Atlanta Spring Break, Road trip

Raleigh visits and on to Greensboro

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Wednesday March 22, 2023

Road video and map

Raleigh and Durham are very close to each other and, during my 2018 trip to the region, I chose to visit Durham and Greensboro (blogged here). Today I made visits to a couple of sites in Raleigh before, again, driving to Greensboro.

My first stop was to add North Carolina to the list of state capitols I have visited. Despite having a population of over 1.5 million, Raleigh feels small and friendly and its capitol reflects that by being smaller and significantly less ostentatious than many others I have visited. Unfortunately, this means that the legislature has outgrown the building and has not met here since 1961 although the Governor’s office remains on the first floor. I guess they actually needed more office space as the numbers of senators and representatives have not changed.

It was constructed after a 1831 fire destroyed the previous capitol. Ironically, the fire was accidentally started by a construction worker who was fire-proofing it at the time. This building, still called the North Carolina State Capitol, opened in 1840. Since they only offer public guided tours on Saturdays I had to follow their printed brochure on a self-guided tour.

The simplicity and modest scale can be imagined by the group lined up to go inside. There are no stained glass windows or multiple flights of steps to climb and the dome is small. The statue shows the three US Presidents who came from North Carolina.
The interior of the dome is, basically, a simple skylight.
The House of Representatives is clean and well lit with minimum portraiture. Simple, modest and functional. There are 120 representatives.
The Senate chamber reflects the same values. There are 50 senators.
This is the North Carolina State Legislature Building which is the current home of the legislature and is one block away from the Capitol.

I rarely visit art museums outside of the major cities but decided I would visit the North Carolina Museum of Art today for three reasons:

1. It has a lot of Rodin sculptures
2. It is surrounded by a park with large scale artwork so I thought it would be a great place for a walk.
3. It is free.

Unfortunately reasons 1 and 2 were somewhat undermined and the visit proved less enjoyable than I had hoped. The Rodin sculptures are not by Auguste Rodin himself. They are reproductions cast, mainly in the ’80s, by the Musée Rodin in Paris, which is considered to be his heir and were commissioned by a couple who later gave their collection to this museum.

The indoor collection is called the “Rodin court” Some sculptures have been scaled down from the originals and some scaled up.
A few larger pieces are outside in the Rodin Garden. Seen here beyond a huge wood sculpture called Ogromna by Ursula von Rydingsvard.

There are multiple trails in the park surrounding the museum from which visitors can see many larger art installations with a wonderful backdrop.

This piece by Henry Moore, called Large Spindle Piece, is 3.35 m (13 ft) high and looks spectacular in the hills and forest of the park.

The park itself did not disappoint but the showers that were forecast for late afternoon arrived early and, since I did not want to get caught in a downpour, shortened my walk. It was raining as I left for Greensboro.

2 thoughts on “Raleigh visits and on to Greensboro”

  1. The cyber forces that somehow oversee my incoming emails assigned your first four posts to my “junk” inbox- and hence, I didn’t see them. But today’s went to my regular inbox, where I did see it (and then I discovered the earlier “junk” ones). Steve, you are such a talented travel writer! I’ve travelled across most of this territory several times but have not experienced a fraction of what you’ve done this week. I will be sure to check my junk folder tomorrow!

    1. Wow, thank you for your kind words. When people ask me what I would have done if not teaching I always respond “something to do with planning travel” – I believe there was once a job called a Travel Agent. Sorry about the messages going to junk. I know it happens for some people based on their email providers settings but don’t know how to prevent it.

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