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Posts Tagged ‘Landscapes’

Oh, Valencia.

Posted in Architecture, Art, Beach, cake, cathedral, City Breaks, Dance, Food, gothic, grafitti, Landmark, modern, Photography, Roman, Spain, spanish, Spanish, street performance, Travel, travel photography, Weather, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2012| 1 Comment »

Sun. Paella at La Pepica. Roman architecture in the city centre. Spontaneous street parades. Independent designer street vendors. Reflexology from my beach chair. 14 girl hen / bachelorette party. Sangria. Cava.

A great weekend in a beautiful city with a wicked group of ladies. I really do love Spain. Although Seville is so far my favorite Spanish city, it does lack a beach, a quality Valencia delivers highly on. Unfortunately my fancy pants camera is in the shop. Again. Well, technically it’s not in the shop anymore. It’s being held ransom in UK customs. Here are a few shots I took with my extremely vintage iPhone. Let me know what you think.

We were greeted at the airport by these lovely gluten free, vegan hen cupcakes. What a great way to start our journey.

Valencia has a thriving night life and the old city at night is absolutely breathtaking.

The silly sunglasses man made out like a bandit on us. Here is the normally gorgeous Anna giving the rest of us a fair shot at looking beautiful too.

Valencia Beach. If you get a reflexology on the beach, pick the lady with the Dora the Explorer bag and flowered hat. The rest pale in comparison. Kind of like standing next to Anna when she’s not wearing those ugly glasses.

After some partying and beach time with the ladies, I took a later flight so that I could explore the old city myself. I am so glad I did as I ran across many spectacular moments in the short span of a Sunday afternoon.

The Cathedral.

The Cathedral.

The Cathedral.

Torre del Micalet.

Couple at Torre del Micalet.

City view from Torre del Micalet..

Fountain in Plaza de la Virgin

Child vs. pigeon standoff in Plaza de la Virgin.

A bit of modern architecture mixed in.

Valencia street view.

Random street performance. These ladies were amazing.

Clarinet player in the street performance band.

Costumed men joining the street performance.

And now I’m finding it difficult to get back to the mundane tasks that life is requiring. I guess that’s what Monday is all about. What do you think the people of Valencia are doing right now?

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Autumn Song

Posted in Autumn, Immigrant Life, Seasons, Texpats, Weather, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 5, 2011| 3 Comments »

I always thought December was winter. White Christmases, pine trees, cold weather. If I would have thought about it, I might have logically matched up the changing seasons with the appointed dates and realized that winter doesn’t start until late December (December 22nd this year to be exact.) Or maybe I would have noticed the bright colored leaves crunching under my bike wheels and feet and known that it was autumn. In Texas, you can’t expect to align with the rest of the world’s ideas of a proper calendar so you just don’t try.

This is all part of the experience of living my first autumn/winter. It’s cold, y’all. And not in a “Oh I can’t go outside” kind of way. Just in a “It’s annoying to go outside” kind of way. The sun is scheduled to set at 3:50 pm. 3:50 PM! That’s still considered afternoon! Google kindly reminds me that is only 3 hours and 50 minutes from when I’m typing this and that sends a sense of panic up my spine. I can’t function under these ridiculous time constraints.

At work I get confused. I don’t know whether to answer the phone “good morning,” “good afternoon,” or “good evening.” I find myself jumbling them up, saying good evening in the afternoon and good afternoon in the morning. I catch myself midway through the greeting and what comes out sounds more like “good moraghdernoon,” to which the client replies “Uh…. hello?”

Please excuse me while I adjust to the existence of seasons.

We’ve installed special lightbulbs in our house to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder. I hope they start working soon.

The sun doesn’t seem to be travelling through the sky. It’s advising me to do the same, to stay close to home where things are safe. The low light filtered through the orange brown leaves and a foggy urban haze cause the entire cityscape to take on a dusky glow. Beautiful? Yes, but something else I can’t place my finger on too.

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Avebury

Posted in British History, Day Trip, Free, Landmark, Landscapes, Parks, Stone Circles, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2011| 1 Comment »

Leroy and Mariah were both in town visiting. We were at a pub looking through our travel guides  and trying to decide what exactly it was we wanted to do with our week. The contrasts were stark.  Husband was completely embarrassed by our public display of tourism. Mariah, ever the planner, had her wheels spinning. Laid-back Leroy was agreeing to every suggestion without too much enthusiasm. That is, until we mentioned visiting a few monoliths. The Discovery Channel buff in him suddenly perked up and Mariah and I knew we had to make it happen.

Since Mariah and I had already been to Stonehenge, we decided to visit Avebury. Word was that it was better and the oldest stone circle in Europe. The stone circles are multiple in number, more accessible and integrated into the town. In fact, the town is built inside these massive stone circles.

Luck was with us as the sun was shining for our drive out to Avebury. We parked the car and quickly found the main attraction: strategically placed large stones. Although Avebury does not carry the iconic image that Stonehenge has blazed in our collective consciousness, the sheer number of stones and organization was much greater than that of Stonehenge.

Avebury

After a bit of walking around the stones we headed into the museum. I needed context for what we were viewing. The staff at the museum was a breathe of fresh air. Tourist sites have a tendency to make one feel like cattle. The people at Avebury seemed generally excited to have our company. It was a bit like dating the sister of the prom queen.

A walk through the stones.

Let’s consult Wikipedia for historical background.

Constructed around 2600 BCE, during the Neolithic, or ‘New Stone Age’, the monument comprises of a large henge, surrounded by a bank and a ditch. Inside this henge is a large outer stone circle, with two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is not known, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremonial usage. The Avebury monument was a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

In the Late Mediaeval and Early Modern periods, locals destroyed many of the standing stones in the monument, and a village was built in the centre of it. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley however took an interest in Avebury, and recorded much of the site before its destruction. Archaeologists proceeded to excavate at the site in the 20th century.

It’s wild to think about someone chopping down this ancient stone arrangement to build onto their house. I guess it felt silly to go in search of new raw materials when these had been delivered right to your doorstep.

Stone Marked Road

Constructed around 2600 BCE,[1] during the Neolithic, or ‘New Stone Age’, the monument comprises of a large henge, surrounded by a bank and a ditch. Inside this henge is a large outer stone circle, with two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is not known, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremonial usage. The Avebury monument was a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

In the Late Mediaeval and Early Modern periods, locals destroyed many of the standing stones in the monument, and a village was built in the centre of it. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley however took an interest in Avebury, and recorded much of the site before its destruction. Archaeologists proceeded to excavate at the site in the 20th century.

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Boating Down Regent’s Canal

Posted in Boating, Canal, Landscapes, Photography, Summer, Transportation, tagged , , , , , , on September 9, 2010| 3 Comments »

Last weekend Boyfriend and I got a text from Flora asking us if we wanted to go on a boat ride down Regent’s Canal to celebrate Jam’s 30th birthday. The weather had been amazing all week and I had been dying to do something like this. Unfortunately the weather nose dived just in time for our Saturday outing. It was cloudy with sparse sun, but at least it didn’t rain.

We rode the Boris bikes up to King’s Cross area, which ended up being a bit of a nightmare. The first docking station we tried didn’t work at all, we got lost along the way, and we ran into trouble when we tried to hot dock the bikes at 30 minutes. Apparently you have to wait five minutes before taking out a new bike. I was beginning to regret waxing lyrical about the scheme on a previous post.

We finally made it to the canal with groceries and cider on hand. After a bit of putting around, we had a boat full of people and were ready to take off.

The journey begins.

Our location required us to go through a lengthy tunnel. This was at first very exciting, but after a while turned very cold.

A chilly tunnel

What a relief to literally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tunnel's end.

A canal trip provides views and perspectives otherwise not seen. Check out the reflection of the industrial buildings on the water and the contrast of the greenery draping off the tree.

Along Regent's Canal

But it wasn’t all about the views. There was much conversation and baby passing too.

Tania and Rowan (Flora and Jam's adorable son)

As our journey continued, we all got a crash course in canal lock operation. I imagine this is a really tough journey to make with one or two people. The locks aren’t hard to operate, but they are heavy. Transportation via canal isn’t the quickest way of getting around. It’s pace, however, is part of the charm.

Baby in one hand, lock operation instruction with the other.

Lock operation

Keiran

Onward through the lock

With lock operation skills under our belt, we continued along the canal. We saw lots of people out fishing. I’m not sure I’d want to eat anything I caught along this canal. Any thoughts out there on that?

Think he catches any fish?

My love and fascination for gas holders as dramatic backdrop continues.

Gasholder

Other random things you see along the canal? How about a pimp and his banana. No I’m not joking.

Oh you want to get to Victoria Park? Just pass the gasholder and around the corner from the guy pimping the banana.

There was some slight drama as we approached the last lock. We didn’t have the right key to get through. The crowds had thinned so we couldn’t ask for help from fellow boaters and phone calls to friends who might have a spare were futile. I think someone ended up purchasing a key from the lock keeper. Don’t ask me how he was tracked down. In the meantime, we moored up and passed the time easily.

Ahoy, matey.

Good times.

An afternoon’s trip down the canal left us on the east end where Boyfriend and I had the boat pull over so that we could jump out, wave goodbye and catch public transportation home. It was all in good timing, as Rowan and I were at the same energy level.

Rowan's Boat Life

Thanks Jam and Flora for a fun trip and Happy 30th Jam!

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Aerial England

Posted in Art, Landmark, Landscapes, Photography, Transportation, tagged , , , , on September 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I had the opportunity to take a helicopter ride from the Cotswolds to Blackbush airport.  I had been on a helicopter once before and by the end of the experience, I was left nauseated from a bad case of flicker vertigo. I was desperately crawling out towards the ground as soon as we touched down. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous this time around. I managed to suck it in, strap on the seat belt, and was pleasantly surprised that this time the ride was smooth and easy. I was able to enjoy myself and snap a few photos of the green and gold quilt patches that make up the landscape.

I hope you enjoy them.

Aerial View of English Countryside

Aerial View of English Countryside

My Lovely Pilot

Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. Birthplace of Winston Churchill

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