In my last post, I stopped at the point where, having spent some time traveling on the vaporetto, the water bus, we had arrived at the San Zaccaria stop and were walking on the Riva degli Schiavoni toward San Marco Square. It was around 1:00 pm and warm. There were many people strolling or looking at the souvenir stands. We went up the crowded Ponte della Paglia - or Straw Bridge. Ships used to unload straw (paglia) there that was used in the stable of the Doge Palace and in the prisons. While in the vaporetto I snapped a photo of that bridge - see below.
Arriving at the center of the bridge on the right is the famous Ponte dei Sospiri or Bridge of Sighs. (Click on picture to enlarge.)
This enclosed bridge, from the 17th century, is made of limestone and connects the old prisons to the Doge's Palace Interrogation Room. Lord Byron named it the Bridge of Sighs as he believed that, as the prisoners walked behind the bridge windows with stone bars, they would take a last look at the view of Venice and sigh before they were locked up in their cells.
We walked on the waterfront which is called the Molo. It used to be the landing spot for dignitaries. Two tall columns are standing there at the entrance to the piazzeta and I can imagine what a magnificent scene it must have been to watch kings and distinguished guests make their entrance between these columns. The ornate light poles were not there though - but the cafes were.
Then in front of our eyes appeared the most visited place in Venice - San Marco. Everyone has seen this square and basilica on pictures or in movies. It is famous just like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty but being there and looking at it is something else. I took some pictures as we were approaching the side of the basilica.
The line was not long to enter the basilica, so we went to the queue. Until 1807 this basilica was the personal chapel of the Doges, and then it became the Cathedral of Venice. It is modeled after the 6th century Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The floor plan is in the shape of a Greek cross. As we walked in I looked up and took pictures of the ornate entrances. (Click on collage twice to enlarge.)
Venetian merchants in 828 stole the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist from their resting place in Alexandria, Egypt, and offered them to the Doge and his wife. A church was built in 829-31 to shelter these relics and Saint Mark was made patron saint of the city. This church burned down during a rebellion, another new church burned down and the present basilica was begun in 1063. To my eyes this building looks very eastern, not at all like the Gothic cathedrals or basilicas in France. It is decorated with marble, Byzantine mosaics and Muslim-shaped onion domes. It certainly is grandiose inside and out. Below is a postcard I purchased and mailed to our house.
There was a cordoned area for visitors to walk around the interior of the basilica. The golden domes must have been created by Greek and Byzantine artists- they have that opulent style. It is nicknamed the Church of Gold "Chiesa d'Oro" because of all this gilded interior and the golden mosaics covering every inch of the ceiling.
I purchased some postcards of the interior that give a better perspective and look at the floor to ceiling 4,000 square meters (43,055 square feet) of mosaics.
We then bought tickets for admission to the Galleria and Museo di San Marco. We climbed the steps and looked at the displays showing how the mosaics have been restored over the years. Then we saw four beautiful horses. These gilt bronze horses used to be placed in the Arsenal then to the exterior of the basilica. They are the original Triumphal Quadriga probably cast in Imperial Rome and taken to Constantinople. Around 1204 Venetians and Crusaders sacked and pillaged the city and brought back these horses to Venice as part of their booty.
Then we walked outdoor to the "Loggia dei Cavalli" (Loggia of the horses) with replica of the above horses and found ourselves high above the Piazza San Marco. This certainly was worth the price of admission to the Galleria. (You can see this galleria with the horses above the entrance on my basilica postcard above.)
The two massive granite columns in front of the Molo were easy to photograph then, much easier than from the ground. The winged lion with his paw on a book, on the left, is the symbol of Saint Mark. On the right is Saint Theodore, a Greek General, who used to be the Patron of Venice until he was demoted after the Venetian stole the relics of San Marco. I read that criminals, traitors, murderers and such were hanged, decapitated or burned alive between these two columns.
On our right I could see the Torre dell 'Orologio - Clock Tower - which was built between 1496 and 1499, and has had many restorations. It keeps time, officially, for Venice. Statues of Moors strike the bells with hammers every hour. The winged lion of Venice, with the open book, stands below.
It was great standing in this gallery, high above Saint Mark's Square - a photographer's dream. I took pictures all around me - buildings, statues, marble, all different shapes and colors.
Then I looked straight down below me and there was a bride and groom!
Before we left I took another look at the piazza below and looked back up at the horse then decided to sit for awhile behind the marble gate.
With my Panasonic Lumix telephoto lens I took the winged lion standing on his book straight across me. I wondered how many millions of people he had seen from his tall perch. I could have sat there for many hours savoring this enchanting place and enjoying the sweeping panorama. So I just sat there for a while longer reveling in this warm atmosphere.
The train stopped at the main Brussels station, Gare du Midi. Everyone had to step out of the train as it was the terminus. I had been several times at the Gare du Midi, but that was a while back.
Vintage postcard of Gare du Midi, Brussels
I did not see the station as pictured above – I am not quite that old yet, and it does not look like this anymore. The first time was in 1958. My Italian friend, who had come to France to spend a month in my home, and I took the train to Brussels to see Expo 58. This was the first major world’s fair since WW2. Below is a picture I took of my friend Marisa at the fair.
But the friend who came to greet us at the Gare du Midi was a childhood friend. As I mentioned in my first year anniversary post I spent my childhood in Cité Condorcet in Paris (pictures can be seen on the posts here .) There I played with my best friend Nadia whose family was Armenian. She had a younger brother, Serge, who was a terror. He would run after us or take our toys. With age he became much nicer and we had great times together. Below is a picture taken of him and me on some Paris boulevard. I am not sure of the date but I must have been 19 or so.
He married a young lady from Brussels who he had met in Paris. My husband and I visited them once, I believe in the early 80s and then because of our respective busy lives, we lost contact. But then, several months ago, Serge contacted me. He had found me through the Internet. He invited us to come and visit him during our next trip to Paris. We had already decided to go in May, so I quickly booked our seats on the TGV train. I wondered how the meeting would go after an absence of almost 30 years. Frankly, it was as if we had left him just a few months ago. He drove us to his house which is in Brussels proper. Flowers under the windows welcomed us.
My friend’s wife had prepared a tasty lunch, which we ate on the veranda. The house is tall, 4 stories, with a nice little garden in the back. Stairs are narrow and as shown in the picture below, when people move out of a house the moving of furniture is done through the window down a moving ladder.
Click on collage then click on each picture to enlarge
After lunch our friends took us on a little tour to reacquaint us with Brussels. We went through several of Brussels’ districts. Each of the districts, or communes, has a distinctive flavor. The architecture is quite diverse - classic but also Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.
Actually Brussels is the capital city of the Art Nouveau world. Victor Horta (1861-1947) was the Belgian architect who was one of the earliest initiators of Art Nouveau. He built some of the most remarkable pioneering buildings in that style in Brussels. Below is a postcard showing the staircase in the Horta museum – which we did not have time to visit.
Postcard of Horta’s House staircase (now the Horta Museum) - (photo courtesy Evrard and Bastin.)
As we drove I could not stop taking pictures of all the remarkable buildings we passed by. The car was stopped briefly so I could take a better picture of the building below. I just love that circular window in the center.
There are more than 1200 Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels on which to feast one’s eyes. They are all quite varied – large and small, from little town houses to large department stores. I can understand why many French architects came to Brussels to get inspiration.
We found a spot to park near the Grand’ Place and walked to the Place. I could write a whole post just on the Grand’ Place of Brussels. It is on the prestigious list of World Heritage of Humanity and it merits it. It is the most beautiful city square in Europe. It is an assortment of public and private buildings from the seventeenth century. The history of this place dates back to the middle ages. The original Town Hall in the place was completed in 1455. Many of the buildings were burnt in 1695 by order of Louis XIV, king of France, then rebuilt later.
My pictures don’t give a good idea of the majesty and beauty of this unique place. The two postcards below show the Grand’Place at night and when it is covered with a flower carpet. Every two years, on August 15, the place is covered with a carpet made up of a million begonias.
As we walked up the Grand’ Place I took pictures looking inside courtyards, looking up façades or looking down at the cobblestone pavement.
Too much to photograph! including the mounted police and horses.
Around the Grand’ Place are narrow streets with many restaurants for tourists. It was middle of the afternoon so the restaurants were almost empty, apart from a couple who seemed to enjoy their tall glass of beer and mussels.
But there was more walking to be done – not too fast as the cobblestones are not very soft on the feet.
Last Sunday 25th July I published a post on our visit to the Banning Residence. We finished our tour mid-afternoon. The day of this visit was June 17th and a special day for my husband and I since we were married on this day in San Francisco in 1967 - this was our 43rd anniversary. Our daughter told us that close by was a beautiful garden she had meant to visit. Coincidentally that day a special program was taking place indoor at the garden, meaning that it would stay open until 8:00 pm instead of the usual 5:00 pm. It was a lovely day, sunny and dry so going to scenic Palos Verdes and walking about in a beautiful garden sounded just the thing to celebrate our anniversary. The luxurious Donald Trump National Golf Course is located nearby.
Donald Trump National Golf Course, Palos Verdes
We drove back to the Pacific Coast Highway and less than twenty minutes later we were parking the car ready to visit the South Coast Botanic Garden. The garden is located atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula of Los Angeles (about 10 miles south of Los Angeles airport.) They call it the “Jewel of the Peninsula.” It did not start that way however. It was a dump. From the early 1900s it was used as an open mine then sold in 1956 to the County of Los Angeles. They in turn used it as a sanitary landfill.
In 1961 a citizen’s group petitioned to have 87 acres (35 ha) of the site landscaped as “The South Coast Botanic Garden.” The land was reclaimed and landscaped over 3.5 million tons of refuse. In 1961 the LA County of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens planted 40,000 donated plants. The garden now has over 200,000 plants and 2,000 species from around the world.
Note: please click on the collages to open them, then click on each picture to enlarge it.
There are plants from as far away as Australia and South Africa. They join the Coast Redwoods, Ginkgos and over 100 trees and shrubs of rare mature specimen. The garden features a Japanese Garden, English Rose Garden, Mediterranean Garden, Conifer Garden, Cactus Garden, Palm Garden, Fuchsia Garden, Herb Garden, Garden of the Senses, a Children’s Garden, a Water-Wise Garden, Conifer Collection, Palms Collection, a Banyan Forest and more.
Click to enlarge individual photos too
A small manmade lake and a stream are visited by a variety of birds such as geese, ducks, coots and herons plus 200 species of birds sighted annually. The garden brochure says: “This continuing experiment in land reclamation has drawn horticulturists from all over the world, including Prince Charles of England, to study the feasibility of a similar project. The success of the reclamation effort is apparent in the peaceful, shady groves and areas of spectacular color.” It is truly a magical place.
The garden members had a meeting starting a 5:00 pm but we were told that we could stay in the garden until closing time, at 8:00 pm. Of course there was no one else walking about in the garden but us. We started with the Japanese Garden then the Fuchsia Garden. Behind these was a vegetable garden but we did not go there.
No little children were with us but we still went through the Secret Tunnel leading to the Children’s Garden where we saw the 3 Bears’ House, a yellow brick road and Goldilocks’ cottage.
Going away from Goldilocks’ Cottage I could not help stopping to take pictures of colorful flowers.
Everywhere I turned there were more flowers.
I walked over a small bridge and admired flowers bordering the little stream
then I arrived at an open area with a lacy gazebo. This should be a good setting for weddings, receptions and parties I think. Well this was our anniversary and the guests were all the birds and other critters in the garden.
There was another gazebo which I could see in the distance.
I went closer to the wooden gazebo and photographed some golden yellow roses growing close to it.
I went back and could see my daughter at a distance, sitting on the grass. What was she doing?
I approached silently and then I saw it. It was hiding being the sign for a Dwarf Callistemom bush from Australia.
It was a cute little bunny. I wish my two little grand children, our other daughter's sons, could have been here to watch it with us.
But there were more flowers and plants to see, some with name plates and some without. I took pictures anyway.
I had not seen a purple jacaranda tree like at the Banning Residence yet but a large tree with bright red flowers was on a little mount ahead. Its name was Cockspur Coral Tree, from Brazil.
A light shift in the wind brought a faint smell of lavender – de la lavande? Il y a de la lavande ici? (is there lavender here?) I was brought up with lavender. My grandfather would say that to keep me happy and quiet he would bring me to the lavender fields near our home in Provence. I was a wee girl but I remember their tiny pale purple blossoms and loved their sweet fragrance. There are several species of lavender, actually 39 of them and they have different fragrances. I remember buying lavender lotion after visiting Buckingham Palace - it was “grown in the Royal Estate Sandringham, Norfolk.” It had a slight different fragrance from the lavender from Provence. So now I followed the scent …and saw a little field of lavender swaying in the breeze with no one around.
All this lavender around me –
this was worth the trip even if there had not been any other plants.
Cueillette de la lavande, near Grasse, Provence (lavender gathering) vintage postcard
There was a gathering of crows close to me. I believe a gathering of crows is called a “murder of crows.” They were not looking combative though, just noisily having a meeting in the shade. I reluctantly walked away and went towards the steps I could see on the far side.
First I walked by a fountain and then another one. I would have liked to sit on one of the benches but there was so much more to walk about and explore.
Along the way I saw more flowers
and more
then I saw it – the rose garden! It was quite large. The brochure says that it contains hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, old-fashioned and miniatures roses. Over 300 varieties. For a rose lover – this was heaven. My husband and daughter had long gone ahead so I was all alone in this garden. I certainly rejoiced to be alone and took my time with these beauties. I took many photographs (at least 450 that day) but cannot show them all to you as this post would be even longer… Here is the rose garden below.
Below is just a sample of some of the lovely roses around me.
Then more roses.
Alas I had to go. For a few more minutes I sat on the bench you can see below just admiring the colorful rose oasis. As I started to go away I noticed a plant with bright purple flowers on terminal spikes. I touched it and it felt like velvet. Its name is Mexican Bush Sage or Velvet Sage (Salvia leucantha.) Here are some pictures of it below.
I needed to rejoin my husband and daughter – but where were they? I started walking into a path, stopping to photograph flowers as I went by. As I shot a lacy red flower I felt as if someone was watching me.
I looked up and saw a horse on the other side of the fence - he was watching me!
I turned around to find a different path and saw a green sign indicating the “Palm Garden.” So I took it – maybe they were looking at palm trees.
Top palm tree on right is called Queen Palm (Syagruss romanzoffiana) the bottom left is called Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnia decurvata)
No one around. I crossed the road and went on another path indicating “the lake.”
As I approached I could hear ducks. Turning around the bend I saw tall grass then further on a lake and seated in front of the lake were my husband and daughter, watching a paddling of ducks.
We said goodbye to the ducks
and started down a trail.
We arrived at a creek where bales of turtles were happily swimming close to the shore.
It was getting late so we decided to walk on back. They went ahead towards the Banyan Forest while I took a picture of another little rabbit.
Then I followed them through the banyan grove. Going under those huge banyan trees was like walking into an enchanted forest.
I kept taking pictures while they went ahead. I was fascinated by the roots. The aerial roots grow into thick woody trunks. Their designs look like giant woodsy octopuses.
I needed to catch up with them. But walking back out of the grove more flowers were coming into view.
It was getting close to 8:00 pm so even though there was so much more to see I reluctantly went back towards the exit, shooting flowers until the last minute. It had been a wonderful day.
It is hard to believe that this garden was once a landfill. People working together certainly changed it into an amazing and wondrous treasure for all to enjoy. In the mid-70s a remake of the “Crying Indian” public service ad was filmed at the South Coast Botanic Garden where Cody, the Indian star, was riding a horse in the garden instead of the canoe in the original advertisement.
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." - Rachel Carson, American 1907-1964, Nature writer