Spain Redux VII: León

Ok so León was the mother of all experiences. The first time I went, I was taken there to keep me occupied cos my friend was under the weather, and her parents were happy to drive me about. That evening we got there as the cathedral was about to close so I only had a few minutes to sputter and fizzle in shock and awe at the walls. Or lack thereof. This cathedral has three tiers of stained glass windows. Seriously. In some bits four. I cannot begin to express the exquisite beauty. They also don't allow photos, of course, cos they make money on selling pictures of the glass, but the second time I made it there, in 2007, there was a wedding on so I happily wandered about sneakily taking photos.

This place is so beautiful I am strongly tempted to marry a Spaniard just to be able to get married there on a Saturday afternoon in July. *sigh*

On my first trip, it was May, so I also managed to get lovely pictures involving the poplar pollen, which looks a bit like tiny snowflakes floating about. Much sun and blue sky, and some scaffolding, meant that I got some interesting perspectives.

The photos of the stained glass are not as good as I would have liked, but like I said, it was stealth photos! I've put in two that try to showcase the breathtaking beauty of the tiers of windows, but, of course, they do not even come near the original.

The Gothic style of architecture refers to certain structural innovations that allowed the ceiling to be raised very high, called flying buttresses because they come out of the sides and arch to the ground. The other structural characteristics are the pointed arch and the ribbed vault. It also refers to certain decorative styles, such as the use of gargoyles, spires, and carved ornamentation. The story goes that the force behind the search for architectural innovation that led to the Gothic cathedral was a quest for a way to make a person instantly raise their eyes heavenwards and be overcome by awe upon entering the place of worship. It certainly succeeded in this case.

Spain Redux V: Segovia

Kitteh is sick. Does Mungi have an excuse?

Ello. Kitteh even took photos for posting. She hasn't put them on the comp yet. However, to entertain ye, she's posting more Spain photos.

These be from the lovely city of Segovia, home to a famous aqueduct and a strange castle. Strange for Spain that is, whose castles seem to go for a sturdy style, without pointy towers etc. Rumour has it this castle was inspiration for the Disney castle, but frankly, I'm skeptical.

The aqueduct was the source of much merriment for my friend and me, because she insisted that while the Romans might have built some lovely things, they were pretty stupid. There’s a slave, somewhere in history, who must have been beaten for saying “But sir, we don’t have to build this; in my village we just use a tube and the water comes up to the same level on the other side; it’s much cheaper sir!” All that trouble to build an aqueduct, when water will do the work on its own.












The trip was late afternoon, and possibly my best memory of it is stopping on the highway to get hot chocolate in the nippy evening breeze. Ah Spain. Once again I was trying to capture the evening sunlight on the golden stone of Castile and Leon, and as you can see I couldn't pick one of the aqueduct - so y'all got three. You can also see I've done quite a bit of silhouette and sunspot, yay!

Spain, Redux I

Back on 2005 I made my first trip to Spain, and my friend's kindly parents would take me out to see the countryside and drool over Gothic churches. I shot a total of nine rolls of film in something like 15 days. That's 324 photos on film, all of which I then had developed. I recently had em scanned and then sat and fixed them, so expect a series =) This is my absolute favourite from that set. It is an abandoned church in the village of La Hermita de Trigueros del Valle. It was the first time I ever attempted a sunspot, and I was so very thrilled with my success. I had a lot of sunspots on that trip, and they soon became one of my favourite things to do with light.

This better SAJ? For those interested, I twiddled with the curves, in GIMP, to make the shadows darker. I'm not convinced I like it more though, cos I like the bricks and the grass and the green barley in the pic on top.