Confession
I have a confession to make....
.... I went to a starbucks. I know, its horrible. Here I am in España the land where there is a quaint cafe on every corner and I went to a starbucks. But the thing is that spaniards don´t believe in coffee (or really anything food related) to go, and I was late. The cathedral was free today and I knew I would be waiting in line, so I got myself a double short americano with a dash of cinnamon, and I loved it, no guilt.
The Cathedral here is pretty amazing and quite large. It was started in the late 1400s and completed in the early 1500s. When they decided to build it they said, "let us build a cathedral so large the world will think us mad". The cathedral also holds the remains of what is either christopher columbus or someone related to him. Apparently Spain and the dominican republic are stll in a debate over that. There was a very informative sign on the debate next to his tomb, entirely in spainish, so aside from the photos of scientists doing testing I really didn´t know what was determined. Regardless, It was a beautiful monument to the explorer.
More interesting to me was the amount of apparent rehab work that was going on in the cathedral. There were no informative signs on this, at least none that I could read. I spent quite a while trying to figure out what they were doing. There were large steel casings around the columns acting to confine them but they appeared temporary (at least I hope they are). There were also steel plates on a number of the keystones in the arches, and numerous holes in the stone ceiling. My hypothesis is that they are doing some sort of post tensioned strengthening of the masonry. But, as I said, I really don´t know. I took some pictures and will post them eventually. Perhaps some of the engineers reading this can help me guess.
On a related engineering note, I am wondering if spain is in a seismic zone. If so god help me if there is a earthquake. I don´t believe the country has ever considered putting reinforcing in masonry at least none of the new construction I´ve seen has any and most is some sort of clay tile infill in slender concrete columns and beams. Scary. There is a LOT of new construction here. From the cathedral tower I counted 15 tower cranes in one view alone. They must not be as expensive to rent here because it seems they are seldom in use. A work day seems to be 10 to 2 and 5 to 7 so I don´t think things get done as quickly.
Anyhow, enough shop talk. I´ll write more later. I´ll be in Seville until saturday when I will head to Lisbon.
Anyone know any portugese?
.... I went to a starbucks. I know, its horrible. Here I am in España the land where there is a quaint cafe on every corner and I went to a starbucks. But the thing is that spaniards don´t believe in coffee (or really anything food related) to go, and I was late. The cathedral was free today and I knew I would be waiting in line, so I got myself a double short americano with a dash of cinnamon, and I loved it, no guilt.
The Cathedral here is pretty amazing and quite large. It was started in the late 1400s and completed in the early 1500s. When they decided to build it they said, "let us build a cathedral so large the world will think us mad". The cathedral also holds the remains of what is either christopher columbus or someone related to him. Apparently Spain and the dominican republic are stll in a debate over that. There was a very informative sign on the debate next to his tomb, entirely in spainish, so aside from the photos of scientists doing testing I really didn´t know what was determined. Regardless, It was a beautiful monument to the explorer.
More interesting to me was the amount of apparent rehab work that was going on in the cathedral. There were no informative signs on this, at least none that I could read. I spent quite a while trying to figure out what they were doing. There were large steel casings around the columns acting to confine them but they appeared temporary (at least I hope they are). There were also steel plates on a number of the keystones in the arches, and numerous holes in the stone ceiling. My hypothesis is that they are doing some sort of post tensioned strengthening of the masonry. But, as I said, I really don´t know. I took some pictures and will post them eventually. Perhaps some of the engineers reading this can help me guess.
On a related engineering note, I am wondering if spain is in a seismic zone. If so god help me if there is a earthquake. I don´t believe the country has ever considered putting reinforcing in masonry at least none of the new construction I´ve seen has any and most is some sort of clay tile infill in slender concrete columns and beams. Scary. There is a LOT of new construction here. From the cathedral tower I counted 15 tower cranes in one view alone. They must not be as expensive to rent here because it seems they are seldom in use. A work day seems to be 10 to 2 and 5 to 7 so I don´t think things get done as quickly.
Anyhow, enough shop talk. I´ll write more later. I´ll be in Seville until saturday when I will head to Lisbon.
Anyone know any portugese?
posted by mnlrs at 7:50 AM
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