May 12, 2011

back to Spain to admire the architecture

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… and the beautiful tile work at the Plaza de España.

On the Saturday before Easter, I wandered through the peaceful (enormous) public gardens surrounding the equally enormous complex of buildings known as the Plaza de España.

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And then I entered the main plaza itself, which is always an impressive sight … no matter how many times you’ve seen it. Even, in fact, when you’ve seen it masquerading as something else. If you’ve watched the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia movie, you’ve seen these buildings standing in for British government buildings in Cairo.

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After having made several visits here over the past ten years or so, I was pleased to see water (and boats!) back in the canal that encircles the plaza. Let’s zoom in, shall we?

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May 11, 2011

the CAA trip to Windsor, day 1

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Jill sent the following report and photo from the first official day of our CAA trip to the 2011 Royal Windsor Horse Show:

The balance of the group arrived on Tuesday for the beginning of the CAA trip. This year it was a rough start for some: a missed flight, lost luggage, a forgotten passport, a lost wallet! By the end of the day, we had sorted everything out and started the trip officially!
 
We are staying at The Christopher Hotel in Eton — just a short walk across a pedestrian bridge between Windsor and Eton, over the River Thames. This hotel had once been a coaching inn and some of the rooms are now in the area that was the stables — appropriate for the CAA, I think!
 
Our first official activity was a walking tour of Windsor for anyone who wanted to join me. About ten hardy souls followed me across the bridge and up the hill to the Long Walk. The sun was shining, and we stood at the private entrance to Windsor Castle and just looked down the Long Walk to the statue of the Copper Horse three miles away. Fantastic.
 
Then we slowly walked back to our hotel (with me pointing out sights and facilities), where we were joined by the rest of the group for a magnificent afternoon tea. Eveyone had the chance to publicly introduce themselves, and the trip started!

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a view of Windsor Castle, from a boat on the River Thames (photo by Jill Ryder)

 

May 10, 2011

a brief change of pace

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Patricia sent me some fascinating old photos featuring horse-drawn travel and commerce. Since we haven’t looked back through our sepia-toned glasses in a while, I thought I would share a few of them with you.

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Baltimore, Maryland, in 1904

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a Milk Wagon in New Orleans, 1903

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lunch carts in New York, 1904

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and, in honor of the approaching season: beach-goers on the Jersey shore in 1905

 

May 9, 2011

going incognito

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I’m back home in Kentucky now, and sorting through all the photos I took while in Spain. Over the next several days and weeks, I will be posting many of them here on the blog. But I thought I’d go ahead and begin with one that several people on our CAA trip and several other of my friends and family have demanded asked that I post here.

This may or may not be me, dressed to go to the feria:

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is that me? (outfit, styling, and photo courtesy of mi amiga Maria Jose)

 

May 8, 2011

the farrier in the parade

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Yesterday’s blog post featured a link to a big, high-def photo from last week’s British royal wedding. Did you notice the lone rider with a black plume in his helmet?

He’s the farrier. And his position in the troop is both interesting and, traditionally, a bit gruesome.

 

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