INDIA: GUWAHATI TO KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK

 December 17, 2024

We were up at 6:00 AM, ignoring both the 12.5 hour time difference between where we were and California and our 40 hours of travel, and were down at the extensive and excellent breakfast buffet by 7:15. Chris and I especially liked the black rice in a purple pudding--more dessert than breakfast!

A driver in a small minivan came to pick us up at 8:00 AM. Our luggage caused him and the hotel staff some distress. They spent over twenty minutes strapping it to the roof, and we finally got on the road at about 8:30.

We headed east-north-east through the finger of India that lies between Tibet to the north, Bangladesh to the southwest, and Myanmar to the southeast. I had no idea that India was anything other than the downward-pointing triangle I always pictured it as.

The distance was just over 200 km, or 125 miles, but it took us 4.25 hours of driving.

It started out well enough with wide, scenic roads lined by vendors, most of them selling oranges.

PORTUGAL, LISBON: MUSEO GULBENKIAN, IGREJA MUSEO SAO ROCQUE

 June 24, 2022

After our morning at the Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery, we got an Uber to take us to the Gulbenkian Art Museum.  A word here about Uber in Portugal: CHEAP. We rarely paid more than $7 for a ride, including a tip. We had planned to take the Lisbon metro everywhere, but why? This was faster and didn't break the bank, and somehow we were still getting in 10,000+ steps/day.

Established in 1957, the Gulbenkian Art Museum houses one of the most important private art collections in the world. It includes many pieces sold off by Leningrad's Hermitage Museum in 1930 and 1931, as well as works by the likes of Renoir, Rubens, Rembrandt, Rodin, Monet, Manet, Gainsborough, Ghirlandaio, Degas, Turner, and others.

Calouste Gulbenkian was born in what is now Turkey in 1869 and died in Lisbon in 1955. He made a fortune in petroleum and gave a lot of that fortune to philanthropic organizations. He also collected over 6,400 pieces of art during his lifetime, and a good portion of it is held by the museum that bears his name in Lisbon. Of the roughly 6,000 items held by the museum, about 1,000 are on display at any given time.

I was kind of hoping this gentleman in the lobby was Mr. Gulbenkian, but the plaque on the wall says he is Jean-D'Aire, the Burgher of Calais, and he was sculpted by Auguste Rodin in 1913.

The collection covers a wide swath of history and culture. The bas relief on the left is from Assyria in the 9th century BC, and the chimney tiles on the right are from 17th century Turkey.