Here's the third part of my ongoing series.

Still in Hampi here's another 360 from the Hills in Hampi down to the Achyutaraya Temple:

A little further down, before dawn, here's a shot from the rocky path leading up the hill:

Our last picture for today is a view down from Hemakuta Hill which is covered with old temples and other structures. In the middle you'll see the large Virupaksha Temple which is still in full use. In that temple you'll find an amazing camera obscura, a physics teacher's dream that projects the temple tower onto a wall (projection, subject, more interesting in reality. Really.)

That's all for Hampi, tomorrow I'll post more panoramas, from other stops of our trip.

Here's the second part of my ongoing series.

Climbing down the hills, on the banks of the Tungabhadra river you find people washing laundry and bathing, and coracles waiting to be used for a trip through the river.

The greatest of the ancient temples in Hampi is the Vitthala Temple:

Set in in lush green scenery you find the Achyutaraya Temple, which you already might have seen, from above, in yesterday's series:

That's it for today, tomorrow I'll post more panoramas, both from Hampi and other stops of our trip.

Yes, I won't spare you my panorama shots from my recent trip to India. After arriving in Goa Badami was our next stop. It's a very pretty little town in northern Karnataka, and here's a panorama shot from the entrance of the town's famous caves:

Next step was one of the most amazing places on earth, Hampi in central Karnataka. It is definitely one of the greatest sights I have ever seen, and I guess I can say I have seen quite a few in my life. A vast landscape of hills covered in boulders, lush mango and banana plantations, rice fields, dotted with age-old temples and impressive ruins. Locals crossing the river in coracles that look like they belong in a time centuries ago. Women washing colourful laundry in the river, pilgrims wading across the river in their black clothes. An India that delivers every bit of that promise it makes to its visitors. The ruins rival the grand sites in Greece and the landscape sometimes looks like a Crysis in-game scene.

Taken from one of the hills in Hampi this is the sunset:

And then, the next day at dawn make your way up the hills again and you can get an even greater view on the whole scenery:

That's it for today, tomorrow I'll post more panoramas, both from Hampi and other stops of our trip.

Also, if you haven't seen them yet, don't miss my panoramas from my India trip the year before.

India is a weird and beautiful country. And I am too lazy to retouch my photos.

Ever wanted to know what's the view like being the highest person in all of Spain? -- No? Hmm, can't help you then. -- Otherwise:

That's on the summit of Pico del Teide at 3718m, on Tenerife island. Unless you leave solid ground this is as high as you can get in Spain. 163m lower it's a bit more obvious that the Teide is a volcano:

And coming down to the surrounding caldera it's even more obvious:

On a ridge next to the caldera you find the Teide Observatory:

The caldera is covered in old lava flows:

Vulcanism has created various interesting rock formations in the caldera:

Tenerife is not just about the Teide and its dusty caldera. In the north of the island you find the Anaga mountain range:

Neighboring Gran Canaria was where our little trip started and ended, right after the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit. Gran Canaria has no Teide but a very impressive landscape nonetheless:

That's the view from the Roque Nublo, the island's most famous landmark. The rock itself is visible here (on the left):

Right after my trip to Brazil in November I flew to Bangalore for FOSS.in 2008. It was one amazing conference! After the bold changes they had announced I feared they might be a bit too ... bold. But they were not. FOSS.in worked out very well, it was a great success, and it was good to see a lot of familiar faces again. (Which reminds me: Hey, the four of you from the PulseAudio Workout, could you please drop me a line? I forgot to put down your email addresses.)

After FOSS.in I flew up to Rajasthan for a much too short trip through this marvelous state:

           

           

           

               

               

               

               

               

             

           

That's Pushkar, Jaipur, Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal (the real one, not the Hotel they bombed).

In November I spent three weeks in Brazil, the country where I grew up two decades ago. Surprisingly little had changed since then. Except maybe that this time I had an DSLR:

       

       

       

           

           

           

That's Rio de Janeiro and the old colonial towns of Ouro Preto, Mariana, São João del Rey, Tiradentes, Congonhas do Campo, Paraty in Minas Gerais and Rio State.

Once again Ouro Preto, and Copacabana Beach at night.

Wide-angle lenses are a great invention.

Tiles in the Topkapı Sarayı in İstanbul, Turkey. This time the symmetry is perfect. Thanks to Gimp.

One of the cupolas in the Topkapı Sarayı in İstanbul, Turkey. In one of the inner rings is a certain asymmetry. I wonder why?