Travel – Page 19 – Geeky Girl Engineer

El Morro

Posted on November 15, 2015 by geek

I’m on my first visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Today we visited Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro), a fort originally built by the Spanish to guard the entrance to San Juan Bay. The original foundation was laid in 1539, and it was modified and enlarged over 250 years. The United States then added to it during World War II. Finding out that a fort this old was modified and used during WWII surprised me. I was born long after WWII, so I forget that our military has advanced a great deal in terms of technology used since then. The fort is impressive. It has six different levels and is incredibly well built. I am impressed with those people who built it with the amount of stone and brick that must have been laid. Currently it is maintained by the National Park Service and guarded by iguanas, who by the way like to have their photos taken.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro)

Garita

Main level with lighthouse

Triangular staircase

View of the entrance to the bay

El Morro

Foundation for artillery

Stairs connecting levels 3, 4, and 5

Tunnel staircase from level 1 (ocean front) to level 2

Series of doorways

Ramp from level 4 to 5

Land side of El Morro

Ocean side of El Morro

Newtown Creek

Posted on September 7, 2015 by geek

Manhattan skyline behind Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Newtown Creek is a natural creek that now resembles more of an industrial waterway and serves as a divider between Brooklyn and Queens in New York. I recently got a boat tour of it through Open House NY with superb guides from Newtown Creek Alliance and was able to see all the industrial facilities that are on it as well as a few places where its natural state is peaking through. Newtown Creek is heavily polluted because of New York City’s combined sanitary wastewater and stormwater system, which has led to untreated wastewater flowing into the creek during heavy rain events, and also industrial pollution, which has led to it being a Superfund site. A trip down Newtown Creek is almost history lesson down NYC’s past with some historic sites still visible like an old Standard Oil building. More modern parts of NYC also lie on the creek, most famously the newly redesigned and rebuilt Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and its eight stainless steel digester eggs.

Brooklyn Queens Expressway

cement plant

DEP boat

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and DEP offices

Fuel tanks and barge

LPG (or possibly methane) tanks

mud flats

Recycling facility

Sailboats at entrance to Newtown Creek

old Standard Oil facility

swing bridge

Tanks

Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Sewage outfall with birds on boom line

NY Nostalgia Ride

Posted on August 8, 2015 by geek

I have been a member of the NY Transit Museum for a couple of years now, and they always have fun excursions. Some of the excursions, you probably have to be a transit geek to fully appreciate though. Anyway, today I took one of their nostalgia rides. It started in Grand Central Terminal where we boarded a vintage WWI rail car. We then went all the way down to the end of the 6 line, which is the Brooklyn Bridge station, then took the loop through the Old City Hall subway station, and came back up to our final destination of Pelham Bay Park station. There we boarded vintage buses to either Orchard Beach Park or City Island. We spent a couple of hours there before heading back to our vintage rail car and back to Grand Central Terminal.

The destinations were nice, and the ride was so much fun. The train and buses were in great condition. Honestly they were in better condition than some of the modern ones in which I have ridden. Since the journey was supposed to be part of the fun, they slowed down as we went by a few abandoned subway stations including the Old City Hall station. With the exception of the Old City Hall station, which they keep in good condition for tours, the other abandoned stations were completely abandoned and filled with graffiti and sand bags and debris. They also let people stand in the front and take photos out the front window, but I actually got better photos on a previous trip with them. Of course I still love looking.

Another wonderful thing about this trip was people’s reactions. My guess would be that about 80% of the people in the subways didn’t even see that a rather different train was going by or did see and didn’t seem to think much of it. Most of the rest would either look at the train with a rather confused look of “what is that?” or would quickly grab their camera and smile. There were a few people who are evidently transit fans and knew we were coming and were already set up with still and video cameras and some even with tripods. There was at least one at every aboveground station we went through, and there also some on the ground to get photos of the buses. As a certifiable geek and nerd, I can completely relate and and admire them. Then there were the MTA employees who seemed to be just as excited about the vintage train and buses as we were. They took as many photos as we did. This included workers repairing tracks who stopped what they were doing, took photos, and waved at us (see photo below). I am not even sure why we all get so excited about these vintage vehicles. Maybe it is because nothing mechanical or electrical seems to last that long anymore, so we are all excited by the things that do.

WWI rail car in Grand Central Terminal

WWI rail car fan and ads

WWI rail car interior

WWI rail car coming into Pelham Bay Park station

vintage bus

abandoned subway station somewhere along the 6 line

view from the Bronx River bridge

rail workers taking photos as we pass by

Istanbul Archaeological Museums

Posted on July 20, 2015 by geek

The Istanbul Archaeological Museum was undergoing renovation when we went, so I don’t think we saw all the different exhibits they have. It also was that part of the time I was there I felt like I was walking through a rat maze. In any event, it has some really nice exhibits. However my favorite part was actually the Tiled Kiosk next door. I find the name amusing because when I hear kiosk, I think of a little booth in the mall with someone trying to sell cell phone accessories or some pillow that is going to solve all my health problems. The Tiled Kiosk is pretty though and has walls covered with tile, stained glass windows, and other art.

Tiled Kiosk entrance

Basin in Tiled Kiosk

Tiled Kiosk alcove

Tiled Kiosk wall

Stained glass window of Tiled Kiosk

Mosaic

Stone inserts in carved column

Istanbul: Basilica Cistern

Posted on July 19, 2015 by geek

The Basilica Cistern is without a doubt one of the coolest, human made places I have ever been. I don’t think you need to be an engineering nerd like myself to find the place to be really neat. It is an underground cistern built in 532 A.D. It is a wonderful example of engineering and was used to store water. Now it is a tourist attraction complete with a cafe. Yes, there is a cafe, and in my opinion, it would be only more perfect if it was a Starbucks simply because they are everywhere. The cistern was featured in the James Bond movie ‘From Russia With Love.’ Two of the columns have Medusa heads as bases, possibly because they fit and were available. There is still water in it below the walkways, and fish live there. They were introduced to keep the water clean.

Basilica Cistern

Basilica Cistern ceiling

Basilica Cistern

Cistern Cafe

Crying Column

Medusa head as base of column

Medusa head

Turkey: Hagia Sofia of Istanbul

Posted on July 19, 2015 by geek

Hagia Sofia is an amazing piece of architecture and art. It was a church that became a mosque that became a museum. The interior is covered with beautiful stone panels, carved stone, mosaics, and painted plaster. Much of the mosaics were covered with plaster and then painted centuries ago, but the revealed mosaics are intricate and beautiful. The painted plaster is quite beautiful also. The stone panels demonstrate the beauty of natural stone. Besides the actual decorative interior, the actual architectural form of the building with all its domes and arches is gorgeous and also amazing from an engineering standpoint. Considering the age of the building and the number of earthquakes the area has suffered, it is amazing that the building is still standing. Some earthquake damage can be seen such as a leaning column in a photograph below.

Hagia Sofia

Arches

Central area

Carved stone arches

Central dome

Column leaning from earthquake

Front of interior

Hall

Mosaic revealed under painting

Stone panels

Virgin Mary mosaic

Turkey: Blue Mosque of Istanbul

Posted on July 18, 2015 by geek

While in Istanbul, our tour group visited the famous Blue Mosque. It is gorgeous. The exterior is beautiful, but the interior is even more beautiful. The interior is arches upon arches upon domes. Most of the interior is covered with gorgeous mainly blue and white tile, which gives the mosque it’s name.

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque minuet

Arches of Blue Mosque interior

Carved stone

Domed ceiling of Blue Mosque

Prayer area

Blue and white tile

Turkey: Rug Making Co-op

Posted on July 17, 2015 by geek

While our tour group was in the Ephesus area, we visited a rug making co-operative. The members make rugs by hand. The rugs are beautiful and intricate. They walked us through the process of how they make and dye the threads and then make the rugs. I rather liked the place because the person who was showing us all the steps readily admitted that the exhibits were for the tourists. They dye the threads elsewhere, but I like honesty in tour guides.

First they take silk cocoons and pull the strands out of them.

Silk threads being separated from cocoons

They dye the various threads using natural material. The wool is easier to dye than the silk.

Dyeing thread

Dyed wool threads and natural dyeing material

Dyed wool threads

They make the rugs on looms. Turkish rugs differ from all other rugs because they use a double knot. I couldn’t understand anything else they were doing other than that the person making the rugs has to count threads and follow a pattern the entire time.

Loom

They then showed us rugs in many different styles. They were all gorgeous.

Rolls of rugs

Rugs

Rug

Turkey: Ancient Ephesus

Posted on July 17, 2015 by geek

Our cruise through the Greek Islands ended in Turkey, where we visited Ephesus. The ruins of ancient Ephesus are amazing, partially because of how much is left. The library is just gorgeous. Several streets are still present which gives you a really good feel for how the city used to be. The public toilets make me glad to be alive in the indoor plumbing age.

Street

Library of Celsus

Clay pipes

Columns

Odeon

Public toilets

Residential area

Temple of Hadrian

Theater

Residential area mosaic floor

Greece: Patmos

Posted on July 12, 2015 by geek

Today we visited the small Dodecanese island of Patmos. It is where St. John is believed to have written the Book of Revelation in what is known as the Cave of the Apocalypse. The island is very pretty with gorgeous, wonderful views from the hills. It also not too touristy.

View of town

Harbor

A rocky beach

View from monastery

Monastery of Saint John the Theologian