While the rest of the family went and played crazy golf, I took the chance to have a slow wander around the harbour without running the risk of boring everyone else senseless. I understand this is one of the frustrations of having someone in the family who keeps stopping to take photos. The tide was low enough for me to get down to sea level rather than having to shoot from the harbour wall, and the reflections in the sea, distorted by the gentle breeze, took my eye.
For the first time I have remembered to take my laptop on holiday. Oh David, where are you? The Caribbean?
Well I know it looks like it, but no, I am in Wales. This is the deserted sandy beach on Caldey Island just offshore from Tenby, home to a group of Cistercian monks and producers of very nice chocolate.
Getting to the end of the day out in Coventry, I promise. The old cathedral is everything to the left, and the new on the right (he says, stating the blindingly obvious). On the extreme right is the outside of the Baptismal Window from a couple of posts ago, next to the sculpture of St Michael’s victory over the Devil. A hollow victory possibly, as the devil still has all the best music. The reason for the sculture is that the cathedral itself is dedicated to St Michael, and a washing line of Marks and Spencer underwear would have been inappropriate. Apologies to non-English readers who may not understand the last sentence. Sorry not sorry.
Old, new, nude? In my mind it flowed. But if your twisted mind guessed correctly you possibly need treatment.
Apart from being badly damaged in the blitz, Coventry is known for the actions of Lady Godiva, who rode through the streets of Coventry naked on a horse. It was apparently not as a quite normal response to an 11th century summer heatwave, but for a more noble cause. Protesting the high taxes being imposed by her husband, he agreed he would reduce them if she rode through the marketplace naked. She did.
Did you guess right? Now guess the next one, which is very Coventry themed…
The walls of the new cathedral are breathtaking and it is difficult to do them justice. This is the Baptismal wall. The random rock in the foreground is actually the baptismal font. The three tonne boulder was presented to the cathedral by the government of Jordan as a symbol of unity between the monotheist faiths, and was sourced from a location near Bethlehem. It is also referred to as the Bethlehem Boulder.
Another thread to the story of the boulder is that the font bowl was carved by Ralph Beyer, born in Berlin, who served in the British army in WW2, and whose mother was murdered in Auschwitz.
Every day a school day…
The old cathedral in Coventry still has some amazing features still intact. On the right hand side you can see there is an entrance to the Blitz museum. Sadly quite a few of the artifacts from the second world war did not seem that ancient to me. On the left hand side is a walkway leading to the entrance of the new cathedral. Can you guess the title of the next post?
This image is not particularly good, and is a heavy crop to show something I did not even see. Yesterday we went to Coventry Cathedral. The old cathedral was heavily damaged in a bombing raid in 1940, but a lot of the remains are in place next to the new cathedral. This window arch is part of that old cathedral, and you can still see what is left of the stained glass – 86 years later!
Mind blown.
Nope, my mistake, I meant Watchett. Watchett is a small harbour town on the Somerset coast, on the edge of Exmoor. It has a lighthouse, so that is good enough for me. Compositionally I guess this photo is inverted to the rules, with the lighthouse being a minor player in the scene, but I am defending the decision by saying the two mooring points create a leading line. Well, that is my excuse.
When I saw these back steps at Windsor Castle, I wondered how many princes over the years had made their way up and down on the way between home and Eton College, which is just down the road. How the other half live. I say that, but of course I have no idea how you live. Let me know if you live in a castle, and when I can come round for tea.
Bringing back a memory from Madeira. If you look closely (click on the image to expand it) you can see the trail that follows the crest of these mountains in Madeira, and people walking said trail. A beautiful part of the island where the drifting clouds expose and hide the peaks at random, and timing is crucial.