San Marco is much older than most Western European cathedrals. Some of the mosaics are more than a thousand years old. The gold dome glitters in the candlelight of Easter vespers.
Saalfurt is the site of one of the Roman frontier forts, built along the northern border of the Roman empire. It was reconstructed in the early 1900s and is the most complete example of a Roman fort.
Looking down on the Upper Lake. This spot was named because Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting came here during the Queen's visit to Ireland in 1861. But I prefer to remember far older times, when Finn and his Fianna hunted here and there were talking eagles in the hills.
Saint Finbarr, founder of the city of Cork, came here 1400 years ago to live in solitude by the lake at the source of the Lee. Gougane Barra is still a lovely, quiet place.
Here rests a comrade in arms known but to God. June 6, 2004.
Omaha Beach seen from the American cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, after the ceremonies on the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
Pointe du Hoc, where the Rangers climbed a hundred-foot cliff under German fire, is a place of grown-over bomb craters and blasted German bunkers, where the huge destruction of war can still be seen.
Omaha Beach on June 8, 2004. This sculpture, by a Frenchwoman born in the 1960s, Anilore Banon, is called Les Braves. I would have preferred to see the beach empty forever, but the sculpture is somehow appropriate.
Mont-Saint-Michel is named after the archangel who defeated the devil. Long before there was a Christian church here, the island was sacred to a Celtic god. You see the "Marvel" being built on its platform at the beginning of the Bayeux tapestry.
The Ridgeway is an ancient, pre-Saxon, pre-Roman, even pre-Celtic track of more than a hundred miles through the English countryside near Stonehenge and Avebury. It has never been plowed over and runs past many ancient sites, including ringforts, Wayland's Smithy, and the White Horse of Uffington. Even though it is in one of the most overcrowded areas of Europe, it is a lonely, beautiful place to walk.
Iona is the isle where Saint Columba founded his great monastery. The island is considered remote in modern times but the Irish Sea is full of islands and there was much travel among them. It is a beautiful part of the world.
Including Saint Denis, first bishop of Paris, who was martyred on the hill Montmartre by the Romans. He was said to have picked up his head and walked north with it till he came to a stream. Then he handed it to a woman to wash. Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, built the first church of Saint-Denis on the spot, where the Cathedral of Saint-Denis now stands just north of Paris, on the road to the airport.
In this section you see the damned in Hell, being tormented by demons, with the saints above.
This is the Last Judgment. At the top is God seated on his throne. At the bottom, the righteous arise from their tombs, summoned by an angel with a trumpet. In the central section, an angel and a devil weigh each soul in the balance. The blessed, on the left (the right hand of God), go off to Heaven. The doomed, on the right, go off in chains to Hell with demons.
This is the Last Judgment. At the top is God seated on his throne. At the bottom, the righteous arise from their tombs, summoned by an angel with a trumpet. In the central section, an angel and a devil weigh each soul in the balance. The blessed, on the left (the right hand of God), go off to Heaven. The doomed, on the right, go off in chains to Hell with demons.
The Hotel de Sens is my favorite building in Paris. It was built for a bishop and is now a public Fine Arts library.
This was the site of an important battle of the English Civil War, on 29 June 1644, where the army of King Charles beat the Parliament forces.
At the time it was built, Bede's monastery was one of the grandest new buildings in England since Roman times. The king lived in a wooden hall.
The oldest part of this church was built in the time of the Venerable Bede and was one of the first stone buildings in Anglo-Saxon England, at a time when the king lived in a wooden hall.
Site of the battle that dashed the hopes of Bonny Prince Charlie and marked the end of traditional Gaelic Highland Scotland: 16th April 1746. Today it is a beautiful peaceful place. The visitor center stands where the British army faced the army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. A new center is planned on neutral ground.
The Irish soldiers at Culloden were regulars from the French army and were treated honorably as prisoners of war, unlike the Highland Scots, who were considered traitors and rebels.
During the 18th century, an ambitious Irish Catholic man had no choice but to go abroad, because of the Penal Code enforced by the British colonizers at that time in Ireland, which condemned more than 95% of the population to the role of illiterate peasants. Many Irishmen served in the armies of Austria, Spain and France in these years.
The French soldiers who fought at Culloden for Prince Charles Edward Stuart were in the same volunteer tradition as Lafayette fighting for American independence. They were treated honorably after the defeat and returned to France.
This is a pre-Celtic burial ground, dating to 4000 years ago. A Victorian landlord planted the trees. It is a lovely, quiet spot.
Originally the stones making up the graves were multicolored. There are two concentric rows of large stones, with the largest facing the direction of the winter equinox; between them are many smaller stones of pink and gray.
This happy angel is Gabriel. There is another laughing angel, l'ange du sourire, on the left front door.
The kings of France were traditionally consecrated in this cathedral, starting with King Louis IX (Saint Louis), who was crowned as a child of 12 as the cathedral was still being finished. However, there had long been a church on the site. Clovis, the first Christian king of France, was christened here in 496 by Saint Remy, after whom the cathedral and town were named. The first cathedral here was said to have been built by Saint Nicaise, who is now the patron saint of the town of Rheims (now spelled Reims in French). Saint Nicaise was cut down on the steps of his church by barbarian invaders in the early 400s, and he picked up his head and walked off with it to the place where he was later buried. This behavior was so common among saints of the Dark Ages that there is a name for them: cephalophores.