Sacre Coueur, Paris, France

Part Two of the Paris blog! Several months after it happened of course...

A visit to the Sacré-Cœur (or Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris as it is also known), this impressive basilica resides at the top of the hill in Montmartre (the famously bohemian neighbourhood of Paris)

The basilica was originally conceived of in 1870 as a form of penance by Bishop Fournier, who suggested that the reason for Frances failure during the Franco-Prussian war was due to the moral decline of their society.  It was for this reason that the basilica was erected in what was then Paris' most rebellious neighbourhood.

The basilica was constructed using Château-Landon stone, which is very high in Calcite, which gives the building its distinctive white exterior.

Within the basilica is also housed one of the worlds heaviest bells, the Savoyarde which weighs an impressive 19 tons... however we did not spend too much time inside... instead we visited the catacombs beneath the basilica.

Montmartre means the Mount of the Martyr, and within Sacre Coueur's catacombs you will find many, beginning with the most famous St. Denis... an interesting fact about martyrs... St. Denis is a cephalophore, which is a very specific type of martyr which carries its own severed head.
Clearly this happened enough that they needed to create an entire word for it... weird.  There are in fact over 100 of them in French history alone. (and it is my new dream to locate more cephalophores around Europe!)

St. Denis is quite the badass however... it is said that when he was beheaded in Montmartre he walked all the way to the suburb which is now named after him, and the entire way he continued preaching from his severed head.

St. Francois Xavier, is the patron saint of "Catholic Missions" and was quite the globetrotter, performing missionary work in India, Japan, and Indonesia.  It is said that aside from Paul the Apostle, he converted more people to the faith than anyone in history.

Shamefully I don't recall specific details about these next few gentlemen, but I believe they were the priests responsible for the building of the basilica. (shoot me a note if I am wrong)

The man above is Cardinal Leon Adolphe Amette who was archbishop of Paris between 1908–1920, he was also the man to consecrate the basilica in 1919.

Unfortunately this one I do not have any details about...

And above the main relic chapel in the centre of the crypt.  Interestingly there is some mystery around the crypts... it is said that somewhere inside lies a piece of the sacred heart of Jesus, this is where the basilica gets its name.
This is mentioned in several guidebooks, and yet no official church documentation exists to back these claims..  so if a piece of the heart does reside somewhere in the crypts it is certainly not marked in any way.

This man I am sure was a kind, godly and generous man who has some fantastic significance.  But I challenge you to not immediately think of the Emperor from Star Wars... this statue was very unnerving.

So there you go, a very brief summary of the roughly twenty minutes we spent at Sacre Couer!

Next up! Famous Graves and the Dali Museum!

References:
Sacre Coueur - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Of_The_Sacred_Heart


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license.

Palais Garnier (The Paris Opera House), Paris, France

This will be the first of several blog posts which cover my time in Paris earlier this year, there were so many photos and locations that a single blog post would have felt really rushed.

So the first location, Palais Garnier is somewhere I had always wanted to visit, in an online game I played a lot of called LegendMUD the Paris Opera House was described in great detail and the real thing was everything I thought it would be.

Like a lot of things the facade is covered in gold, statues, and busts of various patrons of the opera house.

And yet somehow they it doesn't feel as obnoxious as it does in other places around France.

In fact it could be said that this single building inspired my new love of statue photography haha

The building was originally conceived by Emperor Napoleon III, an interesting fact is that it was due to an attempted assassination as he was leaving the Opera with Empress Eugene, he then declared a competition to design an entirely new Opera House.

In 1860 Charles Garnier won this contest, a site was selected and the land was cleared, however the site contained a huge amount of groundwater which could not be drained.
Garnier then devised a second foundation, in the form of a large concrete tank and watercourse, this would hold the moisture and the weight of the tank helps to stabilize the building.
This is also where the rumors began that the Opera House is built on top of a huge subterranean lake.

During a performance of Helle' in 1896 a tragedy occurred within the Opera house, two of the enormous counterweights which hold the chandelier in place dropped, smashing their way through the ceiling and killing Madame Chomette an audience member.  This tragedy as well as the strange rumors of an underground lake are the two most significant things which inspired Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera.

I don't think I really have much more to add at this point, since we didn't take a formal tour so I missed out on all of the usual interesting tales about the building itself.

It is definitely an amazing building to walk through though, every corner and surface contains some beautiful artwork, or sculpture, and for the massive number it still doesn't feel obnoxious like the Palace of Versailles.

So much beauty in one place was probably the first time I really felt this way in Europe to be honest.

And so many chandeliers! You would think they would have been a little less excited about them after killing a patron.

Next Blog! - Sacre Coueur and famous graves!

References:
Wikipedia Entry for the Building - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier
Article about The Phantom - http://bit.ly/aZT7Y9
Article about the Chandelier Accident - http://bit.ly/189WiVG
Charlies Garnier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Garnier_(architect)
Gaston Leroux - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Leroux

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license.

London, England

I must confess I have been entirely lazy in updating the blog, so the next several posts actually occurred a few months ago now, and therefore are going to be somewhat lacking in detail.
However, I will do my best to recall what I can about each location, and at least somewhat describe what each place was like.

So in late January I was sent to the United Kingdom for my job, and since I have friends in London it made sense to arrive with a weekend at the beginning of the trip so that I could spend some time with them.  After a fairly large night out with the girls, my good friend Marie decided she would play tour guide around London, the following photos are the highlights of that stroll.

Firstly we got the tube to South Bank since that is a really good starting point for a loop of each iconic landmark.

With a nice view of the River Thames, and some great markets available, South Bank is a really easy beginning to the day, so we stroll through the various food stalls at the market and then decide to head to St Paul's Cathedral via Blackfriars Bridge.

Looking surprisingly sober and cheerful, but still I require a railing for support, and if you notice... we got incredibly lucky and there was sun in London!

Just a cute scene of the Thames washing up in South Bank before we headed over the Blackfriars Bridge..

I didn't remember to actually take any photos of the bridge itself, so the sign will have to suffice!

And here we finally made it to St Paul's Cathedral...the site of the cathedral has a fairly rich history, some people claiming that in AD 604 it was in fact a pagan temple to the goddess Diana, which was then destroyed and replaced by a smaller chapel, which was in turn destroyed during a fire in 962.
This was replaced by another cathedral, in which the bones of Ethelred the Unready (a particularly unlucky English king) were laid to rest, but sadly this next cathedral also burned down in 1087... not to give up easily, work begun immediately on yet another cathedral known as "Old St Paul's" which took 200 years to complete...it was completed in 1314... can you guess what happened to it?
To top the previous cathedrals this one was struck by lightning in 1561 which destroyed the spire... and then it was completely destroyed by... you guessed it... fire! The Great Fire of London in 1666 completely gutted the cathedral again.

In 1669 the task was given to Sir Christopher Wren to design a new cathedral, he drew from various architectural styles including Greek, Gothic and Renaissance and ultimately the cathedral as it stands today was completed on the 2nd December 1697.

Having finished at the cathedral we then walked over the Millennium Bridge, and we stopped past the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare's plays, and rather an interesting place.
The building as it stands today is actually a reconstructed building which stands near to the site of the original (200m away). The original Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613.
Once we had poked around the Globe we continued on our way, stopped for a spot of lunch at a nearby pub Founders which was really affordable and delicious, and then returned to South Bank.

This is a rather large Ferris Wheel, called the London Eye, it is 135 meters tall and offers some excellent views of most of the nearby landmarks. It opened to the public on the 9th of March 2000.
There is really not a lot else to say about it, if you like Ferris Wheels, enjoy this one!

Attached to Westminster Palace, Big Ben is one of the worlds most recognizable clocks I am sure, it has been destroyed in countless movies, and slapped on so many postcards and souvenirs it is really rather scary given that at the end of the day... it is a clock.

The tower was originally completed in 1858, it was designed by Augustus Pugin, who very shortly afterwards went mad and then died.
It is designed in the Gothic Revival style, and stands 96 meters tall.
The original bell weighed 16.3 tonnes, and the bell was dedicated to Sir Benjamin Hall (which could be why it was nicknamed Big Ben)

Onwards! Next we walked to Buckingham Palace, sadly there was no changing of the guards while we visited, so we settled for a few quick photos.

This is the Admiralty Arch which will lead us on to our next destination nicely

After this we walked to Trafalgar Square, another fairly recognizable area in film and television, but also quite the meeting spot for many people.  It tends to be crowded with people, street performers, and is within easy walking distance to most other interesting sights.

Here is Nelson's Column, this monument was erected in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  The lions at the base of it are pretty neat.

And with that, we leapt on a tube, and returned home for some much needed sleep!

Next blogs: The Sherlock Holmes Museum, London - Cambridge, Stonehenge and Bournemouth (three for the price of one!) - Toyohashi, Japan - Paris/Versailles, France.... which will finally bring us up to date.



References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Arch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson's_Column
http://www.foundersarms.co.uk

*REVISED* to include the name of the pub, and to share its URL

Berlin, Germany

In November, in fact one month ago today! I was in Berlin with my friend Lisa to see Garbage play as a birthday treat, and since I had absolutely no time at all for tourism the last time I was there I thought I had better see some sights the next day.

Berlin is an absolutely amazing place I definitely recommend people go there at least once while in Europe, all the better if you enjoy clubbing since there are some phenomenal venues in East Berlin.

So here are a few pictures I took, sadly we ended up in LEGOLAND for a lot of the day, and missed a lot of good opportunities for other pictures hehe.

First up the Berlin Cathedral, we didn't go inside, but it is a fairly impressive building as cathedrals go.

 

The Altes Museum (Old Museum) is a museum for antiquities, and was really rather impressive too, sadly didn't have time to go inside for a look around since we were running to catch a tour group, which we also failed... we were not great at the whole tourism thing that day.

 

 

These various statues were all scattered about the place between the museum and the meeting point for the non-existent tour group, but they were quite pretty and more than a little disturbing so I had to take pictures of these too.

I have no idea who this man on the horse is since I had no local guide to tell me, but I would imagine he was probably quite the local badass in his day. (revision note: apparently this was the King of Prussia, so I may have understated how much of a badass he actually was a little bit)

These next two photos are of the Ampelmännchen, he is kind of a big deal in Berlin, since he has a whimsical hat and a brisk stroll about him compared to most pedestrian crossing characters, you can buy this on T-Shirts, Mugs, Shot Glasses... whatever you can imagine as a souvenir gift.

 

Next I will cover a few of the important landmarks, as represented by LEGO, and then their real world counterparts! Firstly the Berlin Cathedral again.

Here is the Brandenburg Gate, originally built to symbolize peace, later used as a crossing point for the Berlin Wall, now just a rather cool piece of architecture, you can learn more about this in the Wikipedia link below.

This is the Reichstag, which is basically the government building, it has a rather cool inscription on the front "Dem Deutschen Volke" which translates to "To the German People"

 

And here is the real Brandenburg Gate (We got out from LEGOLAND a little late to take any better pictures, and didn't yet have a tripod to get nice night shots)

And here is the real Reichstag! And that people is a wrap... sorry this post is not more exciting, but writing a post so long after actually doing it makes it harder to recall interesting facts.

References:
LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Berlin - http://www.legolanddiscoverycentre.de/berlin/en/
The Brandenburg Gate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Gate
The Reichstag - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_(building)
Berlin Cathedral - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Cathedral
Altes Museum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altes_Museum

NEXT POST! Shall be Edinburgh for the Hogmanay Street Party on New Years Eve!