Jim Colyer

TRAVEL, ASTRONOMY, MUSIC & OTHER STUFF by Jim Colyer

 

TRAVEL.....ARIZONA 2020.....GREECE 2020.....SOUTH DAKOTA & NEBRASKA 2018  .....HONG KONG, China 2016 .....GRAND TETONS, Wyoming 2015 .....COLORADO 2013 .....ROCKY MOUNTAINS .....BOLIVIA 2012 .....CHICAGO 2011 .....NEW YORK 2009 .....ATLANTA 2009 .....GOING WEST 2009 .....GRAND CANYON .....SEQUOIAS .....MEMPHIS 2008 .....ICELAND 2007 .....LAS VEGAS 2007 .....ALASKA 2006 .....WASHINGTON, D.C. 2006 .....HAWAII 2003 .....AUSTRALIA 2002 .....FLORIDA 2001 .....SWEDEN, ENGLAND, FINLAND 1994 .....MINNESOTA 1993-94 .....NEW HAMPSHIRE & BOSTON l987 .....BIG BONE LICK & TEXAS 1986 .....NATCHEZ TRACE 1984 .....ST. LOUIS 1983 .....OUTER BANKS 1983 .....CHATTANOOGA 1983 .....GATLINBURG 1981 .....THE GRAND TOUR 1980 .....MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER 1980 .....NEW ORLEANS 1977 .....GERMANY 1970 .....TRAVEL NOTES

 

ASTRONOMY ..........ASTRONOMY .....NIGHT SKY .....SUN .....MOON .....SOLAR ECLIPSE .....LUNAR ECLIPSE .....METEOR SHOWERS .....COMETS .....PLANETS .....EXOPLANETS .....DEEP SKY .....WEIRD .....BIG BANG .....MULTIVERSE .....THE RED LIMIT .....PALE BLUE DOT .....ASTRONOMY NOTES .....ASTRONOMY NEWS .....SOUTHERN SKIES STAR PARTY .....NEBRASKA STAR PARTY .....SOLSTICES and EQUINOXES .....MY ASTRONOMY LIBRARY

 

MUSIC .....MAJOR MUSIC ACTS .....ELVIS PRESLEY .....THE BEATLES .....ABBA from  SWEDEN .....ABBA BIOGRAPHY .....ABBA REFLECTIONS .....ABBA MUSIC .....ABBA VIDEO .....ABBA REVIVAL ..... BRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK SHADOWS: THE REAL STORY of ABBA .....CHESS MUSICAL .....THE EMIGRANTS by Vilhelm Moberg .....THE EMIGRANTS (SWEDISH FILM, 1971) .....THE NEW LAND (SWEDISH FILM, 1972) .....KRISTINA (SWEDISH MUSICAL) .....SHANIA TWAIN .....LITTLE BIG TOWN & LUKE BRYAN .....JIM COLYER SONGS ascap    

 

GOVERNMENT .....PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES .....U.S. PRESIDENTS 1-44 - BEST TO WORST .....NUCLEAR .....MONEY

 

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS .....JIM COLYER SELF-BIO .....NEW YORK YANKEES .....13 TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS .....MAVERICK .....MOVIES .....HEALTH .....HOUSE .....TRUCK 

I travel with Globus/Monograms. I fly to Heathrow in London on March 21, 2020, then on to Athens International. Globus will be waiting at the Airport in Athens with a sign. It is called transfer. Cynthia is my contact, and her extension is 7042. I will take the Greece Escape tour. I have companions on the coach.

Day 1
Athens Airport - Globus/Monograms. Transfer. I meet the tour guide and my traveling companions.

Day 2
Classical Greece lasted 150 years, the 5th & 4th centuries B.C.

Acropolis means high place. Several temples were built during the 5th century B.C.

The Parthenon is on the Acropolis, built between 447 B.C. and 432 B.C. under Pericles. It was designed by the sculptor Phidias and housed his statue of Athena. The Greeks understood that beauty is a matter of proportion.

Rome conquered Greece in 146 B.C. The Parthenon became a Christian church, then a Muslim mosque. Venetians besieged it in 1687, leaving it in ruins. Lord Elgin shipped his "Elgin Marbles" to England and to the British Museum.

Greek architecture with its marble columns influenced buildings in Europe and America. Marble statues are idealized. Not only are gods and goddesses perfect, but humans are given godlike form.

The Erechtheum is a temple on the Acropolis dedicated to Athena and Poseidon. There was a contest between them to determine which one would be the patron deity of Athens. Each offered a gift. Poseidon offered water, which was salty. Athena offered the olive tree as a symbol of peace. She won, and Athens was named after her.

The Erechtheum was named after Erechtheus, the legendary first king of Athens. He is the constellation Auriga the charioteer.

Porch of the Maidens - 6 marble statues serve as columns at the Erechtheum, They are called Caryatids and face the Parthenon. They are replicas. The originals are in a museum.

The Temple of Zeus was dedicated to the leader of the Olympian gods.

The Temple of Athena Nike portrays Athena as the goddess of victory. It is the smallest temple on the Acropolis.

The Thesium is the best preserved temple. It is older than the Parthenon and was dedicated to Athena and Hephaestus as patrons of the arts.

The Theater of Dionysus is the birthplace of Greek drama and was dedicated to the god of ecstasy and wine. During the 5th century B.C., the plays of tragedians Aeschylus, Euripides & Sophocles were performed here.

The Agora was the marketplace where people assembled for politics. Socrates taught here.

The Panathenaic Stadium was built for the Panathenaic games. It is made entirely of marble. The first modern Olympic games were held here in 1896.

Day 3
We cross the Corinth Canal to enter the Peloponnese. Corinth was a city-state. Paul sent letters to them.

The Peloponese is a peninsula resembling a hand with a thumb and 3 fingers. Mycenae and Olympia are in the Pelopponese.

Mycenae was a bronze age city, and Agamemnon was its king. He led the Greeks in the Trojan War according to Homer's Iliad. The Lion Gate is the entrance to Mycenae, named for the 2 lionesses.

Agamemnon's Palace at Mycenae dates from 1350 B.C. to 1200 B.C.

Atreus was Agamemnon's father. We see the Beehive Tombs. (called The Treasury of Atreus). Tomb of Agamemnon.

Mycenae was the main Greek city when Homer wrote in 800 B.C. about the Trojan War of 1200 B.C. The Iliad and the Odyssey were already old during the classical period 500-350 B.C. Troy was in modern Turkey on the other side of the Aegean Sea.

Heinrich Schliemann, a German archaeologist, discovered Troy in 1870 and Mycenae in 1876. He found what he believed to be the death mask of Agamemnon. Schliemann's wife Sophia was photographed wearing jewelry found by her husband.

Epidaurus is an open-air theater in the Peloponnese. It is still used. This theater shows that the Greeks understood how sound waves travel.

Nauplia is a seaport in the Peloponnese.

Day 4

We spend the day at Olympia. Olympia was a sanctuary sacred to Zeus. There are temples here for Zeus and Hera.

The statue of Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by Praxiteles is in the Olympia Archaeological Museum. It was found in the Temple of Hera. The statue of Zeus and Ganymede is here. Ganymede is the constellation Aquarius.

The Arkadian Mountains are in the Peloponnese.

Day 5

The Oracle of Delphi
Delphi was the ancient sanctuary sacred to Apollo. It was home to the oracle that predicted the future. It is on Mt. Parnassus. The Charioteer is a 5th century B.C. statue in the Delphi Archeological Museum. The constellation Auriga represents Erichthonius (Erechtheum), the legendary first king of Athens.

Mount Parnassus towers over Delphi. It was the home of the Muses.

The seaport of Patras is a fishing village.

The sirtaki is the dance from Zorba the Greek.


Day 6 - Meteroa area - The Meteora is a rock formation with Eastern Orthodox monasteries built on sandstone pillars.

Day 7
Marathon & Thermopylae
Athens and Persia were enemies. The Greeks won at Marathon but lost at Thermopylae. 300 Spartans fought Xerxes' Persian army at the Battle of Leonidas.
We hear a lecture about Thebes, Sophocles & Oedipus Rex
Sparta beat Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
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Day 8 - Breakfast - Transfer - Airport. Globus will help me check in and get on the plane. I change planes at Heathrow in London and fly to Nashville. Get to Vanderbilt and write my paper. Put it on jimcolyer.com and post it.
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Ancient Greece is the cradle of western civilization. Democracy, astronomy, theater, philosophy & architecture have their roots here. Greek science was forgotten during the Middle Ages.

1 Thales of Miletus was the first scientist. He predicted a solar eclipse. Ancient Greeks tried to understand the laws of nature.

2 Aristarchus knew the earth revolved around the sun and that the sun was the center of the solar system.

3 Eratosthenes measured the earth's circumference to a degree of accuracy.

4 Hipparchus divided stars into 6 magnitudes, a system still used. He discovered precession, the 26,000 year wobble of Earth's axis.

5 Pythagoras knew the earth was a globe.

6 Anaxagoras knew the moon reflected sunlight.

7 Heracleides Ponticus knew Mercury and Venus orbited the sun because they stayed close to it.

8 Ptolomy (a Greek living in Alexandria) listed the original 48 constellations.



The great tragedians were:

1 Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound
2 Sophecles - Oedipus Rex, Antigone
3 Eurripides - The Medea

Their plays were performed at the theater of Dionysus near the Acropolis.

The philosophers were Socrates, Plato & Aristotle.

Aristotle retarded science for 1400 years. His teachings became Church dogma. He was wrong about everything.

Ancient Greece had its religion, different from the monotheism of Judaism and Christianity. Gods and goddesses ruled special areas. There were 12 Olympians:

1 Zeus was the sky god and leader. He became the swan of the constellation Cygnus and the bull of Taurus to seduce mortal women.

2 Hera was Zeus' wife. She resented his affairs and sent a crab (constellation Cancer) to attack Heracles (constellation Hercules), Zeus' illegitimate son. Greeks saw the Milky Way as Hera's milk.

3 Poseidon was a brother of Zeus and ruled the sea. In the movie Ulysses, Kirk Douglas destroyed Poseidon's (Neptune) statue. Poseidon cursed him, and that is why it took Ulysses 10 years to get home from the Trojan War.

4 Hades (Pluto) was the brother of Zeus and ruled the Underworld.

5 Athena was the goddess of wisdom. She sprang from Zeus' head. The olive tree was sacred to her.

6 Apollo was the god of the sun, music & prophecy. Greeks went to oracles to seek advice and to learn about the future. Apollo's oracle at Delphi was the big one.

7 Artemis was the huntress associated with the moon. She befriended Orion, which made her brother Apollo jealous. He sent a scorpion (constellation Scorpius) to sting Orion.

8 Demeter ruled the harvest. We see her as the constellation Virgo.

9 Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty and the wife of the crippled Hephaestus.

10 Hephaestus (Vulcan) was a metalworker who made armor for the heroes.

11 Hermes (Mercury) was the messenger who escorted the dead to Hades.

12 Ares (Mars) was the god of war. Wonder Woman killed him in the 2017 movie.


ITINERARY
Cities visited - Athens, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Nauplia, Olympia, Delphi, Arachova

Tour Itinerary
The Acropolis in Athens dates back to the 5th century B.C. It is where our tour begins. We visit the ruins of Mycenae, dating from 1350 to 1200 B.C. and described in Homer’s “The Iliad." We stroll among the ruins of Olympia, where the Olympic games began in 776 B.C. We experience Greek cooking. History comes alive on our visits to these ancient Greek sites. We see the 2300-year-old theater in Epidaurus. Ancient Greeks came to Delphi to seek the wisdom of the Oracle. We tour the excavations and visit the Archaeological Museum. Our tour guide shares Greece's history and stories. Adding to our Greek experience is a Sirtaki dance lesson.

Day 1: ARRIVE IN ATHENS, GREECE.
Welcome to Athens! At 6 pm, we meet our guide and traveling companions.

Day 2: ATHENS.
We visit the Acropolis, perched high on a hill overlooking the city. Here, we see the Parthenon, the Erechtheum with its Porch of Maidens & the Temple of Athena Nike (goddess of victory). We view the Temple of Zeus, Theater of Dionysus, the Agora (where Socrates taught) & the well- preserved Theseum. There is a city tour featuring the Parliament House and a stop at the Panathenaic Stadium. Built in the 2nd century AD. It is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It was host to the opening ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896. Tonight, there is a dinner with local fare.

Day 3: ATHENS, CORINTH CANAL, MYCENAE, EPIDAURUS, NAUPLIA
We stop at the Corinth Canal. Today's highlights include Mycenae, where excavations reveal splendors described by Homer. We see the Beehive Tombs (known as the Treasury of Atreus), Lion Gate & Agamemnon’s Royal Palace. We visit the museum before driving to Epidaurus for a tour of the 2300-year-old open-air theater. We spend the night in Nauplia.

Day 4: NAUPLIA–OLYMPIA.
We drive through the Arkadian Mountains and spend the afternoon in Olympia, where athletes competed. We walk through the ruins of the Gymnasium and the Temples of Zeus and Hera. We visit the museum to see Praxiteles’ Statue of Hermes. Tonight, there is a cooking demonstration.

Day 5: DELPHI.
We journey to Delphi. We tour Apollo's ancient sanctuary on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. We visit the Archeological Museum. The Charioteer is a 5th-century-BC bronze statue. This evening, we dance the sirtaki, from the movie Zorba the Greek.

Day 6: DELPHI–ARACHOVA–ATHENS.
We leave Delphi this morning and drive back to Athens, stopping at the town of Arachova located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Panoramic view! We stroll around the town admiring the architecture before arriving in Athens. Tonight, we savor Greek delicacies with an optional dinner at a local restaurant.

Day 7: ATHENS.
The trip ends with breakfast this morning.
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I fly March 21, 2020. I change planes at Heathrow in London and fly to Athens. There are 3 airports, and I fly 4 times. Check in at the airlines desk 4 times. Get 4 boarding passes and look at the blue boards for flight numbers and gate numbers. I have done it before and can still do it. Stay calm, but hustle. Get help when you need it.

FLIGHT ITINERARY
Depart Saturday, March 21 @ 8:10pm on American Airlines flight AA6220.
Arrive @ Heathrow Sunday, March 22 @ 9:10am.

Depart Heathrow, Sunday, March 22 @ 12:10pm on British Airways flight BA632
Arrive in Athens, March 22 @ 5:50pm
________

RETURN
Depart Athens. Saturday, March 28 @ 8am on British Airways flightBA631
Arrive Saturday, March 28 @ 10:05 @ Heathrow in London

Depart Heathrow, Saturday, March 28 @ 1:35pm
Arrive in Nashville, Saturday, March 28 @ 5:45pm.

I make my way to Vanderbilt, put my paper on my site and send it out.

Coordinates:

Athens 38 degrees North
Athens 24 degrees East

I flew to Hong Kong, October 31, 2016, for 4 days and 3 nights. I flew American Airlines and changed planes in L.A. going and coming. My host (Lyona) from Globus/Monograms met me.

Hong Kong is an island city off the Chinese mainland. It was a British colony for 156 years except during the Japanese occupation in World War II. The Harbor's location on the South China Sea is what attracted the British. The Hong Kong archipelago has 260 islands. Lantau is the largest.

With a population of 7 million, Hong Kong is a Chinese Manhattan. Hong Kong Island is across the Harbor from Kowloon (Cow-loon). That tall skyscraper is the International Commerce Center. The currency is the Hong Kong dollar.

Hong Kong was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997. It is a Special Administrative Region under "one country, two systems." Lyona said there were still about 25,000 British.

Both Chinese and English are official languages. Road signs are in English, and cars drive on the left side. Hong Kongers love to shop and dine.

The Chinese have no alphabet. Written language consists of characters, lines and squares. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong.

Lyona escorted me up Victoria Peak to see the city and the Harbor. The Peak and the Harbor were named after the British queen.

I was given a sampan boat ride, and we passed the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. We drove through Wan Chai, the red light district in "The World Of Suzie Wong." We stopped to enter the hotel. Of course, it looked nothing like it did in the movie.

Lyona knew about Elvis Presley, and we sang "Love Me Tender." She helped me check into the hotel in Kowloon. The Chinese people I encountered were polite and accommodating. They had thick black hair.

I went to Big Buddha on Lantau Island. It is a gigantic statue! 20% of Hong Kongers are Buddhists. I befriended an Australian couple, and we had lunch in the Buddhist monastery.

I had heard rumors about Hong Kong food. The only bad food I got was the Shanghai noodles. They were rubbery, and I could not eat them.

I watched Fox News in the hotel. Donald Trump was on the verge of winning the 2016 presidential election.

Nearby Macau was a Portuguese colony. Called the "Vegas of the East," it is the only place in China with legalized gambling.

Latitude lines run north and south from the equator. Longitude lines (meridians) run from the North Pole to the South Pole. The Prime Meridian is in Greenwich, England, a London suburb. From Greenwich, east and west longitude lines run 180 degrees around the globe to meet at the International Date Line.

Hong Kong latitude 22 degrees N
Hong Kong longitude 114 degrees E
Nashville latitude 36 degrees N
Nashville longitude 86 degrees W
Louisville latitude 38 degrees N
Louisville longitude 85 degrees W

Revised 2020

I flew to Denver, August 10, 2013, with Southwest Airlines. I checked in and got my boarding pass. I had a compact waiting from E-Z Rent-A-Car. I had my Mastercard, drivers license & proof of insurance.

I checked into the Ramada on E. Colfax and hung out on the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall. There were shops and restaurants. I bought a T-shirt at the Hard Rock Cafe and told the girl about my song, "Save The Planet."

17th Street is Denver's financial district, the Wall Street of the West. The Cash Register Building is the Wells Fargo Center, and I walked around it. I wanted to tour the Denver Mint, but settled for seeing it out of the corner of my eye as I was leaving town.

Denver was founded in 1858. It is called the Mile High City because it is 5280 feet above sea level. I-25 runs north and south. I-70 runs east and west. Denver is in the Mountain Time Zone.

The Rocky Mountains have minerals, and mining is important to Denver's economy. There are companies related to energy and the space program.

I drove north to Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. The Perseid meteor shower was clouded out. I cannot control nature. I found the observatory and listened to a lecture about planets. I slept in McDonald's parking lot.

I toured Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove Trail Ridge Road to the Continental Divide, the point from which water flows east into the Atlantic and west into the Pacific. I stood at the sign marking the Divide.

We stopped at the Alpine Visitors Center 12,000 feet up. It was windy and chilly. Thunder and lightning were in the distance.

Trail Ridge Road is 48 miles long, the highest paved road in the country. Our guide talked geology: glaciers and moraines. Moraines are debris left by glaciers. He spoke of tree lines and tundra. Tundra is treeless.

I stayed at the Discovery Lodge in Estes Park. I watched Little Big Town host the CMA Music Fest. I drove by the Stanley Hotel, built by F.O. Stanley of Steamer fame.

From Estes Park, it is an hour and 20 minutes back to Denver. I dropped the car off, checked in at Southwest, found my gate and flew to Nashville.

Revised 2019

Chicago June, 2011
Michael and I drove to Chicago for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees won 4-3. They have won 3 out of the 5 times we have seen them. We found Wrigley Field on the north side of town after cruising by Sears (Willis) Tower and Lake Shore Drive. It was good being on the road with my son.


Chicago November, 1974
I drove to Chicago to see The Guess Who. It was weird because the concert was in an auditorium and somewhat formal. I lit a cigar, and the usher came and made me put it out. I saw The Guess Who 3 times. Their music inspired me to return to school and get my degrees.


Chicago June, 1966
My cousin and I were talking after watching The Avengers on TV. We got the idea of driving to Chicago and took off in the night. In Chicago, we drove along Lake Shore Drive and saw State Street. We saw an old fashioned burlesque show, then ran out of ideas and headed home. One must have a mission if he is to travel. I had read Theodore Dreiser's novel, "Sister Carrie," about a girl who went to Chicago to find work. Chicago sits on Lake Michigan.

Revised 2019