About telve miles west of Lisbon lies Sintra, a town which has been home to the most affluent of Portuguese society for centuries. Nestled in a small mountain range named for the town, its elevation and accompanying milder temperatures had made it an ideal summer destination for kings and nobility looking to escape the sweltering … Continue reading Paths and Palaces of Sintra
I covered Lisbon in a post a couple weeks ago, specifically its Alfama neighborhood. Today, the rest of this city gets a spotlight. I joke that I like to travel so as to get lost in foreign cities. Though I’m not actually trying to get lost, I do like to simply wander around, poking my … Continue reading A Return to Lisbon
The city of Porto sits astride the estuary of the Duoro river, about a two hour train ride north of Lisbon. It is the second largest city in Portugal, and may be best known around the world for its port wine, which is produced upriver in the Duoro valley before being shipped to the many … Continue reading The Narrow Alleys and Grand Vistas of Porto
The Alfama is the oldest neighborhood of Lisbon, surrounding the medieval Castelo de São Jorge, or St. George’s castle. Originally it comprised the entirety of the city. Some areas directly adjacent to the castle were the most coveted by Portuguese nobility, a home there keeping its residents close to the seat of power, quite literally. … Continue reading Alfama District, Lisbon
Since the previous post was about spring, it’s only natural that summer would be next. As before, these are photos of a church seen across an urban prairie as well as some old tennis courts. But with the changing of the seasons comes a much different look. I like the tennis courts enough that I … Continue reading Summer
Chicagoans like to complain about spring. It goes straight from winter’s cold to summer heat, they say, as if unaware that the couple months of fluctuating temperatures, frequent rain, and gusty winds is, in fact, what spring looks like in the Midwest. It’s as if people expect our dark and raw winters should immediately give … Continue reading Springtime
I visited Austria last month, and, though not as photo intensive as most other trips I’ve been on, I found I had taken a few decent photos once I returned home. The one place that I shot with anything approaching my usual zeal was the iconic St. Stephen’s cathedral. The trip got off to a … Continue reading St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna
A year and a half ago, on a previous visit to Philadelphia, we tried and failed to get into this church. Our consolation prize would be the rectory, in which fire extinguisher hanky-panky would leave one of our party down and out for the night, a victim of suggestive pantomime gone terribly wrong. (She was … Continue reading Saint Sialia Church
In a ravine in the woods of rural Pennsylvania sits an impressive collection of decaying trolleys and railcars. It is on private property, owned by a man who set out to restore and possibly resell them. Unfortunately, once word of these cars leaked out, it was only a matter of time before they inevitably were … Continue reading Trolley Graveyard
The largest psychiatric hospital in the world once operated in a small, nondescript southern town. From its founding in the early nineteenth century, it steadily grew as the decades passed and as the treatments it offered evolved from the primitive to the merely misguided. Ultimately, the idea of keeping the mentally ill locked away en … Continue reading Vandalia State Hospital
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