Saturday, 14 June 2014

Santa Fe......11th June 2014

I thought I'd make you all smile or cringe and put in a water tower !!  This taken on route from Milan to Santa Fe, NM. Not a lot of different scenery although we could imagine the early settlers and the cowboys riding the plains....
 A nice easy drive along the I-40 to Albuquerque then north on the much quieter I-25 to Santa Fe.....the song for today was of course  The King of Rock and Roll by Prefab Sprout.....our campsite for the next 2 nights is the Santa Fe Skies, on a hilltop so rather windy but pleasant views...
Next morning we take the train down into Santa Fe, wow can't praise it enough.....the station with free all day parking was a mile from our campsite, it was just a $2 return fare each, even had we not been over 62 then it would only have been $3 each ! It was a double decker, spacious and clean....it runs from Albuquerque to Santa Fe & back up until 11.00 in the morning and then starts again at 4.15 in the afternoon...had we been staying another day we would have caught it down to Albuquerque...if I type and write that enough I might eventually not have to look up the spelling !!! Our 2 buck ticket also gave us access should we want it on the city buses....
Santa Fe is the oldest and highest State Capitol in USA,  it is a neat, clean and tidy city and easy to walk.... all the buildings are the Adobe style making it rather bland as they are all more or less the same shape and colour...
This pic is typical of the many street vendors selling native arts and crafts....
The Santa Fe Cathedral....The Basilica of St Francis of Assisi......
The side view of The Loretto Chapel also showing some of the many "wind" sculptures seen throughout Santa Fe....
This is one of the main things Michael wanted to see....this amazing staircase was built between 1877 & 1881  by an unknown carpenter....it has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support and was built without nails, only wooden pegs.....to get the wood to bend the carpenter heated the 5 foot lengths in hot water...
Originally the staircase did not have bannisters, these were added  a few years later on request of the sisters of the chapel...
A highlight of Santa Fe is the half mile long Canyon Road....an art lovers dream...Michael thought he had died and gone to sculpture heaven....

The oldest house in Santa Fe.....
The oldest church which is opposite the oldest house.....
Back home and a lovely sunset to round off a very good day......
We move on tomorrow north on the I-25 to Pueblo, Colorado for an overnight stop before heading north again to  Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park......

2 comments:

  1. Hi Michael & Sue,
    All looks good the train was great value try to get that ticket price in UK I don`t think so.Staircase quite remarkable I`m sure that was a great sight to see. Well Ann and myself are about to close our cases(15/6/14) we are off to Spain with my sister so will catch up in a couple of weeks.
    Enjoy Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park

    Cheers,
    Ann & Dave

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  2. Thank you Ann & Dave, we shall miss you and your comments but have a great holiday and a good rest and relax. Dave on your return you must check out the 12/13th June there's a photo on there just fro you....
    Have fun & cheers
    Michael and Sue

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