Sears Tower - Chicago

One of the main attractions of this Windy City is Sears Tower. People across the World come here to see the sky rise building which is standing at 1,450 feet and 110 stories high. Sears Tower is the tallest building in North America and the third tallest building in the world situated in 233 S Wacker Dr. Chicago, IL 60606. contact: (312) 474-0090.

The Skydeck is the tourist tour of 103 floor of this tower. The view of the city is amazing from The Skydeck of Sears Tower. The sea shore of Lake Michigan and the high rise cityscape is something fabulous to watch. It is well maintained and all information is available in the viewing floor (103) walls. Before they take you to 103 floor, they show a short video on the history of this Tower. 1.3 million Tourists visit the Skydeck annually.

Though it a famous tourist attraction, the official website project it as a business location. This site tells that

Sears Tower, completed May 3, 1973, rises to a height of 1,450 feet and is one
of the most recognizable landmarks in the Chicago skyline and in the world.
Sears Tower held the record for the world’s tallest building for 25 years until
the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998.

Wikipedia tells the history as
In 1969, Sears, Roebuck & Co. was the largest retailer in the world, with about 350,000 employees,Sears executives decided to consolidate the thousands of employees in offices distributed throughout the Chicago area into one building on the western edge of Chicago's Loop. With immediate space demands of 3 million square feet (279,000 m²), and with predictions and plans for future growth necessitating even more space than that, architects for Skidmore knew that the building would be one of the largest office buildings in the world .

The view of the city in night is awesome. I love this happening city for its glamour which is truly reflected from Sears tower.

Weekend Photo Upload - a green poster

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Recalling Santorini - Part III (Sea)

See always attracted me starting from my childhood. Indian Ocean and Bay-of-Bengal is very different from other seas. Sandy beaches, mild waves, wide sea shores delight me. But Mediterranean is something which is incomparable. The deep blue green colors, mild serene breeze and kaleidoscopic flora and fauna in the clean water mesmerize me every time.

kaleidoscopic flora and fauna in the clean water

Here I am sharing some of the views of sea I have captured in Santorini.
Santorini has a variety of beaches. One side of the island has cliff and typical beaches like red beach and white beach. Then couple of black beaches (some images in my past post). On the other side it has rocky sandy beaches.

Here I uploaded some pics for red beaches.

This is my last post on recalling Santorini, it was wonderful experience to visit that island and I will cherish my memories in future too.

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I am leaving Greece on 17th Oct ’07 for good and will stay in India for next few months.Thanks for all your support and I am glad that you enjoyed the posts and pictures. This blog was started as a private blog almost a year ago (when I was the only reader). But slowly I started sharing it and got positive responses from my blog friends and I would like to continue the journey of this blog.

I thought to put “India” in front of my blog name. Any good suggestion will help me to make it better. Thanks and Have a nice weekend.

The view from the ship while leaving Santorini

Weekend Photo Upload: Rafina - Sea in Greece

Rafina is a beautiful town in the east coast of Athena. It has a big port which connects to the east Aegean and east Cyclades islands of Greece. But what I found best is the beaches, very unique, sandy and full of big waves.

I lost the way when approaching Rafina from Athens due to lack of navigation or may be because of I like bit of adventure in long drives. So we landed in a hilly area after crossing Kiffisia. I posted a photo of that place in this post, where I played with my sunglass. To be specific with the goggles are of my friend. I have spectacle in my eyes and can’t enjoy the Sunglasses for long time.

But finally found the way to the small coastal town through a mountain. The landscape was breathtaking and I enjoyed the drive.

Here is one of the pictures taken from the mountain.

Left pic: This is a fisherman in Rafina (Greece) who is busy in catching fish in the sea.

I have taken this picture in the same fashion, keeping the Sunglass in front of the Camera Lens. I liked this one as it is facing the Sun. The reddish touch reminds me some kind of masks professional photographers use. I have seen people using circular polarizer to eliminate the haze of bright sunlight, blue polarizer to make the sky bit more blue.

The following is an original picture which I took facing the Sun just before leaving the place. I love this one. Wish you a nice weekend ahead.

Weekend Picture Upload: Street lights in Scandinavia

Some of the pictures of Street Lights I have taken in Denmark,Sweden and Norway in 2005. These lights of different shapes and colours, reflect the cultural trends of Scandinavia in general. Here goes the link.

Weekend Photo Upload : Small Video of Meteora,Greece

Weekend Photo Upload: Athens in Fire

This was a terrific week for Athens, for many reasons. The roads are almost like a desert and hardly there are any cars because of summer vacations. People used to enjoy their vacation in the island.

Another unfortunate incident took place this Thursday, in the Hills of Athens. A fire broke out and almost the whole forest and few houses burnt. However the fire did not came to main city, it caused significant damage. Athenians are bit scared. There were same incident months back. Due to global warming this is the hottest summer in the history of Europe. The previous hottest was 1997, but the average temperature of this year is more than 1 degree this time than 1997. In Greece it almost touched 50C, thanks to low humidity the suffering and casualties are less. But fire bloke out in many places.

This picture is taken in mobile from my desk in office and this is the normal view .


We went to the forest a day before, took the following pictures. The last one is taken in a special way. Can anyone guess how this one is taken?

This was taken keeping my sun-glass in front of the Camera Lens.

Updated 25th August 2007.

OH my GOD!! Fire again, I read the comment of GMG and opened my windows and its horrible, sky is covered by the smoke and the color of sunlight changed. We still can smell the fire from our balcony.Phone line is not working, it was a massive massive fire caused 41 lives. Check CNN today. and some more photos. (not by me as I was sleeping the whole morning) .

Global Warming is in action. we are slowly leading to a big disaster. This summer was a warning of it. Massive flood in Indian sub-continent, Fires in Greece, Heat wave across the Europe, high temperature, unpredictable seasonal changes etc are final knocking in our doors, but very small initiatives have been taken so far.

Weekend Photo Upload: Videos of Paros & Naxos

Naxos Island


Paros Island

Weekend Photo Upload 10: Small Vedio of Sunion

Weekend Photo Upload 9, Paros : an island of Greece

Paros is an island of Greece in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (from Wikipedia)

Typical Cyclades Churches, small houses, nice beaches and sea birds made it one of the hottest tourist destinations of Europe. Many tourists spent couple of nights here on their way to Santorini.

The view of the port is wonderful, the landscape of this enchanting island is breath taking and a must seen island in Greece.

Weekend Photo Upload 8, Naxos : an island of Greece

Naxos : is a Greek island, the largest island (428 km²) in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. (from Wikipedia)

Temple entrance landmark or the "Portara" - an archaeological site in Mediterranean sea

Weekend Photo Upload 7: Eiffel Tower, Paris

A view from the Top

Weekend Picture upload 6: Stockholm @ Night

Weekend Picture Upload 5 - Oslo City Hall, Norway

This is the hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is given. In 1979 Mother Teresa (India, Kolkata) got the prize for poverty awareness campaigner (India); and this year Muhammad Yunus (মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস), (Bangladesh) got the Noble peace prize, here in Oslo City Hall. This hall is just in the harbour and the view is majestic. I like the shot, because the Seagull bird is looking like a white pigeon, which is considered as the emblem of peace in India.

Wikipedia describes, The Oslo City Hall houses the City Council, City administration, and art studios and galleries. The construction started in 1931, but was paused by the outbreak of World War II, before the official inauguration in 1950. Its characteristic architecture, artworks, and the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony makes it one of Oslo's most famous buildings.

We met a Norwegian family, a couple with three sweet kids. By nature the Norwegians are very gentle and clam. I liked them, in my limited scope of interaction. Norway is considered as a peace loving country.

Weekend Photo Upload 4: Oslo port - Norway

I posted some collage pics of Myrdal, a small city of Norway last weekend, and I am glad most of the viewers liked it. I took the trip to Norway 2 years back but still cherish the memories of that trip.

Here go some original shots of the sky in Port of Oslo, in April. Norway is known as “Land of midnight Sun”; so even in April, the light remains quite late in the day. The sky was very colourful, may not be like Aurora Borealis usually happens in winter, but it was captivating.

The series of lights in the port mesmerized me. So I didn’t miss to take the snap. Next to the port the famous Nobel peace Hall is situated, where the peace award is given. I will post the pics of that hall next week.

Weekend Photo Upload 3: Norway - Some pics of Myrdal

Myrdal : It is a small town in the Oslo-Bergen railway. This is one of the scenic places I have seen so far two years before in April 2005, while visiting Norway.

If I have to mention five things about this place, I will write the following.

1)This is the highest mountainous station I have ever gone in any train. I wonder how the station is built in such a high altitude. Its one of the major station of the Bergen Railway from Oslo to Bergen which is recognized to be one of the 20 best railway experiences in the World.

2)This is a remote mountain station in Norway often shrouded in mysterious fog or molded with ice. When I was there, the platform was covered by ice sheet and the nearby houses were covered by thick layers of ice. I felt as if I am in North Pole.

3)Flamsbana – The Flåm railway, which starts here, is the most thrilling railway line in Scandinavia with its 20-kilomtre long track and an altitude difference of 865 meters. This is considered to be the highest gradient railway in the world.

4)Myrdal is famous for skiing and there is a beautiful water false nearby. I was able to capture one skier in my camera.

5)The breath taking landscape attracts many tourists, specially in spring. I have not entered the town, but taken all the snaps from the platform, which I have put up. (The night shot if of Bergen – and some places are between Bergen and Myrdal)