TRAVELOG

 Big Sur Coast:          A magnet for writers and artists, home to rare plants and animals, California’s Big Sur is intimidating, yet inspiring.   Since 1937 it has been served by a road that no one thought could be built.           Stretching for 90 miles (145 km) between Carmel and Cambria is the slice of California coast known as Big Sur.   Even the name sounds magical, a polyglot of Spanish and English meaning ‘big south’.   Gazing south from Carmel, it is easy to see how settlers arrived at that name: colossal mountains rise straight up from the Pacific Ocean, some of them weathered into 400m high (1,300 ft) cliffs, often besieged by monstrous waves.   This coast is a ship-killer, too, a place that skippers avoided lest they fall into its rocky claws.   No wonder pioneers took so long to trickle down this stretch of coast.   Even today it is largely uninhabite...

  Bird’s Nest Stadium:            Built as the principal stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Beijing National Stadium seems as much sculpture as architecture.   Its angled, undulating form, created by seemingly random straps of steel, quickly earned it the nickname ‘Bird’s Nest’.   Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron designed the stadium, and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was the artistic consultant.   Despite is size, every aspect is tailored for the individual.   It holds more than 80,000 people, yet every seat has a direct sightline to the arena.   There is no single, grand entrance; instead, a multitude of entrances allow visitors to seep in.   Inside, the criss-crossing beams and stairways break up the vastness of the space.   It is a wonderful example of a public space with a huge capacity that yet retains a sense of intimacy. Colosseum:        ...

 Lighting the way:             The Bell Rock’s source of illumination was revolutionary for its era.  Smeaton’s Eddystone Light had attempted to penetrate the infamous Scottish fogs with nothing more than a chandelier mounted with candles.  For Bell Rock, Stevenson and his stepfather, Thomas Smith, a former lamplighter in Edinburgh, designed an apparatus of 24 silver-plated reflectors on a revolving frame, with panes of red glass fronting the reflectors on the two short sides.  Power to turn the frame was supplied by a drum wound with a weighted, descending rope.  As the rope unwound, the drum turned.  The resulting intermittently flashing red light became Bell Rock’s signature.               In February 1811, the first revolving light shone forth, visible for 35 miles (56km).  That original system operated for 30 years before the first upgrade, and the light has changed with technology ...

  Strength and precision:                            In planning the lighthouse, Stevenson and Rennie took note of the work of their engineering forebear, John Smeaton (1724-92).   Stevenson based the initial design on Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse (completed in 1759), which had a broad base tapering to a slender tower.   Smeaton had been inspired by the shape of an old oak tree that could withstand the storms that toppled less stable trees.   Rennie’s experience now came into play, as he adapted Stevenson’s design for the rigorous conditions of the Bell Rock by insisting on a broader base and more gradual slope to deflect the battering forces of the waves.              Because of the violence of the sea and the surge of the tides, construction could proceed only in summer, when storms were less severe, and only during the few ho...

  Dangerous Shores:                   The Scottish coastline, with its submerged rocky moraines, is known for its hazards to navigation.   The Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape Rock) extends 427 m (1,400 ft) across the shipping routes between the firths of the Forth and Tay, and is particularly insidious because, except at low tide, it lies completely hidden by the waves.   From the earliest days of sail, shipwrecks here were common.   A local legend tells of a 14 th Century abbot of Aberbrothock (modern Arbroath) who ordered a bell to be hung on a timber buoy attached to the rock, where its clanging in the restless waves would serve as a warning.   The structure gave the rock its name, but did not last long.   By the 18 th Century, ship losses on the coasts around Britain were so frequent that merchants lobbied Parliament in Westminster to build lighthouses.   This led to the establishment, in 1786, of th...

  Bell Rock Lighthouse:                Against daunting odds, this elegant lighthouse was built miles offshore on a treacherous reef that is uncovered only at low tide.   It is the oldest sea-washed lighthouse operating in the world.                Since 1811, the lamps of the Bell Rock Lighthouse have warned North Sea sailors off the east coast of Scotland to beware the infamous sunken reef known as the Bell Rock.   Building on top of that rock was fraught with difficulties and danger.   The rock is 12 miles (19 km) off the coast in the fierce North Sea, and completely submerged except for a few hours each day.                 That the Bell Rock Lighthouse has endured the constant assault of the waves for 200 years without any significant deterioratio...