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CASTLE MANIA


Crusaders, kings, and warlords are addicted to building castles.  It makes you wonder if they had nothing better to do in the middle ages except build castles.  Perhaps they had castle building competitions to brighten their lives in an otherwise dreary millennium.

Castle mania comes in all sizes and shapes from the basic fortresses to opulent palaces.  Crusader castles tended to be smaller and more basic when located in out of the way places and in less hostile domains; those castles are more like fortified pilgrim stations than full on strategic fortresses.  When crusaders established beachheads in overtly hostile territory, they built imposing fortresses commensurate with the threat.

I reckon that Turkey and Greece are the castle capitals of the world.  Everywhere we sailed, we saw castles overlooking the water.  There was a veritable PLETHORA OF CASTLES.

Each castle is unique and reflects the period in which it was built.  If times were relatively peaceful, the fortress may be small.  If the castle is in a strategically important location, the castle becomes a living organism gobbling up more territory as it relentlessly expands.  It's like a mammoth rock amoeba that sends out pseudopods in every direction and obliterates everything in its path.

The castle in this picture is hard to identify; somewhere inside this walled city is a castle ripe for the taking.  All you need to do fight your way past three or four sets of fortifications, and before you know it, and if you are still alive, you are standing outside the castle walls. Being a foot soldier must have had it's perks in the middle ages, but at this moment, nothing comes to mind.   I can't imagine why any common man would want to spend his time attacking castles.  I suspect they didn't have any choice in the matter.  If you didn't join the military or warlord in his quest for glory, they would kill you on the spot.  At least if you joined, you had a glimmer of hope that you might survive an assault, and there's always a chance peace might break out.

This castle is on the mainland of Greece.  I especially liked this one because the fortifications extended out into the sea, and we could sail Exit Only inside the walls of the castle's outer perimeter.  Sailing into a castle is cool, and for those of you who have everything, you now have one more thing to do before you have done it all.  Buy a yacht, and sail it inside a Greek castle.

I'm glad I was born in the twentieth century, and that I'm free to live my life as I please.  I don't have to bow my knee to royalty or swear allegiance to the Sheriff of Nottingham.  I'll leave castles and crusades to those who are willing to live other people's dreams.  I have dreams of my own to work on.

 

Too many dreams and too little time.  Life is good.


 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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