Chase Tower

Saturday
This morning, Jen, Roger and I went on an architectural tour of part of donwtown Houston. It was a bright sunny morning, but very cold by Houston standards - I don't think it got out of the thirties (F) all day. I was just wearing my fleece, but wishing I'd put on my thick winter coat! Jen had thought the cold temperatures may put some people off, but there were actually almost 30 people, so they split us into two groups. This particular tour started in Market Square Park, where my blip was taken, with the Chase Tower (Houston's tallest building) in the background. The 75-story Chase Tower rises 1,002 feet (305 m) in Downtown Houston and was completed in 1982. Market Square Park put me in mind of Washington Park in Cincinnati, in the sense that it is a downtown park, which had become rather run down, and had become a hang-out for homeless people, but has recently been re-modeled and renovated, and turned into a very attractive space. It was a very interesting tour, lasting for about two hours, and based on the area around the Buffalo Bayou. After the tour, we picked up Jason and Philip and went out for lunch. Jen's first thought had been the Broken Spoke a great Belgian restaurant they had taken us to once before, which specializes in moules/frites and good Belgian beers, but sadly we discovered they had closed down earlier in the year, and the building had later burned down. So instead, we went to another place we had been to before, Bombay Pizza, which as its name suggests is pizza with an Indian flare - and it's sooo good! After lunch, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts, and we split up - I wanted to see The Portrait of Spain exhibition - an extensive exhibition of pictures from the Prado in Milan, whilst the younger set were more interested in seeing an exhibition of war photography. The Portrait of Spain exhibition tells the story of the evolution of painting in Spain from the 16th through 19th centuries, and explores how artists reflected the sweeping changes in society, culture, politics, and religion that contributed to the development of a modern Spanish identity. It included masterpieces by Francisco de Goya, El Greco, Murillo, and Diego Velázquez. We used the audio guide to accompany it, so it was very informative.