Street Biologist's Diary

On my first full day in Reykjavik, Iceland, I visited Hallgrímskirkja or the Church of Hallgrímur. It is a Lutheran church located in the centre of Reykjavik. It is named after the most renowned sacred poet of Iceland, Hallgrímur Petursson. At 74.5 meters (244 feet), it is the largest church in Iceland and one of the tallest structures in the country. The construction was started in 1945 and was completed after 41 years in 1986. The basalt-column motif soaring skyward is an ode to modernism and reminder of the Icelandic landscape. It has a carillon of bells at its top that rings every hour. In fact, when we arrive there, we got to hear the charming sound of these bells. The statue of Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson stands in front of the church. It was a gift from the USA to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the convening of Iceland’s parliament in Þingvellir in 930 AD. Erikson was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot in continental America, a...

  August 5, 2010 .  During our visit to North Wales, we had the opportunity to ride the train operated by the oldest independent railway company of the world as we travelled from Blaenau Ffestiniog tp the port city of Porthmadog.  The Ffestiniog Railway (in Welsh: Rheifford Ffestiniog) is a narrow gauge heritage railway line located in Gwynedd, Wales. The railway is about 22km long and runs from the slate mining town Blaenau Ffestiniog to the harbour of Porthmadog travelling through forested and mountainous scenery of Snowdonia National Park. The line single track throughout with four intermediate passing sections. The railway originally carried down slates from Blaenau Ffestiniog area to Irish Sea for the most part of the 19th Century. From there, slate was delivered all over the world. The line is still run by the "Ffestiniog Railway Company" - the oldest surviving independent railway company of the world. The railway is still here largely because of the huge efforts of...

Venice, August 19, 2019.  One of the highlights of our visit to Venice was to see the "Peggy Guggenheim Collection." It is a wonderful museum of modern art full of some incredible works of paintings and sculptures. Peggy Guggenheim was an American art collector and socialite. She was from the wealthy New York Guggenheim family. In 1919 when she turned 21, she inherited US$2.5 million (currently, equivalent to over US$40 million).  In 1949, Ms. Guggenheim moved to Palazzo Venier dei Leoni , an 18th Century palace in Venice and opened the doors to the public with her exhibition of contemporary art. Over the years, her collection included prominent Italian futurists and American modernists in such genres like Cubism and Surrealism. After Paris, London, and New York, Venice became her city until her death on December 23, 1979.  Peggy Guggenheim sitting beside one of her collections. "Sphere" by Arnaldo Pomodoro. "Three Standing Figures" by Henry Moore. A paint...