THE COTSWOLDS, ENGLAND

   Minack Theater   

         In the early 1920s a young girl named Rowena Cade had a vision of a theater by the bay to be built into the granite cliffside. She set out to accomplish just that. With the help of a couple men she did create and build a perfectly gorgeous theater in the most spectacular setting. The theater seats 750 and is truly magnificent. The acoustics are nearly perfect.

We watched part of a rehearsal for an upcoming play, and seated halfway in the theater we could hear everything word---without the use of any microphones. The summer theater season runs 17 weeks and puts on mostly Shakespearean plays.

            Ms. Cade never married. This was her life’s work. Fortunately she lived until 1983 so she could enjoy the fruits of her labors.  There were interruptions, like WW II and hardships along the way, but her dogged determination produced a positively lovely theater. Flowers were growing everywhere in the theater in the form of rock gardens. The ocean many many feet below made a wonderful backdrop for the theater.

            What a wonderful lasting legacy. The scenery and surroundings are superb!

 Unusual Wall Covering

          In one English castle I visited the walls in the ‘king' room were covered with the most magnificent Chinese wall paper. It actually consisted of many oblong canvas panels about 40 X 24", floor to ceiling.

A docent told us, “No two full-length panels are the same. The design depicts all seasons, except winter, with trees, flowers, and birds. About two feet from the floor on each panel you’ll see a different decorative vase/jar. The birds are done in pairs, but no two pair are the same.

            “In days of old, wallpaper was precious, and when one moved they took their wallpaper with them, therefore the ‘paper’ is not glued to the walls.”

 It appeared to be stretched canvas, and the designs matched perfectly at the seams. All I could think of was what a job it would be to move and reassemble all those panels—like a Chinese puzzle!

Bamberg, Germany

               BAMBERG’S CATHEDRAL

      In Bamberg, Germany it was a gradual uphill climb to the Cathedral where the docent said, “The Cathedral  is the origin of the city. The large 15^th century buildings along the side of the Cathedral  originally housed the kitchens and stables. In the Middle Ages the Cathedral was painted and the paint was not removed until the 19^th  century.  This is the third Cathedral built on this site. The first burned in 1007 and the second one also burned. This structure was built in 1237 and is of Romanesque and Gothic design. Instead of building from the ground up this was built from side to side.”

       Before going into the Cathedral we walked out to the rose garden which was in full bloom. The garden contains 4500 rose bushes in 40 varieties.  From here we had a panoramic view of the city below. It was a clear, cloudless, hot day. Easily visible were the old medieval curved streets with the houses built helter skelter, not in neat little rows. All the old buildings except the church had tile roofs. The church had  a slate roof. Slate had to be imported and only the church was rich enough to afford it.

        In the distance high on a hill we could see St. Michael’s, a monastery built in 1015. The docent told us, “There is a heavenly garden there---a flower fresco painted on a ceiling. At one time there were several orders of monks here including Franciscan, Benedictine, and Dominican. There are none now, and there are only four nuns left. Monks established the first brewery. During lent they fasted, but were allowed 4-5 liters of beer a day.”

       There was no stained glass in the church, as the windows were removed years ago. However, there has been discussion about replacing them. The columns inside were stone and there was statuary along the walls. Pope Clement I, who was pope only nine months, is buried in the church  making it  the only papal grave north of the Alps. The Prince Bishop was the religious, spiritual and political leader, something unique to southern Germany. The 16^th century sarcophagus contains the bodies of Henry II and his wife, Kunigunde.

      The docent explained, “The Bamberg Horseman (1235) here in the cathedral was the first life-size sculpture made. He is in 16 pieces and is attached to the wall. Note the crown over his head.  He symbolizes the order of things, first the ground and plants, then the animal, followed by man and finally God.”

      Moving onto the left side of the Cathedral, she continued, “This Christmas altar is carved of linden wood and dates to the 1520s. Over the centuries parts of it have been lost as we think it originally was twice the size of these five panels.” Then he briefly described what was depicted in each panel.

      Leaving the Cathedral the guide stopped by a pair of rather primitive 1000-year-old stone lions that once stood outside the original cathedral. It is not certain what effect a thousand years of weather have had on the lions or what they might have originally looked like. Very likely the sculptor never had seen a real lion. Locally the pair of creatures is nicknamed cathedral toads.