the traditional dagger worn by Omani men. It has a distinctive sharp turn in the blade (less pronounced in the knife itself than in the scabbard), and is finely decorated in silver. The handle is traditionally made of rhino horn, though presumably (hopefully) no longer so. 

Here's a close up view showing some of the fine detail in the silverwork.

I got my khanjar from the souk (market) in Muscat, the Omani capital. My friend Sanjay, who accompanied me, thought I should have bargained harder!