1100 - The Gate of the Past

This is a house in Bleiburg/Pliberk, a small town in south-east Carinthia. We were there for genealogical reasons, to visit an old tombstone in the wall of the church.

I did not know Bleiburg, at least not its center. I have always taken the main road, but as I know now, this road circumvents the center for a reason: Bleiburg, although undoubtedly a town, has the small, narrow roads of a village. “Blei” means “lead”. This was a mining town, and it is obvious that it was rich during the 19^th century. The whole architecture speaks of money, and the church is bigger and more splendid than you’d expect in a small town off the main traffic routes.

The weather didn’t hold though. Shortly after we arrived, the sun vanished behind dense clouds, and on part of the way back to Villach we had rain. Still, Bleiburg is a place that we’ll have to explore - when it’s warmer again, either this year, but sure the next.

As regards the blog, you may notice that there is now an “About” page, the index of the Songs of the Day has found its way from Blogger as well, and this weekend I have added the first four portfolios. At the moment there is one portfolio of 12 images for each year, beginning with 2006, roughly one image from every month, the year 2009 not yet finished. Other portfolios will follow, and of course there will be a bicycle portfolio. I’ve used SmoothGallery from JonDesign, which itself uses the mootools JavaScript framework.

The Song of the Day is “Bel el Madhi (The Gate of the Past)” from Souad Massi’s 2003 album “Deb (Heartbroken)”. Excellent Arab/French music. Enjoy it on YouTube.