Once again, I booked a hotel through an online site. I found out that the owners really don’t care for these sites, as the booking sites take a large commission. You live and learn. If it’s a corporation, the people running the hotel don’t care that much. However, when it’s family owned and operated, they are a bit grumpy.
This would be another place I’d advise avoiding, if I could remember the name of it.
And this hotel was a bit dumpy. More than an bit. I was really glad that I wasn’t going to be there long. However, there was a lovely little Mexican restaurant on the other side of the parking lot. I went over to see what they had on the menu.
It looked good, so I settled in for dinner.
They started me out with chips and beans. I love beans! I think this is going to be good!
Next came the horchata I ordered. I really enjoy horchata. There are lots of different recipes, some more to my liking than others. As I remember, this was a good mug of horchata.
Dinner came. I got the tamale plate. Yum! Tamales are my favorite!
Everything was so good that I decided to indulge in dessert.
Flan! My goodness, what a treat!
The night passed uneventfully, and I looked up a good place for breakfast in Asheville. Whatever source I consulted gave high marks to Early Girl Eatery. I made my way there and circled about until I found a place to park.
Apparently, there was very little gardening going on in the community garden that morning, although I’m sure the plants were soaking up the sun and doing their photosynthesis thing.
According to a sign on the fence, this garden is part of the Asheville Edibles Community Garden Program, and it opened June 1, 2017, just about a year before I visited. Volunteers have been working to transform a city-owned gravel lot into a garden that will provide area gardeners the opportunity to nurture and share organic vegetables, herbs and flowering pollinator plants.
So, not only is it an oasis for people, it’s an oasis for bees, too.
Just up the street was a monument that attracted my interest.
It was a facsimile of the guest registry of the Battery Park Hotel, with some of the more famous signatures inscribed on it.
Just in case you can’t make out the signatures,
here’s a list of the famous folks.
Now, this was really fast-and-furious tourism. I should have taken better notes, but I still had a long drive ahead of me so that I would be in position for the next week’s grain collections. I headed toward the restaurant.
There was a short wait, so I went out to the street to enjoy the beautiful weather and to see what I could see.
I noticed that they had a yarn bombing project going on. Here is a parking meter all decked out.
Right by the sidewalk vendor is a lamp post with some opossums. I wonder if they droop when they get wet?
The patches with the numbers on them piqued my curiosity. I wondered what the numbers represented, but, then again, I guess getting people to notice things and wonder is part of the purpose of art.
I wonder if selling yarn might also be part of the purpose, as Purl’s Yarn Emporium is in the same block. My Preferred Source says that yarn bombing originally started as a way for fiber artists to use up their left over yarn and unfinished projects, so maybe I am being overly cynical.
The window had a really cute display. With that, it was time to head back to the restaurant. I’d hate to miss my name being called!
I was escorted to a lovely dining room. I looked over the menu and placed my order.
While I waited, I enjoyed my coffee and some sort of quick bread. I remember it as being tasty, but I don’t remember what it was.
My granola arrived. What lovely presentation! As I used to tell my mother, when I’d use cookie cutters to make her toast into hearts, “Presentation is everything!”
Before I left, I decided to skip to the loo. Well…use the restroom. I don’t do muck skipping anymore. Come to think of it, I couldn’t get the hang of skipping when I was a kid. Have you ever known someone who had to go to remedial gym class? I don’t know that it made a difference.
Back to the fly-by tourism.
I approve of the receptacles that put out to handle people’s unwanted items. They make it clear that “throwing something away” is a myth. There is no “away.” Things get recycled or they get placed in a landfill.
I took a different route back to my car and I happened upon the Asheville Pinball Museum.
It wasn’t open until 1:00 on Sundays, but I didn’t have enough time to play $15 worth of pinball. I might have gone in and looked around, because FREE is one of my favorite words, but it wasn’t open. I kept moving.
I came upon the Basilica of St. Lawrence.
It’s Sunday. It’s a church (excuse me – Basilica) so I imagined I might be able to take a peak inside.
The doors were open, so I headed inside.
The tympanum has a lovely terra cotta insert. I am not sure if you would call it a mosaic or bas relief sculpture. I don’t think I had ever seen this sort of ornamentation in a tympanum before. But, maybe I had. Time to go inside.
My goodness! An oval dome!
The pattern in the brickwork reminded me of the churches I’d seen in Spain more than 40 years ago. (Where does the time go?) Interestingly enough, it was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Gustavino.
According to my Preferred Source, the dome has a span of 58 by 82 feet and is reputed to be the largest, freestanding, elliptical dome in North American. This style of dome is referred to a Catalan vault.
The building is remarkable, there are no beams of wood or steel in the entire structure. All walls, floors, ceilings and pillars are of tile or other similar materials. The roof is of tile with a copper covering.
Just inside the door was a statue of St. Lawrence. You could tell it was St. Lawrence even without reading the plaque on the base because he is holding symbols of his martyrdom: a gridiron and a palm branch.
The prefect of Rome had him placed on the gridiron over hot coals because he wouldn’t turn over the wealth of the church to him. He is holding a palm branch in his right hand, which is a symbol of martyrdom. According to legend, after he had suffered pain for a long time, Lawrence cheerfully declared, “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!”
Incidentally, St. Lawrence is the patron saint of cooks, chefs, and comedians.
While we are on the topic of saints and their symbols, you can tell that this statue that was in the crossing area of the church is Saint Peter because he is holding the keys to heaven and the gospels.
And this is Saint Peter. He is holding shamrocks and his staff in his left hand and he is wearing the bishop’s mitre on his head. I’m not sure what he is holding in his right hand.
In addition to the two male saints’ statues, there were also two female saints honored.
Here is Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, who was beheaded in second century Rome.
The other statue is of Saint Rose of Lima, the first person born in the Americas to be canonized.
I found another source for information. According to information from the basilica, “Above the main altar stands a tableau depicting the Crucifixion. It is from the 17”’ century and it is hand carved walnut showing Mary, the Mother of Christ, and John, the beloved disciple.
The wall behind the altar is called a reredos. It has been executed in polychrome terra cotta and bears life size reliefs of the four evangelists, Matthew and Mark on the left; Luke and John on the right. Flanking the tableau are Michael the Archangel at the left and the Archangel Raphael at the right.
The altar was originally the base of the back altar. After Vatican II it was brought forward to enable the celebrant to face the congregation. The altar table was added when the base proved too low. Made of Tennessee marble and in the shape of a simple boat, it is a duplicate of the altar table of Pope Paul VI, and was created by the same artist, Napoli. In art a boat symbolizes the Church.”
The terra cotta replica of Da Vinci’s Last Supper is on the front of the altar.
The cathedra is the bishop’s seat. Sometimes it is referred to as the bishop’s throne. Obviously, the seat on the right is for the bishop. The one on the left is for other participants in the mass.
You can see the crossed keys of Saint Peter, which is one of the symbols that lets you know you are in a basilica. On the diocese’s shield, you can see the conopaeum, a silk canopy designed with stripes of yellow and red, traditional papal colors.
In a side chapel, you can see the real conopaeum. In addition to the crossed keys and the conopaeum, basilicas are also entitled to have a tintinnabulum, which is a bell mounted on a pole and carried processionally, at the head of the clergy on special occasions. I guess the tintinnabulum was in the shop. I couldn’t find it on display.
There are side altars that feature interesting tile work.
Creative tile work is found everywhere.
There is an old logo in terrazzo set in the floor. At least, I assume that it is an old logo. If it was made after the church became a basilica in 1993, I would imagine they would have included the crossed keys, at a minimum.
I spied this rosary on a kneeler, and snapped a photo of it.
The baptistry shows John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.
This marvelous German stained glass window shows the Transfiguration of Christ. He is flanked by Moses and Elijah and Peter, James, and John are at the base.
There was one last thing to check out before I hit the road.
This is the tomb of architect Rafael Gustavino. According to the translation of the terra-cotta plaque, he died with a pure heart on February 2nd, 1908.
Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see the completion of his creation. If I remember correctly, his work was carried on by his son and it was completed in 1909.
Now it is time to hit the road!
(What an appropriate bumper sticker.)