Blog Archive: June 2016
Puente Nuevo (Ronda Bridge)
| Tourism objects | 26 seen
The Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) or as we called it - Ronda Bridge is the newest and largest of three bridges that span the 120-metre (390 ft)-deep chasm that carries the Guadalevín River and divides the city of Ronda, in southern Spain.
We had a chance to visit the Puente Nuevo at the start of June (temperature that day was about 40 Celsius), for me, as for an eager excelling photographer this was a nice place to put my knowledge in place.
Let's start with panoramic photography:
Puente Nuevo
The architect was José Martin de Aldehuela, who died in Málaga in 1802. The chief builder was Juan Antonio Díaz Machuca.
The bridge was started in 1751 and took 42 years to build. Fifty workers were killed during its construction. There is a chamber above the central arch that was used for a variety of purposes, including as a prison.
Tourists gathering at Ronda Bridge
Above from the bridge you can get spectacular views.
During the 1936-1939 civil war both sides allegedly used the prison as a torture…
Siempre Igual Tapas Bar in Ronda
| Restaurant reviews | 13 seen
We visited Ronda, town in Spain' with one particular goal - to visit and photograph the bridge of Ronda. It was very hot day at start of June. We parked our car in a good distance from our destination and started to explore Ronda. One of our first stops were at Siempre Igual tapas bar.
It was already midday, a siesta has been started already so we opted for some tapas.
Siempre Igual Tapas Bar in Ronda
Mussel tapas
For about 6 EUR, you can get such dish with mussels. Delicious.
Tapas
Veggies and octopus... for following dish, price about EUR 1.5
Mini chorizo tapa
Price for above tapa - one euro. Amazing.
Once in Ronda, make sure you check out Siempre Igual Tapas bar.
Postcards from Spain
| | 8 seen
I wish I was writting down names of all those lovely places, we visited in Costa Del Sol in Spain, as I marked just the major spots. Today we were heading from Marbela, via Estepona towards Ronda, I made following pictures somewhere in the middle.
Pink boat
Costa Del Sol beach
White village in Spain
How to Renew Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate
| Servers | 11 seen
Free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt certify are issued for a short 3 month term. I first enabled secure HTTPS pages around at start of 2016, and now it's time to renew SSL.
The following tutorial is written for Nginx, but should work for Apache as well (with minor modifications)
Stop Nginx
sudo service nginx stopTo trigger the renewal process for all installed domains, run this command:
sudo /opt/letsencrypt/letsencrypt-auto renewStart Nginx
sudo service nginx start
Now, check from your browser window your site, does SSL certificate validity has been extended for next 90 days,
Summer Solstice 2016
| Home Remodeling | 4 seen
This is already third Summer Solstice featured on this blog, see how two years ago we made a barbeque on our Tbilisi's balcony and how we celebrated our first Summer Solstice in our newly inherited house, last year. This year we celebrated Summer Solstice second year in a row back in our rural house.
I was pleased to apply my recently developed skills in night photography and experimented with long exposures, HDR and panoramic photography technique tonight.
Fire place
Made a lovely fireplace this year
Our fish pond
Maybe it is a good idea to great Summer Solstice near pond next year?
Our small company
Author of this blog is holding dog. Dog seemed most enthusiastic here, caught and ate a mole.
Summer Solstice 2016
Again, as started already last year - candles in the jar. Looks awesome, right? In total there are 20 candle/jars tonight.
Flower crown
Moonrise
Around 1:00 AM
Sunrise
At 4:14 AM
Estepona - Flower City in Costa del Sol (Spain)
| Tourism objects | 16 seen
Our this year's travels in Spain's Cos del Sol region, took us to lovely, I would even say charming flower city - Estepona. It's hard to recall, was it TomTom device what took us here or it was actually planned to make a stop here, but one I can say for sure - If you are planing a trip in Costa del Sol region - plan a trip to Estepona as well.
Streets of Estepona
Estepona is a town and municipality in the comarca of the Costa del Sol, southern Spain. It is located in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its district covers an area of 137 square kilometers in a fertile valley crossed by small streams and a mountainous areas dominated by the Sierra Bermeja, which reaches an elevation of 1,449 m at the peak of Los Reales.
Flowers in streets of Estepona
Due to its natural environment, surrounded by the sea and the mountains, Estepona has a micro-climate with over 325 days of sunshine per year.
Cobbler streets and flowers
Estepona is a popular year-round holiday destination; it has two EC Blue Flag beaches, a modern…
Marbella (Playa de la Fontanilla)
| Tourism objects | 9 seen
Marbella is one of the most important tourist cities of the Costa del Sol (Spain) and throughout most of the year is an international tourist attraction, due mainly to its climate and tourist infrastructure.
Last evening I watched an interesting documentary about Julio Iglesias, and in that movie it was told that world famous singer celebrated his wedding at Marbella. Luxury lifestyle, yachts and lovely climate? Probably. In fact during our week long travels in Spain, we made about an hour long stop in Marbela, sipped lovely coffee con-leche, and observed mist.
Our car were parked at local shopping center and most we saw in Marbella was about 200 meter radius from that.
Apartment houses in Marbella
Travel on the go is nice way to practice photography - in above image I used panoramic photography trick to extend my image.
Marbella is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, between Málaga and the Strait of Gibraltar, in the foothills of the Sierra Blanca. The municipality covers an area of 117 square kilometres (45 sq mi) crossed by highways on the coast, which are its main…
Drilling Borehole
| Home Remodeling | 4 seen
That day finally come - a massive vehicle with drilling device arrived and promised that after some 3-4 days - there will be a drinking water just from the soil in our background. We waited for this day for about a year. It was originally planned to have a water in the first year (2015), we started to manage this property. Lack of the finances stopped us.
Anyhow, this is what I told, when we started to manage this rural property:
The house is in a very bad condition and asks for a lot of investments - one of the primary things we are looking to do next - is to change a roof (it is leaky), to dig the well, draw in water and to connect to the electricity.
It feels that about 90% of tasks from given are done. Now it is time to draw in water inside house and move to the next phase - like to construct a bathroom, sauna, kitchen and so on.
So why bore hole, instead of a well? Simple it costs about the same, with bore hole making it more sure that water actually will be there. Simple geological check up on ground layers, and drillers promised there will be water somewhere between 40-80 meters. In result turned…
Playamar beach in Torremolinos
| Tourism objects | 19 seen
Playamar beach was located close to our hotel (Parasol Garden) in Torremolinos. I had a chance to vist this beach (thus no swimming or sunbathing) during a week long travels in Spain.
This beach is characterized by the numerous apartment buildings lining the beachfront. It offers a wide variety of facilities and is very well marked with buoys. A variety of shows and performances are organised here during the summer.
Playamar beach
Whether you are coming direct from the airport or from any other point on the Costa del Sol, the signs for Torremolinos will not let you go wrong. The Mediterranean Expressway and the old N-340, which has now become a boulevard passing through the middle of the city, are this tourist centre’s access routes.
Playamar beach
You can rent a sun bed here for about EUR 3, per day.
Swimming area in Playamar beach
Hotel Parasol Garden Review in Torremolinos, Spain
| Hotel reviews | 12 seen
Hotel Parasol Garden in Torremolinos was first hotel we booked during our week long trip in our Costa la Sol trip in Spain. After we landed at Malaga airport and picked up our rental car at Malaga airport we headed to nearby located beach resort town of Torremolinos.
The hotel offered full board or all inclusive. We booked full board, as it was for about 15 EUR cheaper than all inclusive. Latter we learnt that Full board means all meals, except drinks, including still water during breakfast, dinner and supper. Luckily we got a cup of coffee next morning.
Hotel Parasol Garden
Parasol Garden is just 51 m from Playamar Beach, in Torremolinos. It offers a free Wi-Fi zone, an outdoor jacuzzi and swimming pools and air conditioned rooms with a private balcony.The Parasol Garden’s bright rooms overlook the swimming pool, sea or mountains. Each room has tiled floors and wooden furniture. All are equipped with satellite TV.
Speaking of so calleds satellite TV - in our case it was some extra mini TV set just bellow ceilings.
Bedroom
Nothing fancy here - simple twin…
Holiday Inn Berlin Airport Hotel Review in Schönefeld, Germany
| Hotel reviews | 9 seen
We stayed at Holiday Inn Berlin airport hotel between connecting flight to Spain. At start we didn't planned to stay at hotel at all or to use some cheap hostel in Berlin city center, but after actually landing here in Berlin and visiting Berlin city center, we agreed a hotel is a must have. I was surprised to learn that hotels are way much expensive in Berlin than it is usually,
This was one of the rare hotels we reached by foot, after arriving at local train station (located close to the airport) we decided to walk there, Unfortunately we had no idea which direction we should walk and I asked to the first passer by - Excuse me, do you have any idea which direction is located hotel Holiday Inn? The person replied to me - kein englisch, I asked - Unterkunfte Holiday Inn? - The person replied again - Kein Englisch. We continued our way in the same direction making a fun of "Kein Englisch" phrase,
Luckily we were on the right track and soon we found Holiday Inn Airport Hotel, We had booked a room here during day, and as I said in introduction I was surprised to learn that a …
Berlin TV Tower (Fernsehturm)
| Tourism objects | 16 seen
Berlin TV tower is located close to the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany.
The tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the administration of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was intended as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 meters, it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the second tallest structure in the European Union (by a half-metre).
I was wondering around Alexanderplatx when noticed this giantic structure. I wasn't prepared good enough to capture this mega-tall structure in one frame, and felt a little bit tired to try harder, made just one panaoramic photo.
Berlin TV tower
The tower has become one of the most prominent symbols of the country and is often in the establishing shot of films set in Berlin. Due to its location near Alexanderplatz, it is occasionally called Alex Tower.
The original total height of the tower was 365 metres (1,198 ft), but it rose to 368 metres (1,207 ft) after the installation of a new…
Alexanderplatz
| Tourism objects | 12 seen
Alexanderplatz most probably is Berlin's most famous tourist spot. Alexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the Fernsehturm. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighborhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the Rotes Rathaus in the southwest.
I had a chance to visit Alexanderplatz during a layover between flights to Malaga, Spain. We took a local train from airport and visited Alexanderplatz to spend few hours before checking in at hotel near airport latter this evening.
Metro Alexanderplatz
One of the easiest and cheapest ways to get there is by using local metro (S-Bahn). Alexanderplatz is also the name of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations there. It is one of Berlin's largest and most important transportation hubs, being a cross of 3 subway (U-Bahn) lines, 3 S-Bahn lines, and many tram and bus lines, as well as regional trains.
Tourists at Alexanderpltatz
Alexanderplatz is also a popular shopping…
How to Photograph the Big Dipper
| Digital Photography School | 44 seen
Have you ever wanted to photograph the Big Dipper? It is on of the easiest and probably the most famous grouping of stars in the sky.
Fail short using auto mode on your camera? I hear you - I was there buddy. Once I was laying in warm beaches in Turkey (around Izmir) it was night already, the view around me was just amazing, city lights, sea and stars... I spent all night stargazing and trying to photograph at least something using my camera... well... I ended up with nothing. Back then I had little clue of other shooting modes than auto. Auto mode is not your best friend during night time.
In today's digital photography school tutorial I would love to start a new series of posts in astrophotography. The other day I spent couple of hours in dark night trying to shoot my first star trails. Thus, the result is far from ideal - I understood, star photography is damn interesting.
Let's start with The Big Dipper photography:
The Big Dipper
Shot in my backyard on May 31, 2016. Shooting settings:18mm (kit lens) f4,5/ ISO 800, 10 seconds. Post processed in Adobe Lightroom.
Now, when…
Berlin Schönefeld Flughafen station (Railway)
| Railway / Bus / Ferry | 15 seen
Berlin-Schönefeld Flughafen (also named simply as Berlin Schönefeld) is a railway station in Schönefeld next to Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport just outside Berlin. The station is served by the S-Bahn lines S9 and S45 as well as the Regional Bahn.
It's one of the easiest ways to reach Alexanderplatz and Berlin city center if you are traveling via Berlin Schonefeld airport. The single ride ticket price is around EUR 3, and you can buy them at vending machines in tunnel connecting airport to railway station. Make sure you composter them on platform before entering the train.
Berlin Schönefeld Flughafen station
Berlin-Schönefeld railway station was built within 150 days and opened for the public on 10 July 1951 as part of the Berliner Außenring. On 26 February 1962 an additional platform was added and Schönefeld was connected to the Berlin S-Bahn.
Platform