" Eppur si muove "(1633)
Showing posts with label Travelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travelling. Show all posts
Oxford Gargoyles and Grotesques
A horde of animals, monsters and demons cling to the roofs and walls of buildings in Oxford. They glare, grimace and grin like uneasy spirits trapped forever in stone.
Medieval and modern stonemasons used imagination and humour in creating these amazing stone carvings whose function is to channel water from the gutter of a building and spew it out through their mouth.
But even nowadays ramblers can’t help feeling a bit weird walking round the streets of Oxford under the distorted faces and twisted bodies of these fascinating creatures. Somehow they know they are up there, frozen, keeping an eye on everything they do....
Medieval and modern stonemasons used imagination and humour in creating these amazing stone carvings whose function is to channel water from the gutter of a building and spew it out through their mouth.
But even nowadays ramblers can’t help feeling a bit weird walking round the streets of Oxford under the distorted faces and twisted bodies of these fascinating creatures. Somehow they know they are up there, frozen, keeping an eye on everything they do....
London November 2013
OXFORD WARRIORS TAKE LONDON. A group of Spanish students from Puzol took London by storm last Sunday. According to a senior metropolitan police officer, “they were extremely dangerous, moved very quickly and their poor teachers could do nothing to prevent the assault”. When they were eventually arrested in Oxford Street they were all laughing their heads off.
Oxford Highlights I
"The pursuit of learning is not a race in which the competitors
jockey for the best place, it is not even an argument or a symposium;
it is a conversation. And the peculiar virtue of a university
(as a place of many studies) is to exhibit it in its character. "
( Michael Oakeshot, English philosopher, 1901-90)
Oxford I from Ricardo Forner
Christ Church
The college that has educated thirteen of the country's prime ministers is undoubtedly a must in Oxford, a place of superlatives. The biggest quad, the biggest hall, the biggest library, the biggest gate tower with the loudest bell that tolls 101 times every night at five minutes past nine... And if that is not enough there is also the cloister,the meadow buildings, the bowler-hatted guards, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Henry VIII.... With all these things who needs Harry Potter?
Magdalen College
It was founded in 1458 and its name is still pronounced “Mawd-lin” by the locals as it was five hundred years ago.
It’s famous for its gardens, its cloister, its deer and its water meadows…and for some of the people who studied here like C.S.Lewis, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Oscar Wilde as well as several Nobel Prizes. Probably it is the most beautiful college in town.
Its Bell Tower, next to Magdalen Bridge, signals the entrance to the heart of Oxford. It’s a tradition that goes back to the days of Henry VII that the college choir sings a Latin anthem from the top of it at 6 a.m. on May Day, followed by dancing, champagne breakfast and other boisterous activities around the city.
The college stands next to the river Cherwell and has within its grounds a deer park and Addison’s Walk, a circular path around the water meadows which is one of the most pleasant walks in Oxford. The visitor is sure to enjoy it whatever the season. At the end of it he can always sit on the terrace of the Old Kitchen Bar and watch people punting from under Magdalen Bridge.
Its Bell Tower, next to Magdalen Bridge, signals the entrance to the heart of Oxford. It’s a tradition that goes back to the days of Henry VII that the college choir sings a Latin anthem from the top of it at 6 a.m. on May Day, followed by dancing, champagne breakfast and other boisterous activities around the city.
The college stands next to the river Cherwell and has within its grounds a deer park and Addison’s Walk, a circular path around the water meadows which is one of the most pleasant walks in Oxford. The visitor is sure to enjoy it whatever the season. At the end of it he can always sit on the terrace of the Old Kitchen Bar and watch people punting from under Magdalen Bridge.
Oxford England
"It takes and endless amount of history to make
even a little tradition."
Henry James, American autor (1843-1916)
And Gulliver decided...
A su edad la mayoría buscaban la plácida rutina y el cálido abrazo del fuego en el hogar, pero Gulliver- que tantas cosas había visto ya- seguía dominado por un anhelo ábsurdo de partir y una inquietud esperanzada por descubrir algo nuevo...
The Pyrenees (1)
Los Lagos de Colomer son un lugar precioso del que vale la pena disfrutar con calma, como tantos otros rincones del Valle de Arán donde nos perdemos gustosos cada verano.
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