福特博物馆 Henry Ford Museum

底特律的福特博物馆
Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan.


Ford Mark IV. In the early 1960s Ford Motor Company set out to win Europe’s most famous auto race, the 24-Hours of Le Mans. The goal was achieved in 1966. One year later this car made it two-in-a-row. Powered by a 7 liter, 500 horsepower engine, it beat the second place Ferrari by 32 miles. Legendary drivers Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt shared the wheel to become the first, and to date only, American drivers to win the classic French race in an American car.


Henry Ford Museum. Lamy's Diner, opened in 1946 in Marlboro, Massachusetts, was a localized, family-owned business which specialized in feeding hungry travelers.


Henry Ford Museum. Lamy's Diner, opened in 1946 in Marlboro, Massachusetts, was a localized, family-owned business which specialized in feeding hungry travelers.


Allegheny Locomotive. Arguably the ultimate development of the steam locomotive - certainly one of the fullest expressions of steam power - this locomotive stands at the opposite end of reciprocating steam technology from the Newcomen and Watt engines in the museum's collections.


A guided tour to the Fuller's Dymaxion House in Henry Ford Museum. This aluminum house is horrible! Haha.


R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House, the only surviving prototype. Henry Ford Museum, Detroit.


The Rosa Parks Bus. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded this Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On this bus on that day, she initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality.

安娜堡植物园 Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor

After a snow storm, we went to Nichols Arboretum, a hilly park in the city of Ann Arbor, and played in the fresh snow.


Nichols Arboretum.


Me trying to sled down a hill of Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor.

加州湾区冬景 Winter in the San Francisco Bay Area

This is the 7th time I am in San Francisco Bay Area during the Christmas season since 1990. This winter is the warmest and most beautiful.


Santa Cruz, California, a sunny Sunday in the winter.


冲浪。Santa Cruz surfers. Watching the surfers and the waves is mesmerizing.


Alcatraz Island in the afternoon, San Francisco.


日落三藩市。Pier 39, San Francisco.


日落三藩市。San Francisco Bay Bridge at sunset.


三藩市酒店顶的酒吧。Top of Marriott hotel, San Francisco.

马德里夜景 Madrid at night

Our return flight to New York was delayed in Madrid. We used the extra evening to explore the city. It was cold but we found beautiful buildings with beautiful lights.


Plaza Mayor, Madrid.


Street lights, in front of Puerta de Alcala, Madrid.

我见到了非洲！ Tangier--my glimpse of Africa

Castle "Castillo de Guzman el Bueno" in Tarifa, the southernmost city in continental Europe.


Visitors enjoy the view of Africa from the castle in Tarifa. Africa is only 15km in the distance, south of Gibraltar Strait.


From Tarifa, Spain, we took a 35-minute ferry to cross the Gilbratar Strait. Then we landed in Tangier (Tanger), a completely different culture, country, continent! We were with the Arabs, in Morocco, Africa.


Market scene in Medina, Tanger. We only had time to see Kasbah, and the markets in Medina.


Market scene in Medina, Tanger.

塞维利亚 Sevilla

Seville's cathedral--the biggest in the world, says the Guinness Book of Records--was built on the site of Moorish Seville's main mosque between 1401 and 1506. The structure is primarily Gothic, though most of the internal decoration is in later styles. The adjoining tower, La Giralda, was the mosque's minaret and dates from the 12th century.


Cathedral and bell tower above the orange trees. In 1401, the 12th-century Almohad mosque was destroyed to clear space for a massive cathedral. All that remains is the Patio de Los Narajos, where the faithful would wash before prayer, and the famed minaret La Giralda, built in 1198.


Orange tree courtyard (Patio de Los Naranjos) of the cathedral, Sevilla.


Cathedral of Sevilla. Legend has it that the reconquistadores in 1401 wished to demonstrate their religious fervor by constructing a church so great, they said, that "those who come after us will take us for madman." With 44 individual chapels, the Cathedral of Sevilla is the third largest in the world, after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and the world's biggest Gothic edifice ever constructed. It took more than a century to build.


Cathedral of Sevilla.


The retablo mayo (altarpiece), one of the largest in the world, is a golden wall of intricately wrought saints and disciples.


Sepulcro de Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus' supposed tomb). The four black and gold crowned sepulchre-bearers represent the eternally grateful monarchs of Castilla, Leon, Aragon, and Navarra, four kingdoms of Spain at the time of Columbus' sailing.


Columbus tomb in the Cathedral of Sevilla. There's considerable mystery surrounding the actual whereabouts of Columbus's remains, since he has four alleged resting places throughout the world. The sepulcro was inaugurated in 1902, 396 years after Columbus died.


Courtyard view from the adjoining tower, La Giralda, of the cathedral. The climb up La Giralda affords great views.


Sevilla's alcazar, a residence of Muslim and Christian royalty for many centuries, was founded in the 10th century as a Moorish fortress. It has been adapted by Seville's rulers in almost every century since, which makes it a mish-mash of styles, but adds to its fascination. Now this palace serves as the residence of the King and Queen of Spain during their stays in Sevilla.


The royal baths of Pedro the Cruel's lady friend-- are found beneath one of the palaces.


Wall tiles in the gardens of Alcazar, Seville.


Street of Sevilla at night.


Tapa bars of Sevilla in the early evening. Still early.


Sevilla.


Plaza de Espania, Sevilla.


Sevilla (Seville) at night.

西班牙哥多巴的清真寺 Mezquita of Cordoba.

哥多巴的大清真寺是我所见到的最美丽、最引人深思的建筑了！这完全是多种文化、宗教、艺术、建筑的结晶。I am at lost for words.

In Roman times Cordoba was the capital of Hispania Ulterior province and then, after a reorganisation, of Baetica province. With the building of the mezquita (mosque) in 784 on the site of a Visigothic Basilica, it became the most important Moorish city in Spain and the most splendid city in Europe, a position it held for 200 or so years until the Cordoban Caliphate broke up after the death of its great ruler Al-Mansur in 1002. Thereafter Cordoba was overshadowed by Seville and in the 13th century both cities fell to the Christians in the Reconquista.


View of the Mezquita of Cordoba from Puente Romano.


Mezquita in the sunset. Over the course of the next two centuries, the Mezquita was enlarged to cover an area the size of several city blocks with more than 850 columns, making it the largest mosque in the Islamic world at the time of its completion.


One of the Mezquita's exterior doors. When the Mosque was converted to a Cathedral almost all the outer doors were sealed. During Moorish times, the many open doors of the Mosque let in light which made it brighter and one would imagine a more welcoming place than it is today.


Orange Tree Patio of the Mezquita.


Inside the Mezquita are row after row of arches and pillars. Marble was required for the Mosque's construction. Many of the pillars in the Mezquita were pilfered from earlier Roman buildings. If the pillar was too long, it was sunk into the ground and reshaped to fit in with the other columns.


The Mezquita of Cordoba. Marble columns and a chapel.


The Mezquita of Cordoba. Carved from granite and marble, the pillars are capped by the characteristic banded Mudejar arches of different heights.


The entrance to the "mihrab" (Islamic prayer room) is adorned with Byzantine mosaics and bordered by Koran inscriptions done in gold.


The Mezquita of Cordoba, inlayed ceiling, beams, and a chandelier.


Painted over.


The Mezquita, Cordoba. Part of the cathedral and part of the mosque.


The elaborate ceiling of the Catedral in the Mezquita.


The Holy Cathedral Church, former Mosque of Cordoba.


The Mezquita.


The Mezquita, Cordoba.


The Torre del Alminar encloses remainsof the minaret from where the muezzin would call for prayer.


The Mezquita of Cordoba.


Cordoba.