freda's world adventures

Spain – October 2016 November 27, 2016

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
2 comments

We chose Spain for our trip this year because we have two sets of friends living there – personal tour guides!  Don and I flew from Michigan to Madrid, arriving at noon on October 5th.  We gathered our luggage, then got a cab to the home of our friends Jaime and Marta, both of whom were at work. Their housekeeper let us into their lovely 2-floor apartment on the outskirts of the city.  We settled in, napped, showered, and relaxed on their beautiful patio while waiting for their return.

Jaime and Marta are both originally from Madrid, though we met them through General Motors when we all lived in Florida. They also lived in Shanghai at the same time as us, and then in Michigan for awhile. Jaime now works for L’Oreal.  Marta and their girls – Olivia, 8, and Emma, 5 – were home first, and we enjoyed a good visit and some food, while the girls entertained us.  Then, after Jaime was home, the four of us went into the city.  We wandered awhile and then stopped at the trendy, urban Mercado de San Ildefonso for a drink. I didn’t take a picture, but this website has good pictures and details: http://www.nakedmadrid.com/2014/06/08/san-ildefonso-market-malasanas-new-food-palace/

From there we drove to family-favourite restaurant, Quenco, at which their girls are the fourth generation of Jaime’s family to dine. We sat outside on a lovely warm evening to enjoy personal service and delicious food and wine.  We fell into bed and slept like logs.

The next day, after a late start, Don and I took the bus, from the stop just outside Jaime & Marta’s apartment complex, to the metro, and from there to the historic centre of Madrid, Puerta del Sol, to begin our sight-seeing.  We started at the statue of the bear pawing a tree, a symbol of Madrid since medieval times: bears used to live in the royal hunting grounds outside the city, and the madroña trees produce a berry that makes the traditional madroña liqueur. (Everything italicized is a quote from the Rick Steves tour book.)

Also in the square, King Charles III (1716-1788), whose enlightened urban policies earned him the nickname, “the best mayor of Madrid.” He decorated city squares with beautiful fountains, got the ‘meddlesome’ Jesuits out of city government, established the public school system, mandated underground sewers, opened his private Retiro Park to the public, built the Prado Museum, and generally cleaned up Madrid.

Across from King Charles, and founded by him in the 1760s, is what was Madrid’s first post office, but is now the county governor’s office.  The building was also used by dictator Franco for his police headquarters.

And right in front of the building, the marker for “kilometer zero,” the symbolic centre of Spain…

We wandered our way to the famous Prado Museum, getting a gelato along the way, enjoying the weather, taking note of a few interesting sights:

The Prado is one of the top museums in the world, it’s huge, and there is more to see than can be seen in one day. We decided to concentrate on the Spanish painters, and spent a full three hours taking in as much as we could.  No photos allowed.

When we exited the museum we were tired, thirsty and hungry. We wandered a little …

..and settled at an outdoor bar to revive ourselves with a couple of tapas and sangria.  It turned out Jaime had to come into the city after work, so we arranged to meet him at an apartment they had just recently bought for renting out (if you are ever in need of a place to stay in Madrid).  We walked for an enjoyable half hour to get there…

We went back to Jaime and Marta’s home and enjoyed an evening in with the family.

The next morning we were up and back on the bus and subway to Puerto del Sol. When we got there, we discovered a demonstration going on.. interestingly, Rick Steves says about the square, “..it’s a popular site for political demonstrations. Don’t be surprised if you come across a large, peaceful protest here.”    And we did.

We stopped in at the corner confitería, La Mallorquina, for their famous cream-filled Napolitana pastries…

…and checked out Casa de Deigo, in the business of selling fans, umbrellas and walking sticks since 1858..

And then, following Rick Steves’ walking tour, we headed towards Plaza Mayor…   I loved the street signs:  Medieval street signs ..included pictures so the illiterate could ‘read’ them.

…finally, through the arcade into Plaza Mayor, a vast, cobbled, traffic-free example of 17th-century Spain. In medieval times, this was the city’s main square, where much history was played out: bullfights, fires, royal pageantry, and events of the gruesome Inquisition.

Carrying on, we were directed (by Rick Steves) to notice an old door, made of wood, lined with metal, set in a Moorish keyhole, and considered to be the oldest door on Madrid’s oldest building – inhabited since 1480…

From the Plaza de la Villa, (town hall), we came to the Assassination Attempt Memorial: the statue memorializes a 1906 assassination attempt on King Alfonso XIII and his bride, Victoria Eugenie, as they paraded by on their wedding day. An anarchist threw a bouquet lashed to a bomb, which missed the royals but killed 23 people. The king and queen lived a long life, producing many great-grandchildren, including the current king, Felipe VI.

Next up, the Almudena Cathedral, which opened in 1993, 100 years after workers started building it.

Right beside the Cathedral is the Royal Palace. Since the 9th century, this spot has been Madrid’s centre of power, from Moorish castle to Christian fortress to Renaissance palace to the current structure, built in the 18th century. It’s 2,800 rooms, totaling nearly 1.5 million square feet, make it Europe’s largest palace. We just looked at it from outside…

Continuing on, along Calle del Arenal, “the street of sand” – where sand was stockpiled during construction…

Inside a small mall, a 6-inch-tall bronze statue of a mouse, Ratoncito Pérez, which turns out to be the Spanish version of the tooth fairy!!  I love that Rick Steves includes little details like this in his tour guides.  🙂

We paused for lunch, and then we took the Hop-On-Hop-Off city bus tour, sitting on the top deck, in the sunshine. Much of what we saw, we had already seen, but it was nice to get a better understanding of the layout of the city, and we managed a few good photos from the bus, especially the tops of buildings and tops of statues.  😉

We took the subway and then bus back to Jaime and Marta’s, for a little rest before getting ready for Friday night on the town.  Back into the city, we first had drinks and tapas at a hopping little bar called Ultramarinos Quintin. We stood at the bar, with our drinks in hand, and enjoyed watching the carving of a ham leg …

…and then to our restaurant, Amazonico, one of the latest trendy restaurants in Madrid, at which Jaime and Marta made reservations for us several weeks ago, and we still couldn’t get in until 10 p.m. (!)  The decor is “amazon-like,” and the food was amaz-ing. 😉  A perfect last night in Madrid.

The next morning, Saturday, we were up fairly early, to enjoy breakfast with the family, and then Jaime drove us to the train station, where we took the train to Zaragoza, to meet Diane and Julio.

I knew Madrid was at a high altitude, and very dry, and yet I was still surprised by how desert-like the landscape was as we headed out of Madrid, racing towards Zaragoza.

We arrived in Zaragoza just before noon, after a very smooth, high-speed ride, and were picked up at the station by Diane and Julio.  We know them through General Motors, as well.  Diane worked with Don in Florida, and they also lived in Shanghai at the same time as us.  From Shanghai they went to Mexico City (where we visited them a few years ago..see blog posted in March 2013), and briefly to Michigan, before Diane left GM, and they returned to Spain, where Julio is from.  They currently live in Alicante, but they drove to Zaragoza to meet us, and begin our journey together. Julio is from Zaragoza, and they have a lot of friends and family here – we were about to meet some of those friends, and learn all about celebrating a patron saint.  We were arriving in Zaragoza for the beginning of The Fiestas del Pilar.

But first, we checked into our hotel, quickly got organized, donned our Zaragoza Fiesta scarves, then headed out to walk into the city centre, about a 1/2 hour walk, that allowed for a little sight-seeing as we went.

Lunch was excellent – delicious food and lots of wine, and it lasted for 2 1/2 hours!!  Finally, we got up, and went on to join the crowds at the Plaza del Pilar.  Along the way…

We did not go into the Basilica because of the crowds.  We did, however, go into the other cathedral in the square, La Seo, which features a fascinating mix of styles: 12th-century Gothic, Mudejar (a style of art and architecture, native and unique to the history of Spain, being an amalgamation of Christian and Islamic), and 18th-century baroque. No photos allowed inside, but Don managed a few…

We walked around the outside of the cathedral to get a better understanding of the mix of architectures…

We walked down to the river, to see the old Roman bridge, and then back up to the area by the cathedral for more drinks…

From here, the men-folk went to a bar to watch the Zaragoza football team badly lose their game, while the women-folk stopped in at a bar or two and window-shopped until it was time to all meet up again for more drinks and tapas.

The day that had begun at 2 p.m. with drinks and tapas, ended with the same at 2 a.m.!!  The celebrating of a patron saint is hard work!

The next day, after breakfast, the four of us went to see the Aljafería Palace, a fortified medieval Islamic palace, built during the second half of the 11th century. It was later a medieval Christian palace in the 12th century, and the palace of the Catholic King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabel. The architecture is a fascinating mix…

We went back to the city centre to see some more of it before it was time to meet up with Julio’s family…

This time, even though it was busy, we went inside the Basilica… no pictures allowed, but Don got a couple with his phone…

And then it was time to meet some of Julio’s family for refreshments in the Plaza del Pilar, and from there, to their friend’s restaurant for a (typical) late Spanish lunch.

After lunch (5 pm!) we said goodbye to the family and went back to our hotel for a much-needed siesta.  In the evening we walked back into the city to meet up with friends for some bar-hopping. First, one small place for drinks and tapas, and then to a bar with live music.

If you listen carefully, in the background of this one-minute clip, you can hear Diane tell us the meaning of what is sung..

Don taking a photo of the singer with his phone caught her attention 😉 ..

We had a blast in this bar! But, we moved on, for one last drink in one last bar…

This fun-filled weekend in Zaragoza was full of eating and drinking, with a little sight-seeing thrown in for good measure.  It was now time for the four of us to hit the road on our week-long loop around the northern area of Spain, for more eating and drinking and a little sight-seeing.  On Monday morning we began by heading to San Sebastián, with a few stops along the way.  The first stop, SOS Del Ray Católico, a walled medieval town on a hill, was so-named because it was the birthplace of King Fernando of Aragón.  It was picturesque, and worth a stop.

We had  lunch at a little restaurant in town called El Leñador, with delicious grilled lamb chops, and then back to the car for the next leg of the journey, to Pamplona.  Pamplona was one of my ‘requests’ for our journey, once I knew we’d be close.  While the town has been a town forever, Ernest Hemingway put it on the world map with the publication of his novel, The Sun Also Rises.

We walked the path of the Running of the Bulls, the festival for which Pamplona is best known…

..then stopped for a coffee in the lovely Plaza del Castillo…

…and then walked to the Running of the Bulls Monument, installed in 2007, which shows 6 bulls, 2 steer, and 10 runners in action. It’s very impressive. The sculptor included himself, in the group, lying down, about to be gored!

From Pamplona we drove to our destination for the next two nights, coastal town, San Sebastián, a holiday destination for many.  We checked into the very nice Hotel Codina, only a few blocks from the beach, and a 2-km walk into the Old Town.  After settling into our rooms, we headed out to walk those 2 km. along the water front to the Old Town for a true San Sebastián experience of “pintxos” and drinks.  The area is full of bars, and the idea is to have a drink and a pintxos (a version of a tapas, in the Basque tradition) or two, and then move on to the next pintxos bar. Each place has their speciality (though, I don’t think we specifically honed in on those), and a bar-long array of tasty choices.  It was Canadian Thanksgiving this day:  our Thanksgiving meal was deliciously different.

The next day, we walked along the beach in the beautiful sunshine, back towards the Old Town…

Walking on, we headed to the newer part of the town…

After a long walk around this pretty town, we said, “let’s go to France for lunch,” because yes, it’s that close.  But, by the time we walked back to our hotel, got our car and set out, it was getting late and we were hungry, so we  stopped in Hondarribia, a border town on the Spanish side, with a large number of bars and restaurants. As you may have already gathered, the Basque area is known for great food!

After our lunch, we drove just across the border, into France, to a little town called Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The tourist office had a little guide book of a walk around the town, so we followed it for some highlights…

In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees put an end to the war between Spain and France. Peace was sealed by the marriage of Louis XIV and María-Teresa, the Infanta of Spain, on 9 June 1660 in the local church, Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Louis XIV and his entire court took up residence in Saint-Jean-de-Luz from 8 May to 16 June of that year. During his stay the king resided on the second floor of Lohobiaguenea, hence the origin of its alternative name, Maison Louis XIV. (This comes from the little guide book from the tourist info.)

In the early evening we drove back to San Sebastián, and found a delightful bar close to our hotel for wine and a few tapas, before falling into bed on our last night in town.  The next morning we were off to Santillana del Mar, stopping in Bilbao on the way, to visit the famous Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.  The Guggenheim was another of my ‘requests,’ not because I like modern art so much, (though some of it I do), but because of the building itself.   Architect Frank Gehry is a Canadian-born American, and responsible for the design of, among others, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the Dancing House in Prague – which we saw when we were there, and you can see pictures of on my blog.  In addition, I’ve been to both of the other Guggenheim Museums, in Venice and New York City.  It’s nice to be consistent.  😉

As it turned out, the building really was the best part of this excursion. None of us were that taken with the art on display, except for the very large and impressive permanent exhibit, The Matter of Time by Richard Serra.  The building, though, was very cool.  It’s covered in glass, titanium and limestone.

After our museum visit, we got back in our car to drive to the little town of Santillana del Mar, the name of which incorporates three lies: it is not saintly (sant); it is not flat (llana); it is not by the sea (el mar).  It is actually named for Santa Juliana, whose remains are kept in the Colegiata, a Romanesque church and former Benedictine monastery.

Once we settled our belongings, we set off to walk through the picturesque little town.

We stopped for a cider, because this is the area of Spain for which cider is famous. This is nothing like the British cider I know and love. And it has a special way to be poured…

Later, we found an excellent restaurant for dinner; walked a little more after dinner; slept like logs.

The next day we went to the Museum of Altamira.  In approximately 1868, the Cave of Altamira was first discovered, and in it, rock art paintings from the Upper Palaeolithic age, between 14,000 & 18,000 years ago, as well as some lesser paintings from as long ago as 35,000 years ago!  “When the discovery was first made public in 1880, it led to a bitter public controversy between experts which continued into the early 20th century, since many did not believe prehistoric man had the intellectual capacity to produce any kind of artistic expression. The acknowledgment of the authenticity of the paintings, which finally came in 1902, changed the perception of prehistoric human beings.” (Wikipedia)  The caves are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and practically impossible to visit, as it is necessary to preserve them.  However, there is a very worthwhile museum, with an exact replica of the cave and its art, as well as exhibits about prehistoric man.  You can’t take pictures, but if it interests you, definitely check out the website.  We were glad we went.

From here we drove a short distance to a small town called Comillas.  We were in search of an Antoni Gaudi home, but first, from a bit of a distance, saw the former home of the Comillas Pontifical University (which has since moved to Madrid), a beautiful building…

It took a bit of meandering, but we finally found our way to the Palace of Sobrellano and the Chapel-Pantheon of the Palace, home of the Marquises of Comillas..

..and, next door, El Capricho, the Antoni Gaudí building, unique, as always…

We were hungry: time to find a lunch place. We drove on to the next little town, S. Vicente de la Barquera, for lovely fresh seafood.  We had to cross a really long bridge to get into town, which you can just see in the first photo..

We decided to carry on to the next town for coffee and dessert… Llanes is a pretty fishing port town.

And then, our home for two nights: Ribadesella, another pretty little seaside town, on the River Sella outlet.  It had been raining off and on all day, our only day of rain for the trip, and still rainy when we checked in, so the Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe) were obscured from view in this first picture, taken from our hotel balcony…

…but, the next morning when we woke to a beautiful sunrise, they were sharp and beautiful..

…and after breakfast, we were on our way into those peaks.  But, first, we stopped in the little town of Cangas de Onís, for some tourist information about hiking, as well as to see their famous Roman Bridge, originally built by the Romans, but what we see dates from the 13th-century. From the middle arch hangs a replica of the ‘Cruz de la Victoria’ (Victory Cross), the symbol of Asturias that celebrates the victory of King Pelayo over the Arabs in Covadonga.

Our next stop was the village of Covadonga, a place of pilgrimage.  It has an interesting history: Covadonga is the place where the Re-conquest began under King Pelayo (Pelagius, in English), who founded the Kingdom of Asturias (now the province of Asturias) and ruled it from 718 until his death. His victory at the Battle of Covadonga is credited with beginning of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. He established an independent Christian state in opposition to Moorish hegemony. (various sources)

It was now time to make our way further into the Picos… The road was narrow and winding, like all mountain roads, with gorgeous views…and then we came to a spot where we could hike around.

and listened to the cows walk home…

And then it was time to drive down the mountain. Along the way we found a lovely restaurant still open, where we ate a VERY late lunch, which was maybe an early dinner.  😉  Back in Ribadesella, we wandered into town, to see it in the fading light, (the night before it had been raining), and to enjoy a glass of wine, or two, to end our day.  The moon was rising as we headed into town..

The next day, Saturday, we drove to the city of Burgos for our last two nights together.  Like so many towns in the north of Spain, the burg of Burgos was founded during the Reconquista to hold on to land that had been won back from the Moors. Its position on the Camino de Santiago, and the flourishing trade in wool (sent to the Low Countries to become Flemish tapestries), helped it to thrive. Beginning in 1230, it became the capital of the kingdom of Castile for half a millennium. The town’s favourite son is the great 11th-century Spanish hero El Cid, who valiantly fought against the Moors. This city on the Way of St. James also has one of Spain’s greatest Gothic cathedrals, and we booked rooms-with-views of that cathedral in the Meson del Cid. Luckily, for our sleep, the bells only rang on Sunday just before noon…

We set out to walk around the city, have the usual late lunch, and then do some shopping, because the next day, Sunday, all the shops would be closed, and we wanted a few souvenirs.

We came upon another wedding, with ‘troubadours’ singing, as the bride and groom slowly emerged from the church. These singers are students who are energetic and love to sing, and they form groups that are called “La Tuna,” and then hire themselves out for events, or just wander from bar to bar singing for their supper, always in these costumes…

The next day we toured the stunning cathedral.. The cathedral was built over the course of a century. It was started in the 13th-century by French architects, who used a simple, graceful style similar to Paris’ Notre-Dame. In the 14th century, German cathedral-builders took over, adding the fringe to the tops of the towers, similar to the cathedral in Cologne, Germany.

which Don caught in action in this little video…

After a thorough look at the cathedral, it was time for lunch – the best roasted lamb we’ve ever had in our lives!

After an amazing lunch, we retired to our rooms for a little siesta.  Afterwards we went for a long walk through the city.

The next morning, after one last goodbye to the cathedral…

..we were on our way back to Zaragoza, with a stop along the way to take a quick look at S. Millán de la Cogolla, where twin monasteries Yuso and Suso, have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Not much was open, on this Monday, so after wandering around, we got back in the car to head to Zaragoza.  We made a quick stop in the city to buy some wine to bring home, and to check out the store in general…

…and then we had one last glass of wine together before Don and I caught our train back to Madrid, staying overnight at a hotel at the airport and flying home early the next morning.  Our two weeks eating and drinking our way around northern Spain, with a little sight-seeing thrown in for good measure, were at an end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Budapest – May 2016 June 20, 2016

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
7 comments

This year Don’s position on the advisory board for MSX International took us to Budapest (as it did last year to Barcelona). We planned our visit around the 2 1/2 days of meetings, flying in early and staying afterwards.  We flew overnight, connected through Amsterdam, and arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 8th.  After settling into our room in the very nice Kempinski Hotel, brilliantly located in the heart of the city, we set off for a wander and a light meal.

It was just a few blocks to the Danube River, where we crossed the historic Széchenyi Chain Bridge.  This bridge, opened in 1849, was the first to span the river, connecting the two cities, Buda and Pest.  It was blown up by the retreating Germans near the end of WWII, with only the towers remaining, and rebuilt and reopened in 1949.  (If you want a closer look at any photo, just click on it.)

We walked back across the bridge and strolled along the river for awhile until we decided it was time to eat and watch the sun set.

Early to bed (after a long day of travel) and early to rise. We had a private tour guide (and driver) booked for a 4-hour tour of the city on Monday morning. Andrea was excellent, and because her colleague was giving us a second half-day tour on Friday, we were able to adjust our program and take advantage of the gorgeous day by crossing to the Buda side, and going up to the top of Gellért Hill for the best overview of the city.

At the top of Gellért Hill is the Liberation Monument, with a woman holding a palm leaf or olive branch (opinions vary). It was first erected in 1947 in remembrance of what was then referred to as the “Soviet liberation of Hungary” during WWII, which ended the occupation by Nazi Germany. The inscription at the base of the monument read (at that time): “To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes [erected by] the grateful Hungarian people [in] 1945.”  Included on the monument at that time were two heroic Soviet soldiers. After 1989, when the communist rule ended, they were removed (and can now be found in Memento Park, which we saw later in the week), and the inscription was altered to read: “To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary.”  (Anything in italics is a quote, usually from Rick Steves’ Budapest guide, sometimes Wikipedia, or occasionally another source that I will name.)

From here we drove back to the Pest side, and as we went, learned a little about our guide, Andrea. She is in her 40s, so grew up under communist rule.  My favourite story was about her family’s opportunity to travel to Western Europe when she was 14. She was, understandably as a teenager, blown away by all the consumer choices, mostly the chothes and shoes. But what she ended up begging her parents to buy her (and they did) was a little purple combination radio-and-cassette player!  She was the envy of all her friends. 🙂

On the Pest side we did a little walking tour around the Parliament area, known as Leopold Town.  First, the stunning Hungarian Parliament building, (which we toured later in the week, so more details then)…

Next stop, the Imre Nagy monument, which was my favourite in this city of many monuments:

Nagy was a politician and lifelong communist, though is now thought of as an anti-communist hero. In the 1930s he allegedly worked for the Soviet secret police. In the 1940s he moved up the hierarchy of Hungary’s communist government. He was prime minister of Hungary in 1953, but his proposed changes alarmed Moscow and he was demoted. Then, in the 1956 Uprising, he was drafted to become head of the movement, with the idea he could find a ‘middle path’ between the ‘suffocating totalitarian model of Moscow and the freedom of the West,’ symbolized by the bridge he is standing on in this monument.  The Soviets violently put down the uprising, arrested Nagy and executed him.  In 1989, the Hungarians rediscovered him as a hero, and now Nagy keeps a watch on Parliament.

In Liberty Square there are two interesting monuments, both of them controversial. Ronald Reagan is respected in Hungary for his role in ending the Cold War, though apparently this monument was erected in 2011 to deflect attention from a brewing scandal about infringements on freedom of the press, of which the US government, among others, spoke against. This statue was a response to appease American concerns.  It’s a popular stop for tourist photos!

The Soviet War Memorial commemorates “Liberation Day,” April 4, 1945, when the Soviets officially forced the Nazis out of Hungary. It is one of only two monuments to the Soviets that remain in the city, for good reason. Soviet troops *did* liberate Hungary from the Nazis, but then ran an oppressive regime.  Most of the very many monuments dedicated to the Soviet regime have been removed to a fascinating exhibit at Memento Park, which we toured later in the week.

A little further along, another monument is the *most* controversial, and noted around the world: the Monument to the Hungarian Victims of the Nazis. It commemorates the German invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944.  An immaculate angel holds a sphere with a double cross (part of the crown jewels and a symbol of Hungarian sovereignty) while overhead, a black eagle (traditional symbol of Germany) swoops in, ready to strike.  While the lack of “artistry” is enough to condemn this monument, the way it “white-washes” Hungarian history is what is so offensive to many. It would suggest Hungary was a peaceful land caught up in the Nazi war machine when, in fact, the Hungarian government was an ally of Nazi Germany for more than three years before the invasion. … Locals have created a bit of a protest memorial to the victims of WWII-era Hungarians (not just Germans) in front of the memorial.

An article from the Wall Street Journal gives an idea of the controversy: http://www.wsj.com/articles/hungarian-sculptor-defends-monument-to-nazi-occupation-1406910612

Back to our walk: next we came to St. Istváns Basilica, St. Stephen being Hungary’s first Christian king. Like most Budapest landmarks, it’s not much older than 100 years, built for the millennial celebrations of 1896.  It was designed by three architects and consequently has three different styles: Neoclassical, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque.  It is 96 metres high, equal to the Hungarian Parliament in height, suggesting worldly and spiritual thinking are equally important.   According to current regulations, buildings in Budapest can not be higher than 96 metres, 96 being an important number given the country was founded in 896, and the World’s Fair was held here in 1896.

We got back in the car to drive up Andrássy ût to Heroes’ Square.  This square-full of a monument was commissioned to celebrate the country’s 1000th birthday in 1896, which was also the year of the Budapest World Fair, though it wasn’t finished until 1927.  It’s an impressive collection of some of the most important figures in Hungarian history.

This was the end of our tour. We had Andrea and driver drop us in the City Park, right behind Heroes’ Square, where she pointed out the metro station to get back to the hotel, a few places to get lunch, and the entrance to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, which we visited as soon as we’d eaten. Rick Steves considers a visit to one of Budapest’s many thermal baths to be *the* quintessential Budapest experience!  Happily, wearing a swim suit is expected.

Visiting the thermal baths has a long history.  Hungary’s Carpathian Basin is essentially a thin crust covering a vast reservoir of hot water. The Romans named their settlement near present-day Budapest Aquincum – “abundant waters” – and took advantage of those waters by building many baths. Centuries later, the occupying Ottomans revived the custom.  Today, the city has 123 natural springs and two dozen thermal baths, all of which are operated by the same government agency and a part of the health-care system.  Doctors regularly prescribe treatments that include massage, soaking in tubs of various heat and mineral compositions, and swimming laps.  For patients the visits are subsidized.  I can get behind this ‘prescription!’

There was a bit of a learning curve, but we got it figured out. We rented a locker room and towels, and changed into our own bathing suits (brought with us; though you can also rent them–eww!) and flip-flops.

We had a great couple of hours – quite revitalizing after the travel days and a long city tour.  We figured out the metro and got back to our hotel for a little rest and internet time, and then we walked up Andrássy ût to check out a few recommended restaurants.  We chose Menza in Liszt Ferenc Tér (Franz Liszt Square), which was a delicious choice, and lovely to sit outside on the patio.

And then, one more adventure on our first, and very full, day in Budapest: a nightcap at what is rated the top ‘nightlife’ spot of the city: Szimpla Kert Ruin Pub.  The Ruin Pubs are a phenomenon of Budapest, set up in abandoned buildings, scruffy and eclectic, and a brilliant idea that we think would work well in Detroit. We liked this one so much we went back many times, so you’ll see this place again. Here are just a few photos from our first night’s visit; I will post more pictures from a daytime visit later…

The next day, Tuesday, Don’s meetings started at noon, and so I was then on my own. We woke up to rain…

…but by the time I left the room, it was fine.  I started by walking up Andrássy ût again, by now very familiar, to check out a couple of bookstores (of *course* I did!). First stop, the Writer’s Bookshop (Írók Boltja), a rather historic spot as, during Budapest’s late-19th-century glory days, the café at this location was the haunt of many of the great artistic minds that populated the city.

Inside, I perused the English-language-local-authors section, and sat in the lovely upstairs room contemplating which to purchase..

Next stop, the Alexandra bookstore, housed in a grand building that used to be a department store, with its beautifully restored Lotz Hall café, the perfect stop for a pick-me-up…

I walked for awhile to wear off that cake, checking out the theatre district…

…and then it was time for my Opera House tour, built in the 1890s, shortly after Budapest became co-capital of the Habsburg Empire. Emperor Franz Josef provided half the funds for building provided it did not exceed the Vienna Opera House in size. The architect obeyed that decree, but made it more opulent! It was damaged in WWII and restored in the 1980s.

Our tour ended with a 5-minute opera singer demonstration (for those of us who payed extra). Here’s a 20-second clip:

I walked back to the hotel to find Don’s meetings were over and he had a little time before his group was getting on a bus to go for dinner. We decided to go back to Szimpla Ruin Pub in the light of day to enjoy a drink and share our day’s activities.  It was much quieter in this early cocktail hour time, and very fun to see in the light of day.

Back at the hotel, Don got ready for his business dinner and I headed to the hotel restaurant for a tasty meal, and a lovely Hungarian wine…

On Wednesday, while Don was in his meetings, I walked across the river on the Chain Bridge, and climbed the long and winding hill to the Royal Palace, in which the National Gallery is housed.  There’s a funicular railway, which would have been easier, but the lineup was w-a-y too long.  Interestingly, the Palace was never lived in, was damaged in WWII and reconstructed in a “loose version” of the previous building.

Sadly, the climb was all for naught as the National Gallery was closed, just for this day, for a special event.  So, now what?!?  I walked back down the hill and across the bridge and decided a pick-me-up at the lovely old Gerbeaud Café was in order while I pondered my options.  Between the World Wars, this café was *the* meeting place of the well-to-do, and it continues to be a meeting place for many. While Rick Steves says only tourists go here, local writer András Török, whose ‘cult’ guide to Budapest I had also brought with me, says otherwise, putting it in his shortlist of the good (rather than the bad or the ugly), suggesting sitting on the far right side of the building as the “best place to sip a coffee and feel the tremor of the underground under your feet.”

Revived and decided, I went back to the hotel (just a few blocks away) to get the concierge’s help on how to take the underground to the Holocaust Memorial Centre.  The Centre honours the nearly 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Nazis, one out of every ten Holocaust victims. It’s an extremely moving display.  You can’t take pictures inside, but I did use my phone to take a couple: after the entrance there is a long hallway with shuffling feet on a soundtrack replicating the forced march of prisoners. It’s eerie and very effective…

Sadly, pervasive Anti-Semitism existed in Hungary long before WWII, casting doubt on the widely held belief that Hungary initially allied itself with the Nazis partly to protect its Jews.

The Memorial Centre includes the larger picture and several stories of individuals, all very moving and sobering.  The finale is the restored interior of a 1920s synagogue…

As I headed back to the underground, I saw this interesting building – have no idea what it is…

Back at the hotel, I wandered through the park across the street, named for the wife of the Emperor Franz-Josef, Empress Elisabeth, aka Sisi. We learned a lot about her on our trip to Vienna. She didn’t like court life and so traveled away from Vienna often.  Apparently a personal mission of hers was promoting Hungary’s bid for autonomy within the empire, and while married to Franz Josef, she spent 7 years in Budapest, much of it in the company of Count Andrássy. Some believe her third daughter, known as the Little Hungarian Princess, was the Count’s. 

On Thursday, I retraced my steps back to the National Gallery.  This time I took the funicular.

And then, yay, the Gallery was open… I followed Rick Steves’ self-guided tour through the gallery.  He’s very good at briefly summarizing the history and importance of various pieces and paintings.  A collection of beautifully carved 15th-century winged altars come from the time Hungary was at its peak, before the Ottomans and the Habsburgs.

Several “gloomy” paintings, from the 1850s-60s, follow. This example, “The Bewailing of László Hunyadi,” by Viktor Madarász, commemorates the death of the beloved Hungarian heir-apparent. The Hungarians couldn’t explicitly condemn their Habsburg oppressors, but invoking this dark event from the Middle Ages had much the same effect.

A turning point is represented by this painting, which was painted at the time of the Compromise of 1867, when Hungary was ceded authority within the Catholic Habsburg Empire.  Again, the painter uses a historical story to illustrate contemporary events.

This next one, painted after the Great Compromise, when Hungary was feeling its oats, takes an idealized view of life. “Picnic in May” by Pál Szinyei-Merse seems like an innocent scene, but the idea of men and women socializing freely was scandalous at the time…

There were several rooms dedicated to Hungarian ‘Realist’ painter Mihály Munkácsy. I quite liked his various gritty slice-of-life paintings…

This last one I took solely because it appealed to my Dutch roots.  🙂

I had lunch in the Gallery café, and then I crossed back over the bridge and found out how to take the tram so I could go to the Zwack Museum and Distillery.

The family-run institution produces Unicum, Hungary’s “favourite” spirit.  According to the Museum brochure: Zwack Unicum is a liqueur distilled from over 40 herbs from all over the world. It was invented in 1790 by one of the family’s ancestors, Doctor Zwack, royal physician to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. “Das ist ein Unicum!” Joseph II is said to have declared, thus giving this herbal liqueur in its distinctive round bottle its name.  Ever since, Unicum has been known as the national drink of Hungary and its recipe is a carefully guarded secret. The Zwack Company was founded in 1840 by Jozsef Zwack, and apart from a 45-year hiatus during the Communist regime, the company has been in family hands ever since.  The factory was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt, and then nationalized by the Communists.  Several of the family fled the country during this time, but one stayed behind to give the Communists a fake recipe. Now, the company is back in family hands, and produces 3 million litres of Unicum annually at this very distillery.  

A visit to the museum and distillery includes a 20-minute movie on the family history, and a tasting of the original Unicum as well as a fairly new version called Unicum Szilva, which involves extra aging over dried plums.  The drink is strong and rather medicinal, which makes sense as it’s meant to be drunk after dinner as a digestive.  It was all great fun!!  And yes, I bought a small bottle to bring home.  🙂

When I exited the museum, I saw this interesting building…

…and then I caught the tram to head back to the hotel, though I got off a little early to walk along the river…

Back at the hotel, the meetings were over.  Don and I had told a few of his colleagues about the Szimpla Ruin Pub and they were anxious to check it out.  We had a few hours before the final dinner, (to which the spouses who had come (5 of us) were also invited), so off we went .. again… to what had become our favourite place!  😀

On Friday, Don and I were picked up at 11:00 by our tour guide, Eszter, and driver.  We started our 2nd 1/2 day city tour by visiting Memento Park. This may have been our favourite site in the city: a collection of communist-era statues that once were scattered around the city, but after the fall of communism, were removed and, wisely, collected here as a reminder of what was, but situated far enough outside the city as to only be a reminder when one chooses.  It is part of the city’s education system’s mandate to ensure all children take a field trip to this site.  Soviet-style “Socialist-Realist art” is definitely not subtle: the statues are large and blunt.

The park is divided into loops, each loop being a different ‘theme’ or time of history.  The first loop is the “Liberation,” with the statues celebrating the Soviet Army’s ‘rescue’ of Hungary from the Nazis in 1945.  The giant soldier, holding the Soviet flag, used to stand at the base of Liberation Monument on Gellért Hill (which we visited earlier).  Other loops have the names “Heroes of the Workers’ Movement,” “Communist Heroes,” “Communist Concepts,” etc.  Eszter gave us a little history on several sculptures of interest.

The next sculpture was created by one of Hungary’s most prominent artists, Imre Varga, who worked from the 1950s through the 2000s, and shows a great deal of emotion and hidden meaning (unlike the Soviet-produced sculptures). Designed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Béla Kun’s birth (he is known as the ‘grandfather’ of Hungarian communism), on the one hand it reinforces the communist message of the able leadership of Béla Kun, (safely overlooking the fray from above), but on the other hand, shows Kun under the lamppost, which in Hungarian literature is a metaphor for the gallows.

As we exited, Stalin’s boots:

Next stop, Fishermen’s Bastion, on the Buda side, just along from the Palace.  The Buda side of Budapest is the hilly side (Pest is completely flat), and therefore the strategic place for a palace or garrison, and several occupying forces used this side to their advantage.  The Fishermen’s Bastion is so-called because in the Middle Ages, the fish market was here. The current structure was built for the 1896 celebrations, and offers a lovely view of the city, plus restaurants and shops.

Matthias Church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times in the 800 years since it was founded by King Béla IV.  The church’s actual name is the Church of Our Lady, or the Coronation Church.  Its unofficial namesake, Matthias Corvinus, isn’t a saint, so it can’t be named for him, but everyone calls it for this Renaissance king who got married here, twice.  

The last stop of our tour was the Great Synagogue, back on the Pest side, in the Jewish Quarter. It it is the biggest synagogue in Europe and the second biggest in the world, after the Temple Emanu-El of New York.  Before WWII, 5% of Hungary’s population and 25% of Budapest’s were Jewish.  The style of the synagogue is a bit mixed. The religious leaders of the time, mid 19th century, wishing to demonstrate how well-integrated they were with the greater community, commissioned an Austrian non-Jewish architect. The synagogue is loosely based on biblical descriptions of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, which explains the two tall towers, not typical of traditional synagogues. These towers, along with the rosette window, helped the synagogue resemble Christian churches of the time.

As we exited the synagogue at the back, we entered the Memorial Garden. During the Soviet siege that ended the Nazi occupation of Budapest in the winter of 1944-45, many Jews in the ghetto died of exposure, starvation, and disease. Soon after the Soviets liberated the city, a mass grave was dug here for an estimated 2,281 Jews. The trees and headstones, donated by survivors, were added later.

At the end of the garden is a sculpture by Imre Varga (who did the ‘artistic’ one we saw in Memento Park), representing a forced march, with clearly defined figures at the front, melting into a mass at the back.

In the garden behind the synagogue is the stunning Tree of Life sculpture, also by Imre Varga. This weeping willow, cast in steel, was erected in 1990, soon after the fall of communism made it possible to acknowledge the Holocaust. The willow makes an upside-down menorah, and each of the 4,000 metal leaves is etched with the name of a Holocaust victim.  New leaves are added all the time, donated by families of the victims.  With the sun gleaming off the metal, we took many photos….

With our tour over, we had Eszter and the driver drop us at the Great Market, for a late lunch and browse in the stalls. While this market is, of course, a great tourist attraction, the locals also do their food shopping here. The market hall was built, like so much of Budapest, around the millennial celebration year of 1896.

From the market, we wandered a little, as we made our way back to the hotel…

After a rest at the hotel, we decided it was time to try a *different* ruin pub.  (I know, it’s shocking! 🙂 ) Instant is billed as the biggest ruin pub in Budapest, filling three floors and dozens of small rooms and alcoves.  http://instant.co.hu/en/   We picked up a drink and wandered through several of the rooms.  (It was fun, but my favourite was still Szimpla.)  In one of the bigger rooms, called Mole Hall, complete with a small stage, we sat down as a band was setting up to play.  We didn’t understand a word they said, or sang, but enjoyed their music and the eclectic decor.

Time for a light dinner at a great little spot called Két Szerecsen, http://ketszerecsen.hu/ which we highly recommend, and then back to the hotel bar, Blue Fox, for a nightcap.  The bar is blue, and a movie plays on the back wall: in our case, it was Sabrina, the original.

On Saturday we had a pre-booked tour of the Parliament building.  The Parliament was built from 1885 to 1902 to celebrate the Hungarian millenium year of 1896, like so many of Budapest’s buildings.  The architect was inspired by the London Parliament.  The enormous building, with literally miles of stairs, was appropriate for the time when Budapest ruled much of Eastern Europe. Now the legislature only occupies 1/8 of the space.  The interior is lovely, and decorated with 84 pounds of gold!

Our next stop was the very moving Holocaust Monument, consisting of 50 pairs of bronze shoes, commemorating the Jews who were killed when the Nazis’ puppet government, the Arrow Cross, came to power in Hungary in 1944. While many Jews were sent to concentration camps, the Arrow Cross massacred some of them right here on this spot, shooting them and letting their bodies fall into the Danube.

We found the restaurant we were hoping to lunch at required reservations, so we wandered to check out others. Nothing appealed so we went back to the one we had enjoyed so much our first night, Menza. Our timing was perfect as, shortly after we sat down, the skies opened and it POURED rain.  We were happy and cozy under the awning, with our wine and delicious lunch.

From here, it was a short walk to the House of Terror Museum, (which is not, as it sounds, a museum of torture).  Along one of the prettiest stretches in Budapest, in the former headquarters of two of the country’s darkest regimes – the Arrow Cross (Nazi-occupied Hungary’s version of the Gestapo) and the ÁVO/ÁVH (communist Hungary’s secret police) – is the House of Terror Museum which recounts those times of terror.  The history is too much to recount here, and no pictures were allowed inside.  (You can find a lot of information, if you’re interested, online.) Suffice it to say, this was a very worthwhile museum, detailing fascism, communism and the resilient Hungarian spirit.

That night we had a delicious dinner with the 3 other couples who had extended their stay after the meetings, and finished the evening off with a nightcap at the Blue Fox.

On Sunday we bundled ourselves up (it was colder and threatening rain) and set out for our last day in the city. Our only plan was to tour the Hospital in the Rock,  a 25,000-square-foot labyrinthine network of hospital and fall-out shelter hallways built at the beginning of WWII in caves that were carved out under Castle Hill (on which stand the Fishermen’s Bastion, Matthias Church, etc).  From the Short History of the Hospital in the Rock booklet I bought: Its significance lies not only in the fact it is an underground bunker-hospital in the depths below Castle Hill, but more importantly, one of the few authentic historical monuments preserved from the 20th century in Hungary. It played a significant role during WWII as well as the Revolution of 1956. It was a fascinating and worthwhile tour. You can’t take pictures inside but the internet being the wonder it is, there are lots of images on their website: http://www.sziklakorhaz.eu/en

After the tour, we wandered over to the palace area to discover a fun market:

We did buy a cone of freshly made potato chips (soooooo good!!) and then got back to walking the city.  Our next stop was the New York Café, where I was hoping for a little pick-me-up treat, but unfortunately it was way too busy and we decided not to wait.  Budapest has a café culture much like Vienna, (by 1900, there were more than 600 cafés!) and some of them are lovely – as you’ve seen from earlier.  The New York Café may be the most extravagant:

We walked miles on our last day, and I saw a lot of great street art:

Our tired feet needed a sit-down and a cold drink, so we made a final visit to Szimpla Ruin Pub, my favourite place in Budapest!

We were so tired we couldn’t think about eating out… we went back to the hotel to start packing, and then ate in the hotel restaurant.  The next morning we flew home.  It was a wonderful week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Highlights May 3, 2016

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
2 comments

When you live in the east, it’s always a good idea to plan a few get-aways during the cold winter months. This year turned out to be a pretty mild winter, but we took those get-aways, anyway.  🙂

First up was 6 days in Mesa, Arizona at the end of January.  We stayed 3 nights in a hotel while we visited with Don’s mother and her husband, who winter every year in Mesa, and then 3 nights with friends who have a winter home there.   A few highlights of our week included a hike in the desert..

..as well as a visit to the wonderful Heard Museum in Phoenix, highly recommended. Our docent was very informative during a one-hour tour.

This ‘art fence’ installation, entitled “Indigenous Evolution,” just inside the entrance of the museum, was most stunning:

We enjoyed great pizza and fun entertainment at Organ Stop Pizza, home of the Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ: http://www.organstoppizza.com/

playing the Alley Cat song….

Don and I also toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s summer home and School of Architecture, Taliesin West. Like everything Wright built, it was fascinating, but I always feel too tall in his houses!  😉

All in all, a lovely little get-away.

In February I went to Vancouver for two weeks, mostly to help my mother during a little elective surgery for a drooping eye lid.  All is well with mom, and I had the added bonus of spending time with our boys, visiting a few friends, and walking in my favourite city, where spring was already springing!

From March 22nd to 29th, calendar-spring though not yet feeling like spring, we had an amazing week in Antigua.  Good friends, Richard and Audrey, have been sailing for well over two years now, starting from California, heading down the west coast to Mexico, Central America, then through the Panama Canal, and into the Caribbean.  You can check out their amazing adventures on their blog: https://travelodyssea.wordpress.com/ 

As it was Audrey’s 50th birthday, we decided it was the perfect time to connect with them on their journey for a surprise birthday celebration.  Joining us were more good friends, Diane and Julio.  The six of us had all met in Florida, when Don, Diane and Richard all worked for GM in the (now-defunct) LAAM division.  With Richard in on the planning, and Audrey completely in the dark, we rented a 3-bedroom villa for the week. Don and I flew in from Detroit, and Diane and Julio flew in from Spain, meeting up within an hour of each other.  We picked up a rental car, groceries and “libations,” unloaded at the villa, and then we were off to Jolly Harbour, where Richard and Audrey’s boat was anchored, for the BIG SURPRISE.  And it was!!  A great surprise and very happy reunion.  😀

The week was lovely, spending time with friends, enjoying the villa with infinity pool and beautiful views, and checking out a few sights.  We did most of our own cooking, only going out twice.  Good thing Julio, Audrey and I all love to cook.  🙂

One excursion we made was to Devil’s Bridge, a “natural arch, carved by the sea, out of the limestone, over hundreds of years, and with several blowholes.”  It was windy and we got sprayed, but it was a lovely view point.

Don went back to the point the next day as there was a kite festival happening.  The rest of us were too tired and/or lazy, which is too bad, because he got some great photos, only a fraction of which I’m placing here:

Sunday was Audrey’s 50th birthday – a day of celebrating, starting with sparkling wine in the morning!

After a relaxing day at the pool, out we went, first tour a little of Nelson’s Dockyard at English Harbour, a cultural heritage site and marina, named for Admiral Horatio Nelson, who lived at the dockyard between 1784 & 1787..

From the Dockyards, we drove up to Shirley Heights, overlooking English Harbour, for their regular Sunday-night sunset PARTY.  With a bar and a barbeque, and a steel drum band playing, we watched the sun go down and celebrated Audrey.

…here’s a snippet of “The World is a Ghetto”…

Last, but not least, the view..

For our last evening, we went back to Jolly Harbour to have dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant, with live music by amazing vocalist Asher Otto, and her band.

Richard and Audrey slept on their boat that night because the four of us needed to pack up and head to the airport the next morning.

Last, but definitely NOT least, Don and I went to Las Vegas for a long weekend, because Don surprised me at Christmas with tickets to see Elton John in concert during his 2-week April stint!!!!!  This was ‘bucket-list’ for me!!  😀

We stayed at the Cosmopolitan, which is a very lovely Marriott, arriving late Thursday evening, with enough time to unpack and then have a snack and drink at one of the many hotel bars.

We have friends who have a part-time home in Vegas, and we spent Friday with them. Don and Brian golfed, while Rose showed me some of the sights of Vegas away from The Strip.  First up, a tour of Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah.  Mr. Las Vegas’ estate has only been open to the public for less than 2 years. The tour experience starts with a 15-minute video at the visitor center, all about Mr. Newton, and then you board a shuttle to cross the street and enter the compound through opulent gates.  On the compound you tour his private jet, a large museum full of memorabilia of his times entertaining the troops abroad, meetings with presidents, a large car collection, several of his costumes – so many details from a very full life (still being lived) – plus his stables of 50 Arabian horses, which he breeds, and then, lastly, what was his home. (He now lives elsewhere.)

I took this picture of a picture because it reminded me of Don and his brother playing dress-up.

We stopped for lunch after the tour, and then drove to Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. It’s just 17 miles west from The Strip and you’re in a completely different – and beautiful – world.  We followed the 13-mile scenic drive, making a few stops along the way.

Back at Brian and Rose’s home, we met up with the golfers, had drinks and appetizer, and then went out for a lovely dinner.

The next day Don and I took a tour of the Mob Museum, officially The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, “dedicated to the history of organized crime in the United States and the actions and initiatives by law enforcement to prevent such crimes.”  It’s a fascinating museum, where you could spend hours.  We had an excellent docent to give us the highlights in a little over 2 hours.  http://themobmuseum.org/

From the museum it was just a few blocks to Fremont Street, the first paved street in Las Vegas in 1925, and the historic center of Las Vegas.

We wandered to Container Park, an open-air center of shops and restaurants, literally built from containers, where we had lunch.

We went back to the hotel to enjoy a few hours by the pool, (very hard to find a chair in the middle of the afternoon!) and then grabbed a light supper and drink before walking down the Strip to the Venetian to see a performance by Human Nature, an excellent quartet from Australia.  http://www.humannaturelive.com/

We walked back to the hotel and stopped in at the Cosmopolitan’s Chandelier Bar, a great spot.

On Sunday, after breakfast, we went right to the pool.  Turns out 10:30 is the time to get there if you want a prime location lounge chair.  😉

Sunday was the BIG event.  First we enjoyed an excellent meal at the Cosmopolitan Tapas restaurant, Jaleo.. https://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/restaurants/jaleo

..and then we walked down to the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace to see Elton John. We had great seats, he put on an amazing show, it was a perfect night!

The visuals were great: the side edge of the piano reflected what was on the back screen…

I loved the video during Philadelphia Freedom, and this time the piano remained an American Flag…

I have one 5 second snippet of a video.. didn’t realize (in the dark) I’d pressed record.  Mostly I just enjoyed the show!

Near the end of the show, the first few rows of the audience were invited up on stage, with confetti raining down..

He played for a full two hours, no break – though his band got a break part way through, as he played solo. And while he doesn’t quite have the vocal range anymore, I think his voice is richer. No matter the voice, he is a consummate performer, and it was definitely a night to remember.

On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed the fountain play at the Bellagio, always a crowd-pleaser.

And then a night cap at our favourite sparkling bar… We left the next morning, after an excellent weekend!

And that’s that for our “winter highlights,” some of which was actually during the spring.  😉  Next up, Budapest!  Stay tuned….

 

 

 

Sept/Oct 2015 – 18 days tripping around northern Italy December 9, 2015

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
9 comments

Yes, I know, Don and I are the last people on Earth who hadn’t been to Italy! (Though, to be accurate, I did go to Venice with my mother and sister 5 years ago, and to be sure, Italy wasn’t going anywhere, (except maybe Venice), and we’ve had the opportunity of some incredible travel elsewhere). So, the year of our 35th anniversary seemed like a great time to finally experience Italy.  I spent months planning our itinerary, reading, researching, getting recommendations, and I put together a pretty awesome 18 days, if I do say so myself. (Well, Don says it too. 🙂 ) So, pour yourselves a lovely Italian red (2010 was a particularly good year for Tuscan reds, we learned), sit back and enjoy.  Or, just pour the red, and walk away; I’ll never know.

We flew out of Detroit on September 15th, through London, England, to Rome. We had a 10-hour layover in London. We took full advantage of Virgin Atlantic’s “Revival” lounge, with shower, free breakfast and 10-minute facial, all of which was a great revival after the overnight flight that landed us in London in the middle of the night, our time.  Refreshed and ready to go, we stored our carry-on and took the subway into the city. Our first stop was to see the temporary sculpture exhibit in the Thames, to which a friend had alerted us (thanks Diane!)…

Entitled, “The Rising Tide,” by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor, it’s comprised of four riders on life-sized shire horses, and is meant to be a political comment on the impact of fossil fuels.  What is the coolest, is that it’s only fully visible at low tide (which is when we happened to be there, as you can see), and partially visible for two hours on either side of low tide (other variations of which you can see in the linked articles below). I had *no idea* the tide changed to such an extent on the Thames! (Don’t forget to just click on any pictures you’d like to see in full screen.)

I’m linking a few articles about the exhibit: this first one has great pictures – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3219367/Tourists-wanting-new-riverside-horse-sculptures-need-not-covered-Thames-tide.html

and this one, with more detail on the meaning of the work – http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/02/underwater-sculptures-thames-london

From this exhibit, we tubed up to the British Museum and spent the rest of our available time there, wandering through some of the many rooms, eating lunch, staying out of the rain. And then, back on the underground to the airport, to check back in, and fly out.  We landed in Rome at 9 p.m. on Wednesday but, sadly, our luggage did not.  After registering this with Air Italia (yes, it’s clear why everyone says don’t fly with them), we got the transport to our hotel, a very lovely Marriott (we have points), exhausted and slightly dispirited.  The staff there were wonderful, urging us to not let the lack of luggage ruin a wonderful time, and after dumping our carry-on into the room, we headed up to the roof-top bar for a lovely bottle of wine and fresh breezes.  And then we slept a long and excellent sleep.

Can I just say here, as we began our first full day in Rome, (Thursday, September 17th), how prepared and organized I was?!?  (Indulge me.)  Because we planned to go by train everywhere, I insisted only one suitcase each, plus my purse and Don’s camera bag. (I knew it wouldn’t be easy lugging luggage on and off trains.) We could do laundry along the way. But, because we had a layover in London, we needed a change of clothes, so we packed our suitcases with everything, including a canvas duffle bag to be used as a carry-on, to make sure it all fit, and then we took out the bag and the items we would need for the layover, *plus* a change of clothes for our first day in Rome, and all the important paperwork for the first two cities we were staying, ‘just in case.’  Though we have had amazing luck in all our travels, somehow I had a feeling we needed to be prepared for delayed luggage.

Thankfully.

So, off we went for our first day’s adventure in Ancient Rome, or what Rick Steves calls doing the “Caesar Shuffle.”  We have come to like the Rick Steves’ tour books for anywhere in Europe, and one of the best things he has on his website is free downloadable podcasts, (also by app), basically audio tours for a number of sites, comparable to a private tour guide, but one you can ‘pause’ anytime you need.  We can’t recommend them enough! We had his book with us, and our iPods loaded up with his podcasts. First stop, the Colosseum.  I had followed Rick Steves’ advice before we left home, and bought combo-tickets to avoid ticket line-ups. First we stood looking from the outside, listening to Rick Steves give us history and details, and then moved inside (right past the line-ups!).  The audio tour is just the right amount of information, without being overwhelming.

You’ve all been there.  You know.  It’s a definite WOW when you stand in front of the Colosseum for the first time…

and the WOW just increases when you get inside…

What we hadn’t really known (though we probably learned it way back in grade 5 when we studied ancient civilizations!) was how the lower level of underground passages looked, where the gladiators, prisoners and animals were kept. Today’s colossuem is without the floor that covered all that.

From one of the upper levels, we had a great view of the Arch of Constantine, which commemorates a military coup by Emperor Constantine in A.D. 312, and his legalization of Christianity for the Roman Empire.

On to the Forum: ancient Rome’s birthplace and civic centre. It’s a lot of bits and pieces, but an extraordinary amount of history…

We entered at the Arch of Titus, a triumphal arch commemorating the Roman victory over the province of Judea, (Israel), in 70 A.D.  After the battle, the Romans brought home 50,000 Jewish slaves who were forced to build this arch that celebrates their defeat.

The Temple of Casor and Pollux (3 columns) was one of the city’s oldest, built in the 5th century B.C., commemorating the Roman victory over Tarquin, the notorious Etruscan king who once oppressed them.

The area of the Temple of Vesta is one of Rome’s most sacred spots, where 6 priestesses, known as the Vestal Virgins, lived, tending a fire that never went out, symbolizing the hearth and home of the extended family of Rome. The Vestal Virgins were honoured and revered by the Romans.

We were hot and hungry, so off we went, up Capitoline Hill behind the Forum, to the Capitoline Museum which has a second-floor café overlooking the city.  The museum is on the Piazza del Campidoglio, where the city’s government is also found.  In the 1530s, the pope asked Michelangelo to re-establish this square as a grand centre.  Michelangelo placed the ancient equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius as the centre focus, though it is a replica that stands here now…

…and he designed a grand stairway from the lower piazza up to the Campidoglio.

The museum is highly recommended, but we’ll have to see it next time…

After a reviving lunch, we walked down Michelangelo’s grand stairway, and around the corner to see the Victor Emmanuel Monument, of which Rick Steves says, “This oversized monument to Italy’s first king, built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s unification in 1861, was part of Italy’s push to overcome the new country’s strong regionalism and create a national identity. The scale of the monument is over-the-top: 200 feet high, 500 feet wide. The 43-foot-long statue of the king on his high horse is one of the biggest equestrian statues in the world. The king’s moustache forms an arc five feet long. At the base of this statue is Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, flanked by Italian flags and armed guards.”

On to the Pantheon… “The Pantheon looks like a pretty typical temple from the outside, but this is perhaps the most influential building in art history. The dome was the model for the Florence cathedral dome, which launched the Renaissance, and for Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s which capped it all off. Even the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, was inspired by this dome. The Pantheon was a Roman temple dedicated to all (pan) of the gods (theos), originally built in 27 BC, but completely rebuilt in AD 120. After the fall of Rome, the Pantheon became a Christian church, which saved it and ensured its upkeep through the Dark Ages.”

We bought gelatos on the side street and meandered our way to the very lively Piazza Navona, an oblong-shaped square, retained from the original racetrack that was built around A.D. 80…

…at the centre of which is the Four Rivers Fountain, the most famous fountain by the man who remade Rome in the Baroque style, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Four river gods (representing the four continents that were known in 1650) support an Egyptian obelisk.

We were following Rick Steves’ “heart of Rome” walk to a certain degree, and at the same time sussing out an ‘aperitivo’ spot, so on we walked to Campo de’ Fiori, in the centre of which is a statue of Giordano Bruno, a philosopher heretic, burned on this spot in 1600 because he dared to sugget the Earth moved around the Sun…

We had a couple of reviving drinks at what a Fodor’s article had called one of Rome’s best bars for a classic Italian apertivo, Antico Caffè Della Pace, (though with renovations happening on buildings in the area, not quite the lovely spot the pictures had indicated), and then continued our Heart of Rome walk, heading to the Trevi Fountain.  Sadly, the Trevi was under renovations, boarded up, no water, and difficult to see.  We meandered back towards our hotel, and discovered a four-corners with fountains that were delightful, if not *quite* at the level of the Trevi.

Back at our hotel, we enjoyed a bottle of wine and pizza on the outdoor patio, with a lovely view of the fountain in the square. Rome is nothing if not full of fountains!

We woke up on Friday morning to the wonderful news our luggage had been delivered to the hotel in the middle of the night – YAY!  Off we went on our Vatican City adventure in fresh clothes.  I had booked timed tickets for the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel for the afternoon, so first, St. Peter’s Basilica.  Well, first, in line for the security and dress code checks.  Words can not describe this “richest and grandest” church, whose atrium, alone, is bigger than most churches. We listened to a Rick Steves audio tour as we tried to take it all in….

From St. Peter’s square we walked to find lunch, checking out Rick Steves’ suggestions near the Piazza Risorgimento.  The outdoor seating looked lovely, but it was a blistering hot 35c, so we chose to eat in the air-conditioned inside of L’Insalata Ricca – brilliant choice! We revived in the cool air, with cold beer and excellent salad.  Back we went to the Vatican Museum for our 2:00 entrance time.  The museum is overwhelming – 4 miles of displays. We took in only a fraction on offer.

The highlight of the museum is the Raphael Rooms, and the highlight of the rooms, for me, was the “School of Athens,” frescoed by Raphael and his assistants. “It is remarkable for its blatant pre-Christian classical orientation, especially considering it originally wallpapered the apartments of Pope Julius II. Raphael honors the great pre-Christian thinkers – Aristotle, Plato and company – who are portrayed as the leading artists of Raphael’s day. There’s Leonardo da Vinci, whom Raphael worshipped, in the role of Plato. Michelangelo broods in the foreground, added later. When Raphael snuch a peak at the Sistine Chapel, he decided that his arch-competitor was so good that he had to put their personal differences aside and include him in this tribute to the artists of his generation. Today’s St. Peter’s was under construction as Raphael was working. In the “School of Athens,” he gives us a sneak preview of the unfinished church.”

From the museum we entered the Sistine Chapel.  You can’t take pictures there.  It is stunning.  Pictures would not do it justice.  It was jam-packed full, but we found a spot on the benches at the side, and sat looking up while listening to Rick Steves’ audio describing all we were seeing. We can’t emphasize enough how brilliant this was. While the masses pressed in all around, our ear buds blocked out the noise and it felt like we were alone, with Michelangelo’s vision. It’s incredible to know Michelangelo didn’t like painting, and yet created this. And changed the course of art.

When we exited the Sistine Chapel, we had access to the Dome of St. Peter’s. Together we took the elevator to the rooftop of the nave, and then up a few steps to a balcony at the base of the dome, looking down into the church interior.The dome, Michelangelo’s last work, is the biggest anywhere.

Out to the roof, where I waited while Don climbed the claustrophobic 323-steps to the top of the Dome…

We took a cab back to the hotel to rest and change for dinner. We had a reservation at Ristorante Sora Lucia, a lovely little non-touristy place recommended to us, close to the Trevi fountain area, which made it walking distance from our hotel.  We had an excellent meal.  After dinner we walked to the Spanish Steps, named for the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican, which has been there for 300 years. The Sinking Boat Fountain at the foot of the steps is, like all the fountains of Rome, powered by an aqueduct.

We found another fountain on the walk home…

…and we stopped by ‘our’ corner fountains, too…

On Saturday morning packing up was easy because we hadn’t had enough time with our suitcases to unpack!  One last goodbye to the fountain in front of our hotel…

…and we were off to the train station, to take a train to our next stop, Florence. It is said of the trains in Italy they’re unreliable, but we had smooth tracking on every train we took. Got a taxi from the train station to the Hotel Alessandra, a lovely old hotel just steps from the Ponte Vecchio in the heart of old Florence.

We would stay here again in a heartbeat, mainly to spend more time with Monti, the most-delightful concierge!  After checking in, unpacking in our room, taking a picture from our window..

…we went back to see Monti and ask where we could have lunch before our 4:00 entrance time at the Accadamia.  Well, turns out most places stop serving food by 2:30, and it was already a little past 2:00.  Monti suggested Zio Gigi, and phoned ahead to make sure they stayed open for us! We set off at a quick pace, and when we arrived, rather sweaty, we were greeted with singing!

Lunch was excellent; we highly recommend this delightful little place.  Off we went to the Accademia, to be blown away by David.  Several months before going to Italy, I read the very long and detailed The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, about Michelangelo’s life and work. Seeing as much as I could of Michelangelo’s work was, for me, one of the thrills of the trip.  We listened to Rick Steves’ audio guide while we meandered through this excellent little gallery.

I found the incomplete “Prisoners,” and the apostle St. Matthew, by Michelangelo fascinating, and helpful to understanding his carving process.

After leaving the gallery, we took our first good look at the grandeur of Florence. First, the magnificent green, pink and white Tuscan-marbled Duomo.

Continuing on to the Piazza Della Signoria, the main civic centre of Florence, where in Renaissance times, the Palazzo Vecchio was the Town Hall, and is so again these days. (The David used to stand at the entrance, (there is a copy there now), but was moved to safety in the 19th century.)

The Fountain of Neptune is found here…

…as is the Loggia dei Lanzi, where Renaissance Florentines once debated the issues of the day. It’s an open-air gallery, full of “Medici-approved” stunning sculptures…

We walked through the Uffizi courtyard to the river, and Florence’s most famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio.

Back to our hotel to get a bottle of wine and sit on the small roof-top patio to enjoy the sunset…

Monti recommended the atmospheric Trattoria Bardino across the bridge for our dinner…

..and when we walked home across the bridge, we came upon live music, so we stood and enjoyed listening for a half hour..

 

Sunday morning, the streets were quiet as we headed out …

…to the Medici Chapels and Laurentian Medici Library, part of the Church of San Lorenzo, which was the parish church of the Medici family. The Chapels are the burial site of the Medici family. Michelangelo spent his teen years living with the Medicis, and was commissioned to create their final resting place. It is full of his stunning sculptures.

We had time for a refreshing gelato before our 12:30 timed entrance at the Uffizi, housing the greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere. This gallery is overwhelming, but we followed Rick Steves’ audio tour for the must-sees, which was just the right amount of detail. Here, just a few highlights…

We ate lunch at the Uffizi café, on the terrace, with these views…

After completing our audio tour, we made our way to Santa Croce Church, a 14th-century Franciscan church, which holds the tombs of many great Florentines, including Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, and Niccolò Machiavelli.

The inside of Santa Croce is also lovely..

We left the church to wander back to our hotel..

We had another wonderful dinner at Trattoria 13 Gobi (recommended by a friend)..

…and ended the night with a nightcap at the Westin Hotel rooftop.

Our first stop on Monday morning was the Riccardiana Library. Several years ago my mother gave me a gorgeous coffee table book, The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, and this library in Florence is included. Some of the libraries featured in the book are not open to the public, but if they are, I want to see them. When I had looked up the library online, the most useful information was a review on tripadvisor that said “it takes an effort to get in….” That is an understatement!  When we arrived, the security guards, at a desk behind plexiglass, didn’t speak english – or wouldn’t. They shook their heads, pointed to the exit, indicated we should go next door.  Next door is the Riccardi palace, of more interest to tourists no doubt, but not to us!  We tried insisting, but they weren’t having any of it. Not sure what to do, we walked back out the door, only to find a gentleman leaning up against the wall, smoking a cigarette. He asked us, in English, what we wanted, and we told him we were interested in seeing this library. So, he said, “come,” and walked us back inside. He proceeded to have a discussion with the guards, none of which we understood, but the result of which was we were issued guest passes! This kind stranger then showed us to the elevator, said the library was on the 2nd floor, and went on his way.  Upstairs, we were asked to sign a guest registry, and to put our camera bag into a small locker, and then we were free to look around, though we felt they didn’t really want us there.  (It may be only open to researchers, after all.) We very surreptitiously took pictures.  Yes, it is gorgeous. The Riccardis, a prominent Florentine family, began collecting in the 1500s.

After thanking the staff, we left. Next we listened to a Rick Steves audio tour he calls “A Renaissance Walk Through Florence,” in which he paints a picture of the move from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, which began in Florence. We had already seen most of what he described, but it was a good overview, starting at the Duomo, and ending at the Ponte Vecchio.

We took a taxi to the south side of the river, up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, for the best “picture post card” views of Florence.

A little further up the hill from this view is the San Miniato Church, where “according to legend, the martyred St. Minias was beheaded on the banks of the Arno in A.D. 250. He picked up his head and walked here, where he died and was buried in what became the first Christian church in Florence.” The green and white marble facade is lovely, and inside we were lucky to hear the monks chanting. I took a video while they chanted, scanning much of the inside of the church at the same time It was beautiful and peaceful….

We walked down the hill and through the San Niccolò neighbourhood, and stopped for a refreshing drink.

One last thing to do before dinner: check out the leather apparel.  We walked back to ‘our’ side, past the Mercato Nuovo, also known as the Straw Market because it originally was a silk and straw market, where “Il Porcellino,” a statue of a wild boar nicknamed “The Piglet” stands:

We had looked in several shops, but I’d seen a leather shawl in this one particular shop, so back we went. Don tried on a few jackets, but didn’t buy. I did buy the shawl. We really enjoyed talking with the owner, who is Italian but was born in Montana, where his grandfather has a bison ranch. Much of the leather products are made from bison leather.  After I’d settled on the shawl, he asked us if we’d like a glass of wine, and then ran off to the local bar for glasses for all, including another couple who had come into the shop, regular customers from the U.S.  It was a party!

Our last dinner was at Trattoria Sostanza, of which I’d read high praise in three separate places. http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com/2011/12/trattoria-sostanza-florence/ It’s ‘family style’ seating, that is, tables for eight, so you sit with others, and there’s no lingering because they have two seatings. We had a great meal. The “butter chicken” (very simply, chicken cooked in a LOT of butter) is to die for!! If you’re on your way to Florence, make a reservation!  After dinner we walked down to the river, found a little bar with views of the bridge, and enjoyed a last glass of wine in what became our favourite city on the trip.

Next stop: Venice.  On Tuesday, we took a morning train from Florence to Venice. When you exit the train station in Venice you are right on the Grand Canal – which is a great welcome!  We took the vaporetto (public transit by water) to the Ca’ Rezzonico stop, and then pulled our suitcases along the street to our hotel, Casa Rezzonico.  It looks a little shabby from the front, but our room was great, quiet in the back, overlooking a lovely yard.

After settling in, we headed out towards St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco). Rick Steves has an audio tour around the square, which is a perfect introduction to Venice. We stayed outside on this first afternoon, saving the interior of the Basilica and Doge’s Palace for the next day.

Alta Acqua Libreria, a book store I’d read about somewhere, and couldn’t believe I didn’t get to during my trip to Venice with my mother and sister. This was, in fact, in a completely new neighbourhood to me…

From the book store, we kept on wandering, general direction Rialto Bridge…

…and came upon a lovely square, Campo San Giovanni e Paolo, with one of the largest churches in the city, Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo (yes, the squares are named for the churches)…

…where a group of boys were playing ‘football’…

…and best of all, just across the little bridge, a local bar, so small that the patrons had spilled outside, and stood on the bridge with their drinks. We joined them.

Off we meandered, which really is the best way to see Venice, getting lost and found as you go. We walked a great deal of the city this first day, in fact, and ended up having dinner in Campo Santa Margarita, a very large square fairly close to our hotel, ringed with bars and restaurants.

The next morning we had breakfast in the back garden of our hotel, which was nice, because it started raining later. It was the least adequate breakfast of all our hotels, but the garden was lovely…

And then we were off, heading back to St. Mark’s Square and the Doge’s Palace, for a booked “Secret Itineraries” tour, a sort of behind-the-scenes view of the palace…

What a surprise when we got to St. Mark’s Square!  Extra-high tides flood the square, but apparently they were very early this year; this doesn’t usually happen until November. I had only seen pictures of this; it was quite incredible to see in person, and more incredible to know this was just a slight high tide, that often the water is several inches high, and the square impassable.

I took fewer photos in Venice, because I had been here 5 years earlier and took so many at that time, (that blog is archived November 2010), and Don rarely takes the “big picture” photo, so we have none of the main Doge’s Palace courtyard.  Here are a few from inside the palace, on our tour of ‘behind the scenes’ offices and Hall of the Chancellery, the State Inquisitors’ room, the Torture Chamber, and prisons, including the prison from which Casanova made his “spectacular” escape in 1755, spectacular because it’s still not known exactly how….

After the tour we were free to wander through the other ‘public’ rooms of the Palace. Here’s the spectacular Hall of the Grand Council..

It was time for lunch.  It was also raining.  But, we had umbrellas, and off we went to a restaurant we’d passed the day before, on our way to the bookstore, that I’d seen recommended, Osteria al Mascaron.  It turned out to be delightful and delicious!  And there’s a story, too… When we entered, we were told we could sit anywhere except the table in the front window.  Okay. We chose another small table in the front room. A little later, the waiter opened a bottle of red and set it to breath on that front window table. We decided someone important was coming. Shortly after, an elderly gentleman came in, was happily greeted and sat at the table. It turned out he was the grandfather of the owner/chef, and he had the large table to himself. I thought maybe he was the original owner. We continued to enjoy our meal…

…and then, two young asian women came in, looked around, checked the back room, seemed uncertain, and suddenly “grandpa” was inviting them to share *his* table! They joined him and he poured them some of his wine! It turned out they were from Seoul, and the three of them used their Italian-Korean dictionary to enjoy some conversation and a delicious meal.  We left before they were done.  It would have been fun to see how it ended. 🙂

After lunch we returned to St. Mark’s Square to see the Basilica. It was still raining and along the way the colourful umbrellas were a photography treat. Don got some great shots:

At the Basilica we listened to a Rick Steves audio tour while we walked through. You can’t take pictures inside, of course, but from the upstairs you can go outside to the balcony with the bronze horses for a fantastic view. It was still damp; Don only took a few pictures and I didn’t take any. (As I already mentioned, you can check out my November 2010 Venice blog for more pictures.)

We also went to the Frari Church (Basilica di Santa Marioa Gloriosa dei Frari), full of art by Renaissance masters, and for which Rick Steves has an audio tour.

That evening we had the only terrible meal of our whole trip, and then a great evening at the Venice Jazz Club.  Yes, Venice is all about classical music (most especially Vivaldi), but we love jazz, and during my research before we left home, I had found out there’s a one-and-only jazz club in Venice. We had booked the night before, but it turned out that wasn’t necessary.  The tourists were all elsewhere, listening to Vivaldi.  A bottle of wine and great music made up for a horrible dinner.

On Thursday we started our day by following Rick Steves’ “Grand Canal Cruise,” listening to his audio tour as we rode the vaporetto from one end to the other. As you all know, Venice’s “main street” is lined with fascinating old palaces, stunning in their day, but now not in great shape – the definition of ‘shabby-chic’ I’d say.

The posts were painted with the equivalent of family coats of arms. Don captured a good variety:

Venice is a city of canals, bridges, gondolas, windows…. I focused on a few of those windows (though, not as many as my first visit!):

In the late afternoon, we took a gondola ride. It was incredibly peaceful gliding along the ‘back-street’ canals, sipping our bottled belinis…

Our last dinner in Venice was at a place I’d been before and knew was delicious: Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti, a long name for a small place.  We had a lovely meal.

We had one last morning in Venice.  We packed up, did some walking, and had a delicious lunch…

…And then we were off, by train, to Verona, to spend 3 nights with my cousin Henriette and her husband Raffaello. They have a newly completed B&B, now open for business.   Check it out: http://www.bandballacadirosa.com/en/  We were the ‘test’ guests.  (I think we did very well! 😀 )

We had a lovely first evening, settling in – doing the much-needed laundry! – enjoying a wonderful meal together.  The next day, Henriette showed Don and I around parts of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, and very close to Verona.

From here we drove south again, to the town of Peschiera del Garda, to wander the streets and eat a delicious gelato. Henriette and I also found a necklace we both liked, so we each bought one and presented it to each other for our birthday presents; our birthdays are just two days apart.

While I focused on gardens and buildings and windows, Don focused on boats…

That night we had dinner just a 5-minute walk from the B&B, at the local “agriturismo” – a working farm that has a restaurant, (or is a B&B), and that to qualify for the “agriturismo” label, must make more of its money from farm activities than from the tourist side.  This farm raises boars, as well as other products, and their menu features many items using the boar.  Raffaello ordered us a large number of dishes, so we could sample everything!  I have never been so stuffed!

We waddled home for a glass of stomach-settling grappa before bed.

The next day, Henriette took us into Verona.  First we drove up the hill for an overview of this lovely city…

Also on the hill is the Santuario Madonna di Lourdes, a modern shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, that was tranformed from an Austrian military fort.

We drove down into the city, and Henriette dropped us off to explore while she did some work.  We followed Rick Steves’ walk through historic Verona, starting at the ancient arena, a reminder that the city’s history goes back to Roman times.

We came to Piazza Erbe, a market square that in Roman times was a forum. The column has a Venetian lion on the top, reminding locals of the conquest of 1405, when Venice ruled until Napoleon came in 1796.

We wandered through the square and down the street to the “House of Juliet.” Yes, Juliet was fictional, but the Capulets were likely based on a real family, and Verona’s tourist trade thrives on the association. This courtyard was created in the early 1970s. The walls of the passageway into the courtyard are covered in graffiti..

We left the courtyard…

…meandering our way to Piazza dei Signori, which translates to “Lord’s Square.” The buildings in this square, which span five centuries, are all linked by arches. A statue of Dante stands in the middle. Dante was expelled from Florence when that city sided with the pope (who didn’t appreciate Dante’s writing) and banished its greatest poet. Verona and its ruling Scaligeri family, however, were at odds with the pope (siding instead with the Holy Roman Emperor), and granted Dante asylum.  We ate lunch here, while Dante kept his eye on us.

Through a passageway from Piazza dei Signori, into the courtyard of the Palazzo della Ragione, and this grand staircase..

Continuing on, we came to these very Gothic 14th-century tombs, of the Scaligeri family.  The Scaligeri were to Verona what the Medicis were to Florence. Apparently they changed the laws so that they could be buried within the town.

From here we went to the Church of Sant’Anastasia, built from the late 13th century through the 15th century.

The church guide says: This “Holy Water Stoup (1495)” was carved by Gabriele Caliari, featuring a hunchback, a figure which from immemorial times has always appealed to the superstitious. It is said that touching a hunchback on the hump brings good luck.

Continuing our walk along the Adige River, to the Ponte Pietra. The white stones of this footbridge are from the original Roman bridge that stood here. After the bridge was bombed in WWII, the Veronese fished the marble chunks our of the river to rebuild it.

Further along the river, these young men practising their paddling in the rapids…

… to our last stop of the walking tour, the Duomo..

Henriette picked us up and we went back to the B&B for a last delicious dinner and evening together. Thank you to Henriette and Raffaello for a wonderful time!

The next morning, Henriette took us to the train station for our journey to Cinque Terre, via a train change in Milan.

We arrived in Monterosso al Mare, the most northern of the Cinque Terre towns…

…and pulled our suitcases up hills to find our hotel, Hotel la Colonnina.

We settled in and then went out to walk around Monterosso..

The next morning we were off to explore the other towns.  Cinque Terre is interesting. I first came to know of it through reading the book Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (which I loved).  The Cinque Terre National Marine Park was founded in 1999, though of course the towns have been there for years and years and years.

We traveled by the ferry, which only runs in good weather, and doesn’t stop at the hilltop town of Corniglia. We were lucky for the good weather (cloudy and cool to start, gloriously warm and sunny by noon) and we, consequently, skipped that hilltop town, though we took a few pictures of it from the ferry.  These 5 villages are stunning!!  Which is code for, “reader beware: many MANY pictures ahead.”  😀

We stayed on the ferry to the last town, Riomaggiore, and started our exploring there…

Ever since Napoleon – who was king of Italy in the early 1800s – decreed that cemeteries were health risks, Cinque Terre’s burial spots have been located outside the towns.

Last Christmas, during a get-together with family friends, we discovered that one of those friends, Sylvia, was going to be in Cinque Terre on the very same day as we were! Since we were both only there for one full day, this seemed incredible. Having met up with Sylvia and her daughter in NYC a few years ago, entirely unexpectedly, we knew we had to make the effort to meet in this far corner of the world. Sylvia had done the hiking between the villages, while we were ferrying, but we texted and connected, and met for a late lunch.  Now we just have to plan our next “chance” encounter!

The next morning we had a short walk around Monterosso…

…and then we got the train to La Spezia, just south of the Cinque Terre towns, where we picked up a rental car and had lunch before heading to our last stop, Siena.

On the way, though, we took the time to visit Carrara, where the world’s most famous marble quarries are found – where Michelangelo traveled to pick out the white marble for his masterpieces.  It was AMAZING!  We had no guide to this town, other than to know there was a museum to check out. First, though, we wanted a close look at the marble mountains, so we just started driving up the narrow, winding mountain road.

In town, we went to the Civic Museum of Marble, which traces the story of marble-cutting from pre-Roman times to the present.  They had four short films that were very worthwhile and informative, as well as tools and slabs of every kind of marble from around the world (which we perused quickly).

Then, we were on our way to 3 nights in Siena, medieval Florence’s archrival, a beautiful hill town in the Tuscan region. We stayed at the lovely Pensione Palazzo Ravizza. We got there just in time to sit out in the garden, enjoying a bottle of wine and watching the sun set.

Among some lovely features, this hotel comes with its own book shop 🙂

But, absolutely *zero* counter space in the bathroom. The extra toilet rolls balanced on the tissue box mounted on the wall! Handily, bidets can have multiple purposes… 😀

The concierge recommended a great spot for dinner, La Taverna del Capitano, and then we wandered a little through town, enjoying our first views:

The next day we explored Siena.

Our first stop was the Duomo, dating back to 1215, with the major decoration done during Siena’s heyday, 1250-1350.

We climbed up a tight spiral staircase to the roof over the museum for some great views on a blustery day…

…and then went into the Duomo musuem, full of sculptures by Giovanni Pisano, who spent 10 years in the late 1200s carving and orchestrating the decoration of the cathedral..

and then into the Duomo itself.  The heads of 172 popes, who reigned from Peter’s time to the 12th century, peer down from above.

Into the Piccolomini Library: Brilliantly frescoed, the library captures the exuberant, optimistic spirit of the 1400s, when humanism and the Resaissance were born. The never-restored frescoes look nearly as vivid now as the day they were finished 550 years ago. (Because of the bright window light, candles were unnecessary, so didn’t ruin the art with soot.) The painter Pinturicchio was hired to celebrate the life of one of Siena’s hometown boys – a man many call “the first humanist,” Aeneas Piccolomini (1405-1464), who became Pope Pius II. The library also contains intricately decorated, illuminated music scores and a statue of the Three Graces (a Roman copy of a Greek original).

Around the corner into the Bapistery…

Back outside, there was this fascinating sculpture

Back to wandering through the town, each neighbourhood, or “contrada,” has their own flag and coordinated lamp posts.  These have to do with the famous horse race, the “Palio di Siena,” that Siena holds in the huge main square.

We ate lunch at one of the many restaurants on this square, outside, under big tarps, as the rain came down and the wind blew. Luckily it eased off after lunch and we wandered a bit further, up a steep hill and several stairs, to the Church of San Domenico, dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena, who is considered the patron saint of Europe (along with St. Benedict).  There’s nothing special about the large plain church, but I thought the stained glass inside quite interesting, like a child’s drawing.

One of the best things we did in Italy came next: a 2-hour tasting class at the Tuscan Wine School. While listening to just the right amount of history and grape-growing details, we sampled 5 generous pours of different Tuscan wines, with a little bread, olive oil and cheese.  Just perfect! Of course we bought a couple of bottles.  And afterwards, ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by our sommelier for its’ food-wine pairings…

The next day we went on a road trip to two near-by Tuscan hill towns: San Gimignano and Volterra.

We went to San Gimignano first. It’s famous for its medieval towers; 14 remain of an original 72. Before effective city walls were developed, rich people fortified their own homes with these towers.

From this piazza we walked uphill to Rocca d Parco di Montestaffoli, to what is left of a 14th century fortress, and great views of the town and surrounding countryside.

Back down and into town again, to Piazza della Cisterna, named for the cistern that is served by the old well standing in the centre of the square. A clever system of pipes drained rainwater from the nearby rooftops into the underground cistern. This square has been the centre of the town since the ninth century.

It’s not a big town. It was time to carry on to Volterra.

Our first stop in Volterra was to eat lunch. Perfect timing, as it had started raining. I ordered Tuscan bread soup with sausage… When the waiter brought my ‘plate’ I shook my head, but he assured me it was, indeed, Tuscan bread soup!  Funniest ‘soup’ I’ve ever had, but it was delicious!!

The rain had stopped, temporarily at least, so it was time to explore the town. Just outside the restaurant, these views:

More than 2,000 years ago, Volterra was one of the most important Etruscan cities. Eventually Volterra was absorbed into the Roman Empire, and for centuries it was an independent city-state. Volterra fought bitterly against the Florentines, but like many Tuscan towns, it lost in the end and was given a fortress atop the city to ‘protect’ its citizens. Volterra’s most famous sight is its Etruscan arch, built of massive volcanic tuff stones in the 4th century B.C. The three seriously eroded heads, dating from the first century B.C., show what happens when you leave something outside for 2,000 years. The newer stones are part of the 13th century city wall, which incorporated parts of the much older Etruscan wall.

Volterra’s City Hall (c. 1209) claims to be the oldest of any Tuscan city-state. Town halls like this are emblematic of an era when city-states were powerful. They were architectural exclamation points declaring that, around here, no pope or emperor called the shots. Towns such as Volterra were truly city-states – proudly independent and relatively democratic. They had their own armies, taxes, and even weights and measures. For a thousand years this square hosted a market, and the “cane” cut into the City Hall wall, was the local yardstick.

It started raining again, so time to duck into a shoe store for a lovely pair of Italian leather shoes.  🙂

A last overview – of the road we traveled to get to this hill-top town, and on which we had to go back down…

…and then we were off, back to Siena for dinner.

The next day, Saturday, was our last day in Italy.  The weather was glorious, the only really nice day we’d had in Siena, so we started the day by walking around town, taking some pictures of the sights in the sunshine. I encorporated some of those pictures in the above narrative, but we saw a few new things, too.

We stumbled on a small park with more statues by the artist Xu Hongfei – such joy in these faces!

This same park also had a look-out over a part of the town. It was completely foggy in the distance, but hard to tell in the picture…

Back into the centre of town, at the Il Campo, it was clear something was happening. When we asked, we found out they were setting up for the celebration of the winner of the Palio, the horse race which takes place in this square earlier in the summer.  What a production!

Leaving the square, we headed back to the hotel…

…to check out of the hotel, load up the car and head towards Rome.  Along the way, we stopped in a small town called Tarquinia, as recommended to us by (cousin) Raffaello. Tarquinia is one of the most ancient of Etruscan cities, (they came before the Romans), and a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the Etruscan tombs found there.

First we had lunch at a little place..

…and then we walked a little around the town -it really felt old…

…finally, we went to the tombs site…

Most of the tombs were accessed by a steep steep staircase. One was cut out for wheelchair access..

After going down the steps of several of the tombs, all of them slightly different, we decided we’d seen enough. It was really hot, and we still had a 2-hour drive to our hotel at the aiport, and had to return the rental car.  We walked back through town to our car, I got one last window shot..

..and we were on our way.  We had dinner at the hotel, organized our suitcases and carry-ons, and that was it. Our amazing Italian adventure was over.

I didn’t save a ‘perfect’ picture to end this blog, but I bought some lovely “old-fashioned” postcards somewhere along the way, so I’ve grouped them, and this will be “the end.”   Arrivederci!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wiesbaden, Germany & Barcelona, Spain – March 2015 August 30, 2015

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
3 comments

Don had meetings in both cities, so we took advantage to tour, staying 5 nights in Germany and 6 nights in Barcelona. We were so lucky to stay with (GM) friends John and Cindy in Wiesbaden.  They were great hosts and tour guides. Cindy showed us around their ‘home’ town our first full day there: (click on any pictures for a full-screen look)..

 

We also went up the hill of Neroberg Mountain, overlooking the city, to see the view and this Russian Orthodox Church of St. Elisabeth, built in 1855, on the occasion of her death in childbirth.

The next day, the four of us drove along the Rhine River, site-seeing along the way. Our first stop was to take a gondola over the still-dormant grape vines, to see the Niederwalddenkmal monument, built in the 1870s-80s, to commemorate the Unification of Germany.

Back down the hill, into the town of Rudesheim, for a warming coffee (there *may* have been alcohol added):

After our coffee, we drove further along the Rhine, stopping for lunch at a castle overlooking the river:

After lunch, back towards home, stopping in Mainz to tour the Gutenberg Museum:

The next day Cindy, Don and I went on a little overnight field trip, stopping first to see the Heidelberg Castle:

We took the funicular down the hill into the town of Heidelberg for ice-cream and coffee:

Time to move on, to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, (“Red fortress above the Tauber”), the best-preserved medieval town in Germany, where we stayed overnight.

After checking in, and organizing, we went out for dinner, and then to the “famous” Night watchman Tour of the old walled city.

From the website of the night watchman: In the years before the dawn of the 20th century, the night watchman was one of many citizens of Rothenburg responsible for the safety of the inhabitants of this walled, fortified city. Even though the citizens who slept soundly at night in their beds trusted him to keep the streets inside the high stone walls safe, his status was less than honorable. His pay was low and his job was a dishonorable one. Only the gravedigger and the executioner were lower. His job was dangerous, because he had to guard the city at night like a policeman.

The good citizens went to bed early. The people that he met on the streets were the drunks and the thieves. To protect himself and to show his authority he carried an intimidating weapon called a hellebarde. 

The night watchman made his rounds from nine in the evening until three in the morning, relying on the town hall clock to tell him when to sing his “Hour Song,” which reminded the people who slumbered safe in their houses that he was still alive and taking care of them.

The night watchman[+]s horn, carried on a chain around his neck, warned the citizens of fire–the worst possible disaster that could strike a city in the days before fire hydrants. Keeping watch over the streets of the inner city, lighting the lanterns and announcing the hours in the still of the night were the duties of Rothenburg[+]s night watchman. There were six of these men patrolling the city up to the year 1920.

The next morning, after breakfast in the lovely little breakfast room,

we set off to tour the town…

We walked a good portion of the town wall, which encircles the city. The wall was built in the 14th century, was partially damaged during WWII, and was restored through gifts from donors around the world, who are commemorated with placques on the wall. The wall is 2.5 km. long, covered, and a great place to view the town.

After walking the wall, and eating lunch, we made our way to tour the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum – not for the faint of heart!  There were many instruments of torture, and what we found most amusing: masks of shame!

Very educational, and sure made us thankful for the times in which we live!  And on that note, we packed up and headed back to John and Cindy’s home for a last dinner altogether.  The next morning, Don had his meeting, and then John drove us to the airport for our flight to Barcelona, the second leg of our adventure.

Thanks again to our wonderful hosts, John and Cindy!

 

In Barcelona, Don had 3 days of meetings, as part of his responsibilities of sitting on the advisory board for a company called MSX International.  Spouses had been invited along.  (My kind of company!)  We were met at the airport and transported to our hotel in a van with other MSX Int’l employees, also in town for the meetings.  In the vehicle, I was lucky to meet Maria, one of the other wives, and we chatted while enroute to our hotel. This was especially fortuitous when we discovered a few hours later that the wives were *not* included in the dinner that evening.  :O  Maria and I arranged to meet downstairs in the hotel restaurant, where we proceded to enjoy a lovely meal and get to know one another.  (If there were other wives also at the hotel, we never knew.)  During dinner we also planned our outing for the next day, as we were on our own. (There was a dinner planned for the spouses that 2nd evening.)  I had brought the Rick Steves tour book for Barcelona, and we let him be our guide.

Our hotel was in the Eixample area of the city, and Rick Steves had a walk in the area: perfect!  “Eixample” means expansion, and is where “Barcelona spread when it burst at the seams in the 19th century. Rather than allowing unchecked growth, city leaders funneled Barcelona’s newfound wealth into creating a standardized open grid plan – as if attempting to achieve the opposite of the claustrophobic Gothic lanes. The creation of the Eixample also coincided with a burst of architectural creativity, as great Modernista minds such as Antoni Gaudí, Lluis Domènech i Montaner, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch were given both artistic license and seemingly limitless funds to adorn the new boulevards with fanciful facades. It was a perfect storm of urban planning, unbridled architectural innovation, Industrial Age technology, ample wealth, and Catalan cultural pride. (Rick Steves)

It was a bit of a hike from our hotel to the start of the walk, (which I knew, as Don and I had walked for a couple of hours in the afternoon after we’d checked in), so we took the bus to the starting point of the walk. (This was a bit of an adventure as neither of us speak Spanish (Maria is from Sweden) and the directions our hotel concierge gave us weren’t *quite* correct.  The people of Barcelona were friendly and helpful and we were soon on the right bus going the right way.)  My first picture was a lemon tree…

The Church of the Holy Conception has an interesting story: It is a Gothic, 14th century church, with a 15th and 16th century cloister, and it once stood in the Old City. When the wall that once surrounded the Old City came down as part of Barcelona’s expansion, a few historic churches, including this one, were moved, brick by brick, to new locations in the 1870s. The bell tower came from a different Gothic church.

We stopped for a coffee and pastry, and then carried on to the most famous “modernista” section of Barcelona, the “Block of Discord,” where the three architects I mentioned earlier, each have a sample of their work. It’s too bad it was lightly raining (nothing more than drizzle, really), because the colours weren’t as dramatic as they can be.

Our last stop was La Pedrera, also known as Casa Milà. This Gaudi building is Barcelona’s quintessential Modernista building and was Gaudí’s last major work (1906-1910) before he dedicated his final years to the Sagrada Família. The building has a steel structural skeleton to support its weight (a new technique at the time). 

If Dr. Seuss wasn’t inspired by Antoni Gaudí, I will eat my hat!  😀

We wanted to tour inside it, but the line up was too long, so later back at our hotel, we had the concierge book us in for the next morning.  That evening the (7) spouses enjoyed a lovely dinner and getting to know each other.  The only other planned activity, as a group, was the next afternoon, to tour the Basílica de la Sagrada Família.

The next morning was beautiful – sunshine in a blue sky – and a perfect day to tour La Pedrera, especially as the tour includes the unique roof-top.

The roof is extraordinary…

After the roof, we could tour one of the apartments…

Time for lunch, before our next tour…

The group of spouses met in our hotel lobby and, with a tour guide, tranferred by mini bus to the Sagrada Família, Gaudí’s still unfinished ‘masterpiece.’  It’s already a UNESCO World Heritage Site, even though it’s not finished. The work continues, with a goal to be finished for the 100th anniversary of his death, in 2026.  This is my favourite church ever, and I went back a 2nd time with Don, so (warning) I’m posting a LOT of pictures, combined here from both visits.  Look up this church online for all the details – too many to relate here. Suffice it to say, every single detail has meaning, and was meticulously planned.  It is a stunning creation.  So, first, from the outside…

Now we step inside…from Rick Steves again: The floor plan is in the shape of a Latin cross, 300 feet long and 200 feet wide. Ultimately, the church will encompass 48,000 square feet, accommodating 8,000 worshippers. Part of Gaudí’s religious vision was a love for nature. He said, “Nothing is invented; it’s written in nature.” Like the trunks of trees, these columns (56) blossom with life, complete with branchs and leaves. The angled columns form many arches. Gaudí’s starting point was the Gothic pointed arch used in medieval churches, but he tweaked it after meticulous study of which arches are best at bearing weight. The stained glass windows provide different splashes of colour, depending on where the sun is and through which windows it shines. Gaudí envisioned an awe-inspiring canopy with a symphony of coloured light to encourage a contemplative mood.  Truly, it felt like being in a forest, and I absolutely loved it.

That evening we had a final dinner with the whole group, spouses included. There were about 50 of us, and it was an excellent evening. The next day, we were on our own, though several people extended their stay, as well, and we did see a few of the group occasionally over the next few days.

Don and I started our exploration of the city by following Rick Steves’ suggested “Ramblas Ramble,” along Barcelona’s main boulevard, starting at the Plaça de Catalunya.

In the square, this inverted-staircase monument represents the shape of the Catalunya, honours one of its former presidents who declared independence for the breakaway region in 1931, (though it didn’t stick).

Rambla means “stream” in Arabic and this now-pedestrian-only boulevard used to be a drainage ditch along the medieval wall of the Gothic quarter. 

As we started along the Las Ramblas, one of the first sites to note (according to Rick Steves) was the Royal Academy of Science and Arts building, now home to a theater, important for the clock that marks official Barcelona time…

Just off the Las Ramblas, a Roman Necropolis… Roman Emperor Augustus spent a lot of time in what we now called Spain.

Continuing along…

Through an arcaded lane to a beautiful square called Plaça Reial, a hopping place full of restaurants and bars, and a jazz club we returned to the following night…

And just a short distance away, one of Gaudí’s early works, the first of his Modernista designs, called Palau Güell, built 1886-1890, darker and more Neo-Gothic than his later work…

The Ramblas walk ends at the waterfront, where a 200-foot column honours Christopher Columbus, who came to Barcelona in 1493 after journeying to America.

We wandered along the promenade of the port, heading towards the neighbourhood called El Born, stopping to view the Barcelona Head along the way. This sculpture was created for the 1992 Summer Olympics by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. It instantly became an icon of the city. It brings together the colours of Miró, the tiles of Gaudí, the Cubism of Picasso, and the comic-newsprint trademark of Lichtenstein.

We walked some of the colourful streets of El Born…

…to the Picasso Museum, which we loved. Picasso spent his formative years, from age 14 to 23, in Barcelona, and this museum is the best collection of his early works. We were amazed by how brilliant he was at such an early age, and even more amazed at how realistic his early paintings were.  No pictures allowed, of course.

We stopped for a light meal in the square in front of the Church of Santa Maria del Mar, and then we went into the church, the proud centerpiece of El Born. This is where shipwrights and merchants came to worship. The shippers built this church in less than 60 years, so it has a harmonious style that is considered pure Catalan Gothic. Located outside the city walls, this was a defiantly independent symbol of neighbourhood pride; to this day, it’s fully supported not by the Church or the city, but by the community. The largely unadorned Gothic interior used to be more highly decorated, but during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the Catholic Church sided with Franco against leftists supporting the Spanish Republic. In retaliation, the working class took their anger out on this church, burning all its wood furnishings and decor.  The tree-like columns inspired Gaudí. 16th-Century sailors left models of their ships at the foot of the altar for Mary’s protection. Even today, a classic old Catalan ship remains at Mary’s feet.

Beside (or maybe behind) the church is the Monument of Catalan Independence, “which honours a 300-year-old massacre that’s still fresh in the Catalan consciousness. On September 11, 1714, the Bourbon King Philip V, ruling from Madrid, completed a successful 14-month siege of Barcelona. In retaliation for the local resistance to Bourbon rule, he massacred Catalan patriots. From that day on, the king outlawed Catalan language, culture and institutions, kicking off more than 2 centuries of cultural suppression.”  This square, with the eternal flame, marks the site of a mass grave of the massacred Catalan patriots.

From here we walked back to the hotel.  That night we ate dinner at a Rick Steves recommended restaurant that was great: http://www.lapalmera.cat

The next day, we started off along Avinguda Diagonal, the main road in the (hotel neighbourhood) Eixample. Every day we saw and heard these parakeets, and Don managed to photograph them with his great zoom lens…

We were on our way, first, to Sagrada Familia, to get tickets so Don could see it.  The next day was Palm Sunday, and preparations were well underway…

After securing tickets for later in the day, we went to Park Güell, another Gaudí design. We walked part way and then took a bus the rest of the way up a steep hill to the park overlooking the city.  Along the way, another Modernista-style building, the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner.

Park Güell is amazing. From Rick Steves, an overview:

Funded by his frequent benefactor Eusebi Güell, Gaudí intended this 30-acre garden to be a 60-residence housing project. Work began in 1900, but progress stalled in 1914 with the outbreak of WWI and the project never resumed. Only two houses were built, neither designed by Gaudí.  It failed as a housing development, but as a park it’s a delight, offering another peek into Gaudí’s eccentric genius in a setting that’s more natural than man-made – appropriate considering the naturalism that pervades Gaudí’s work. Many sculptures and surfaces in the park are covered with colourful ‘trencadís’ mosaics – broken ceramic bits rearranged into new patterns. This Modernista invention, made of discarded tile, dishes, and even china dolls from local factories, was an easy, cheap, and aesthetically pleasing way to cover curvy surfaces like benches and columns. Although Gaudí promoted the technique, most of what is in the park was executed by his collaborator, Josep Maria Jujol.

The first part we saw was the Terrace – a huge open space, ringed by curvy mosaic benches, with a great view overlooking the city, and a photographer’s delight.

As lovely as it was on the terrace, there was lots more to see…

The third fountain is a very famous dragon – an icon of the park and of Barcelona. The dragon, slain by Barcelona’s patron saint, George (Jordi), is a symbol of Catalan pride.

The Hall of 100 Columns, (though there are only 86), was planned to be a marketplace for the neighbourhood’s 60 mansions. The Doric columns are each lined at the base with white ceramic shards.

We went back to Sagrada Familia afterwards – pictures already posted.  Then walked back to the hotel..

Enjoyed wine and tapas at the hotel lounge, and then out again, heading to a jazz concert (the Al Foster quartet) we’d booked, at Jamboree Jazz Club in the Plaça Reial. On the way, I managed to score a great pair of boots:

After the concert, we enjoyed a bottle of wine at one of the many outdoor spots on the Plaça Reial, while people watching: a great end to the evening.

Sunday was our last day in the city.  We planned to wander in the Gothic and El Born neighbourhoods, but our first stop was at the Cathedral.  According to Rick Steves, “A memorable Barcelona experience is watching the patriotic sardana dances, held in the square in front of the Cathedral on Sundays. Locals of all ages seem to spontaneously appear. For some it’s a highly symbolic, politcally charged action representing Catalan unity. Participants gather in circles after putting their things in the center – symbolic of community and sharing. All are welcome, even tourists. Holding hands, dancers raise their arms, slow-motion, Zorba-the-Greek-style, as they hop and sway gracefully to the music. The band consists of a long flute, tenor and soprano oboes, strange-looking brass instruments, and a tiny bongo-like drum. The rest of Spain mocks this lazy circle dance, but considering what it takes for a culture to survive within another culture’s country, it is a stirring display of local pride and patriotism. During 36 years of Franco dictatorship, the sardana was forbidden.

Off we went to went to witness this dance.  But, oops, we forgot it was Palm Sunday.  The city was very busy, and the bus had a hard time getting through the traffic.  After we got off close to where we wanted to be, and started walking, we came upon huge crowds, and soon discovered they were gathered for a Palm Sunday procession.

We detoured away from the procession in order to make it to the Cathedral in time for the dancing.  We were blown away by the crowds, the music, and the dancing – it was all very moving.

I’ve included a short video of the dancing (45 seconds) – with apologies that some of it is sideways. I didn’t realize when I turned my camera that it wouldn’t download the same way… 😛

I’m so glad we didn’t miss this wonderful experience!   We stopped for lunch, and then followed Rick Steves’ walk through the Barri Gòtic….

El Quatre Gats – The 4 Cats – is a historic monument, nightspot and restaurant, that I would have loved to eat at: http://www.4gats.com/en/  It’s famous for being the circa-1900 bohemian-artist hangout where Picasso drank and had his first one-man show in 1900. The building was designed by architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and represents Neo-Gothic Modernisme.

The Carrer del Bisbe Bridge, reminds of Venice’s Bridge of Sighs.  It connects the Catalan government building with what was the Catalan president’s ceremonial residence. It was constructed in the 1920s by Catalan architect Joan Rubió, a follower of Gaudí.

In the Plaça Sant Felip Neri, the church, which Gaudí attended, is still pocked with bomb damage from the Spanish Civil War.

The next stop was what’s left of the Roman Temple of Augustus. Apparently the hightest spot of the Barri Gòtic (55 feet), it was here that the ancient Romans founded the town of Barcino around 15 B.C. They built a fort on the hilltop, protecting the harbour. All that’s left now are four columns and some fragments of the transept. The huge columns, dating from the late first century B.C., are as old as Barcelona itself. They were part of the ancient town’s biggest structure, a temple dedicated to the Emperor Augustus.

One last walk along the “Block of Discord”…

Back to the hotel to pack up before a last dinner with a few of the remaining group…passing unique fountains (not yet in use) along the way..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brazil – Sept/Oct 2014 June 30, 2015

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
1 comment so far

Better late than never, right?!?  This post is all about our two-week trip to Brazil last September-October 2014. Enjoy.

We have friends living in Brazil, working for GM, so we decided to take advantage of their generous hospitality and visit this interesting country for a few weeks. We flew overnight out of Detroit on Friday, September 26th, arriving Saturday morning, the 27th. We were met at the airport by the driver for Marcos and Marcia, our first hosts, and driven to their beautiful country home, about 1 1/2 hours outside the city of São Paulo, where we spent the weekend.

Their home is on an acre of property in a gated community. Marcos planted most of the trees on their property, a beautiful variety, and managed to preserve a coffee shrub from the original coffee plantation that once was on this land.

We walked around their lovely gated community and saw more flora and fauna:

We relaxed on the deck with Marcos’ special caipirinhas, made with mixed fruit rather than the usual lime:

while Marcia prepared the tradition Brazilian feijoada:

This rich black bean stew, now considered Brazil’s national dish, “traces its humble origins to the kitchens of the country’s slave quarters. To make a meal with the leftovers from their masters’ tables, the slaves improvised by combining cast-off bits of meat into a hearty stew with black beans, flavoured with garlic, onion and bay leaves.  Side dishes include rice, roasted cassava flour (farofa), sauteed kale, and slices of oranges.”  We had the complete spread:

On Monday the four of flew to Salvador, Bahia, and then drove a little further north to stay at a lovely resort. We were greeted with coconut water:

and settled into a very relaxing and beautiful location:

with some interesting creatures sharing our space:

There were always lots of fishers nearby…

and who knows what these cuties were up to…. 🙂

We visited the turtle sanctuary in the village: Projeto TAMAR, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projeto_TAMAR, with lots of good detail for families to learn about the importance of preserving these beautiful creatures…

…and went twice into the town of Salvador, the third largest city in Brazil, founded by the Portuguese in 1549, and the heart of Afro-Brazil, as this was the point-of-entry for the thousands of slaves brought to Brazil from ports in Africa.

By the time we got there on our first visit, it was getting dark. The art deco Elevador Lacerda was lit up – a stunning sight:

It was built by merchant Antônia Francisco de Lacerda in 1873, from the original Jesuit-installed manual pulley, and connects the lower town to the upper town. The elevator’s current Art Deco look dates from a 1930s restoration. It is used by 30,000 people daily.  Four elevators make the 236-ft trip up vertical shafts in just 30 seconds. It cost about 7cents per person.

The view at the top is lovely:

We wandered through the historic town centre, Pelourinho. The word which means “whipping post,”originally described only the small triangular plaza in the heart of the city where slaves were publicly flogged. Located on a high bluff overlooking the commercial city below, Pelourinho was built by the Portuguese in the boom years of the 18th and 19th centuries as a residential and administrative centre. Abandoned for a greater part of the 20th century, Pelourinho was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.”

The main square, or Largo, is surrounded by colourful buildings, including the Igreja Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos, or Church of the Rosary of the Blacks, which was built by slaves in the 18th century, because they could not attend any other churches, and was built during the night, when they were ‘free’ from their daytime duties. It is still the centre of Afro-Brazilian traditions, and was rocking when we were there – full of worshippers, singing, clapping, and dancing. The outside railings are covered with colourful good luck ribbons.

We wandered the main streets, enjoying the architecture and action, but our “minders” (driver-body guards) didn’t like us lingering too long, (though we were perfectly safe), so we headed back to the resort with the plan to return in the daytime.

On our last day in the area, before heading to the airport, we spent a few hours touring Salvador in the daylight.  We headed first to the Church and Convent of St. Francis to tour “one of Brazil’s most impressive Baroque monuments. The complex was constructed between 1708 and 1750. The convent’s church stands out for its rich and opulent interior. The inner walls and the ceiling are largely covered in gold leaf.” 

The church facade is found in the Largo de São Francisco..

and we were greeted exuberantly by this woman (who of course wanted to be paid to be in a picture)…

The cloisters – secluded interior arcades – are where the monks of St. Francis would gather for quiet contemplation. The walls are beautifully lined with tiles from Portugal.

 

Next door is the church of the Third Order of St. Francis, with an ornately carved and detailed soapstone facade, which is the only one of its kind in Brazil. The facade remained hidden for many years behind a layer of plaster, and was uncovered by accident when wiring was being installed in the 1930s.

After touring the church, we wandered through the colourful old town…

…and then into the Casa de Jorge Amado, a small museum dedicated to Jorge Amado, one of Brazil’s most famous authors (1912-2001). He didn’t live in this neighbourhood, but several of his novels were set here, and several scenes from the movie Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, based on his book of the same name, were filmed in the old town centre.  His books have been translated into more than 60 languages.

And so, one last amazing meal in the state of Bahia before flying back to São Paulo and the next leg of our trip…

Part two of our Brazilian adventure was staying with good friends Jaime and Martha, in their gorgeous São Paulo apartment, overlooking Parque do Ibirapuera, the largest green space in central São Paulo.

While Jaime was at work on Friday, Martha took us to visit a few galleries and the market. Our first stop was Pinacoteca do Estado, dedicated to Brazilian art. We saw some beautiful paintings and sculptures, including this powerful one entitled “The Brazilian” (O Brasileiro) by Raphael Galvez:

We also visited Estação Pinacoteca, dedicated to more contemporary and modern works of art, and the Museu Arte Sacra, Sacred Arts.

Lunch was at the municipal market, the oldest in the city:

On Saturday and Sunday, Jaime joined us for more of the city. First stop on Saturday: the Museu do Futebol (Football Museum). Even if you aren’t a soccer fan, this is an excellent museum.

And then to a late and typical Brazilian lunch, in a beautiful location with panoramic views of the sprawling city:

After lunch we searched out a bookstore from a list I have of beautiful and interesting bookstores in the world.  (Of course I do!) We went to two.  We also wandered through a neighbourhood of fun boutiques and bars.

I loved this store full of eclectic and unique Brazilian-made products:

We wandered through the Parque do Ibirapuera, where there were several beautiful flowering Ipê trees:

There’s an Afro-Brazilian musuem in the park, but unfortunately it was closed. These great sculptures stand at the entrance:

We also went to Liberdade, which is the Japanese neighbourhood of São Paulo, which has more ethnic Japanese than any other city outside of Japan, and where we had a most excellent lunch…

São Paulo is full of graffiti, most of it making the city look dirty and run-down, but in a few locations there are gorgeous works of graffiti art:

We thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend in São Paulo.  On Monday, Martha joined Don and me on a 3-day trip to Rio de Janeiro. We were so lucky to stay in the apartment of a friend of hers, (who wasn’t there), and to have the services of Martha’s driver and body guard for our safety and convenience.

After settling into the home for the next 3 days, we were off for a late lunch.

I had read a travel feature about Rio in The Globe and Mail (Canadian national newspaper), and one suggestion for “a magical musical experience” was to go to “Pedra do Sal: a giant rock at the site of a slave market, where slaves once unloaded cargoes of salt. When released from work they would dance there and musicologists call this the ‘cradle of samba.’ Today, musicians gather to jam in one corner and an admiring crowd spreads up the rock, which was carved with nooks and steps back in the 1800s.” This gathering happens every Monday night – which was our first night in the city.  It wasn’t easy for the driver and bodyguard to find, and they weren’t too happy about us being there, thinking it unsafe, but we spent a fun hour in the crowd, sipping a cold beer and listening to some great music.

The next day we toured the Jardim Botânico, “one of the most fascinating gardens in the world, founded in 1808. Originally meant to acclimatize plants and spices coming in from the Orient and the East Indies, it later became the Royal Garden, and opened to the public in 1822. Amongs its many illustrious visitors were Charles Darwin in 1832 and Albert Einstein in 1925. Today, Jardim Botânico includes 205 acres of natural rainforest, and is home to many species of plants, as well as innumerable types of birds and animals. However, the garden’s signature are the 200 imperial palms that line its main avenues.”  You’ll have to excuse the numerous photos from the garden, though they are just a fraction of what we took!

“Corcovado Mountain is 2,316-ft high, and derives its name from corcova (hunchback), which describes its physical appearance. Corcovado is located in the centre of Rio and can be seen from most areas of the city. On the summit, the iconic Cristo Redentor statue towers over Rio, and is Brazil’s most recognizable landmark. It was officially inaugurated in 1931 to mark the centenary of Brazil’s independence. The enormous statue sits in the centre of the tropical jungle of Parque Nacional da Tijuca, which contains the world’s largest urban forest.” You have to take a cog train up the summit of the mountain, originally built in 1882 by Dom Pedro II, though the current Swiss train dates from 1979.  It’s a slow ride up a VERY steep mountain. It’s incredible to think about how the tracks were laid and how the statue was built.  After the train, there are several flights of steps.

I’ve always felt Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but on the top of Corcovado Mountain, overlooking Rio, I thought Rio just *might* have Vancouver beat for vista.

Back down Corcovado Mountain and over to Sugar Loaf Mountain. “Guarding the entrance to Guanabara Bay, the monolithic granite and quartz Sugar Loaf rises 1,300 ft above the waters of the southern Atlantic Ocean. From the summit, it is easy to understand why the early explorers believed that they had sailed into the mouth of a great river they christened Rio de Janeiro. The name of Sugar Loaf, adopted in the 19th century, is assumed to have been derived from the mountain’s shape, which resembles conical clay molds used earlier to refine sugar. The Tupi Indians, however, called it “Pau-nh-Acuqua,” which translates to high, pointed or isolated hill.

You have to take two separate cable cars up to the summit.

We got to the top at the most perfect time to buy a beer and watch the sun set over the city….

Of course we had to walk the beaches of Rio, the whole length, in fact, from Leblon, to Ipanema, to Arpoador, to Copacabana. It was a stunningly gorgeous day…

Leblon is, apparently, a fashionable and desirable neighbourhood – but see that mass of housing on the hill: that’s a favela….

“The Forte de Copacabana was built in 1914 on the promontory of the chapel, as Rio’s defence against attack, and offers scenic views of the entire sweep of Copacabana.”

And then we walked the Copacabana beach to see great sand sculptures and a display I loved outside the venue that was holding TED talks…

After the long walk, we had an excellent meal at a typical botecos – know for their simplicisty and good food – called Jobi: highly recommended!

The next day we started with a quick look at the Estádio Maracanã – one of the most famous soccer grounds in the world, and the largest:

And right outside this most famous stadium, more favelas…

From the stadium we went to the Lapa area to see the Arcos da Lapa, an aqueduct built in 1724 to bring water down from the Santa Teresa forest…

…and then to see the Escadaria Selaron, or Selaron Steps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escadaria_Selar%C3%B3n – a work of tile art, over 250 steps, that Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón started working on in 1990. People sent or brought him tiles from all over the world to add to the project.

Time for a coffee break, at Confeitaria Colombo, a “tearoom that dates from 1894 and remains a mix of Art Nouveau and Belle Epoque. It was a meeting point for intellectuals, artists, and politicians. The mirrors were shipped in from Belgium and the marble from Italy and much of the original furniture is made from Brazilian jacaranda.”

After the pause that refreshes, we did a little more wandering in the neighbourhood. The Nossa Senhora da Candelária is one of Rio’s oldest churches, this structure dates from 1775…

and the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Sebastian, better known as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro is the most interesting (I think)…

One last meal in Rio before we flew back to São Paulo…

Back in São Paulo for one night, and our last day. We had lunch with good friend Denise, and then visited the General Motors office and toured the factory – a little nostalgic for Don, who used to visit there often for work when we lived in Florida…

And that was the end of a wonderful visit to Brazil….Tchau!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sochi 2014 February 28, 2014

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
6 comments

(Don’t forget, if you click on any of the pictures, you can see them full screen.)

Don and I were fortunate, and very happy, to attend the Winter Olympic Games in Russia, as guests of NBC, as Chevrolet was a major media sponsor. We hosted a number of Chevrolet dealers from across the US, who had earned the trip based on strong sales to close out 2013. There were two sets of winning dealers, going in what NBC termed “waves”, but we were able to get there early enough to host both groups.

We left home on Friday, Feb 7th, and after a very long day of flying, including a 2-hour delay out of NYC because of an extra security check at the gate (a very thorough-ish hand search of all carry on luggage) rather poorly organized, which resulted in us missing our connection from Moscow to Sochi, (though we got on a later flight to Sochi – along with the NBC Today Show team, including Al Roker), we finally got to our hotel on Saturday, about 8:30 p.m. local time.  We were staying at the Radisson in Rosa Khutor, the mountain area for the Olympics.  The whole mountain village was built for the Olympics, and luckily this hotel had been constructed a few years ago, and was complete and lovely: http://www.radisson.ru/en/hotel-rosakhutor 

The hotel was taken over by NBC, with multiple restaurants and bar choices and a large room called the Moscow Room, set up with a bar and many TV screens, for gathering in groups.  After we unpacked, that’s where we headed, to wait for the GM dealer couples already in Sochi, to come back from their evening event.  We had a great visit-meet with them (I’d only met one of them before), and then collapsed in bed.

NBC had organized our days like this: each day we had tickets to a “featured event,” usually in the late afternoon or evening, but they also had limited tickets to many other events, and if we were interested, we had to sign up today for what we wanted to see tomorrow, which meant every morning lining up to sign up, and hope to get tickets.   Don decided to go to Men’s Downhill our first morning, but I knew it was too early for me after our day of flying. So, I slept in a little later, then took a walk around the mountain-village, and then had a nap,

and Don went to the Men’s Downhill –

Back at the hotel, Don had a nap, and then we were herded onto the buses to head to the Olympic Village for our first “featured event” of Team Figure Skating Finals, a new event at these Olympics, and which included Women’s Free Skate, Men’s Free Skate, and Dance Pairs Free Skate, for the final five teams of Japan, Italy, USA, Canada and Russia.

The Olympic Village was a 45-60 minute bus ride from our hotel in the mountain area, depending on traffic, a trip we made every day.  NBC had hired several interns, all university students, at least half of whom spoke Russian, to be our ‘handlers.’  At the hotel they held signs with events on them (e.g. “Speed Skating,” “Hockey,” “Curling,” etc) to make sure we got to the right bus and right event for which we had tickets.   At all times, in the hotel and at the venues, we were required to wear a “spectator pass” around our necks,

and when we were heading to the events, a second lanyard holding our event tickets.

Without those it was impossible to get into the Village.  Once there, we walked from the parking lot to the security check, where we scanned our spectator pass to enter.  Then, just like at an airport, our possessions went through x-ray, and then not quite like at airports, we were thoroughly patted down.  Of course we all appreciated the thoroughness, but it also became a bit of a joke.  The best line was from a woman who said, “well, I feel like a cigarette now!”

Once through security, the NBC interns were placed along a sight-line, holding what they called “lollipops” that led us to the NBC Hospitality Suite, about a 15-minute walk through the village.

The buses were timed so there was always time to relax at the Hospitality Suite and indulge in drinks and  amazing food before heading to our Olympic event.

The Olympic Village was really fabulous; so well designed with all the arena venues in a circle around the flame.  There were Russian volunteers everywhere in their colourful outfits.  Besides the arenas, there were a variety of pavillions and outdoor stages for entertainment, and a number of food kiosks.  The weather was fabulous the whole time we were there – sunny and warm – and it was a delight to walk over the rainbow bridges and people watch.

We saw some wonderful skating in this new Team Event, a hint of what would come in the individual events… The American, Jason Brown, was thoroughly entertaining:

The Canadian, Kevin Reynolds, was excellent:

The Russian Plushenko, strong and perfect, before he had to withdraw from competition:

My favourite thing to watch – the little girls picking up the flowers!

The 15-year old Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya blew us ALL away, and brought me to tears:

Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were beautiful and perfect.  I’m so glad I got to see them live:

The final Team Skating results: Russia Gold, Canada Silver, USA Bronze.  Leaving the arena, the beautiful exterior showed us the current medal standings:

We were back on the bus by 10:30 p.m. and arrived at the hotel for a midnight buffet – a standard night event, it turned out, mostly because we were never eating a real dinner, only ‘grazing’ before the evening event, and then again at midnight.

For our 2nd day, we chose tickets to see Short Track Speed Skating for our ‘optional’ event in the early afternoon, held in the Iceberg Arena, followed in the evening by the ‘featured’ Speed Skating – a longer track in a different arena – The Adler Arena.  Our bus from the hotel left early enough to give us some time to walk around the village and check out a few pavilions.

Short Track Speed Skating may be my favourite event to watch – SO exciting, as they whip around the corners, practically touching the ice, and so easily wiped out.

It was so exciting to be there to see Charles Hamelin win GOLD in the Short Track 1500 metre – especially as he wiped out of his other events.

We stayed to watch the Flower Ceremony…

In between skating events we went to Canada House to buy some Canadian garb.  As grateful as we were to Chevrolet and NBC for the trip, of course we were rooting for Canada!  Don had tried to get into Canada House the previous day, but you could only get in by invitation, (and couldn’t even get into the shop without the pass), so… he emailed a friend, who emailed somebody who emailed somebody and soon  Don had an email to tell us our invitations were waiting at the front desk at Canada House. When we got there we went through the process of accredidation – picture taken, lanyard pass created,

and then we shopped.  I got a great scarf and Don got a toque and tshirt.  Back to the NBC Suite for food and drink, and then on to the Speed Skating event.  This takes place on a bigger course, so it’s less dramatic, I think, and sometimes pretty boring.  It’s also really hard to take pictures as the skaters whizz past.  This is the only one that turned out:

The Dutch dominate in speed skating, taking 24 medals, 23 in long-track speed skating and one in short track – here’s a great article about that: http://www.sbnation.com/2014/2/26/5405120/winter-olympics-2014-netherlands-speed-skating-medals-dominance.  The excitement at our event came with the finals, when Dutch skaters swept the finish, Gold-Silver-Bronze, with twin brothers taking the Gold and Bronze.   Being half Dutch, this was almost as exciting for me as the Canadian win!  🙂

As we exited the arena, Don and I realized the nightly medal ceremony was about to take place, and we could see Charles Hamelin get his medal.  The area for medal presentations was crowded and exciting.  We saw several presentations, waiting for Hamelin, including Ireen Wust of The Netherlands receive Gold for Women’s Speed Skating 3000 metre.

Finally, just as we worried we’d have to leave so we wouldn’t miss our bus, Charles Hamelin, medal ceremony, and then the raising of the Canadian flag and singing of the National Anthem – so moving to be in the centre of that!

Back to the hotel, and it was party time!  The first wave of guests were going home the next day and NBC was sending them off with a bang! First The Swon Brothers (finished third place on the 4th season of NBC’s ‘The Voice’) entertained us, and then it was a DJ playing dance music so loud we yelled the rest of the night away. We were up until past 2:00 and slept until noon the next day!  I had a massage booked that afternoon (bliss!),  and then we were on the bus to the Village, first for drinks and snacks at the Hospitality Suite and then to our evening event – Figure Skating Pairs Short Program.

The Pairs Skate Short Program was a LONG night – 20 pairs skating their short programs, of course to different music, but incorporating the required jumps and moves meant a lot of the same thing.  We watched the Canadians with interest, of course – all 3 Canadian pairs did well enough to advance to the final long program –

This American team was very colourful –

But, our favourite short program, for fun presentation, came from the German team, skating to The Pink Panther -the hot pink catsuit photographs so well!

The audience was almost as interesting as the skaters.  Photo-journalists made their way over to our section during breaks because a few rows behind us: a Russian Cosmonaut and an American Astronaut (does anyone recognize them? We don’t know who they are.)

And in the row Right Behind us, Russian pop singer Oleg Gazmanov, who specializes in patriotic songs and is also a candidate for Master of Sport for Russia for Gymnastics.  (We had to google him to learn this.)  He was interviewed during the first break and from then on THRONGS of Russians made their way over to have their pictures taken with him.  It became a bit of a joke because we were so crowded, and I think we will be in a few of those pictures!

On Wednesday, the 12th, we had signed up for vodka-tasting with international bartender Bek Narzi, but Don found out he could get a ticket for the Canada-USA Women’s Hockey preliminary game, so off he went to that while I sacrificed and stayed for the vodka “drinking,” as it turned out!  😉  We drank a mixed cocktail, sampled shots of three different kinds of vodka, and then had three more cocktails, while learning about the history of vodka in Russia:

It was all great fun!  And then I got on the bus to the Olympic Village, watching the last half of the women’s hockey game on the TV screens, sitting outside in the gorgeous sunshine at the Hospitality Suite, quietly cheering for the Canadians while surrounded by Americans!  Don met me at the suite after the game – Canada won – to eat, and then we were off to the Pairs Long Skate, the final.  The Russians were truly exciting to watch, and got Gold and Silver.  Our favourites from the night before, the German couple, had been in 2nd place, but they both fell during their performance – heartbreaking – and ended up with Bronze.  My favourite from this night was the Gold-medal Russian couple, skating to Jesus Christ Superstar:

Thursday, 13th, first to Short Track Speed Skating and then USA vs Slovakia Hockey Game.  It was *another* gorgeous day!

The short track speed skating was as exciting as always, though sadly the Canadian men’s relay team had a wipe out; heartbreaking when they had a chance at gold. Then three women wiped out in the final for the 500 metre event; it was wild.  Ran into these crazy Dutchmen as we exited the arena:

Walking from one arena to the next, passing the flame burning bright on a gorgeous day:

Hockey: USA vs Slovakia, with half the arena cheering for the USA and half for the Slovakians, and six of the seven US goals right in front of us!

The sunset was gorgeous as we exited the arena:

We got back to the hotel relatively early, compared to other nights, with great intentions of going to bed early.  I will blame the dealers for the fact we stayed up partying until 1:30 a.m.  They were a fun group!

Don had a massage in the early afternoon, and then we were back on the bus to first head to the “back stage” of the NBC Today Show taping.  It was actually quite boring, with a lot of standing around in the background, cheering when we were told to, etc.  And it was HOT standing in the direct sunlight (probably our warmest day), so we didn’t stay for the whole show.  But, all the Today Show hosts were very gracious, came over to shake hands with the “audience” and pose for pictures, etc.

Relaxing back at the Hospitality Suite, enjoying food and drink, and suddenly everyone was abuzz with the rumour that Putin was going to show up at the next-door American House, where the athletes and their families hung out, across the outdoor patio area which NBC shared with them.  People were hovering, cameras were set up, and then finally, surrounded by security, he *did* show up!  He sat on the patio, had a glass of wine, and answered interview questions.  We were inside the NBC suite, and the doors had been closed to the patio, for security reasons, but I passed my camera up to one of the NBC interns who was standing on a table, and he took this picture for me:

After that excitement it was time to get to our Figure Skating Men’s Long Program final.  There were some good skates, but none of them were quite as dynamic as they could be.

When we exited the skating arena, the roof of the hockey arena was lit up with the Canadian flag, indicating Canada had won their hockey game – that was cool to see!

Our last day, Saturday 15th, Don participated in a “skate with Tara Lipinski.”  Tara was the Gold-medal Olympian at the 1998 Nagano games, when she was just 15 years old.  At the Sochi games, she and Johnny Weir were the figure skating commentators.  (I listened to them a lot once we were home and I think they did a fabulous job.)  Tara did a bit of a presentation, and allowed for Q&A, before those participating took to the ice.  Don hadn’t put on skates since we left Ontario (8 years ago?), but after a shaky start, he had a blast.

When he got back, we wandered around the mountain village, doing a little souvenir shopping, enjoying the sunshine.

Then, back on the bus for the last time, first to enjoy a little time at the NBC suite with all the GM gang:

And then to the Men’s USA vs Russia hockey game – SUCH an EXCITING and INTENSE game!

It was quite an end to our time at the Sochi 2014 Olympics!  We exuberantly made our way back to the NBC hospitality suite for a celebratory drink before heading to the bus and back to the hotel to pack.  Don and I had to be up SO early, leaving the hotel at 3:30 a.m. for the beginning of our 26 hours in transit.  No matter.  It was worth it – a fantastic experience!

Prague and Vienna – November 2013 January 30, 2014

Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.
2 comments

Don and I left for our annual November holiday the evening of November 19th and arrived in Prague  the afternoon of the 20th.  After checking into our highly recommendable hotel – (if you click on any picture you will see it in full screen; I have also added Don’s name in brackets on any of his pictures)

and unpacking in this room:

our first stop was a late lunch: beer and goulash, of course!

Then, as the light was fading (so early!) we started off for a first look at the city, across the Charles Bridge and into the Old Town square.

We walked and walked the Old Town – a good way to fight jet-lag – until we were ready for dinner.  Back to our hotel side of the bridge, the area called the Little Quarter, or Malá Strana, we wandered, looking at the restaurant choices, getting lost in the meandering streets, and finally chose a  local “Czech” place in the Little Quarter Square, where I had a duck leg and Don had ribs and dumplings – typical local hardy, and tasty, fare.

The next morning, after a great buffet breakfast, we met our tour guide Petr:

We had arranged to take two half-day tours with Petr.  He divided the city in half, by the river, and during our first 3 1/2 hour morning we walked all over the Little Quarter and Castle Quarter.  He likes to start with this side, as there are great views of the city up on the hill where the Castle is situated.   So, up the hill we climbed, to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.   The Castle grounds are huge, pretty much a town unto itself, and for over 1000 years, Czech leaders have ruled from the Castle.  It continues to be the offices of the Czech President.  The Cathedral sits in the middle, an imposing sight:

We walked the grounds, but didn’t go into the buildings.   Then, we meandered along the streets behind the castle…

to get to the Monastery for the gorgeous view of the city…

From the Castle Quarter to the Little Quarter, of which Rick Steves, in his guidebook, says: “This charming neighbourhood, huddled under the castle on the west bank of the river, is low on blockbuster sights but high on ambience.”

One of the “sights” in this area is the Lennon Wall: “John Lennon’s ideas gave many locals hope and a vision. When he was killed in 1980, a large wall was spontaneously covered with memorial graffiti. Night after night, the police would paint over the “All You Need Is Love” and “Imagine” grafitti. Day after day it would reappear. Until independence came in 1989, travelers, freedomlovers and local hippies gather here. Silly as it might seem, this wall is remembered as a place that gave hope to locals craving freedom. Even today, while the tension and danger associated with this wall are gone, people come here to imagine.” (from Rick Steves’ guide to Prague)  This link is from a Prague tourist website, with a little more detail: http://www.prague.net/john-lennon-wall

We crossed a canal that used to be lined with mills, where every mill had its own protective water spirit.  I wonder if this was one:

Also, a sight that has become ubiquitous in Europe, which apparently started in Russia – couples put padlocks on the bridge rails, a symbol of their love:

Three and a half hours of non-stop walking, talking about the country’s history, communism, and Petr’s own history (he defected from the country after completing his university degree in engineering,  and after some struggle, ended up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for several years, before returning to Prague in 2003), and we were back to our hotel for a much-needed rest and late lunch.

Then, off again for some touring on our own.  My top priority was the Klementinum: The Czech National Library, one of the most beautiful in the world.  The only way to see the library is by a tour, and sadly you can’t take pictures, but there are a number of websites that show what it looks like: http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=844   (You can also google Klementinum Library and click on the images for lots of great pictures.) The tour package includes the Chapel of Mirrors, a lovely room where concerts are held, and the Astronomical Observatory Tower, with several old astronomy apparatases of which the tour guide was quite proud, and a very steep-stepped climb for some great views over the city, worth the climb.

Then, we wandered to find The Family Museum of Postcards inside the Choco Café.  Apparently the Austrian Empire invented the postcard – the walls of the café were covered in framed old postcards, and they had several early-20th-century examples of postcards for sale.  http://www.choco-cafe.cz/house-of-red-chair_p19.html

After we had fortified ourselves with hot mulled wine and a little snack at the café, and I had bought a few postcards,

we walked back to what we affectionately called “our side of the bridge” and checked out Shakespeare and Sons book store with their large selection of books in english… and, well, you know me, I had to buy a few.  🙂

Then, off to find a restaurant recommended to us by friends who had stumbled upon it during their visit to Prague: http://www.ichnusabotegabistro.cz/ This Sardinian restaurant was hard to find, tucked into a quiet neighbourhood, but well worth the search.  There are no menus, just a verbal list of the specials of the day – you know it’s fresh!  Everything was delicious!

Petr was back the next morning at 10:00 for our Old Town, New Town, Jewish Quarter tour, another 3 1/2 hours of walking and talking.  The Old Town Square is the centre of Prague.  “It has been a market square since the 11th century and became the centre of the Old Town when its Town Hall was built in the 13th century.”

Next door to the Town Hall is the famous Astronomical Clock, which was installed in the early 1400s and is a marvel of technology.

It has several revolving discs and (apparently) tells Bohemian time, modern time, the time of sunrise and sunset.  There are four statues beside the clock face that “represent the 15th-century outlook on time and prejudice: a Turk with a mandolin symbolizes hedonism, a Jewish moneylender is greed, the figure stating into a mirror stands for vanity, and Death, with the hourglass, reminds us our time is running out.”

At the top of the hour, Death tips his hourglass and pulls the cord, ringing a bell,

the windows open and the 12 apostles parade by, and then the hour is rung.

It’s all over in 25 seconds.  The crowds gathered for the show, in November, were many.  We can’t imagine how crowded it must be in the summer!

In the centre of the town square is a memorial to Jan Hus.  “Jan Hus (c. 1369-1415) lived and preached a century before Martin Luther. Both were college professors as well as priests. Both condemned Church corruption and promoted a local religious autonomy. Both helped establish their national languages. Hus gave the Czech alphabet its unique accent marks so that the letters could fit the sounds. Both got in big trouble. While Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic, Luther survived. Thanks to the new printing press, invented by Gutenberg, Luther was able to spread his message cheaply and effectively. Since Luther was high-profile and German, killing him would have caused major political complications. While Hus may have loosened Rome’s grip on Christianity, Luther orchestrated the Reformation that finally broke it. Today, both are honoured as national heroes as well as religious reformers.” (Rick Steves guide)

Also in the Town Square, the Týn Church, which for 200 years after Hus’ death, was Prague’s leading Hussite church.  Previous it had been Catholic and after the Hussites were defeated, was returned to Catholicism.

Behind the church is the Ungelt Courtyard, once the commercial nucleus of medieval Prague.

From the Old Town Square we wandered through the Jewish Quarter. “Of the 120,000 Jews living in the area in 1939, just 10,000 survived the Holocaust. Today there are only 3,000 ‘registered’ Jews in the Czech Republic, 1,700 of whom are in Prague.”

The oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe is here, built in 1270:

The history of the cemetery is interesting: between 1439 and 1787, this was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews of Prague. It is claimed the tombs are layered seven or eight deep, and that there are close to 100,000 tombs here. The tombs were piled atop each other because of limited space, and the Jewish belief that the body should not be moved once buried. With its many layers, the cemetery became a small plateau.  This picture, from the street behind the cemetery, illustrates how high the ground now is with those layers:

As we made our way from the Jewish Quarter to the New Town, we passed this statue, a tribute to author Franz Kafka, born in 1883 to a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, and probably Prague’s most famous author.  The sculptor is by Jaroslav Róna, and the work is “inspired by events in Kafka’s story, Description of a Struggle.”  (I’ve never read Kafka.)

Leaving the medieval Prague of Old Town and heading into the modern New Town, one of our first sights is the Powder Tower, “the Gothic gate of the town wall, built to house the city’s gunpowder. This is the only surviving bit of the wall that was built to defend the city in the 1400s.”

Next door to the Powder Tower is the Municipal House, built in 1911, housing Prague’s largest concert hall and a few restaurants. The building is “Neo-Baroque, with a dusting of Art Nouveau.”

Stepping inside Municipal House, the interior is “arguably Europe’s finest Art Nouveau.”

Nearby is the Estates Theatre, built in the late 18th-century, and where Mozart conducted the world premiere of his opera Don Giovanni in 1787. It is the only theatre left standing where Mozart performed.

Wenceslas Square, is really a very wide boulevard rather than a square, and is the main part of New Town.  It is named for King Wenceslas, “the wise and benevolent 10th-century Duke of Bohemia.”

Close to the statue of King Wenceslas is an important memorial, almost hidden in the garden.  “It commemorates victims of communism such as Jan Palach, a philosophy student who loved life, but wanted to live in freedom, and who in 1969 set himself on fire on the steps of the National Museum for the cause of Czech independence. He died a few days later. On the 20th anniversary of his death, huge demonstrations swept the city, leading …after more demonstrations… 10 months later, to the overthrow of the Czech communist government in 1989.”

On November 17, 1989, 30,000 students began a series of demonstrations that eventually resulted, on December 29, with the end of the communist regime and the election of Václav Havel as the president of a free Czech Republic.   On Národní Trída (National Street) there is a memorial to the event, and because we were in Prague just shortly after this anniversary date, we saw the remnants of this year’s remembrance:

During both days with Petr, he very cleverly walked us on a route that took us right back to where we started in 3 1/2 hours.  We said thank you and good-bye on the Old Town side of the Charles Bridge, right under the statue of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled his vast empire from Prague in the 14th century. The statue was erected in 1848 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Prague’s Charles University.  In the statue, Charles is holding a contract establishing the university, which was the first in Northern Europe. The women around the pedestal symbolize the school’s four subjects: the arts, medicine, law and theology.

We walked back over the Charles Bridge (something we did once or twice a day!) ate lunch, and then went to our hotel for a much-needed rest.  In the early evening, we walked back over the Charles Bridge and bought tickets for a classical performance at the Municipal House later that evening, then had a light meal at the Grand Café Orient, in the Cubist House of the Black Madonna, a building designed and built in 1911-1912 as the first example of cubist architecture in Prague: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Black_Madonna

Then, off to the Municipal House for a 12-string ensemble presentation of Dvořák’s Serenade in E Major for Strings, Op.22 and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

The concert was just over an hour long – a perfect amount of time.  We walked back to our hotel, got a bottle of wine and took it up to the small roof-top patio to enjoy the night views of the city.  (Yes, it was chilly – we wore our coats – but not too cold to enjoy the wine or the view.)

This gothic gate (above, at night) was just steps from our hotel:

I can’t believe we didn’t take any pictures of the Charles Bridge, since we walked it at least twice a day, but here’s some information about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge

The next day, Saturday, we toured a few museums.  First to the Museum of Communism, which tells the history of communism in Prague quite thoroughly, and with all information in English. It also includes a short video of the protests in 1989 which culminated in the end of communist rule.  It was very worthwhile.

A stop for coffee and strudel recharged us before we went to the Mucha Museum, dedicated to the work of Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha, of which Rick Steves says, “This is one of Europe’s most enjoyable little museums.  …With the help of an abundant supply of sultry models, Mucha became a founding father of the Art Nouveau movement.”  He is perhaps most famous for the many Sarah Bernhardt posters she commissioned him to create.  We recognized his work immediately, and I’m sure you will too: http://www.alfonsmucha.org/

Afterwards we went walking, first heading to Charles Square, of which Rick Steves said, “Prague’s largest square is covered by lawns, trees and statues of Czech writers. It’s a quiet antidote to the bustling Wenceslas and Old Town squares.”  You know the mention of statues of writers intrigued me.  Well, we walked pretty much the whole square and huge park and all we found was one statue!  I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Rick Steves!

From the park we headed towards the river, and came upon this intriguing street art along the way:

And then at the river’s edge, what is called “Dancing House” and nicknamed ‘Fred and Ginger’ – designed by Frank Gehry of Toronto, Canada:

It was past time for a very late-lunch.  We stopped at Cafe Louvre http://www.cafelouvre.cz/en/ where Franz Kafka and Einstein, among others, liked to spend time, and had a delicious meal:

Then, back to the hotel for a rest before an evening out.  We love jazz and earlier in the day had walked past a few different clubs to decide on a place for our evening. By chance we picked the Agharta Jazz Club http://www.agharta.cz/ and had the BEST night of our trip, actually the HIGHLIGHT of our trip!  We got to the club an hour before the show started, luckily, because it turned out all but three of the tables in this small club (seats about 60) were reserved.  (Reservations hadn’t occured to us.)  As the club began to fill up we ordered a bottle of wine and waited for the show.  It turned out the place was full because the Czech’s top jazzman was performing!!  Jiří Stivin & Co Jazz Quartet blew us away!!

We stayed until the very last note, at midnight, and loved every single moment.  Their CD has been my soundtrack while I write this blog.

Wandering home, we passed this bakery for the umpteenth time and this time bought a treat to eat as we walked.

The next day was our last in Prague.  We wanted only to take a few pictures and buy “Bohemian garnets,” mined from a mountainous area of Bohemia and, (according to Rick Steves), the major source of garnets from the Renaissance through Victorian age.

We mostly had the wonderful architecture in our camera focus:

We had a great day of walking, eating, and shopping – I got a pair of earrings and Don got a pair of cuff links.  Our last dinner was at Klub Architektů, a kind of modern vibe in a medieval cellar, with very good local white wine.  And then, to the Hemingway Bar for an evening cocktail.  (Well, two.)  http://www.hemingwaybar.cz/bar-prague/ The bar was another highlight, recommended to us by friends.  Hemingway never drank there, but they are dedicated to cocktails in a way Hemingway would approve.  We sat at the bar watching the expert bartender shake and stir.  It was great fun!

One last walk home across the Charles Bridge…

And that was the end of our wonderful time in Prague. The next morning we were up and out, on the train to Vienna.  We left Prague at 9:45,  made one connection, and at 2:20 arrived in Vienna.  We got a taxi to the hotel,  checked in and unpacked.  It wasn’t such an atmospheric hotel as the one in Prague, but in a convenient location, fairly modern, very clean, and the breakfast buffet was good.

Having missed lunch (just snacks on the train), we looked to Rick Steves’ book for local restaurant recommendations and walked just a short distance for a typical German meal of schnitzel, potato salad (very different, but delicious) and beer, and the only picture of the two of us together on the whole trip:

And then, as it started to get dark, off we headed to the centre of Vienna – St. Stephen’s Cathedral square, where we were surprised, but very happy, to find a Christmas market.

We walked and walked, past many high end shops, more churches, up to the palace gates, and then back towards our hotel, stopping at the Marriott’s bar for a glass of wine before heading to our hotel and bed.

The next day, after breakfast, we started our sight-seeing with a tour of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the heart of Old Vienna.  There was a sign inside to tell us of a tour in english, and the fellow’s detail was good.  Then we remembered that Rick Steves has podcast tours (which I’d very cleverly downloaded for our iPods before we’d left home) and one of his podcasts is a tour of St. Stephen’s, so we listened to his version as we wandered through the cathedral taking pictures.  I won’t go into all his detail, but a few highlights include:

the old pulpit – a Gothic sandstone pulpit, c.1500 –

a carved statue of the Madonna of the Servants (from 1330), a favourite of working people –

and the tomb of Frederick III (1415-1493), “who is considered the ‘father’ of Vienna for turning the small village into a royal town with a cosmopolitan feel. Frederick secured a bishopric, turning the newly completed St. Stephen’s church into a cathedral. The emperor’s major contribution to Austria, however, was in fathering Maximilian I and marrying him off to Mary of Burgundy, instantly making the Habsburg Empire a major player in European politics. The lavish tomb (made of marble from Salzburg) is as long-lasting as Frederick’s legacy. To make sure it stayed that way, locals saved his tomb from damage during WWII by encasing it (as well as the pulpit) in a shell of brick” –

As we walked out of St. Stephen’s we were hit with snow flurries.  We felt terribly sorry for the horses waiting in the cold.

From the cathedral we walked over to the Opera House to check on tour times, and felt sorry for the pigeons, too!

Having ascertained the english tour times, we went to the near-by Tirolerhof Café for lunch.

I had soup, Don had a salad and then we shared this amazing apfelstrudel with our coffees.

We had discovered the “café culture” of Vienna as Rick Steves describes: ” In Vienna, the living room is down the street at the neighbourhood coffeehouse. This tradition is just another example of the Viennese expertise in good living. Each of Vienna’s many long-established (and sometimes even legendary) coffeehouses has its individual character (and characters). These classic cafés can be a bit tired, with a shabby patina and famously grumpy waiters who treat you like an uninvited guest invading their living room. Yet these spaces somehow also feel welcoming, offering newspapers, pastries, sofas, quick and light workers’ lunches, elegant ambience, and “take all the time you want” charm for the price of a cup of coffee.”

After our lunch we still had some time before the tour of the Opera House started, so we wandered over to the Naschtmarkt, which “roughly translates to ‘Munchies Market.'”  This would be a great place in the summer.

Back to the Opera House for our tour.

Interestingly, the architect of the building received a great deal of criticism for his design, mostly because he failed to create a grand entrance, which led him to commit suicide.  (We actually walked most of the way around the building looking for the entrance.)  It was also destroyed by bombs during WWII and has been rebuilt.  It’s still beautiful, though, especially inside.

We were lucky to get to see backstage, work in progress.  Unbelievably, every night is a different production at the Opera House in Vienna – which, I guess, keeps hundreds of people employed.

The tour was worthwhile, the only way to see the building unless you’re attending an opera – which we weren’t.

From the Opera House we walked just a short distance to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, built in 1888 as a showcase for the Habsburgs’ collected artwork, collected between 1450-1650 approximately.  For the two hours before it closed, we saw just a tiny sample of what’s on display,

including many Dutch and Flemish painters – Rubens, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Pieter Bruegel the Elder…

Exiting the museum at closing time (6 pm), we were confronted by snow flurries, Vienna’s biggest monument- the Maria Theresa Monument, and a lovely Christmas market.

First up, “glühwein!” and a wander through the market…

and then Don found chips!

From this market, we market-hopped: food at one  – (sausages for Don, a gyro for me) – and then hot wine wine at another, where we also bought advent calendars, and finally at the St. Stephen’s market (so close to our hotel) for one last hot wine before retiring for the night, exhausted and foot sore!

The next morning, clear skies, and we discovered the view from our hotel balcony:

After breakfast, we started our day by following Rick Steves’ city walk tour on our iPods.  Following his directions while listening to his descriptions was like having our own personal tour guide – we can’t recommend his podcasts enough!!   He starts his walk at the Opera House (because “if Vienna is the world capital of classical music, this building is its throne room”).  Behind the Opera House, the famous Café Sacher, at the Hotel Sacher –

home of the world famous Sacher-Torte – two layers of cake separated by apricot jam and covered in dark chocolate icing.  (We didn’t indulge. )  To the horror of Viennese purists, Starbucks (with chutzpah) opened a branch right across the street from this most famous of cafés.  In Don’s picture you can see the Starbucks logo in the ground-floor window:

In the Albertinaplatz, this “Neoclassical building marks the tip of the Hofburg Palace (a sprawling complex of buildings that was long the seat of Habsburg power); today it is the Albertina Museum” –

Within the ‘platz’ are several statues that make up a Monument Against War and Fascism, commemorting the years when Austria came under Nazi rule (1938-1945). This piece is called The Gates of Violence, to remember victims of all wars and violence.

On we wandered, up and down winding streets, listening to history and architectural detail, admiring the beautiful buildings…

and the prepartion for Christmas…

The Graben (which means ‘ditch’) was originally the moat for the Roman military camp, then it was a busy street of traffic, until the 1970s, when it was turned into one of Europe’s first pedestrian-only streets. (The statue-column at the far left of this picture is called the Holy Trinity Plague Column: 60 feet tall, erected by Emperor Leopold I, in gratitude to God after saving Vienna from total devestation, after the Plague hit in 1679, wiping out 75,000 Viennese, a 1/3 of the city at that time.) Note the Christmas decorations hung, but not lit.  Every evening we hoped they would be…

We stopped for lunch at another atmospheric café, Café Hawelka; and then drooled over the window display at Demel, one of Vienna’s famous chocolate shops –

before venturing inside to see the bakery in action –

Back outside, we came to Michaelerplatz and the Neo-Baroque facade of the Hofburg Palace, where the Habsburg emperors lived (except in the summer).

We went in to tour the Imperial apartments, home to Emperor Franz Josef I (the last of the Habsburg monarchs) and his reclussive, eccentric empress, Elisabeth, known as “Sisi.”  The tour included the Sisi Museum.  The apartments (which you can not photograph) are as lavish as you would expect.  More interesting was the museum dedicated to the life and death of “Sisi.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria    We knew nothing of Sisi prior to visiting this museum, whose “beauty, bittersweet life and tragic death helped create a larger-than-life legacy” and found the details quite fascinating.

Next, we went to the Austrian National Library, actually part of the Hofburg Palace, and another one of the most beautiful libraries in the world.  This was once the library of the Habsburgs. Construction of this beautiful room began in 1722 under the authority of Charles VI, whose statue is in the middle.  Here we were allowed to take photos; please forgive the many that follow!

And from an exhibit in the library on children in Austria over the years, a sign I couldn’t resist –

We went back to the hotel to relax, and then out to an intriguing little Italian restaurant for dinner, Cantinetta La Norma, rustic, artistic, and great food – an Italian restaurant run by Arabs, with much coming and going, and maybe more going on than meets the eye.  If only they didn’t allow smoking inside!

One last mug of glühwein at the St. Stephen’s market and back to our hotel and bed.

Thursday morning was crystal clear, sunny and cold. We started the day by walking across the Ringstrasse from our hotel to Stadtpark (City Park), Vienna’s major park, honouring many Viennese musicians and composers with statues.  Most beautiful in the sunshine, the golden Johann Strauss, “waltz king.”

We were heading for the Belvedere, but saw a few sights along the way.  First, this Russian Monument, built in 1945 as a forced thank you to the Soviets for liberating Austria from the Nazis: formerly a sore point and now just ignored (Rick Steves) –

Next we came upon Karlskirche (St. Charles’ Church) and discovered it was being “yarn-bombed:” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing

Onward to the Belvedere Palace – “the elegant palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), the still-much-appreciated conqueror of the Ottomans. Eugene, a Frenchman considered too short and too ugly to be in the service of Louis XIV offered his services to the Habsburgs. While he was indeed short and ugly, he became the greatest military genius of his age, the savior of Austria, and the toast of Viennese society. When you conquer cities, as Eugene did, you get really rich. With his wealth he built this palace. Only Eugene had the cash to compete with the Habsburgs, and from his new palace he looked down on the Hofburg, both literally and figuratively. Prince Eugene had no heirs, so the state got his property, and Emperor Joseph II established the Belvedere as Austria’s first great public art gallery.”

The Belvedere (beautiful inside and out) has Vienna’s best collection of local artists, including several Gustav Klimt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt

After wandering through the Belvedere, we took the tram to see the Parliament buildings and City Hall.

At City Hall we found another Christmas market.

It was the biggest Christmas market we’d seen, so we decided we’d come back when it was dark and enjoy the sparkling atmosphere. We headed back to the hotel to rest our feet.  When it was dark, we returned to the City Hall market.  It was lovely.

We were also very happy that, on our last night, the city had finally turned on the power to light up the Graben street decorations we’d seen every day, but never  lit:

After enjoying the beautifully lit up night, we went out for a last dinner, at an Italian place we had passed a few times, and which looked inviting:

We had a last full morning in the city before taking the train back to Prague, so we decided to take a long walk, across the Danube Canal (not the river), to the north corner of the city, to see the Prater Amusement Park, with the famous ferris wheel.  In 1766, Emperor Josef II gave his imperial hunting grounds to the people of Vienna for a public park.  In 1896, English engineer Walter B. Basset submitted the idea to construct a Giant Ferris Wheel (something his company had already done in other locations), and in 1897 construction was complete – 30 cabins with 20 seats each. During WWII the ferris wheel was damaged when a fire destroyed all 30 cabins and the operational facilities, but it was reconstructed in record time and re-opened in May 1947.  It features in such famous films as James Bond’s The Living Daylights and 1950’s The Third Man, based on a novel by Graham Greene, set in bombed-out, post-war Vienna, starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton (which we had watched before we left on this trip).

Walking back to the hotel, we passed this statue of Dr. Karl Lueger, the influential mayor of Vienna, from 1897-1910, who together with architect Otto Wagner, helped to shape modern Vienna.

It was time to say goodbye to Vienna.  We took the train back to Prague, arriving in the evening, and stayed at the Airport Courtyard Marriott, an excellent hotel with a great restaurant, and just steps away from airport check-in the next morning.

We had a wonderful trip, with Prague being our favourite – a city to which we’d be very happy to return.  Vienna was lovely too – we especially enjoyed the cafés and Christmas markets – but we didn’t have the same feel for it as we did for Prague.   It was all fun, though.

Next up – Winter Olympics in Sochi!  Stay tuned….