Becky, Tom n KJ

Catheral at St Davids, Wales. Sometime a long while ago a Pope declared that one trip here was equivalent to a pilgramage to Rome and three visits, to Jersalem. On our first visit here, on Easter Sunday, this looked nothing like Rome to us

St Davids

With Chris Penfold in Newtown, Wales

KJ! Dropped a sheet on the way to returning hostel sheets and a car backed over it.

Hmm

Youth hostel, Llangollen

Photos from around Oxfordshire

Tom and Sam inside the Faulkand Arms, Great Tew, Oxfordshire

Uffington chalk White Horse, Oxfordshire

Tom enjoying the view

Tom n his real ale on the Thames at Abingdon

Looking down from the Uffington hillside towards the Vale of the White Horse (a valley so famous, they names our local council after it).

Tom enjoying the sunshine

Chalk horse body overlooking man-made ridges, Uffington White Horse

Blackfaced sheep

A bad photo of the village of Great Tew, location of the lovely Faulkland Arms Hotel.

Pictures from Chilly London

On a chilly march weekend Tom, Winnie, Becky, Peta and Duncan ventured into Greenwich, home of mean time and the british navy

the green laser indicates the line of Greewich mean time

standing on Grenwich mean time line

Tom, Winnie, Peta and Duncan at Greenwich in March

Photos from Andalucia

Yes, we have been slack, settling into working lives again in Oxford. Blog text for Andalucia and more pix from Wales, Cologne and Oxford to come.

posted by Becky in Oxford

Moorish arches meet Gothic. The Mezquita, Cordoba.

Some particularly ornate candy arches in the Mezquita, their colour largely faded.

Scene from '2005, an Andalucian Odyssey.' Or is that the cover of Pink Floyd's 'Obscured by Clouds?'

The main entrance to the Mezquita (Mosque-Cathedral), Cordoba.

A typical Spanish postbox. Magnificent!

The Cordoba synagogue. Not much of this decoration has survived the various efforts of Christians since the Moors lost control here. The synagogue cannot have been a fun place to hang out during the centuries of the Inquisition, but the city seems to be trying hard to redeem itself these days.

A Cordoba courtyard. How's the serenity?

Sardines eating their own tails in a light lunch in Cordoba, like three little world-serpents.

The Alhambra, Granada. Arch leads to arch leads to arch. I was particularly taken by the calligraphy embedded in the plasterwork here, as in Morocco. But the geometry of the Alhambra is without equal.

The Alhambra, Granada: originally these windows were filled with pastilles of coloured glass.

Some people never tire of Moorish architecture. This photograph from the Alhambra, Granada, is posted by one such.

Views over Granada from the Alhambra.

Early modern fountain in the gardens of the Alhambra, Granada. McDonald's wanted to buy this world-famous icon of landscape architecture, but there was a technical problem with the hydraulics of one water outlet (viz bottom left) and the deal fell through in acrimony and litigation.

Gardens of the Alhambra, Granada.

Christian bell in a Moorish tower. For whom?

The mountains above Granada, viewed from the Alhambra.

Late medieval Christian barracks at the Alhambra, Granada.

Christian cannonballs in the Alhambra, Granada.

Cut tiles in the floor and wall: the Mezquita, Cordoba.

The Mezquita, Cordoba.

Rqther psychedelic cut tiles in the Mezquita, Cordoba.

A blend of Moorish (cut) and Christian (drawn) tiles in the Mezquita, Cordoba.

The endless candy arches of the Mezquita, Cordoba.

Fading arch around an alcove in Cordoba's 'Mezquita' (the Mosque-Cathedral).

From the courtyard into the foyer in one of the palaces at the Alhambra, Granada.

8-pointed starform ceiling of arabesques in the Alhambra, Granada.

The lions in their courtyard, holding up their fountain. Much of the calligraphy in the walls surrounding this yard is a poem praising the ingenious hydraulic system of the fountain. Perhaps surprisingly, it is a piercingly beautiful piece of writing.

The courtyard of the lions, the Alhambra, Granada. Note the ummbelievable plasterwork, especially the arabesque mock arching at top right and elsewhere.

Becky stands at the foot of Maimonides, great Sephardic mystic and medic of the middle ages. These days the people of Cordoba are generally proud that he was born there. (What you cannot see is the absolutely incredible flamenco guitarist who was busking just off to the left of view, accompanied by various mates of his who were clapping in rhythm.)

This celestial theme ceiling in the Alhambra, Granada, is also a prototype design for the special issue soccer balls to be used in the 2014 World Cup.