Tag: garden

Brighton Pleasure Palace?

Election Day, USA – Go vote, if you haven’t already!

Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Contrasting the democratic power of the vote (today’s election day in the US) with royal autocracy, here are a couple of snaps of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.

Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton

Victoria Garden

Victoria Garden, Farnham

Farnham’s Victoria Garden is across the street from us here. During Heritage Week we joined a tour and talk at the garden giving it’s history (it used to be a public bathing pool). Although I’ve taken pictures here many times before, I took a documentary sample (see below) again on the day.

Caerleon

Caerleon, Wales

One day we took the train from Cardiff up to Newport where we caught a bus to Caerleon, home to several ancient Roman ruins and one of the primary claimants to be the site of Camelot. We first visited the Roman baths, which were fascinating, though I came away with few useful photographs, then made our way to a small museum, outside of which we visited the “Roman-inspired” garden where these pictures were taken.

Chawton House Windows

During the break our daughter was visiting from the States and we took her to visit Chawton House, erstwhile home of Jane Austen’s brother (the Jane Austen House itself, which we visited last May was closed for the holiday). The house has a fascinating history, which you can read about at the link above, and I took some pictures out the windows which provided framing of the view.

Beguinage: Begijnhof, Antwerp

We had visited the Begijnhof in Bruges which was still operating as a beguinage. Antwerp’s is no longer has any beguines but remains a lovely and peaceful place. Click any image to see them larger (you may have to click the post title first if you’re seeing this in email)

Square du Petit Sablon, Brussels

From the Pl Poelaert we walked on to our appointment at the Horta Museum, where phones, cameras, and bags are strictly forbidden and toured the fascinating dual building. Afterwards, we walked past the Palais d’Egmont (Egmont Palace) and into the Square du Petit Sablon. Click the images above to see them full sized and with descriptive captions (you may need to click the post title first to access on the web site if you are seeing this in email).

Farnham Castle

While we have been round the castle keep several times, the palace itself is only open for touring on Wednesdays. We finally took the £5 tour which was quite interesting, covering the long history of the castle and its occupants and architecture. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures along the way. Click the images to see them full sized (if viewing in email, you may need to click the post title first to open the web site).

Greyfriars

Next we walked down Church Ln to Stour St. Christopher (Kit) Marlowe was born in Canterbury (for an excellent historical novel, read Anthony Burgess’s A Dead Man in Deptford), passing through Beer Cart Ln by the Marlowe Kit to Greyfriars Gardens. Passing through the gardens we came out into St Peter’s Grove, a street that looks like all those English ’60s movies. Click any of the pictures to enlarge them all.

Windows

Our first stop in London was to see a very moving exhibit at Hammersmith Hospital, from an instructor we’ll have on our course next year, Sunil Gupta. I took a few shots out of some incongruous window vistas. Then we walked to the East Acton tube station to get to our next gallery and I shot the window in the upper right corner through a long perspex (lucite) corridor. Click any image to see them all full size (but not if you’re viewing this in an email – you must click through to obBLOGato.