10-09-2019 The Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe

Here is the blurb from the website for the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe:

“Venture off the freeway and onto the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway, and you'll see what we mean. The Scenic and Historic Area encompasses 15,000 square miles in the heart of central New Mexico, linking Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The drive is approximately 50 miles along Highway 14. Enjoy a breathtaking view from atop Sandia Crest, then drive back into history through the mining towns of Golden, Madrid, and Cerrillos, now coming alive with art, crafts, theater, music, museums and restaurants.”

As you can see from the photos I took, we didn’t see very much of the beautiful Turquoise Trail from the big red tour bus that took us on the route to Santa Fe.  Mo and I decided that when we return to Albuquerque someday we will take our time to explore the beautiful byway and the little mining towns along the way. 

Photos like these will remind those of us who dislike tours of exactly why we usually dislike tours!  Still, we had to get to Santa Fe, and this route was definitely more fun than driving north on I-25.  Either way, the views from the bus would have been less than stellar.  Madrid especially seemed like it would be a fun place to visit, but according to our guide it is another cute small town that has strayed from its roots to become another “art” community with lots of galleries and expensive coffee.

One good thing about a tour bus can sometimes be the guides, and in this case we did learn quite a bit about the surrounding landscape from our guide.  She talked most about the area surrounding Albuquerque and some of the problems that limit growth, including the lack of water for the ballooning population, and the lack of actual physical space, since most of the area around the city is Tribal land, with no space to expand.  We listened to some extensive information about the importance of xeriscaping, using what the desert had to offer, and about the high price of living on the west side of the Sandias versus the east side where we were traveling.  It was moderately interesting and helped to pass the time as we approached Santa Fe.

Our first destination in the old city was the beautiful San Miguel Mission. Built between approximately 1610 and 1626, it is considered the oldest known church in the United States. The church was damaged during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 but was rebuilt in 1710 following the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico and served for a time as a chapel for the Spanish soldiers.

The wooden  altarpiece, which includes a wooden statue of Saint Michael dating back to at least 1709, was added in 1798. Though the church has been repaired and rebuilt numerous times over the years, its original adobe walls are still largely intact despite having been hidden by later additions. The interior was beautiful with rustic beams and an alcove where you could see the original 300 year old adobe walls.

On a small side street next to the mission was what is thought to be the oldest house in New Mexico, and yet internet searches vary as to the actual location of the “oldest house”.  I think what we saw was a store front, and it was so crowded we never made it inside.  I don’t think we missed much. Somehow between the crowded church and the tiny street, Mo and I became separated, and I spent quite of bit of time searching for her.  She just told me she DID get to see inside the oldest house and it was interesting.  Thanks, Mo.

We then meandered just a few blocks to the famous Loretto Chapel.  I had read about the “miraculous” spiral staircase in the past, but didn’t realize that it was right in downtown Santa Fe.  In spite of the claims of its miraculous nature, it really is an amazing bit of woodworking. 

Legend has it that the builders must have forgotten to build a staircase to the choir loft, and the Sisters of the Loretto Chapel could find no one who could manage the complexity of building a staircase in the small space.  Legend says that to find a solution to the problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers. The visit to the chapel was a special time for our new friend Elsie, who is a devout Catholic who attends daily Mass.

We loved the softness of the sculptures at the Loretto Chapel

Continuing our walk through Santa Fe, we came to the imposing façade of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, and the mother church of the Archdiocese built in the late 1800’s. It was built on the site of an older adobe church, that was built in 1714 and was dismantled except for a small chapel on the north side of the cathedral.

It is a classic Romanesque Revival building with characteristic round arches separated by Corinthian columns and square towers.  The large rose window in the front of the church and the nave windows of the Twelve Apostles were imported from France.  The towers were originally planned to be topped with 160 foot steeples, but due to lack of money, the steeples were never built.  The cathedral was only recently elevated to a basilica in 2005.  Not being Catholic, the differences evade me.

The crowds were a bit daunting, so Mo and I once again decided to skip out on the tour of the church in favor of lunch a bit early at The Shed.  We didn’t have to wait very long for a table, and by the time we finished our lunch there was quite a line of people waiting to get into the popular restaurant.  Again we enjoyed fantastic New Mexican style food, highlighted with wonderful chile sauces to compliment the flavors. 

After lunch we wandered the streets a bit before returning to the beautiful cathedral on our own without the thick crowds that were there when our group first arrived.  The cathedral was impressive, although not as delightfully charming as the Loretto Chapel. 

The stained glass windows were gorgeous and the statuary was imposing, but again didn’t have the soft color and lines of the statuary at the smaller chapel.

One of the most fascinating pieces in the cathedral was the La Conquistadora, a small wooden statue of  the Virgin Mary. She was the first Madonna brought to what is now the United States.

It is thought that the statue was carved sometime during the Renaissance. The statuette is carved out of wood and is just 3 feet tall.  It would have been easy to miss. Our friend Elsie never did see it.  It is interesting to read about the statue, and to see the huge collection of clothing that she wears for different occasions. A so-called secret society, La Cofradía de La Conquistadora, maintains, protects, and preserves the icon and her belongings.

With our time in Santa Fe coming to an end, we wandered back to the famous Plaza at the Governor’s Palace where native artisans spread their wares for sale along the covered walkway.  We saw some lovely jewelry but neither of us was in a buying mood so managed to enjoy looking without bringing out the wallets.

Members of our group were beginning to gather near the meeting place in the square but there was still 20 minutes or so to fill.  I saw our guide and asked her, “If you had just 15 minutes to see a gallery, where would you go?”  She gushed about her favorite artist and pointed us down the street to the Manitou Gallery, and said she and the group would catch up with us on the way to the bus.

It was a beautiful gallery and I loved the sculptures and wandered one of the rooms exploring our guide’s favorite artist, a name I have already forgotten.  Wandering into an adjacent room, I was thrilled to find a huge space filled with art by Dale Terbush, who had only recently opened a show there at the Manitou Gallery.  I have a print of a Terbush painting that I bought at a gallery in Laguna in 1993. The painting could be a canyon anywhere in Southern Utah filled with light and shadow, clouds and lightning, red rock, a wild river, and a wild sky.  It hangs in a place of honor at the entrance to our home.  What a thrill to see prints, lithos, and some original paintings by this unique artist, including one that was more than 10 feet tall .

His style is a mixture of real landscapes and fantasy and is often wild with color. I wouldn’t want a houseful of his art, but I do treasure my canyon painting. I enjoyed visiting with the gallery owner who gushed on about what an amazing guy Dale Terbush was, saying that he painted from his heart, not using photographs or images but just from his imagination. 

We only had about 2 hours in Santa Fe, and that is almost a crime, since the city is so full of great history, great art, and great restaurants. We never saw any part of the famous Canyon Road, with more than 100 galleries along the narrow street, and colorful adobe homes with doors that could tempt a photographer for years.  We had no time to visit the Governors Palace or the Georgia O’Keefe Museum or the Museum of International Folk Art.  Santa Fe is truly an art paradise that needs more than an afternoon to experience.  Even so, I was content when we got back on the bus. 

Churches, Chapels, Art, New Mexican Food, and a Dale Terbush bonanza.  It was a lovely day.

03-06-2019 Saint Augustine Treasures

Current Location: Jacksonville NAS campground, Jacksonville, Florida
Brilliant sunshine, breezy, and a high of 54 degrees F

Actually, the “real” current location as I write is home at Sunset House in Grants Pass Oregon.  I did a decent job of keeping up the blog during our travels, all except for this visit to Saint Augustine.  One of the most difficult parts of writing this particular story is the overwhelming amount of fascinating history that is associated with the city of Saint Augustine, and with each of the beautiful buildings that we visited.

As I attempted to write, I found myself getting completely overwhelmed, and have decided that instead of rehashing all the history of each of the places we visited, I will add links that you can peruse at your leisure if you are interested.  I’ll write what we saw and how we felt, and if you want the rest of the story, you can follow the links.  It is the only way I will ever get this post completed.

When we once again piled into the Tracker for the trip across the bay from Jacksonville to Saint Augustine, we were more prepared for another expected cold day.  I wore shoes and warm socks and dug my winter coat out of the storage bin in the Tracker to brave the chill.  Coats and warm shoes and socks made a big difference but the sunshine was an additional bonus in spite of the chill.

The Casa Monica Hotel was impressive both inside and out.

Arriving a bit early for our 10AM tour, we wandered the streets nearby, enjoying the complexity and loveliness of this part of the city. We delighted ourselves with a coffee and shared a pastry at the luxurious Casa Monica Hotel.  I walked around the lobby, feeling a bit nervous looking for the bathroom, expecting to be expelled from the hotel as a lowly tourist rather than someone staying there. 

St George Street was beautifully quiet at this early morning hour, and we enjoyed a view of the Basilica from the outside, waiting for the Ash Wednesday services to end so we could visit the lovely interior later in the day.

We discovered later in the afternoon that visiting St George Street was much like any other busy tourist town, with lots of stores full of “stuff” and lots of people.  It wasn’t a place we chose to hang out for long.

Later in the day on St George Street

The magnificent Ponce De Leon Hotel was built between 1885 and 1887 by Henry M. Flagler, the hotel and railroad magnate whose activities contributed greatly to the development of Florida’s eastern coastal area. Upon entering through the main doors, the magnificence of the lobby and the beautiful dome is overwhelming.  Covered with gold leaf and painted with gorgeous murals, surrounded by hand carved oak pillars, and underlain by stone and marble floors, it is as luxurious and opulent as almost anything we have seen anywhere in the world.

The interior of the hotel is decorated with imported marble, carved oak, and gorgeous murals. The stained glass windows were created by Louis Tiffany of New York.

We were escorted on our tour by a student who explained to us the history of the hotel, the history of how it was converted to Flagler College in 1968, and several tidbits about the artists, the interior and the construction of the hotel and what it was like living there as a student.

Can you imagine eating meals every day in this room?

We visited the dining room, surrounded by Tiffany windows, elaborately sculptured dining tables and chairs where students went about their business, well used to the groups of gawking visitors.

We were shown the beautiful ballroom, with portraits of Flagler and his wives, and examples of the kind of dress that was expected when one went to dinner at the hotel, mingling in the parlor for the women and of course the cigar smoking library for the men.

We then viewed the courtyard and listened to stories of a hotel with running water and electricity in every room, in the late 1800’s, completely unheard of.  We enjoyed the fine details of design, with overlapping themes of shells and water, with a frog pond that also functioned as a sundial. 

I highly recommend making time for the student guided tour, worth the effort, and a wonderful way to experience the hotel more deeply than you might just wandering through on your own.

After completing our tour of Flagler College, we walked a few blocks west to explore the beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church. Another of Flagler’s masterpieces, the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church was built by Henry Flagler in 1889. It is one of his most significant projects, because it was constructed as a memorial to Flagler’s only daughter, Jenny. The mausoleum adjacent to the church is where Flagler, his daughter, granddaughter and first wife are buried.

The stained glass windows are breathtaking, and while not done by Tiffany himself, they were created by his protegé who also worked with Tiffany on the windows at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.

After our visit to the church, we wandered back in the direction of St George Street and the Cathedral Basilica.  It was Ash Wednesday, so the sanctuary was basically off limits to casual tourists, but we were allowed to enter during the services as long we we were quiet and respectful. 

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is home of the oldest parish of a permanent European settlement in the country. I wasn’t able to get to the front of the church during the service but did manage to take a couple of photos from where we sat quietly in the rear.

We followed Pam’s suggestion to skip the trolley stops in favor of walking the downtown area, meandering along St George street toward the Castillo.  We were getting a bit worn, and knew we had yet to see two more iconic sites in St Augustine. On the previous day we had passed an Irish pub along the main street, and with a quick check with Google Earth, realized we were right on the path to another place to warm up with lunch and an Irish Coffee.

Meehan’s Irish Pub was just the ticket for a chilly day in March.  We ignored the open air porch on the second floor and instead settled into a nice little corner table by the window downstairs.

Instead of Irish coffee, we decided on cold beer, and with Guinness on tap I couldn’t resist.  Mo had something else since she isn’t a dark beer lover.  Irish chips and corned beef egg roll appetizers were a great lunch.

Thus fortified, we were ready to continue our day of sightseeing and walked a few blocks down the street toward the beautiful Castillo de San Marcos. The fort looked much more inviting on this lovely sunny day that it had on the previous day shrouded in cloudy skies.  The temperatures were almost warm enough that we could open up our coats!

Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort and the best preserved example of a Spanish colonial fortification in the continental United States. Much of the history of Saint Augustine and of Florida in general is contained in the history of this dramatic fort. It protected Saint Augustine from pirate raids, and from Spain’s major rival, Great Britain, during a time when the Florida-Georgia-Carolina coastline was an explosive international battleground.

Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos to counter the attempts by the British to take Florida.  Begun in 1672 and completed in 1695, the fort replaced the nine wooden forts that had protected Saint Augustine since its founding.

The design and construction of the fort was so amazing that it was never actually taken in battle, with ownership of the fort only occurring through treaties and agreements.  It withstood several sieges, and never actually fell to an enemy.

The fort is small but quite beautiful, constructed from blocks carved from coquina, a shell filled limestone that is somewhat soft. The simple square design is fortified by diamond shaped bastions on each of the 4 corners, sloping walls that descend to a moat, and cannon arranged so that they can fire in overlapping directions.

Photo from Wikipedia showing the design of the fort with it’s diamond shaped bastions

A story that each of the trolley drivers loved to tell was how the British would shoot cannon balls at the fort, and they would simply stick in the soft rock.  The Spaniards would retrieve the balls from the walls and shoot them back at the British. 

The laughter was a reply to my question if they use 6 pound cannonballs for the reenactments.

We enjoyed exploring the fort,  and watching the short theater presentation of the re enactment of shooting the big cannons.  We later spoke to a ranger in period dress who said they shoot the cannons every weekend, but the neighbors across the inlet didn’t like the cannonballs, so there are only 1/2 pound balls shot instead of the 6 pound balls that the cannons can shoot for a distance of more than a mile and a half.

It was getting late in the day when we returned Old Town Trolley for a ride through town back to our car. 

Although there is a trolley bus that will cross the Bridge of Lions to the St Augustine Lighthouse, we wanted to be independent of any kind of schedule and take our time visiting.

Across the Bridge of Lions to the lighthouse

Once back to the Tracker, we settled into the fairly heavy traffic flow south through town and toward the bridge.  We were lucky enough to miss any kind of drawbridge lift, and in no time were across the inland waterway toward the beautiful lighthouse.

Even this late in the day, parking was tight, but we managed to find one of the last spots in the tiny parking lot at the lighthouse.  The museum is lovely, the grounds are beautiful, but the most fun of course is the 218 step climb up the winding stairs to the top of the lighthouse. 

It really isn’t a bad climb, with nice wide landings about every 20 steps or so and plenty of room to pass people going up and down.  Nothing like those towers that daughter Deanna and I climbed in Italy last fall!

The best part of the climb is the gorgeous 360 views of Saint Augustine and the barrier islands between the lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean.  We could see some rather amazing kayaking routes from that height, but knew that this time around, those paddle routes would be left to other boaters.

We also saw a tree full of nesting spoonbills and wood storks at the Alligator Farm down below us a few miles south along the highway.  Without any desire to pay another entrance fee, and to try to park and deal with crowds, we let our desire to view of the birds go.

It had been a very long day, with an overload of gorgeous architecture, complex history, lots of walking and climbing, and we still had to get back through Jacksonville traffic to get home.

I haven’t even come close to talking about all the other “attractions”  (the ones we didn’t visit, that are part of seeing Saint Augustine.  There is the Fountain of Youth, the Potter’s Wax Museum, Ripley’s very first Believe It Or Not, the Old Jail and the Oldest Store and Museum, There is the Alligator Farm, Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Our Lady of La Leche Shrine. There is the Spanish Military Hospital Museum, the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum, the St Augustine Aquarium, scenic cruise tours, private sailing charters, pirate ship adventures, helicopter tours, and zipline canopy adventures. Food and drink are everywhere, with breweries, restaurants, hotels and B and B’s filling in what few spaces are left.  It is a busy place, feels somewhat like Disneyland at times, and it takes planning and some discipline to not get overwhelmed, especially with just a short visit. 

Completing this post feels somewhat like I felt that last day that we visited Saint Augustine.  Wonderful, a bit overwhelming, a bit exhausting, and yet something I am so glad we did.  I am also very glad that I did write this post instead of following my temptation to just skip it and let my photos be my own personal reminder of our time in this beautiful historic city.

10-07-2018 Day 13 A Day with Michelangelo

Who knows why, after such a simple day that we enjoyed yesterday, but neither of us slept well last night.  We finally fell asleep around 2:30 AM and woke at 7, but even those few hours were restless.  We are both grateful for the sofa bed mattress, but still quite tired of being generally uncomfortable.

Sunday morning in Firenze is a wonder of bells, with the calls echoing all through the city and reverberating in all directions. It was a lovely way to begin our day, in spite of the lack of sleep.  Reading our trusty Rick Steve’s Florence guidebook, we decided that this Sunday would be a good day to visit some of the less popular sites in the main part of the city. 

Basilica de Santa Croce from the rear entrance near Scoula del Cuoio

Santa Croce was big on the list, not only for its beautiful facade, but for viewing the tomb of Michelangelo, which he designed for himself. Tucked away in Steve’s book was a little tidbit of information that turned out to be incredibly helpful.  Crossing the river once again, we took the back roads toward the Santa Croce, where we had seen the entrance to Casa Buonarotti, one time home of Michelangelo.

Facade of Santa Croce with sculpture of Dante to the left. The fancy tomb inside the church is merely a memorial and Dante isn’t actually buried here

The Basilica de Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross, is the principal Franciscan church in Florence.  There is a fee to enter this church, and from the main square, the lines are long even on a quiet day.  Just to the south of the church however, is a convent, and tucked away to the rear of the convent is the famous Scuola del Cuoio “School of Leather”.  Rick Steves suggested that one should visit the school, buy entry tickets to Santa Croce there, and enter the church through the back door from the school, no lines. 

Great advice!  Except the church wouldn’t be open until later in the day and we would have to return to the school to buy our tickets and enter.  No problem.  We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the school and reading about their world class leather training.  Even bought a few small leather pieces for presents for our kids and grandkids, and I found a purple wallet as soft as butter. 

Leaving the school, we walked a block or so to enter Casa Buonarotti.  Once again, there was an entry fee.  I never managed to track just how much we spent on entry fees in Florence to see all that we did, but it wasn’t a small amount. 

Although Michelangelo lived in this house as a young man, most of the art was added later by his descendant, Michelangelo the Younger, more than a century later.  We did see a pair of shoes and a walking stick that supposedly belonged to the great sculptor and several paintings of him.  The beautiful frescoes on the ceiling were completed in the 1600’s. 

Two special pieces made the visit worthwhile, both sculpted by Michelangelo when he was only 17 years old.

Madonna della Scala, Madonna of the Stairs reflects a  traditional form of sculpture for the time, with the influence of Donatello and the use “stiaccato” relief which allows a sculptor to create a recessed or relief sculpture carving only millimeters deep.  The illusion of greater depth is created by decreasing the thickness gradually from the foreground to the background.  It is more like a 2D image rather than a 3D sculpture. It stands in sharp contrast to the other relief carved by Michelangelo at Casa Buonarroti.

The Battle of the Centaurs

“The Battle of the Centaurs is a writhing mass of figures three-dimensionally carved into a marble block. The figures are layered in overlapping positions adding to the spatial depth of the work. We can see the artists interest in the massive bulk of the naked male form, a theme that would serve Michelangelo well in future commissions, including his work in the Sistine Chapel.”

Detail of ceiling in Casa Buonarroti

After visiting the leather school and Casa Buonarroti, we still had some time to kill before we could enter Santa Croce due to Sunday mass services being held there.  We decided to walk to the Bargello, a museum we had passed several times on our route to and from the Duomo Piazza.  The Bargello is a small museum, with a few hidden treasures and some obscure art that was nonetheless outstanding.

Michelangelo’s Bacchus is a highlight in this museum

Donatello’s David in bronze is much different than Michelangelo’s David

Dying Adonis by Vincenzo de Rossi was the one that caught our hearts.  Incredible.

We loved the majolica pottery

And the Della Robbia glazed pottery display was dramatic

The city was still fairly quiet as we emerged from the museum to head back toward Santa Croce.  But first we needed sustenance.  We found another little cafe for cappuccino and a pastry, and laughed together about the truly snotty waitress.  She was so harsh and somewhat rude that  it was actually funny.  I guess this happened to us less than we had expected during our Italian visit.

It was around 2 when we meandered back to the rear of the great church, smiling to each other as we looked at the long entry lines.  The shopkeepers smiled as they sold us our entry tickets, remembering that we had made some purchases earlier.  They are very friendly at the Scoula, and directed us to the entrance to the church where there wasn’t a single person in line.

Entering Santa Croce was just a bit overwhelming.  There are sixteen family chapels that compose a large part of the Santa Croce Basilica, considered the largest Franciscan church in the world. Well-to-do families typically had chapels built and decorated in their honor and dedicated to a favorite saint.

In addition the the chapels filled with art, and the beautiful crypts on the floors, it is the tombs that make Santa Croce so thrilling. The list of the famous artists and scientists of the Renaissance that are entombed in this basilica reads like a history of art and science.  Here lies Michelangelo, Michiavelli, Marconi, Galileo, and Rossini. 

We spent a long time wandering through the church, admiring the art and sculpture, until at last we came to the tomb of Michelangelo.  Silly me, somehow this place brought tears to my eyes.  I was looking up and another woman near me looked at me with tears in her eyes as well.  She only spoke Italian, but we laughed and smiled at each other and with hand gestures and eyes we acknowledged that this was somehow an incredible moment for each of us.  I have no idea why, not a clue.  But being here still got to me down deep.

 

Michelangelo, crazy man, wild artist, genius of sculpture, legendary personality.  It was good to see his work in person and to stand at his tomb and honor him.

We left the church and walked back across the river, reaching our little apartment by 4.  By this time the city was incredibly crowded, and the streets were shoulder to shoulder with tourists.  The big tour buses parked along the Arno River just across from where our apartment is located and we saw them lining up and filling with hordes of people returning from a day in the city center. 

Florence is truly wonderful if you know to get up early before the crowds, find the quiet neighborhoods, go out in the evening when the tour buses have departed.  Also, often short walk to another street will open up space where no one has ventured to go because it isn’t on the main tour walking route. Still, it is very important to get the heck out of downtown before 4pm!

Once again, no fancy dinner out for the two of us.  Are you surprised that Deanna cooked a great supper for us of pasta with veggies, tomatoes, zucchini, and some of Sara’s tomato sauce?  We enjoyed a glass of wine, a bit of chocolate for dessert, and hopefully we will be rested for the next big adventure.

Tomorrow we travel from Florence to the medieval town of Sienna, little over an hour south by bus and a world away from the Renaissance and back into the Middle Ages.  We have a hotel reservation and an idea of where to catch the bus.  Both of us are a bit excited about this one, so hopefully we can sleep tonight.