Venice

I never tire of visiting Venice, I love it. It's one of the few places I love even if the weather isn't good. That's probably my favourite view, the island and church of San Giorgio Maggiore. I think I took that photo when it was clearing after a day of rain but it's still beautiful. 

I know some people don't like it, they moan about the crowds, the prices, the tat etc, yes they really do. Although even The Doges Palace & St Mark's Square look OK from the top of the bell tower on San Giorgio Maggiore despite the crowds.

Another view from the bell tower. I just think it's gorgeous! Wouldn't mind a swim in that pool!

I met a couple in Marks & Sparks cafe at home last week who were listening to my conversation with my sister about booking some flights to Venice as my husband has never been there. Yes I leave him behind at least twice a year to visit Venice & Lake Garda, for work! They interrupted to give their "advice" as they thought I hadn't been there before and they started to tell me how horrible it is now. I told them I have been a number of times & had just come back from Venice the day before and I love it. I said yes it probably is more crowded and expensive than it was thirty years ago, isn't everywhere? Not exactly the response they expected but each to his own I say, we're all different. They were definitely the glass half empty type of people!

One of the worst places I ever visited for the tourist hordes was to the lovely little town of St Ives in Cornwall a couple of years ago. Well it would have been lovely probably at 6am before the hordes descended on it. It was absolutely horrendous, cars blocking the tiny streets (which really should be pedestrianised as they have a good cheap park & ride system) and heaving with crowds of people everywhere including lining the promenade sitting eating ice creams or fish & chips. You couldn't move for them. YUK! Give me Venice any day.

Anyway back to Venice. The Venice Biennale had started a week or so before we arrived last month and there were lots of interesting pieces of art displayed across the city. I'm no art connoisseur and can only take culture in small doses so I didn't pay to go into the exhibition. There was so much to see it would have taken weeks! But I did enjoy seeing bits of art as I wandered around.

Here are some of the photos I took of a few of the things that caught my eye over the three days I was there.

Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn's installation called " Support" on Ca' Sagredo.  Weird but very effective!

A bit gross, a man and a horse with a serpent wrapped around them.

Our little ship, well boat really, was berthed right down near the Giardini where the main part of the exhibition was held. However just opposite where we were berthed there were two little parks with some sculptures in them. 

I liked the tortoises from the Seychelles.

This was a bit weird. Some random bloke putting his dog on the sculptures to take its picture!

I did like this one, it was huge and I could see it from my room on the ship. We were berthed just over the road from it. It's King Kong Rhino by Shih Li-Jen. No I didn't know that, the name was on the plinth!

These looked like bits of somebody's spine!

This one was ridiculous. Just loads of life jackets hooked onto a black metal circle!!!! Anybody could do that. 

 No idea what these were meant to be! Looked like bubbles on a stick.

The next ones were my favourites. They looked so real, they even had wisps of hair sticking out from their bathing hats that were blowing in the breeze.

No sadly the yacht in the background wasn't the one we were staying on!

Now she is the one I kept thinking would step off the plinth! Notice I said she & not it.

You could see the drops of water glistening on her and the creases in her bathing costume and the folds in her skin were amazing.

You could see the veins on her feet and the even the follicles on her skin. I thought her feet looked really good but one woman said she could do with a pedicure! Have to say I wish my feet looked half as good.

The work of Carol Feuerman an American artist and hyperrealist sculptor and definitely my favourites. 

It was great seeing all these works of art just placed in parks and outside buildings. A shame that some people didn't keep their children off them or their dogs!

I'll take you on a trip up the Grand Canal soon! I'm getting back into the swing of posting now I have a decent computer.

Another road to follow

This is a place I love, Durham Cathedral. Lots of other people love it too, it's recently been voted Britain's best loved building, not a bad thing to be.

When I'm travelling back from London up the East coast after my tours and I see it from the train, I know I'm home. It's often referred to as the greatest example of Romanesque architecture in Europe or as US author Bill Bryson described it "The best cathedral on planet earth."

I've visited it numerous times and I've probably posted about it earlier. Last time I was there it was being used for the production of the Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War and it was closed for some of the time which must have been annoying for those who had travelled a long way to visit it. So if you are an Avengers fan look out for it. Have to say I'm not but might go to see the film just to see the Cathedral. There were some additional bits of "furniture" there and all the benches had been removed which changed the look of it but essentially it was the same place.

Over the last three months I've been there about 6 times and I realised I didn't really know a lot about it. Mostly over the years I've gone for a carol service or just wandered around with the children and grandchildren taking in the atmosphere mainly. 

I visited in March for a day where you learned about the Cathedral's Benedictine heritage; it was a Benedictine monastery until 1539 when it was handed over to King Henry V111. It is now an Anglican cathedral but it still carries on some of the Benedictine tradition of being a place of prayer and of welcome and hospitality to visitors just as it was when it was first built in 1093. There is no charge for visiting the cathedral itself unlike many other UK places of worship such as Westminster Abbey & York Minster; it is up to the visitor to make a voluntary donation. I find it offensive to have to pay to go into churches but I understand that it is expensive preserving them for future generations never mind heating & cleaning them. I hope there never comes a day when they have to start to charge in Durham.

I decided recently to become a volunteer at the Cathedral to welcome people and help them get the most out of their visit. I now have to start the training which is extensive, there's a health & safety course, gaining knowledge of the cathedral and sadly a course in awareness of potentially dangerous situations and what action to take. 

I will have to do some guided tours of the Cathedral to pick up more about the architecture, the history of how it was built as well as more knowledge of the Northern saints who are buried there. 

Just hope my brain is up to all this and I can blog more about my progress.