Cathedral Porsche

A special photo for me, as it is from my very first trip (of now over 40) to the United Kingdom, for which I have a huge affinity.

I had started in London, driving southwest to the edge of The New Forest where I spent my first night at Chewton Glen. I had kept a clipping about it from our paper for several years. Look it up, it’s fabulous, and now costs much more than I paid!

I did a grand tour, through Bath, Stratford-on-Avon, on up towards York, where I watched The Grand National with some lads at a local pub, and had dinner at another pub, this time right at Hadrian’s Wall. I was the first customer of the evening (it gets dark so early winter of course), and the pub was so warm and inviting. I asked the bar maid if I could take a photo. When she said yes, I went to the car and got my cameras, and snapped a few as she watched.

When I went back to my seat to await my meal, she looked at me and asked, “Are ya’ mad keen on photography, then?” I replied in the affirmative, of course!

I arrived in Edinburgh on that Saturday night and spent two nights at The Caledonian, a grande dame of Edinburgh hotels.  I spent Sunday exploring, going to the castle ( which on first sight looked like a Disney set, it was so awesome), and exploring around The Royal Mile. You can find a photo from there in “Tea Time.”

This was many years ago, so I don’t have any notes about the exact location, but I came around a corner and this scene just exploded into my view. The bright red of the Porsche, such a symbol of modern technology and design, contrasting with the dark gray backdrop of the church, which had to have been hundreds of years old. The visual juxtaposition was wonderful.

Again, back in the days of film (1985 actually), which meant my trusty Kodachrome, famous for its “Kodachrome reds.” And it did not disappoint.

The water drops from the on-and-off showers of that March day are visible on the car, in a addition to wetting, and darkening, the pebbled street and sidewalk.

This was a popular photo on a Porsche Facebook group a year or two ago.