Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Around the world in... Ceilings

I am not a short person, at 5'7, but Andy is still almost a foot taller than me. In addition to repeated requests from strangers to get things from high shelves while we shop, and being asked ALL THE TIME "How tall are you?!", his 6 foot, 6 inch stature means that I spend a lot of my time looking upwards. Aside from Andy's lovely face, I also notice a lot of ceilings.  Here are some!

At the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, the ceiling is epic - about 5 floors above the ground-level atrium, this is the view upwards.

I liked it so much I took two photos.

At loads of temples in Hong Kong, giant spirals of incense hang from the ceiling - even when the ceiling is temporary scaffolding and some fabric.


At the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, they've replaced incense with all of these lanterns and banners.

The church at Dublin Castle has angry angels glaring down at you from on high.

This old cathedral in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, had the tallest ceiling but almost no decorations. Good for instilling a feeling of dread and despair, I think.

At a protestant church in St Gallen, Switzerland, the ceiling is the most awesome blue I've seen.

And when you pop next door to the Catholic cathedral, things are just ornate as hell (see what I did there? hell, church...)

4 comments:

Kari said...

These are brilliant ceilings! I rarely look up because at 5'11", it's more common that I need to look down. Clearly, though, I am missing out in the ceiling stakes.

Hannah said...

Ahhh! You wouldn't be foiled by my hide-and-seek trick, then. (Which is, of course, hide "up" because people don't generally look above eye level. Also, I haven't played hide and seek in far too long.)

Theresa said...

@Hannah, I recognise that logic from a certain young adult book series...

Carrie™ said...

I love an interesting, decorated ceiling. Far too often they are left 'cream' and boring. Love your photos.