“The whitewashed walls of Mission Espíritu Santo tower over the park. Workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps restored this Spanish colonial-era mission in the 1930s. Tour the colorful chapel and exhibits, ring the church bell, and learn about the mission’s ranching heritage.”
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goliad

These photos were mostly taken February 6, 2024 but a few from other visits. Click on any image to see a larger view.

These photos were taken in East Anglia around 1990 when I accompanied my husband Gil on a business trip. I took him to where he had to be for the day and then took off in the rental car to drive on the left with a stick shift car. That wasn’t the only problem, it turns out most of the roads I chose were one lane, lined with tall hedges, and the road had lots of curves and hills. I expected to die on every curve and hill… But I found some fun things…

Time out from Ukraine for some photos taken in Boston in July 2013. We were in Massachusetts and Maine to visit family and took a quick trip into Boston. Some of these were taken from a car – e.g., the bridge photos and skylines. The rest were in the Haymarket area (between the North End and Government Center).

Kahn’s Palace (or Bakhchysarai Palace) was built in the 16th century and was home to a series of Crimean Khans. Bakhchysarai means Palace of Gardens and is an example of Tatar-Muslim architecture. We visited the palace by bus from Sevastopol.

Khan’s Palace is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered the gem of Moorish architecture comparable to the palaces of the Alhambra in Spain and the Topkapi in Turkey.

In this post I want to show some of the photos I took in Santa Fe in 2009 and 2014. It is a beautiful and historic city to visit, with a downtown small enough to be very walkable. My photographs of three Santa Fe churches are in three other posts: Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Loretto Chapel, and San Miguel Chapel. As always, click on a photo for a larger view.

Loretto Chapel is famous for its spiral staircase. The building, a chapel for a girls’ school, was built by the same French architects who designed the St. Francis Cathedral. Like the cathedral, the stained glass windows came from France. The building was commissioned in 1873. I will quote from Wikipedia on the staircase – it is well worth reading why this staircase is notable, but first note, it has no central pole.
“It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase (the “Miraculous Stair”). The Sisters of Loretto credited St. Joseph with its construction. It has been the subject of legend, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder were considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto.”

I was working on photos I have taken in Santa Fe and discovered so many of the St. Francis Cathedral, mostly interior, that I am making a separate story for the cathedral. The current building was built on the site of two previous previous churches. It was designed in the Romanesque Revival style and was completed in 1887. The stained glass windows were imported from France. I am no expert on this building, but wanted to share my photographs of it.

It was when I started to post this photo of the statue of Catherine the Great that I discovered she is no longer there… That removal was part of the Derussification of Ukraine. The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests. It was In late November 2013, that Ukrainians took to the streets in peaceful protest after then-president Viktor Yanukovych chose not to sign an agreement that would have integrated the country more closely with the European Union. On February 22, 2014, after President Yanukovych had fled the country, parliament voted to oust him and hold new elections and on May 25, Ukrainians elected Petro Poroshenko as president. After the October elections, a new pro-reform coalition government came into power in December 2014. Polls conducted in Odesa from September to December 2014 found no support for joining Russia.

This is not the type of post I intended to make, documenting our 2013 cruise in Ukraine. Yesterday I tried to find out what was happening in Odesa and discovered that in July 2023 Transfiguration Cathedral was heavily damaged.

The following photograph is from the New York Times in their article about the attack.

In this post I’m going to show some photographs of Istanbul related to the Bosporus: a Bosporus cruise and sights along the Bosporus. And next comes Ukraine! We just added a few days in Istanbul before our Ukraine Viking cruise.