Culture

While preparing for our trip to Japan in 2015, Karin discovered an article about Naoshima, the small art island in the Seto Inland Sea, which is surrounded by the large Japanese islands of Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū. Since we wanted to go to the prefecture of Kagawa, we also planned a day trip by train and ferry to the island and were finally so enthusiastic about the short trip that we traveled to this island again two years later but now spent a few days on Naoshima

Carrara is located in the Apuan Alps, a place known worldwide for its marble. Even the approach to the quarries is remarkable, white statues line the path up the mountain road as well as dilapidated trucks on the roadside, where you can still see the heavy and lost marble blocks on the loading area. When you arrive at the mines, you can book various sightseeing tours. We decided on the marble tours and a minibus took us to the mining areas through a long tunnel into the mountain.

The more difficult circumstances of traveling in 1988 can hardly be imagined today - no cell phones, no ATMs, no internet, no Booking.com: so we were mainly equipped with travel checks, US dollars, FECs and Renminbi.

Singapore and - above all - Malaysia were on our travel program in 1984 and the first stop on the famous "circumnavigation" of the peninsula led to Malacca. This city is located on the west coast of Malaysia on the so-called Malacca Straits between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra. [Wikipedia]. The city astonished with its Dutch flair, which it had acquired during the occupation by the Dutch between 1641 and 1824.

Our trip to Venice in 1988 resulted in so many photo opportunities that the number of films we took with us was barely enough. The quality of the scanned slides leaves a lot to be desired, so that this photo presentation has more of a value than a contemporary testimony and a vintage collection.

In 1980 our plane spiraled in wide curves out of the blue sky to the capital of Greece and finally landed on the short runway of Athens airport. We only stayed a few days in the city because our primary destination was the island of Crete and we had already booked a ship passage from Piraeus.

But there was enough time for some photographs with our Voigtländer camera at the time. These are now scanned and maybe one or the other (or is it now different?) Has fun traveling back around 40 years in time and looking at the cars, historical places and street canyons of that time.

The Buddhist Rumtek Monastery is the largest in Sikkim and is also called the Dharma Chakra Center. During the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje fled with an entourage of more than 160 lamas, monks and lay people from Tibet via Bhutan to Sikkim and built the new Rumtek above the original monastery.

Gangtok is the capital of Sikkim with around 30,000 inhabitants. It is located in the southeast of the state on the southern foothills of the Himalayan Mountains at an altitude of about 1,800 meters. From here you can also see the mighty Kanchenjunga.

The city is a center of Tibetan Buddhism with many Buddhist monasteries.

West Sikkim is home to the famous Pemayangtse Monastery, the second oldest in Sikkim. The name Pemayangtse means something like "Perfect and Sublime Lotus". It is around 300 years old and the visit is a must for travelers and Buddhists in Sikkim as its rich architecture reflects the firm beliefs of Buddhist followers. The three-story main building has many statues of saints and rinpoches, including Padmasambhava. and also has ancient writings.

The main prayer hall is decorated with paintings and the doors and windows are beautifully painted in traditional Tibetan design.

Phodong is a Buddhist monastery and is located about 28 kilometers from Gangtok in Sikkim. It was built in the early 18th century on the site of an older monastery.
Together with Rumtek, one of the most important monasteries of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Ralang monastery, Phodang is one of the most important monasteries in Sikkim.