Visiting old town Santa Fe

We had errands to do this morning (blood draw for labwork for me, get tires rotated on Jeep, and drop off prescription to be filled for Dwayne), and then we headed to the Santa Fe Visitor's Center. I thought I had understood that we could get a walking map there - and, I guess we did - but I was looking for one that said, "Start here, turn right there, visit this building on the next corner..." - and that wasn't what we got. But the map we got had good pointers of things to see, and the lady at the Visitor's Center said that we could park in the spaces that were indicated as "For Official Government Business Only" if we signed in at their register (because that made us "official"!).

Almost next door to the Visitor's Center were the Oldest Church and Oldest House...

San Miguel Church

Outside the church, there was a display of adobe bricks that had been recently made - I think by children

Adobe Making Experience
The Traditional Way
Adobe. Sun-dried bricks made from sand, clay-rich soil, straw, and water are one of the oldest building materials known to man.
Several ratios of materials are tried to determine the highest level of clay content in the mix without the brick cracking when dried. The wet mix is placed in a wooden form that is immediately lifted to allow the brick to begin drying. After a couple of days, the bricks are stood on edge to continue drying. About a week later, they can be stacked for storage and will continue to dry for 3-4 weeks. Brick mortar is the same mixture but without the straw.

You may be able to see hand prints or other decorative touches on the faces of some of the bricks.

San Miguel Church

Exposed adobe block walls inside the church (this was formerly a doorway, now displayed to show the bricks and the thickness of the walls).

View toward the altar in San Miguel's

View toward the choir loft. All the beams were hand carved.

From there we headed down an alley to the "Oldest House" - we entered through a gift shop.

Entry to the Oldest House in the U.S.A. from the gift shop next door to it.

It was made up of two rooms - I don't know how Dwayne got these pictures with no people in them - there were about 6-7 other people in the house at the same time that we were there and it felt FULL!

The second room with kiva in corner.

We took pictures outside the Loretto Chapel, but decided not to go in. You might want to go to https://www.lorettochapel.com/ to see pictures of its famous spiral staircase. The pictures online look beautiful, but we decided we didn't want to pay the entry fee...

We walked on to The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi - this was the church that we parked outside of when we met Vivie and Dave for dinner in Santa Fe a week ago.

The gardens are pretty and peaceful...

Bell tower

Statue of St Francis

Prayer of St Francis

Inside the cathedral, looking from the altar area toward the pews.

A view of the doors with their raised panels.

The ceiling...

Rose window at the back

Altar

There was a labyrinth outside...

There were a couple of women walking it.

A view of the cathedral from the plaza

Market at Palace of the Governors

Palace of the Governors

Another view of the market - Holly told us that the vendors here change frequently, that if you see something you might want, you should purchase when you see it, because that vendor may not be at the location tomorrow.

The plaza

After walking through that part of old town Santa Fe, we returned to Chocolate Maven for lunch (the same place Celesta took us yesterday). We like it a lot and there are a number of interesting items on the menu that we wanted to try!

We enjoyed walking around in Santa Fe, but I have to admit that it was not comfortable to me to have to pay to visit churches... I realize that they are historic sites and need to have funds to maintain them, but... it just felt odd and uncomfortable.