The Cathedral of Murcia

I'd been in Murcia for 6 months and I still hadn't been inside the cathedral that is Murcia's main city attraction. If you know me, you would realise how remarkable that is. I am a lover of cathedrals. The architecture and history of these majestic buildings enthrall me in every which way possible.

I am by no means religious though. Don't get me wrong; to each their own and all that but for me it just doesn't sit well with who I am and what I believe in. I digress. Cathedrals. So after wandering the city centre this past Saturday; meandering through the streets during the siesta, I decided to enter its big, grand doors and see what I had been missing.

The facade of the cathedral

La Iglesia Catedral de Santa Maria en Murcia; the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, is the heart of the city centre. Let me first explain that the cathedral can be seen from nearly any point in the city. Murcia is by no means a big town so this isn't really a difficult feat but it is still impressive nonetheless. It is the most important monument building this southern city has to offer.

The cathedral was created  in 1394 and was built on top of a Moorish mosque. This is quite intriguing as the Christian king at the time had made a pact previously with the Muslims, stating that no mosques would be destroyed.

Anywhere you walk in
the city centre, the bell tower
can be seen.

I first entered through the museum which is a part of the cathedral. It is built on the Muslim remains. It preserves the remnants of medieval paintings and a collection of gold and silver artifacts such as beautifully detailed chalices. I found the history of each piece on display interesting and enjoyed absorbing all the facts.



After walking through the museum, I made my way inside the church. It was icy cold inside and I didn't feel that instant gratification of peace and serenity that I so hungrily look for when I enter buildings such as this one. I didn't stay long and soon enough exited the front of the church, onto the main square. I took a closer look at the facade of the building. It really is an  amazing piece of art by any standards.

The church continued to grow until the 18th century and is a beautiful mix of artistic styles. It is a brilliant summary of the architectural styles of more than 5 centuries. Its facade is Baroque with a Gothic interior.

The Bell Tower

The heart and entrails of the king Alfonso the Wise are buried under the main altar. He left them, he said in a testament, as a gift and proof of his love of Murcia and in thanks to the fidelity that the city showed him. To be honest, I don't know much about Spanish history and its kings but any king that thought it worthwhile to bury his heart in this little city is alright by me.












I came across this short video that allows you to take a look at the cathedral through the means of a summary of a new virtual tour. Take a look and see just how beautiful the heart of Murcia really is. Thanks to Romereports.com for allowing me to share this with you.

A Dash through Scotland

"This is a city of shifting light,

of changing skies, of sudden vistas.

A city so beautiful it breaks the heart

again and again."

Alexander McCall Smith

Edinburgh

Anna and me

At the last minute my friend and flatmate, Anna and I decided that I should stop in Scotland to visit her. Brilliant! I had never been to the UK before and I was going to kill two birds with one stone as I was planning to see Ireland too, and before anyone freaks out at me for saying that Ireland is NOT part of the UK, I lump the two together when speaking about that part of the world. My sincere apologies but my stubbornness prevails on this one folks.

I spent less than 48 hours in Scotland; you can't call that as seeing a country but I jammed as much as I could into those precious few hours and was lucky to see quite a bit.

Glasgow

I arrived late into rainy Glasgow but I finally met up with Anna and we walked around some of the town before giving up as the weather was clearly trying to best us in seeing whose will was greater. Ours obviously wasn't; nobody likes being cold, wet and blown away. Fortunately though we found some refuge in the coolest temporary sanctuary; The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It is one of Europe's top art galleries and, amazingly, it is free to enter.

Just chilling with the King at the Kelvingrove

Afterwards we caught the train to Edinburgh and I immediately fell in love with the city. It's the type of place I can imagine myself living in. I've only had a connection like that with a few places and Edinburgh definitely falls into that special category.

Greyfriars Bobby

The city has a smaller population than what I expected, with only about 450 thousand people but still makes it the second most populous city in Scotland. I think I forget that European countries aren't as big as South Africa sometimes.

I will have you know that during this trip I tried my utmost to master the accent of a true Scotsman and their odd (for me at least) way of pronouncing certain words. For example, 'book' is pronounced with an oo like 'soup'. They roll their 'r's and pronounce 'road' with an 'or' sound like 'board'. I became an irritating parrot; mimicking every funny sounding phrase I heard. The South African accent is by no means easy to learn but I was definitely not having much luck with the Scottish one.

The next day we adventured into the cold city and I was captivated by what I saw. We walked the Royal Mile; a succession of streets that form the Old Town that lead up to Castlehill with the Edinburgh Castle. Not that I even knew that the city had one of those; shows how much I know about the world. The walk is quite famous. Where else could you stroll down the tail of a long-extinct volcano?

Funny faces at the Camera Obscura

We stopped at the Camera Obscura and took some quirky photos of ourselves in the illusion mirrors.

We walked through the German Christmas market and ate traditional bratwurst and chatted in a coffee shop whilst drinking mulled wine, something I'd never fancied before. We visited the Writer's Museum which I thought was pretty impressive. The museum celebrates three well-known Scottish writers; Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. 

Quotes by various authors are captioned outside the
Writer's Museum

Two days is hardly any time at all in the grand scheme of anything so before I knew it I was off to Portugal for another whirlwind of an adventure but my Christmas trip would not have been the same if I didn't visit my dear friend in the land of the Scots; leaving more world wise and only bringing a love of a country into my heart.

Edinburgh