Easter

I'm heading back to Prague, this time for my Easter holidays. Staying 11 nights, April 2-13. Please don't hate me because I'm blessed, mmmkay?

Cheap and dirty

Almost 5 years ago, a bunch of us English teachers were on a quick trip to England; Oxford to be precise. Yours truly, in my usual capacity as travel organizer, had booked the cheapest ensuite hotel rooms I could find in town at the Nanford Guest House. The two females in our merry band of five had had enough after the first night and went to find another place to stay. Moi and the two other guys couldn't really see what the fuss was about; the place wasn't really nice but it was sufficient or so we thought. The five of us have been bantering about this part of the trip ever since.

Today, I saw an article at a Norwegian online paper, quoting http://www.traveladvisor.com/ which had deemed Nanford the third dirtiest hotel in Britain. I am not going to hear the end of this.

Yet more pics from Rome

More schtuff from the Palazzo Altemps, this time the wall paintings, mosiacs, and various reliefs. Click to get larger images.

Wall decorations from an excavated Roman villa depicting hunting scenes, work, festivites, nature - the lot:


Some reliefs, the last bunch are from a huge memorial to some vanquished enemy nation, I forget who.


Various house decorations:


Some of these are a bit dark or blurry, because they were kept in darkened rooms and flash photography was not allowed. Take my word for it, these decorations were incredible.


From a public bath


Scenes from Roman Africa, with hippos and crocs and all:


Maritime scenes, including dolphins. Wonder if they taste like chicken?


This is an attempt at a 360 degree shot of a wall painting that really did run the length and width of the room. Magnificent art!


Finally, lest you think I've gone all arty farty, we conclude this pictorial in the tone and manner which you've come to expect from this blog: BOOBIES!

More pics from Rome

Just a quick thumbnailing of my pics from Rome, in the unlikely event you're interested. These are from the Palazzo Altemps, one of the top two museums in Rome in my opinion (the other is the Capitol). Here are representations of people, divinites and such:

The Goddess Minerva (Greek: Athena)


A prince and an (Olympian?) boxer.


From memory (I really need to start taking notes), these notables are: Julia, daughter of Augustus; general Germanicus (I think); emperor Augustus himself (x2); emperor Nerva; emperor Vespasian (x3), emperor Hadrian and emperor Antonius Pius (x2).


The famous discus thrower:


I can't remember if the scantily clad woman is a representation of an actual person. The menacing looking guy with the spear (x2) is the God Dionysus. Judging from this statue he wasn't all about women and booze. The last one is the great hero Hercules. Who knew he had a comb over and an extra chromosome?