Time marches on
My friend Daniel has been writing about the 'Great clocks of Christendom'. Something I haven't thought about in years.I have always been fairly adventurous, and independent. The best example of that is that as a teenager I backpacked alone through Europe. It was a wonderful experience and I would say that in many ways it defined who I am today.
One of the things it added was a ridiculous amount of experiences of random fun facts or knowledge and experiences about random things. Like the great clocks of Europe.
I can understand how Daniel has become fascinated by them. I have wonderful memories of several famous clocks.
The picture above is from the clock in Prague. I had a couple of lovely times with friends I met along the way eating a great lunch on the square as we watched the clock and enjoyed it's beauty.
In Munich I visited the toy museum in the city center (which I am pretty certain would not interest Daniel) and then stood around in the Marianplatz to watch the famous clock. It was so charming that I stayed to long and missed my train!
I don't know why American cities don't have anything like these clocks. I imagine that it is a result of the fact that our civic buildings tend to be built on a Roman/Greek template. Lots of white marble and pillars... not much room for a tower with a fun clock.
I imagine that if Daniel could design a clock he could convince Mayor Daley to build it... after Millennium Park I am convinced that 'da Mayor' will build anything for the city in the name of civic pride and tourism.
Barring that I think it is up to Daniel to wrote that pretty coffee table book of Clocks of Christendom... first stop - Munich. While there he should keep an eye out for one of my favorite features of the building the clock is in. There is a very cool Dragon climbing up the side.
posted by Mary Martha @ 6:51 PM
8 Comments:
I visited the toy museum in the city center (which I am pretty certain would not interest Daniel)
Actually, I love antique toys. I said (yesterday - really!), that if I could choose any profession in any place in history, I would first choose a 13th century French architect, second choose an 8th century Northumbrian scribe, and third choose a 19th century Bavarian toymaker.
In college (to spite my sculpture professors, mostly) I tried my hand at making hand-carved wooden toys. I made a few hobbyhorses, and a lizard with a wheel appararus that makes its arms crawl as you push it along the floor. Thay're at my mother's house - I'll try to take pictures of them sometime.
Had I regular access to a woodshop, I'd probably take up toymaking again.
And Munich and Prague are the two cities in Europe I'm most anxious to visit. Toledo is third, and I'll probably have a chance for that next year.
http://www.clocks.org/
here's an interesting site i found-
of US public clocks-
Your cities's municipal buildings have no clocks such as those, because they were built not by Catholics but by Freemasons...
But Masons can also build cool clocks, given the initiative - look.
It just goes to show that you can never guess what would interest other people. Then again, it does seem fitting that you would have a list of potential historical careers. A thought I have never considered.
The toy museum was actuallly quite charming - located in a very cool tower in the old town hall.
You have great taste in wanting to visit Munich and Prague. One of my very favorite cities is Prague.
Hey, frog the Masons!
maybe if the clock was in the shape of a giant bean, the mayor would go for it.
Ironically, time stands still on this blog...
;-)
-J.
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