Murcia, Spain - Santuario de La Fuensanta, Cathedral

I was back in Spain for business over the last couple of weeks.

Here are a few pictures from around Murcia.

This is the Sanctuary Our Lady of the Fuensanta in the mountains south of Murcia. It dates back to the end of the 17th century.

I have seen this place on hillside on my way to the plant several times and wondered what it was all about. On Friday early evening Margot and I drove out to see if we could figure out how to get there.

The Spanish name is Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta.

Through the miracle of frequent flyer miles, Margot was able to join me for about 5 days.

She is standing in front of the Sanctuary with the city of Murcia in the valley behind.

Here is another shot from the other side.

The place was closed when we arrived but it is open for tours earlier in the day.

Click any of the pictures to enlarge them.

This is the Casa del Cabildo or Casa del Sacristan which I understand to mean the caretakers of the sanctuary and the monastery. It looked a little run down.

Here is another view from near the Cabildo. The building to the left of the sanctuary is the monastery.

This is the view from the sanctuary.

I'm not sure what this building is. It may be a former school. It is located a little higher on the hillside and to the west of the Fuensanta.

This passage way is between the sanctuary and the monastery.

Later in the evening we walked down to the center of Murcia. Sort of killing time until it got late enough to eat dinner. It is true that no one goes out for dinner until 9:00 PM or later.

This is a picture of the river side of the Palacio Episcopal which is the official seat of the Diocese of  Cartagena.

Construction on this version of the Palacio Episcopal started in 1748.

This is the Cathedral of Murcia on Cardinal Belluga Square. The building in the right foreground is the opposite side of the same building above.

Here is the same picture, more or less, at night.

This is the back side of the cathedral. Notice the chain on the building facade.

This is a night picture of the Iglesia Conventual Santo Domingo

I published similar pictures in earlier blog postings that can be reached by clicking the links below.

Murcia, Spain Pictures  <--- Click here.

Birds, Gurnee, Eureka Springs

This is a Sandhill Crane that was hanging out near Greg and Theresa's home in Gurnee, IL.




Click for a larger picture.












Here are all three of the birds.

The owner of this place must be the president of the More-Money-Than-Brains Club.

This place is just up the road from Greg and Theresa.

More info here ---> Gold Pyramid House

Here is another bird picture. Is that a sparrow?

While we are on the subject of birds, this is the museum building at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY. It is just across the river from Evansville. The museum boasts one of the largest collections of Audubon's original art and personal memorabilia and artifacts. It is worth a visit even you aren't into birds. They interpret his life in the context of world events at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon



This is the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

It was built in 1886.

It is allegedly one of the most haunted hotels in America.

 This is the lobby of the hotel.

You can read more about the history of the hotel at the following link. --> Crescent Hotel

This is downtown Eureka Springs.

See the earlier post about Brown County and  Nashville, Indiana for more information on the type of shopping here.

Brown County and Nashville, Indiana






Recent Previous Posts

Survey Results    <----- Click here for most recent posts.

Brown County, Cave-in-Rock, French Lick    <----- Click here for most recent posts.

A Few Family Pictures     <----- Click here for most recent posts

Survey Results

Well the results are in (almost). There are only 45 minutes left to vote and the result is overwhelmingly in favor of the new format. The vote was 10 to 1. So I'll be staying with the new format.

Now my guess is that there is one wiseacre out there that couldn't resist going against the tide. But on the off chance that one of you really does like the old style better, please use the comment box below to let me know what it is about the old one that you liked. I'll see if that can be accomodated in the new format.

Brown County, Cave-in-Rock, French Lick

This is a catch up posting. These pictures are from several years ago. I never did get around to processing and posting them on the blog.

This covered bridge is near Nashville, Indiana at the entrance to Brown County State Park.

It is a really pretty place in the fall.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge for a better view.

Feel free to provide feedback in the comment section at the bottom of the posting. No need to register before commenting.

This is another covered bridge in the same area.

This is the Bean Blossom Bridge. Both bridges are still in use today.

Here are the six of us who made a long weekend out of it. From left to right Dan Mestelle, Lisa Mestelle, Mike Farrell, Diane Farrell, Margot Savage and Tom Savage.

You can see what the inside of the bridge looks like in this one.

There wasn't much traffic.

Learn more here.
Bean Blossom Bridge

Nashville is full of "cute" shops specifically designed to get women to spend their money.

Not sure what this guy's story is but he does reinforce the fact that Nashville is in a very rural part of Indiana.

The shops create a sort of a sensory overload situation.

Eventually the men just couldn't stand it anymore and resigned themselves to hanging around outside and waiting.














Not really any relationship between the preceding and following pictures other than some of the people are the same and both are in southern Indiana.

This is the lobby of the West Baden Springs Hotel near French Lick, Indiana.

The hotel opened in 1902 and was quite an amazing structure for its time.






Here is another picture with a little better view of the dome.

Learn more of the history of the hotel here.

West Baden Springs Hotel












A fairly classy joint.

This time it was just Margot, Lisa, Diane and me.

And finally a few pictures from Cave-in-Rock State Park in Illinois.

Here are Margot and Jacques a few years ago when Jacques was a little more active.

Here they are inside the cave.

It has an interesting history.

Cave-in-Rock Park












There are a couple of pictures of the bluff where the cave is located at the bottom of this earlier post.

Cave-in-Rock and Garden of the Gods

A Few Family Pictures

Here is a picture of Tom and Misheil coloring eggs on Easter. These are peeled and were turned into deviled eggs for Easter dinner. Is there something wrong about preparing eggs that way for Easter?


Click to enlarge.






Mike and Lauren spent the night with us on their way to Champaign for a wedding.

Here is Emily prancing around outside as they prepared to leave this morning.
















Margot is posing with Ben in this picture.


Notice the flag counter on the right hand side bar. Through the magic of IP addresses they can figure out where visitors to the blog are from. Kind of neat, I think.

I should have left the flash on. This would have been a lot sharper.

On the other hand the chaos of the perpetual motion machine would have been lost.

Here is slightly calmer picture although it is still a little blurry.


Mike, Lauren, sorry you guys didn't make the cut as photo subjects.

Maybe I can take a couple of pictures of you when you return on Sunday.

Moon Pictures, Again

Well there was a full moon again last night. I took a few more pictures to try a couple of new techniques. Here is the best one of the bunch.

Key learning is that f/11 is about optimum. If you go to a larger f-stop (smaller aperture) you start to get diffraction effects.

I converted this one to black and white.

This picture was from a couple of days earlier. I didn't convert this one to black and white. Some differences in contrast and brightness but what I find interesting is this the 2 shots seem to differ in which side of the moon has more definition. This must be a subtle effect of the angle that the light is striking the surface.

Notice that is this picture the lower left has more definition. In the one above the upper right seems to have more definition.

You would think the full moon would be more interesting but here is a repeat of a picture from a week ago. Notice how more of the surface has side lighting which generates shadows and depth.

Around Newburgh, Indiana

Margot and I took some pictures around Newburgh this Saturday. She was looking for pictures that could potentially by used in Women's Club Cookbook.

Sort of a river theme for these first few pictures. This is the old lock and dam house. The dam was removed when the new one was built.

Here is a picture of the new dam and locks.

Click to enlarge

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Information









There was a lot of river traffic Saturday. We saw 4 coal barges in just a few miles of the river.

The Old Stone House or the Roberts-Morton House is located about a mile or so up river from the new dam. It was built in 1834. It is now owned by the University of Evansville.

Old Stone House

This grandfather/grandson team were planting flowers at the main intersection in old Newburgh.

Here is another view of the intersection.

These 2 houses are located about a block up the street from the previous pictures. Built around 1900.

The one on the left is for sale - $325,000.

Real Estate Listing

This is a store. Not sure what the history of this building is but it has been around for awhile.

Previous Newburgh related postings.

Amphicars
Fireworks
Snow in Newburgh