TRAVEL TALES of ranaruby

Prof Warren Julian's views on the forgotten light sources Daylight used to serve as the primary source of light throughout human history. Unfortunately, with the advent of electric light in the last century, the consideration of daylight while setting up or designing new buildings has been pushed into a remote corner. So remote, that its a forgotten light source now as per Prof. Warren Julian, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Architecture, University of Sydney.  Last year when I went To Barcelona I was amazed by the architecture of  La Sagrada Basilica. The work conceptualized and started by the most celebrated architect Gaudi in the late nineteenth century has daylight elements for every nook and space inside. Prof Warren Julian's excellent and lucid rendition on the concept of daylight presented in the ISLE webinar is here. My sincere thanks to Prof Warren Julian for sharing his PowerPoint presentations.

  BRATISLAVA- HUNGARY TO SLOVAKIA BY TRAIN The idea of visiting Hungary's nearest neighbor was firmly woven into my wanderer's mind, long before stepping into Budapest. There are quite a few trains from Budapest to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. So, while in Budapest, we opted for the early morning train from Nyugati railway station for a day trip to Bratislava. The train's scheduled departure was 7.40 am. So we started early at around 6.30 am when it was still slightly dark outside in October. It was quite cold also, and on our way sighted some homeless people huddled up on benches that line up the entire stretch of pavement along the avenue leading to the station. It took about 10/15 minutes’ to walk down to Nyugati from our apartment in District 7. Traveling by train in Europe has always been a cherishable experience for me. Almost all trains are high speed (200 to 220 km/hour on average), smooth and noiseless, very comfortable seats and interiors, and la...