Malta is the most religious country in Europe…
…it has more religious public holidays than any other in Europe and 10th February is especially important because this is the The Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck which was bad luck for Paul but good fortune for Malta because it brought Paul to the island in the year 60AD and he then went promptly about converting the island to Christianity.
Posted in Beaches, Europe, History, Literature, Malta, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Denmark, Gozo, Life, Malta Postcards, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Saddam Hussein, Scandinavia Religion, St Paul Malta, Sweden, Valletta
I am really cheating with this one. I feel like Boris Johnson. If I was an MP I would be obliged to report myself to the Parliamentary Standards Board. Johnson won’t so neither will I.
For my At o Z of Cathedrals no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t find a a J.
This is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Riga. Jurmala is about ten miles away. In my defence I have been to Jurmala and I honestly didn’t realise that it wasn’t in Riga. Just like Johnson didn’t realise that he had been to a party. I have posted this in all good faith.
The Nativity of Christ Cathedral in Riga is a magnificent and impressive building that sits between the old town and the new and was built in a Neo-Byzantine style between 1876 and 1883 at a time when Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. It was the largest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic provinces.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Hotels, Latvia, Literature, Postcards, World Heritage
Tagged Life, Photography, Religion, Riga, Russian Orthodox Church, Skyline Bar, Travel
I had walked about four miles or so by now and I was coming to the end of the urban development, the asphalt road became unpaved track and thereafter a dusty footpath that kept going to the end of the peninsular and I carried on because at the end of the mainland there was something I wanted to see – St Paul’s Island.
I was at Qawra Bay also known as St Paul’s Bay…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Beaches, Childhood, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Travel, Wales, World Heritage
Tagged Aberdovey, Bible Society, Christianity, Culture, Lake Bala, Life, Mary Jones' Bible, Religion, Wales
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him” – Voltaire
I had heard it said that people went into the clergy after getting a calling from God and I used to lie awake at night straining out listening for it. It never came. I also understood that it might alternatively come as a sign and I used to walk around looking for anything unusual but this never happened either.
Posted in Age of Innocence, Cathedrals, Childhood, Europe, Growing up in the 1950s, History, Literature, United Kingdom
Tagged Bible Stories, Childhood, Culture, CYFA, Hillmorton Chapel, Life, Religion, St John the Baptist
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 18th July 2005 I was on the Greek island of Tinos in the Cyclades…
“If you’re spending your holidays to the popular Greek party island, hop on a ferry from Mykonos to Tinos and 20 minutes later you’ll arrive at the holy Tinos island. It’s a great chance to have a taste of both sides of Cyclades! Trust us, you’ll be bewitched by the pristine beauty of Tinos!” – Greek Islands Travel Guide
One of the reasons so many Greeks visit Tinos is that it is an intensely religious island famous most of all for the Church of Panagia Evangelistria which holds a reputedly miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary and is the venue for an annual pilgrimage that is perhaps the most notable religious pilgrimage in all of the eastern Mediterranean.
Many pilgrims make their way half a mile or so from the ferry wharf to the church on their hands and knees as an extreme sign of devotion.
The day I was there was extremely hot and it was hard enough work just walking up the long hill to the church so I imagine that you would have to be seriously determined to do it on all fours, although to be fair there is a ragged strip of dusty red carpet at the edge of the pavement to stop pilgrims ripping their hands and knees to shreds or getting stuck in the melting tarmac.
Posted in back packing, Cathedrals, Cyclades, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, History, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Life, Mykonos, Photography, Pilgramage, Religion, Syros, Tinos, Travel
We continued through Idaho before crossing into Utah and picking up the Interstate 15 which ran adjacent to the Great Salt Lake and took us into a much more urban environment than we had been used to as we approached our destination, Salt Lake City.
The city was founded in 1847 by a group of Mormon pioneers led by their prophet and leader, Brigham Young, who fled hostility and violence in the east and took a wagon train west in search of a suitable new location for themselves and their religion.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, USA
Tagged Brigham Young, Life, Mormons, Photography, Religion, Salt Lake City, Travel, Utah
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 13th April 2014 I was in the Spanish town of Siguenza in Castilla-La Mancha.
We had travelled there specifically to see the Holy Week Parade, the Semana Santa which is one of the most important traditional events of the Spanish Catholic year; it is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter and features a procession of Pasos which are floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of the events of the Passion.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, Europe, History, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Castilla-La Mancha, Culture, easter Holy Week, Easter Parade, Life, Religion, Semana Santa, Sigüenza
The remarkable story of Knock began on the 21st August, 1879 when, at approximately eight o’clock in the evening, fifteen people from the village claimed that they witnessed a Marian Apparition on an altar at the gable wall of the Parish Church.
An Apparition of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist, a choir of angels, the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) and a cross.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, Eire, Europe, Ireland, Literature, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Holy Shrine o Knock, Ireland, Knock, Life, Marian Apparition, Religion
“…anyone that knows Spain will be aware of the frequency of the marriage in which the wife is deeply pious and the husband is irreligious. This is indeed a fairly normal situation. The man’s sense of self-esteem conflicts sharply with the teachings of the Church, while he is irritated by its many small, fussy rules and regulations, which treat him, he feels, as though he were a child.” – Gerald Brennan – ‘South From Granada‘
Once again it rained heavily in the night but by morning it had cleared when I went out into the street to check the weather. There were blue skies and as this was Sunday there was a church bell ringing with frosty clarity and calling people to service as I wandered aimlessly about checking the breakfast options in the little bars around the square.
The only place open was the Bar Plaza so we returned there for the fourth time and had the same breakfast as the previous day except that due to a misunderstanding we ordered way too much Serrano Ham and ended up with far more than we really needed and a much bigger bill than we anticipated.
The bad news this morning was that Micky had gone down with a nasty little case of man flu and he wasn’t feeling very good at all. This was the strain that affects the sense of humour and social skills and after breakfast Mick invited us to go out without him. Naturally we said we would do no such thing and then as we watched his normally stoic temperament evaporating in front of us he demanded firmly that we should go out without him and we took the hint.
We were planning to go for another drive out, possibly to the town of Ronda but this didn’t seem fair so the rest of us decided instead to stay and explore Carmona instead. We weren’t sure that there would be enough to do to keep us amused all day so we walked very slowly from the hotel towards the eastern gate of the old town, the Puerto de Córdoba which is of part Roman construction.
Because Carmona is built on an elevated ridge overlooking the central plain of Andalusia the view beyond the gate opens to a glorious vista of the surrounding countryside which today entertained us with the drama of magnificent skies.
The welcome warmth of the sun was in contrast to the chilly shade of the street and we stayed a while and admired the view and warmed ourselves up before going back through the gate and climbing steadily towards the Alcázar Del Rey Don Pedro, which is an old castle at the top of the town that has been converted to a luxury Parador hotel. We went inside and admired the lounges and the restaurant and the stunning view from the balcony but it didn’t seem that they particularly welcomed non-paying guests so we quickly left and carried on.
Next around the southern rim of the town and there were more good views over the plain and we sat for a while and soaked up more weak sunshine that was struggling to get up to full late morning temperature. Our route took us now to the Alcázar de la Puerto de Sevilla, which was the western gate protecting the entrance to the old town and then we walked for a little way into the new town because I wanted to take the girls shopping but sadly on account of this being Sunday they were mostly closed. I was desperately disappointed about that as you can probably imagine.
There seemed to be strange goings on in the main town square because it was full of men just standing around and chatting in groups and making an enormous din as they competed with each other to be heard about the great political issues of the day or the previous day’s football results perhaps.
Mostly elderly men because as Gerald Brennan explained in ‘South from Granada’ “…almost every Spanish peasant becomes wise when he passes fifty.” This was obviously a Sunday morning ritual while wives attended Church and the street corners and the public squares were overflowing with men all in animated conversation waiting for the service to end.
Brennan also explains that – “At bottom the husband almost always approves of his wife’s devoutness, is aware that he is only playing truant and that, after a lifetime shrugging his shoulders at the Church, he will return to it in time to receive its last sacraments.”
Back at the Puerto de Sevilla there was a sunny pavement with café tables so we stopped for a drink before going back to the hotel to see if there was any sign of Micky. There was none so we continued our walk around the town without him, this time back to the Roman ruins about a half a mile away back in the same direction that we had just returned from.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Hotels, Literature, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Andalucía, Balconies of Spain, Carmona, Culture, Life, Parador Hotels, Religion, Seville, Spain UNESCO
Have Bag, Will Travel 