Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Bloemfontein City Hall

I hope you're not tired of Bloemfontein yet, but there are still a couple of things to show you.  Bloemfontein's City Hall is a stately sandstone building designed by Sir Gordon Leithe.  Even though its looks like a very old building from the outside, it was only built in 1935 and is decorated with Italian marble and  Burmese wood. I found this very interesting skull design appearing at the bottom of both the towers and thought it quite an interesting feature.My visit to…

6 Comments
12/10/2010
Uncategorized

Aurora Fete

On Saturday the Aurora Special Care Centre's annual fete took place.  Aurora Hospital is a registered private hospital dedicated to physical rehabilitation and sub acute care of the highest quality.  The fete is always well supported by the community, as it again was on Saturday, and it allows the centre to generate much needed funds for the hospital.  While I was busy browsing through the plant nursery section I heard a Scottish pipe band playing and followed the music to…

2 Comments
11/10/2010
Uncategorized

Free State flats

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not dishing the Free State. It has some stunningly beautiful areas... but not on the N1. Driving the N1 between the Eastern / Western Cape and Gauteng is like pulling teeth.  The land is flat and the road just goes on forever.  After miles and miles of flat you go up a bit of a ridge and think there would be something interesting on the other side, just to be rewarded with more road stretching towards the horizon.The only…

4 Comments
11/10/2010
Uncategorized

Twin Towered Church

The 'Tweetoringkerk' (Twin Towered Church) in Bloemfontein is one of the city's most notable buildings. It's cornerstone was laid by President Brand in 1878. It was built in the German neo-Gothic style and inuargirated on 7 May 1880.  Up to then the occasion was the biggest Bloemfontein has ever seen with about 6 000 people attending, most of them from the surrounding farms.The church has changed its face from the old Afrikaans only Dutch Reformed Church to what is now known as the…

6 Comments
10/10/2010
Uncategorized

Grave search 1

Regular readers of both my blogs probably know of my fascination with old cemeteries which leads to often posting grave pictures, specially on The Firefly Photo Files. The only reason I post most on there and not here is cause I often discover interesting grave yards in small town while on holiday and weekend outings and it doesn't fall within the Port Elizabeth area.  Anyway, due to the fact that I post these I have had a couple of people e-mailing…

3 Comments
09/10/2010
Uncategorized

Free State barb wire

The N1 through the Free State runs through a very flat and uneventful part of the country and although there wasn't really a feature to put in the background, I couldn't resist getting a barb wire shot at one of our stops.

5 Comments
08/10/2010
Uncategorized

Canon sunrise

Sunrise over the Port Elizabeth Harbour from Fort FrederickFor more sunrises and other sky related photos from photographers all over the world, visit Skywatch

11 Comments
07/10/2010
Uncategorized

National Afrikaans Literature Museum

The National Afrikaans Literature Museum in Bloemfontein is only about a block from the Fourth Raadsaal I featured yesterday.  This building originally accommodated the government structures of the Republic of the Orange Free State in the 1800s and is reminiscent of the old Cape-Dutch architecture in the area. The National Afrikaans Literature Museum, with the largest collection of Afrikaans literature and manuscripts in the world, as well as artifacts belonging to well-known Afrikaans writers, is housed in this building.Standing in…

3 Comments
07/10/2010
Uncategorized

Naval ships

Better late than never. The South African Navy recently did a joint exercises along with the navies from India and Brazil along the South African coast. Part of the exercise took place in Algoa Bay and the ships spent a couple of days in the Port Elizabeth Harbour.  The ships were open to the public on the Saturday, but unfortunately I had a prior engagement and couldn't go.  I did get a peek at the ships from the Humerail shopping centre…

3 Comments
06/10/2010