I embarked at the West End and disembarked at South Bank.Orleigh Park on the banks of the Brisbane River, with the ferry terminal just ahead on the right. Run, Forrest, run! I told myself. I was good that I did, because they closed the boarding gate just a minute after I had embarked.The ferries are branded CityCat (Cat for catamaran?). There are 23 of these plying the waters of the Brisbane river, and 5 smaller vessels called KittyCats. This one arrived at the West End ferry terminal just as we were departing from there.The CityCat ferries are constructed locally, in Brisbane. This vessel was launched in August 2020. Length is 27.2 m (89 ft), beam 7.95 m (26 ft).Here’s the Merivale Railway Bridge with a double track. It opened in Nov. 1978, 43 years ago. This rail crossing is the only one across the Brisbane River, and a bottleneck for rail transport in the metro area. The massive Cross River Rail project, underway since 2019, is a new 10.2 km (6.3 mi) rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills, which includes 5.9 km (3.6 mi) of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River. The first services are expected to start operating by late 2025.The William Jolly Bridge— named after William Jolly, the first Lord Mayor of the Greater Brisbane City Council during the construction of the bridge from 1928 to 1932. (So no, not named after Willem/ William the Jolly Ferry Rider! ).As bridges over the Brisbane River go, this one is new: the Kurilpa Bridge is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that opened in 2009.Here’s the end of my jolly ride, at the South Bank ferry terminal, with the Queens Wharf construction project across the river.
The sun was out in full force today, here in Brisbane in Australia’s Sunshine State
(30 °C/ 86 °F).
I was in the West End where I spotted the ferry at the terminal there. I made a run for it and hopped on.
It was raining today, and I took the No 454 bus from Queen Street Mall that ran out to Indooroopilly* to see some of suburban Brisbane.
*Derived from either the local Aboriginal word nyindurupilli, meaning ‘gully of the leeches’ or yindurupilly meaning ‘gully of running water’ (Source: Wikipedia)
I got off the bus just to go back and take a decent picture— instead of a drive-by picture through the soggy window pane— of the Royal Exchange Hotel at 10 High Street, Toowong. It was constructed in 1886. The hotel’s pub featured in the 2007 film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane. In 2013, The Guardian newspaper referred to it as a “cult film” inspired by “a typically Brisbane lament: the departure of people in their late 20s to Sydney, Melbourne, London or New York”.
.It’s a straight shot down south on the M1 Pacific Motorway from Brisbane to Gold Coast. The 110 km/h speed limit equals 68 mph. The price of gas is roughly equal to what we have in the USA: AUS $1.77 per liter which is USA $4.23 per gallon.Gold Coast is famous for its surf —and for surfing.We took the train back from Varsity Lakes the very last stop on the Gold Coast railway line that runs up all the way to Brisbane Airport. Varsity refers to Bond University nearby, and the Lakes is a reference to the swampy terrain around the Nerang River making its way to the Pacific Ocean.Here comes our train. We boarded and while we were waiting for the train to depart, the station attendant came through and did a perfunctory wipe-down of all the railings inside the train cars. ‘It’s the very last day I’m doing this’, she told us. (It had been a COVID protocol until today).
My sister-in-law and I drove down to Gold Coast this morning.
We had borrowed my niece’s car for a few days and took it back to her.
(The other family car had been shipped from Perth, and word is that it has arrived in Brisbane harbor).
Story Bridge was constructed in 1940 and is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia. It is named after prominent public servant John Douglas Story.
The south end of Story Bridge rests on Kangaroo Point, the tip of a narrow strip of land just east of downtown Brisbane.There is a promenade around Captain Burke Park, all around Kangaroo Point. I am approaching the Bridge from the southwest.This is The Rock (1988) by artist Stephen Killick (epoxy paint on concrete). It featured in the World Expo ’88 in Brisbane and was later moved to this location in Captain Burke Park.I made it down right to the river’s sandy edge, with steps down from the promenade path. Across the water under the bridge, is a microbrewery called Felons Brewing Co.On the southeast side of the bridge, and looking towards the northwest.There is a project underway to restore the below-deck steel on the bridge.I was too tired of walking to walk towards the north over the bridge, so I took the bus! The bus is heading north towards downtown Brisbane.And here’s the view from the spot where I had a bite to eat. This is the Riverside Ferry Terminal, looking northeast towards the bridge.
I took the train to the city to check out Brisbane Central Station today.
Here comes my train: the northbound train on the Ferny Grove Line approaching the Park Road Station.Four stops later gets one to Central Station. There are 6 platforms for the 6 lines that serve the city and its suburbs. I had just stepped off the train.Inside the main hall of Central Station: a pretty standard train station hallway with information screens, ticket counters and a few places to get something to eat.The Ann Street entrance and the original 1889 building for the Brisbane Central Station.St Andrew’s Uniting Church, at the corner of Ann Street and Creek Street. Designed by George David Payne and built in 1905 by Alexander Lind & Son.Anzac Square & Memorial Galleries is located just across the street from Central Station. This is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dedicated Memorial Queensland, in honor of First Nations servicemen and women in Brisbane. The memorial is brand new, and was unveiled in May of 2022.A little further on is Post Office Square with stores and a food hall below street level. The main Australia Post post office is across the street. I endeavored to buy some 2022 issue Australian postage stamps, one set with Australian dinosaurs on and another set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but they were out of stock on both counts.These interesting geometric window pane patterns are on the Brisbane Club Tower nearby.There is coffee everywhere in the city, and a few Starbucks locations as well. I thought Starbucks had withdrawn entirely from Australia, but there are still 50 or so locations in the Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney areas.
I took the No 120 bus to the bus terminal under the Queen Street Mall in downtown Brisbane today.
The Queen Street bus terminal is reached by tunnels under the Queen Street Mall. It’s best to check with Google Maps to make sure you wait at the right place! (and Google’s Platform 1-E is the same as Platform 1e on the signs).There was a flea market on Brisbane Square today. That’s the Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane in the distance.The art deco façade of the 1929 York Hotel was preserved when the Myer Centre at the Queen Street Mall was constructed in 1982.Another building, that of the Hotel Carlton (constructed 1891), was preserved, along with its beautiful wrought iron railings.These kangaroos are at the corner of Queen Street and George Street.Walking along George Street, and looking up at the W Hotel (front, opened in 2018) and The One condo tower (at the back, opened this year).Looking out from the entrance at the Brisbane Magistrate offices off George Street. The aluminum and concrete artwork was installed in 2009 and the artist is Daniel Templeman.The McDonnell & East Ltd Building at 414 George Street is a former department store, and now a heritage-listed building. It was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and built from 1912 to 1928 by Andrew Gillespie.Here’s the Albert Street Uniting Church, holding its own against its concrete and steel neighbors. It was designed by George Addison and built in 1888-89 by Thomas Pearson & Sons.A pair of kangaroos on King George Square. Mama kangaroo has a joey in her pouch (a baby kangaroo is called a joey). Here’s Brisbane City Hall, inaugurated in 1930. The building design is based on a combination of the Roman Pantheon, and St Mark’s Campanile in Venice— and is considered one of Brisbane’s finest buildings.I made my way back to the Queen Street Mall, standing under a large steel and glass canopy and contemplating if the two colors on the historic old building complement each other well enough.Here’s a Tesla Model 3 slipping into a parking garage nearby. I thought BUZINGA might be Australian for Yowza! or something like that. All that a Google search revealed is that Buzinga is a cutting-edge software company in Melbourne.Here’s a classic Queen Victoria statue, this one keeping watch over the grounds of the Queens Gardens Park. Victoria’s reign of 63 yrs (1837 -1901) has been eclipsed only by the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.Taking a closer look at the Queens Wharf Tower construction project nearby, at 1 William Street. It is scheduled to open in 2023.
To MR WILLEM
Hi sir we are sending a msgs to let you know the progress of your missing luggage unfortunately the number you had provide is unreachable please give us a call 0481011572 .
Regards
Swissport
I made the phone ring off the hook at that number, sent an email back on Friday. No response.
The courier showed up this morning with one bag.
Off I went to the airport, when my phone finally rang. Swissport Baggage Service. They have my other bag, working on a courier that could deliver it between 1 pm and 5 pm. Well – you’re too late, I said. Your logistics had failed me multiple times. I’m on my way to the airport to retrieve the bag in person.
The TransLink train, departing Park Road Station, after I had stepped off with my luggage in hand.I love the chromed (?) benches at the station and the simple, straight-forward information station next to it.Looking down on the station after taking the lift (Australian for elevator) to get me across a set of tracks to the other side of the station.
We took the bus this morning to South Brisbane and South Bank, on the banks of the Brisbane river.
Inside the Route 125 bus on the way to the South Bank bus station. The TransLink Go card that I had used on the train yesterday, is good for buses and ferries as well.This is Street Beach on the banks of the Brisbane River. The sand is trucked in from the a beach on the coast! The green is a large swimming pool. The brown above the green is the Brisbane River. The prominent skyscraper in the middle is 1 William Street (42 floors, opened in 2016). The construction project to its left is Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, scheduled for completion in late 2023. It will contain high-end residences (around US $2 million) and public spaces and entertainment venues.The Clem Jones Promenade runs along the river, with a green space and magnificent fig trees providing shade for warm summer days.This is the Nepalese Peace Pagoda nearby, that was built in 1988 by craftsmen from Kathmandu for the Brisbane Expo 88.Looking northeast towards the downtown skyline. The Victoria Bridge (concrete, constructed in 1969) is on the far left. The skyscraper on the left is ‘The One‘ apartment (condominium) tower that had opened earlier this year (82 floors). The Queen’s Wharf Brisbane construction project is on the right.The intersection of Queen Street & William Street on the opposite side of the Brisbane River, at the Victoria Bridge. The periwinkle, yellow, orange and lime green buildings are part of a public square called Reddacliff Place, named in honor of prominent Brisbane architect Trevor Reddacliff (born 1942, dec. 2005). The Treasury Building on the right, was constructed in 1930. It is now the home of the Treasury Casino and Hotel Brisbane.The Australian white ibis is found across Australia, and I have already seen a few of them here in the city. They eat frogs, fish, crustaceans and —scraps of food that humans may have discarded on the streets.
My phone’s lock screen looks different now (the green dot is Brisbane).
It’s Thursday here in Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia.
The traveler made his two connections but his checked luggage did not.
The connection in Auckland was trouble, because we left San Francisco 90 minutes late. I had to make a mad dash for the gate in Auckland to make the final connection to Brisbane.
Ready to depart from Seattle-Tacoma airport’s Terminal A. At the top right of the picture is the new skybridge for international arrivals.Here’s the trouble, at San Francisco airport. The check-in desk is getting swamped, because a large number of passengers with bar-coded boarding passes, had to have their documents & New Zealand visas checked one more time (my boarding pass did not have ‘TRAVEL READY’ printed on it). The computer system failed, and processing one passenger would take 5 minutes. I showed the agent my NZ visa on my phone, and the system could not pick it up. United Airlines— and New Zealand— SURELY this is not the first time you fly passengers from SFO to New Zealand. Why has this not been fixed?Sunrise over the south Pacific Ocean, from 38,000 feet up.Here’s beautiful and spectacular New Zealand, on our final approach into Auckland International airport on the North Island.Auckland international airport. I know I’m late, but I still wanted to snap this picture of the Boeing 777-200 that had flown us across the Pacific Ocean for 13 hours.The late arrival into Auckland international airport made me run all the way to the other side of the international terminal at Auckland airport: a good 1/2 mile.The final leg of the trip from Auckland to Brisbane. We are still crossing time zones in the western direction, but now gaining two hours back. So the Seattle +19 hours at Auckland became Seattle +17 hours in Brisbane.Here’s New Zealand Air’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner bird that left Auckland, at the gate at Brisbane.The Airport Line stops at Brisbane International airport’s domestic terminal and at the international terminal. I took the train to Park Road Station south of downtown Brisbane to get to the apartment that I will stay in (next to the one my brother and his family had rented).
I’m in the United Airlines lounge across from gate A10 (in Terminal A) here at Sea-Tac airport.
I have a short layover in San Francisco— if my Airbus A319 is going to pull up at the arrival gate by more than 30 mins late, I’m going to have to hurry up to board the flight to Auckland. (Looks like an on-time departure here out of Seattle, so it should be fine).
Unfortunately there is no view of tarmac from inside the United lounge here at gate A10. Check out these vintage photos mounted on the walls, though. The ‘Mainliner 300’ is the name United Airlines gave to the Douglas DC-6: a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. This picture of a United Airlines ‘Mainliner 300’ over San Francisco is probably from the late ’40s or early ’50s. ‘Streaking across the continent at an average speed of 6 miles a minute, United Airlines’ great new Mainliner 300, the Douglas DC-6, on March 29 established a new coast-to-coast record of 6 hours 47 minutes 13 seconds for commercial planes’ — from a newspaper report in 1947.
Here we are in October of 2022, and the time has finally come for my first post-Covid international trip. I have one bout of Covid (in June) and five vaccine shots under the belt. And I have my flu shot for when I come back to the United States.
Yes, I am taking my vaccine card, and I have a QR-code for it on my phone, but neither New Zealand (a transit stop) nor Australia (my final destination) require quarantine, health forms to be filled out or even proof of vaccination. Nada.
I will certainly take my mask to the airport and onto the airplane, so that I can put it on if I feel uncomfortable, or if I have to go to the confined space of the airplane lavatory.
I leave tomorrow night (Tuesday), with stops in San Francisco and in Auckland, New Zealand. Final destination Brisbane, Australia. My flights will take me west and south, across the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean and across the international date line. There’s Hawaii to the left of the flight path (top image), and then it’s on to New Zealand’s North Island for a stop at Auckland. Then on to Brisbane, in Australia’s state of Queensland. [Images of Earth generated by Google Earth]
‘O’ for Oktoberfest. The new Oktoberfest motif has a traditional Bavarian look.
Hey! Oktoberfest is back.
The festivities kick off officially on the second to last Saturday in September at noon when the mayor of Munich taps the first barrel at the Schottenhamel Tent, crying O’zapft is!*
*Bavarian dialect for “Es ist angezapft” – literally meaning ‘It has been tapped’.
Mayor Dirk Reiter needed three strikes with the mallet to open the barrel on Saturday, which is considered ‘normal’. In 1950, then-mayor Thomas Wimmer needed 19 strikes, ‘a sad record to this day’, reports Stern magazine. Picture by Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images]
My short stay in San Diego was over on Monday morning, and Alaska Airlines brought me back to Seattle.
There it is: the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 with its little winglets on the tips of the wings, at Gate 34 of Terminal 2 at San Diego airport.Here’s beautiful blue Lake Tahoe, straddling the border of (northern) California and Nevada. There would be snow on the ground in winter time. On the bottom left are the runways of Minden-Tahoe Airport, and on the bottom right is Carson City in Nevada.Almost home now, over Tacoma, Washington State. That would be the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge linking Tacoma & the Kitsap Peninsula. The runways at top left are those of Tacoma Narrows Airport (not served by any commercial carriers).Seattle-Tacoma Airport’s North Terminal has undergone a renovation for several years now, and the work is almost complete. The large art installation on the wall is called Boundary (2021) by artist John Grade. The wood that he used is Alaskan yellow cedar and the dimensions are 40’ x 85’ x 25’.
Balboa Park is a 1,200-acre historic and urban, cultural park in San Diego.
The park was originally called ‘City Park’, but was renamed after Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, in honor of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, held in the park that year.
The architecture of the buildings in Balboa Park are a mix of Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival style.
My brother and I have been to the San Diego Zoo (next to Balboa Park) many, many times, and we decided it was time to take a look inside the Natural History Museum instead. This is the main entrance.The original ‘Jaws’ .. a megalodon model on display in the main exhibition hall. The model is very accurate, and shows the electroreceptors on the shark’s nose between the nostrils. These receptors are filled with a jelly-like substance which help the shark to pick up electrical fields in the surrounding water. They can detect even the slightest of electrical pulses from the muscle movement of potential prey. Megalodons lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago, and are relatives of today’s great white sharks.Another view of the main exhibition hall, with a Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) top left. These slow-moving sea creatures grew to 9 m (30 ft) and 8-10 tons and had relatively few predators, but were easy prey for humans. Within 27 years of its discovery by Europeans in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia, the slow-moving and easily-caught mammal was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide. The year was 1768.The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. They became extinct in the wild in 1987, at which point only 22 birds in captivity remained. Breeding programs at San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Zoo were launched, and as of December 2020 there were 504 California condors living wild or in captivity.The Balboa Park Botanical Building. Built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, along with the adjacent Lily Pond and Lagoon, the historic building is one of the largest lath structures in the world.The beautiful façade at the entrance of the San Diego Museum of Art has detailed full-body sculptures of artists Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán.The nearly 200-foot-tall Tower and Dome of the California Building are covered with intricate carvings, colorful tile, and glass beads.
This morning’s surf report for Cardiff State Beach near Encinitas, at 8.35 am : gentle (1-2 feet) with onshore wind, 9 mph.
There are a few surfers in the water already (to the far left).
The little marine layer of cloud will soon be gone, but the highs were to get to oh, a pleasant 78 °F (26 °C).
The little low wall is to keep the high tide from reaching to bottom of the stairs to the lifeguard shack.
I was at Seattle-Tacoma airport today for the first time in almost three years— to fly out to visit my brother in San Diego.
It seemed to me that 1 in 10 travelers at the airport was wearing a mask. (I was one. Yes, I have had COVID, but I am trying hard not to get it again). My seat was all the way in front, and I could board in the first group, but I waited for almost everyone to board before I stepped on board.
We took off from the longest of the three parallel runways at Sea-Tac airport (16R/34L), in a northerly direction, and then our Boeing 737-900 bird made a sweeping turn over West Seattle to fly down south along the Pacific Coast.
The flight went without incident, but at our arrival at San Diego at 1.15 p.m. or so, we were held at the gate for 30 minutes before we could enter the terminal just as it was being cleared out completely. (Lots of people— thousands of people).
It was later reported that around 12:25 p.m. a traveler had taken a carry-on that had been identified for additional screening and walked away with it. When TSA officers couldn’t find him they decided to clear passengers out of Terminal 2 West & East.
Luckily, I could still get my checked bag from the carousel, and vamoose.
I am sure many hundreds of people missed their connections.
As I left the airport building, the line of people waiting to get back in, and of those that had just arrived to go somewhere, stretched as far as the eye could see, and then even further.
The view from inside the Alaska Airlines lounge near the main terminal. On the left are the C gates.We’re approaching San Diego, and below is Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Miramar was the site of the real TOPGUN flight school made famous by the movie Top Gun (1986).The Pacific Ocean below, of course, with Dana Point Harbor to the right of center on the coast (some distance south of greater Los Angeles).
There is tennis in Miami this week: the annual Miami Open, a tournament that I attended in person in 1990, during my maiden visit to the United States.
Up-and-coming superstar from Spain, Carlos Alcaraz (18), ousted Stefanos Tsitsipas (23) in spectacular fashion on Tuesday. Alcaraz will face Miomir Kecmanović (22) from Serbia for a place in the semi-final.
This between-the-legs shot (also called a ‘tweener’) from Alcaraz came early in the match against Tsitsipas On Tuesday, at 1-1. Alcaraz had to run back to retrieve a lob from Tsitsipas, and there was no time to turn around. It won Alcaraz the point. [Still image from streaming service Tennis TV]March 1990. My brother Chris and I, before hitting a few balls on the green clay court of the Miami Intercontinental hotel on the third floor. We were there to see our brother Piet play in the Miami Open for real (he was a professional tennis player). At that time it was only the 6th year that the tournament was held. It was billed as the 1990 Lipton International Players Championships.
I am using Adobe Premiere Elements*, to cut up and make .mp4 files of the enormous .VOB files of digitized film & analog video footage that I have, of old family trips. The recordings were shot on film and analog camcorder in the ’70s to early ’90s. My dad had done the digitization many years ago.
I keep the clip lengths to 2-3 minutes.
*Video editing software; the bare-bones basic version of Adobe Premiere Pro.
ON THE PLUS SIDE:
I have three layers of still picture/video and five layers of audio available to work with. That’s a lot. I have a digital scalpel that I can use to look at, and slice in, between two video frames or a split-second of sound (down to 1/30 of a second). I can add in titles, and fix the worst quality defects of the video (such as enlarging the projected image slightly, to erase its black border; or adjusting overall lighting & color hue).
IN THE MINUS COLUMN:
The dreaded Adobe .PREL (for ‘preliminary’, I think) files take a long time to load and render, even with my brand-new PC with 16Gb of memory and unlimited hard disk space (6 Tb).
The automatic save every 10 mins stopped me dead in my tracks for 2 mins at a time. I changed it to 20 mins. (Cancel it, and you risk losing a lot of work). DO NOT mess around with moving files or renaming them. Adobe does not like that, and will give you a ‘Media Pending’ message or black screen, the next time you pull up your .PREL file.
Here are a few stills from a 3 minute clip of scenes at Victoria Falls, 1975 in then-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
I created a title screen with a Google Earth still image of the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls, and then the text scrolls in from left to right, and scrolls off after 5 seconds.I created just one more slide to set the stage. I combined a still photo with an Adobe Title Page (the white text). It stays in place for 8 seconds (lots of text to read) and then the video moves on to the real footage I had to work with, from 1975. (Oops .. 108 should be 108 m. Will fix it).ALL RIGHT .. that’s the 1975 version of me, in the blue shirt. Brother Chris in front of me with the red and black shirt. We were boarding the sight-seeing boat that cruises the Zambezi river upstream of the falls. There is audio now, circa 1995: a discussion among my family (with me included; my voice sounds weird, the way it always does, of course) of our memories of the trip. This conversation was captured during the projection of the 8mm film on a white screen, in order to capture the footage with a VHS machine on magnetic tape, with the audio.We are on the Zambezi river, and the voice-over conversation is speculating what would have happened if the engine of the boat had stopped at that time, with the falls just 1/2 a mile away downstream. Cool sightseeing airplane comes over. It flies a little too low, maybe?We had stopped at an island in the Zambezi for tea and biscuits. These monkeys would sneak up to an unsuspecting homo sapiens holding a biscuit, grab it, and make off into the trees. I added the text caption as a scroll-in. I picked a large, clear, light font that is should be easily readable to the viewer, without obscuring anything in the picture too much.On to the Falls itself. There is continued voice-over from the family discussion. It is all in Afrikaans, so I am trying to be helpful with an annotation here and there, that scrolls in, sticks around for a few seconds, and scrolls out of the frame. Be careful not to overdo the add-ons, with the arsenal of editing tools at your disposal, I told myself.Victoria Bridge. The gorges are the zig-zag cuts that the river’s flow had made in the bedrock over the ages.Final scene, all of three minutes in. I ended it with the Adobe ‘Dip to Black’ scene transition, to black out the frame, indicating that it’s the end of this video clip. I forgot to mention that I had added an ‘Adjustment Layer’ overlay to the entire clip to lighten up the footage a little bit; it was too dark. I might have overdone the lightening .. will take on more look before I render the clip and export it to .mp4 format from this .PREL format.
The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/ national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.
– Inscription on page 2 of the US passport, below a depiction of The Great Seal of the United States (the bald eagle that clutches the Olive branch and the arrows that denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress).
My new passport arrived today.
The entire picture page is a sturdy plastic (polycarbonate), like a thin credit card (shown below).
There is an embedded data chip on the information page.
The alphanumeric passport number is laser cut as perforated holes, that get smaller all through the 26 pages of the passport book.
Other security features include a watermark, ‘tactile features’ and ‘optically variable’ inks.
The Next Generation Passport has been issued since March 2021. [Image from https://travel.state.gov/]
Belgium’s new passports (issued as of today) have pages in that feature images from the country’s comic book heritage.
The characters making an appearance are Lucky Luke, The Smurfs (yes, the Smurfs were created in Belgium in 1958), and Hergé’s Tintin.
A passport ready for space travel? Sophie Wilmes, Belgian Foreign Minister, shows the new Belgian international passport with its drawing of the rocket from the Tintin adventures Objectif Lune (‘Destination Moon’, first published 1953) and On a Marché Sur la Lune (‘Explorers on the Moon’, 1954). [Photo: Benoit Doppagne/ DPA]Visa pages in the new Belgian passport with a background drawing by Hergé, from Les Sept Boules de Cristal (‘The Seven Crystal Balls’, 1948). The figures walking towards the chateau are Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy. [Photo: DPA]
