Cathedrals

Since I've been thinking about Monet's cathedrals, I pulled up some pics we took in Europe this summer.  This picture is of my daughter and son in front of the Strassbourg Cathedral in Strassbourg, France.  It's the biggest cathedral I have ever seen!  Gorgeous!

Parts of the cathedral here and there were under construction - methinks that a building this big must always have some part of it under construction!  It is really breathtaking in its beauty and size.  The six of us had separated at this point, and close to the cathedral, there was no phone service.  I'm surprised we're not still all individually wandering around Strassbourg looking for each other!  No small wonder that there was no phone reception next to this billion-pound structure!

Here's one of the intricate entry doors.  You have to just stand in awe of the amount of detail work has been put into this cathedral!

What makes the picture for me, though, is my son, Noah, sitting on the steps.  He cares not about the intricacies of the statuary, he's just happily exploring his new purchases stashed in that nice, pink bag!

Once inside, a hush comes over all who enter.  The beauty of the church is breathtaking, and the stained glass windows are shining.  Here's the rose window.


 I used to work in stained glass.  It was a lot of fun, but requires a room of its own due to flying glass shards.  Something about four kids nipped that one in the bud.  The interesting thing about that is that I have four brothers.  We all live in different states.  Three of us, we found, unbeknownst to each other, were working in stained glass!  How many families do you know like that, anyway?  I may or may not go back to glass when I grow up... life is awfully short with so many things to explore, isn't it?

 Below are more windows - this cathedral was loaded with them.  I seem to remember reading that these are some of the oldest stained glass windows in Europe; however, I'll have to check on that one.  When you're doing a lot of touring, everything tends to blur together after a while.

Stained glass windows were called the 'Poor Man's Bible,' as most couldn't read.  The pictures clearly told the Biblical story for everyone.








My daughter and her gargoyle friend.  He's watching over her and I'm not sure who looks more contemplative!






My four guys.  It was a great trip.

There was an ancient building facing Cathedral Square which we enjoyed whilst eating our lunch.  I put it down toward the bottom of my blog because I wanted to do a BIG pic for you to see!  Love it!

One last picture of this beautiful cathedral.  I never did get it to entirely fit within one of my photos!

This was inside a different cathedral, but I really enjoyed the interior, particularly because of Noah's reaction.  He was enthralled with the idea that people are actually buried inside of cathedrals!   I have another photo of him where he's just sitting in the front pew contemplating.

 This was yet another cathedral.  I particularly loved the mosaic on the column.  I believe this was St. Sebald's Church in Nuremberg.  They had brought live, cut trees into the building and propped them up all up and down the sanctuary - it really was a sight to behold! There were also floral arrangements festooned everywhere.  This is one of the traditions they observe for a particular festival.  We asked a number of people what the festival was about, but nobody really knew, even though trees had been cut and tied up to decorate buildings in many of the public places.  Hmmm...