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Wieliczka needs a bit of explanation. It’s a 13th century salt mine that was in continuous operation until 2007, when the double whammy of low salt prices and flooding caused it to close down. But it’s still a major tourist destination, because in addition to the miles of tunnels (178 miles, to be prices) — only a tiny fraction of which are open to the public — the saline lakes, the underground churches, and the incredible architecture of supports propping the place up, there are the sculptures: all carved out of rock salt, most of them by miners, and frankly kind of amazing. This is one of the dwarves that are said to haunt the mine, lurking adorably in the darkness.

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There’s a small exhibition in the Louvre that takes you down to the foundations of the old medieval castle that were discovered beneath the museum. It includes a couple of display cases showing items from those excavations, including these medieval dominoes and dice. Photographing through glass is always hard, but in this case I’m extremely pleased at how the small details of wear and staining came through.

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Sometimes people miss out on the most amazing opportunites for merchandising.

This dragon stands in the Tower of London’s armory museum, and is constructed almost entirely of weapons and armor. Had their gift shop been selling a miniature replica, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. But whover’s in charge of that stuff is apparently an idiot; there was no such replica, and so alas, all I have are photos.

(Also? Happy Book Day to me.)

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The main structure at Sravanabelagola centers on an enormous statue of Gommateshvara Bahubali, which stands in a courtyard that frankly seems too small for it. The inner edge of the portico ringing that space is surmounted by a series of splendid carvings, and I quite liked this angle, which silhouettes the dark bell against the warm colors of the stone.

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This is one of several statues of the Apostles of Jesus outside the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Kraków. We happened to wander by it around sunset, when the light on the front was warm and lovely. And this fellow amused me because he seems to be saying, “C’mon, guys. You can trust me!”

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The Hagia Sophia is unfortunately not in the best of condition, and when we were there, fully a quarter of the interior was filled with scaffolding as they worked to conserve and restore the site. Still, I was able to get this shot of the medallions that ringed the chamber, each bearing an Arabic inscription; you can also make out some of the other decorative elements.

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This is pretty much the classic photo to take at Fushimi Inari. The site is famous for its torii, the red-orange wooden arches you see in abundance here; they are all. over. the mountain, in a dozen branching paths, leading to small shrines crammed onto every vaguely flat surface (and some that aren’t so flat). In most places the torii aren’t quite so closely packed, but when they are, they make for a very striking view.

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Sometimes the glare of a light is your friend instead of your enemy. In this case, it provides a dramatic “sun” for this sculpture of a xiuhcoatl or fire serpent, which sits in the British Museum.

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This is from the other Sainte-Chapelle, the one at the Chateau de Vincennes. (There are probably lots of other Sainte-Chapelles, but those are the two I visited.) It’s a wildly different space, with cream-colored walls painted in very few places, apart from this emblem painted on repeatedly on the ceiling high above. I, er, have a possibly obsessive tendency to photograph interesting ceilings, so of course this detail drew my eye.

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Remember that turtle head from a while ago? Here’s more context for it. I don’t have any especially good shots of the whole temple, but envision that head sticking out over the front door, the entire roof shaped like the back of a giant silver turtle, and at the top . . . this. A statue of Kannon huge enough to be seen from a mile away, with children arrayed adoringly at her feet.

I told you it was a weird place. 😛

This is one of the few photos where I haven’t just done normal editing to it. The sky was very cloudy that day, which made for very boring light; at my father’s suggestion I dropped the “aged photo” filter over it, giving the whole thing the sepia tinge you see here.

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This is Sainte-Chapelle again, this time looking the other way in the upper sanctuary, toward the rose window. As you can see, a few of its “petals” are missing; they’re doing restorations on the stained glass elsewhere, so I don’t know if those will eventually be replaced, or whether the absence of the original glass means they’ll be left as they are. Doesn’t stop it from being absolutely lovely, though.

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I ended up not writing any scenes set in Cambridge for A Star Shall Fall, but I went there during my research trip because I thought I might need to. This organ was in the King’s College Chapel, and as I am a sucker for pretty fan-vaulting, I could not resist this shot.

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I don’t even remember what exactly this thing was: a tomb, I think, with a couple of sculptures sitting on top of it, in the Vatican museum. The light on the figure’s side was just really striking.

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The Żuraw is the old medieval crane of Gdańsk: an enormously tall building with a giant treadmill-driven pulley system inside for lifting cargo from ships. Kyle and I arrived in Gdańsk late at night and discovered our hotel was just across the Motława River from the Żuraw, and so we spent a little while admiring (and photographing) the view. The stillness of the night meant the reflection was absolutely lovely.

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There was a recent Korean exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Several of the items on display were seals, all of them with turtles on top, and the turtles’ cheerfully grumpy expressions were just adorable to me. 🙂

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The upper hall at Sainte-Chapelle is bloody. amazing. Medieval churches used to be painted; this one still is, and its stained glass is an uttery glory. This is the canopy over the altar at one end of the sanctuary.

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In addition to the bamboo forest I posted before, the area around Tenryuuji in Arashiyama has some absolutely splendid moss. With the sunlight coming down, it looked utterly like a fairy realm.

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Like most of the temples we visited, Halebidu had multiple structures on its ground. This is the interior of the main one. Off to the right about halfway down is a small chamber with the actual shrine in it, but the whole place is (of course) intricately carved. (The ceilings are even more amazing; I’ll be posting a picture from those eventually.)