Recently we looked at the seacoast town of Bogia, in Papua New Guinea. Today it’s Manarola, Italy. Here’s the picture I saw that piqued my interest in the place:

stone bridges, multi-storey buildings, telephone, sailboats (click to enlarge)

Manarola is famous for its local wine, called Sciacchetra. Commercial fishing thrives there, and the town seems to be named after a mill wheel. A famous tourist attraction is a walking trail named, loosely translated, Lover’s Lane.  This town and its neighbors have become increasingly popular in recent years (ahem, one of Serenity’s agents will be happy to fix you up with a place to stay); I suppose it’s one of those things where a place becomes The Place to visit, like the Riveria used to be. (I read a good ad for the Riveria a couple years back. It said, “The Riveria was in before the word “in” was in.)

Here’s a shot of Bogia. You can see the volcano I wrote about in the background:

Thatched huts

Both towns have been around a looong time. Both towns are full of friendly people eager to show hospitality to tourists. Both are peaceful, relaxing places to live and visit. Here’s the philosophical question: Why is Bogia so primitive, and Manarola not?

Not far away, relatively speaking, a native Papua New Guinean asked anthropologist Jared Diamond essentially that question, and it led to the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, which is Diamond’s answer to the question of why some places became technologically advanced and some didn’t. It’s a fascinating read. Bring it with you on your next vacation.

I happen to know a little German, and I’ve seen a map or two of Germany. I don’t associate Germany with islands, much less touristy ones. Well, Germany has an island, and it’s almost entirely a tourist spot. Or botanical garden. And it’s in a lake.

Map of the place.

Enough mystery. It’s the Island of Mainau, and it’s in Lake Constance in southern Germany, Bavaria, to be exact. Here’s one of a million of so pictures of this beautiful place:

Zillions of types of flowers and trees grow all over the island, some even more manicured than this, some more-or-less wild

If you like plants, you will love the island. Its collection includes exotic plants from all over, even a Sequoia. The gardens and parks contain an odd mixture of modern sculpture and traditional architecture.

The island bobbled around during the past century or two as the private property (and castle) of several royal and semi-royal families, until 1991 when the current owner set up a foundation to run the place. It’s so popular an attraction that the traffic on the mainland highways can get quite backed up. Rather like the highway to “the shore” in Delaware on weekends.

I’m not aware of any places to stay on the island itself, but the whole area is popular for tourism and you won’t have any trouble finding accommodations, especially if you talk to one of Serenity’s agents.

So. Tell us about an island you like. Know of any in Germany?

Well, they’re all 24 hours long (yuk yuk), but today is the summer solstice, the day with the most sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a good day to visit an observatory.

How about the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC? It’s not so important scientifically any more, what with all the city lights shining up the sky, and all the bigger telescopes elsewhere, but here is where the US keeps track of what time it is. The atomic clock on this site is the official time for the US in general and the Department of Defense in particular.  Lots more goes on there, too. Publications, scientific meetings, software, reference material, astrometry (look it up), and tours, to name a few. I refer to tours cautiously. Tours are infrequent and a bit hard to participate in, but worth it if you can swing it. Tours are in the evening and at night, which makes sense for an observatory. Here are their tour guidelines. It’s an actual military base, so tours and such can be canceled pretty much without warning. Photos were hard to find, so here’s a satellite view of the place. Appropriate, I suppose.

Screen shot from Google Maps

Yes, you’ll find all sorts of things to see in DC. Be one of the envied few who took in the Naval Observatory!

Last week was the anniversary of Alexander Flemming’s discovery of penicillin. I read this comic regularly, and I’m pleased that Leigh Rubin keeps up on his history. Here’s his comic commemorating the event:

The name of the comic is “Rubes.” Note the connection with the cartoonist’s last name. The guy is pretty funny. Here’s a link to his site.

I’m in the mood for volcanoes, apparently. That or the NASA Earth Observatory really has me going. Check out their site. You can even get a photo-a-day RSS feed, and they’re not all volcanoes. This one is off the NE coast of Papua New Guinea, the other end of the island where Irian Jaya is. It’s a little more than its own diameter from the mainland, and it’s inhabited. And the natives speak their own language, spoken nowhere else.

Those are clouds. The plume is almost invisible.

So— is it a good place to vacation? Well, there’s the Anua Negu lodge.   It’s a bed-and-breakfast sort of place, and it’s on the mainland in the “town” of Bogia, which is at the end of a scenic three-hour drive, not all paved. The lodge is clean, and you can cook your own meals, let the staff fix your food, or walk into the village and partake of genuine local stuff there.  Not what you’d call five-star, but the people are delighted to show hospitality. The evening entertainment is singing, and you can join in. The area is famous for its music. I think someone will paddle you the 13 kilometers to the island.

The area was used by both the Japanese and the Allies during WWI, so there’s some history, and a lot of the “wealthier” parts of the area are of  Australian extraction. You’ll find at least some English, though I won’t guarantee you can understand it.

Okay. Be brave and adventuresome and visit the place. It’s beautiful, peaceful, not the least bit dangerous. So what if it’s really really out-of-the way?