Friday 27 May 2016

Aaahhh ......Some reflections on bridges

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This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photo is of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. I've only been to Venice once, back in 1976 on a self-guided post student 'grand tour' of Europe, and I seem to have only taken two photographs in that venerable city, or at least only two that I deemed worth keeping. We must have seen the Bridge of Sighs, but it's not one of those two photographs. One is of St Mark's Square and the other is below,showing the Rialto Bridge and a gondolier viewed artistically through poles.
From Venice we caught a train to Vienna. There was a train strike threatening and we were quite relieved when after a considerable delay the train eventually departed. I took a couple more photographs in Vienna, our next stop, including this one of what is called the Anker Clock, mounted on a bridge between buildings of the Anker Insurance Company. I probably only had a very basic instamatic camera back then. Of course if we visited again I would take a lot more shots, and at least I would be able to see them instantly and know if they were any good or not, rather than just having to bring back exposed films and hope for the best. We've been back to Vienna since 1976 but not Venice. 

There is also a Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge England, where I lived with my parents as a toddler for a year between 1953 and 1954. My mother's trip scrapbooks don't include any photographs she took of it, but the bridge is featured on a Christmas card she and Dad must have received that Christmas in 1953. 


Below is a photograph of my grandmother's cousin Ivy Power, who came to visit us while we were there, and according to the caption, Ivy and I are on King's Bridge.


Mum's scrapbook also contains a program and newspaper article about a concert held under King's Bridge on 26 July 1954, which she and Dad must have attended. The report is written in an amusing tone, but it sounds like it was a successful and enjoyable event, more or less, despite the wind and threatened rain. As it was held on a long midsummer evening, I was probably tucked up in bed sound asleep, in the company of a  baby sitter.





I've been back to visit Cambridge briefly several times since living there in 1954 but the only bridge photograph I've taken is of the Mathematical Bridge, which is the next bridge after King's. I must have been standing on the nearby Silver Street Bridge to take this shot. Cambridge should really be called Cambridges, there are so many of them over the river Cam.

                             
Photograph taken April 2011

Here are two interesting covered bridges from our travels, photographed on a wander through the old town of Nuremburg on the Pegnitz river in 2009. Very picturesque.



                           



 You can often get good reflections of the bridges and surrounding buildings in the water below, and I like this shot above taken by my husband on our recent trip. It shows the viaduct above the medieval Port of Dinan, Brittany. There's an old stone bridge below the viaduct from which several of the photographs in this little collage were taken, as we enjoyed dinner by the water on our last night in Brittany. 


Back home and far away now, (she said with a sigh), but for more reflections on bridges of all kinds and numerous other things, just click and go to Sepia Saturday #332

8 comments:

Wendy said...

Oh that Mathematical Bridge is aptly named. It reminds me of geometry class and figuring out the angles of triangles and trapezoids. I like all your pictures but the covered bridges make me SIGH too because so many in Virginia have been destroyed either by fire or decay since most were made of wood.

La Nightingail said...

A fine collection of bridge photographs. You looked like one of those cute little painted-face dolls sitting on that bridge with your Aunt Ivy. :) The Madrigal Singers river concert sounds like a lot of fun - except for the unfortunate weather. Sometimes Mother Nature just doesn't understand the importance of things. Obviously the chorus had rehearsed and planned long & arduously for such a unique undertaking!

Jofeath said...

They did well to cope with the noisy ducks and lone canoist distracting the audience, not to mention the weather.

Barbara Rogers said...

How lovely especially since you took these bridge photos on your travels!

Jofeath said...

Thanks Barbara. Of course, I have to give credit to my husband for several of those photos in the collage as well as the main viaduct photo, because there is no way I could have set up the camera on the bridge and then raced back to join the family at the cafe table in the 10 seconds allowed by the self-timer. That would have been a process sure to end in disaster, one way or another :-)

Mike Brubaker said...

Full marks with triple bonus points! Canals used to be the principal route for moving stuff easily and smoothly. Wagons and carriages were too slow and terribly bumpy. So bridges had to yield to watercraft. I wish we could see and hear these places when the waterways were the great avenues of the city.

Boobook said...

Your blog post has given me itchy feet! I want to walk over those bridges NOW.

Joan said...

I'm not a world traveler, so I really liked the tour(s) that you took us on. But I have to admit, the photo that tweaked my heart was the first -- it was busy with life viewed through the most interesting pilings.