Sketching Gorgeous Venice

Do you remember the wonderful post showing Venice in snow? Truly awesome!

This city doesn't need many words, it speaks for itself, you may simply see it and enjoy. Sink in Venice right now!

The Valley of Jugs In Laos

The valley of jugs - an archaeological monument in Laos, in Xianhuang province. It's thousands of big stone jugs at the foot of the Annamite range dividing Laos and Vietnam.

The size of the jugs varies from 0,5 to 3 meters, their weight reaches 6000 kg and they are about 1500-2000 years old. Now it's being discussed whether to give this place the status of the World Heritage of the UNESCO. The situation is getting more complicated due to the fact that Xianhuang province underwent serious American bombing in the 70s during the so-called "Secret War". That's the reason why the considerable part of the valley is not open for tourists.

Archaeоlogists believe that the jugs were used 1500-2000 years ago by the ancient people who lived in South-East Asia and whose culture remains to be absolutely unknown. The material dates back to 500-800 years BC. Anthropologists and historians suppose that the jugs were used either like funeral urns or to store water.   

The biggest group of the jugs not far from Phonsavan city is called the First Site, it has about 250 jugs of vaious sizes. They lay among unexploded shells so only three sites are open for visitors, entering other sites is considered to be dangerous.

Laotian legends say that in this valley there lived giants. Other legends say that king Khun Chyn won his enemies and ordered to make the jugs for rice wine Lao Lao.

During the Civil war Americans damaged the cave by bombing and since then the valley has been keeping many unexploded shells. After the war the research in the valley became limited due to the risk of explosion.

Landscapes around

Bricks Burning In A Chinese Province

Hainan is a small Chinese province located on the tropical island. Somebody calls this place "the Eastern Hawaii" because the islands are on the same latitude and their climates are alike. Today we'll see how Hainan inhabitants make bricks.

A man loads finished bricks in trucks for sale.

Bricks, bricks...they are all over.

But how did they become so ruddy and red?

The first step is modeling of bricks in these special machines that work by the analogy with conveyors.

Workers transport clay bricks to kilns.

Inside a kiln. Bricks here are burnt at the temperature of 1200°C.

This is the final stage of bricks treatment. They are slowly cooled, because a sharp cooling process may lead to cracks.

It is too hot in kilns, so nobody can stay here for a long time. Or you may be burnt like a brick...

At the top of kilns there are special little holes.

Wood shavings, coal and wood are used as the fuel.

The fire from kilns is seen through holes.

Everything is under control!

Take notice of a woman and a girl that are loading bricks. Men are having a rest at that time.

The LEGO Museum: Come Back To Childhood

The LEGO Museum is a wonderful place for both children and adults. A huge quantity of colorful toys would definitely delight your children and make you feel like in childhood again. 

The museum is located in Prague, in the very center of the city, and works daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The entrance fee is 130 CZK for children and 200 CZK for adults.

The LEGO Company was founded in Denmark in 1932. Its original specialization - production of stepladders and ironing boards. And only later they started producing their first wooden toys.

The word "LEGO" appeared in 1934, from the expression "leg godt" which means "play well". The original name of the product was "Automatic Binding Bricks".

Since its introduction in 1949, LEGO bricks in all their versions are compatible with each other. For example, the bricks created in 1963 can still be joined to the bricks released in 2010 (despite the radical changes in their design and shape).

The first hall of the museum exhibits the city completely built of bricks. LEGO-cleaners collect LEGO-garbage, LEGO-police catch LEGO-criminals, a LEGO-airport takes LEGO-flights.

Someone breeds LEGO-pigs.

Someone drives a LEGO-tractor.

Instructions for assembly attached to each model appeared only in 1963.

All the LEGO bricks are produced with extreme accuracy which lets us join them together without any efforts. Besides, after joining they must be tightly fastened with each other.

To ensure these conditions they are produced with an accuracy of 2 microns, and this is VERY small (1 micron = 0.000.001 of a metre).

Airplane "Red Baron".

The logo that everybody is now so familiar with - 4 white letters against the red background - appeared in 1973.

Since 1991 (the beginning of the era of computer video games) the LEGO company has incurred losses for 11 years. And only the release of new robotic sets could fix the situation.

This operating railroad has a remote control. Another railroad once built by LEGO was 545 m in height and thus was included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The first figures of men with movable hands and legs appeared in 1978.

The collection of the museum belongs to a 37-year-old Czech who has already been collecting LEGO models for a very long time. But the idea of creating of the museum came to his mind not very long time ago. This man was so mad about his collection and museum that he was nearly dropped by his wife.

A cool police truck and a motorcycle.

Some happy astronauts. 

One of the plants producing 35-40% of all products of the company (over a million of bricks) is located in the Czech town of Kladno.

The company name has become so synonymous with its series of toys that many people now use the word "Lego" or "Legos" meaning plastic building bricks, or even any plastic constructors similar to Lego. However, the company does not approve such a generalization. Its catalogs issued in the 1970-1980s showed their concerns about this problem.

Medieval rowing.

In 2000, the British Association of toy sellers called LEGO bricks the most important toy of the 20th century.

The largest exhibit of the museum is a model of the Taj Mahal. Almost 6000 bricks.

This model of Tower Bridge has been collected for 12 hours.

A huge spaceship from the Star Wars takes the second place. This is one of the coolest exhibits.

The box dated 1958.

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If you are going to visit this museum you must know that it's extremely dangerous to take children with yourself as they are more likely to start screaming "I want this car (train, plane)!" when they see all this beauty. Fortunately, there is a shop right in the museum building.

Monaco: Rich Without Gold And Oil

Monaco resembles a seabirds colony who settled on the coastal rocks. The city literally sinks its teeth into the rock, and the density of its population is about 20 thousand people per 1 km2.   

Frighten Off the Evil Spirits

Auckland War Memorial Museum - quite an intersting place, it's not the Hermitage or the National Museum of Egypt, but it also has something to show and to tell. Its main exposition is devoted to all wars of the XX th century where New Zealanders took part, and they took part almost in all wars cause they always followed Great Britain... However, this time we are not going to discuss wars.

On the first floor of the museum there is an exposition of the ancient everyday life of close islanders (nearly all islands from New Zealand to the equator).  Their statuettes, sculptures, masks are all interesting. Maori (famous aboriginals) decorated doors of their houses with such masks, deterrent and creepy, that had to scare evil spirits or enemies away.

Masks and statuettes are kept under the glass, illumination of the museum gives many reflections.

Look at these faces...

They are awesome!

What if you see it at night?

And these are the buddhist statuettes of Asian peoples:

Why does Buddha have his eyes closed?

Prehistoric woman cut out of stone. She's cute.

Athens: Fish Market And Not Only

Fish markets are like indicators that may give an interesting description of the country in general. Comparing fish markets of various cities may be very exciting. This one is the market in Athens. Feel the Greeks smell of fish!