Journal during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle

Following a pathway, I entered a noble forest, and from a height of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views was presented, which are so common on this side of Rio. At this elevation, the landscape attains its most brilliant tint; and every form, every shade, so completely surpasses in magnificence all that the European has ever beheld in his own country, that he knows not how to express his feelings. The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery of the Opera House or the great theaters.

- Charles Darwin, Journal during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1832-36)

Delight in Yokohama

In Yokohama, I went to the hundred steps, at the top of which lives a Japanese belle, Oyuchisan, who is the theme for artist and pet, and the admiration of tourists. One of the pleasant events of my stay was the luncheon given for me on the Omaha, the American war vessel lying at Yokohama. I took several drives, enjoying the novelty of having a Japanese running by the horses' heads all the while. I ate rice and eel. I visited the curio shops, one of which is built in imitation of a Japanese house, and was charmed with the exquisite art I saw therein; in short, I found nothing but what delighted the finer senses while in Japan.

- Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, Nellie Bly's Book (1890)

Letter to his Mother

If any person wants to be happy I should advise the Parc. You sit drinking iced drinks and smoking penny cigars under great old trees. The band place, covered walks, etc., are all lit up. And you can't fancy how beautiful was the contrast of the great masses of lamp-lit foliage and the dark sapphire night sky, with just one blue star set overhead in the middle of the largest patch. In the dark walks, too, there are crowds of people whose faces you cannot see, and here and there a colossal white statue at the corner of an alley that gives the place a nice artificial, eighteenth-century sentiment. There was a good deal of summer lightning blinking overhead, and the black avenues and white statues leap out every minute into short lived distinctness.

- Robert Louis Stevenson, Letter to his Mother (1872)

Round the World in Any Number of Days

Sometimes in dreams the fancy creates a composite, colored photograph of a town, a place, or a house. The dreamer notices the different of the component parts, but accepts the whole as correct... So it was to a certain degree with my impression of Melbourne. I saw it as a huge city in the Midlands of England, or the Five Towns, but the buildings were more perpendicular, the streets more rectangular, all was larger and more symmetrical, and there was a multitude of tramcars.

But these large, tall, black, square buildings were set in a soft, tepid, luminous air: pearly pink and gray...unlike anything in modern Europe - a dreamlike contrast.

When the fancy creates a place it forgets the necessary changes in background: air, sky and light. This is true of dreams.....

- Maurice Baring, Round the World in Any Number of Days (1913)

Lady of the Avenues

There is a bluff in the presidio, towards the end of Washington Boulevard; some call it the Washington Bluffs, others Rob Hill, but it really has no name. There, at the sweeping curve of the road, you will find one of the finest views of the Golden Gate and the Pacific to be had anywhere. I always come back to this place, borne by the waves of sun and water that extend far beyond the boundaries of the eye, and reminisce about times long gone, dreams unfulfilled, and visions yet to be explored. An ancient Chinese couplet haunts me here:

The moon in the water resembles
the moon in the sky;
The person in the heart is
the person in front of you.

The sea-and pine-scented air fills me with hope and the belief that all men and women are made better by a visit to this place. The dream of San Francisco is that humanity might live in harmony with nature but at the same time enjoy the benefits of civilization.

Call to yourself down through the centuries and see if it is not here that you will return. San Francisco isn't just a city, it is a jumping-off point to eternity. In an ocean of light, this is the place.

- Sean O'Reilly, Travelers' Tales San Francisco

City of Enchantments

We have been traveling for hours through a country filled with an immense energy - with the energy of silence. The enormous plain stretches out to the blue horizon's hound; it is brown as dust. it is grey and ashen, but with the changing hours the colours change. It is mauve and it is reseda , it is sage green and periwinkle blue; and set in the midst thereof, and fair as a star sapphire, and so old that age is non-existent, is the city. Time has no power upon her beauty, which was ordained before time was. The twilight of the ages is luminous upon her; she broods, aloof and fair, a place of enchantments. As Spain has no dew, so Spain has no dreams, but she has magic, and some of it is black magic; as Siena is a city of dreams, so Toledo is a city of enchantments, legendary and magical.
- Georgiana Goddard King, Heart of Spain

1890s Colour Antique Map PRAGUE WYSCHEHRAD NUSLE ZIZKOW

1890s Colour Antique Map PRAGUE WYSCHEHRAD NUSLE ZIZKOW