Pittsburgh, PA

At dawn this morning we were at Dulles airport, in order to catch an early flight to Pittsburgh.

Just a short flight away, Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania - a historic city of quarter of a million people which has been an important site for steel manufacturing in the past.  The buildings in the downtown area are full of contrasts.

As David had a meeting at the world-famous Carnegie Mellon University this afternoon, we headed out to that district.

This is the 'cathedral of learning' a massive Gothic style building dating from the early 20th century which was reminiscent of an oversized version of the Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol.  

Part of the University of Pittsburgh, the building houses many teaching rooms as well as hundreds of offices.

We walked over a high bridge, decorated with padlocks, and came to the park which was my destination for the afternoon.  Another great view of the cathedral of learning..

The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden is built in and around a Victorian greenhouse dating back to 1894.

Now substantially renovated and added to - there are 14 botanical room environments in addition to outdoor areas.  The thing that they all had in common today was that they were very warm indeed.

Here are a few of the interconnecting glasshouses which together make up the gardens..

There were of course many beautiful trees and plants, sculptures and butterflies in the gardens and I will come back to those another day.