Black and Whites

The previous shot was actually of the rear of the church. This is actually the front of it, at least as seen from the street. The church is behind a large park at the far outer border of Neustadt (from the looks of it).

Here's an alternate shot to Picture 2, zoomed in and at an angle.

This was one of the last shots that I took on this Dresden trip, and I like to think it's one of the best. It was especially hard to get since I was shooting into the sun with black and white film (Ilford FP4 125 ISO), and had to get the exposure exactly right. I've done better, but I like this one.

I also had my Zeiss-Ikon Contina with me on the Caerphilly trip also, and I had it loaded with Fomapan 100. I only selected three of the photos from that day for my Internet photostreams, though. This might be my personal favorite. I'm not sure why.

This is one of the other portals of the castle, not yet shown. As you can see, from this photo and the previous one, that the moat has also been preserved.

Here's another shot of the broken turret.

Betws y Coed means "Prayer House in the Wood," but this church isn't the original one. This is St. Mary's Church, although I don't have much more information. Betws y Coed has some significance to railway history as it was one of the original stations on the Conwy Valley Line, which was a London & North Western Railway branch that connected the Ffestiniog narrow-gauge railway to Deganwy, as this connection was necessary for the Ffestiniog's slate traffic to be carried onward via coastal shipping. I don't have information on whether the Ffestiniog's backers contributed to the L&NW's building the Conwy Valley, though.

This is Conwy Castle, one of the best-known historic buildings in Conwy County. It's preserved as-is, but is largely ruined, which isn't uncommon for European castles generally. The interiors were often wood, and usually these were destroyed by fire, often more than once. Once castles became obsolete militarily, the incentive for rebuilding eventually was lost. However, rot was also a factor. In the case of Conwy, I haven't been able to find out if fire was a factor, but maintenance was stopped in the 17th Century. The castle was originally completed in 1289 for James of St. George. One odd addition is a railway tunnel built through the castle mound and integrated into the castle's design, presumably for aesthetic reasons, in 1848.

Here's an interior shot of one of the castle's eight turrets, which were actually built like keeps. Here you can see both where the wooden floors were, and where the hearths were.

Here's a shot of the village of Conwy below the castle. Conwy is the seat for the county borough of the same name, which in turn is part of the "ceremonial county" of Clywd.

Here you can see multiple ruined portions of Conwy Castle.

Many ports and harbors throughout the world are littered with centuries of abandoned boats, and Conwy seems to be one of these. Certainly, few of these boats will ever sail again. Tracing their histories could be fascinating, as many perhaps have not been to sea within living memory. However, the descendents of their owners may still live locally.

This shot shows the road bridge to the castle mound on the left, dating in its original form to 1826, and the rail bridge from 1848 in the middle.

Here are the rail tunnels through the castle. These aren't unique in Britain, but are unusual, even surrealistic. This is the edited version, but I wasn't able to decide whether this one was better than the original. Consequently, I've posted both. The DMU was a Class 158 operated by Arriva, but I wasn't able to get the number.

Here's the original, unedited scan.

This photo had a light leak, so it was very difficult to edit it to an acceptable standard. In the end, I minimized the damage by converting it to black and white. I liked the photo, so I figured it was worth it.

Zamek Pruhonice is on a hill, and this is evidence of its heritage as a medieval castle site. Many zameks, or chateaus, in the Czech lands were originally hrads, or castles, so when "zamek" and "hrad" are translated, they are frequently both translated as meaning "castle." The Pruhonice site is of somewhat unknown origins, but written records go back to the 1270's, when the Zdislav family owned it. The oldest building nearby is the Chapel of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, but the rest of the comlex is more recent. The first renovation was in the 16th Century, and it is believed that at this stage it retained its defensive fortifications, although no pictures have been found of the castle before or after this rebuild. It is believed that the entire estate was heavily damaged in the Thirty Years War, with the current buildings probably dating to the time that Sir Antonio Binago owned it, starting in 1636. However, several more reconstructions followed in 1742-1744, 1800, and 1889-1893, with most of these reconstructions being intended to make it more habitable for the nobles who lived there. Over the years, it has served as a manor house (prior to 1669), as a monastery (1669-1685), as a manor house again (1686-1927), and came under control of the Czech government in 1927. Although it remains a tourist attraction and can be a venue for weddings and other public functions, its official use is as a laboratory for the ASCR, which roughly translated is the Czech Institute of Botany. Extensive greenhouses are maintained on site for this purpose.

This is much closer, obviously, through the parkland added to the site in the 1740's. Out of frame to the right is a tea house which is open to the public.