From 'La Mole' to Penge

We didn't manage to do any of our planned gardening today as it was rainy and windy.

Ideal day to put the 200 cards I created on the Kodak website last week-end in the plastic sleeves I ordered from eBay and tied them in neat bundles.







As you can see, the theme is statue and sculptures (with one exception).
Hope that friends and family will like them!

Adrian was a sweetie and helped me first with the sleeves


and then with the ribbons:

Does he look fed up, exhausted or carded-out?
Anyway, time for bed now!

I don't know why but I have always loved cemeteries.
The Cimetière du Père-Lachaise is the largest in Paris and arguably the most famous.
Walking around it is like flicking through a very old French (but not only) edition of Who's Who.

Last Saturday we spent a few hours in there but only managed to see about half of it.
The autumn colours made it really beautiful too.


As it was All Hallows' Eve there were many people bringing chrysanthemums plus of course a few tourists.

Some of the tombs and monuments are Victorian masterpieces, remnants of an era when even dying had to be done properly.
One of my favourite is the joint tomb of two scientists Croce-Spinelli and Sivel who died of oxygen deprivation in 1875 in a balloon at the altitude of 8,600 meters.

The monument shows the 2 men lying side by side, covered only by a sheet





One side of the cemetery is full of monuments to the victims of Nazi death camps:



It is also interesting to learn about strange traditions: Oscar Wilde's tomb is covered in lipstick kisses (and the genitalia of the Jacob Epstein's monument have been hacked away);



the tomb of assassinated journalist Victor Noir is a fertility symbol because of the bulge in "that" area.
I've looked on the internet and apparently there are several schools of thought about what one should do: kiss him on the lips, rub his crotch, put flower in the top hat, touch the shoes.
As you can see some people do all of the above.





(I think that whoever wrote the English entry in Wikipedia got slightly over-excited: "The tomb, designed by Jules Dalou is notable for the realistic portrayal of the dead Noir, and for the fact that he appears to be at least partially sexually aroused, his large penis pushing his part-unbuttoned fly open.")

See below for more pictures:

Lynne insisted on driving us to the airport (thank you Darling!) so she was outside our front door at 4:50 am!

We got to our hotel in Krakow at midday and we had all afternoon and evening to start exploring the city.

We first went to

Kazimierz, the old Jewish neighbourhood, passing on the way

Wawel Hill
 

and a few of many, many churches, that make the city a Rome in miniature.

People in Krakow are very religious.

The guidebook says that Kazimierz can be a bit edgy at night, and it is indeed still a bit rundown

but lots of buildings are getting a facelift.

We stopped at

Café Singer for a hot drink. The café started the mini-trend of re-cycling old sewing machine tables.

The first tourist stop was

Remu’h Sinagogue

and the adjacent Old Jewish Cemetery, which was destroyed by the Nazis.


It is still undergoing restoration and one of the walls is covered in broken tombstones.

We then visited the Old Sinagogue,

now a museum.

It was high time for something to eat. We ordered traditional cheesecake expecting just a slice of cake but we got this:

It was yummy!

We crossed the Vistula to visit 

Plac Bohaterow Getta (Ghetto Heroes Plaza).

Then we took the tram for a few stops to go back to the Old Town.
Words cannot describe the delight of seeing the Main Market Square for the first time, in the beautiful golden late afternoon light!


We spent more than an hour just wandering around the square

and watching a street performed creating giant soap bubbles!

Full set here:

On Sunday, london1952 , his mother and I went to visit a couple of National Trust properties near Guildford.

It's always nice to visit such houses and gardens, to see how the other half (used to) live. Every property has something different and unique.

Clandon Park contains a little corner of New Zealand in its grounds: a Maori meeting house



In the words of Wikipedia: "a Māori meeting house named Hinemihi. This was originally situated near Lake Tarawera in New Zealand and provided shelter to the people of Te Wairoa village during the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. The building was covered in ash and surrounded by volcanic debris, but its occupants survived. It remained half buried until 1892 when Lord Onslow, then Governor General of New Zealand, had it removed and shipped to England."

The gardens fell in disrepair after the First World War due to the lack of labour but a few features have been restored in the last 20 years; among these, the Dutch Sunken Garden:



Click below for the full set of pictures:

Here are a few pictures of the Royal Palace/hunting lodge I visited last week in the outskirts of Turin (with some of the attached town).



It was reopened a few years ago after one of the largest renovation projects in Europe: the palace had been terribly neglected and no-one would have expected for it to go back to such splendour.
The works (the buildings and the garden) are not finished yet.

Apparently, this place was the inspiration for Louis XVI's Versailles, though of course it is on a smaller scale.

The views of the garden from the palace reminded me of "The Sound of Music".

Something that puzzled me was the use of metal cages to contain the flower plants in the formal garden; the mystery was quickly solved when I kept spotting hares running about.

There is also a multimedia installation by UK director Peter Greenaway and, if you are so inclined, you can read about it here.

Adrian yesterday was talking about Madeira with a neighbour. That reminded me that I hadn't finished posting the selection of pictures from our trip to Madeira in the first week of March.

Adrian will get back from Leeds tomorrow (he went up for Mother's day) and so I had to keep busy.

My list of activities included filing, gardening, updating the residents' association's website, shopping, tidying up.

Whilst tyding up, I came across some pictures that I took, developed and printed during the photography course I attended a few years ago.

I thinking of framing the one of Adrian in Albi and putting it up on the wall among the collection of old pictures:



I wonder how long it would take him to spot it? (In my case it would probably be weeks! LOL)

It turned chilly again today after two days of mild weather. So it's appropriate to post some icy pictures taken last Friday morning in Trafalgar Square.

This is considered the most important monument in Pune.

Wikipedia says "Shaniwarwada (Marathi: शनिवारवाडा) is a palace fort in the city of Pune in western Maharashtra, India. It covers six and a quarter acres in central Pune. It was constructed in 1732 as the seat of the Peshwa (prime ministers of the Maratha Empire), and remained the political capital of the Empire until its annihilation. The fort itself was largely destroyed in 1828 by an unexplained fire, but has the surviving structures are now maintained as a tourist and archaeological site."

So there isn't that much to see apart from walking on the ramparts, and in the courtyard/garden. It felt very exotic. And it was certainly a very popular spot for Puneites on a Sunday afternoon.


Some children are playing cricket!

The spikes are to discourage the elephants from charging!

( Click here for another 5 pictures )

The weather changed yesterday and this morning was grey here in Pune. But as I had arranged for the company driver to come and pick me up at 8 am, I decided to go on my trip anyway.

He drove us to the village of Sinhagad


( More pictures of the village here )

and then we walked up to the ruins of the fort. 4 km (he said), all uphill (according to Wikipedia the village is at at 550 m/1,804 ft above the sea level and the fort is at 1,350 m/4,430ft).

It had started drizzinlg when we were in the car and carried on during our ascent. The drizzle made some of steepest parts of the uneven path very slippery.

Raghunath (the driver) insisted on accompanying me - I guess because he was given instructions at the office to look after me.

The fort is up there in the clouds.

Half way - the village in the distance.

Getting foggier

The path is dotted with shacks selling juices, fruits, etc.

Here's the driver enjoying a rest and a drink

( More pictures of vendors )

Finally, the fort (not that you can see much!)


Within the very large perimeter of the fort, there is a memorial to Tanaji Malusare the hero of Sinhagad (Lion Fort)

Don't you think he looks remarkably like my beloved london1952? Adrian used to have earrings and that moustache style!

and among other small buildings and ruins, a couple of temples

The goddess Khali

Erm... not sure about this one

( More pictures of the fort, of people and of sacred cows! )
I really enjoyed the trip; I met lots of people at the fort and on the way up/down and most were genuinely friendly. The wanted to know where I was from and what I thought of Pune and India; a father asked me to pose for a picture with his son before thanking me and shaking my hand.

On the way back, once already in Pune, the driver insisted on taking me shopping; I wasn't quite sure where because he didn't speak much English. It was a craft shop with some very nice stuff but it wasn't cheap. There the staff were way too 'attentive'!!
Then the driver wanted me to go to a rug shop just round the corner from the flat; this time I was very firm and just said No! What a cheek! But then on the other hand, he had just climbed a mountain for me.