Anne's Short Musings

“Come on,’ he said, “it’s easy.”

Perhaps for someone raised on these waters. Perhaps for someone who had been using these boats from the time they could walk. Perhaps, like the gondoliers of Venice, they are born with webbed feet, the better to walk on water. Or so the myth goes.

As I went around in circles, my guide has his boat rocking and rolling across the water.

The laneways in Melbourne are famous for their street art. It is a constantly changing world, where few images stay for long but while they are there, their voice is strong.




A snap shot of today, to be buried under more layers of paint. May be one day rediscovered, but essentially ephemeral.
Which is what gives the art is poignancy.

Surfing the Internet, browsing Pinterest or Instagram feeds, or the posts of fellow travellers it is all too easy to form the wrong view of a place. A totally idealistic view, where there are no crowds or heats, insects don't bite and queues simply don't happen.

Kurashiki is an old canal town in Japan. Like most other places calling themselves 'a little Venice', the canals were once important routes between the port and both warehouses and merchant houses. During the Edo period, Kurashiki rose to prominence as a place for storing and redistributing rice. In the Bikan Historical Area, these canals flow back to a more gentle past, lined with weeping willows,  and with the occasional swan drifting past.

I found Prague's famous astronomical clock impossible to photograph. There is simply so much to take in, which I couldn't collect into one photograph.


Every hour, starting at 9 am and continuing until 11pm, a parade of characters move above the clock, peering out to world as they pass a small window. To one side a rooster crows and flaps his wings as a skeleton rings a bell. Unfortunately, it's all over in some 30 seconds, until the next hour strikes....


 I was lucky, for our guide had found us a perfect place to stand. The Old Town Square is perennially crowded, no more so than when the hour approaches. The only time I saw the square empty was on an early morning walk as I set out to photograph Charles Bridge before all the tourists arrived. Perhaps because it was 3 degrees C the square was almost empty.


Installed in 1410, Prague's clock is the third oldest such clock in the world, and the oldest astronomical clock which still functions. The dials show a stationary E…

Just another day wandering the streets in Florence, along her medieval lanes and winding alleyways. Past huge wooden doors thick enough to barricade any unwanted entrance. Streaming sunshine, a beautiful spring day.


Then came the sound of drums, and from nowhere this parade, for all the world like it was an everyday occurrence. Only tourists like myself seem to stop and take any notice. For the next hour or so I could hear the sound of drums as the parade made its way through the streets of Florence, and everyone else went back to their shopping.




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