Sunday, September 20, 2009

conceptual ruins


two short, cheap and painless bus rides and i'm in the countryside on the other side of the pie of norwich, in caistor st. edmond. why? because it was the next walk in my beloved tour book after norwich city; also, because i could get there without a car. good enough reasons for me, apparently!

caistor st. edmond is the site of a purported roman ruin. in fact, the visit to the site was about as conceptual as staying home and reading a history book! [though the day was perfect and all is forgiven] let me illustrate:


through a parking lot, up some stairs, down a path---you walk, basically, on top of the old roman town wall. this is your view:



every once in a while, some signage fills in the literal blanks of what you would have seen, had you been there 1500 yrs ago:


















get the picture? here is another trans-temporal superimposition:






here's the wall as of yesterday, complete with landscaping sheep:







cut way back to 'our favorite philistines' creating our present...

anyway...i duly completed walking the square mile and pulled out my trusty guide book to map out the rest of my day on foot. once i realized that the writers were planning on having me walk considerable distance on the main road, without sidewalk nor shoulder, in the nettles and thistle, i zipped up the book in a deep, not-very-accessible pocket of my bag.


like so many travel moments, in peak despair, i looked up across the road to find this awaiting me:





















a wonderfully marked, off-road, public footpath circuit of about 6mi. around a farm! why hadn't the authors noticed this option for walkers?! so, off i set to finish a couple of hours later with a nice half-pint of abbot's ale in the local 16th century hotel bar...cheers!

3 comments:

  1. When one path closes another opens up. And what's really cool is how your state of consciousness is reflected in the last picture. The other photos are rigid and static. The last photo is alive, it feels like you could walk right into it from the computer.

    Love,

    Jay

    ReplyDelete
  2. I didn't realize that I was signed in as Melanie. Oh well, we are entity mates.

    Love,

    Jay

    ReplyDelete
  3. love the comments, jay/mel! ;-) keep 'em comin'!

    ReplyDelete