An interesting comparison of available rail travel.
Thanks to Liz, I am able to add this map of railways in America in 1900.
Europe
Texas Is Big!
I have never been to America, but I always had an idea that Texas was a very big state. So I looked it up online.
Bigger than the UK and Ireland combined.
As big as a huge chunk of Europe.
Not that big compared to Australia, but still impressively large.
Neolithic Europe And Beyond
The Neolithic period dates from 10,000 BC until 4,500 BC. It began 12,022 years ago, long before Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, or the Mayan and Aztec civilisations in the Americas. Given those dates, it is easy to imagine that you would find little trace of Neolithic settlements and buildings today. But nothing could be further from the truth, thanks to the work of archaeologists.
Stonehenge. One of the best-known examples of a stone temple, situated in the south-west of England.
It was built around 5,000 years ago, so is ‘Late Neolithic’.
A Dolmen, or burial tomb. This one is in Italy.
The oldest religious structure known so far. Built in 10,000 BC. It is in Anatolia, Turkey.
Temples on the Island of Malta. Over 6,000 years old, so older than the Pyramids in Egypt.
A farmstead on a Scottish Island. This is dated from 3,500 BC, so is 5,500 years old.
The entrance to a 5,000 year old burial tomb in Denmark. Forty bodies were found inside a huge mound.
Last but not least, the remains of the original walls of Jericho, in Palestine. They are estimated to be 12,000 years old.
A Nicer Kind Of Dream: Spaniels
When my wife woke me up as she left for work this morning, I was in the middle of an intense and vivid dream.
In the past, I have written about my dreams on here. They are mostly pleasant, but sometimes have mysterious elements, or flashbacks to my past life in some way.
One dream I wrote about took me to a city in America, walking around a lake. It was a city I had never seen, in a country I have never visited, but the details I recalled were all uncannily accurate, according to many who responded in the comments.
In 2019, I had a dream about Chinese noodles, of all things.
Then earlier this year, I wrote about a more disturbing dream, involving being on the edge of a cliff.
The dream I woke from this morning was still quite strange, but overwhelmingly happy. I was walking in a European city, definitely not England, as I could tell from the architecture, cobbled streets, and tram lines in the streets. It had been raining, and was probably early evening. There were no other people around, and I seemed to know where I was going.
And I was carrying two tiny black and white Spaniel pups. They were up close to my neck, and I could feel the warmth of their bodies, and the softness of their floppy ears. They couldn’t have been more than twelve weeks old, and seemed to be accustomed to me carrying them around.
I walked past a large fountain at the centre of the junction of four major roads. It had a statue in the centre from which four jets of water were gently flowing, as if the pump inside had broken. Then I spotted the lights of an old-fashioned Art-Deco style cinema ahead, and the name ‘KINO’ in large red neon. As I got closer, I could see it was showing the film ‘The Third Man’, a big favourite of mine. The poster had the name ‘Der Dritte Mann’, and I knew what that was, though I don’t speak German. I went inside, still carrying the Spaniels, and a lady looked at me from behind the cash desk.
Shaking her head, she pointed at the dogs and said, “Kein eintritt mit hunden”. I nodded, understanding what she said, and walked back out into the street.
That’s when I woke up, remembering every detail of the dream, even the feel of the cobbles under my shoes. So I know I was somewhere in a German-speaking country, and where the architecture is distinctly European. I could read and understand German, and I felt as if the Spaniels were still resting on my neck. I have no explanation for this vivid dream.
But when my eyes opened, I felt happy.
European ‘Roach Trip
I don’t reblog very often, as you know. But I couldn’t resist this fun post from an English blogger who has written a great book for kids, and has taken it on her travels around Europe.
Check out The Little Cockroach.https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42870890-the-little-cockroach
Whoop whoop… off we go. The van is packed, excitement is high & Pedro is ready. European vacation here we come!⠀
Pedro has made it to Amsterdam!! I absolutely love this city. The first time we came here with the kids it was Pride and there were parties every where. Elsie couldn’t believe adults could be so fun & silly. It set the bar high and although they both still love it … it will never be as bright, colour and fun as that first weekend.
On our way to Stuttgart we noticed Backnang was only 25 minutes away from where we were heading, so we decided to swing by. It’s beautiful. I’ve seen ‘Twinned with Backnang’ so many times on the ‘Welcome To Chelmsford’ sign. I always wondered what it was like and I never thought I’d visit…. but here I am!! ⠀
We went from Backnang to Stuttgart…
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North America compared to Europe: Population
I enjoy looking at ‘what-if?’ maps. I found this one today, showing how the population of North America would fit into Europe.
The Blogging map
One of the great things about blogging on WordPress, is the amount of information available on who looks at your blog, and where they look at it from. There is a great panel, ‘views by country’, which shows all the views, in descending numbers, from each country where someone has read your posts. There is even a current national flag, to help identify the place. It really is very neat, and provides fascinating reading. I recommend that all of my fellow bloggers who have not already done so, should view this panel as soon as possible.
By any standards, my own blog is relatively feeble, and virtually unknown. Total hits on it are less than 3,000, followers number less than 50, and on quiet days, less than 10 people are looking at it. Even on my busiest ever day, I could not manage the elusive 100 views, and some blogs get this, and more, every hour. As I have often stated previously, this is not at all important, as I enjoy writing it immensely, even when it has no viewers. However, the views by country statistics are a revelation, and worth considering.
I was really pleased to see that my blog has been read, at least once, on every continent. As might be expected, U.K. readers account for the vast majority of visits, followed by Americans, Canadians, and New Zealanders. This is understandable, given the common language. There are a lot of repeat views from Poland, though I know this to be an Englishman resident there, my ‘blog friend’, the marvellously-named Eddy Winko. I am similarly not fooled by views from Oman, and the Emirates, as I also know this person, an English ex-pat, and valued old friend. I have to consider that some of the viewings are to generate the dreaded ‘spam’, though I have no firm evidence as to where they are located.
What really intrigues me, is the huge diversity of nationalities that have viewed this blog, and the complete absence of viewers from some places is interesting as well. I have had some from Sweden and Denmark, but none from Norway or Finland. Is this indicative of the Swedes and Danes well-known command of English, I wonder? Mexico is completely absent, as are all Central American states. However, South America is well represented, with Brazil and Argentina, as well as Ecuador. The vastness of Africa has thrown up viewers in Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa, yet nothing in the huge West of that continent at all. Asia is scattered all over my posts, from Indonesia to the Philippines, Korea, Singapore, and my very personal favourite, Laos. I just love to imagine someone in Laos, reading my posts about walking my dog in Norfolk, or the trials of my career in the London Ambulance Service; and I hope that they live in Vientiane, my favourite name of any foreign capital.
That is truly a meeting of cultures.
Europe is well featured too, with almost every country shown, except Greece, and some of the former Yugoslavian states. I am never sure whether to include Turkey in Europe these days, and prefer to consider it not European. Either way, no readers there. The massive Russian Federation only manages one viewer, though some former Soviet republics, like Georgia, Lithuania, and Ukraine, bolster those figures a bit. Former British Colonies also stay ‘loyal’ in the blogging sense, with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, all providing readers. From my small room in Norfolk, I manage to communicate with the entire globe, albeit on a tiny scale.
I think that is really special, and makes doing this blog worth it, for that alone.
beetleypete 