Harold Davis's Blog, page 24

Palace of Gaudí, Astorga

On the main trunk route of the Camino de Santiago, the Camino Frances, Astorga is a small city that sits on a hill. When Celtic culture dominated the area, there was an Astorga. The Greeks came here. An important Roman city, Christianity was adopted a bit earlier than in most of the empire. There’s a somewhat dubious myth that the knights of Astorga wanted to voyage to the holy lands with the purpose of bringing back the Virgin Mary to spend her retirement years in Astorga. Well fortified naturally, the junction of long-haul trail routes helped make Astorga important in Roman times, and more so with the advent of the Catholic church.

Gaudí’s Palace, Astorga © Harold Davis

I’m staying in a hotel on the main tradional square of Astorga. The square is surrounded by arcades. When it begins to get cool in the evening, the cafes open up, everyone comes out and the square bustles. A mechanical figure high above city hall strikes a clock, tolling the hours. Dinner starts about 8:30. It’s a different way of living.

I feel a bit like an alien dropped here, with the city (the hotel desk clerk told me this is really a town, not a city) doing things the way they’ve been done since before the dawn of recorded history. I’ve enjoyed a day off to explore Astorga; this will hopefully allow some blisters to heal up a bit before I resume walking tomorrow.

Gaudí’s Palace interior, Astorga © Harold Davis

A standout attraction in Astorga is Gaudí’s Palace. Antoni Gaudí was commissioned by the local bishop (who was a friend) to design the Episcopal Palace of Astorga. This is the only Gaudí building outside Catalonia. The style is neo-Gothic, with Gaudí experimenting with the Gothic idiom to make it his own in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

I enjoyed this building quite a bit, although they wouldn’t let me take my tripod inside. Gaudí’s Palace houses a museum with artifacts related to the Camino de Santiago, and was included in the original application to give the Camino its Unesco world heritage designation.

Gaudí’s Palace entrance, Astorga © Harold Davis

Dr Caligari’s House

The rooster crows at the break of day,

I have had my cafe au lait,

and I am on my way!

Hip, hip, hooray!

It’s true that I woke just before dawn to the crowing of a rooster, grabbed some coffee and toast, and headed out into the cool of the morning. You never know what you’ll find, and on this day I found (among other things) a twisted reflection of a house in a traffic mirror.

Dr Caligari’s House © Harold Davis

If you don’t recognize the Dr Caligari reference, click here.

Putting the Lion in Leon

Castilla y León is a semi-autonomous region in Spain, like Galicia or Catalonia. The city of León, spelled like my middle name “Leon” but with an accent aigu over the ‘o’, is the capital of the province of León that makes up the León half of Castilla y León. In any language, “Leon” or “León” means the animal, the lion. That’s my middle name, hear me roar, and folks around here like those checking my passport at hotels are very appreciative of  it. Harold Leon Davis. Anyhow…

The city of León is proud of its leonine status, as you can see in this beloved-by-children statue of a lion climbing out of a storm drain in León’s central square (below). And, if you need to post a letter in León, it is quite possible you might need to “feed the lion” (bottom image).

Putting the lion in Leon © Harold Davis

Aslan’s post © Harold Davis

Ready Pilgrim One

At the outset I must stipulate that a spacious room in a luxury 5-star hotel is a great place to organize for a longish walk on the Camino de Santiago. The Parador at the Convent of San Marcos in León, Spain, where I stayed before I began my Camino, meets this description of “luxury”. I stipulate to this luxury a bit abashed: the concept of a pilgrimage and the life of ease don’t mesh together so well. Traditionally, a pilgrimage involves penitence and pain—the blisters currently on my feet satisfy this requirement, alas.

According to the Wikipedia, the “convent of San Marcos is one of the great architectural jewels of the Spanish city of León.” It’s featured as the luxury stop the protagonist treats his Camino cohort to in The Way, the Martin Sheen and Emilio Estévez film that has brought so many pilgrims to the Camino de Santiago.

The Convent of San Marcos has been (as the name implies) a convent, a monastery, a hospital, and a way-station for pilgrims. My photograph of one of the interior cloisters is shown below.

Lower Cloisters, Convent of San Marcos © Harold Davis

In its current incarnation as a newly renovated luxury hotel, part of the Parador chain, there is something tawdry and abominable about the place. It’s geared for the luxury bus tourist trade. Easy listening American standards are piped via a too-high volume sound system into all the public spaces. They’ve gutted the classical atrium and replaced it with a modern interior structure, justifying this colossal design inanity with an exhibition of modernist Spanish art.

One can have second thoughts about privatizing a great historical structure for the benefit of well-to-do tourists. No second thoughts are possible about the awful design choices that were made during this renovation.

So, ready pilgrim one! Onward to the simpler life as a pilgrim-with-a-camera walking the Camino.

Cordes-sur-Ciel at Sunset

Thanks to methodical planning, good luck with the weather, and helpful guides my photography group was able to photograph the ancient town of Cordes-sur-Ciel from across the valley at sunset. Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding!

I made a photograph from the same viewpoint many years ago at sunrise (it is shown beneath the recent vista).

Cordes-sur-Ciel at Sunset © Harold Davis

Cordes sur Ciel at Dawn © Harold Davis

Harold Davis Tulips Stamp Page

The USPS has created a page for my Tulip Pano stamp at stampinformation.com/tulips/. This page has information about the stamp, the first day of issue, where to buy the stamp, and biographical info about the art director as well as yours truly!

Harold Davis Tulip Stamp Page

The USPS has created a page for my Tulip Pano stamp at stampinformation.com/tulips/. This page has information about the stamp, the first day of issue, where to buy the stamp, and biographical info about the art director as well as yours truly!

Coming into Toulouse

Dreamlike, the landscape of France sped past at high speeds, as I viewed the earth from the windows of the TGV (the high speed train). Dreamlike in feeling, and what better time to create a soft composition of landscape and clouds using a bit of motion blur. Then onward to the bustle of Toulouse, and the hubbub of the nearly perpetual marketplace in the Place du Capitole (shown below from a window in my hotel).

Landscape © Harold Davis

Place du Capitole, Toulouse © Harold Davis

Pantheon in Paris

Construction began on the Pantheon as a church for the patron saint of Paris, Saint Genevieve. As so often happens when there is construction there were delays, then more delays, then the revolution happened.

Saint Genevieve’s church was about half finished. Egalité was in the air, at least for a short while, and religion was out. So the idea became to transition the design from religious to a secular mausoleum for honored citizens. The architectural result was one part church, and one part based on the Pantheon in Rome.

Over the years the Pantheon bounced back and forth from religious to secular temple, with great folks interred including Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and Emil Zola.

In the first image, I have pointed my camera at the domes of the Pantheon using a very wide angle lens (15mm). The next image (below), taken by my friend Julian Köpke, shows me making the first photo, along with some possible annotations to the issues of curvature in space and time. 

Pantheon © Harold Davis

Harold Davis photographing in the Pantheon © Julian Köpke

 

Samaritaine, Paris

If you visit Paris, check out the stunning renovation of the Samaritaine department store (shown in the 8mm fisheye view below). It is on the right bank adjacent to the Pont Neuf.

Samaritaine, Paris © Harold Davis