St. David's

After looking back through my posts, I find that I left out a day.  And it was a beautiful day at a wonderful venue.

On Monday, we checked out of our accommodations in Saundersfoot, Wales and we drove to the town of St. David's to see one of the oldest churches in the UK, St. David's Cathedral.

This building has over 1000 years of history.  Just imagine what can happen in 1000 years.  How many generations have come and gone, each having their turn to be stewards of the church or to turn their backs on the church.

When we arrived in the town of St. David's we followed a sign for parking, which took us down a street that was wide enough for one car but was not one-way!  And then we found that the parking lot was full.  We circled it twice and found that it was still full!  So we drove back up into town and followed signs to a parking lot a little farther away and finally found, and paid for, parking.

The town was a little like a coastal vacation town in that it had many restaurants and souvenir shops all crowded together in the most popular area, which, of course, was the street leading to the cathedral.

The weather was very changeable the day that we were there.  When we were entering the cathedral, it was raining and dark.  When we came out we found that the sun was making an appearance!

On the way into the Cathedral
the sky was cloudy and
the day was wet.

On the way out of the Cathedral
The skies were clearing
The sun was shining

A dramatic difference from the first image
And after only two hours!

As we entered the cathedral, we were privileged to hear a part of a concert given by a young lady with a beautiful voice accompanied by a young man on the piano.  Just beautiful!

I grew up in churches with just the sanctuary and some Sunday School classrooms.  But this cathedral had so many rooms.  I could only guess at their purposes.  One room was called the "quire", which, if spoken, sounds just like "choir".  I wonder if that is a coincidence?

There was so much beauty in the architecture and the "decor" (for lack of a better word).  

The ceilings were works of art!  It is hard to imagine how they could make those designs in those times and up so high!  The next two pictures show some of this beauty and intricacy.

At first I though this was tapestry.
Upon closer examination I found them to be painted on the wood ceiling panels.

This intricate ceiling is in the main tower that you can see in the exterior images.

This next image is of the Lady Chapel.  I have no idea why they call it that.  The interesting thing to me is the plastering.  Many of these old stone buildings have fairly rough, uneven stones in the walls, but by all of the windows and doors they have smoother stones, such as you can see around this window.  I assume that this view is what they looked like when they were new.

The Lady Chapel at St. David's Cathedral

Most times when Annette and I are out shooting, I finish first and stand around waiting for her to finish.  (However, she is getting quicker with her camera work.)  On this day, the cathedral really spoke to me.  I had such a sense of awe and wonder as I walked around.  This day I was the last one to finish and Annette was outside waiting for me.

So with that in the back of my mind, I was hurrying through the remainder of the cathedral and I made this image of the organ's pipes.  I have looked through my files and there is only one image.  The image before this one was of a different subject and the image after was of a different subject.  This was a quick grab-shot.  But it turned out to be one of my favorite images of the trip!

I love the newness of the organ juxtapositioned with the oldness of the building.
I love the composition.
I love the lighting and how it highlights the new organ and puts the old components in shadow.
I love the arched window on the left and the way the light fills its alcove.
I wish I would have included the point at the bottom of the picture.

What do you think?  Is it OK or should I throw it on the trash heap?

Well, that's our trip.  It was wonderful, interesting and stressful and I'm glad for the opportunity.