Musings

We found a high hill overlooking the Susquehanna River. The far bridge is the interstate, but we took the old road, the one showing only two partial spans just a bit closer.

On the hill, we also found the Mason-Dixon trail, and walked it for a few feet.

Back on the road, after a short time, our eventual destination popped up on the navigation app.

From our New Jersey hotel parking lot, we can see across the Hudson and into (Upper) Manhattan. We’re staying here because it’s easier to deal with the car (free parking), yet still access the city.

We took a bus across to Port Authority, and walked out of the terminal and, tadah, lookee there! Also, our noses were assailed by a strong whiff of weed-smoke, which turned out to be the common street-perfume of today’s Manhattan.

We walked down to see the Flatiron Building, and discovered it is covered in a layer of scaffolding, and looks bulky and strange.

We also passed by two sides of the Empire State Building. The upper floors look less scruffy than the basal floors.

For a change of pace, here’s a statue of Minerva and two bell-ringers. A Smithsonian webpage says:

A granite niche flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature and attic with clock faces on the north and south sides. Standing in the niche is a figure of Minerva bearing a spear and shield. She has serpents entwined around her arms and breastplate, and she holds her proper right arm out. An owl, whose green eyes used to blink, is perched on top of a bell in front of her. Two bellringing blacksmiths, known as Stuff and Gruff, rotate at the waist and appear to hit the bell with their heavy hammers. Their hammers stop three inches from the bell while a mallet hidden inside a box behind the bell actually strikes the hour.

I thought the owl’s eyes looked odd; now I know why. I’m now slightly sad we didn’t hear the bell toll, but that’s what can happen when you do your research after the fact.

Ah, that’s enough high-points from a brief exploration of Midtown Manhattan….

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Alignment…via draped wires and cables and whatnot.

Posted at 9:38 PM | Comments Off on Showtime

Waaaay before covid, we drifted away from going out and about as much…fewer restaurant visits, waaaay less book shopping…that kind of thing. Out and about today, that’s what I thought about when I saw tall buildings that mostly didn’t exist in those shop-and-spend days.

Posted at 9:22 PM | Comments Off on Urban, possibly urbane

Okay, one more photo from yesterday’s tour…I took this to use here, truth be told, but I was distracted by minutia, and didn’t use it yesterday, so, Shazam, here it is today!

Posted at 9:50 PM | Comments Off on Long way around

I had the distinct good fortune to tour the May Patterson Goodrum House, by invitation of our lovely neighbor D. It was designed by Georgia’s own Philip Trammell Shutze (1890–1982), and built in 1930. The Watson-Brown Foundation, which owns the house, aims to decorate it to what the house was like in 1936 (as I understand it). The house is on West Paces Ferry just southeast of the Governor’s Mansion (which merely dates to 1969).

The details are what I remember most. This is the view south on the large, high-ceilinged screen porch at the east end of the house.

Chandelier detail, dining room.

Above door, main living room.

South façade of the garage, designed to evoke a church. It overlooks an interesting garden.

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Delayed post apologies…pre-time change anxiety? 🤣

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Unwatered fountains look like something’s missing (duh fits, but it’s more than duh). We’re on the edge of the first raft of spring pollen, so I suspect fountains will flow soon.

This somewhat pineapple-y fountain is in Greenville EssCee, and no, it doesn’t turn.

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Today’s first stop was Numancia, one of the many locations that had pre-CeltIberian settlement, then CeltIberian, then a big rehab/redo by the Romans (who took it in 133 BC). As an additional treat, clouds brought moisture that the temperature converted into ice crystals.

Need I mention that we walked carefully?

Walls, hence occupation, seemingly go on forever.

A fancier dwelling….

On to Uxama. This tower dates to the al-Andalusian period, when Arabs controlled most of the peninsula, including this area. They built many watch-towers to consolidate and maintain their power. It worked for generations…until it didn’t. The castle to the right (red arrow) dates to the 10th–11th C, with later modifications. The river in between (blue arrow) is the Ucero.

Uxama is better known as a Roman city. If all this area had buildings, it was a very large city (I am not sure that it did). This excavated area is between the major hilltops; this view is to the southwest.

The domestic complex in this corner of this area includes and underground store-room (far right; bodega in Spanish).

We left the Roman world behind and checked out the Riaza valley near Montejo.

I’m guessing this is wheat. I’m guessing it’s doing pretty well. We’ve been seeing large piles of bales of wheat straw, just rotting…it appears they bale it with no market…is there a subsidy involved? Just trying to figure out the political economy….

See those lovely mountains below the narrow cloud layer? Tonight’s room is in a tiny village in their foothills.

We motored through this Medieval gate to check out central Ayllón.

Two civic-ceremonial buildings on the mostly Medieval main plaza…. I think the one on the left was a church, and perhaps still is, but the signs relate to non-religious usage.

A different view of this same end of the Plaza Major.

Construction detail…showing beams embedded in soft brick and adobe-type wall materials.

In contrast, this is the building material of the small village we’re staying in. I’m calling it slate.

It’s even visible on one wall of our lovely room.

Posted at 12:44 PM | Comments Off on Beyond Roman-ness

We left Bilbao in a light rain and went west, in and out of raininess.

We saw the ocean—quick peeks—at least a half-dozen times.

When we cut inland, we encountered clouds above and with us.

In Europe, we’ve found far more frequent tunnels than in the USofA. A tunnel we went through before we reached Bilbao was almost 3 km (1.82 mi)—I forgot to look it up until now.

The elevations eventually had snow…from a storm that came through about three days back. Luck is with us.

We took a wee side trip to see the source of the Ebro River, where there’s a lovely little park…and the river’s first dam.

This is a monument to the river. With a mallard.

Just a few miles from the source are the upper reaches of a major reservoir on the river.

Then, the topography became more rugged, and we drove a bit in dramatic gorges.

Even the side drainages are dramatic.

Oops, look what we climbed into.

Fortunately, the road was clear and the temps waaaay too high for there to be ice.

This is the only town we went through where the buildings had exposed beams. I suspect many of the buildings have beams—they’re just clad in mortar or whatever.

Finally, we descended and the landscape opened up, and the fields are greeeeeen!

Hotel window view….

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Different day, different museum: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, established 1908. This is the “Old Building;” behind it, the new is being reworked—note crane. The collection focuses on Basque and Spanish works.

This is Ramiro Arrue’s (1892-1971) “Euskaldunak karta jokoan,” meaning Basques playing cards.

He did it about 1919. I was fascinated by the footwear, especially the boots on the left with exterior laces.

Aurelio Artete did this in 1930–35, and called it “Euskal arrantzaleak,” or Basque fishermen. Again: footwear…. I’m wondering if the short boots are of rubber? They do look globular. Also: bare feet.

We saw one Picasso on display: “Still life with glass/bowl of fruit,” dating to 1937 (don’t know the original language of the name). In English, it’s “still life,” but in Spanish it’s “naturaleza muerta,” or, literally, dead nature.

They had three Goyas on display, including the side of the shipping crate they came in from France…I didn’t get the full story. This was the middle painting of the three (yes, I cropped it), the esteemed Bernard Tavira, dated about 1787-88.

Here’s a detail of the Señora’s carnation and ruff.

A few smaller rooms displayed fascinating historical documents and the like that normally no members of the public get to see. These are a pair of pages from “Corpus Iuris Civillis;” it dates to before 1477, and is in Gothic script. This is a later copy of a compilation of Roman laws from AD 117–565; the compilation was ordered by Emperor Justinian I, who was emperor from AD 527 to 565. This copy was made for Pierre de Laval, who became archbishop of Reims in 1473, and died in 1493. Many modern legal systems relate back to these laws.

Here’s a small section of the official document of excommunication of Henry VIII of England by Pope Clement VII and the Holy Council of Cardinals. This is an authorized copy sent to the Spanish court, and dates to 1531.

And then we were outside enjoying the sun…we found groundskeepers at work—here the fountain cleaners.

Here’s Bilbao’s river, the Nerbioi (Basque), or Nervion (English). This view is toward the mouth. This area was once the port area. With larger ships, it’s moved to the bay at the mouth. Note also that Bilbao, the city, is along the river, and the higher elevations are forested.

The façade of this building stood out to us both. It appears to be a private business…. BTW, that’s a pedestrian bridge to the left.

And, our riverfront trajectory brought us back to…this sculpture/building by Frank Gehry (born Frank Owen Goldberg, in 1929).

I very much enjoyed seeing Anish Kapoor’s “Tall Tree & The Eye” (2009) without raindrops.

Here’s this combo moto and lift that I posted yesterday from the other side.

Guggenheim detail. I think this is employee parking on the “back” side.

And, for giggles, a totally different façade, in town, away from the former port area.

Posted at 12:55 PM | Comments Off on No archaeo, day three