Europe
OK, so the actual translation is "Private," which is more polite than "Keep Out!" And if the message weren't already friendly enough, how about surrounding it with a berry and twig filled metal thing?This was on the door of the rectory adjacent to the Bruges Cathedral in Bruges, Belgium.
The other day I was changing the desktop on my Mac and I came across this photo, which was featured in a post from almost exactly two years ago. I won't go into the details on this famous Barcelona landmark since the earlier post does that already.The one thing that is striking about the architecture of cathedral is its diversity, which I think was a Gaudi trademark. The square, block-like design of these figures is remarkably different from the kind of detail you see in the earlier post.I would love to go back to Barcelona to see what progress has been made since I was there is 2004. In fact, I'd love to go back to Barcelona for any reason, as it was one of my favorite places in Europe.
Today's post features a detail photo of some of the stone work in the Cathedral in Seville, Spain. Why "Wild" in the title? As you will see in Monday's post, the Roman arch was round and utilitarian. A thousand years later someone in western Europe decided to enhance the look a little. And the so-called "Gothic" arch was invented. It's main feature is that it is somewhat pointed at the top. The other feature is that medieval stone masons, without the benefit of sophisticated math and computer modeling, were able to make whole ceilings out of arched stone. And while they were at it, the dressed up the stone with elaborate carvings.The carvings add nothing structural to the arch. But they do look nice!
By Scott Shephard
On August 6, 2011, 30 US troops, including 22 Navy Seals, died in action when the helicopter they were riding in was shot down in Afghanistan. One of these soldiers was John Tomlinson and on the day of his funeral, his dog Hawkeye was allowed to attend.
As a precedent for today's post, you need to click here to see where Hawkeye chose to lie during the funeral. You might even want to read the article that accompanies the photo. I had seen the story about Tomlinson and his beautiful dog a couple weeks ago and today, when I was looking for something to post, I encountered a photo I had taken of the Monument to William of Orange in the New Church in Delft, Netherlands.
William was murdered by assassins' bullets, but his loyal dog, clearly oblivious to political machinations and violence, seems to wait patiently for his master to rise to action. Hawkeye, oblivious to precedents and analogies, was said to have sighed as he lay by Jon Tomlinson's coffin on the day his master was laid to rest.
Deb in I had a little extra time in a small town in Slovenia called Lesce Bled before our train was scheduled to leave for Vienna. We had coffee at a small cafe and then went exploring. This beautiful church was our best discovery.There were many things that struck me about this place. The first was that, though the church was unattended, it was also unlocked so that anyone had free access. But the most striking thing to me is that this church is only one of thousands that are scattered throughout many small towns of Europe. This church would have been this town's pride and joy when it was built. And I think it still is.
AKA Asparagus. As photographed at a street market in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
We spent one night of our recent trip to Slovenia near a pristine mountain lake called Bohinj (pronounced Bo-heen). I got up early to capture a sunrise and blue morning sky over what I hoped to be a mirror smooth lake. I got a smooth lake but fog instead of sunrise. I also found the lake (which doesn't allow motorized vehicles) generally devoid of activity.I did find one person out rowing one of the traditional, locally made wooden boats. Whether he was fishing, getting his morning exercise or going somewhere I'll never know. But his presence does help this photo.
I think it may snow on rare occasions in Berlin, Germany. But if you own a Brandenburg Gate snow globe, you can make it snow whenever you want. I wonder if they sell Great Pyramid snow globes in Egypt? I'm wondering if they even know what snow is in Egypt. . .
I have already mentioned in another post that at the time Deb and I visited Dachau, there were few people present. But there were two groups of young German soldiers touring the grounds. Here, one group waits for another in front of the famous monument to those who suffered and died at this concentration camp.
We had had a great day driving south from Berlin to Rothenburg. But when I ordered "warm raspberries" from the dessert menu at our hotel restaurant, I wasn't sure what I'd get. And when this was served, a great day became almost perfect. Fresh raspberries and creamy vanilla ice cream - it doesn't get much better than this!
It's hard not to admire the craftsmanship in this rustic hand-made gate in rural Slovenia.
