"The Rope Street" Brasov's Narrowest street

Problem
We ran up and down the street looking for the entrance to the Rope Street. It's tiny!

How wide is it? Usually I carry a full up tape measure on holiday. This time I didn't. Holding a tape measure would have made a good photo. Fortunately somebody else measured the alley. Apparently it is 111-135 cm wide and 80 m long.

It is not that hard to find. It is marked on the map you can pick up at a hotel or restaurant or stand in Brasov.

Old
The passage way dates back to the 13th century, even older than it sounds because that's the 1200s. Once you have found it, you walk it from end to end.

Holes and Graffiti
It's quite colourful. But spoiled in some places by holes and graffiti.

Touch The Sides
You can reach across and touch both sides for a photo.

Umbrella
I tried taking a photo of my umbrella - mainly because my umbrella was already up because of the rain. Turn a bad photo situation to our advantage.

A romantic legend says that lovers who kiss in Rope Street will stay together for ever.
to find it on a map look for Strada Sforii. (Strada is Romanian for street, like the Italian film name La Strada meaning The Street.)

When you come out of the alley, you are only a few steps from another photo opportunity, the colourful old synagogue.

Angel Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on Basov, Romania and other countries and learning Romanian. Please share links to my posts.

Horses Statues in Haymarket - horses, history, and Harrow

London has lots of equestrian (horseback) statues but one which I have seen several times from passing buses in the horses statue on the corner of Haymarket. Four horses.

Often from the bus you see the horses. Or when walking past on the other side of the road towards Trafalgar Square you see the horses, the base half obscured by tourists enjoying a photo opportunity underneath the massive statue.

I thought they were new. I googled horses and Piccadilly and was astonished to see in Wikipedia that they had been there since 1992 - more than twenty years ago!

When I talked about the horses to family, they immediately said, "Four horses of the Apocalypse?" No. That is from the bible.

These horses are the four horses of Helios, Greek god of the Sun. In those days you kept horses in pairs to pull large chariots.

From Wikipedia I checked Helios and discovered: "Helios was described as a handsome titan crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night. In the Homeric hymn to Helios, Helios is said to drive a golden chariot drawn by steeds (HH 31.14–15); and Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery names: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegm."

A few paragraphs on, about Helios, up pops another story about the horses: The son borrows Dad's car, in this case a chariot, and can't control it. (So - what's new! 'Nothing new under the sun,'we say.

The horses are shown rearing up on their hind legs. That makes room for you to stand underneath for a photo with the legs forming a frame overhead.

The statue looks black. That is fitting to show black horses. Black will not show marks and rain like white horses. It was a surprise to me that the material is bronze.

The plaque underneath was a bit hard to read. But If you enlarge the picture you can see the details.

My research in Wikipedia revealed whole sections of tables of columns divided horizontally showing facts and photos about statues around London and historical statues in London by Borough. Also listed are organisations connected with plaques and monuments.

Still at the back of my mind is a hope that one day we will have statues to Mrs Beeton and Heath Robinson.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.

Art on the Underground Railway Stations of Hong Kong

The giant apple on the concourse of Kennedy Town MTR station in Hong Kong was a photo opportunity too good to miss.

Why is the area called Kennedy? Was the apple related to the Big Apple (advertising and marketing nickname for New York) or the Apple computers, phones and watches?

Days later, after leaving Hong Kong, going through my photos, I looked up the origin and meaning of the statue.

The split apple represents the past and future of the area. Inside the apple are the seeds. hand prints of local people passing by are on the outside. The material is stainless steel. It is named Blooming Bud.

You can read about the artworks on all the stations in Hong Kong.

More details from:
http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/community/art_archi_ket_blooming.html

Singapore Celebrations

Singapore is always colourful with bright flowers and blocks of flats and malls and individual houses painted pastel colours or vivid colours, always contrasts.

In August 2016 Singapore is celebrating and the banners and red and white flags will be on public buildings and private housing all over Singapore. A wonderful photo opportunity and very jolly and heart-warming and colourful.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.