The scenery perked up as we got closer to Santa Fe. A little more hilly, a little more greenery. On the outskirts of Santa Fe, we started to see what we presume are bedroom communities, with an eclectic mix of old style pueblo houses and the typical American homes.
Santa Fe is celebrating its 400th year this year - 1610 to 2010 - and it has the narrow winding roads that are common to very old cities. When we first drove in, all we were seeing was a lot of greenery and adobe walls around single-story pueblo houses. Eventually, we found our way to the main drag, which had several lanes of traffic, and we found a cheaper room at "America's Best Value Inn - Lamplighter Motel." Long name, but what the heck. The price is right, and it's actually quite a nice little place. (Downtown hotel rooms are all prohibitively expensive.)
We head to downtown Santa Fe, and this is the most picturesque, traffic-unfriendly part of the city. We're driving in circles without being able to figure out how to get around or where we can park. Aha! There's the State Tourist Centre - we duck into their "30 minutes only or we'll tow you away" spots and go inside to ask for suggestions and a map.
The friendly worker there tells us that we can park here all day - it's a holiday, and she's not going to have us towed. She also gives us a map and marks off several things to see.
Right next door is the San Miguel Chapel, which was first built around 1610. This church is built like a tank - thick adobe walls, huge buttresses on the side. It would be more photogenic without the scaffolding, but they're doing some restorative work on it.
Another interesting church (now a private museum) is the Loretta Chapel, which has a "miraculous staircase." It is a lovely spiral staircase without a central support column. However, Wikipedia says it isn't miraculous, and that it is, in fact, "arguably unsafe". Nevertheless, it is a beautiful piece of architecture. Apparently, when it was first built, it didn't have a railing. Yikes! I don't think I'd have climbed it without a railing.
The whole downtown area is very pretty. Every building is either adobe pueblo, or a Spanish style. Even the parkades look like pueblos! (Which is why we can't find a place to park - they're too well disguised.) Provided you can find the parking, though, the downtown is very easily walkable.
Very few buildings here are more than two stories high. Even the State Capitol building surprised us - no big white dome, no giant lions. Instead, it's a tan-coloured circular building - not quite a pueblo, but not out of place either.
Even though it's the holiday Monday, a lot of the shops are open. There are many art shops, jewelery shops, clay pots and rug shops. In the main plaza, there's a virtual maze of vendors peddling their wares. In front of one wall at the Palace of the Governors, Indian vendors sell silver and turquoise jewelery, and some pottery as well.
We resist purchases for now, and retreat to the Museum of New Mexico, which we found really interesting. I'm not all that familiar with the history of the Southwest US, and Santa Fe is really an interesting mix of Spanish/Indian/American history.
We grab a bite to eat at a rooftop pizza place. Roasted chicken, green chilies and some kind of Mexican cheese I don't recognize the names of. Yum!
It's later in the day (we arrived here midday), and my feet are tired from walking. We drive around the city for a while, then head back to hotel, where I discover that our Best Value Inn has a big beautiful indoor/outdoor pool (sort of indoors in that there's a building around it, but sort of outdoor in that the roof is open to the sky) and a jacuzzi. And no one is using it.
Hmm. I didn't bring a swimsuit... but a black sports bra looks like a swim top, right? And if it's paired with black underwear, well, then no one will be the wiser, right? Ha ha! Off I go! I bounce from the poor to the hot tub, back to the pool, back to the hot tub, and I have the whole place to myself. Muahahaha - the perfect crime...
:-)
Santa Fe is celebrating its 400th year this year - 1610 to 2010 - and it has the narrow winding roads that are common to very old cities. When we first drove in, all we were seeing was a lot of greenery and adobe walls around single-story pueblo houses. Eventually, we found our way to the main drag, which had several lanes of traffic, and we found a cheaper room at "America's Best Value Inn - Lamplighter Motel." Long name, but what the heck. The price is right, and it's actually quite a nice little place. (Downtown hotel rooms are all prohibitively expensive.)
We head to downtown Santa Fe, and this is the most picturesque, traffic-unfriendly part of the city. We're driving in circles without being able to figure out how to get around or where we can park. Aha! There's the State Tourist Centre - we duck into their "30 minutes only or we'll tow you away" spots and go inside to ask for suggestions and a map.
The friendly worker there tells us that we can park here all day - it's a holiday, and she's not going to have us towed. She also gives us a map and marks off several things to see.
Right next door is the San Miguel Chapel, which was first built around 1610. This church is built like a tank - thick adobe walls, huge buttresses on the side. It would be more photogenic without the scaffolding, but they're doing some restorative work on it.
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| "Miraculous staircase" at Loretta Chapel |
The whole downtown area is very pretty. Every building is either adobe pueblo, or a Spanish style. Even the parkades look like pueblos! (Which is why we can't find a place to park - they're too well disguised.) Provided you can find the parking, though, the downtown is very easily walkable.
Very few buildings here are more than two stories high. Even the State Capitol building surprised us - no big white dome, no giant lions. Instead, it's a tan-coloured circular building - not quite a pueblo, but not out of place either.
Even though it's the holiday Monday, a lot of the shops are open. There are many art shops, jewelery shops, clay pots and rug shops. In the main plaza, there's a virtual maze of vendors peddling their wares. In front of one wall at the Palace of the Governors, Indian vendors sell silver and turquoise jewelery, and some pottery as well.
We resist purchases for now, and retreat to the Museum of New Mexico, which we found really interesting. I'm not all that familiar with the history of the Southwest US, and Santa Fe is really an interesting mix of Spanish/Indian/American history.
We grab a bite to eat at a rooftop pizza place. Roasted chicken, green chilies and some kind of Mexican cheese I don't recognize the names of. Yum!
It's later in the day (we arrived here midday), and my feet are tired from walking. We drive around the city for a while, then head back to hotel, where I discover that our Best Value Inn has a big beautiful indoor/outdoor pool (sort of indoors in that there's a building around it, but sort of outdoor in that the roof is open to the sky) and a jacuzzi. And no one is using it.
Hmm. I didn't bring a swimsuit... but a black sports bra looks like a swim top, right? And if it's paired with black underwear, well, then no one will be the wiser, right? Ha ha! Off I go! I bounce from the poor to the hot tub, back to the pool, back to the hot tub, and I have the whole place to myself. Muahahaha - the perfect crime...
:-)
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