Search Results : london

Wandering London – The Odd and Overlooked

 London
Nov 152023
 

November 2023

I am in London to enjoy the company of friends, see a few plays, eat some good food, and just enjoy the architecture and people of this wonderful city.

I am staying right on the Thames at Broken Wharf, looking down on a spot where I went mudlarking last year.  It affords me a view of the Millennium Bridge from my window.

On the 13th of November, I did nothing but walk and walk and walk The City of London and the Southbank areas of London. This post is just a little of what I encountered.

Public Art

 


It is always fun to see what people are taking pictures of, most being selfies.  So, as I was wandering, taking photos of this art on the bridge, I noticed that others had seen it too.  These are itty bitty pieces of art that were once chewing gum. This is the work of Ben Wilson. For over ten years, he has been changing the chewing gum blobs you see on all the streets in the world, but in this case, London, into art.  He uses a blowtorch, acrylic paint, and lacquer. Wilson has been arrested several times, but since he sticks to gum, he is not actually doing anything illegal.  I was glad to grab these shots, as I have read the city plans on getting rid of them in a clean-up job next month.  I doubt it will matter. I am sure Wilson will be back. He has a never-ending canvas.

On my very last day in London, I was looking out my window at the Millennium Bridge and saw what I thought might be the artist.  I dashed over and, sure enough, was able to get a picture of the man in action.

 

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man

The Seven Ages of Man is a major piece of work by Richard Kindersley, who studied lettering and sculpture at Cambridge School of Art and in the workshop of his father, David Kindersley, who was also a noted stone carver.

Monument to the Unknown Artist

This is an animatronic man. Although the day I was there, he did not move.  I have seen pictures of it in varying positions. Apparently, it will mimic someone standing and posing in front of it.  The plinth reads, “Don’t Applause, Just throw Money”. The piece stands near the Tate Modern and is by the artist collective Greyworld.

Historical Tidbits

Memorial to Mahomet Weyonomon at Southwark Cathedral

The Southwark Cathedral, while easy to find, is tucked aside a considerable amount of construction, somewhat under the Southwark Bridge and behind the Borough Market.

The area has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but the cathedral dates to the creation of the Diocese of Southwark in 1905.

The shell above is a monument to Mahomet Weyonomon. (c. 1700 – 11 August 1736). He was a Native American tribal chieftain of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut. He traveled to England in 1735 to petition King George II for better treatment of his people.

He contracted smallpox before ever being able to see the King.  As a foreigner, he wasn’t able to be buried in the church, so he was quietly buried outside in the dead of night.

In November 2006, Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the memorial. The sculpture is by British artist Peter Randall-Page.

Southwark Cathedral is one of the starting points on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.

Seated on the bench behind the cross is a statue of William Shakespeare. There is also one inside of the church. Shakespeare was a member of the parish, and there is a celebration at the cathedral every year on his birthday.

The Ferryman’s Seat

Also in the area of the Southwark bridge is the last remaining of a boatman’s perch that apparently were all over the south bank of the Thames.

Before the London Bridge was built, the only way to cross was by “wherrymen”.  They would perch on these stones, waiting for a passenger.

Aldgate Pump

We so often pass things like this in the streets of any city, and in truth, this pump has a bit of a macabre story attached.  Water fountains like this can be found all over many cities in the world as a source of fresh water for the neighborhood.  The Algate fountain was prized due to the fact that the water was rich in calcium.  Unfortunately, after a period of time when people complained that the water tasted funny, they found that the river that fed the pump flowed right through a cemetery, picking up a lot more than the calcium from the bones.  This is probably not as bad as the Cholera Pump in Broad Street that I visited last December, but stomach-churning nonetheless.

Lloyd’s Building by Richard Rogers in London

Not far from the Aldgate pump is this striking building.  Arch Daily put it perfectly: Completed in 1986, the Lloyd’s building brought a high-tech architectural aesthetic to the medieval financial district of London.

Panyer Alley Boy

No one knows anything about this little sculpture, and yet it has pride of place. The plaque below was not part of the original. It is not where it originally started, where that was no one knows, and what he means and what he is doing is just as lost. Let me lift just one line from Hidden London’s explanation: What does the stone depict? Most authorities have been in no doubt that the boy is sitting on a bread pannier, but others have supposed it to be a fruit basket or a woolsack, while one commentator felt that it “resembles more a coil of rope.”

Parks

Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Postman’s Park

As in most big cities, the tiny parks that are scattered around are always a pleasure to find, if just to sit.  Postman’s Park is exactly that.  The plaque above sits near a long row of covered benches, a nice respite from the rain that was beginning to come down.

The plaque from 1900 was a project by George Frederic Watts honoring the bravery of ordinary people, policemen, and firemen who gave their lives to save others. Throughout the park, you will find individual plaques to the heroes themselves.

Goldsmith’s Garden

This gold leopard is the trademark of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Not only are they the landowners of this public garden, but they are also one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London.

Their guild was established in 1327 and was responsible for the inspection and branding of all precious metals within the realm of the ruling monarchs.

Goldsmiths Garden

While hard to tell, the garden is actually sunken. In the corner, you can see the sculpture “The Three Printers.” The piece was commissioned by the Westminster Press Group and is the work of Wilfred Dudeney. It depicts a trio of figures that represent the newspaper trade that was once prevalent along Fleet Street.

The Cornhill Devils

Waaay high up on a building on Cornhill are a series of terracotta devils. The building itself was designed by architect Ernest Augustus Runtz in 1893. It is said that the vicar of St Peter’s Cornhill was unhappy with the plans for this new terracotta structure as it strayed onto the church’s property. Runtz had to change his plans, incurring costs and frustration, and so he added the ornamentation to get back at the vicar.

The Philpot Lane Mice

Little things like this always intrigue me, and if I learn of one, I go track it down.  Who really knows why these two mice are on the side of a building? But there is an adorable story of how they came to be, of course, most likely made up, but cute nonetheless.

It is said that in 1862, while the building was under construction, two workers started arguing over the whereabouts of their lunch. The argument eventually came to fisticuffs, with one man falling to his death.    Only later was the lunch found with two mice eating away at it.  To commemorate their fallen comrade, the workers added the sculpture.

London is a magical city, and the heart of it The City of London is a paradise for history lovers, architecture lovers, and the curious.  I will never tire of wandering aimlessly through its streets.

 

 

 

Wandering London in the Pouring Rain

 London, United Kingdom
Nov 152023
 

November 14, 2023

Blackfriar Pub

I began my day at Blackfriars Bridge.  Blackfriars originated as a Dominican friary founded in the year 1278. The name Blackfriars comes from the color of the robes that the Dominicans wore.

I had the best of intentions of wandering the Farringdon Neighborhood all day today.  The rain began around noon and continued to come down so hard that I made my way back to my hotel to write, dry off, and watch the rain fall on the Thames through the window.

Here is what I did manage to see.

Smithfield

One of the few places in London to escape the fire of 1666, the market’s neighborhood is a treasure chest of remarkable buildings.

The hospital that turned 900 years old this year and a largely Norman church in whose converted chapel a teenage Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer. In the area, one can find Renaissance-era schools and Turnbull Street, which Shakespeare mentions in Henry IV, Part 2 when Falstaff ridicules Justice Shallow for prating about “the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street”.

Smithfield witnessed the execution of William “Braveheart” Wallace and, during Mary I’s attempted reversal of the English Reformation, the burning at the stake of many Protestant Londoners. And a mere 200 years ago, men reputedly sold their wives at the Smithfield Market. Wife selling in England probably began in the late 17th century. It was essentially a form of divorce, which was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest.

The Smithfield Neighborhood

There is evidence that this neighborhood dates from the Bronze Age.  The vast difference in architecture throughout the neighborhood shows that it has gone through many changes over the decades.

Ornamentation on the Smithfield Meat Market

The Smithfield Meat Market was designed by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones in the second half of the 19th century. The market once dominated this area. That is changing. By 2025, Smithfield’s 1960s Poultry Market nearby will reopen as the home of the Museum of London, while the elaborate Victorian Central Market will subsequently relaunch as a combined food hall/conference center/co-working space in a redesign led by Studio Egret West.

 

The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse dates to the 14th century when, in 1348, Walter Manny purchased a 13-acre plot of land in Spital Croft from the Brethren of St Bartholomew.  Manny established a Carthusian priory, and that is where it takes its name from.

The building has had many historic and interesting tenants and has also been altered and built upon so that not much of the original building remains.

Charterhouse continues to serve as an almshouse to over 40 older people, known as Brothers, who are in need of financial support and companionship. Since 2017, women have been accepted as Brothers. It is open to the public in partnership with the Museum of London.

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Charterhouse Square

This area is littered with plaque pits. It is thought that the one under Charterhouse Square could be the grave of as many as 50,000 Londoners.  The pits were necessary as the plague, which wiped out 60% of London, happened too fast to bury people properly.  The pits were discovered during the construction of a Crossrail project.

One of the skeletons found during the Crossrail project is displayed in the Charterhouse Museum.

This stunning art deco building is the Fox and Anchor. It was designed by architect Latham Withall and built in 1898 by W. H. Lascelles & Co.. The architectural ceramics and sculptures are by Royal Doulton and designed by W.J. Neatby in the British Art Nouveau style.

As I quickly walked home before my umbrella could give way and I would be ankle-deep in water, I was able to capture these last two shots.

The Golden Boy of Pye Corner

The Golden Boy of Pye Corner from the 17th century. It marks the spot where the 1666 Great Fire of London was stopped.  The statue of a naked boy is made of wood and was originally winged.  The Monument to the Great Fire marks where the fire started.

Last year, when I walked by St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, it was covered in scaffolding.  This time, I was able to see the only statue of Henry VIII, dressed in his resplendent style, on display in all of London. It was erected in this gatehouse in 1702 to acknowledge that in 1546, Henry granted St Bartholomew’s to the City of London.

I had begun to explore this area last December when I was here, and today, despite my day being cut short, I was glad to get back to it.

This area isn’t as touristy as other parts of London and had its rough times in the 70s and 80s, but the number of new hip restaurants and pubs is a sign it is coming back with a vengeance, and that makes it a fun area to explore.

 

 

 

Visiting London for Food and Fun

 London
Nov 152023
 

November 2023

I am leaving London with a heavy heart, despite the knowledge I will be back in a short seven months.

This trip was to visit friends, dine out, and see a few plays.  I managed to do a lot more, but here are the plays I saw and the places I dined, none of which would have been possible if my dear friend Susan had not made all the play reservations and all the dinner plans.

Plays

Guys and Dolls at the Bridge Theater.  This is fabulous; you laugh all the way through, and when you aren’t laughing, you are humming the lyrics to all the songs.  The acting was sublime, with the standouts being Daniel Mays as Nathan Detroit and Marisha Wallace as Adelaide.

Below is another stand-out actor in the show, Cedric Neal, as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

 

Frank and Percy at The Other Palace was really wonderful.  One need not speak of how great the actors were; you expected that, but these two gentlemen brought all the emotions that go with daily life, facing aging and accepting love.

Kenneth Branagh directs and plays the title role in King Lear at the Wyndham Theater.  This play got trounced in the reviews, but while I found a few of the characters as pathetic as milk toast in their acting abilities, I truly enjoyed the play.

Dining Out

Tea at Claridges

Tea is always special, and with Christmas decorations, especially so.  The tea at Claridge’s is absolutely worth every penny.

Aulis

Aulis is a 12-seat restaurant with a fifteen-course meal.  The first few courses were in a small room where we gathered at small tables.  The food was brought out and explained.  Then we moved to the main room, where the food was prepared to watch and learn. – I had the wine pairing as well.

The menu and the pictures say it all.

And, again, it was Susan who had the sense to take all the photos.

Gooseberry tart, raw sea bream in coal oil, radish, nasturtium, autumn shoots and flowers

Truffle pudding caramelized in birch. Corra Linn cheese and Wiltshire truffle

Truffle pudding caramelized in birch. Corra Linn cheese and Wiltshire truffle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Launceston Lamb belly with fermented beans and black garlic

 

Large white pork and Devonshire eel doughnut, cured pork fat, and Aulis blend of caviar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

West Coast turbot, Crown Prince pumpkin, lovage, and smoked bone sauce

14-day aged Creedy Carver duck, fermented Kalibos cabbage, Boltardy beetroots, and raspberry vinegar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frozen Turnworth cheese with London borage honey

Roasted juniper fudge tartlet with preserved perilla

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun and Offbeat in London

 London, United Kingdom
Jan 032023
 

December 2022

 

I took a Christmas-Food-themed walking tour put on by London Walks.  When discussing Christmas geese, we were brought to this very interesting little spot in Leadenhall.

In the 1800s, Old Tom, a gander from Ostend, Belgium, became a fixture in the market. Somehow Tom never made it to anyone’s dinner table and became a regular fixture at the market. He lived to the age of 37 when he died of natural causes and was buried on the market site.  He was so famous the Times ran his obituary on April 16th, 1835; it read:

‘This famous gander, while in stubble,
Fed freely, without care or trouble:
Grew fat with corn and sitting still,
And scarce could cross the barn-door sill:
And seldom waddled forth to cool
His belly in the neighbouring pool.
Transplanted to another scene,
He stalk’d in state o’er Calais-green,
With full five hundred geese behind,
To his superior care consign’d,
Whom readily he would engage
To lead in march ten miles a-stage.
Thus a decoy he lived and died,
The chief of geese, the poulterer’s pride.’

The crest of the Bakers Company London

When discussing pies and such, we stopped in front of the Bakers Company, which is essentially a bakers guild.  The manager was locking up and invited us in for a history lesson.  The chance stop was a delight and education into the livery system of London. The Bakers’ Company can trace its origins back to 1155 and is the City of London’s second oldest recorded guild.

Not far from the Bakers Company building is the monument to the 1666 London Fire.

The fire started in Pudding Lane shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 2nd, and spread rapidly.

The 1677 Monument to the Great Fire of London stands near London Bridge

Constructed between 1671 and 1677, ‘The Monument’ was built on the site of St Margaret – New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire.

It snowed about 2″ in London on the 12th

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In honor of gay pride and the mass shooting at the Orlando Gay Club in the US, London has installed some fun and supportive pedestrian traffic signals. There are several iterations, here are just two I was able to snap a picture of.

Pelicans of St. James Park

It was just a fluke I caught this fellow and his heron friend.  Due to the Avian Flu, all of the Pelicans of St. James Park have been rounded up and are being sequestered away from danger; I guess this guy didn’t get the memo. In 1664, pelicans were given to Charles II by a Russian Ambassador.  Over the course of history, there have been forty pelicans at St. James; there are presently six at the park: Sun, Moon, Star, Tiffany, Isla, and Gargi (who is actually wild and the only one without his wings clipped).

 

There are so many statues around London, as there are with any city with this much history.  It is worth admiring most of them, but hardly worth a discussion; these two are interesting for a story, and while not true, it is still fun.

Cromwell on the grounds of the House of Parliament

King Charles I over a door of St Margaret’s Church and across the street from Parliament

These two men as nemesis is a kind way of stating it.  For those not up on British history, Cromwell was responsible for the execution of King Charles. So as Cromwell sits on Parliament grounds with his head bowed in thought and, some say, “avoiding the gaze from King Charles” across the street, one has to wonder upon their relationship.

The problem with the myth of the statues is that Cromwell’s statue was erected in 1899 to a design by Sir William Thornycroft, and the bust of King Charles I wasn’t donated to the Church by The Society of King Charles the Martyr until 1956.

Have you ever thought about how long history has had postmarks? Fascinating, isn’t it?

The Signs of Lombard Street

The grasshopper was the family sign of Thomas Gresham, who lived here in the 16th century. Gresham founded the Royal Exchange, inspired by Antwerp’s Bourse. London’s first central trading hub was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.

The first record of a shop under the cat-a-fiddling was back in the reign of Henry VI (1422-16, then 1470-71). It was a second-hand clothes shop.

In 1290 King Edward I ruled that all Jews should be expelled from The City. Soon The City of London began to fill with Italians from Lombardy. Lombard Street and its environs became home to small goldsmiths or family-run banks.

Not all Londoners could read, and street numbers were only sporadically used from the early 1700s. So a hanging sign was a way to draw business to your shop.

Over the years, the signs disappeared, but on the occasion of Edward VII’s coronation, some were brought back.

A little bit of background. The City of London is a mere 1.12 square miles and is widely referred to simply as the City (differentiated from the phrase “the city of London” by capitalizing City). The City is a major business and financial center, with the Bank of England headquartered here.   The local authority for the City is the City of London Corporation, which is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities, such as being the police authority.  The corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London (an office separate from, and much older than, the Mayor of London).

Soho

One of the Noses of Soho

In 1997, artist Rick Buckley decided to stage a protest against the appearance of CCTV cameras across the streets of London. And the concept of The Seven Noses of Soho was born.  The artist did this all on the QT, so many were removed immediately by the authorities and the like, but several remained to the delight of people such as myself.  Buckley came clean in 2011, and a hunt for the seven that remain is a fun way to pass the time.  I want to thank my friend Susan for her patience in my search, and it was actually she who spotted this one on Great Windmill Street; we never did find the one on Marble Arch.  Next visit, I hope to search for Tim Fishlock’s ears in his installation “The Walls Have Ears”.

I read the story of John Snow and the Cholera pump as a teen; I was rather thrilled to trip upon it in my wanderings of Soho.

The Cholera Pump of John Snow

In August 1854, Soho was struck with a severe cholera outbreak. A doctor in the area, John Snow, believed that sewage dumped into rivers and cesspools near town wells could contaminate water supplies and cause cholera outbreaks.

He suspected that the source of the outbreak was the public water pump on Broad Street. He used information from local hospitals and public records and specifically asked residents if they had drunk water from the pump.

“Within 250 yards of the spot where Cambridge Street joins Broad Street there were upwards of 500 fatal attacks of cholera in 10 days… As soon as I became acquainted with the situation and extent of this irruption (sic) of cholera, I suspected some contamination of the water of the much-frequented street-pump in Broad Street.”

On September 7th, 1854, Snow took his findings to local officials and convinced them to take the handle off the pump. It didn’t take long before the outbreak came to an end.

Researchers later discovered that the public well had been dug right next to a cesspit. A cloth diaper of a baby, who had contracted cholera from another source, was the source of the outbreak.

This has been a wonderful two months spent in the UK, with most of it centered in London.  I always say it takes a lifetime to get to know great cities like London; I am glad to have had this time to explore and learn what I did, even if it leaves me wanting more.

Cemeteries of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

I am an avowed taphophile, so visiting cemeteries is part of my travels wherever I go.  I made an intentional trip to Highgate, tour and all, but the others were pleasant happenstances.

Highgate

An act of Parliament created The London Cemetery Company in 1836. Stephen Geary, an architect, and the company’s founder appointed James Bunstone Bunning as the surveyor and David Ramsey, a renowned garden designer, as the landscape architect.


Over the next 20 years, Highgate became one of London’s most fashionable cemeteries. In 1854 the London Cemetery Company expanded by a further twenty acres. This new ground, now known as the East Cemetery, was opened in 1856.

This 37-acre cemetery is best known for the grave of Karl Marx.

In 1884, on the first anniversary of Marx’s death, around 6,000 people marched from Tottenham Court Road to the grave only to be turned away by police who, afraid of riots, had closed the cemetery. Marx was initially buried a few yards to the north, but in 1956 his grave was moved to its present location, and this giant memorial, funded by the British Communist Party, was erected.  You can see the original gravestone incorporated into the plinth. A ceremony is held here every year on the anniversary of his death, to the minute, at 2.30 pm.

The grave site of one of my favorite authors – Douglas Adams – author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

People leave pens at the base of Adams’s grave; I, for one, would have left a towel.  But there is a connection to the pens:

“Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the color blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to ballpoint life forms. And it was to this planet that unattended ballpoints would make their way, slipping away quietly through wormholes in space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely ballpointoid lifestyle, responding to highly ballpoint-oriented stimuli, and generally leading the ballpoint equivalent of the good life.”

Sculptor Anna Justine Mahler (Gucki) (1904-1988). Daughter of Gustav Mahler.

Gravesite of famous bare-knuckled fighter Thomas Sayers with his dog named Lion.

The lion Nero on the tomb of John Wombwell

George Wombwell (December 1777 – November 1850) was a famous menagerie exhibitor in Regency and early Victorian Britain. He founded Wombwell’s Travelling Menagerie.  It is said that Nero was so docile children could ride on his back.

A person with some whimsey

Someone with a good sense of humor.

St. Olaves

We had walked into St. Olaves in pursuit of Pepys.  A group of musicians had just finished their practice and were thrilled to talk about the church.

Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade.

Pepys recorded his daily life for almost ten years. This record of Pepys’s life is more than a million words long and is often regarded as Britain’s most celebrated diary; it has been a primary source for scholars regarding the English Restoration Period.

The entry to the churchyard of St. Olaves

Charles Dickens called St Olaves: My best-beloved churchyard.  The churchyard of St. Ghastly Grim.

In the crypt of St. Olaves

St. Pancras

I have already written about this small unique cemetery in Camden, but I wanted to make sure it got in the cemetery section as well, so here are a few from St. Pancras.

The Hardy Tree –

After photographing this and writing about it, the tree fell in a rainstorm.  It became infected with parasites in 2014, which is why there is a fence around it, and it finally succumbed to its illness on December 28th of this year. The Camden Council said that it is looking at ways to celebrate the fallen ash, including harvesting the wood of the Hardy Tree to make a commemorative object or planting a new tree in its place.

Burdett Coutts Monument

Burdett-Coutts monument is a memorial fountain and sundial of 1877.  Made of Portland stone, marble, granite, and red Mansfield stone, it was designed by G Highton of Brixton and manufactured by H Daniel & Co, cemetery masons of Highgate.

John Soane Monument

Saint Bartholomew The Great

These graves sit atop a plaque pit in the yard of Saint Bartholomew The Great Church.  The church and plaque pit has a fascinating history that I have written about before.

Westminster Abbey

While one doesn’t think of Westminster Abbey as a graveyard, there are over 3000 people buried in it.  There are also hundreds of honorary plaques to notable people throughout history.  I am only going to include two pieces I found that caught my eye.

Elizabeth Russell

Elizabeth Russel was baptized in the Abbey. Elizabeth I and the Countess of Sussex were her godmothers, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, her godfather. She was a maid of honor to the queen and died of consumption in 1601. The skull is a symbol of mortality.

Lady Elizabeth Nightingale

Lady Elizabeth Nightingale died in childbirth in 1731. The sculpture was done in 1761 by French stonemason LF Roubiliac. It depicts a very skeletal Grim Reaper emerging from what looks like a fireplace to spear the dying woman. Elizabeth’s husband, Joseph, fights in vain to save his wife from death.

Wandering the Outskirts of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace consists of the medieval great hall of a former royal residence, to which an Art Deco extension was added in the 1930s, described as a “masterpiece of modern design”.

The original palace was given to Edward II in 1305 by the Bishop of Durham. It is said that is was the favorite palace of Henry IV. Henry VIII passed much of his boyhood at Eltham, and was the last monarch to spend substantial amounts of money or time there.

The hammerbeam roof of the great hall is the third-largest of its type in England

The North Stone Bridge

The North Stone Bridge crossing the moat was rebuilt by Edward IV in the 1470s and is said to be the oldest working bridge in London. It had a drawbridge at one end which was discovered during repairs in 1912.

In 1933, Stephen Courtauld and his wife Virginia acquired a 99-year lease on the palace site and commissioned Seely & Paget to restore the hall and create a modern home attached to it.

Virginia’s bedroom with its marquetry and curved walls

Battersea

Designed by Sir Giles Scott, known for his architectural work on Waterloo Bridge, Liverpool Cathedral, and the red telephone box Battersea Power Station was the first of its kind, producing 400,000 kilowatts of electricity. The Power Station was completed by the British Electric Authority in 1948 and began operating in 1953. It became known as the ‘temple of power’ and was the largest power station in the UK.

The power station was closed down in 1983 and remained largely unused. John Broome, an entrepreneur and tourism adviser to Margaret Thatcher, was the visionary behind the rehabilitation of Battersea.  He got no further than removing the roof of the place to take the machinery out before rising costs killed the project. It took decades, and many owners before plans for the deteriorating ruin came to fruition. In 2012 Malaysian investors SP Setia and Sime Darby stepped in with designs by Rafael Viñoly, and that is what you see today.

The Power Station was renowned for its unique, lavish Art Deco interior, and a little of that can still be spotted here and there.

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Some of the interesting equipment was left in at the ceiling level.

Control Room B sits behind plexiglass in a restaurant and bar.  Difficult to photograph and access, at least it remains for posterity and awe.

Interior of Battersea

The buildings around Battersea Power Station that make up the redevelopment are interesting, and yet they are skyscrapers that are crowded together and thus, despite their unique architecture, are difficult to see and enjoy and even harder to photograph.

Gehry Partners-designed apartment and townhouse complex known as Prospect Place

All you can see of the new American Embassy building, designed by Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake from Battersea Power Station

 

 

 

Getting Around London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 292022
 

December 2022

Taxis

With the advent of Uber and Lyft filling the world with cheap rides from underpaid drivers, the London Cabbie is still a wonder and should be used as often as possible while in London.

One of the reasons is Knowledge. The Knowledge was introduced as a requirement for taxi drivers in 1865. There are thousands of streets and landmarks within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. Anyone who wants to drive a London cab must memorize them all: the Knowledge of London.

This is actually rather important as the amount of construction that is occurring in London means someone with The Knowledge can get you to your destination on time and without getting lost, as happened to me the only time I agreed to take an Uber.

There is a push in London to switch to electric taxis. They have a little bit different shape and cost £55,599.  I spoke with an older cab driver that didn’t mind the price but said there simply aren’t enough charging stations to make the system work. However, I have a feeling; despite pushback, the electric London cab is the future, as it was, for a short time, in the past.

London’s first horseless cabs were powered by electricity and were called Berseys, after their designer Walter C. Bersey. Twenty-five of them were introduced in August 1897. However, they proved costly and unreliable, and after one fatality, they were off the streets of London by 1900.

At Christmas, I stayed at a hotel off of Russell Square and spotted this lovely little shed. It is one of 13 cabmen’s shelters that still exist, out of an original 60, and only licensed drivers who have passed The Knowledge test are allowed inside.

The huts came about in the late 19th Century when George Armstrong, later to become editor of The Globe newspaper, was unable to hail a taxi during a blizzard because the drivers of the then horse-drawn cabs were staying warm in a nearby pub. In 1875 the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund was born.

Each hut was built no larger than a horse and cart, required by the Metropolitan Police rules because they stood on public highways. They provided shelter and food for drivers and had strict rules against swearing, gaming, gambling, and drinking alcohol.

Today the huts are owned by the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, and the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund is responsible for upkeep and maintenance, issuing annual licenses to those who run them.

The shelters’ have protected status, which means their restoration is expensive. Replacement materials must match the originals, including the color of the paint, Dulux Buckingham Paradise 1 Green.

Buses

Not easily spotted, the above bus is an AEC Routemaster designed by Douglas Scott. The first prototype was completed in September 1954, and the last one was delivered in 1968. Interestingly, no one really knows why London buses are red.

The Tube

There is a labyrinth in every one of London’s 270 tube stations.  Artist Mark Wallinger installed them to celebrate the Undergrounds’ 150th anniversary.

While each labyrinth is different, they all have a common graphic language.  They are rendered in black, white, and red and produced in vitreous enamel. At the entrance of each labyrinth is a red X.

According to the artist: the labyrinths serve as a spiritual metaphor for the daily journey commuters embark upon while traveling through the city. They also have a much broader meaning, as, throughout history, the labyrinth has been a symbol of the journeys of life itself.

Getting around London is fun, no matter the system, especially if you keep your eye out for the unusual.

Christmas Lights of London

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

The Lights at Kew Gardens

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Ten Lords a Leaping

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Christmas Around Town

The tree in Trafalgar Square has been an annual gift from the people of Norway to the people of Britain since 1947 in gratitude for Britain’s support during WW II.

The tree at Covent Garden Market

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The Mary Rose

 Portsmouth, United Kingdom, x
Nov 102023
 

Portsmouth UK

November 9th, 2023

The Mary Rose

If you want to get an honest and complete look at what naval service and war were like in the 1600s, 1700s, and early 1800s, visit Portsmouth, England.

The quality of education you receive while touring both the Mary Rose and the Victory is second to none.

The Mary Rose was a warship in Henry VIII’s “Army by Sea”, built in Portsmouth and launched in 1511. She had a career that spanned 34 years.

When Henry VIII came to power in 1509, he inherited a small navy from his father, with only a couple of sizeable ships. Henry commissioned two new ships to be built: the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate. The large vessels represented Henry’s ambition for naval expansion and to send a clear message to England’s enemies.

The Mary Rose required a huge amount of timber. It is said that around 40 acres worth of trees were used to build her. She was built to accommodate up to 700 sailors, soldiers, gunners, surgeons, and cooks.

In 1545, there were 140,000 men in the English forces on land and at sea. This was almost twice the population of London at the time.

The Mary Rose sank in the naval Battle of the Solent. The battle took place on the 18th and 19th of July 1545 during the Italian Wars between the fleets of Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England. The Solent lies between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

The Cowdray engraving of the battle of the Solent, 1545. The painting was lost in a fire, but copies remained.

When the Mary Rose went down, she took over 500 men with her to the bottom of the sea. However, there may have been up to  700 men on board, of which fewer than 40 survived.  Most of the skeletons recovered by archaeologists were of young men in their twenties. Scientific tests have also shown that her crew was diverse, with sailors from Europe, including Spain and Italy, and others from further away, including North Africa.

Sinking of the Mary Rose at the Battle of Solent

The Mary Rose was probably carrying supplies for two weeks when she sank.  This was an enormous quantity of supplies and weight.  These included 1800 kg of beef, 900 kg of pork, 750 fish, 3350 kg of hard unsweetened biscuits, and 31,500 liters of beer.

The only confirmed eyewitness, an unknown Flemish sailor who escaped from the sinking vessel, claims that the Mary Rose had fired all of her guns on one side and was turning when her sails were caught in a strong gust of wind, pushing the still open gunports below the waterline. Her reason for sinking is still debated today.

The recovery of the Mary Rose is a feat of modern science and tenacity that is rather incredible and one that took decades.

The search for and discovery of the Mary Rose was a result of the dedication of one man, the late Alexander McKee. McKee initiated ‘Project Solent Ships’ to investigate wrecks in the Solent. His hope was to find the Mary Rose.

Using sonar, the team discovered a strange shape underneath the seabed. Between 1968 and 1971, a team of volunteer divers explored the area.

On the first of May 1971, diver Percy Ackland found three of the port frames of the Mary Rose.

There were 27,831 dives made to the Mary Rose during the modern excavation project, equating to 22,710 hours on the seabed.

A committee was set up to consider many different methods of raising the hull. They decided to use a purpose-built lifting frame that would be attached by wires to steel bolts passing through the hull at carefully selected points. These points were spread evenly across the section of the ship, mainly in the major structural beams.

For the first 12 years, the Mary Rose was sprayed with chilled water to prevent it from drying out while scientists conducted research into its long-term conservation.

The Mary Rose team treated the timbers with polyethylene glycol to replace the degraded timber cells, requiring spray application under 98% humidity. For 19 years, while spraying was ongoing, the ship was sealed within an insulated hotbox.

In 2013, when the Mary Rose Museum was opened in Portsmouth, the sprays were turned off, although the ship remained in an insulated hotbox as it dried. The drying process was informed by complex computational fluid dynamics to ensure that all elements of the ship received the same temperature and relative humidity, preventing variation in drying rates and, therefore, warping, shrinking, and cracking. Over three years, 100 tons of water was removed from the ship. In 2015, the drying was complete.

A Canon from the Mary Rose

Over 26,000 artifacts and pieces of timber were raised from the seabed.  As well as the remains of about half the crew members and a dog used as a ratter. These are all nicely displayed throughout the museum.

A Ludus Anglicorum set (a predecessor of modern backgammon) owned by the master carpenter.

Coventry England

 Coventry, United Kingdom, x
Nov 082023
 

November 7, 2023

I am here to visit an old friend, James.  While he lives in Wales, we have agreed to meet in Coventry so we can gather with other friends in the area.

The town of Coventry was bombed rather heavily during WWII and then suffered from the classic concept of modernization, also known as urban renewal.

And yet, there is much to wonder at, starting with the Coventry Cathedral.

The church was bombed on November 14th, 1940.

The tower, spire, and outer wall of the church survived the bombing, but the rest of this historic building was destroyed. After the war, the cathedral was not rebuilt on site but left in ruins as a testament to the futility of war. The surviving spire of St Michael’s is 245 feet high and is the tallest structure in the city.

Sculpture within the ruins includes:

Reconciliation (originally named Reunion) is a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos. “The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the War. Europe was in shock; people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn’t only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting.”  In 1995, a copy of the sculpture was placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Bishop Huyshe Wolcott Yeatman-Biggs died in 1922 and was the first Bishop of the revived See of Coventry when St. Michael’s became a cathedral in 1918.  His bronze tomb was the only thing within the cathedral to survive the blitz, although one of the bishop’s hands, which holds a small model of the cathedral, was severed. The repaired statue can be found close to where it was originally laid.

Choir of Survivors, by German artist Helmut Heinze.

The new cathedral sits adjacent to the old cathedral.

The modern building is a stunning piece of architecture that is both an homage to the original and a piece of brutalist architecture that, while standing alone in its beauty, is such a compliment to the bombed-out original Cathedral, designed by architect Basil Spence.  It was Basil Spence’s idea to keep the ruins symbolically intact next to the new building.

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Both old and new buildings are constructed from the same type of sandstone. The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956. The interior is notable for its giant tapestry of Christ and the multicolored, abstract design of the Baptistry window that floods the interior with color.

The “Charred Cross” was created in January after the Blitz, when Reverend Howard asked the cathedral’s stone mason, ‘Jock’ Forbes, to make an altar from the rubble and place behind it a cross made from two charred oak beams that had fallen from the roof.

Packwood House

Packwood House is a timber-framed Tudor manor house in Packwood on the Solihull border near Lapworth, Warwickshire.

The house began as a modest timber-framed farmhouse constructed for John Fetherston between 1556 and 1560. In 1904, the house was purchased by Birmingham industrialist Alfred Ash. It was then inherited by Graham Baron Ash (Baron in this case being a name, not a title) in 1925, who spent the following two decades creating a house of Tudor character.

In 1941, Ash donated the house and gardens to the National Trust in memory of his parents but continued to live in the house until 1947.

The Yew Garden contains over 100 trees and was laid out in the mid-17th century by John Fetherston. The clipped yews are supposed to represent “The Sermon on the Mount”. Twelve great yews are known as the “Apostles,” and the four big specimens in the middle are ‘The Evangelists’. A tight spiral path lined with box hedges climbs a hummock named “The Mount”. The single yew that crowns the summit is known as “The Master”. The smaller yew trees are called “The Multitude” and were planted in the 19th century to replace an orchard.

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Kenilworth Castle

The first castle on this spot was established in the 1120s by the royal chamberlain Geoffrey de Clinton.

In 1266, Simon de Montfort held Kenilworth against the king in a six-month siege – one of the longest in English medieval history.

In the 14th century, John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III, developed the castle into a palace, building its great hall and lavish apartments.

The castle was a favored residence of the Lancastrian kings in the later Middle Ages. Henry V built a retreat here at the far end of the lake.

In 1563, Elizabeth I granted the castle to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who transformed Kenilworth into a palace. He famously entertained the queen here for 19 days of festivities in 1575.

The expanse in front, where the Great Dane is romping,  is a medieval earthen dam.  Built in the 13th century, for 400 years, it held back one of the largest man-made water defenses in Britain, an enormous lake, or mere.

It is possible that during its history, the dam was used as a tiltyard where jousting tournaments took place.  King Edward I attended such an event here in 1279 accompanied by 100 knights and their ladies.

The castle’s fortifications were dismantled in 1650 after the English Civil War. Later, the ruins became famous thanks in part to Walter Scott’s 1821 novel Kenilworth, which romanticized the story of Robert Dudley, his wife Amy Robsart, and Elizabeth I.

Walking Around Coventry


The elephant animal appears on the city’s coat of arms and is thought to signify the city’s strength in medieval times.

The Coventry Council House

The Coventry Council House is faced with Runcorn stone and roofed in Cotswold stone. The rich display of heraldic carvings, mostly centered around the main entrance, includes the arms of many historical characters associated with Coventry’s history, from the time of Edward the Confessor until the 16th Century.

The full list, although not all captured in this photograph, includes Edward the Confessor; Henry II; Queen Isabella; Edward III; Edward, the Black Prince; Richard ll; Henry VI; Queen Margaret; Queen Elizabeth l; Mary, Queen of Scots; James l; the Earls of Chester, Cornwall, and Northampton; the Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford; Neville, Earl of Warwick; Sir William Dugdale; Thomas Sharp; John Hales; Sir Thomas White; the Botoners and Swillingtons; Thomas Wheatley; Thomas Bond; William Ford; Dr. Philemon Holland; the Davenports: the Hopkins and Jesson families; Sir Skears Rew; the Harringtons of Coombe Abbey; the Berkeleys of Caludon Castle; the City of London; and the See (bishopric) of Lichfield and Coventry.

Coventry is a college town, and what remains of its history is small but also within a 5-minute walk of the train station and certainly worth a quick jump off the train to explore.  The other items in this post definitely require an automobile but are all doable within half of a day.

Wandering Boston’s Architecture

 Boston
May 302023
 

May 2023

Trinity Church and HH Richardson

Trinity Church

Our group has a tendency to drift toward H.H. Richardson buildings, and that is a good thing.  Boston is full of Richardson projects.

Henry Hobson Richardson (1838 – 1886) was an American architect best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of “the recognized trinity of American architecture.”

The exterior of the apse

Richardson’s most acclaimed early work is Trinity Church. The interior of the church is one of the leading examples of the arts and crafts aesthetic in the United States.

Trinity Church is the birthplace and archetype of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, characterized by a clay roof, polychromy, rough stone, heavy arches, and a massive tower. This style was soon adopted for a number of public buildings across the United States. The stone used was Dedham Granite.

Window Tracery

This stone window tracery came to Boston from the Church of St. Botolph in Boston, Lincolnshire, England.

It was removed by the authorities of St. Botolph’s church to make room for a modern organ chamber. An American visitor saw the stones piled up outside the church and requested that they become part of a church in America. He mentioned Trinity Church, “the last built and noblest,” as a potential home. In 1879 Canon Blenkin, the Vicar of St. Botolph’s, sent the tracery stones to Boston, where they were installed in the wall of the cloister “as a precious memorial of the church of our fathers.”

The original Puritans who came to settle in Boston in 1630 came from Boston in Lincolnshire, which is about 100 miles north of London. They named their new community after their old home in England. The name Boston is itself a smearing of St. Botolph’s town or St. Botolph’s stone.

The Sanctuary

The Pulpit

Ceiling of Trinity Church

Stained Glass window, Christ in Majesty, 1883, by John La Frage

Ornamentation on the exterior of the Parish House

Ornamentation on a nearby home designed by HH Richardson

Other Architecture of Boston


Boston, like so many cities of the 1800s, suffered devastating fires.  Brick became a very common building material after these fires in many cities across the country, including Boston.

The Armory of the First Corps of Cadets

The Armory was planned, constructed, and financed by the First Corps of Cadets, a Massachusetts military organization established in 1741. The Armory is the only remaining High Victorian armory in the City of Boston and a designated National Historic Landmark.

The four-story granite structure was designed by William Gibbons Preston and built beginning in 1891 and finished in 1897. Due to political unrest during the period, the building was designed to withstand mob violence. Its most prominent feature is its six-story tower.

In the late 1960s, the University of Massachusetts Boston leased the building and converted it into the university’s first library.

The tower, formerly known as the John Hancock, is New England’s tallest building at 790 feet, a distinction it has held since the Henry Cobb-designed spire was finished in 1976.

Isabella Stewart Gardner House and Museum

Much to my disappointment, a $118 million steel, glass, and copper-clad Renzo Piano expansion has been added to the Gardner Museum.  The addition, sadly, detracts immensely from the feel of the house.  The atrium is now closed to visitors, and the entrance to and exit from the museum feel sterile and hurried.

The 1901 structure was left almost entirely intact. A new wing now connects to the original museum through a glass passageway. The new four-story building houses visitor services,  a new 300-seat music hall,  a triple-height gallery for temporary exhibitions, a new lobby space, offices, and conservation facilities. Adjacent is a  second, smaller structure with a sloping glass roof that houses a greenhouse and apartments for artists-in-residence.

While I have no objection to the expansion, it has, in my opinion, radically taken away from the experience.

Architecture of Doha, Qatar

 Arabian Peninsula, Qatar
Jan 102023
 

January 2023

By now most people are familiar with Qatar thanks to the 2022 World Cup.  The capital, fastest growing city, and financial hub, Doha, is a truly lovely city with sensible planning, buildings by some of the world’s greatest architects, campuses of some of the world’s greatest universities, and greenery everywhere.

Just a small section of the Doha skyline with a multi-colored shopping center at the forefront

Dhow’s available for rent fill the harbor.

Historically, Doha, like much of the UAE, was dependent upon the water, and in particular pearl fishing, for income.  Dhows were the heart of the marine income.  India was one of the largest buyers of pearls, so interestingly, prior to Qatar’s independence, the Indian Rupee was the currency of the area.

The Souq Waqif

The souq was founded at least a century ago in the proximity of a dry river bed known as Wadi Musheireb. With the boom in prosperity in the 1990s, the Souq fell into decline, and most of it was destroyed in a fire in 2003. A restoration program was undertaken by the government in 2006. Buildings constructed after the 1950s were demolished and older structures were refurbished.

A five-star hotel is attached to the souq, built in a comparable style on the exterior.

Art on the campus of Texas A&M

Qatar is hoping to move into the future as an educational center.  For this reason, They created Education City, an academic campus which hosts satellite campuses from leading universities and institutions from around the world. They include: the University of Doha for Science & Technology, Community College of Qatar, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Lusail University, Qatar Aeronautical College, Qatar University, Hamad bin Khalifa University, University Foundation College Foreign university campuses, OUC with Liverpool John Moores University, University of Aberdeen, University of Calgary, University of the North Atlantic, Northumbria University, Academic Bridge Programme, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, HEC Paris in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Stenden University Qatar, Syscoms Institute, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, City University College, German University Qatar and University College London Qatar.

In the same area is The Library of Qatar designed by Rem Koolhas.

Entrance to the Qatar National Library designed by Rem Koolhaas

Qatar National Library contains the Heritage Collection, which consists of valuable texts and manuscripts related to the Arab-Islamic civilization. The public library houses over a million books and is part of Education City.

Rem Koolhaas: “We took a plate and folded its corners up to create terraces for the books, but also to enable access in the center of the room. You emerge immediately surrounded by literally every book – all physically present, visible, and accessible, without any particular effort. The library is a space that could contain an entire population, and also an entire population of books…”

The heritage collection is placed at the center of the library in a twenty foot-deep space, clad in beige travertine.

The I.M. Pei Foundation: The Museum of Islamic Art was I.M. Pei’s last major building, completed in 2008 just months before his 92nd birthday. In many ways, it was a summary of the driving forces in his full body of work, including respect for history and context, sculptural geometry, and the paramount importance of light.

Museum of Islamic Arts by I.M. Pei

Declining to build the structure on any of the proposed sites along the Corniche, upon Pei’s insistence, a stand-alone island was created to ensure future buildings would never encroach on the Museum.

The view as you first walk in

The ceiling is embellished with coffered domes, and perforated metal chandeliers in the atrium.

An exterior courtyard with views across the water framed by the arched openings

A view of the skyline with the Jean Nouvel designed Qatar Tower. The tower is on the right and looks similar to a bullet.

Another Jean Nouvel building in Doha is the National Museum of Qatar, which takes its inspiration from the crystalline formations found in the deserts of the Arabian Area called a Desert Rose.

I found the building just stunning and marveled at the cast stone that covers a steel structure and the engineering of the panels. The building is composed of large interlocking disks, spherical in section, and of different diameters and varying curvatures. Some disks are ‘horizontal’ and rest on other disks.

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Spiral Mosque at Souq Waqif

Dedicated in 2008, Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Center was previously known as Fanar or Qatar Islamic Culture Center. It is also called the Spiral Mosque and functions as a cultural organization.  The Center is named after Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, a scholar and founder of Qatar’s judicial system.

The Msheireb Area

Msheireb means ‘a place to drink water’ in Arabic.

Qatar National Archives, designed by Allies and Morrison

The archive facility was built as part of the Msheireb Downtown Doha master plan, which was developed by Allies and Morrison in collaboration with Arup and Aecom.  The design of the master plan is what appears to be the first step toward creating Qatar’s vernacular architecture.

Mshreib is the world’s first fully built smart and sustainable city district.

With a 32% energy reduction goal, all buildings are targeting LEED Gold certification, with some buildings
targeting LEED Platinum. The streets within Msheireb are oriented to capture cool breezes from the Gulf and shade most pedestrian routes from the hot sun. Buildings are massed to shade one another and light-colored to reduce cooling requirements.

Abundant solar energy captured through photovoltaic solar panels and solar hot water panels on rooftops will be used to generate electricity and heat water within buildings.

The cooling system for the area is hidden behind this building.

Mshreib Mosque by John McAslan and Partners

Built in 2016, the mosque of Mshreib is so stunning in its simplicity.  The stunning melding of both Islamic and modern architecture is exquisite.

Mshreib’s transit system

The Torch Tower

Aspire Tower, also known as The Torch Doha, is a 980-foot skyscraper hotel located in the Aspire Zone complex. Designed by architect Hadi Simaan and AREP and engineer Ove Arup and Partners, the tower served as the focal point for the 15th Asian Games hosted by Qatar in December 2006.

The two towers of Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies Mosque in Education City. They point to Mecca.

A reconstructed ancient watch tower in Al Bidda Park

Qatar National Convention Center

Opened in 2011, the Qatar National Convention Center, designed by Arata Isozaki, is fronted with a classic ‘Sidra Tree’, the iconic symbol of the heritage of the country of Qatar. To the people of Qatar, the Sidra tree exemplifies perseverance, solidarity, and determination.

Education City Stadium built for the FIFA World Cup of 2022

Education City Stadium has a capacity of 40,000 seats. It has been given the nickname “Diamond in the Desert”. With 20 percent of its building materials identified as green, the stadium is among the world’s most environmentally sustainable stadiums.

Stadium 974 Stadium

Stadium 974 opened in 2021; it was a temporary venue made from 974 recycled shipping containers that hosted matches during the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup, after which dismantling began. It was the first temporary venue in FIFA World Cup history.

The Thumb by Cesar in the Souq Waqif

César Baldaccini (1921-1998) was born in Marseilles, France, and a key figure in the French 1960s art movement Noveau Réalisme, emphasizing the use of everyday objects over traditional art materials.

The original cast of the artist’s own thumb was first produced for an exhibition on the theme of hands titled Le Main in 1965 in Paris. The artist then made a series of increasingly larger versions of the thumb, scaling up the smaller model using traditional techniques. The motif of the thumb has since become the most well-known of the artist’s subjects.

Mounted Police in front of one of the Sheikh’s palaces

Qatar invested vast sums of money in expanding its cultural offerings ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup with statement buildings by some of the world’s preeminent architects. For this reason, Doha has a wonderful, liveable feel to it.  It appears to want to do things correctly when it comes to city planning and architecture, and from what I could see on this subject, they are on the right track.

 

 

 

Greenwich, To and From and Everything In Between

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

A trip from downtown London to Greenwich is about one hour.  As the sun was shining and the temperatures have risen to the low 50s, a boat down the Thames seemed the most delightful way to get to Greenwich today.

Original Columns of the Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Of course, there are bridges across the Thames; in fact, there are more than 200 bridges along the river, varying from small wooden crossings on the Upper Thames to large structures like Tower Bridge. But these red columns caught my eye. The red pillars are the remains of the Old Blackfriars Railway Bridge, which was built in 1864 by engineer Joseph Cubitt (1811-1872) for the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway (LC&DR).

From the river, you will see the classic London hot spots such as St Paul’s Cathedral.

St Pauls from the river

You will espy the freshly unwrapped Big Ben with the Parliament Building. The bells of the Elizabeth Tower have been silent for five years; they were brought back on Remembrance Day, November 13th of this year.

Big Ben and Parliament

And, of course, the London Eye.

Once past Canary Wharf, the boat picks up considerable speed and gets you to Greenwich in no time.

This city once relied completely on the River Thames for transportation, and the history of the Waterman is long and storied and worth the time to read about.  I found this boat of particular interest to the story.  The Thames Sailing Barge.

Thames Sailing Barge

A Thames sailing barge, once common on the River Thames, is a type of commercial sailing boat.  It is a flat-bottomed barge with a shallow draught with leeboards, perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary. The larger barges were seaworthy vessels, and the largest vessels maneuverable by just two men.

There is just one issue with these historic boats. Their masts are really rather tall. Thus getting under the Tower Bridge presented challenges.

Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge. ‘Bascule’ is a French word, which can be translated as a seesaw, and describes how the two sides of the road of Tower Bridge open.

Today there isn’t that much large traffic plying the Thames, and by the late 1960s, Tower Bridge only opened a few hundred times a year.  It is now fully automated and powered hydroelectrically.

Greenwich

I was here to visit the Royal Observatory, known for so many things, but mainly the home of what we now consider Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian.

If you stand with one foot on one side and the other on the left of the Prime Meridian, you are perfectly in the middle of the east and west.

The museums of the area are interesting, and watching the Greenwich Time Ball drop at 1:00 is fun, but there are other interesting things in the neighborhood that are a little different and what I would prefer to write about.

There are several public transit options in the attempt to return to Camden, but taking the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) was the most sensible for our return.  But an added adventure is to walk under the Thames and catch the DLR on the opposite side of the river.

The Entrance to the Greenwich Tunnel

The Greenwich tunnel links Cutty Sark to Island Gardens on the Isle of Dogs. Opened in 1902, the tunnel was built to replace a hugely unreliable ferry service that brought those who lived south of the river to work in the docks and shipyards.

The tunnel is 1,217 feet long and approximately 50 feet deep. Designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, it was opened in August 1902 at the cost of £127,000. The tunnel is lined with 200,000 glazed white tiles.

The use of a tunneling shield did the digging. However, the excavation was done entirely by hand. The tunnelers worked 24 hours in eight-hour shifts, managing to dig about 10 feet every 24 hours. The Greenwich Foot Tunnel was initially only accessible via a winding staircase, but lifts were added in 1904.

The elevators of the tunnel are octagonal and once had an attendant.  Why they are octagonal, I have not been able to determine.

A short length of the tunnel was damaged on the first night of the Blitz, September 7 and 8, 1940. Fortunately, the damage was repaired quickly, and the use of the tunnel could continue. The repairs included these exposed metal ring segments.

Standing on the Isle of Dogs and looking back at Greenwich.

I am not the only one to have admired this view.  Canaletto painted this view in 1750.

Canaletto arrived in England in 1746 and stayed for nearly a decade. This painting shows the riverfront at Greenwich with the Royal Naval Hospital and the Queen’s House. The hospital building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was also responsible for the Royal Observatory.

Looking up at Christopher Wren’s Royal Observatory from the bottom of the hill

One needs at least one full day to enjoy all Greenwich offers, but the trip is well worth it.

Saint Bartholomew The Great

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 212022
 

December 2022

We walked into this churchyard because we were looking for a plague pit, we found so much more.

St Bartholomew half-timbered, late 16th-century, Tudor frontage built on the older (13th-century) stone arch

St. Bartholomew Church is very intriguing from the street, and one can’t help but want to walk through that arched doorway even if you didn’t know what lay behind it.

The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123 by a man named Rahere.  While in Italy, Rahere had a vision, so he traveled to London, and with the help of servants and children, they gathered stones from all over London to build the structure.  The church is one of the oldest in London.

The tomb of Rahere

Having escaped the Great Fire of London of 1666, the church fell into disrepair and was occupied by squatters in the 18th century. The Lady chapel at the east end was used for commercial purposes and this is where Benjamin Franklin worked for a year as a journeyman printer in the 1720s. The north transept was also formerly used as a blacksmith’s forge.

The church was restored in stages in the 1890s. The Priory Church was one of the few City churches to escape damage during the Blitz and, in 1941, was where the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah Mitford were married.

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The area to the left behind the raised wall is a plaque pit.

The Great Plague of London saw the Black Death decimate over 15% of the city’s population (estimated at 100,000 people) between 1665 and 1666. During this scourge piles of bodies were tossed into deep pits in unconsecrated ground. Over the centuries people have begun to respect the anonymous inhabitants of these pits. There are efforts to map the pits.

Exiting through the Tudor covered 13th century stone arch.

As you enter the church you will find ‘Exquisite Pain’ by Damien Hirst.

Little is known about Saint Bartholomew other than he was one of the twelve Apostles. Tradition holds that after the Resurrection of Christ, he preached in India and Armenia, and was flayed alive in Armenia by order of a local king.

Hirst’s sculpture shows Bartholomew flayed alive, a scalpel in one hand and shears in the other, and carrying his own skin over his right arm. Hirst said the inspiration for his St Bartholomew came “from woodcuts and etchings I remember seeing when I was younger. As he was a martyr who was skinned alive, he was often used by artists and doctors to show human anatomy.” Hirst’s catholic upbringing exposed him to the legends of the saints “they are great stories and it is about… those guys… who all met these terrible ends…,” “everyone is a martyr really in life. So I think you can use that as an example of your own life, just that kind of involvement with the world. Just trying to find out what your life actually amounts to, in the end.”  “I added the scissors because I thought Edward Scissorhands was in a similarly tragic yet difficult position, “it has the feel of a rape of the innocents about it.”

It is said when you travel in Italy never pass a church without going in because of the great art work you will find.  I find this just as true here at Saint Bartholomew the Great.

Camden

 England, London
Dec 162022
 

December 2022

I have taken a flat in London for the month.  London, like most major cities in the world, has been visited, photographed, and Instagrammed to death.  I will not be writing about the major attractions while here, but the odd and obscure.

I am staying in the Camden Borough of London, it is gritty, edgy, and just perfect.

Saint Pancras Old Churchyard

My first exploration was, of course, to a graveyard.  The Saint Pancras Old Churchyard holds two things of interest, the Tomb of Sir John Sloan and the Hardy Tree.

The Hardy Tree in Saint Pancras Old Churchyard

In the mid-1860s, the railway companies cut a swath through the area that included the graveyard of Old St Pancras church. In doing their job, the railroads left a trail of corpses and disturbed coffins all around, forcing the Bishop of London to commission a firm of architects to make things right.

At the time, Victorian poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was a 25-year-old junior architect apprenticing to the firm hired to fix the graveyard. The low man on the totem pole apparently received the honors of this particular commission.

Hardy arranged the stones around the base of this tree.  I imagine it wasn’t quite so higgledy-piggledy originally and that the tree roots have made the jumble we see today.

The Soane Family Tomb

The Tomb of the family of Sir John Soane

One of the most renowned architects of his day, Sir John Soane, never got over his wife’s death in 1815, although he lived until 1837. Eliza was buried on December 1st, 1815, and Soane recorded in his diary: “Melancholy day indeed! The burial of all that is dear to me in this world and all I wished to live for.”

Sloan was the designer of a slew of monumental public buildings, including the Bank of England, churches, and country houses.

Some of the remaining ornamentation on the tomb

The memorial is made up of a  central marble cube of four faces for dedicatory inscriptions, enclosed by a marble canopy supported on four Ionic columns. Enclosing this central structure is a stone balustrade with a flight of steps down into the vault itself. The exterior has Sloane’s favorite emblems of Creativity and Eternity scattered around, the pineapple and the ouroboros.

There is an interesting twist to the story. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the designer of the Waterloo Bridge and Battersea Power Station, served as a trustee of Sir John Soane’s Museum for 35 years. Scott designed the classic red British Telephone Box, the K2, after winning a competition run by the Royal Fine Art Commission.  The K2, introduced in 1926, utilizes Sloane’s four-pillar structure.

George Basevi’s painting of Eliza Soane’s tomb

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The K2 Phone Box

Carreras Cigarette Factory

Another delightful building in my neighborhood is what once was the Carreras Cigarette Factory.  They had a line called Black Cat Cigarettes.  According to Cigarettespedia, Black Cat cigarettes were first introduced in 1904 and named for a black cat that used to sleep in the window of Carreras’ Wardour Street shop. It was there so frequently that passersby used to refer to the business as ‘the black cat shop’.

The factory was built in 1928 and designed by Marcus Evelyn Collins and Owen Hyman Collins. At the time, the building was the largest reinforced concrete factory in the country. It was also the first to install air conditioning and have a system for dust extraction.  Its Egyptian theme was part of the Egyptomania craze that circled the world after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

There are two of these stunning cats at the entrance to the building; they are not the originals. One was moved to the company’s new factory in Basildon, and the other to Jamaica in the 1950s. The majority of the Egyptian Art Deco details were destroyed in the 1960s when the building was remodeled for office space.

Black cat faces line the front of the building.

Something else in my neighborhood that you do not see on a sidewalk every day.

Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough AssociationThe Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was an association set up in London by Samuel Gurney in 1859 to provide free drinking water.

The Society was inaugurated in 1859 with the requirement “That no fountain be erected or promoted by the Association which shall not be so constructed as to ensure by filters, or other suitable means, the perfect purity and coldness of the water.”

In collaboration with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, troughs were built for horses, cattle, and dogs.  The above one is a cattle trough, and like many others that remain in London, it is planted with flowers.

I look forward to exploring more fun and unique in my neighborhood and around London.

Connecting the Past with the Modern

 England, London, United Kingdom
Dec 162022
 

December 2022

Roman Walls and the Tower of London

Some kind of fortification most likely completely surrounded the Roman city of Londinium. The portions of the wall still remaining date from between CE 190 and 225.

This section of the wall is built of rubble (mostly Kentish ragstone) bound in a hard mortar and faced on either side by roughly squared ragstone blocks. At every fifth or sixth course, the wall incorporates a horizontal band of red Roman tiles to ensure the courses remained level over long stretches of masonry.

The Roman wall survived well after the departure of the Romans in CE 410, through a long period during which the city seems to have been largely abandoned. The wall above the red Roman tiles would have been added over the years, beginning when it was repaired in the late Anglo-Saxon period. What survived became an important part of the city plan at the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Large parts of the wall were incorporated into the medieval defenses of the city.

Bastions were added to the wall sometime in the 4th century CE as spots for catapults or stone-throwing engines.

The 13th-century Beauchamp Tower marks the first large-scale use of brick as a building material in Britain since the 5th-century departure of the Romans.

Beauchamp (pronounced “Beecham”) Tower is a part of the inner defensive wall that once held high-ranking prisoners.

The writings and images are from prisoners from the 16th and 17th centuries, many of whom were confined for political or religious reasons.

Thomas Abel, the chaplain to Queen Katherine of Aragon, carved his name and a bell into the wall after he was imprisoned by King Henry VIII.

 

Lanterns in the Tower of London

When walking around the Tower of London, I noticed these beautiful lanterns.  However, the gold items were not that easy to discern, so I asked a Yeomen Warder. He pointed out that they were three cannons and that the Armory football team logo derives directly from those cannons.

When told stories in places like National Parks and active World Heritage Sites, I am impressed with the vast knowledge of the guides and attendants, but I still take much of it with a grain of salt.  Well…he was correct.

William I the Conquerer ordered the building of the Royal Arsenal in the 11th century. The arsenal was built in Norwich, the original home of the Arsenal Football team, to supply the Royal Armory.

The Teams first logo – 1905

 

Today’s logo of the Arsenal Football team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I saw the crown jewels and the ravens that are caged due to a worldwide outbreak of bird flu this year, but I thought these pieces of history to be much more fun.

A Day in Cambridge

 Cambridge
Nov 022022
 

As a tourist, I must admit I prefer Cambridge over Oxford.  Very simply because its entire downtown is pedestrian and it is not growing upwards so it still has a very comfortable spatial feel to it.

However…bicycle usage is overwhelming, which under normal circumstances I would applaud, but I am afraid the youthful, unfettered cyclists can make being a pedestrian a bit frightening at times.

Oddities

Reality Checkpoint

This lampost is smack in the middle of Parker’s Piece.  There are several theories as to how it got its name, but I am rather fond of the one that says it marks the boundary between the central university area of Cambridge (referred to as the “reality bubble”) and the “real world” of townspeople living beyond. One is warned to check one’s notions of reality before passing.

Corpus Clark

The Corpus Clock is fairly new considering most everything else in Cambridge as it dates from 2000.

  • The ripple design alludes to the Big Bang, with the center considered to show the beginning of time.
  • The ‘grasshopper’ that sits atop is actually a ‘Chronophage,’ which means time-eater, devouring each minute as it passes with a jaw that snaps shut.
  • When an hour strikes, there is no chime. Instead, one hears the shaking of chains and a hammer hitting a wooden coffin which represents the passing of time which ultimately leads to death. This is reinforced by the Latin inscription which sits underneath the clock – ‘Mundus transit et concupiscentia eius,’ meaning ‘the world and its desires pass away.’

As fitting a University the creation, construction, and completion of the clock was not a simple task.  Here is the story according to Oxford Summer Courses:

In theory, it goes all the way back to 1725 when Englishman John Harrison invents the grasshopper escapement – a mechanical cog-like device that helps to regulate a clock’s pendulum movement and reduce incorrect time readings.

In 1999, John C Taylor, one of Cambridge’s horologist alumni and inventor of the kettle returned to the city for the first time after having graduated in 1956. Having seen that his college – Corpus Christi – hadn’t changed in the 40 years since he was there, he offered the college the funds to transform the (once before) bank into a brand new library. To mark the occasion, Taylor also decided to add the iconic Corpus Chronophage which would occupy the old bank’s front door.

2001 – 2008: Working closely with local engineers, Huxley Bertram, Taylor, and the team worked on the construction of this impressive clock over seven years.

On his website, John C Taylor details his initial ideas for the clock:

‘I was inspired to create the Chronophage because of modern art. I’ve never been a fan of it, so I wanted to create something that was modern art but had a bit more to it. I wanted to find a new way of telling time.

My idea with the Chronophage was to turn the clock inside out, and then make the tiny little escapement and the grasshopper into the biggest gear on the clock. I wanted impact so I made it one and a half meters in diameter, with the grasshopper a meter long on the top and its legs were the pallets of the escapement which John Harrison designed. This means you can actually see the grasshopper escapement working.

 

The Teleport-o-matic

Hidden amongst some old-fashioned British Telephone Boxes is the Teleport-o-matic.  There are actually many of these around town.   These whimsical portals are by Dinky Doors and according to their website, Dinky Doors are miniature sculptures (with doors), lovingly made and hidden just out of plain sight in the beautiful city of Cambridge. They’re petite portals into other worlds, made with a dollop of humor to spark imaginations and make people smile.  They have a website where you can upload a map of them for a small fee.  If I only had more time.

Where you can find the Teleport-o-matic

Another Dinky Door I spotted.

Stage 3 was from Cambridge to London

Honors

Snowy Farr Sculpture

Just across the square is this unique piece of art. It is an homage to a gentleman named Walter “Snowy” Farr.  Farr raised thousands of British Pounds for The Guide Dogs of the Blind. He was usually seen in eccentric clothing, often incorporating antique military wear, and accompanied by tame animals, including mice, cats, dogs, and even a goat.

After his death in 1977, the Cambridge City Council hired sculptor Gary Webb to create this sculpture honoring Farr.

Honors at Kings College

Xu Zhimo Memorial

This stone sits on the Kings College Campus. Xu attended King’s College in 1922, where he fell in love with Romantic poetry and literature. Upon his return to China in 1923, he founded the Crescent Moon Society, after a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and taught English at Peking University. He is considered one of the most important figures of modern Chinese poetry. Xu returned to Kings College in 1928 and wrote a poem titled On Leaving Cambridge, of which the first and last lines appear on the stone. Xu died in a plane crash in 1931.

Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree

In 1948, Queens’ College was presented with a special apple tree, as recorded in The Dial: W. S. Rogers (Matric. 1922) has presented to the College an apple tree descended by grafting from the tree under which Newton is reputed to have made his discovery.

This tree is a grafted descendant of the original one at the home of Sir Isaac Newton’s mother in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. On a visit to his mother’s garden during his Cambridge days in the late 1660s, he observed a green apple fall from a tree and only then began to consider the mechanism that drove what is now termed Gravity.

Isaac Newton would spend the majority of his life and all his academic life at Trinity College. He spent the years 1661 to 1696, at the college, first as an undergraduate and then as a Fellow from 1667.

Having written that, it boggles the mind.  That is well over 350 years ago.

The Colleges of Cambridge

Kings College

Kings College Chapel

It is difficult to grasp the scale of Kings College, the chapel, as you see here is 289 feet long and 40 feet wide with an interior height of 80 feet and yet it is in keeping with the size of the other buildings in the school.

The first stone of the Chapel was laid, by Henry VI, on the Feast of St James the Apostle, July  25th, 1446, the College having been opened in 1441. By the end of the reign of Richard III (1485), despite the Wars of the Roses, five bays had been completed and a timber roof erected. Henry VII visited in 1506, paying for the work to resume and even leaving money so that the work could continue after his death. In 1515, under Henry VIII, the building was complete, however, it would take another 30 years to install the 26 sets of stained glass windows.

The ceiling of Kings College Chapel

Fan vault ceilings are always where my eyes go first when entering any building that is graced with one.  This fan vault ceiling just made me gape with awe.  It is the world’s largest fan vault, constructed between 1512 and 1515 by master mason John Wastell.

Front Door of the Chapel

This is where an Anglo gets frustrated with the royalty, that is not a judgment, just a statement that I have no understanding of the history of the UK and its royalty. There is so much symbolism in the work above the entry arch.  The heraldic carvings are the armorial devices of the House of Tudor. The Greyhound is an emblem of Lady Margaret Beaufort. The Tudor rose, incorporating the red rose of the House of Lancaster and the white rose of the House of York symbolizes Tudor’s links with both Royal Houses.  The Coat of Arms is the Royal Arms of England and the Dragon of Cadwallader (Wales) represents the Tudor family of Henry IV’s father.

The intricate carvings on the end of the Ante-Chapel

Carving on the interior of the Ante-Chapel

A small carving on the railings of the Choir. You will see carvings like this in most choirs of older churches and they are always a treat to find and enjoy

Queens College

Queens College Cloister Court

This series of buildings was built in 1460 and are now the oldest surviving buildings on the Banks of the River Cairn.  The Cloisters were built in the 1590s.

Queens College Chapel

The Chapel was designed by George F. Bodly and was consecrated in 1891. The design follows those of other College chapels with an aisleless nave and a row of pews on either side.

Queens Chapel – The Dial

There are pages and pages and pages written about this clock and sundial, but the truth is no one really knows who designed it or when.

The gardens at Queens College were just spectacular despite it being the heart of the fall.

Other buildings around the cloister at Queens College

The misnamed Mathematicians Bridge

Part of Queens College and probably one of the most photographed bridges in Cambridge is this wooden bridge.  The original bridge was constructed in oak in 1749 by William Etheredge. This existing bridge is made of teak and was completed in 1905.  It was not designed by Newton and has always had screws or bolts at the main joints.

Other Colleges

Many of the colleges are not open to the public, but one can admire their entrances from afar.

St John’s College

The main gate or gatehouse of St John’s College is crenelated and adorned with the arms of the foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort. Above these are displayed her ensigns, the Red Rose of Lancaster and Portcullis. The college arms are flanked by creatures known as yales, mythical beasts with elephant’s tails, antelope’s bodies, goat’s heads, and swiveling horns. Above these amazing beasts is a tabernacle containing a socle figure of St John the Evangelist, an Eagle at his feet, and a symbolic, poisoned chalice in his hands.

Westminster College

Other Structures around Cambridge

The Round Church or Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built around 1130, with its shape being inspired by the rotunda in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It has seen many alterations.

This building was originally the Addenbrooke’s Hospital. There are several Georgian buildings behind this façade, designed by Mathew Digby Wyatt in 1866. I just really liked the round windows.

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The Fitzwilliam Museum

This neo-classical designed building was by George Basevi (1794–1845) and completed by Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863) after Basevi’s death in October 1845 houses the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Above the door of a stately Georgian building, opened in November 1934, and designed by Sir Herbert Baker, R. A. sits this lovely bust of Scott.

SPRI was founded by Frank Debenham in 1920 as the national memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions, who died on their return journey from the South Pole in 1912.

In front of the institute is a life-size bronze British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Husky to pay tribute to these hard-working dogs.

Standing on the Garret Hostel Bridge looking towards Kings College Bridge that crosses the River Cam

The current stone structure of the Kings College Bridge was designed by famous British architect William Wilkins in 1818 and it was constructed by Francis Braidwood in 1819.

Looking at the Garret Hostel Bridge from afar

The Kings Cross Bridge is the only real way to see the Garret Hostel Bridge, but that part of the campus is closed to visitors.  This was taken from The Backs. The bridge was designed by Timothy Guy Morgan, who at the time was an undergraduate student at Jesus College, after an open competition. Morgan died in 1960 before the bridge was completed. It was one of the first post-tensioned concrete bridges in the UK.

By evening, I was exhausted, my back was killing me from carrying around a 7-pound camera, and then I found this, just exactly the thing that gets me excited.

Hobson’s Conduit

In the late 1500s, Cambridge was affected by the plague and other diseases. As in so much of the world, the diseases of that time were thought to be caused by ‘bad air’ resulting from the sewage-contaminated water in the river and local ditches.

For this reason, between 1610 and 1614, a watercourse was built by Thomas Hobson to bring fresh water into the city from springs at Nine Wells, a local nature reserve.

This hexagonal monument to Hobson, which once formed part of a market square fountain, was moved to this location in 1856, after a fire in the Market.

Cemetery

You didn’t honestly think I would leave Cambridge without a stop at a cemetery did you? Ascension Parish Burial Ground is considered the “brainiest cemetery in the UK”, as it contains the remains of astronomers, biologists, engineers, poets, and philosopher, including three Nobel Prize winners.

Ascension Parish Burial Ground was established in 1857, although the first burial was not until 1869.  It covers one and a half acres and contains 1,500 graves with 2,500 burials.  It was closed to new burials in 2020.

The grave of 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.  Patti Smith took a Polaroid photo of his grave, which formed part of her “Land 250” exhibition in 2008.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir John Cockcroft, who split the atom in 1932.

Poet Frances Cornford (the granddaughter of Charles Darwin)

I took a cab ride out to the cemetery and a cab ride back to my hotel.  Neither cab driver had heard of the place, it is in need of love, but really worth taking the time to find.

 

There is so much to see and do in Cambridge, but I only had one day. I must return.

 

 

Tübingen, Germany

 Germany, Tubingen
Dec 042021
 

December 2021

I am in Tübingen to visit an old friend.  What a delightful little diversion to my hectic schedule.  The town is around four hours from Paris on the TGV.

It is the quintessential fairy tale town with castle and all. Tübingen first appears in official records in 1191. And the Hohentübingen Castle, has records going back to 1078, when it was besieged by Henry IV, king of Germany.

Courtyard of the Hohentübingen Castle now part of the University of Tübingen. Towards the end of the 15th century Count Eberhard im Barte founded the university with the slogan “attempto” (I will attempt it).

The Second World War left Tübingen largely unscathed, with the exception of the burning of the Synagogue on Kristallnact, November 9, 1938. I did read that one bomb was dropped on the town and destroyed the building where either Shiller or Goethe stayed, the story well could be apocryphal as I have been unable to substantiate it.

City hall on Marktplatz

When Germany was divided amongst the allies, Tübingen became part of the French zone of occupation and remained so from 1946 to 1952. French troops had a garrison stationed in the south of the city until the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

Tubingen is divided by the Neckar River

Neckar Island sits in the middle of the Neckar River in the heart of the town and is lined with 200 year old London Plane Trees.

Some random shots of the beautiful town of Tübingen

Tübingen’s is a fairly liberal town with a population around 85,000.  The town is a mixture of students, researchers and academics, medical specialists and “Gorgen” (the people whose families have been here since the beginning of time, they once grew grape vines on the hills around the town. “gorge” ~ cork).
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A fun gargoyle on the Castle walls

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An antique store with a window full of apothecary jars

A lovely painted entryway

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Johann Friedrich Cotta of Tübingen first published the works of Goethe. It is said that Goethe conducted detailed research on Tübingen’s pubs during his week-long stay in 1797. To commemorate Goethe’s partying ways is this interesting sign ‘Hier kotzte Goethe’ (Goethe puked here).

A sign of the times

My dear friend lives in the town of Reutlingen, which is a mere 10 minute train ride from Tübingen.  Its claim to fame is the fact that it is the home to the most narrow street in the world.

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The World’s narrowest street

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One last walk through Paris

 Paris
Sep 292021
 

September 2021

Today I spent the rainy morning at the L’Arc de Triomphe Wrapped, but the afternoon was spent walking more of this glorious city.

The day began with a downpour that lasted quite a while, but eventually the skies cleared, Paris unfolded, and the day truly began.

A sundial by Salvador Dali

Did you know that Paris has 120 sundials scattered across the city?  They are found in each arrondissement except in the 17th. This interesting sundial is found at number 27 rue Saint-Jacques. It was designed by Salvador Dalí as a present to his friends who owned a boutique at this address.

The cast concrete sundial shows a face in a scallop shell. The scallop shell refers to the “Way of St. James”.  Pilgrims passed through rue Saint-Jacques,  Paris’s oldest street, which was named for the pilgrimage made to the Santiago de Compostela or Saint-Jacques de Compostelle in French.

Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice

The Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice is an astronomical measuring device.  It is designed to cast a shadow on the ground in order to determine the position of the sun in the sky. These were fairly common throughout Europe.

Saint Sulpice is the second largest church in Paris, after Notre-Dame  The gnomon system is built around a meridian, a line which is strictly oriented along the north-south axis, represented by a brass line set in a strip of white marble on the floor of the church.

36 Rue St. Sulpice

Appropriately, or ironically, depending on your point of view, 36 Rue St. Sulpice sits directly across from the church.  What makes this building unique is the use of the different colors in the address, they are not the standard Parisian dark blue and white.

In the era of the Belle Epoque these differently colored faience plates served as a signal to those looking for a  maison close, or politely put, a house of pleasure.

This particular building was Miss Betty’s brothel, specializing in “dominatrix role play.” The brothel was said to be very popular among the ecclesiastic crowd of the Saint Sulpice area. Priests were apparently particularly drawn to the “crucifixion parlor” and the “Satan’s Hell” torture room.

The Original Standard Meter – 36 Rue Vaugirard

The “mètre étalon” is a small shelf of marble installed beneath the arcade at 36, rue Vaugirard, right across from the Senate at the Palais du Luxembourg. It’s one of 16 that were installed after, March 26, 1791, when the Académie des Sciences defined the meter for the first time. There is one other survivor in Paris, but the one here at Vaugirard is the only that remains in its original location.

The Wall of the Drunken Boat Poem – 4 Rue Férou

Along this wall is Arthur Rimbaud’s (October 20, 1854 – November 10, 1891)  lengthy masterpiece, “The Drunken Boat,” written when he was  a teenager.  The location for the poem is near the site where Rimbaud first recited the poem around 1871.  The poem was painted on the wall in 2012 with funds raised by the French Government and a Dutch foundation of poetry lovers.

Rimbaud was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes.

The first stanza of the poem reads:

As I was going down impassive Rivers,
I no longer felt myself guided by haulers:
Yelping redskins had taken them as targets
And had nailed them naked to colored stakes.
The rest can be read here.

The Hotel Latetia – 45 Boulevard Raspail

Deco ornamentation on the outside of the Hotel Latetia

The Lutetia was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style and designed by architects Louis-Charles Boileau and Henri Tauzin. It was founded by the Bon Marché department store. Famous guests over the years have included Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle, Marianne Oswald, André Gide, Peggy Guggenheim and Josephine Baker. James Joyce wrote part of Ulysses at the hotel.

In the late 1930s, the Lutetia was a frequent gathering place for the anti-Nazi German exiles, among them Heinrich Mann, Willi Mutzner and Willi Brandt. In the Nazi regime’s propaganda of the time, these exiles were called disparagingly “The Lutetia Crowd”.

When Paris was liberated in August 1944, the hotel was abandoned by German troops, and taken over by French and American forces. From then until after the end of the war, it was used as a repatriation center for prisoners of war, displaced persons, and returnees from the German concentration camps.

As Paris returned to normality, the Lutetia was restored to its previous state as a luxury hotel. It was acquired by the Tattinger family in 1955.  It is no longer owned by the Tattinger family, but is still considered a premiere hotel property.

Hotel Latetia Front door Deco awning

Monument to François Mauriac at Place Alphonse Deville

Across the street from the Hotel Latetia I spotted this little sculpture, but was not able to find much about it. The statue is of Councillor Alphonse Deville (1856-1932), president and dean of elections of the City Council of Paris. the piece is by sculptor Haïm Kern, whom I also could find very little about, but the sculpture grabbed me none-the-less.

More random photos from around Paris

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Fountain Palatine

The chairs of Church St. Sulpice

Interestingly placed nude statuary

The remains of a romantic evening? If you do not see what I mean, look where the sidewalk meets the wall.

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First, London, for its myriads; for its height,
Manhattan heaped in towering stalagmite;
But Paris for the smoothness of the paths
That lead the heart unto the heart’s delight. . . .

Fair loiterer on the threshold of those days
When there’s no lovelier prize the world displays
Than, having beauty and your twenty years,
You have the means to conquer and the ways,

And coming where the crossroads separate
And down each vista glories and wonders wait,
Crowning each path with pinnacles so fair
You know not which to choose, and hesitate —

Oh, go to Paris. . . . In the midday gloom
Of some old quarter take a little room
That looks off over Paris and its towers
From Saint Gervais round to the Emperor’s Tomb, —

So high that you can hear a mating dove
Croon down the chimney from the roof above,
See Notre Dame and know how sweet it is
To wake between Our Lady and our love.

And have a little balcony to bring
Fair plants to fill with verdure and blossoming,
That sparrows seek, to feed from pretty hands,
And swallows circle over in the Spring.

There of an evening you shall sit at ease
In the sweet month of flowering chestnut-trees,
There with your little darling in your arms,
Your pretty dark-eyed Manon or Louise.

And looking out over the domes and towers
That chime the fleeting quarters and the hours,
While the bright clouds banked eastward back of them
Blush in the sunset, pink as hawthorn flowers,

You cannot fail to think, as I have done,
Some of life’s ends attained, so you be one
Who measures life’s attainment by the hours
That Joy has rescued from oblivion.

II

Come out into the evening streets. The green light lessens in the west.
The city laughs and liveliest her fervid pulse of pleasure beats.

The belfry on Saint Severin strikes eight across the smoking eaves:
Come out under the lights and leaves
to the Reine Blanche on Saint Germain. . . .

Now crowded diners fill the floor of brasserie and restaurant.
Shrill voices cry “L’Intransigeant,” and corners echo “Paris-Sport.”

Where rows of tables from the street are screened with shoots of box and bay,
The ragged minstrels sing and play and gather sous from those that eat.

And old men stand with menu-cards, inviting passers-by to dine
On the bright terraces that line the Latin Quarter boulevards. . . .

But, having drunk and eaten well, ’tis pleasant then to stroll along
And mingle with the merry throng that promenades on Saint Michel.

Here saunter types of every sort. The shoddy jostle with the chic:
Turk and Roumanian and Greek; student and officer and sport;

Slavs with their peasant, Christ-like heads,
and courtezans like powdered moths,
And peddlers from Algiers, with cloths
bright-hued and stitched with golden threads;

And painters with big, serious eyes go rapt in dreams, fantastic shapes
In corduroys and Spanish capes and locks uncut and flowing ties;

And lovers wander two by two, oblivious among the press,
And making one of them no less, all lovers shall be dear to you:

All laughing lips you move among, all happy hearts that, knowing what
Makes life worth while, have wasted not the sweet reprieve of being young.

“Comment ca va!” “Mon vieux!” “Mon cher!”
Friends greet and banter as they pass.
‘Tis sweet to see among the mass comrades and lovers everywhere,

A law that’s sane, a Love that’s free, and men of every birth and blood
Allied in one great brotherhood of Art and Joy and Poverty. . . .

The open cafe-windows frame loungers at their liqueurs and beer,
And walking past them one can hear fragments of Tosca and Boheme.

And in the brilliant-lighted door of cinemas the barker calls,
And lurid posters paint the walls with scenes of Love and crime and war.

But follow past the flaming lights, borne onward with the stream of feet,
Where Bullier’s further up the street is marvellous on Thursday nights.

Here all Bohemia flocks apace; you could not often find elsewhere
So many happy heads and fair assembled in one time and place.

Under the glare and noise and heat the galaxy of dancing whirls,
Smokers, with covered heads, and girls dressed in the costume of the street.

From tables packed around the wall the crowds that drink and frolic there

—–Alan Seeger

The Left Side of Nowhere

 Arizona, California
Nov 242020
 

November 23, 2020

The drive home promised to be a long one so we broke it up with the weird and wonderful.  Today was a day to remain curious and open-minded.

London Bridge and Parker Dam

Lake Havasu, AZ

A bridge has spanned the River Thames in London for more than 2000 years. The “Old” London Bridge of nursery rhyme fame was a stone bridge built between 1176 and 1209, by Peter of Colechurch, an architect and priest. It replaced various wooden bridges built by the Roman founders of London from AD 50–1176.  Over time the bridge was built and rebuilt.  This particular bridge the “New” London Bridge was completed in 1831.

Sadly the bridge was no match for modern technology. Due to the weight of automobile traffic, the bridge began sinking into the River Thames at the rate of an inch every eight years. By 1924, the east side of the bridge was some three to four inches lower than the west side.

In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge.  Lake Havasu City’s founder, chainsaw magnate Robert P. McCulloch, Sr. saw a perfect PR tool in a potential purchase.

In 1968,  at a cost of $2.4 million, McCulloch purchased the bridge.

The purchase included ornate lampposts made from the melted-down cannons captured by the British from Napoleon’s army, after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The bridge was dismantled and shipped through the Panama Canal to California and then trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. The shipping and assembly of the bridge, and dredging of a man-made channel to accommodate the bridge, cost another $7 million.

Today the bridge is the second-largest tourist attraction in Arizona, after the Grand Canyon.

The London Bridge sits on Lake Havasu, which was created by the Parker Dam.

Built by the Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938 the Parker Dam is 320 feet high, With 235 feet of that being deep into the river bed, Parker Dam is the deepest dam in the world. Built to create Lake Havasu, it also generates hydroelectric power.  The building of the dam was contentious and its existence has not quelled the controversy.

Camels in the Arizona Desert

Quartzsite, AZ


A few years ago, while stopping for gas and beef jerky in Quartzsite, my late husband told me a story about camels in the Arizona desert.  On this trip, I went to find out more.

Haji Ali (Philip Tedro) a Turkish-Greek Muslim was one of six camel handlers in the short-lived U.S. Camel Cavalry Corp of 1856. His Arabic name was modified to Hi Jolly by the American soldiers. Jefferson Davis, at the time, Secretary of War, introduced an 1855 bill in Congress to import camels for the military into the Arizona desert.

The first shipment consisted of thirty-three camels, the next year brought an additional forty-four. The experiment would last only a year or so. When the War Between the States broke out the program was abandoned.

Circuses and zoos acquired some of the camels and others were turned loose. The wild camels eventually became small herds and rumors of wild camels in Nevada, Arizona, California, and New Mexico could be heard until the 1940s.

Hi Jolly continued working with the Army until Geronimo’s surrender in 1886. In 1889 he became a desert prospector with the few camels he still had.

Haji Ali died on December 16, 1902, in Quartzsite, Upon his death, a small wooden sign was placed on his grave. In 1934 the stone pyramid monument, topped by a camel weathervane was placed on his grave by order of James L. Edwards of the Arizona State Highway Department.

On the main road of Quartzsite is this interesting sculpture. In the 1880s, stories could be heard of a giant red horse with a devil on its back. The Red Ghost trampled a woman to death, tore through a campground, and was said to have flipped over two freight wagons. At the scene of each event were hoof marks larger than any horse, and strands of red hair.  The crazy stories did not end until a farmer found a red camel grazing with the skeletal remains of an unknown man strapped to its back.

Blythe Intaglios

Blythe, CA

Way off the beaten path on Hwy 95 are three intaglios, or geoglyphs. I knew of the Nazca lines of Peru, but I had no idea that there are over 300 intaglios in the American Southwest and adjacent regions of Mexico. The figures are believed to have been made by the Mohave and Quechan Indians and are somewhere between 450 and 2,000 years old.  At 171 feet high, intaglios are best seen from the air, so this was the only somewhat decent photo I could take, it does not do the figure justice.

 

Photo provided at the site

Ehrenberg Pioneer Cemetery

Ehrenberg, AZ

Traveling with a taphophile means taking strange detours. The town of Ehrenberg was created in 1869 and named after Hermann Ehrenberg, a German immigrant who worked with the Mojave people until he was robbed and murdered near present-day Palm Springs.  Hermann Ehrenberg was a very interesting man with a long career.  The town of Ehrenberg, once a thriving steamboat stop, is now a ghost town, with nothing to mark its existence aside from this cemetery with its mostly unmarked graves.

The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea has always been somewhat of an enigma to me, it was time to turn it into a real place in my mind. The Sea does not come without a considerable amount of controversy.  The Salton Sea presently lies in what was a giant inland sea.  Its present iteration was created by accident in 1905 when water from the Colorado River spilled out of a poorly-constructed California Development Company irrigation system. The lake grew over the next two years until workers were able to staunch the massive flow. By that time, a 400-square-mile body of water had formed becoming the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is referred to as an endorheic lake, meaning that its waters never discharge to the ocean; they either seep into the ground or evaporate. This condition has resulted in water with an extremely high salinity level, even higher than the  Pacific Ocean.

The state of California has a ten-year management program to help the Sea, but it is a slow and agonizing process that is well behind schedule.  While many argue it is not a natural, formation and with its rising salinity becoming a problem, that may seem accurate.  However, with the decline of so many natural waterways within the pathways of the great migratory bird system, the Salton Sea has become an important stop, and with the loss of it, there will be far more consequences to mother nature than just the death of a remote salty body of water.

The rate of water recession with the sea is appalling, the environmental cost is frightening.

Driving around the Salton Sea is a challenge unto itself.  Along one of the rather poor roads, you can stumble upon the Davis-Schrimpf Seep Field.  These are geothermal mudpots that bubble and burb from short sludge volcanoes. Seep fields are caused by the buildup of carbon dioxide beneath the surface of the earth, which pushes to the surface through the water table and sediment. While not real volcanoes they stink to high heaven.  We did not walk out to the field.  While there were several people walking around the area, they, as well as us, were parked in front of signs specifically stating that you would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law if you stepped out onto the fields.

Borrego Springs

Ricardo Breceda has placed over 130 sculptures throughout the area called Borrego Springs, we caught only about 20 of them.

Breceda’s website describes him:  Born in Durango Mexico, Ricardo has lived in California for over the last 25 years. An “accidental artist” who has become a well-known sculptor & designer. One of his largest collections can be appreciated in the city of Borrego Springs, California.

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This has been a fascinating trip during COVID.  Staying safe was not as difficult as one imagined. Our dining consisted of primarily take-out and grocery stores. Hotels were extremely conscientious, especially larger chains such as Hyatt and Marriott.  Bryce National Park was the safest with most everyone wearing masks even during hikes.  Zion was disturbing due to the number of people, but the park managed things extremely well, and with the exception of a few unmasked people on the hiking trails we felt protected.  The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is another story.  The Park Service is not limiting entries, so the amount of people you encounter is uncomfortably high.  The El Tovar Hotel was criminal.  We walked into the lobby, spun on our heels, and walked out.  While masking was required the lobby was so full as to inhibit even three-foot social distancing.  We were often the only masked people outside.

I needed to get away, it is in my nature to be on the road at this time of the year, but I did not want to fly, and a trip to some of the most remote locations in the US seemed like an answer.  It was a great trip.  We were highly cautious and paranoid and went to great lengths to stay safe.  Traveling during a pandemic takes special planning and a lot of give and take.

The trip was 3200 miles – wow.

The Hoodoo That You Do

 Utah
Nov 172020
 

November 17, 2020

Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon

Weathering and erosion play only a minor role in the development of hoodoos.  These are formed more by the freeze/thaw process than anything else. As the water flows into cracks and re-freezes, it expands and cracks the rock around it, this is called frost-wedging, and that is how, after millions of years you get hoodoos.

These natural amphitheaters throughout Bryce need to be seen to be believed

It is difficult to determine the actual makeup of each color, you really do need to be a geologist, and even with a great book, we were both very unsure of what we were seeing.  It is simply breathtaking, no matter how it was formed or what the different rocks are called.


To highly simplify the process of how hoodoos are made you begin with the thin walls of the rocks called fins. These are not yet hoodoos.

Frost-wedging enlarges the cracks in the fins creating holes or windows.  They are still not hoodoos.

As the windows grow their tops eventually collapse, leaving a column.  Rain continues to dissolve and sculpt these limestone/sandstone pillars into spires.  Now you have a hoodoo.

 

As you can see there is snow on the ground.  The elevation of Bryce is between 7,600 and 9,100 feet.

Hoodoo comes from the Southern Paiute word Ooh doo.  It means being afraid, or showing fear.  It is actually  pronounced uuudooooooooooooooo

Queen Victoria, in the part of the canyon called Queens Canyon, was named for its likeness to a statue in London, England.

Here are some amazing shots of our day.

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Looking down the trail we walked up to get back to the rim – Navajo Trail

If you look closely you can see two bridges

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I see two chickens atop those hoodoos

 

The Labors of Hercules

 Tangier
Dec 162019
 

December 16, 2019

Cave of Hercules

The land entrance to the Cave of Hercules, just outside of Tangier.

The cave is part natural and part man-made. The man-made part was used by Berber people to cut stone wheels from the walls, to make millstones, thus expanding it considerably.

It was believed that the cave is one end of a subterranean ley tunnel over 15 miles long which passes under the Strait of Gibraltar and emerges at St. Michael’s Cave in Gibraltar. Legend has it that the Barbary macaques entered the Rock of Gibraltar from Morocco this way.

Mythological tradition also holds that the Roman god Hercules stayed and slept in this cave before doing his 11th labor, which was to get golden apples from the Hesperides Garden, which some ancient Greek writers said was located nearby at Lixus.

The water entrance to the Cave of Hercules

Inside the Caves of Hercules where you can see the markings where grinding wheels were removed.

Berber grinding wheels

Lixus

Lixus is an Amazigh (Berber) name that means “golden apples” in Arabic.

The amphitheater of Lixus

The city of Lixus is the oldest archaeological site in Morocco and one of the oldest Phoenician establishments in the western Mediterranean. The site itself was not open to the public until this year.

Lixus was first settled by the Canaanites in the 12th century BCE and was later controlled directly from Carthage. When Carthage’s empire fell to Rome during the Punic Wars, Lixus along with Chellah, and Mogador became outposts of the province of Mauretania Tingitana.

Lixus flourished during the Roman Empire, mainly when the emperor Claudius (CE 41-54) established the province of Africa with full rights for the citizens. Lixus was one of the few Roman cities in Berber Africa that had an amphitheater.

The Muslim invasions destroyed the Roman city.

Looking out to the Atlantic gives one a good idea of how the area has silted since Roman time.

Some ancient Greek writers placed the mythological garden of the Hesperides, where Hercules gathered the golden apples for Eurystheus, at Lixus. The name of the city was often mentioned by writers from Hanno the Navigator to the Geographer of Ravenna and confirmed by stamps found on its coins.

Most of Lixus has not been excavated, and so far only 10 percent of its 190 acres have been uncovered.  Lixus joined the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995.

 

Tanks for making Garum a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the cuisines of ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantium.

If you have not read the Didius Falco books by Lindsey Davis or enjoyed colatura di alici over pasta, you may not know what Garum is.  Here is an old recipe:

What is called liquamen is thus made: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel, and are salted; and small fish, especially atherinae, or small mullets, or maenae, or lycostomi, or any small fish, are all salted in the same manner; and they are seasoned in the sun, and frequently turned; and when they have been seasoned in the heat, the garum is thus taken from them. A small basket of close texture is laid in the vessel filled with the small fish already mentioned, and the garum will flow into the basket; and they take up what has been percolated through the basket, which is called liquamen; and the remainder of the feculence is made into allec.

– from the 10th-century Byzantine manual Geōponika: Agricultural pursuits, Vol. II, pp. 299–300; translated from the Greek by Thomas Owen; London 1806.

Assilah

A small town between Linux and Tangier is Assilah.

From 1912 to 1956, Asilah was part of Spanish Morocco. In  1978 the then-mayor, Mohamed Benaissa, and painter Mohamed Melehi were instrumental in organizing an art festival, the International Cultural Moussem of Asilah.  It is credited with having promoted urban renewal in Asilah and is one of the most important art festivals in the country. It played a role in raising the average monthly income from $50 in 1978 to $140 in 2014. The festival features local artwork and music and continues to attract large numbers of tourists.  There is a tradition of painting murals on the walls to be left until the next year’s festival.

Asilah is now a popular seaside resort, with modern holiday apartment complexes on the coast road leading to the town from Tangier. The old neighborhoods are restored and painted white, and the wealthy from Casablanca have their weekend getaways here.

When I visited it was absolutely empty, I was told by my driver it wakes up in the evening, however, I have a feeling, judging by the amount of truly excellent restoration I saw as I walked the town, it is really a weekend/summer type of community.

One of the more intriguing murals

The walls of the medina of Asilah still stand, intact. In fact, much restoration is occurring to keep them that way

Just a few fun sites around this sleepy town.

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Cape Spartel

Not far from the Cave of Hercules is the Cape Spartel, the northwestern extremity of Africa’s Atlantic Coast.

The lighthouse at Cape Spartel

Built by Sultan Mohammed III in 1864, this lighthouse was maintained by Britain, France, Spain, and Italy until Morocco’s independence from France in 1956.

On a clear day, it is possible to look out on the horizon and see the meeting point of the dark blue Atlantic and the turquoise Mediterranean.

You may also see Gibraltar if the conditions are correct

Lumbini, Nepal – Part 2

 Lumbini, Nepal
Nov 192018
 

November 14-18 2018

I am here as part of the 1st Tipitaka Chanting Ceremony ever held within the Maya Devi Temple Complex in Lumbini.

As with any historic moment, there is the usual fanfare.

A parade with beautiful women carrying flowers and banners.

dsc_9227

The flower-laden throne carrying the Tipitaka.Tipitaka Chanting And streams of participants

Maya Devi Temple

Then there is the opening ceremony with its slew of dignitaries.

Maya Devi TempleBut once the chanting began it was a solemn and beautiful ceremony.

Just some of the participating countries

Just some of the participating countries

My friend Maechi Anita

My friend Maechi Anita

A small slice of the crowd

A small slice of the crowd

The Maya Devi Temple complex is the heart of Lumbini and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Birthplace of BuddhaSiddhartha Gautama is purported to have been born in 623 BCE in the gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. Among those pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars here.

The authenticity of the archaeological remains was confirmed in 1896 through a series of excavations after the discovery of the Ashoka pillar.

No photos are allowed inside. Photo from GoingNepal.com

No photos are allowed inside. Photo from GoingNepal.com

Other structures found within the Maya Devi Temple consist of brick structures in a cross-wall system dating from the 3rd century BCE to the present century. Also, there are the excavated remains of Buddhist viharas (monasteries) of the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE and the remains of Buddhist stupas (memorial shrines) from the 3rd century BCE to the 15th century CE.

Stupa ruins in Lumbini Maya DeviAs with much of Buddist history, it is difficult to be accurate with the exact location of many Buddhist sites.  The best information scholars have to go on is the writings of two Chinese explorers Xuanzen (7th Century CE) and Fa-hsien (399-413 CE), and the placement by Ashoka of his pillars.

So, when in November 2013, an international team of archaeologists digging under the temple discovered the remains of an ancient tree shrine dated before 550 BCE it created quite a stir. The researchers speculated that the site is the earliest evidence of Buddhist structures and the first archaeological evidence of Gautama Buddha’s life. The excavation was headed by Robin Coningham of Durham University, UK, and Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust, Nepal. According to Coningham, the shrine is “the earliest Buddhist shrine in the world.” The speculations of the researchers were widely reported in the international press, to the dismay of the rest of the scientific community, who mostly have disputed the conclusions of the researchers. Julia Shaw, a lecturer in South Asian archaeology at University College London, cautioned that the shrine may represent pre-Buddhist tree worship and that further research is needed. The conclusions drawn by the researchers were also heavily criticized by Buddhist scholar Richard Gombrich.  However, it has been embraced by UNESCO.

The Ashokan Pillar at the Maya Devi Temple

The Ashokan Pillar at the Maya Devi Temple

The Ashokan pillar at the Maya Devi Temple was erected by Emperor Ashoka in 249 BCE.  Ashoka visited Lumbini on the 20th year of his reign and erected the pillar in what was said to be the exact birthplace of Buddha.

The Ashoka pillar and the Maya Devi temple were explored by General Khadga Shumsher and German archaeologist Dr. Fuhrer. At that time, 1896, it was buried under a dense forest. The discovery of the pillar ended much speculation about the location of Lumbini. Inscribed on the pillar with is a Pali inscription in Brahmi script reading “Hitajayete Buddha” (Buddha was exactly born here).

Ashokan Pillar LumbiniThe emperor had also erected two other pillars during his visit to Lumbini and Kapilvastu, one in Gotihawa, the place of Krakuchhanda Buddha, and another at Niglihawa, the place of Kanakmuni Buddha.

Bodhi Tree Lumbini

You will find a Bodhi tree at every Buddhist site, and at the Maya Devi Temple, there are many.  This particular one, on the edge of the pool, has become a shrine unto itself.

This is a very sacred place and the followers of Buddha come in droves.

Women praying at the Maya Devi Temple

But there is also the tourist element.

A very close up selfie

A very close up selfie

Selfies with nothing but shrubs in the background

Selfies with nothing but shrubs in the background

More Selfies, but at least this fellow has a sign behind him.

More Selfies, but at least this fellow has a sign behind him.

And the ubiquitous, "Look I am holding up the building"

And the ubiquitous, “Look I am holding up the building”

At the end of the three-day Tipitaka Chanting Ceremony, there was an amazing candlelight procession. The pictures do not do it justice.  It was inspiring and moving to be a part of it.

Candlelight procession at the Maya Devi Temple

*Maya Devi at Night

County Sligo

 Northern Ireland
Oct 102018
 

October 9, 2018

You know you are in for an adventure when the guide to the house meets you at the road and tells you how you are about to see the ugliest house in Ireland.

LissadellIt has more to do with a penny-pinching rich man and an excellent architect not agreeing on a budget.

Lisadell House was designed by Francis Goodwin of London for Robert Gore-Booth. The men were 4000 pounds sterling apart from each other on an agreed overall costs for the building of the house.  The owner seems to have won by cutting off his nose to spite his face.

The austere Grecian-Revival house is made of grey limestone (a budget-cutting measure) that makes it so dour from the start. The grey limestone in the commonly grey weather of the area does nothing to improve one’s mood, to say nothing of the fact that limestone never develops a patina, so 200 years later it still looks grey and new.

This portion of the house is actually grey concrete. It only appears yellow as the house was so dark without a flash the true color does not come through

This portion of the house is actually grey concrete. It only appears yellow as the house was so dark without a flash the true color does not come through

The house today is no longer in the hands of the family, a very interesting one at that, so shows neglect and houses such a mish-mash of furniture that the dourness continues on the inside.

The plaster ornamentation of the ceiling

The plaster ornamentation of the ceiling

The ornamentation inside is simple and dour as well. The plaster ceilings look industrial, almost as though the plasters weren’t being paid enough and decided to play a joke on the owner.

The Butler

The Butler

Count Casimir Markievicz, the artist son-in-law of the 5th Baron, painted the pilasters early in the 20th century with a full-length series of portraits of members of the family, as well as the games keeper and butler.

LissadellThe Bear:

From Sir Henry Gore Booths diary 1807

“We were making a beeline for the camp…when there was revealed the fresh track of a bear…

I put in Lassie and she took up the trail briskly. Thomas( Kilgallon) carried the cartridges and telescope. Of a sudden I observed Lassie at the foot of a hillock…when the bear without any warning appeared at the top of the hill.

I delivered a bore from the express rifle…the bear subsided on his tail with a growl. We had tracked the bear three miles and had been obliged to run most of the way.

The bear which we skinned where he lay turned out to be an unusually large one and appeared to be a great age”

The Baron did not want to ever see the servants so the came onto the property through a sunken trail through the woods

The Baron did not want to ever see the servants so the came onto the property through a sunken trail through the woods

Part of that journey was through this tunnel

Part of that journey was through this tunnel

The view from the parlor window

The view from the parlor window

A few more ornamented columns

A few more ornamented columns

An over the top, wonderful fireplace.

An over-the-top, wonderful fireplace.

The organ is one of the few things that were original to the house.

The organ is one of the few things that were original to the house.

At least the fireplaces still worked, the house is very cold

At least the fireplaces still worked, the house is very cold

The two cabinets that flank the door were so perfectly Victorian, holding shells, and shells and more shells.

The two cabinets that flank the door were so perfectly Victorian, holding shells, and shells and more shells.

There were four harps in this one room all with just a few broken strings.

There were four harps in this one room all with just a few broken strings.

Looking up at one of the more ornamented rooms of the house

Looking up at one of the more ornamented rooms of the house

The ornamentation in the Billiard Room

The ornamentation in the Billiard Room

Lissadell was bleak, but our guide was a ray of sunshine and here is to his retirement, something he will accomplish this year.  It is appropriate that his grandmother and mother both worked in the home, giving him a knowledge he imparted on us that was spectacular.

MARKREE CASTLE

Markree CastleLunch was laid for us at Markree Castle. This was originally a 17th-century home, it was rebuilt in the 18th Century as a three story block house.

This highly ornamented room is what it would have looked like in the Coopers time.

This highly ornamented room is what it would have looked like when it was built.

In 1802 Joshua Cooper commissioned Francis Johnston to enlarge the house and transform it into a castle of the early symmetrical kind.

The entry way

The entry way

This ceiling covers you as you walk up the grand entry stairway

This ceiling covers you as you walk up the grand entry stairway

During the renovation and change to a hotel, this fireplace and its lovely surrounding tiles were found in a box in a shed.

During the renovation and change to a hotel, this fireplace and its lovely surrounding tiles were found in a box in a shed.

While many of the original wood floors are now protected by carpets the beautiful woodwork pokes it head out here and there.

While many of the original wood floors are now protected by carpets the beautiful woodwork pokes it head out here and there.

A view from the bar window

A view from the bar window

The chapel has undergone several changes, but remains accessible to guests and is just gorgeous

The chapel has undergone several changes, but remains accessible to guests and is just gorgeous

The servants entry to the chapel

The servant’s entry to the chapel

Johnston extended the front of the house to more than twice its original length to form a new garden front and an Irish-battlemented tower.

Mrs. Alexander, the hymn writer, stayed at Markree. It is Markree she was possibly thinking of when she wrote of The rich man in his castle in All Things Bright and Beautiful.

The castle has since been tastefully turned into a hotel keeping the same lines, and ornamental plaster, but none of the furniture.

Markree Castle

DRUMCLIFF CHURCH

Drum Cliff Church Drum Cliff Church is where William Butler Yeats and his wife Georgie are buried. Yeats Grandfather was rector of the church. Yeats died and was buried in France in 1939. He was moved to Drumcliff in 1948 as he had originally wished.

Yeats grave is marked with a simple headstone with the inscription, "cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman, pass by." This was Yeats' self penned epitaph together with the instructions that the grave consist of "no marble, no conventional phrase".

Yeats grave is marked with a simple headstone with the inscription, “cast a cold eye on life, on death, horseman, pass by.” This was Yeats’ self-penned epitaph together with the instructions that the grave consist of “no marble, no conventional phrase”.

A ruined 10th or 11th century round tower, the only one known in County Sligo, The round tower was struck by lightning in 1396.

A ruined 10th or 11th century round tower, the only one known in County Sligo, The round tower was struck by lightning in 1396.

The High Cross (on the right of this photo) dates back to the 11th century. On the west face, the subjects include the Presentation in the Temple and the Crucifixion. The east face bears Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Daniel in the Lions’ Den and a Lion in high relief. At the head is possibly Christ in Glory. The stonemason seems to have portrayed a camel on the cross which is an unusual feature. The narrow edges are also richly carved with ornament and figure carving. The south side of the shaft features the only icon of the Virgin and Child on an Irish High Cross.

PARTING SHOTS

graveyard

*Drum Cliff Church Graveyard

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Saint Patricks of Armagh City

 Northern Ireland
Oct 102018
 

October 8, 2018

Armagh is the site of two cathedrals, both on hills and both named after Saint Patrick.  Considered the spiritual Capital of Ireland for 1500 years it is the seat of both Church of Ireland and Catholic archbishops.

St PatricksThe Metropolitan Cathedral of St Patrick, (Church of Ireland) sits on the hill in the city where it gets its name – Ard Mhacha – the Height of Macha. Macha, a legendary pagan tribal princess, is also linked with the nearby Emain Macha (The Navan Fort), a major ritual site occupied from late Neolithic/early Bronze Age time regarded as having been the ancient royal center of Iron Age Ulster.

Bear with me as this gets terribly confusing, as all Irish politics are: The church was historically the center of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, having been transferred to the Protestant Church of Ireland by the British government during the Irish Reformation. Following the Henrician Reformation in Ireland, the cathedral became increasingly associated with the then Established Church and has been definitively in Anglican hands since the reign of Elizabeth I. A Roman Catholic cathedral was built on a neighboring hill in the nineteenth century. Cordial relations exist between both cathedrals, which I understand are improving with every new administration.

St PatricksThe church itself has been destroyed and rebuilt 17 times. The edifice was renovated and restored at the start of the sixteenth century after a devastating fire in 1511. It was substantially restored between 1834 and 1840 by architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham.

St Patricks

Catholic Saint Patricks

Catholic Saint Patricks

The seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh is Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh. He is also the primate of All Ireland. It was built in various phases between 1840 and 1904 to serve as the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Armagh, the original Medieval Cathedral of St. Patrick having been transferred to the Protestant Church of Ireland at the time of the Irish Reformation, (as mentioned above).

Saint PatricksThe most amazing feature of the church are the mosaics on both the floors and the walls. Originally the walls were painted murals, but due to the damp climate, they deteriorated after a few years.

St PatricksThe material is Italian pottery in small cubes with glass cubes for the gilt portions The sections were put together in two workshops in London and were glued, face down, on strips of paper. These were then applied to a fresh coating of special cement on the walls similar to hanging wallpaper.

St. PatricksThe tile murals were done by Italian painter, Oreste Amici (1872–1930), who had been trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome, The ceilings are painted in oil.

The organ at St. Patrick's Catholic Church

The organ at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church

PARTING SHOTS

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Saint Patricks

*Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks *Saint Patricks

In Northern Ireland, you will hear the saying it isn’t about religion, it is about land.  And this is true, but the reason it is about land is that it is about religion.  In 1695 England forced the Penal laws upon Ireland.  In a nutshell, all land in Ireland – IF you were a Protestant, was handed down to the first born son.  However, if you were a Catholic, your land had to be divided evenly amongst all of your sons.  It didn’t take but a very few generations before Protestants held large tracks of land, and Catholics were subsistence farming on their own tiny patches of land.  These laws were not rescinded until 1920.

 

County Armagh

 Northern Ireland
Oct 082018
 

October 7, 2018

THE ARGORY

The Argory got its name from the Irish ‘ard garraidhe’, meaning hill of the garden.

The Argory

It was built between 1819 and 1824 by Walter McGeough, who assumed the additional name of Bond in honor of the family of his deceased grandmother.

This odd lion sits above the entry door

This odd lion sits above the entry door

McGeough’s decision to build the house was a result of his father’s will.  His father stated that 400 pounds would be left to the oldest son William with the bulk of the fortune going to Walter and his three sisters.  However, there was a caveat, once Walter married he was no longer allowed to live at the family home, Drumsill ( outside of Armagh) as long as his two sisters remained unwed.  Although one sister died early, Walter had the good sense to know that he needed to build his own home, which was prescient, as his other sisters remained unmarried.

This new home was designed by Dublin based architects John and Arthur Williamson.  Sadly, most of the original plans were lost in an 1898 fire.

The Argory

The house was designed as a single block with the north wing added later.  It is faced in ashlar in a restrained classical style.

The Argory

The staircase hall has been described as one of the most exciting interiors of its date in Ireland.  It has a cantilevered staircase with brass banister supports and does have an amazing WOW factor.

In 1906 the owner, Captain Shelton, installed acetylene gas lighting.  It was easier to install than electricity or a coal-gas-system, and cheaper to run.  Acetylene gas lighting was ideal for country houses as it required little maintenance and could be “left to the charge of the most unskilled attendants”  (though there was a small matter of the risk of explosion which is why the generating plant was located a ways from the house).

The ArmoryThe main lamp in the lobby of The Argory has been removed for thorough cleaning and conservation, which is expected to last approximately two years.  In its place is a new piece by Kevin Killen, paying homage to the last owner, Nevill Bond, who collected modern art.

The Argory

This Steinway rosewood grand piano was bought in 1898.

A light chandelier in the offices of

An acetylene chandelier in the offices of Nevill Bond

One of the many dog sculptures that grace the house

One of the many dog sculptures that grace the house

A knife sharpening machine found in the servants area.

A knife sharpening machine found in the servant’s area.

The dining room

The dining room

In the dining room, much of the furniture was purchased from the Glasgow firm of James Whyte and Sons in 1827.

Wilkie prints line the second floor landing

Wilkie prints line the second-floor landing

Sir David Wilkie (1785 – 1841) was a Scottish painter, especially known for his genre scenes. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical scenes,  and scenes from his travels to Europe and the Middle East. His main base was in London, but he died and was buried at sea, off Gibraltar. He was sometimes known as the “people’s painter”.

The Argory

This cabinet barrel organ sits on the second-floor landing.  It is considered to be the most important of its kind in existence.  Recently restored, it was commissioned in 1822 from London organ builder James Bishop.  It originally had six barrels, only three survive. Samuel Wesley, son of the great hymn writer Charles and nephew to John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church was employed to consult on the music prepared to be pinned onto these barrels.

The Argory and most of its contents were given to the National Trust in 1979.

MARLACOO HOUSE

Marlacoo House

This late classical Georgian house was built by a Robert Boyd around 1815. the present owners are only the 4th, and while the insides are modern the house maintains its wonderful bones.

Marlacoo House

The owner of the house, Edward Wilson, explaining the call system on the side of the house.  The home was once in the hands of a doctor, and the bell and speaking tube allowed his patients to wake him in the middle of the night in case of an emergency.

 

Marlacoo House

Fall had definitely arrived when we visited

Marlacoo House

The folly at Marlacoo House is so very appropriate as Primrose Wilson, our fabulous hostess, is Chairman of the Follies Trust, tirelessly working to preserve and restore the many follies of Ireland before they are lost to history.

 

PARTING SHOTS

A mantel clock in The Argory

A mantel clock in The Argory

A cozy sitting area in The Argory

A cozy sitting area in The Argory

A sweet marble on the landing of The Argory

A sweet marble on the landing of The Argory by Irish sculptor, Thomas Kirk

Gardens at Marlacoo House

Gardens at Marlacoo House

Marlacoo House

Mount Stewart House in Ards Peninsular

 Northern Ireland
Oct 062018
 

October 5, 2018

Mount Stewart House

Mount Stewart was created by the Stewart family (later Vane-Tempest-Stewart), holders of the title Marquess of Londonderry since 1816.  Alexander Stewart (1699–1781), bought the estate in 1744 with money from the linen trade. At the time, the house was known as Mount Pleasant.

Alexander Stewart’s son, Robert Stewart, became the first Marquess of Londonderry.

He died in 1821 leaving the house to his son, also Robert, better known as Viscount Castlereagh, one of Britain’s most famous Foreign Secretaries.

It was this Robert that employed the architect George Dance to enlarge the house.

Viscount Castlereagh, as British Foreign Secretary, from 1812 was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon and was the principal British diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. These chairs are from that meeting and have been upholstered in needlepoint with the family crest of the members of the council on the backs and the country crest on the seats.

Viscount Castlereagh, as British Foreign Secretary, from 1812 was the principal British diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. These chairs are from that meeting and have been upholstered in needlepoint with the family crest of the members of the council on the backs and the country crest on the seats.

The next owner of the house was Castlereagh’s half-brother, Charles, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1778–1854). His second wife was Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest. She brought a considerable fortune with her and it was this huge new wealth that facilitated the enlargement of the now named Mount Stewart.

The family employed the architect,  William Vitruvius Morrison with the original idea to knock down the Dance house and build anew. Instead, Morrison repeated Dance’s north and south elevations on the eastern side, doubling the length of the fronts.  He added the Ionic portico, which is wide enough to serve as a porte-cochere.  Morrison removed a small porte-cochere that Dance had placed on the south side, with a loggia and pediment that now looks out onto the garden.  The contractor was Charles Campbell.

As you enter the house, the first rotunda (the second having been removed) has been remodeled to hold marble sculptures, this is of one of the family members and her son.

As you enter the house, the first rotunda (the second having been removed) has been remodeled to hold marble sculptures, this is of one of the family members and her son.

Hambletonian, was one of the best Thoroughbred racehorses of the late 18th century. His victories included two Doncaster Cups in the late 1790s and the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in 1795. He was owned by Sir Harry-Vane-Tempest. The painting is by George Stubbs

Hambletonian, was one of the best Thoroughbred racehorses of the late 18th century. His victories included two Doncaster Cups in the late 1790s and the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in 1795. He was owned by Sir Harry-Vane-Tempest. The painting is by George Stubbs and hangs on the landing heading to the second floor private apartments.

Much of the house is maintained the way that Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry lived in it.

Much of the house is maintained as it was when Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry lived in it.

In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I,  Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart was appointed the Colonel-in-Chief of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve (WVR), a volunteer force formed of women replacing the men who had left work and gone to the Front. The WVR was established in December 1914 in response to German bombing raids on East Coast towns during the First World War. You will find the crest of her volunteer force all around the house.

The headboard of the bed in the Genoa Room, restored in 2017-18

The headboard of the bed in the Genoa Room restored in 2017-18

Genoa, Turin, Geneva, Pisa, and Leghorn were the private and secluded rooms used by Charles and Edith, 7th Marquess and Marchioness of Londenberry from 1920-1959.

The crest of Lady Londenberry's Women's Volunteer Reserve on the underside of the canopy of the bed.

The crest of Lady Londenberry’s Women’s Volunteer Reserve on the underside of the canopy of the bed.

The crest of Lady Londenberry's Women's Volunteer Reserve on a lamp shade in the bedroom

The crest of Lady Londenberry’s Women’s Volunteer Reserve on a lamp shade in the bedroom

The Irish Elk is found on the coat of arms of Northern Ireland

The Irish Elk is found on the coat of arms of Northern Ireland

One of many stunning rooms throughout the course

One of many stunning rooms throughout the course

The interiors have shades of both Dance and Morrison.

Mount Stewart

The Dining Room

Mount Stewart

An excellent example of the fine plasterwork throughout the house

Mount Stewart

The doors and windows of the library are covered with the spines of actual leather-bound books.

Mount Stewart

Marquetry doors, chairs, and chair railings and the floor grace one room, all with the same pattern.

Mount Stewart

The private chapel is still consecrated and used today.

The private chapel is still consecrated and used today.

The Temple of the Wind

The Temple of the Wind

Mount Stewart’s Temple of the Winds while inspired by the one in Athens, is not an exact copy. It is faced in local Scrabo sandstone, it does not have a frieze running around the upper walls, and the side porticos are not pedimented but have balconies to take advantage of the breathtaking views of the lough and the Mourne Mountains.

Mt. Stewart

The tower on the far hill, Scrabo Tower, is a 19th-century lookout tower It was built as a memorial to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry and was originally known as Londonderry Monument.

Mount StewartIn the back of the building is a domed three-quarter-round extension surrounding this stunning spiral staircase. The building has three stories. A service basement, the ground floor receiving room and an indescribably beautiful third floor with a marble fireplace by London carver John Adair, a plaster ceiling by Dublin plasterer William Fitzgerald and a marquetry floor composed of mahogany, walnut, sycamore, box, and bog oak, that perfectly complements the ornamental ceiling.

Gardens of Mount Stewart

During the 1920s, Lady Londonderry created the gardens at Mount Stewart. She added the Shamrock Garden, the Sunken Garden, increased the size of the lake, added a Spanish Garden with a small hut, the Italian Garden, the Dodo Terrace, Menagerie, the Fountain Pool and laid out walks in the Lily Wood and rest of the estate. This dramatic change led to the gardens being proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In 1957, after the death of her husband, she gave the gardens to the National Trust. They are regarded by Heritage Island as being one of the best gardens in the British Isles.

Gardens of Mount Stewart

*Gardens of Mt. Stewart *Gardens of Mt. Stewart *Gardens of Mt. Stewart

This bay tree was 30 years old when Lady Londenberry planted it over 50 years ago. It is the oldest Bay Tree in Ireland

This Bay Tree was 30 years old when Lady Londenberry planted it over 50 years ago. It is the oldest Bay Tree in Ireland.

Gardens of Mt. Stewart *Gardens of Mt. Stewart *

Gardens of Mount Stewart

On the left, in the red sweater, is the beautiful Lady Rose, the present occupant of the home, daughter of Lady Rose Lauritzen.

Our hostess, the beautiful Lady Rose Lauritzen (on the left, in the red sweater), is the present occupant of the home and granddaughter of Edith.  Her husband, Peter Lauritzen is the gentleman in the sunglasses on the right.

California Camelias Magazine graces the table in ******

American Camelias Magazine graces the table in Edith’s study

A rather whimsical chandelier in Edith's study

A rather whimsical chandelier in Edith’s study

The house was given to the National Trust, with an endowment, by Lady Mairi Bury in 2009.

Monument Avenue

 Richmond, United States, Virginia
Mar 262017
 

Monument Avenue
Richmond Virginia
March 2017

Monument Avenue Richmond VA

Monument Avenue is either a bone of contention or an art gallery, and stirs emotions in all. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and a National Historic Landmark in 1997, making it, more than likely, an unchangeable force, as the NHL listing is the highest national designation a landmark can receive. It is also the only residential boulevard with monuments of this scale to survive almost unaltered to the present day.

As our guide, Richard Guy Wilson stated:  “it may be a place of residences and churches, a street of movement and communication, but ultimately Monument Avenue is the site of memorials to the Confederacy.”

This tree-lined, grassy mall, divides the east- and westbound traffic and is punctuated by statues memorializing Virginian Confederate participants of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Matthew Fontaine Maury, as well as Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native and international tennis star.

Robert E Lee Monument Avenue

The first monument, a statue of Robert E. Lee, was erected in 1890.

The Robert E. Lee statue was created by Anton Mercié with the pedestal by architect, Paul Pujol. It stands 21 feet tall and weight around 12 tons.  It sits upon a forty foot high granite pedestal.

Mercié entered the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and studied under Alexandre Falguière and François Jouffroy, and in 1868 gained the Grand Prix de Rome at the age of 23. His first great popular successes were the David and Gloria Victis, which was shown and received the Medal of Honour of the Paris Salon.

Photo from WikiCommons

Photo from WikiCommons

J.E. B. Stuart was created by Frederick Moynihan. The sculptor was inspired by a sculpture of the British General Outram done by John Foley for Calcutta, India.  The sculpture was unveiled in 1907at the largest Confederate reunion ever held.

Frederick Moynihan was an American sculptor, born on the Isle of Guernsey in 1843. He died at his New York City studio on January 9, 1910. Moynihan studied at the Royal Academy in London before immigrating to the United States. He is best remembered for creating monuments commemorating the American Civil War.

Monument Avenue

The Jefferson Davis sculpture by Edward Valentine is the most controversial of all the sculptures on Monument Avenue.  Unveiled in 1907 it sits in front of an exedra by architect William Noland.  There is a 65-foot tall doric column topped with a bronze allegorical figure named Vindicatrix.

According to James Ira Deese Miller author of A Guide to the South, “the monument typifies the vindication of Mr. Davis and the cause of the Confederacy for which he stood before the world, the leading inscripton being “Deo Vince” (God will vindicate)…Vindicatrix represents the whole spirit of the movement.”

Monument Avenue, Richmond, VAIn the statue, Davis is represented as an orator.  The two end piers are topped with a bronze group of war trophies, consisting of Confederate shields and flags, together with other emblems of land and naval warfare.

Monument Avenue Richmond, VA

Edward Valentine was born on November 12, 1838 in Richmond, Virginia. He studied in Europe: in Paris with Couture and Jouffroy, in Italy under Bonanti, and with August Kiss in Berlin. He died on October 19, 1930 in Richmond, Virginia.

William Churchill Noland (1865-1951) was a partner of Baskervill and Son, a firm that has maintained a consistent history as one of the most successful Richmond, VA, architectural firms since its establishment in 1897. The firm, originally called Noland and Baskervill, was the partnership of architect Noland and electrical engineer Henry Baskervill (1867-1930).

Monument Avenue Richmond VA

Stonewall Jackson, unveiled in 1919 was sculpted by Frederick William Sievers. Frederick William Sievers (1872–1966) was an American sculptor, born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sievers moved to Richmond, Virginia, as a young man, furthering his art studies by attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the Académie Julian in Paris.

Monument Avenue Richmond VA

The statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury was also sculpted by Frederick William Sievers and was unveiled in 1929.  Sievers composed the statue with images of water, land, and sky, which relate to Maury’s achievements in oceanography, navigation, and meteorology. Jellyfish are sculpted in the arms of Maury’s chair, and bats, swallows, and fish encircle the base supporting the globe. Stylistically, the statue (which faces eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean) is perhaps the most complex of all the monuments on Monument Avenue.

Monument Avenue Richmond VA

The most recent statue to be erected on Monument Avenue is of local tennis great, Arthur Ashe.  This sculpture is by Paul DiPasquale and was unveiled in 1966.

The bronze statue of Arthur Ashe faces west with four children facing east. The statue shows him holding books in his left hand and a tennis racket in his right hand to illustrate how he encouraged the importance of sports and education. The 12-foot bronze statue stands on a 87,000-pound granite block quarried in Georgia.

Paul DiPasquale is an American artist. He graduated from the University of Virginia, and trained at the Boston Architectural Center, he received his Masters degree in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1977.

I apologize for the quality of the photos, they were taken through the window of a moving bus.

One Architectural Day in Athens

 Athens, Greece
Oct 252016
 

October 25, 2016

Athens held the Olympics in 2004, and its stadium, like many after the Olympics, is abandoned and sad.

The Olympic Stadium today.

The Olympic Stadium today.

There is much speculation that the Athenians were so wrapped up in the crash of their economy to properly find re-use purposes for the buildings, but there is other discussion that they just didn’t handle things correctly. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but the result is a tragedy.

The Olympic Stadium of Athens “Spyros Louis” is named after the first modern Olympic marathon race winner in 1896. Originally designed in 1979 and built in 1980–1982, it was completed in time to host the 1982 European Championships in Athletics.

This served as a central spine to the park, the two main entry ways poured into this spine.

This served as a central spine to the park, the two main entry ways poured into this spine.

It was extensively renovated in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics, including a roof designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

This was the Nations Wall, a tubular steel wall sculpture, designed to move in a wavelike motion, creating a pleasing effect of light and shadow over the central circulation spine and the Plaza of the Nations. It could also serve as a video screen.

This was the Nations Wall, a tubular steel wall sculpture, designed to move in a wavelike motion, creating the effect of light and shadow over the central circulation spine and the Plaza of the Nations. It could also serve as a video screen.

This is what the wall looked like during the Olympics in 2004

This is what the wall looked like during the Olympics in 2004

The work of the new additions bear the unmistakable imprint of its architect, as can be seen in the bridges. His organic architecture puts the structural elements front and center.

The Olympic venue for Tai Kwan Do, which can be seen from the roof of the Stavros Niarchos project

The Olympic venue for Tai Kwan Do, which can be seen from the roof of the Stavros Niarchos project

Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center

The next building on our list was the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center. It is built on Faliro Bay in an area of Athens called Kallithea, which means view. However, it no longer has a view.

stavros niarchosThe project was designed by Renzo Piano with the intent to give the view back to the people. It is a giant sloping park that leads to a single building that holds both the National Library and the Opera House with a public area called the Agora, between the two buildings.

Standing on the top looking back to the reading room and the public art

Standing on the top looking back to the reading room and the public art

Standing on the top looking out to the sea and the interesting stanchions that support the roof

Standing on the top looking out to the sea and the interesting stanchions that support the roof

An entirely glass-walled library reading room sits on top of the building, it presently is being used as an art gallery, and has a magnificent 360-degree view of Athens and the sea.

The park is now open, however, the buildings are not, and when and if they will open is still open to speculation. The building was funded by the charitable foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, it was then gifted to the state at a time when many other museums and cultural institutions are closing their doors.

The glass wall of the opera house, the library sits opposite with the same glass front wall

The glass wall of the opera house, the library sits opposite with the same glass front wall

When standing on the open area at the top the first thing that comes to mind is how the roof could so easily act as a sail and be lifted up and off into the sea. It was engineered by the London firm Expedition, and is made up of ferro-cement and a lot of seismic technology. Subtly curved like the wing of a plane, it is formed from a shell of concrete less than 1” thick, reinforced with a dense cage of fine steel mesh, which encloses a 3D steel truss, all held up on a sprung suspension system that allows it to move in the event of an earthquake. It is the largest ferro-cement span in the world.

There are several areas in the park for children activities, this rock actually spins.

There are several areas in the park for children activities, this rock actually spins.

I was very impressed that the garden uses moveable chairs, as do the soccer fields.

I was very impressed that the garden uses moveable chairs, as do the soccer fields.

Looking up at the Cultural Center from the garden

Looking up at the Cultural Center from the garden

An interesting building across the way catches the light

An interesting building across the way catches the light

The view of Athens from the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center

The view of Athens from the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center

When you only have one day in Athens, and you are two architects, you must finish with the Acropolis, covered in scaffolding or not.

I had not been there in almost 30 years, and was not only shocked at the changes to the venue, but the amount of tourists at the site. There is really nothing to say about the Acropolis that hasn’t been said by far better people than I, so here are a few fun shots.

dsc_9542 *dsc_9541 *dsc_9535 *dsc_9523 *dsc_9522A few personal notes:

Hotel Royal Olympic, worth every penny when you wake to this.  I was on the 6th floor:

Royal Olympian Hotel *Royal Olympic Hotel

A great restaurant in the Plaka with a progressive and modern twist on Mediterranean is the Nerantzi at Mitropoleos 72.

I returned to a restaurant, completely by accident, that my late husband Michael and I had enjoyed when there several years ago.  It is a delightful little spot with good Greek food and tables spilling down the neighboring stairs, Psaras Tavern.

Driving parts of the Turkish Black Sea

 The Black Sea, Turkey
Oct 042016
 

October 2, 2016

Fortress walls of Sinop, Turkey

Fortress walls of Sinop, Turkey

Our Black Sea journey begins at Sinop and will end in Amasra. Sinop sits on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of the Black Sea coast.

Long used as a Hittite port, the city proper was re-founded as a Greek colony from the city of Miletus in the 7th century BC.. Sinope flourished as the Black Sea port of a caravan route that led from the upper Euphrates valley.

Looking out to the Black Sea from downtown Sinop

Looking out to the Black Sea from downtown Sinop

Sinope escaped Persian domination until the early 4th century BC. In 183 BC it was captured by Pharnaces I and became capital of the Kingdom of Pontus.

The Roman general Lucullus conquered Sinope in 70 BC, it continued to be conquered throughout the ages.

Diogenes always carries a lamp because he is "looking for a good man" and never finding one.

Diogenes always carries a lamp because he is “looking for a good man” and never finding one.

Sinop was the birthplace of Diogenes, a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. My favorite story of Diogenes includes Alexander the Great. It is said that while in Corinth Diogenes was relaxing in the morning sunlight, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favor he might do for him. Diogenes replied, “Yes, stand out of my sunlight”. Alexander then declared, “If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes”. In another account of the conversation, Alexander found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, “I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.”

Boat model shops are rather prevalent around downtown Sinop

Boat model shops are rather prevalent around downtown Sinop

On November 30, 1853, the Imperial Russian Navy crossed the Black Sea to Sinop, attacked the Ottoman fleet which was in port there, and utterly destroyed it. The Russian bombardment went on long past when it was clear the Ottomans were defeated, killing many Ottoman sailors who were no longer combatants.

The “massacre of Sinope” was one of the events precipitating the Crimean War (1853-1854) in which Great Britain and France declared war on Russia and fought with the Ottoman Empire.

Sites around the town of Sinop, Turkey

Sites around the town of Sinop, Turkey

SynopSinop hosted a US military base used to gather intelligence during the cold war era. The US base was closed in 1992.

Our hotel was Zinos, our fish dinner in the hotel was sublime.

A view of the Black Sea between Sinop and Arabo

A view of the Black Sea between Sinop and Abano

We drove out of Sinop and through the Pontic mountains for about three hours, on our way to the town of Abano. The coastline we are driving over, during the days we are in the Black Sea area, is one of the least frequently traveled sections of Turkey, partly because until very recently no road existed along the shore. There is really nothing here, we just wanted to drive the coast at a leisurely pace.

The Black Sea

Throughout the countryside we ran across many of these houses, completely covered in tiles with small mirrors in the center of the patterns.

Throughout the countryside we ran across many of these houses, completely covered in tiles with small mirrors in the center of the patterns.

As we have been driving around Turkey it has been difficult to grasp the inner workings of the Turkish culture and economy.  Regarding the economy, their GDP grew considerably and then took a dive in 2015. According to one US study “Mounting political turmoil in Turkey will drag on business sentiment going forward. This situation, coupled with security concerns in the country, will impact growth.” It is very obvious that tourism has taken a real hit in Turkey, how that will play out overall, only time will tell.

The birth rate of Turkey is also on the decline.  Like most every country in Europe this is obvious in the countryside where the young are very rarely seen.  However, I have been rather amazed at the amount of families we have encountered on this trip, especially in the “tourist” areas and in the big cities.  The government is attempting to give incentives for birth, but they are nominal and not practical.  However, the government does hope that refugees living in Turkey could help solve the issue. Turkey currently hosts nearly 3 million Syrian refugees, aand more than 1 million of them are children, according to the Directorate General of Migration Management of the Turkish Interior Ministry.

One cannot discuss Turkey without addressing several moments of Genocide in their history.  These subjects are forbidden to discuss in Turkey itself, leading to a massive wiping out of collective and historical memory.

I met a wonderful Kurdish gentleman that said his friends do not even know he is Kurdish, as they would treat him differently or simply stop being his friend should they know.  It is against the law to speak the Kurdish language in Turkey even though Kurds in Turkey are the largest ethnic minority in the country. According to various estimates, they compose between 15% and 20% of the population of Turkey, and are primarily concentrated in the east and southeast.  According to NEO “It won’t be an exaggeration to state that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is systematically exterminating Kurds throughout Turkey which constitutes an act of genocide.”

Then there is the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide began with the forced deportation of the majority of the Ottoman Armenian population between 1915 and 1917. Further massacres and deportations occurred during the closing stages and immediate aftermath of World War I. The modern Turkish government has always denied the fact that the massacres of the Armenians during the Ottoman period constituted genocide.

Regarding the movement to a more radical form of Islam in the country, W. Robert Pearson  U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2000 to 2003 and currently a scholar at the Middle East Institute and his colleague Gregory Kist graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science state that “much has happened since the Arab Spring to challenge (President) Erdogan’s domestic and foreign policies. Domestically, while he has won a new mandate to seek the constitutional change to cement his political control, he has done so at the cost of a growing Kurdish insurgency and the elimination of media freedom. His disregard for institutional controls on government and belief in populist justification for authoritarian rule has deepened internal tensions.

Regionally, his missteps in Syria — from which Turkey is now experiencing the consequences — compare unfavorably with Turkey’s historically pragmatic approach and highlight risky and ideological tactics that are failing. His devotion to his original philosophy has brought him great political successes, but the costs continue to mount for him, for the Turkish people and for stability in the region.”

I have experienced this in seeing many, many more women dressed in more conservative Islamic required dress than ever before in Turkey, and women’s rights are eroding as well.

In addition to all of this the government has fired 10,000 teachers and has ordered the closure of 102 media outlets, including 45 newspapers, 16 TV channels, three news agencies, 23 radio stations, 15 magazines and 29 publishing houses. Arrest warrants have been issued for more than 100 journalists.

There is a vast change occurring in Turkey, but where it will go is impossible to know.  I will say that I have only been greeted by the most wonderful, accommodating, helpful and kind people wherever I have gone. I have not experienced any anti-American sentiment either, despite all that I read in the papers before I left.

Standing Lincoln

 Chicago
Jul 172016
 

Off N. Lake Shore Drive near W. North Avenue
Chicago
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This is one of the two sculptures in Lincoln Park that were bequeathed to Chicago upon the death of lumberman Eli Bates.

This 12 foot tall figure known as the “Standing Lincoln” was the first of Saint-Gaudens’ statues of Lincoln. He received the commission for this monument in 1884 and began work the following year.

Lincoln had made quite an impression on Saint-Gaudens when he saw Lincoln in 1860 . “Lincoln stood tall in the carriage, his dark uncovered head bent in contemplative acknowledgement of the waiting people, and the broadcloth of his black coat shone rich and silken in the sunlight”.

To capture Lincoln’s appearance, Saint-Gaudens relied on plaster life masks made by Leonard Volk of Lincoln’s Hands and face. To achieve the pose Saint-Gardens used Langdon Morse a 6 foot 4 farmer from Windsor Vermont.

As he worked out the design for the statue, St. Gaudens experimented with a variety of poses: seated and standing, arms crossed in front of his body, or holding a document. Art critic Marianna Griswold Van Rensselaer described the decision  in her review of the statue in The Century (1887):

“The first question to be decided must have been: Shall the impression to be given base itself primarily upon the man of action or upon the man of affairs? Shall the statue be standing or seated? In the solution of this question we find the most striking originality of the work. The impression given bases itself in equal measure upon the man of action and the
man of affairs. Lincoln is standing, but stands in front of a chair from which he has just risen. He is before the people to counsel and direct them, but has just turned from that other phase of his activity in which he was their executive and their protector. Two ideas are thus expressed in the composition, but they are not separately, independently expressed to the detriment of unity. The artist has blended them to the eye as our own thought blends them when we speak of Lincoln. The pose reveals the man of action, but represents a man ready for action, not really engaged in it; and the chair clearly typical of the Chair of State reveals his title to act no less than his methods of self-preparation. We see, therefore, that completeness of expression has been arrived at through a symbolic, idealistic conception.”

Standing LincolnArchitect, Stanford White, of the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White, designed the monument’s base. He added the long, curving exedra bench to encourage visitors to sit and enjoy the statue,

This was one of 20 such artistic collaborations between White and Saint-Gaudens who also became close friends.

The monument was cast in bronze by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company in New York, and dedicated on October 22, 1887, to a large crowd. Lincoln’s son, Robert, considered this the best sculpture of his father of the many that were done.

After Saint-Gaudens’ death, his wife authorized an edition of smaller bronze copies. These are found in public institutions around the country. Full- size casts of the statue were later installed in London, England, Mexico City, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Hollywood Hills, California. The image of Lincoln used for the commemorative stamp
of 1909, was drawn from the head of this statue.

Saint-Gaudens has been in this site before, you can read about him here.

Abraham Lincoln

Shakespeare in Chicago

 Chicago
Jul 162016
 

N. Lincoln Parkway West and W. Belden Avenue
Chicago

ShakespeareAccording to the Chicago Parks Department:

“When Samuel Johnston, a successful north side businessman, died in 1886, he left a sizeable gift in his will for several charities as well as money for a memorial to William Shakespeare in Lincoln Park.

A competition was held to select a sculptor. The winner was a Columbia University graduate, William Ordway Partridge (1861–1930), who had studied sculpture in France and Italy after a short stint as an actor.

This commission presented a unique challenge for Partridge since the only known portraits of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) had been done after the death of the famous English playwright and poet. Partridge made an intensive study of Shakespeare and life in Elizabethan England. He visited Stratford and London, reviewed dozens of existing artworks, and examined a death mask that was then believed to have been authentic.

Partridge also consulted with Shakespearean actors including Henry Irving and his costumer, Seymour Lucas, who helped him portray the world-renowned literary figure in authentic period clothing.

Partridge displayed a plaster model of the William Shakespeare Monument at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. He had the work cast in bronze in Paris and shipped to Chicago.

The donor’s grandniece, Miss Cornelia Williams, unveiled the sculpture on April 23, 1894, the supposed anniversary of both Shakespeare’s birth and death. At the dedication ceremony, Partridge said: “Shakespeare needs nothing of bronze. His monument is England, America, and the whole of Saxondom. He placed us upon a pedestal, but one cannot place him on one, for he belongs among the people whom he so dearly loved.” The artist’s remarks offer insight into the sculpture’s unusually low pedestal, which provides exceptional visual and physical access to the artwork.”

**

On the base is inscribed Shakespeare’s words from Hamlet.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!

On the opposite side are Samuel T. Coleridge’s words,
“he was not for an age but for all time, our myriad- minded Shakespeare….”

William Partridge was born in Paris to American parents. Partridge travelled to America to attend Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn and Columbia University (graduated 1883) in New York. After a year of experimentation in theatre, he went abroad to study sculpture.

Aside from his public commissions, his work consisted mostly of portrait busts. In 1893 eleven of his works were displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

Partridge went on to lecture at Stanford University in California, and assumed a professorship at Columbian University, now George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.

He died in Manhattan on May 22, 1930.

Savannah Tidbits

 Savannah
May 092015
 
A Victorian Privacy Barrier

A Victorian Privacy Barrier

There are so many wonderful architectural styles in Savannah, with details galore.  I wanted to focus on a few items of interest that aren’t often talked about.  The Archway in a private home delineated the private rooms from the public ones.  The parlor and the gentleman’s office in this house are the two rooms that are between the front door in the background and this stunning arch.

Haint Blue

Haint Blue

Haint Blue has a lot of mysticism and rumor surrounding it. An oft repeated theory states that its roots are in the Geechee culture. The Geechee are African-Americans found mainly in the low country. Descendants of slaves, their belief system is a mixture of African witchcraft and a bit of Christianity.

The story goes that painting sections or even entire homes this shade of blue came from the Geechee belief in witches and “haints” or spirits. Apparently these ghosts could not cross water so the blue was believed to repel the spirits.

The color is made of a mixture of indigo dye, milk and lime (the burning and grinding of the oyster shells as seen in tabby). Lime is a natural insect repellent, but I believe this is just a good side benefit, I doubt they knew that at the time.

Arsenic Paint

Arsenic Paint

Another bug repellent was arsenic.  Here it is in the dining room in the green paint.

Madera Decanters

Madeira Decanters in a case with a bug catcher nearby

Madeira started arriving in Savannah in the 1760s, it was even advertised in Georgia’s first newspaper. By the 19th century, Savannah was a major importer of Madeira.  It was so popular with the wealthy, their cellar inventories are still talked about today.

So what happened to Madeira?  Three things contributed to the demise of Savannah’s Madeira culture: the economic upheaval of the War Between the States and two blights of the vine that decimated much of Europe’s vineyards in the 1850s and 1870s.

By the time production and America’s economy recovered, the taste for Madeira had waned.

Another reason for the wine’s success in the South is its stalwart character. As a fortified wine, it survives heat, humidity and rough ocean crossings. Once opened, it seems to keep indefinitely.

Feather Beds

Feather Beds

Feather beds were terribly expensive in the past.  The feathers from the occasional chicken or turkey dinner would be saved until there were enough to stuff a mattress.

Pine Straw or Spanish Moss Mattress

Pine Straw or Spanish Moss Mattress

Spanish Moss and Pine straw however, were prevalent and cheap.  The pine straw mattress took a lot of work, the pine needles would clump together, so every morning someone, a slave in the case of the south, had to pull the lumps apart. The Spanish Moss appeared, to me at least, to be the most logical.  It was a much more comfortable material, and in the south, almost as prevalent as pine needles at the time.

Ballast bricks

Ballast bricks

Since many ships arrived in Savannah somewhat lighter than they intended to leave, they needed ballast during the voyage.  These bricks, which acted as ballast, eventually became a sidewalk.

Tabby

Tabby

Tabby, while most often found as a material in the walls of buildings, works just as well as sidewalk material. You can read all about Tabby in my article about Beaufort, South Carolina.

The Trustees Garden

The Trustees Garden

The Trustees Garden was the first experimental garden in America.  The garden was modeled after the Chelsea Botanical Garden and was ten acres.  Botanists were sent from England to scour the world for the project.  They brought vine cuttings, fruit trees, flax, hemp, spices, cotton, indigo, olives and medicinal herbs. The trustees laid their greatest hopes on wine industry and in Mulberry trees which were essential to the culture of silk. Both of these crops failed due to the unsuitable soil and weather conditions. However, they did produce the peach trees Georgia is so famous for, as well as upland cotton.

The Pirates House

The Pirates House

Next to the Trustees Garden is the Pirates’ House. It was built in 1734 and is said to be the oldest house in the State of Georgia. It was originally the home of the gardener for the Trustees Garden.

Eventually the building became a Seaman’s Inn and obviously a drinking establishment. Rumors insist that there is a tunnel from the rum cellar to the docks for Shanghaing sailors.  What is known is that Savannah is mentioned several times in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and some say that a few passages of it were based on The Pirates House.

WTOC

WTOC

The first Savannah radio station opened in October 1929.  Its call letters WTOC stood for Welcome to our City.

Torah at Mickve Israel Synagogue

Torah at Mickve Israel Synagogue

The congregation of Mickve Israel was founded by a group of 42 Jews who sailed from London aboard the William and Sarah, they arrived in Savannah on July 11, 1733, just months after the colony’s establishment. These founders brought with them a “Safertoro” or Torah made of deerskin, it was the first brought to the U.S. and also the oldest in the U.S.  This Torah is still used on commemorative occasions today.

Savannah has the second largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the country. They begin in mid-February with an Irish festival, a Celtic cross ceremony on March 1 and many lesser parades and events leading up to its big St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Savannah's Celtic Cross

Savannah’s Celtic Cross

There is also a William Jasper Green ceremony. The event honors the Irishman who came to fight the British in the Revolutionary War and lost his life in the Siege of Savannah in 1779. It has become a ceremony that honors all who have served in the military.

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Pinkie Masters

On St. Patricks Day in 1978, Jimmy Carter stood on the bar at Pinkie Masters and gave a speech.  Al Gore gave one in there on St. Patrick’s Day as well.

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The Six Pence (shown above) is just one of many Irish Pubs in Savannah, it serves good food, but also starred in the movie Something to Talk About.

 

Two Hours in Charleston, South Carolina

 Charleston
May 062015
 

Flag of South Carolina

Charleston is steeped in Southern history and they are proud of it, beginning with their flag.  The South Carolina flag was designed by Colonel William Moultrie in 1775.  The first flag simply had a crescent moon with the words liberty written on the moon.

That design flew over a fortress on Sullivan’s Island where Moultrie was part of a stand against the British in June 1776. One of the reasons the South Carolinians were able to hold Sullivan’s Island was because the  the fortress was constructed of palmettos, laid over sand walls.  These palmettos, spongy as they were, were able to withstand British cannons. The palmetto was added to the flag after that.

Map of Charleston, South Carolina

Map of Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston sits between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, these drain into the Atlantic Ocean.  When the British first arrived in South Carolina the distance between the two rivers was 2 1/2 miles, today it is 5 miles.

The British fortified the town with a wall around it. Due to the fact that it was a walled city, the lots, and therefore, the buildings, tended to be narrow.

The Crisp Map of 1711

The Crisp Map of 1711 – showing the walls around the city

Since Charleston was founded after the Great Fire of London, and the British had learned a little about fire management, the city was laid out on a grid.  The streets, for the same reason were also wide.

Single

Single House

Charleston developed Single House Architecture to beat the heat.  Single House is an architectural style specifically of Charleston, South Carolina and refers to homes built one room wide with double covered piazzas (or what others in the U.S. call porches), that face East. The homes can be many rooms long and multiple stories high. Some are 10 feet wide, some are 25 feet wide, but they always sit with the narrow part of the house facing the street due to Charleston’s narrow lot sizes.

Homes on the Battery

Homes on the Battery

During the Civil War a coastal defense artillery battery was built on the coastline. It stretches along the lower shores of the Charleston Peninsula.  Once this was done, homes were also built along the area.

Charleston was the fourth largest city during the period leading up to the Civil War; cotton was very good to Charleston.

While the earliest settlers primarily came from England, colonial Charleston was also home to a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. People came from Bermuda and the Caribbean,  French, Scottish, Irish, and Germans migrated to the developing seacoast town, representing numerous Protestant denominations. Sephardic Jews migrated to the city in such numbers that Charleston eventually was home to, by the beginning of the 19th century and until about 1830, the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America.

Hugenot Cemetery

Huguenot Cemetery – Huguenots made up 40% of the population prior to the Civil War

Charleston was also a very progressive city.  Prostitution was legal, and in fact stayed that way until after WWII.

The Dock Theater, site of the oldest American theater

The Dock Theater, site of the oldest American theater

Theaters were prevalent. In the North the theater was considered the highway to hell and was condemned or forbidden. In 1750 the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act prohibiting stage plays and theatrical entertainments of any kind. In 1759, the Colony of Pennsylvania passed a law forbidding the showing and acting of plays under a penalty of £500. In 1761 Rhode Island passed “an act to Prevent Stage Plays and other Theatrical Entertainments within this Colony,” and the following year the New Hampshire House of Representatives refused a troupe of actors admission to Portsmouth on the ground that plays had a “peculiar influence on the minds of young people and greatly endanger their morals by giving them a taste for intriguing, amusement and pleasure”.

 

Charleston was enjoying a prosperous and entertaining life as the seeds of Civil War were brewing.  The Civil War was not kind to Charleston.

This is the second St. Philip's Church on this site. It was constructed from 1835 to 1838 by architect Joseph Hyde, while the steeple, designed by E.B. White, was added a decade later.

This is the second St. Philip’s Church on this site. It was constructed from 1835 to 1838 by architect Joseph Hyde, while the steeple, designed by E.B. White, was added a decade later.

On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina General Assembly made the state the first to ever secede from the Union. Some of the staunchest Secessionists were members of the St. Philip’s Church.

On December 11, 1861, a massive fire burned 164 acres of the city.  In late 1863 the Union forces were able to get close enough to begin a bombardment that lasted on and off for more than a year.  The cumulative effects of this bombardment would destroy much of the city that had survived the fire.

Streets in the oldest part of Charleston

Streets in the oldest part of Charleston

The City of Charleston was evacuated from 1863 to 1865 and then sat under Marshall law for the next 16 years.

Earthquake bracing on the building

Earthquake bracing on the building

To add insult to injury a 7.5 earthquake hit Charleston in 1886. It damaged 2,000 buildings in Charleston and caused $6 million worth of damage, the city was so poor by then that the buildings in the entire city were only valued at approximately $24 million.

This was the end of Charleston.  The city became, as many cities do, an impoverished empty city.  A few people trickled in after WWII and many more with the opening of the Eisenhower Highway system, but today it is only the 225th largest city in U.S.

The House on Cabbage Row in Heyward’s novel Porgy. At the time 20 people were living in that house.

The House on Cabbage Row in Dubose Heyward’s novel Porgy. At the time of its writing there were 100 people  living in the house.

In the 1970s the city began attempting to attract tourism but the city remained rather impoverished until Hurricane Hugo in 1989.  At that time over $1billion in insurance money came in to help many people that had spent generations deferring maintenance on their homes.  This would include the installation of plumbing and electricity on the insides of the homes, rather than simply run up the exterior walls.

Hugo also, however, killed 45% of all the trees in Charleston, so tree canopy is treasured in Charleston where the trees are still large enough to provide shade. Along with the loss of trees, Spanish moss, so prevalent in the south, disappeared from Charleston.

There was also a 17 foot storm surge with Hugo bringing in “pluff” mud.

Pluff mud is a Carolina Lowcountry term for the slippery, shiny brown-gray, sucky mud, with a distinctive smell like none other, of the tidal flats and spartina grass salt marshes. When you step in it, you could sink up to your ankles, or up to your knees.

Pluff mud is a Carolina Lowcountry term for the slippery, shiny brown-gray, sucky mud, with a distinctive smell like none other, of the tidal flats and spartina grass salt marshes. When you step in it, you could sink up to your ankles, or up to your knees.

Today, Charleston is becoming a prime location for tech, it is considered a very important art center, and has the fourth largest container port in the U.S.

Robert Mills, best know for designing the Washington Monument, designed this church in his home town of Charleston

Robert Mills, best know for designing the Washington Monument, designed this church in his home town of Charleston

Tiny alleys like this run throughout the old part of Charleston

Tiny alleys like this run throughout the old part of Charleston

Trachelospermum jasminoides is called Confederate Jasmine here in the south

Trachelospermum jasminoides is called Confederate Jasmine here in the south

Victorian homes, made of wood, which is rare in Charleston are scattered in areas that were burned out in the old section of town

Victorian homes, made of wood, which is rare in Charleston, are scattered in areas that were burned out in the old section of town

The impending destruction of this building began the preservation movement in Charleston in 1920.

The impending destruction of this building began the preservation movement in Charleston in 1920.

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If you get to Charleston and want one of the absolute best tour guides I suggest Tommy Dew’s

The best Albariño I have tasted – Galicia, Spain

 Galicia
Mar 192015
 

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This is not a plug for a winery, this is about a Spanish gentleman that makes great wine.  I had the pleasure of meeting Clemente Sequeiros when he escorted my friend Julie B. and I around the Vigo area, house hunting.  Clemente is an architect as well as a winemaker, a scholar and a gentleman.

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Julie B. and Clemente

This is the tasting room of the winery and that is the largest oak barrel in all of Spain.

Clemente makes primarily Albariño, although he does have a few other varietals planted, and I am sure he will be experimenting with those when the time is right.  However, Albariño is the primary wine of the area around Vigo, and this area produces some of the finest Albariño in the world.

Wall of Pride

Wall of Pride

The winery has won several  medals from the prestigious Decanter World Wines competition in London.  The awards, coincidentally, were signed by my old professor, Steven Spurrier of L’Academie du Vin in Paris.

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If you find yourself in the area, and can wrangle an appointment, stop in and buy a few bottles.  The winery is working on distribution in the United States, but hasn’t cracked that difficult market quite yet.
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You can read all about the process that the winery uses in an article written by Clemente’s friend, and now mine, Mark Auchincloss here.

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World Heritage Sites

 

I can not explain why I have always been fascinated with visiting World Heritage Sites. There is often controversy surrounding them, but in the true spirit of preservation, I applaud the organization.

While I have not written about every site I have visited, I have always had a twinge of excitement when I do go to a World Heritage Site.

Here is a list of places I have had the absolute privilege of visiting:

AntiguaNaval Dockyard
ArgentinaIguazu National Park
ArmeniaMonastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley
Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and Zvartnots
AustriaHistoric Center of Salzburg
Historic Center of Vienna
AzerbaijanWalled City of Baku
Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
BaharainAncient Harbour and Capitol of Dilmun
BarbadosHistoric Bridgetown
BelgiumHistoric Center of Brugge
La Grand Palace - Brussels
BrazilIguacu National Park
CanadaCanadian Rocky Mountain Parks
Historic District of Old Quebec
Rideau Canal
Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland Labrador
Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland
ChinaThe Great Wall
Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
Summer Palace Beijing
Temple of Heaven Beijing
Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Historic Center of Macao
CubaOld Havana
Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios
Vinales Valley
Archaeological Landscape of the 1st Coffee Plantations
Center of Cienfuegos
Historic Centre of Camaguey
El Morro – Santiago de Cuba
CyprusPaphos
Choirokoitia
Painted Churches in Troodos
Czech RepublicHistoric Center of Prague
Democratic KoreaComplex of Koguryo Tombs
EgyptAncient Thebes
Historic Cairo
Memphis
Abu Simbel to Philae
FranceChartre
Versailles
Arles, Roman Monuments
Theater and Triumphal Arch of Orange
Pont du Gard
Notre Dame
Banks of the Seine
Avingnon
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - City of Leon
French PolynesiaTaputapuatea on Ra'iatea
GeorgiaBagrati Cathedral
Mtskheta
GreeceAcropolis
Bassae, Temple of Apollo
Delphi
Rhodes
Tessalonika
Archaeological Site of Olympia
Mystras
Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios, Loukas and Nea Moni ofChios
Delos
Holy SeeVatican City
HungaryBudapest
IcelandÞingvellir National Park
Vatnajökull National Park
IndiaAgra
Ajanta Caves
Ellora Caves
Taj Mahal
Elephanta Caves
Humayun’s Tomb
Qutb Minar
Victoria Terminus/Chhatrapati Shivaii Terminus
Red Fort Complex
The Jantar Mantar
Hill Forts of Rajasthan
Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya
Nalanda
Konarak Sun Temple
IrelandHistoric City of Dublin
ItalyThe Last Supper
Vatican
Historic Center of Rome
Historic Center of Naples
Historic Center of Florence
Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
Venice
San Gimignano
Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Naples
Siena
Amalfi Coast
Assisi
Villa Adriana
Villa d’Este Tivoli
Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalu and Monreale
Agrigento
Towns of the Val di Noto
Mount Etna
Villa Romana del Casale
Palace at Caserta
Le Strade Nuove - Genova
Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata
Syracuse and the Necropolis of Pantalica
The Porticoes of Bologna
Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna
La Strada Nuove of Genova
JapanAncient Kyoto
Hiroshima
Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area
Himeji-jo
Itsukushima Shinto Shrine
Nara
Itsukushima Shrine
National Museum of Western Art
Enryaku-ji
Kiyomizu-dera
Ninna-ji
Rokuan-ji
Ryoan-ji
Saiho-ji
Shrines and Temples of Nikkō
JordanPetra
Wadi Rum
LuxembourgOld Quarters and Fortifications
MexicoXochimilco and Historic Center of Mexico City
Historic Center of Oaxaca
Historic Town of Guanajuato
Agave Landscape and Ancient Facilities of Tequila
University of Mexico
San Miguel de Allende
MaltaHal Sflieni Hypogeum
City of Valetta
Xaghra, Qrendi, Mgarr and Tarxien
Coastal Cliffs*
Qawra/Dwejra*
Citadella*
Mdina*
Maltese Catacomb Complexes*
Knights Fortifications*
MoroccoVolubilis
City of Meknes
Medina of Fez
Medina of Marrakesh
Medina of Tetouan
El Jadida
Rabat
Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou
NepalMaya Devi Temple/Lumbini
NetherlandsCanals of Amsterdam
PeruCity of Cuzco
Macchu Picchu
PolandKrakow
Historic Center of Warsaw
PortugalTower of Belem
Alcobaça Monastery
Batalha Monastery
Monastery of the Hieronymites
University of Coimbra
Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga
Historic Center of Évora
Convent of Christ in Tomar
Cultural Landscape of Sintra
Historic Centre of Oporto, Luiz I Bridge and Monastery of Serra do Pilar
Historical Center of Guimaraes
Puerto RicoLa Fortaleza
RomaniaDanube Delta
RussiaSaint Petersburg
Kremlin and Red Square
Kizhi Pogost
Saint LuciaPitons Management Area
SingaporeSingapore Botanic Gardens
SpainAlhambra, Geralife and Albyzin , Granada
Santiago de Compostela
Route of Santiago de Compostela
La Sagrada Familia
Park Guell
Casa Mila
Palau Guell
Casa Vicens
Hospital de Sant Pau
Casa Batillo
Palau de La Musica Catalana
SwitzerlandSwiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
Old City of Bern
Bernina Express
TunisiaCarthage
Dougga
Amphitheatre of El Jem
Kairouan
Medina of Tunis
Kerkuane
Medina of Sousse
ThailandAyutthaya
TurkeyHistoric Areas of Istanbul
Edime Selimiye Mosque
Nemrug Dagi
Safranbolu
Troy
Hierapolis-Pamukkale
Bogazkale
Goereme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
UkraineKiev
Wooden Tserkvas
United KingdomPalace of Westminster
Tower of London
Maritime Greenwich
Kew Gardens
Neolithic Sites of Avebury
City of Bath
Scotland - The Forth Bridge
Scotland - Edinburgh Old and New Town
United StatesIndependence Hall
Redwood National and State Parks
Mammoth Cave National Park
Statue of Liberty
Yosemite National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Monticello
Congaree National Park
Grand Canyon
Everglades National Park
Great Smokey Mountains National Park
Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright - Taliesin East and West, Robie House, Unity Temple, Guggenheim Museum

Eataly

 Chicago
Jun 152014
 

43 East Ohio Street
Chicago, Illinois

Eataly of Chicago

This is Eataly and an experience not to be missed! Owned by Mario Batali, Oscar Farinetti, Joe and Lidia Bastianich, Adam and Alex Saper, Eataly is an extravaganza,covering 62,000 square feet, on two floors, that is EVERYTHING Italian.

Eataly Chicago

In January 2007, Italian businessman Oscar Farinetti converted a closed vermouth factory in Turin into the first location of Eataly. September 2010, Eataly opened in New York near Madison Square park, with a partnership that included Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and her son Joe Bastianich, and brothers Adam and Alex Saper. The chain has additional locations in Italy, Japan, Dubai and Turkey.  The Chicago store opened in December 2013.

Eataly Chicago

The Chicago store is open seven days a week, and is so very much more than just a shopping experience.

La Pizza & La Pasta Chicago Eataly

 There are several places with tables and chairs to grab a bite to eat.  There is La Pizza and La Pasta serving Rossopomodoro Pizza as well as house made pasta. Rossopomodoro is a branch of an Italian chain that has locations all over Italy, as well as, in London, Buenos Aires, Reykjavik, Tokyo, and Naples, Florida.

We chose to sit at the Il Pesce bar, but you can sit at Le Verdure, or La Piazza.  They each have a special chalk board with menu items, that you can get at each of these three bars, or you can go for the specialty of the bar itself.  There were fresh oysters at Il Pesce, and the food at each of the other spots looked fabulous as well.

Bruschetta at Eataly in Chicago

The special was a three bruschetta plate, and each are truly wonderful.

Meat Department

We moved onto La Carne, which is a nice quiet corner of the second floor with windows out onto the world, white cloth napkins and wonderful service.  I can’t rave enough about everything we dined on.

Cafe Vergnano Chicago Eataly

There are two spots to grab coffee.  On the first floor is Gran Bar Lavazza and on the second is Caffe Vergnano. 

Wine store at Eataly Chicago

There is not only a large selection of wine for sale, you can taste wine at the Vino Libero that also includes tastings of salumi and verdure.

Birreria Eataly Chicago

Yes, they have their own on-site craft brewery with a dining area and of course, beer.

Cookies Chicago Eataly

You can buy sweets galore from Italy or head over to the pastry, or gelato areas on the first floor.

Eataly Gelato Bar

If you simply want sandwiches there is La Rosticceria with a selection of hand carved sandwiches, and rotisserie chicken available from 11:30 to 5:00.

Housewares at Eataly Chicago

Then there is the housewares department, you could spend thousands of hours, (and dollars) happily filling your shopping cart with items from all over and for every wild and imaginable use.

Mario Batali Cookware

You know they are going to have Mario Batali’s cookware,

Alessi Cookware

but you will also find other great names as well.

DSC_3012

Cookware Eataly

There is a great bookstore.  Yes there are the ubiquitous cook books, but there are also some nice travel books as well.

Bookstore at Eataly

You must appreciate a spot that puts its guest services desk smack in the middle of the first floor.

Guest Services at Eataly

Nutella Bar

Oh, did I fail to mention they have a Nutella Bar?

We spent several hours in Eataly, and I warn you that you will too.  So when you are in Chicago, put it on your MUST DO list, and plan on coffee and pastries, maybe just some mezes/tapas/enotheche, or a full meal, but give yourself lots of time to explore.

My only down thing were the restrooms, it was Father’s Day around noon and they were really filthy.

That, however, should not keep you from making sure you put it on your Chicago Trip Things to Do!

Olive Bar at Eataly

Olive Oil Bar at Eataly

 

 

Camino de Santiago – Last Day of Hiking

 Camino de Santiago
Sep 222013
 

September 2013
9.9 miles – 23,500 steps

DSC_5007Today was bitter sweet. My feet are so glad we are done, and frankly I could not have done anymore without a few days rest, but none-the-less, it has been a journey worth it all.

The last leg is really uneventful. Truth is most of it is through exactly the sort of area we had walked before and as you close in on Santiago, the road becomes the entry to a large town. Factories, surrounded by large parking lots and then the suburbs and then town.

We entered the church like any good pilgrim and sat for a while. It is really stunning inside with so much history.

DSC_5164There is a famous botafumeiro in the church. It is the largest censer for spreading incense smoke in the world. It weighs 175 pounds and is 5 feet tall. It is hung on a pulley system above the altar, requiring 8 men to get it to reach its top speed of 80 kph. It is said the censer was installed to cover the stench of all the unwashed pilgrims – and that is not hard to believe!

After, we headed to the pilgrim office to receive our Compostela. You stand in a long line, fortunately, we arrived where our wait was no more than 15 minutes when we left the line was way out the door. You are directed to a counter by a guide, it feels just like any passport/visa office in the world. The women that were directing were Americans. They are American Pilgrims on the Camino. The one women that put my Compostela in a tube for safe traveling was from Nevada City. You can read more about them at www.americanpilgrims.com.

DSC_4972Once you get to the counter they check your stamps. You are given a sheet where you put your name, city, age, how you did the Camino i.e. walk, horse, bicycle, and then answer if you did it for religious purposes or another reason. I was about the 15th person to sign the sheet I signed, I saw Dallas Texas, Bangor Maine, London, Santa Barbara, and others I don’t recall. I would love to read just a few of the sheets, they must hold the most interesting collection of travelers.

After a few minutes, you are handed a certificate completely in Latin, including your name that says you did it! ( I assume that is what it says, as my Latin is a tad rusty – for all I know it says thank you for spending your hard earned money killing your feet, getting blisters and eating our delicious Galician food).

The line is a fun one to stand in. We were in front of two men from New York that had walked the entire Camino 800 kilometers from St John, France. They took 31 days, which is actually rather fast. As people strolled in and out, people they had started out with would come running over and hug and cry – the Camino creates quite a bond.

Tomorrow Julie leaves out of La Couruna via the train, depending on the weather I may go with her for the morning and then come back via train. I have one more full day to spend photographing Santiago and then home.

DSC_4979A few things I have learned. While it sounds so very cliche, you get out of the Camino what you put into it. We have met so very many interesting people, and everyone’s Camino is different. But I found that upbeat happy people had a good Camino despite the hardships, that complainers are complainers and always will be, but I also found that people on the Camino that were looking for something didn’t really find it, my opinion is because what they were looking for was inside them, and they weren’t looking there.

Regarding Spain, and in particular Galicia. Spain has suffered from the world economic slow down as badly, and worse than most. This mornings news had an article about a fellow that posted to his Facebook account how he had a Masters degree and yet was forced to go to England to look for work, and there he only found work as a barista. Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.businessinsider.com/benja-serra-bosch-spains-unemployment-icon-2013-10

We were stopped on the road by a woman named Lynette. She was an American, and we think she just wanted to talk to Americans, she works as a health care worker in Santiago. She said that Galicia has lost its spirit and gumption, that everyone has gone underground and is too fearful to do new and different things for fear of losing even more money, and so the citizenship has become mired in inaction.

DSC_4911I found this particularly true, in that there really was no entrepreneurship on the Camino, many times you would hear Americans (and really only Americans) say if I had a place on the Camino I would do this, and you had to agree with them, there is so much opportunity and yet they have not grabbed hold of it. You can counter that with the fact that it would make the Camino even more commercial, but when you are trying desperately to find work, new ideas are what it takes to get the economy stimulated, and there are approximately 2000 pilgrims that finish the Camino in Santiago EVERY DAY, selling just half of them a decent hamburger would bring in a lot of money :-).

Well if you have read all of my missives, and have gotten this far down each of the pages, you are a true friend and reader and I thank you.

Saying of the Day: Enjoy your successes, but also enjoy the moment!

Buon Camino!