Category: Architecture

Experiencing Savannah: Squares & Art

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We met friends in Savannah and enjoyed four days of exploring this very walkable city.  It is one of the most pedestrian-friendly small cities I’ve ever visited.  Our hotel in the historic district was centrally located between the river to the north and Forsyth Park to the south.  Neither was more than a 15 to 20-minute walk and we walked everywhere, despite some rainy and then cold weather! There are several trolley firms offering hop on, hop off tours which we considered doing but never did.

Fountain in Forsyth Park

SAVANNAH SQUARES

Founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe who founded the colony of Georgia, Savannah teems with history and is made beautiful by its many historic squares.  Today there are 22 squares created in the 18th and 19th centuries, and each is an oasis of calm with live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, benches on which to contemplate the world, and usually a monument or a statue of a famous person from Oglethorpe himself in Chippewa Square to John Wesley near the mother church of Methodism.  

James Oglethorpe

In addition, camellia bushes and azaleas, an early blooming flush of pink, provide color.  Dotted around the squares are a number of historic churches, more elegant architecture, including the Independent Presbyterian Church with a layered green spire atop its steeple.

Independent Presbyterian Church

  Savannah’s city hall has a prominent golden dome, a beacon in the sky as one approaches the river.

RIVER WALK

Savannah’s riverfront is crammed with seafood restaurants and small shops and the once important centers of commerce, the Savannah Cotton Exchange and Factors Row.  We found this section somewhat touristy, but enjoyed our saunter along the river promenade where you can catch a ferry across to the convention center or just stop to peruse the panels about Savannah’s maritime history.  

We watched a colorful container ship come into port and then walked almost to the end of the promenade to see The Waving Girl.  Florence Martus waved her handkerchief to each arriving and departing ship for many decades.  

ART MUSEUMS

For us, no visit to a city is complete without checking out a local museum.  Here we visited two art museums.  The Jepson Center is a stunning piece of architecture, very contemporary and not at all like any of the surrounding buildings.  It’s located on Telfair Square and is one of the three Telfair Museums.  

Katniss by Katherine Sandoz

The building has lots of glass and the lobby and skylights make for interesting patterns on the lobby floor and walls.  The hanging installation by artist Katherine Sandoz adds color and whimsy.  Two exhibits, “Machines of Futility:  Unproductive Technologies” and a highly interactive one on nature and art, highlighted communication and climate change.  

The Chief Penguin and I were surprised and then delighted when we put on 3-D goggles and watched “Immerse” to see the very familiar coral reef tank at the California Academy of Sciences.  This was our work venue for seven years and immediately we were transported back in time—and space!  We then learned that Steven High, director of our local Ringling Museum of Art, served there as director for several years.  Small, small world!

We also visited the Telfair Museum of Art, the oldest art museum in the South, which was built in 1818-1819 as the mansion home for members of the Telfair family.  On the docent tour, we learned about the architecture and that this family had several plantations and owned more than 600 slaves.  The surviving member of the family, Mary Telfair, willed the house to the Georgia Historical Society expressly to become a museum. 

The Bird Girl

 It opened in 1886 as the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences and for some years was a teaching institution as well as an exhibitor.  The art collection is small, but there were some interesting pieces including the sculpture, The Bird Girl, related to the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and a special exhibit called “Savannah Faces” by more contemporary artists.

Savannah also has a museum devoted to Prohibition and several house museums including the home of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. All diversions for another trip.

For details on where we ate on this foray, see my next blog.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Cruising & Crete

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A BIT OF CRETE

Two days ago, we docked in Chania, a city on Crete’s northern coast.  Long before it became part of modern Greece, Chania was ruled by the Venetians and later the Ottoman Empire.  Its architecture is rich with Venetian and Moorish influences.  Since we were in port, we could walk off the ship instead of having to be tendered in.  Shuttle buses took us from the terminal up to the center of town.  We walked down then to the lovely small Venetian Harbor which is partially enclosed by a stone wall on the water side which you can walk along all the way to the lighthouse.

On the land side, there is a popular promenade which is lined with café and restaurant after café and restaurant offering Greek specialties galore.  The fortification on the water side terminates in a delicate lighthouse tower leaving just a small stretch of open water from the harbor to the sea.  We strolled along the promenade noting also the pointed roof arsenals, warehouses for the storage of ships and gear in the winter. It was Sunday and lots of folks were dining, hawkers were enthusiastically trying to entice passersby for a fishing or snorkeling cruise, and the waterfront was alive.  

At the far end of the promenade, the Chief Penguin stuck his head in the maritime museum, while I briefly checked out the Mediterranean International Bookstore.  It had a surprisingly large selection of English guide books and Greek history along with novels from the UK and the US.  I picked up a novel set in the Cretan mountains.  

Later, we walked farther into the town noting small lanes filled with shops and stalls, one all bootmakers and another just leather goods.  The market, built in 1913, was tightly closed, although we pressed our noses to the glass, as was the supermarket across the street.  A small square was dominated by a Greek Orthodox Church.  The exterior was classic in style; the interior was done in shades of blue with dark wooden side chairs for the congregation and elaborate crystal chandeliers.  Several statues also graced the square outside, but the inscriptions were only in Greek making it impossible to identify them.  

From the harbor side view, one building in particular stood out on the skyline and that was the Kioutsouk Hassan mosque with a large central dome and more than ten smaller ones. It was built in the late 1600’s.  Although we were only in Chania a couple of hours, we got the flavor of the Old Port neighborhood.

AT SEA

After leaving Chania, we sailed the Mediterranean Sea for a day and a night before arriving in Haifa, Israel early this morning.  Israel has strict immigration rules so all passengers had to exit the ship (beginning at 6:30 A.M.) and go to the terminal building a few steps away.   We went through security, showed  our passports to the Israeli officials, and got back our passports along with a small slip allowing us to be there.  We then re-boarded our ship, showing our ship ID card as we did.

 What does one do on a day you are constantly in motion?  There are more shipboard activities than usual, often a lecture or two, and the chance to just relax.  I did some reading—light novels set in various Greek isles—and the Chief Penguin and I walked briskly around the promenade deck a few times.  The goal was to get in enough steps so we could eat well at lunch and dinner and perhaps even indulge.  The food on board is so good with such variety that temptation is always at hand!

RECENT READING

The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

Moyes writes popular fiction for women and I’ve read a number of her earlier novels.  This one was of particular interest to me because it’s about a group of librarians in the backwoods of Kentucky in the late 1930’s.  Eleanor Roosevelt was concerned about getting books and other reading material to people who didn’t have access to them and so proposed the idea of packhorse librarians.  These women went on horseback (or mules) up into the hills and mountains carrying books with them.  They were not usually trained librarians, but readers or lovers of books and/or adventure, who were paid modestly for their efforts.  This novel focuses on a few of these women and the challenges they faced both from the men in their lives and in the town and their struggles with the rugged terrain and the weather.  I found it an absorbing story.

Lighter Fare Set in Greece for Cruising or the Beach

The Summer House in Santorini by Samantha Parks

The Honey Farm on the Hill by Jo Thomas (Crete)

Note: No photos here given very slow WiFi speeds. Text ©JWFarrington.

Cruising: Sorrento & Pompeii

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CRUISING

From Rome, we went by car to Civitavecchia to board our cruise ship.  It’s about an hour’s drive from the center of town through the countryside to a rather plain, but functional, cruise terminal. Here, after being given a card for Boarding Group 1, we sat in one of the many rows of folding chairs until it was time for check-in.  They opened the counter about 20 minutes early and thus, we were boarding the ship and in the dining room before noon.  

As is the custom, you board, staff take your picture and then give you an ID/key card for your room, and then direct you to the dining room for lunch.  As you approach, wait staff are standing by to offer you a glass of champagne.  We were escorted to a lovely table by the window.  I had the Cobb salad which was done chopped style and excellent, while the Chief Penguin indulged in a hamburger, a rare treat.  After lunch, we sat and read until our stateroom was ready.  

ANCHORED OFF SORRENTO

We cruised overnight to Sorrento which is on the west coast of Italy and situated near the Amalfi coast.  We had scheduled an early morning (8:00 A.M.) tour to Pompeii with our travel companions, Ellen and Bob. Consequently, we were up early and waiting to get the 7:30 tender to town.  The tender departures were delayed so it was slightly after 8 when we arrived at the dock in Sorrento.  Tour guide Clelia and driver Michael were waiting for us.  Sorrento is built on a cliff above the sea with very narrow streets and many switchbacks up and around to get out of town.  Add in lots of traffic and Michael’s skill and fortitude were much appreciated!  It took about an hour and a quarter to get to the Pompeii ruins.

Modern Pompei is located in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, a volcano that is still active today.  The ancient city of Pompeii at its base was buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash and pumice by an eruption of the volcano in 79 A. D.  It is the ruins of this town that can be toured today.  Over the years, Pompeii was settled and inhabited by Italians, Greeks, Etruscans, and later Romans.  It was a rich city and in the ruins, one can see evidence of art and sometimes elaborate decoration.  

Spaces where human remains were found were injected with plaster to recreate the shape of the body.  Examples can be seen preserved in glass cases along with rows and rows of urns and jugs of varying shapes and sizes.  I’ve visited other ruins in Italy (Roman Forum), in Mexico City, and elsewhere, and found Pompeii to be one of the most interesting, both because of what was preserved and because of the mosaics and other art.  Without Clelia, this would not have been as informative or as enjoyable an experience.

Note: Text and photos ©JWFarrington.

Mexico City: Architecture & Food

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BARRAGAN’S CASA GILARDI

Today we were on our own with no tours. We did, however, have a late morning reservation to visit Casa Gilardi. Born in Guadalajara in 1902, Luis Barragan was a noted Mexican architect. He worked in a minimalist style and favored very bright colors. His studio is a small museum also in the city, and the last house he built in the late 1970’s, Casa Gilardi, is open for visitors by appointment. Real people live here and one of the sons of that family gave us a brief history of Barragan and the house.

Interior of Casa Gilardi
Red and blue walls next to pool of water


There are almost no furnishings or personal items on display; instead you focus on bright blue and red walls bordering a pool, a hallway that glows in yellow, and on the exterior walls painted an intense magenta and a deep purple. On the open air upper deck, the house envelops a jacaranda tree whose light purple blooms stood out against the magenta wall which is also a backdrop for three tall cacti. Inside is some warm wood flooring, a large leather sectional sofa in a living room and a small wood dining table for four, but that’s pretty much it for furniture. It was fascinating to watch the play of light and shadows on all the colored surfaces, but not a place I’d choose to live.

Outside veranda, Casa Gilardi

DINING OUT

We had lunch at a very popular seafood restaurant in the Roma section of the city. Following our usual pattern, we checked what time Contramar opened and when we noted noon, figured we could arrive about 12:30 for our 1:30 reservation. This way we could assuage our hunger (breakfast for us is always early) and be there ahead of the crowd. And by shortly after 1:00, the dining room was almost full!
The menu had seafood and fish in many forms from whole grilled fish to spicy shrimp soup to tacos of all sorts to seafood salads. We sampled the octopus salad (quite lovely), shrimp soup, the fried kingfish tacos, and their margaritas. All tasty. The Chief Penguin then ordered the traditional flan which he enjoyed. I’m not a fan of flans; to me, it’s of a piece with floating island, rice pudding, and tapioca, all of which I find too bland.

Octopus salad

We attempted to walk back to our hotel and went a few blocks only to discover that not only are all the museums closed on Mondays, but also the big Chapultepec park which is the most direct route to our hotel. Thus stymied, we called an Uber. Fortunately, there are a lot of Ubers in this city and we have now Ubered around four or five times. And, compared to cities like New York, the fares are cheap!

Later we took a walk in Lincoln Park, a small oasis of green with a well equipped children’s play area, and then, for a change of pace, had an early evening nibble at Lardo. This casual Italian restaurant serves lots of small plates plus a few entrees. Not being too hungry, we grazed on mixed olives and almonds, tasty stuffed zucchini blossoms (a rare delicacy), and a mini tomato pizza topped with a few capers and anchovies. Just enough to get us through the night.

Note: All photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).