Category: Travels

After a weekend of training, Saturday and Sunday, I find that today is a Bank Holiday in the UK, May Day.

Unlike some countries around the world that have May 1st as the official May Day holiday, the UK stays with allocating the holiday on a Monday.

Having nothing to do except my washing and ironing, and no-one to talk to, I decided to have a walk down into Kingston upon Thames, and I was soon amongst the celebrations and crowds, families, friends, enjoying the shopping and festivities.

One group caught my eye, some dancers.

These dancers are traditional to the UK, and are called Morris Dancers. It is an English Folk dance, usually accompanied by accordion music, with the dancers, again usually dressed in white, wearing bells around their legs, and flowers in their hats.

The dancing itself is very rythmic, and the dancers usually have some implement, sticks, swords etc, that they use in the dance, and is thought to date back to the 15th century.

In this short clip, you can see the OFF-SPRING MORRIS from Kingston upon Thames.

Yes we have some strange customs in the UK.

It is wonderful to experience new beginnings, changes, additions, and today has been no exception.

It has been one of the warmest April months in the UK on record, and today as people pounded the streets of London in the London Marathon, I took a more leisurely stroll to the River Thames. (click to see video)

Many people were also of the same mind, perhaps an after lunch walk, a chance to be with friends or family, to take time and see the world go by, a chance to recharge the batteries with energy giving sun rays, or like me to get some exercise.

Crowds enjoying the sun overlooking the River Thames, Kingston upon Thames
We are blessed in Kingston upon Thames to have many wildfowl living on the River Thames, perhaps mostly because people feed them so well.

Not only was it the public who were enjoying the weather, swans preened themselves, as others crowded (click) to have their share of the offerings the public were giving them.

Swans preening on the River Thames
It was the goose with her new gosling’s and unhatched eggs which caught my eye, little balls of yellow fluff as two gosling’s sheltered under their mothers wings on a nest of duck down.

A gosling enjoying the sun under the its mother

Many times over the years living in Kingston upon Thames, I have walked passed the old Empire Theatre opposite to the Wilkinson store, passed a dirty looking alleyway, and paid no attention to what looked to me was a service road to the pub (public house) and the various fast service food shops.

Entrance to the small alleyway to the Toilet Gallery
Other places of interest stand out as I passed them, the Coronation Stone, the Out Of Order falling over telephone boxes, Lovekyn Chapel, and more in Kingston upon Thames, but never the alleyway.

Then I had my Phillip’s Sausage working, and an old white building at the end of the alleyway caught my eye, and a small sign The Toilet Gallery, painted on the wall.

The Toilet Gallery, Kingston upon Thames
The Toilet Galley is a disused ladies only toilet, still having the cubicles and basins, but without the usual fragrance, was opened in 2003 as a place for avant-garde artists to show their work.

Inside the Toilet Gallery
Very small, but enough to show some great works. Well worth a visit for people to support.

To the side of the whispering gallery or Palazzo del Podesta, and to the north side of Piazza Maggiore, is Piazza Nettuno.

In the Piazza Nettuno is the 16th century bronze statue by Giambologna of Neptune and his Attendants who in Roman mythology is the god of water and the sea.

16th century bronze statue by Giambologna of Neptune and his Attendants

At each corner of the fountain are four mermaids or attendants, in the picture they are the bronze statues, not the Italian students taking in the afternoon sun.

I was told that the fountain statue was commissioned by Charles Borromeo (the Cardinal Legate) to celebrate the election of his uncle as Pope Pius IV. His rooms were the top right rooms in the building to the left of the statue in the above photograph, so he could look down upon it.

It was said that in the original design, Neptune’s manhood was rather large and the Pope objected to it, so it was sculptured very small. Or could it be that it depicts Neptune just leaving a cold sea?

In the photograph above you can see Neptune’s left hand pointing forward.

From the window of the Pope, because of the angle, all that can be seen is a pointing finger, which can just be made out in the photograph below against the background of the brickwork of the Basilica di San Petronio.

Neptune from the rear, Piazza Nettuno, Bologna
The fountain water also is very intriguing as to where it flows from. As already mentioned, at the base of the statue are four mermaids, attendants or from Greek mythology, four of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris who dwell in the Mediterranean Sea, known as Nereids.

Four of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris, known as Nereids at the base of Neptune’s statue, Bologna

The fountain of Neptune and his Attendants, Piazza Nettuno , Bologna Italy.

Um.

On my last trip to Bologna, Italy, to give the first two days training for the NLP Master Practitioner for NLPItaly, I was able to explore a little of the town and especially Piazza Maggiore, and what a wonderfull place it is.

The streets leading up to and around the Piazza Maggiore, are full of shops and cafés, arched covered walkways or footpaths with marbled floors, and some of the ceilings having beautiful coloured decorations to them.

Arched covered walkways or footpaths in Bologna
Within the piazza, dating from about the year 1200, there are some historic buildings, and thank goodness my translator for the course Elena Martelli was with me to explain the history of the buildings and piazza itself.

One of these buildings is the Basilica di San Petronio, or the Cathedral of Saint Peter, reported to be the fifth largest church in the world, with building starting about 1390, and has a history to its’ self. The facade of the Basilica remains unfinished, because I was told the Pope of the time objected to the building being better than his own church not far away and certainly not bigger than St Peter’s in Rome.

As you look at the Basilica, the bottom half of the building is faced with white marble, and the top half is just brick. Within the Basilica is said to be some great works of art and sculptures, but unfortunately I did not have time to venture inside.

Basilica di San Petronio, or the Cathedral of Saint Peter
In the photograph above, no the building does not lean it is my camera, is the whispering gallery and a medieval tower of Palazzo del Podesta. Walk into the center under the arches, is a vaulted area, and if one person stands in one corner facing the wall, and another person stands in the opposite corner, as you whisper, you can hear each other.

    
The whispering gallery in Palazzo del Podesta, Bologna.
And Francesco Martelli, Elena’s brother  in the right picture is only whispering.

Another fine sight nearby is the bronze statue of Neptune in the Piazza del Nettuno. 

Today, Sunday, is a day off for me in Gaziantep, Southern Turkey.