Edinburgh

Behold, Edinburgh, Scotland's capital (and seat of the Scottish Parliament) and second-largest city behind Glasgow. Edinburgh lies in the southeastern part of Scotland along the Firth of Forth, which provides access to the North Sea. Our stay in Edinburgh was brief (dinner & a haunted graveyard tour and then the morning the next day), so we were limited in what we had time to do. The main districts in central Edinburgh are Old Town and New Town, both of which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites by the way. We concentrated on Old Town, which includes Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile-- a high street shopping mecca for all things touristy or plaid (speaking of which, didya know using "plaid" to refer to a checked cloth is an American thing? I didn't.)-- St Giles Cathedral, and Holyrood Abbey/Holyroodhouse.

One of the first things you might notice approaching Edinburgh is Arthur's Seat pictured above. The hills here are the remnants of a long-extinct volcano, eroded by glacier activity long ago. The crag upon which Edinburgh Castle is located is another extinct volcano. There are good hiking trails if you want to climb to the peak of Arthur's Seat, or so I've heard, but alas we didn't have time to go check them out. There are a number of ancient hill forts nestled in the crags, including several thought to belong to the Votadini, who are recorded as one of the British tribes north of Hadrian's Wall during the Roman period. Add a few centuries of language change, and they were known as the Gododdin, who ultimately were defeated by the Angles as recorded in a poem from around 600 AD called Y Gododdin.

Speaking of Edinburgh Castle, ta da! Edinburgh Castle is built high on an imposing crag, dominating the city skyline. The site, chosen for obvious defensive features, has been inhabited for almost three thousand years, with the castle dating to at least the 1100s. This was the royal residence for the kings of Scotland until 1603, when the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united under one king, James VI of Scotland, who inherited the throne of England from Elizabeth I, thus becoming James I of England as well.

If you visit, be sure to be there before 1 pm to get a good spot to watch "Shannon the Cannon," a District Gunner with the 105th Regiment Royal Artillery, fire the One O'Clock Gun, a time signal originally used to notify ships in the Firth of Forth of the time. While most people crowd around the gun itself, you can get better views from the level above, outside St Margaret's Chapel. You'll want to scope out a spot about half an hour before hand, or befriend someone who did and get them to take pictures for you. I just went with awkward reaching around the heads of people in front of me.

The shopping thoroughfare leading up to the Castle is known as the Royal Mile. Here you can find all kinds of tartan, scarves, kilts, postcards, pipes, tobacco, etc etc etc. But from my not-so-extensive travels of Scotland, I'll just mention that you can find better deals on the same items outside of Edinburgh- Stirling has plenty of nice shops priced a bit cheaper, and if you're making a stop in Inverness up north, there are a few nice shops there with slightly better prices.You'll also probably find that prices are a bit better off the Royal Mile, which charges a premium as the center of tourist traffic. The one caveat to that statement, is Deacon Brodie's.

Ok, yes, this is just a pub. Not so exciting you say. Well, sure, but it is absolutely adorable from the outside and on the inside, and has really good food for reasonable prices, especially for along the Royal Mile. During the lunch rush, they can take awhile to get your food prepared, but as long as you aren't in a rush, it is a great place to grab lunch or dinner. And conveniently located across the street from St Giles' Cathedral.

St Giles' is a lovely early Gothic building, with some lovely (but relatively young) stained glass. There has been a church on the site since the early Middle Ages, but the cathedral as it stands now was originally built in 1120s; at this point, it was likely relatively small, and would have been Norman (Romanesque if you're continental) in style. At some point it was rebuilt and expanded; this larger early Gothic building suffered damage from a fire in 1385 and was repaired and expanded into the building you see today.

Now, I've bemoaned the fact that most cathedrals do not allow photography inside on several occasions now. But here, I have nothing but praise. St Giles' does not charge admission to visit, but they do ask for a 2 pound donation if you want to take pictures. Totally reasonable, right? I don't know why more churches don't adopt this idea. Fantastic.

To wrap up Edinburgh, I figured I'd finish with a cute story. Here you see Greyfriars Bobby, a little Skye Terrier devoted to his owner. Now, there's several different stories, but the general story line goes that Bobby belonged to a member of the Edinburgh City Police (in some accounts, he was a watchmen for the Greyfriar Kirk, hence Greyfriar and a "bobby" in the UK is slang for a policeman) in the 1850s. Anyway, the dog's owner passed away, and for the next 14 years, Bobby guarded his master's grave until his own death. Sweet, right? Sadly, most of the story is embellished fiction, the creation of an American author who heard the story from a friend who had traveled to Scotland and heard the story there. And like any good game of telephone, much gets lost along the way. In actuality, it is most likely that the dog, who may have even just been a stray, stayed by the grave because a restaurant just outside the graveyard used to toss scraps over the gate into the cemetery. That, coupled with a stone bench thing just next to the grave in question, meant the dog had steady access to food and shelter. Ah well.

There's more photos from Edinburgh Castle, St Giles', and from a haunted cemetery tour we went on through Greyfriar's Graveyard up on flickr if you're interested. Until next time~

Selby Abbey

 

Behold, Selby Abbey. One of very few surviving monastic churches (most got torn down following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1560s as part of Henry VIII's creation of the Church of England). You may recall from an earlier entry that Westminster Abbey also survived the transition, but unlike Westminster, which was turned into a cathedral by royal decree, Selby managed to survive because it had already become the parish church for the local community and so continued to fill that role just minus the monks.

Selby was founded in 1069 and clearly reflects its Norman heritage; the chevrons over the main entrance are classic Norman architectural features, as are the engraved columns, which are similar to ones found at Durham Cathedral. Selby also has a few little oddities that set it apart. The picture just above is looking through the Leper's View- this is actually a 17-foot passage through the walls of the church which allows someone standing on the outside to look in to the sanctuary. Legend goes this was so lepers & other undesirables you wouldn't want parading around your church could still participate in worship. This is unusual, because most of the time these leper portals actually just allowed someone in a side chapel to peak at the main altar, but this one legit goes outside. Whether it was ever used by any lepers is unknown.

This is actually looking inside the carved capitol of a column adorning an outer wall of the church. I forget who this was supposed to be, but it is one of the more bizarre things I've seen in a church. You have to use the provided torch (US: flashlight) to even see he's there at all.

This came as a surprise to us Americans. Who knew there was an American Heritage Trail in the UK? Apparently not very many people since I can't even mind any mentions of it online. Selby is included because the family coat of arms of George Washingon's ancestors is included in a stained glass window. The window dates to the 14th century and is thought to be the earliest representation of the Washington coat of arms. So why do we care? Well, there's some thought that the crest, which features three red stars above alternating red & white stripes, was the inspiration for our own Stars and Stripes on the American flag. No one's quite sure why the crest is here; presumably some long-distant relative of George gave the monastery a sizable donation to be thus commemorated, but like many things, the details are lost to time.

St John the Baptist, Kirk Hammerton

As you approach the little town of Kirk Hammerton just 20 minutes outside of York on the A59, you will notice a strange road sign declaring the "Ancient Church" is that-a-way. If you follow that sign, you will come across the Church of St John the Baptist.

I know what you're thinking. It doesn't look like much, does it? How about if I tell you that the part pictured was built sometime between 950 and 1070? Does that change your opinion? No? Well, worth a shot. The church at Kirk Hammerton is the most complete surviving Anglo-Saxon church. And, ok, technically if it was built after 1066 it becomes "Romanesque" or "Norman," but a) we don't have a firm date for its construction and b) archaeologists will tell you it is style that matters more than date, and this is most definitely NOT Romanesque. Short, squat and big heavy stonework screams Anglo-Saxon. Plus, we're in the North, and the North most certainly did not fall under Norman sway until after 1070, when William the Conqueror came and burned and ravaged everything in a fit of pique because the Northerners didn't want him to be king. We Northerners are independent types, y'know. Like the Scots, but less so because we're less far north. Wiki "Harrying of the North" for more info.

St John's survived because instead of dismantling it for the stone and rebuilding, the locals kept the tower and chancel essentially intact and just took off the left outer wall and then built additions to the left; now there is a new, bigger chancel and the Anglo-Saxon part has been converted into a side aisle and a lady chapel, while beyond the new chancel is another added aisle to make everything balanced.

Here's a look from the inside. I'm standing in the new(er) chancel (additions began as early as the 1100s, but the modern incarnation is Victorian) looking towards the Anglo-Saxon aisle. You can see where they've ripped off the wall and replaced it with later arches and columns.You can also probably see this was part of a CMS field trip :) Hooray for fellow medieval dorks!

Here's the inside of the modern lady chapel. The windows and paintings are all later additions (although the stained glass is 14th century I believe. That's kinda old...) Once upon a time, this is where the mass would have been celebrated in a teensy tiny baby church, while the church attendees sat in the nave, the area pictured above.

So if you're driving down a random road in the UK and you see a random intriguing sign like "Ancient Church," why not stop and check it out? What you find might surprise you! And I can attest to this, having roadtripped through Scotland/Northern England and found several fun oddities.

The Hagia Sophia/Aya Sofia (Istanbul part 3 of 7)

Hold on to your seats, because this might just be the longest post ever. But don't worry, most of it will be pictures :)

It's not exactly easy to get a picture of the outside of the church/mosque/museum because of the sheer size of the structure, so here's a couple of teasers.

The Hagia Sophia was built originally as a Christian church by the order of Emperor Justinian because the previous church on the site was destroyed by riots in 532 AD. The name Hagia Sophia means the "Church of the Divine Wisdom," and is one of the few churches not named in honor of a saint. When it was built, the Hagia Sophia was unrivaled for a thousand years: the scale and grandeur of the cathedral were a major symbol of Byzantine power and sophistication. During this time, the Hagia Sophia was the largest enclosed space in the world until the Cathedral of Seville beat it out in 1520.

One of the major ways the Hagia Sophia differed from all previous constructions is the dome.

The dome is 30 meters across and hovers over essentially empty space. All previous constructions had the dome supported by solid walls under it. You can get a better idea from the photo below.

Obviously the cathedral/mosque/museum has walls, but they are quite a way back from the edges of the dome, which hovers above sort of half-domes surrounding it. 20 years after construction was finished, the central dome collapsed (to be fair, it was the first construction of its kind and no one was really sure if the building would be able to support its weight. Pretty good work for "well, we THINK this should work...") and rebuilding work was carried out, which actually increased the height of the dome after the buttresses were shored up and made taller as well. From this rebuilding period on, it became a bit of a tradition to take out windows. I guess this was meant as a means of strengthening the building, but 1500 years of window removal has left the interior disappointingly dim and dark.

Anyway, flashfoward to 1204, when overenthusiastic soldiers on the Fourth Crusade sacked the cathedral. They divvied up the altar, carried off the cathedral's treasures, and stuck a prostitute on the patriarch's throne to sing and dance, mocking the practices of the eastern Byzantine (Orthodox) Church. In 1452, the Byzantines desperately sought Western Europe's aid in holding off the encroaching Turks, even agreeing to reunite Eastern Christianity with the Catholic Church, but Western Europe proved to be not so helpful, as the Turks conquered Constantinope in 1453 anyway. From 1453 until 1932, the Hagia Sophia served as a mosque, referred to as the Aya Sofia. The Byzantine mosaics were plastered over and the relics were removed from the church to facilitate this transformation. Then in 1932, religious services were stopped and the building was re-purposed as a museum.

To be honest, my first impression upon entering was, "Oh, it's really dark in here. And oh look, scaffolding. Because of course there's scaffolding when I visit!" I think the building suffers from its loss of windows, which would really illuminate the grandeur of the building. The gallery level is better than the ground floor, as it still has some daylight seeping in. The chandeliers suspended from the ceiling which once cast the cathedral/mosque in flickering candle light now hold tacky electric candles, which do NOT give the same effect, but are probably necessary to meet fire codes.

Now I've been in a fair few cathedrals in my time, and what really sets the Hagia Sophia (I'm just going to stick with western Christian spellings from here out, because frankly I'm more interested in the Byzantine period church) is how well the museum manages to provide a sense of both the Byzantine church and the Turkish mosque. But before that, a quick note on the awful yellow paint- the mosque was restored by the Fossetti brothers in the mid 1800s. Part of their work included recreating the original mosaic work as best the could in paint. So where that yellow paint is would have been gold mosaic tiles with interspersed geometric designs. Above you can see the Islamic medallions with the names of Allah, Muhammad, and the first 4 caliphs, but you can also see the uncovered mosaic of the Virgin and baby Jesus in the semi-circular alcove above the altar. Below is a close up of this mosaic.

The gold tiles in the background likely originally covered this entire niche area, and it is these gold tiles that really benefit from flickering candlelight, which catches the glimmer in the gold and makes it sparkle.

Here you can see the gallery level, where the best of the mosaics have been uncovered. You may notice that the columns on the different levels do not line up with each other. At the time of construction, this was unheard of, and contemporaries questioned how this could possibly make for a stable structure. Guess the architects showed them! On the ground level, one can still find the marble flooring where the Byzantine Emperors were crowned.

The purple marble above is also found elsewhere in the cathedral, and it is a bit of a mystery where this marble came from. Purple marble like this is Egyptian porphyry, and it is both rare and was not being quarried during the period the Hagia Sophia was constructed. It must have been taken from elsewhere, but it is unclear where it would have come from.

A mihrab, a niche indicating the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and thus the direction that Muslims should face while praying, now occupies the space where the altar once stood. Now, you may be thinking, "I dunno, it looks pretty well lit in there." Well, you would be wrong. That's called a camera flash. Here's an idea of ineffective the windows are at illuminating the ground floor.

Now of course that's not to say that the Hagia Sophia isn't amazingly impressive; I guess I just subscribe to the Gothic theory of light and airy churches, must be the Medievalist in me. But for sheer age alone, visiting the Hagia Sophia is kind of a surreal experience.

Also on the ground floor, just before the entrance to the ramp up to the gallery level is a peculiar column known as the Weeping Column.

How it works: You stick your thumb in the hole and then attempt to turn your wrist all the way around so that the rest of your fingers get all the way around. If when you pull your thumb out, it is moist, your ailments will be healed. My thumb was moist, but that might have just been from the sweaty hands of everyone before me in line to try their luck. I think the trick is to start with your elbow up and wrist twisted as far as you can go before spinning around.

Now we get to the best part. In a departure from most churches, you get to go up a ramp instead of endless uneven steps to get up to the gallery level.

From the gallery level, you not only have a great view of the lower level and the dome, but you can appreciate the mosaics from up close and can also participate in your own synod!

This is the Marble Door. It marked the entrance to the meeting room used for synods, meetings of the Church to decide issues of doctrine, administration, teaching, etc. Immediately past the Marble Door, you will find the first of the Byzantine mosaics.

Well, what's left of it anyway. This is the Deesis mosaic, commissioned in 1261 to commemorate the end of unification with Latin Catholicism and a return to Orthodox belief. Here is depicted JC (sorry, my shorthand for Jesus Christ) with his mum Mary and John the Baptist.

Here's a shot across to the other side of the gallery with a mini-exhibit of photos from the Hagia Sophia. Here you can see some of the original marble columns, complete with geometric paint job by the Fossettis on the tops of the columns.

Here we have JC and Mary again. But I like this mosaic for the figures flanking them. On the left is Emperor John II Comnenus and to the right, Empress Irene. A depiction of their son is on the side of a wall jutting out towards the camera to the right of Irene. Apparently his sad face is because he died from tuberculosis the year the mosaic was made. I'd be sad too. These are 12th century mosaics. Just down from them, a similar scene from the 11th century can be found.

Here we see JC with Emperor Constantine IX and Empress Zoe. This one is interesting because these aren't the original faces! It is uncertain why the faces were changed, but the popular theories are that the mosaic originally depicted either Zoe's first husband or her adopted son, or that the mosaic was of and earlier emperor/empress and rather than ordering a whole new mosaic, they just changed out the faces.

There are still a number of mosaics yet to be uncovered, but as is to be expected with a building this old, decisions must be made about what to showcase and what to preserve. For example, most of the major mosaics have been uncovered to the extent to which they still exist, but some basic cross/geometric mosaics remain covered to preserve historic Islamic painting. One of the biggest controversies is what to do with the dome. Before it was painted with Islamic calligraphy, it held a mosaic of Christ as Ruler of the World. If the mosaic still exists, it would be a great find for Byzantine art/mosaic studies, but would require the destruction of the historic Islamic calligraphy. For now, there are no plans to go searching for it, but one would think they could infrared or laser study to determine if anything actually remains underneath the paint and then evaluate what to do with it. But what do I know?

So there is more than you probably wanted to know about the Hagia Sophia/Aya Sofia/Aya Sofia Muzesi. But to finish off, check out the ablution fountain built in 1740. Meant to be used on the way into the mosque, it now lies on the way out due to the way they've set up the visitors entrance. But I think it is quite pretty.

And if you've made it all the way through that, congratulations! Now have a cookie, you deserve it :)

Chester

Welcome to Chester, England, located just this side of the border with Wales and a 2.5-3 hour train ride from York. And if you get advance pricing with a student/under 25 pass, only 8 pounds each way.

Chester is known as England's "Walled City" because it has the most intact city walls remaining. Chester was founded by the Romans as a fort called Deva Victrix. Fun fact: while York eventually became more important as essentially the headquarters of the Roman legions in the North, the fortress at Deva Victrix was actually bigger than the one at York.

 This is what remains of the foundations and a tower from the Roman fortress. You can click on the picture to see an enlarged version if you want to read the plaque.

The citizens of Chester have put their Roman past to use in the picture below from the Roman Column Garden.

After the Romans left Britain after 490, the Anglo-Saxons fortified the town against the Danes and it remained a stronghold through to the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it was one of the last cities to fall to William the Conqueror. The walls were instrumental for both cases.

What I found interesting about Chester's walls (which you don't see at York) is that one can access the buildings adjacent to them FROM the walls. Most of these are shops, and while some are 2 stories and can be accessed from street level in the front and wall level in the back, some can ONLY be accessed from the walls (mostly smaller shops- books, antiques, that kind of thing.) I found that really useful when Britain, being Britain, decided to absolutely pour down rain about 10 minutes into my circuit of the walls.

Here you can see some shop entrances- New Look, HSBC, and Clarks. You can also see the steps leading up to Eastgate, one of the original Roman entrances to the fortress (sort of analogous to the "bars" in York, only much less grand.) This one was rebuilt in the 18th century and that clock on top was commissioned in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (60 years as queen) in 1897.

I went off to Chester because a) I could get there cheaply over the break and b) we talked about it in my archaeology class because it has a unique structural feature, the rows.

 This is my own version of perhaps Chester's most photographed site on the corner of what's called the Cross (an intersection of shopping streets with rows more or less preserved). So what are the rows? Well, they consist of three main floors (and might have attic space above that as well.) The first level is generally half a story below street level, so you go down a few steps to enter the shop. Above the ground floor, a covered walkway is reached by a short flight of stairs and a second row of shops is located a few feet back from the edge. A third floor is built at the same point as the ground floor, effectively covering the walkway. This top floor would have been used in the medieval period as domestic or storage space for the shop owners. This gives you a better idea of what the covered walkway and second floor of shops looks like.

(Yanked from Wikipedia because I didn't think to take one; copyright John S Turner)

As I mentioned, the rows are unique and it is unclear where exactly the idea came from. While large portions have been rebuilt over the years, some sections and the original plan dates back to the medieval period. One theory that has gained ground with archaeologists is that the second storey was constructed first on top of rubble from Roman construction that lined the streets below. The buildings were set back from the edge in order to allow for a footpath along the edge with the road below. Later, undercrofts were dug under the existing buildings, thereby creating the "street-level." Then as construction techniques improved, the top storey was added, thereby creating the enclosed walkways. An alternate theory holds that the citizens constructed stone undercrofts under timber buildings after a disastrous fire in the 13th century destroyed most of the buildings within the stone walls of the city. Personally I don't think this explains why the first floor is below street level, or the need for recessed second floor shops with a covered walkway. That plus the amount of Roman "stuff" found all over Chester makes the first theory more supportable in my opinion, but who knows.

Chester is mainly known as a shopping mecca, both for its central pedestrian area with rows and regular shops as well as for an outlet mall just outside the city. But I refrained from buying too much (and to be fair, I needed the new sunglasses. Although not this week- rain rain rain.) You may have noticed the prevalence of black and white architecture in my photos- this is also one of Chester's selling points. Some of it is legit medieval, but a good deal is Victorian. They say if you wait long enough, everything comes back into style, right? Apparently that goes for 500 year old architecture too!

The photo I opened this entry with, of the Westminster Hotel? Not original (obviously). These, however, I'm pretty sure are.

Oh, and how about this? Guessing game time. What type of building do you think is pictured below? The text reads "The fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life."

If you guessed "Dentist's Office" you'd be correct. Bet you didn't though ;)

As far as NON black and white architecture goes, the town hall and the cathedral are major.

Now that's a pretty spiffy town hall.

I know the cathedral looks kind of dark and grim, but that's mostly due to the fact that I took this from the wall in the pouring rain. You can go in and check it out, for an entrance fee. I figured I've seen my fair share of cathedrals and could save the entrance fee for something else. Like the chai tea latte I bought at Starbucks to get out of the rain!

Finally, I wish I could show you the Roman amphitheater. But it is currently all fenced off for conservation work. (In fact, I walked right past it twice without realizing it was there before I followed a map to look for it. Whoops!) So this is the best I can do.

Final thoughts on Chester: cool for an afternoon shopping trip, but maybe not worth a special trip. The majority of the shops are chains you can find in any decent sized city/town in the UK, so really the architecture is the big draw. But it is one more place I can check off my list and the closest to Wales I've gotten. Chester is actually serviced by the Arriva train line that operates out of Wales, so it was kind of cool to see the stations on the scrolling light thing in the train listed in both Welsh and English. The destination of the train was Llandudno. Don't ask me to pronounce it. Apparently it is a nice sea-side resort in Wales.

But the most exciting recent happening is this:

Ah, American food. A source of joy I will never take for granted again. Snack crackers, how I adore thee. In a land where potato crisps are your only option for savory snacks, you are a beacon of hope for this expat. Ditto to you Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You shine with a glimmer of sugar amidst a whole slew of boring plain cereal. And marshmallows- your squishy deliciousness unknown in these parts will be greatly enjoyed with your friends the graham crackers and some native English chocolate as s'mores at our next bbq. Apple sauce- you are not chunks of apple in a sauce meant to garnish meat. Rather you are smooth and delicious in your own right, and how I have missed you. Reeses- you know chocolate and peanut butter is the most delicious combination ever (with the occasional exception of Nutella and peanut butter). Aunt Jemimia- I'm not sure I've even had you in years. We're a Bisquick family. But I will take you over their strange idea of what pancakes are here. Pancakes should be a delicious breakfast food (or breakfast-for-dinner food) topped with maple syrup, not used as, well, basically a thick crepe. And finally, Blue Box. I don't even normally like you that much. I tend to favor other brands more, although Easy Mac is darn tasty and so easy! But in a land where "cheese sauce" of questionable cheesiness passes for cheese, I will enjoy you immensely. At least until you are gone. Then I will remember you fondly and probably order more.