The Holy Savior Cathedral , Bruges, Belgium

St. Savior’s Church, Bruges; the present structure is from 17th century. It was built on the destructed remains of old parish church of 12th century. The French had destroyed this in the late 17th century. The interiors were still under renovation when we visited it in Apr’12.

Here are some pictures from the interiors. The Reliquary at St. Savior, Bruges.

The ceiling, my nech ached to get a proper shot of this view.

The statue of the bishop in marble, very beautifully sculpted details.

The huge stained glass windows, each picture telling a story. Wish I had enough time to grasp all.

The organ, one of my favorite subject to photograph inside a church.

Faces of India - 68

Very eager to be photographed, he asked me, "Aunty, please take my picture too." He asked if I would publish in a book, I told him I will surely put it up in computer. I don't know what he understood but he was very happy. He even told me a "Thank you Aunty." Shot taken in Tamil Nadu.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Patterns of Power Lines

One from my archives: a moment during drive from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. The shot was taken in Sept. 2009. The sky isn’t spectacular but I like the pattern the poles of the power lines make against the sky as canvas.

SkyWatch Friday

Laces of Bruges

The best way to explore Bruges is by walk. In addition to the attractive facades of the heritage buildings and the winding canals, one another thing the city is famous for is the handmade laces. Walking through the lanes peeping through the shop windows, taking shots, I enjoyed it the most.

Numerous items on display were made with such laces. The fabrication process of these laces is described here in detail.

Laces were made of great width, the designs has distinct border on a lacy background. It looks as if it is full of holes. This lace work is called the bobbin lace, a specialty of Bruges. The art handed down from centuries. It was taught in schools then, girls qualified in this art while taking religious education. I wish there are more schools today imparting this kind of art and such art is preserved for ever.

Shop Window - 2

Another shop window in Strasbourg, France, displaying tempting souvenirs. 

I used to be indecisive but now I am not quite sure. 

~Tommy Cooper

Faces of India - 67

A flower seller near a temple. She sits in the pavement near the temple in mornings and evenings making these sales. I walked away wondering how much she would be earning through this.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

The Belfry of Bruges, Belgium

We got parking way from the markt squares, but keeping the tall belfry of Bruges as reference point we easily reached the squares without getting lost. This medieval bell tower of 1240 is included in UNESCO’s World heritage Site. It got destroyed and rebuilt three times. Observing carefully one can find the distinct stages, the different materials used and the designs are clear signs. The topmost octagonal part was built in 1483.

The building, 83m tall, stands so impressively in the square that it can evoke poetries. Belfries symbolize deep human urge for freedom and democracy. The view of Bruges city from top of this belfry is gorgeous I believe. Due to lack of time I had to give this a miss.

The Belfry of Bruges 

In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town.
As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood,
And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood.
 Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams and vapors gray,
Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay.
 At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys, here and there,
Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air.
Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour,
But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.
 From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows wild and high;
And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky.
Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times,
With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes,
Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sing in the choir;
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar.
Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain;
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again;
All the Foresters of Flanders,--mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer, Lyderick du Bucq and Cressy Philip, Guy de Dampierre.
I beheld the pageants splendid that adorned those days of old;
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies;
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.
 I beheld proud Maximilian, kneeling humbly on the ground; I beheld the gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound;
And her lighted bridal-chamber, where a duke slept with the queen,
And the armed guard around them, and the sword unsheathed between. I beheld the Flemish weavers, with Namur and Juliers bold,
Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold;
Saw the light at Minnewater, saw the White Hoods moving west,
Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's nest.
And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror smote;
And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's throat;
Till the bell of Ghent responded o'er lagoon and dike of sand,
"I am Roland! I am Roland! there is victory in the land!"
 Then the sound of drums aroused me.
The awakened city's roar Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more.
Hours had passed away like minutes; and, before I was aware,
Lo! the shadow of the belfry crossed the sun-illumined square.

by H W Longfellow.

 SkyWatch Friday

Basilica of the Holy Blood, Bruges, Belgium

The Basilica of Holy Blood is located in Bruges. The façade is not a huge one, and one can miss as it is in one corner of the old historic centre. There are some ornate statues which do attract attention, but then most of the facades there have them. The characters in these are religious personalities I assumed.

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There are two parts in this basilica; the lower part, St. Basil’s chapel which is very plain and simple, the upper part is more colorful, bright and stunningly beautiful. A silver tabernacle from 1611 houses a sacred vessel that is believed to contain a few drops of Christ’s blood and water washed from the body of Christ by Joseph.

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This vessel was brought here from Jerusalem in 1150. It is paraded through the city every year and the residents there take part in the procession dressed as knights and crusaders. This church is definitely worth a visit. No photography was allowed inside. I have the photos here of just the exteriors.

Our World Tuesday

Shop Window

A shop window in Stasbourg, France. The colors around the window framed it so well that I found it hard to ignore.

Faces of India - 66

Another local artiste with his work displayed in the background. Shot taken in Andhra Pradesh.

 Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

A Heron and A Seagull in Bruges, Belgium

The grey sky over Bruges was not very interesting, but a little drama between a Heron and a Seagull brought in some noisy excitement. The Heron was hopping, sometimes making short flights between church spires, rooftops and bare branches of trees. It would have gone unnoticed but for a Seagull which kept on pestering it.

It was not clear what the bone of contention was. The incessant screeching of the Seagull and the Heron trying to avoid the Seagull’s aerial attacks was attracting everyone’s attention there.

The Heron seemed to be the calmer of the two and it ignored the loud Seagull well. Soon the Seagull quit the scene and as I moved out of the place I saw the Heron high up above in the branch holding on to its position firmly.

SkyWatch Friday

Fish Market of Brugges, Blgium

One of the various sights rated among the first in must see list of Bruges is the fish market. It is a little away from the squares. This covered arcade was specially built for the fish mongers in 1821. Even today, fish is sold in the stalls here.

I walked through it; I got the feeling the whole thing is staged. They have successfully managed to preserve the traditional atmosphere. May be the locals around and the restaurant owners are their regular customers.Nothing much to do here, can't buy any to try them out in back in our hotel. So, took some pictures. The arcade has stalls for sale of other stuffs too, of course a little away from the fish stalls to avoid the stench.

I was keen to see this fish market in Belgium and compare it with the one I have seen here in Tamilnadu. You can see it here. Bangalore too has some conreted fish stalls, may be I will do a post on one of them.

Our World Tuesday

Flowers fron Brugges, Belgium

Spring hadn’t set in yet in that first week of April. The trees had a grey tone of bare winter branches. The city was wrapped in colorless, monotonous atmosphere, the facades were brighter and that gave a happy ambiance.

Not just the facades, there were these little window boxes overflowing with colorful flowers. Most shops had them. The purple flowers with yellow in the centre looked attractive and I managed to get a macro shot of these flowers. Harsh sun can spoil the colors in photographs; such rich colors actually stand out well in a grey dull day.

Faces of India - 65

A social worker involved in protection of migratory birds. Shot taken in Kokkare Bellur, Karnataka.

Faces of India, a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country. See more here.

Postcards From Bruges, Belgium

We visited Bruges from Antwerp (95km approx.) and spent the morning hours exploring this World Heritage Site on foot. Bruges, like Amsterdam, is a canal based city and the canal cruises were tempting but we resisted.

Morning hours are always the best to tour a site, when people are just settling down to their respective works, the excitement to explore is at its max. We were greeted by grey skies, luckily for us the clouds decided not to pour. The brick red facades looked good with grey backgrounds.

The city has been restored its past glory, the repainted 14th and 15th century buildings look elegant. The two town squares, Market square and Burg square are worth the visit. I felt like lingering on for some more time, very reluctantly I moved on.

SkyWatch Friday

Anne Frank's House, Amsterdam

Anne Frank’s house, finally we were there, yet we were away, long way away from the house. A long queue, it looked like we would be in the line forever. The queue inched forward slowly with us.

The exteriors had a very modern finish with big metallic and glass sheets. The modern façade looked more like a museum than like a house. The interiors were all bare rooms with lot of photographs of those years when Anne Franks and her family lived here in hiding. Many details are shown through photographs, how the beds were kept, the study tables, kitchen. It is better this way; the display of furniture of those days would make the movement of tourists inside the rooms difficult. There were audio and video displays too, many interviews of their various friends who helped them. People heard and saw them in silence.

Anne Frank’s story is an important history lesson. A girl of just fifteen years who really hadn’t seen much yet her thoughts that she jotted down in the years of hiding speaks volumes. My daughters found it hard to comprehend all this actually happened. I was surprised and touched to see them silent throughout the tour, reading and trying to grasp in every detail.

Grape Hyacinth

I had seen the pictures of Grape Hyacinth in several blogs and always amazed by its shape and resemblance to grapes. When I saw this flower I was doubly amazed by its size. I had never imagined it to be so tiny, the spikes holding the flower is just a few centimeters tall.

Each flower is held in a close or loose spiral around a central stalk. They looked like purple beads strung in a green stem. The mature flowers were less tightly spaced. A couple of shots here of this delight.