Apologies for the many photos for today, but we had a huge day wandering around Santa Fe.
First a few pictures from Lighthouse Inn, America's Best Value Inn, which we think is tremendous value at less than $46 per night including all taxes. So good, that we added 2 more nights to a total of 4 nights.
Best value so far on our trip.
The rooms are small, but given the available space, they are configured to perfection. Pretty much everything that you need while traveling as a tight arse is there, except cooking facilities and a microwave oven (the latter in a common area).
The Motel has an enormous indoor pool and spa, in sort of a greenhouse environment. Given the cool air outside and the heat of the pool and the spa, the plants just love it.
Continental breakfast is included, but this is continental breakfast on steroids. There is even a waffle iron there so you can make yourself waffles in the morning.
On to today's activities. We drove the car into town and parked one block away from The Plaza which is considered the absolute centre. Below is a picture from The Plaza.
This building, Palace of the Governors, is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the whole of US, dating back to 1610 (or so they claim). We didn't go in, it wasn't yet open when we got there, so we saved that for another day.
And yes, outside the building were the Native Americans selling the goods...
On The Plaza, it looked like these guys were taking down Christmas Lights... It's the 5th of February today!?!?
In the centre of The Plaza, there is a memorial from times gone. This side of the memorial had the word "savage" in front of "Indians", but that had been chiseled away at a later date.
The Old Santa Fe Trail is on the eastern side of The Plaza, where this stone is.
Eventually, we moved on north and stumbled onto this very imposing US Court House. The lady in front there claims that she is innocent...
And behind the Court House was this other fantastic building, Scottish Rite Masonic Center. Open for inspection by appointment only, so we may do just that later after talking to a lady who worked there and was in the process of doing a tour with some other people.
Now, Santa Fe is a very arty city as you will see later, but not all of it is good. We found this portrait next to Paseo se Peralta road.
There are some seriously beautiful private dwellings in Santa Fe. Note that this is also next to the Masonic Center that you can see left back.
We were short of cash, needed an ATM, but could only find a drive-in ATM. So Di "drove" up there without a car. Of course, the sign under the arrow here says that pedestrians are not allowed for safety reasons...
Note to Australia's banks. Branches don't have to look crap. See the photo of the branch below. All very tasteful.
We found this quite funny. A parked truck belonging to the Supreme Court with a snowplow at the front. Well, you got to get the baddies to court regardless of the weather.
We stumbled onto Santa Fe's Administrative Offices Building below, and it looked so interesting that we just walked in, intending to be dumb Aussie tourists if anybody objects.
Well, we did not need to worry. First a bloke at ground floor level suggested that we walk up the stairs to check out murals. Then a lady, Amanda, gave us a private tour of the upper level, including taking us into this "meeting room" as she called it.
Di and Amanda below. We just love the New Mexico flag to the right in this picture.
The flag is a Zia sun symbol, inspired by a design found on a 19th century water jar from Zia Pueblo. Apparently, 4 is a significant number for the Zia people, representing all different kind of things including seasons, times of day and life's four divisions.
After getting all different kinds of information and travel advice from Amanda, we decided to give her a stuffed koala as a present. She got quite emotional and wanted to hug us and we both gave her a peck on the cheek. We are still not sure whether this very Australian custom worked with her as she seemed a bit taken back by it. Oh well...
Moving right on to Burro Alley, where they celebrated the burro in all kinds of ways.
A man and his burro...
OK, we just love the architecture in Santa Fe. This is residential.
The Santa Fe railyard district is some blocks west of the centre. It was all nice and still very much a railway station, but a bit touristy for us. There is a visitors centre and a character called Joe Guthrie offered us advice. Funny strange African American man with white Afro hair and lots of jokes about himself. We could not work out if he was serious when he said he took this job to get him off the streets - he certainly could have blended in with homeless people!
Although, we liked this setup with the snow-clad mountains in the background.
An example how tastefully things are done here. They are building a new judicial complex downtown and even the portaloos are colour coordinated.
Time to go political at the New Mexico State Capitol, aka The Roundhouse as it looks like the Zia sun symbol from above. Here we are outside the front of the building.
The building has 3 storeys above ground with the senate and representative floors below ground. The middle of the building is referred to as the rotunda as it is open on the top 2 levels and this photo is taken from level 3 of the 4 looking down at ground floor level, or level 2.
We were amazed as one can just walk in from the street, with backpacks as we had and nobody raises an eyebrow.
We went up to level 4 where we found New Mexico's Lieutenant Governor John A Sanchez's office, where we spoke to an intern sitting just outside.
We also went into the Senate, where proceedings were announced to start at 1.30pm, presumably after lunch. It didn't start until 1.37pm, chaired by John A Sanchez, but as we have heard a few times now, things go slow in New Mexico.
First, one of the Senators started to talk about a BBQ held in Valencia County and how good it was and asked the chairman whether he had an opportunity to sample it. And LG John A Sanchez says that he did, and it was very good and nobody does BBQs like Valencia County.
They do things differently in New Mexico. All very cool and relaxed. The senators are not even paid a salary.
After some 10 minutes hearing motions being passed, we moved on to Canyon Road, the art strip of Santa Fe.
Here are a few samples of art from Canyon Road, sometimes with us distorting the pictures...
Well, this building below was built some 300 years ago and not to Northern Europeans standards.
Comfortable rock chair.
Good dog.
Mark Twain and Hans.
Moving on again, this is inside St Francis Basilica Cathedral. They have here the oldest venerated Madonna of USA. Brought here by the Spanish in 1625.
And then we moved on to the Loretto Chapel across the street, now privately owned and with the "legendary miraculous staircase". No nails, dowel, glue or anything else holding it together is visible, only craftsmanship of its day, 1882. It is not even supported by the wall when used by the choir. The handrails were added later. Unfortunately, you are no longer allowed to climb it.
After a long day exploring the centre of Santa Fe, we searched in vain for mexican hot chocolate. The famous Kakawa restaurant was closed for renovations and 2 other places had various problems with ingredients or equipment!
We went back to the motel and had a spa and swim in the greenhouse before going across the road to an Asian restaurant called... Asian Restaurant. Mixed Chinese and Japanese food, with Tiramisu and other cakes offered for dessert. Fun place. We had a window booth, where we overlooked... the parking lot of a shopping centre, a service station, shops in the distance and the busy road outside. Food was fine.
The waitress who served us was Romanian as you would expect in Santa Fe... Not. We chatted with her for a while, having been here for 3 years and of course, there was a man involved.
Back to the motel after that. Long day. Good night.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment