INDIA: GUWAHATI - MAA KAMAKHYA AND TIRUPATI BALAJI TEMPLES

 December 16, 2024

Our traveling companions were not going to arrive until late in the evening, so we had planned a tour of some of the religious sites in Guwahati, the largest city in the Indian state of Assam. Assam is a little finger of India that stretches to the east in between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Guwahati has a population of over a million people and is one of India's fastest-growing metropolises. In India, with population comes pollution, and that is definitely a problem in Guwahati. In fact, in 2023 it was ranked the second-most polluted city in the world (ahead of Delhi).

Here is the view from our hotel window:

At 3:30 in the afternoon, shortly after we checked into our hotel, we were picked up by our guide, Shyamol Gogoi, a young man working on a master's degree in Tourism Organization. I'll say right at the beginning that if you need a guide for Guwahati, he is an outstanding choice. 

It took just a few blocks of navigation by the expert driver that accompanied Shyamol to validate all the advice we had read that tourists should not drive in India. The traffic doesn't look bad here, but believe me, it was. Besides, as passengers we were free to marvel at the colors and designs that make India India. Take a look at these painted concrete pylons holding up the highway. 

Our first stop was the Hindu Maa Kamakhya Temple, perched in the hills above the city. I loved the markets that line the streets on the approach to the entrance. They were selling a few tourist items, but also items that are part of Hindu temple worship.

INDIA, DECEMBER 2025: LAX TO GUWAHATI

December 14-16, 2024    

We've been wanting to go to India for a while, but the timing never worked out. A few years ago it was not our year to have everyone home for Christmas, and I made the casual comment to Bob that next time it wasn't our year, I wanted to be traveling instead of sitting around at home. He took that as a green light for India and began planning. Once Bob starts planning, well . . . 

We drove to LAX on Saturday, December 14. We were trying out a new parking structure--105 Airport Parking--and couldn't find it. It turns out it had changed names to South Bay Parking, but no notice had been sent informing us of that change. It turned out to be a bit of a dump, and not a place we would recommend. There was only ONE available parking spot in the whole place, and it was on Level 6, the top floor. Of course, the elevator was broken, so Bob dropped me off and unloaded our luggage before going up (and then taking the stairs down after he parked).  We waited and waited and waited in a decrepit waiting room for a shuttle.  After at least a half hour, we gave up and called an Uber, which cost $18. 

Luckily, we always leave ourselves lots of time when we take international flights out of LAX as we never know what kind of traffic we will be facing on the LA freeways. We had time for a pizza at Wolfgang Puck's before flying to San Francisco Airport, where we again had plenty of time and enjoyed some clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. 

The plan was to meet up in India with my sister Chris and her husband Stan, who live in Billings, Montana. While we were in the San Francisco Airport, we got a text from Stan telling us they had missed their first flight from Billings→Seattle, which meant they might be behind 24 hours or more. Later we heard that they found a Billings→Portland→Seattle flight and made it in time to make their Seattle→London flight before their London→Delhi flight. Whew.

When we boarded our Air India flight from San Francisco→Delhi, we were struck by how Indian the plane seemed. Its seats were a yellowish-orange and red, and it smelled like an Indian restaurant. 

IRELAND, DUBLIN: IRISH WRITERS WALKING TOUR, PART III (CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, THE MESSIAH, AND THE TEMPLE BAR)

 July 13, 2024

The next park of our walking tour was not particularly literary, but it was very interesting. Having just toured the largest Protestant cathedral in Dublin, St. Patrick's Cathedral, we now arrived at the largest Catholic cathedral in the city, Christ Church Cathedral. The cathedral was founded by the Vikings in the early 11th century, making it a 160 years or so older than St. Patrick's. Like all ancient churches, it was rebuilt several times, achieving its present form in the late 19th century.

The final renovations from 1871 to 1878 were funded by the whiskey distiller Henry Roe, who many have been trying to outdo Benjamin Guinness's renovations of St. Patrick's, which had been completed in 1865.

IRELAND, DUBLIN: IRISH WRITERS WALKING TOUR, PART II (ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL AND MARSH'S LIBRARY)

 July 13, 2024

After lunch we headed to St. Patrick's Park, where a church has stood for over 1300 years. Today the church on that spot is known as St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin (there are a bazillion St. Patrick's churches in Ireland), and it is not only the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland, but also the largest church building in Ireland. A small part of the present church on the site dates all the way back to its 8th century origins.

The park and cathedral are notable for a couple of reasons.  First, tradition has it that about 1500 years ago, St. Patrick baptized the first Irish Christians in a well located next to the cathedral. 

The legend is supported by this artifact: a thousand-year-old engraving of a Celtic cross on a stone that was found in 1901 six feet underground covering the remains of an ancient well. 

IRELAND, DUBLIN: IRISH WRITERS WALKING TOUR, PART I (OSCAR WILDE SITES, ST. STEPHEN'S GREEN, GUINNESS, ST. PATRICK'S PARK LITERARY PARADE)

 July 13, 2024

On our last full day in Ireland including an Irish Writers Literary Walking Tour that Bob had booked in advance with Tours by Locals. We highly recommend our guide, Adam Ladd, who was fantastic.  

We started out by paying homage to the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). We walked by the Giant's Garden Playground, named after a fairy tale written by Wilde called "The Selfish Giant." It tells of a giant who returns from a trip and finds children playing in his garden. Not wanting to share, he builds a very high wall to keep them out. His actions cause a continual winter to descend upon the garden, so not even the giant can enjoy it. When the children sneak back into the garden, the trees are so happy that they bloom and spring returns. The giant realizes the error of his ways and tears down the wall, making the garden forever available to all the children.

IRELAND, DUBLIN: THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND, THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND, AND IRISH DANCING

 July 12, 2024

The National Library of Ireland is somewhat like our Library of Congress in the United States, albeit much, much smaller--12 million items as compared to the US Library of Congress's 167 million items. Its purpose is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual life of Ireland and to contribute to the provision of access to the larger universe of recorded knowledge." This is a reference library, which means that guests can't check out a book, but can view them on the premises.

Built in 1890 in the classical style, the building houses the archival papers of some of Ireland's most prominent writers, including Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, and W. B. Yeats.

Bob was not as excited about taking a stroll through the library as I was, so he sat on a bench on the porch and I went in for a quick visit.

IRELAND, DUBLIN: THE NATIONAL GALLERY

 July 12, 2024

Our next stop was the National Gallery of Ireland, located in Merrion Square, which is in walking distance of Grafton Street. Opened in 1864, the museum has quite an extensive collection of European and Irish art.

This is going to be a simple post of photos of some of my favorite artworks from the museum--some by well-known artists, and others that are relatively unknown or at least new to me. I like keeping a record of my favorite art, and it is fun for me to see how my favorite artists keep popping up in various museums. So here we go.

Bust of Diego (1955/56)
by Alberto Giacometti

Still Life with a Mandolin (1924)
by Pablo Picasso 

Saint Peter Denying Christ (c.1610-1625)
Artist unknown

The Immaculate Conception (early 1660s)
by Francisco de Zurbaran

(Poor little angels being crushed by the Virgin's feet!)

Saint Joseph with the Christ Child (c.1637)
by Guercino

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness (1570s)
by Luis de Morales

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (1590-1595)
El Greco

Ecce Homo (1558-1560)
by Titian

Triptych with the Crucifixion and Donors (1540s)
by Pieter Coecke van Aelst

The Virgin (1530s) by Ligier Richier

Rest on the Flight into Egypt with the
Infant Saint John the Baptist (c.1494)
by Francesco Granacci

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c.1495)
by Perugino (left to right: Nicodemus, St. John
the Evangelist, body of Christ, Virgin Mary, Mary
Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea)

The Arrest of Christ (c.1641) by Matthias Storm

The Assumption of Saint Mary
Magdalene (1380s)
by Silvestro del Geraducci

Frances Katherine Chadwyk-Healey and
Her Daughter Elizabeth (1900)
by Walter Frederick Osborne

For a quick break from the artwork, take a look at the architecture of the museum. I love this shot, which looks like a piece of art itself! I really love the rich colors of the walls as well.

Only 35 paintings by Vermeer are known to exist today, and there were at least two in the National Gallery that were part of a traveling exhibit.

Mistress and Maid (c.1666-1667)
by Johannes Vermeer

Woman Writing a Letter with Her Maid (c. 1670)
by Johannes Vermeer

And another pause to check out the architectural details of this beautiful gallery:

To finish off our quick tour of the museum, we visited a gallery of portraits of great writers and one theater luminary. Seeing a room full of Ireland's artists made me realize the substantial contributions Ireland has made to the literary world.

William Butler Yeats (1900)
by his father, John Butler Yeats

Garry Hynes, Theatre Director,
Co-founder of Druid (2017)
by Vera Klute

Seamus Heaney, poet, playwright, translator,
Nobel Laureate (2007)
by Jackie Nickerson

The Composition--A Portrait
of Marian Keyes (2023) [Irish author]
by Margaret Corcoran

Samuel Beckett: Novelist, Dramatist,
Theatre Director, Literary Translator (1961)
by Reginald Gray