ST WINIFRED'S WELL

St Winifred was a Welsh damsel who rejected inappropriate advances of a knight and was beheaded as a result. However, her uncle picked up both pieces of her body and with some help of healing water from a nearby spring brought her back to life. In time she became an abbess of a convent that sprang next to the spring. The fame of the healing waters spread and people made pilgrimages there from all over the country. In some more time a Gothic chapel was built over the font, and also a pool where the sick pilgrims could take a dip. King Henry closed the convent but the pilgrimages apparently continued and they do continue to this day. The Gothic chapel is still there, the pool is there, a changing room next to it is there and you can still have a dip if need be. There is also a shop with rosaries, various holy pictures and also plastic bottles with a picture of the chapel, so you can take some of that water with you. There is a special pump next to the pool for this very purpose. The place is in a town called (surprise surprise) Holywell in the north-east corner of Wales, quite near Liverpool.  

Indian pots in New Mexico

In the historical centres of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos most shops sell elaborate Indian pottery. Nobody needs those pots really, certainly not Indians themselves. They live like all Americans and use metal pots and pressure cookers for cooking. They noticed, however, that American tourists must buy some souvenirs when they are on holiday and they like traditional Indian pots, so Indians make the pots just for the purpose. Earlier the Indian potters copied designs from archaeological museums but not any more. By now the Indian pottery developed into a veritable art genre, individual artists perfecting their own designs. All the pictures here are taken in a single shop in Albuquerque, each set of pots of a different artist.

If you like to read more about Indian pottery you can at my other blog:

http://askaglobetrotter.blogspot.co.uk/

  

Dubai Creek

Dubai is now famous for its modern buildings, sail-like hotels and a kilometre-tall tower, but the old part of the town still has some old charm. Especially the Dubai Creek, where even today one can see old wooden dhows coming in. They don't come under sail any more but they are nevertheless old wooden dhows. Some of the houses around the creek still have the wind-catching towers. Many of the houses around the creek are clearly new but in the old style, so the old charm is preserved.

Xochimilco

When Cortez came to Mexico, the capital of the Aztecs was like Venice, a city in the middle of a shallow lake, with canals instead of streets, houses and gardens between them. There is no lake any more, most of the city stands on (more or less) solid ground. The only exception is Xochimilco, the last part of the city with canals instead of streets.

The area is famous for its nice atmosphere and as a result it is a favoured excursion place for Mexicans. Mexico City being the biggest agglomeration in the world, there is always plenty of people wanting to have a nice time on the canals. This being so, there is always plenty of people trying to make some money by making sure for money, of course) that the time spent on the canal is nice indeed. So there are plenty of boatmen ready to offer their services and take you to the canals and while you are there there are plenty of boats selling food or flowers grown in the canal-side gardens, or boats with a band playing this kind of music or another kind of music. In fact the canals of Xochimilco are in a state of permanent fiesta.

Vintage buses of Malta

If you went to Malta a few years ago almost the first thing you would have seen was a yellow vintage bus that was used for public transport. I say 'vintage' but they were really antique, it seemed that as the English like to collect their antique cars, so did the Maltese collected buses. They weren't being kept somewhere in a shed but used for public transport by small companies. I hear these buses are no more there, some big international bus operator took over and the buses you see nowadays look the same as in any other European country. Which is a pity, these buses looked so unusual they could easily be advertised as a tourist attraction. For some people a ride in one of them could be like a ride on a choo-choo train. Anyway, I was there just in time to take a few pictures.

Zanzibar fleet

Long before Vasco da Gama reached India, dhows sailed the Indian Ocean from coast to coast. Usually it is said that dhows are Arab sailing ships but they have also been used by Swahili seamen for centuries. In the past they sailed from Africa to India (it was on the Swahili coast that Vasco da Gama found a pilot who showed him the way to cross the ocean to India). There are even reports of a Swahili prince sending his ships to China with a giraffe on board. On the Swahili coast the dhows are still in use. Perhaps they don't sail to China any more but between Zanzibar and the coast of Tanzania they certainly do. Not just old squeaky boats, new dhows are still being built as they have always been.

Yazd

The city of Yazd in central Iran is sometimes called 'the pearl of the desert'. It exists thanks to the water brought from distant mountains by underground canals. It's main mosque has been built in 13th century (like the Notre Dame in Paris) and is perfectly preserved, together with tile work calligraphy. It looks like some houses around the mosque are in a less perfect state. However, the most famous place in the city is not the old mosque but a fire temple of the Zoroastrians. The building itself is not very old but the fire was lit millennia ago and is still burning.

Women in Yazd (at least some of them) wear colourful chadors instead of black ones, as elsewhere in Iran. 

Yazd from above.

The old mosque in Yazd

Inside the old mosque in Yazd

Wall calligraphy in the old mosque in Yazd

Mullahs in Yazd

Colourful chador of a Yazd woman

Atashkade, or Fire temple, in Yazd.

The sacred flame in Yazd