Where am I?

For some time now I have been feeling as if I was on the cusp of change. I just didn't know the direction.

Now suddenly I am living in a different city, a different country. I have moved from Australia to go to art school.

But where to? Well the picture attached shows you my new city. Northern hemisphere? Southern hemisphere?

Parsifal

The acoustics in the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth are just as amazing as everyone reports. The music glides out from under the covered orchestra pit at the front and swells into the hall, bringing the voices of the singers with it. It is no wonder that people queue for tickets to the Wagner festival and are willing to sit on very hard seats for 4 hours at a time to hear the music. It is glorious and for days afterwards, everytime you are in a quiet place you hear the music in the back of your head.

The performance of Parsifal (directed by Schlingensief) was probably the most controversial of all the operas I saw. Most people I heard talking about it seemed to find it really repugant. I had the opposite reaction and found it the most moving opera I have seen. I was so affected I had to go for a walk in the first interval to recover my equilibrium.

I bought an icecream to help recover. The man in the queue behind me was making very loud aggressive remarks about how awful he found Schlingensiefs´s Parsifal and the man in front of me remarked to his wife that those were his thoughts entirely. I wandered off down to the lovely park (the intervals are one hour long) in front of the Festspielhaus. I noticed a group of young people sitting having a picnic and as I wandered past I asked if they were enjoying the performance. Two young glowing female faces turned towards me and nodded . The looked at me shyly, not quite sure of my reaction. I told them I was delighted to find at least someone who thought it as good as I had.

Need that jumper

The paper today reported that July temperatures in northern Germany were 5 degrees C above normal.

I imagine people going to Bayreuth for the second ring cycle (now playing) packed for hot weather. They will be feeling the cold as in the meantime it has turned really cold. Here in Hamburg it is cold enough for the heating to be turned on and I read that in central Germany it is even colder. 12-16C. Brrr! I was going to leave my jumper here and travel lighter to Bayreuth (and home) - that would have been a bad move.

Harvest time in Hamburg

The rye field around the corner from where I am staying is ready for harvest. It glows golden in the evening light. 

Horses

Horses are a feature of the fields around Rissen and in June I spent a good deal of time drawing them. In June many of them had foals - but not this beautiful black stallion. 

Walmdachhaus in Rissen, Hamburg

This thatched roof house in Rissen village has just been renovated and is occupied by the local real estate agent.

Back in Hamburg

I am back in Hamburg. Arriving at the airport felt like coming home. It has been hot but now the first feel of autumn is in the air, a reminder that Hamburg is very far north.

When I open ´blogger´from here everything appears in German. The machines must know which country you are logging in from.

Suspension Bridge at Clifton

This is the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. It appears on many postcards of Bristol and is the city icon.
More paintings of Bristol here

Bristol

Bristol is a pretty place, built on steep hills, population of 400,000 and a tidal river that runs into the sea. Why did I expect a big industrial town?

There is a replica of an old ship in the harbour of the type that would have sailed from Bristol to discover the new world a century before the ships of convicts set sail for Sydney.

View from the espresso bar

 

Watching the world pass by

 

Bristol

Today I decamp. Off to Bristol about an hour north of Frome which I have not visitied before but heard nice things about. Then onwards to Germany.

High heels and cobblestones

Walking with high heels is a challenge at any time, but particularly walking down the steep cobbled lane called Gentle Street. I followed this young woman down Gentle Street as she carefully place each heel on a cobble.




The street eventually leads to St Johns Church. There was a service on but a pianist rather than an organist so I didn't stop to listen but went on to La Strada which is just down the steps on the other side.

(I discovered while writing this that if you mis-type high heels, you get high hells.)

Paintings of Frome here.

Ethel

My walk this morning took me past this church where I hovered a while to listen in case there was an organist playing.









As I listened I looked at the view from the front of the church over the graveyard. Then I stooped to look at the inscription on the wonky stone at the front.


















Ethel
Only and Beloved Child of
Philip and Kate Edinger
Died July 11 1898
Aged 14 years.

Rook Lane Chapel

Today I walked the Frome historic walk. This is the Rook Lane Chapel built in 1707 . It is, to quote the tourist brochure, a grade 1 listed building and the front is one of the most beautiful facades in Somerset. It was recently rennovated and is now an arts centre.

Somerset and the other English counties.

Its raining today, probably much more like normal Somerset weather.

People here refer to places by county and today I asked a woman at the tourist office for a map of English counties. However, if such maps exist, the tourist office doesn't have them. The have lots of information about Dorset, Sussex, Kent or Cornwall but no maps to show where they are.

It is a bit like the suburbs of Sydney. Everyone takes them so for granted no one thinks to produce a map.

£ and $

Goods seem to cost as much in pounds as they do in Australia in dollars. The only problem is that £1 = A$2.5

Good coffee

This is La Strada coffee shop at the end of Cheap Street in Frome, my second home at the moment. I read about the current Bayreuth Ring Cycle (post below) while I was at La Strada this morning. My post of 22 July (Pretty Frome) shows the shops opposite La Strada.
It is a quaint place and the coffee is excellent.

Three stars only

Today's Guardian had a very scathing piece about Rhinegold and Die Walkure, the first two operas of the new version of the Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. The reviewer was disappointed by the production and some of the singers but praised the orchestra. Three stars out of five they gave it.

St Johns

This is St Johns, the church where the schoolchildren performed the Ring Cycle last Tuesday. Built in the 13th Century but largely rebuilt in the 18th century.