Monochrome Monday 9-29

 

Take care!

 

Throwback Thursday: Rewarded!

I assume, most of us like sleeping a bit longer on weekends or public holidays. Me, too. But, sometimes certain ideas require something else.

The week before Easter, I got a hint about a special occasion on Holy Saturday morning in Cologne. Cologne is not that far away, only a nearly 1-hour drive. So, I set my alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. When it rang, I got up and checked the sky if stars were visible. They were. So, starting the coffee maker was the next step before heading to the shower. Less than half an hour later, I sat in the car heading to Cologne.

Unfortunately, there were a few fleecy clouds between me and my target. Nevertheless, the results are quite satisfying, except for the black sky. Approximately 20-30 minutes later, the sky would have been perfect.

I gave it a second try on Easter Sunday morning, but now, the moon went down in a different position, so the composition wasn’t possible anymore. According to the source of the hint, this image is possible only once a year. So, Easter Sunday was already too late. The last image is taken on Easter Sunday morning, the others are from Holy Saturday.

Take care

 

 

The hidden secret of Barcelona Cathedral

In my last post on Barcelona Cathedral I wrote about a hidden secret inside the building.

Once, the cathedral was part of a monastery. Thus it has a cloister. The cloister was used by the monks for their religious exercises. It looks a bit like ancient roman houses were build: a roofed part of a house around an open atrium. Inside the atrium, you can find here a fenced garden with a pool and 13 geese. These geese are the symbol of St. Eulalia and are supposed to guard the cathedral and the monastery for centuries. You know, geese are better watchdogs than dogs, because they are unbribable and very brave to attack intruders.

To come here is easy, but a little bit tricky. On the right side of the cathedral you can find a small, dark door brining you to the cloister. Only a small sigh on the wall will lead you that way.

Here you can also find the gift shop, several old tombs and in one of the corners you can find another small chapel.

Take care!

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La cathedrale

de Santiago de Cuba.

Finally we were lucky enough to see a cuban cathedral from inside. One evening, when we came back to our hotel, I saw light from inside shining through the wide open door to the square below. Going upstairs we had to pass the beggars again. They started again following us through the cathedral and didn’t left us alone watching the paintings, the decorated ceiling and the other interior. Our guide advised us, don’t give them anything.

Half of the cathedral was closed with a wooden wall, because of reconstruction works. The cathedral was hard damaged by the hurricane Sandy in December 2012 as several other parts of the old-town, too.

Take care.

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Bayeux cathedral

This post is dedicated to the Bayeux cathedral, while my last post focused the city.

Bayeux cathedral “Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux” is a romanesc cathedral, just like oft of the cathedrals we visited during our trip in the Normandie. While most of the other cathedrals in the Normandie

Eglise St. Jeanne d’Arc de Rouen

is also a church, but an unusual one.

This church is very modern, similar to St. Joseph in Le Havre, but much different. The similarity is only in being modern and unusual.

The shape of this church is like ocean waves.The bell hangs outside under a small roof directed to the market halls. The church and the market halls are connected by parts of the roof and the same in style. The highest wave forms the tower, but in front of the church is a very high cross instead of locating it on the tower.

This church is

Cathedral Notre-Dame de l’Assomption in Rouen

This is also a gothic cathedral .

I was kind of surprised of the bad shape of this cathedral. Many figurines, usally standing outside in the fasade or on the roof, were lined up inside. Each with a note, where its usual place is. They were in extremly bad shape. You already saw photos of gargoyles damaged by erosion and the aicd rain, but these figurines looked worse.

You know, each romanic or gothic cathedral has wonderful colorful glass windows. But here were only very few of them. Nearly all windows at the sides and also those, not in the primary direction on view, were of milky glass instead of colorful glass. Also, parts of the entrance side were covered by scaffolds and canvas for fasade reconstructions. It seemed to me, we were in the late 1940s or 1950s, when some (many) of the war reconstructions were not already done. But it is 2012 and the last war is over for 67 years.