TANKS Travel Tales - a travelogue.......

United Kingdom, England, Wiltshire - UNESCO World Heritage Site Straight out of the history books and right before my eyes stood Stonehenge. That was what I experienced when I visited this neolithic era monument for the first time. Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England, UK (2011) It was the beginning of autumn in 2011 and the morning air was chilly at the site. Despite the cold, I bravely joined the crowd of visitors circling this prehistoric assembly of stones arranged in concentric rings, a monument both to its era and to the people who built it. Slowly observing and studying the site as my walk progressed, I compared what I had read and learned from books and documentaries to what stood before me. This allowed me to better appreciate the depth of the historical significance of the site. And no, I was no selfie-seeking tourist gunning for that breakout viral photo on social media. I was a student of history, at least for that brief moment in time. I remembered circlin...

Japan, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hatsukaichi, Itsukushima - UNESCO World Heritage Site Considered one of the 3 best views of Japan, the Floating Torii Gate is part of the Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Itsukushima. The island is also popularly known as Miyajima. As shown in the photograph below, the so-called Floating Torii Gate don't actually float. It is just that when the tide comes in, the partially submerged structure appears to float on the sea because its base is no longer visible to the eye. The Floating Torii Gate at low tide,  Itsukushima,  Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan (2019) Itsukushima Shrine,  Itsukushima,  Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan (2019) The Torii Gate as seen from the  Itsukushima Shrine,  Itsukushima,  Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan (2019) Besides the world famous and tourist-favourite Itsukushima Shrine and its Torii Gate, the island has lots of other renown attra...

I was awestruck by the grandness and magnificence of this building during my walking tour of the Old Town of Tallinn. While there, I had no opportunity to enter the building itself. Thus, admiring its facade and photographing its structure as I walked around its perimeter had to suffice.  The  Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) Without knowing what this building was, its history and its name, the photographs I took allowed me to conduct basic research on it after the trip.  Based on my rudimentary research into the building long after my trip to Tallinn, I was to discover that it was built in the year 1865 by the German architect, Martin Gropius. Also known as the Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, the building is today the home of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. The Academy is a group of scientists whose aim is to promote research & development and scientific cooperation as well as knowledge dissemination.  The main build...

It was my kind of typical laid-back trip to London, to watch musicals at the West End, dine on delicious food, shop and take in the sights and sights of the bustling capital city of the United Kingdom. I had just arrived in London from Glasgow and fresh from ticking off a major item in my bucket list which was to visit the famous Loch Ness. Sadly, I did not encounter Nessie during my trip to the famous Loch. Otherwise, that would have been a bigger tick off a huge item in my bucket list! But a tick off an item in my bucket list was still a tick, considering that my bucket list was a long list with very few ticks here and there.  Moment of Inspiration While deciding what to do with the 5 days that I had in London, it dawned upon me that I did not have to spend all 5 days wandering the streets of London. I could book short day trips to the surrounding areas. A quick check on the internet followed and Stonehenge surfaced at the top of the search list. A few quick clicks l...