EUROPE 2016, PLAN B: LONDON

The settlement of Londinium was established in the mid-first century; today the city of London has a population of about 8.7 million people. It is a big city, and I'm trying to wrap my brain around what to say about it.

Well, first I should say that I/we really enjoy being in London. Other than the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road and there are no drivers on the upper level of the buses, it is a very likable place, the native language is usually easy to understand, and there are many, many things to see and do. 

We were in London twice on this trip; before and after visiting St. Ives, Cornwall. Our kids (the FriedFish) stayed at CitizenM Hotel, so we decided to give it a try. (I'm going to post a review of the CitizenM because it is an interesting concept and a fun place to stay.) The hotel is in Bankside, on the south side of the River Thames (see map, below); a terrific location for us. The neighborhood is business, residential and commercial, including many hotels and restaurants. The attraction for us was the proximity to the Tate Modern Museum, the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, and the River Thames. We spent a lot of time walking along the river and simply enjoying the views of the city skyline (see previous post), the very busy river traffic, the crowds of people, and the overall big-city urbaness (not really a word) of it. 

London can be expensive. We used the black London taxis when something was too far to walk, and I didn't want to navigate the tube because of my back pain. We thoroughly enjoyed the taxi drivers, all of whom were great conversationalists and interesting people. (We decided not to use Uber in London because we wanted to support the professional career taxi drivers.) Keep in mind that in the UK you use British funny-money, not Euros, and this can be somewhat maddening and confusing until you get used to it. (As of this writing, 1 GBP = 1.3 USD; whereas 1 EUR = 1.12 USD). Because of traffic, a taxi ride could easily cost $20-$25; but hey, it's vacation. 

Because we have been in London several times, we did not feel a need to see all the important sites - been there done that - and so we settled into being in London, rather than always doing.  We typically did one major thing each day; a museum, theatre, exhibit, etc. The rest of the time, we enjoyed being in the city, meeting people, finding good restaurants, and hanging out in the "living room" of our hotel. 

Below are some of the highlights of our London stay. And I am including a map, for those who are cartographically oriented as I am. The map has symbols for places we were.

And, of course, a photo album is at this link: https://flickr.com/photos/95157126@N03/sets/72157672871643161

MUSEUMS - London is filled with museums; we enjoyed two of them. The Tate Modern Is big and bold, filled with exhibits. We went through a special exhibit of the works of Bhupen Khakhar, a "key figure in modern Indian art." His painting style was both simple and complex, and the exhibit dealt with themes of daily life in India, politics, homosexuality, illness and the cancer that eventually killed him. We also went through an exhibit of Materials and Objects. We certainly could have spent days in the Tate Modern, but chose to limit our time. We did have lunch in the 9th floor restaurant, with spectacular views of the city, in addition to excellent food and perfectly paired wine. 

We took a taxi from the hotel to the British Library, specifically to see historic items in the permanent collection, including the Magna Carta, works by Shakespeare and other great writers in their own handwriting, as well as early print editions, religious items (bibles, etc.), letters and other documents of historic significance. One display case contained an annotated timeline of political essays and novels that included:  Sir Thomas More's Utopia, 1516; New Atlantis, 1627 by Sir Francis Bacon; The Neessity of Atheism, 1811, and The Mask of Anarchy, 1819 by Percy Bysche Shelley; H. G. Wells' 1905 A Modern Utopia; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1932; and, of course, Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell, 1949 (see Theatre, below). I just might have to read all of these items in chronological order! 

THEATRE - Oh yes, London has it's share of theatres. We saw two productions while we were there.

946 The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips at the Shakeseare's Globe. This was an experience! The play is a musical drama, set in the small community of Slapton, in Devon, England during WWII. A little girl, her cat, her mother and grandfather, her father off to the war, the Black American soldiers who become part of their lives. This is a compelling story of wartime, friendship, pain, and feelings of abandonment. It tells a small piece of history with music, dance and puppetry. It touches on racism, as the Black G.I.s experience for the first time in their lives what it feels like to be accepted as regular people by a white British farm family. It tells the true story of how the American military evacuated everyone from the area so they could use the Slapton Sands beach and surrounding countryside to practice landings for the D-Day invasion. A miscommunication betwen the British and American navies left the landing fleet unprotected and vulnerable, resulting in the loss of 946 American lives when German naval patrols discovered the fleet and bombed it. The US and British governments covered-up this tragic event for 40 years! 

(A side note: towards the end of our time in London, we walked to a classic boat exhibit that was part of the Totally Thames celebration. One of the boats is the Portwey, the last coal-fired, twin-screw tug in the UK (click the link for the photo album). Reading the placard for the exhibit, I discovered that the Portwey had been used by the American navy during WWII, and during the Slapton Sands exercise, had rescued numerous Americans when the Germans bombed the unprotected fleet. This was an exciting moment for us, as we understood the relationship between the play and the ship.)

1984 at the Playhouse Theatre. We went into this new theatrical adaptation of the classic book knowing full well that it would not be a comedy. It wasn't! The adaptation focused on the Appendix to the novel for inspiration, and the action goes back and forth between a book group reading and discussing the novel, and the in-the-moment life of Winston Smith, the main character. The bottom line is words, language, text - what is it, and who defines it? The torture scene near the end is chilling and very graphic - we wanted to close our eyes and cover our ears, but could not because the production was so compelling. We walked out needing a drink (is that wrong?). 

The play is so very timely. Big Brother (big government) is watching everyone all the time (sound familiar?). Language is being retooled so that it becomes Newspeak. War/Is/Peace. Ignorance/Is/Strength. 2/+/2/=/5. Freedom/Is/Slavery. We have always been at war with Eurasia/We have never been at war with Eurasia. Lies and truth are indistinguishable; we have to believe whatever we are told in the moment. Our ensuing discussion included the terms NSA, Trump, media, data mining, internet....you understand. 

WALKING IN THE CITY -  We walked a lot, mostly along the Thames, but also through neighborhoods.  We crossed 5 bridges, some more than once (see the turquiose hikers symbol on the map, above). The Thames is a major walking corridor, with wide walkways along both sides, except in some places where buildings come down to the seawall and the walkway goes inland around them. The streets in the central part of the city are crowded with people and lined with an amazing architectural variety of buildings, old and new. It is a very lively city by day and at night; the pub/club scene in the evening is amazing. London is crowded with people, and the diversity is amazing. In our hotel and every restaurant, the staff is young people from many different countries in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere. We had a lot of fun learning about people and why they moved to London.  

London has an extensive public transit system of buses and underground and above-ground trains. Add the huge fleet of taxis, and now Uber and other similar services, and I would be reluctant to use an automobile if I lived there. The use of bicycles in London is growing rapidly, and being encouraged by city leaders; however, from what we saw, it is a scary scene. There are some, but not many bike lanes, and most cyclists we saw were mixed in with the dense traffic on the busy, narrow and winding London streets. Our taxi drivers confirmed that it is a problem, there are many injuries (most cyclists we saw were not wearing helmets), and that a lot of cyclists ignore the rules of the road (sounds familiar). We did see a lot of public bicycles and stations were they can be rented. Integrating bicycle traffic into a developed city like London seems like a difficult challenge.

 We left London with a twinge of sadness (and big hugs from some of the staff at the CitizenM Hotel). It is a big, noisy, busy and wonderful city that everyone should visit. 

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ST. IVES, CORNWALL, UK 2016

     screenshot of Google Maps, 11SEP2016, notations using Paper by 53

At the seaside in St. Ives, Cornwall. This is the land of Poldark, Doc Martin and so many English novels. It is a picturebook beautiful landscape of rolling green hills, rocky cliffs, coves with perfect beaches and crystal clear water, all dotted with those inviting English villages (photo album link at the end). And crowds of tourists. 

Our goal in St. Ives, before The Injury, was to use it as a base to explore Cornwall. Maybe hire a guide for a day, take buses and trains - never drive - and perhaps some walks along the coastal path. Well, during Europe 2016, Plan B, my back went out in Bilbao, and my activity was greatly limited by the time we arrived in St. Ives. 

But we settled into a state of "being" on vacation, and managed to do enough in St. Ives to get familiar with the town and have a very, very enjoyable time. Our hotel, the Pedn-Olva, is an older (50+ years) beach resort-type hotel with several outdoor terraces, a swimming pool, restaurant and bar. The inside is a warren of halls, stairs and small, odd-shaped rooms (at least ours was). Our room, at the very lowest level of the building, looked out on the Celtic Sea (the Atlantic Ocean between England and Ireland) and the St. Ives harbour (I'm using the British spelling). A few feet below our window was the black rock outcrop into which the hotel is built, and during high tide, the waves crashed just below us. We didn't need any background noise app at night; the ocean waves breaking on the rocks, or the sand at low tide, did a great job lulling us to sleep. 

The hotel is a very short distance from the St. Ives train station, where an old train makes the short trip between St. Ives and St. Erth probably every hour or more often. At St.Erth, connections can be made for trains to other parts of England (London, for example). So, being tired of the airport scene, and concluding that the closest we could fly to St. Ives would be Newquay, up the coast, then a ~$100 taxi ride to St. Ives, we decided to take the train from London. The 5.5 hour train ride was comfortable, and passed through the lovely British countryside. And, taking into account getting to and arriving early at the airport in London, waiting for luggage, taking a taxi, etc., it was really not that much more time. 

Here are a few of the things we did in St. Ives:

We walked along the wharf road that borders the harbour. It is lined with tourist shops, restaurants and bars, and crowded with people. Interestingly, we heard very few American accents; mostly British. We scoped out some promising places to eat, which turned out to be very good. 

Special mention of The Tearoom, a small restaurant that has it's own bakery which, to Sherry's great delight, also makes almost everything available gluten free - they bake many of their pastries, tarts, scones, etc., gluten free as well as with wheat. Thanks The Tearoom folks! 

We browsed various art galleries. St. Ives was a very active artist's colony from the 1940's into the 1980's, with a number of well-known artists in residence. It is still an art town, with numerous galleries and local artists and arts organisations. If you like seascapes, this is the palce to be - and there are many other themes, also. 

Barbara Hepworth was a resident artist of St. Ives during WWII and later. She is one of few women artists to gain international fame. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hepworth. After her death in 1975, her home and studio became the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. This small museum and wonderful garden are a must-see for art lovers while in St. Ives. 

We walked along the Wharf Road and beyond to what is called The Island, a high peninsula above town (see map, above). We had great views for 360 degrees of the ocean and the land, quite spectacular. Although walking for me was difficult and painful because of my back, it was worth the effort. 

A cocktail with a local. We had booked an airbnb for our original trip, the one we had to cancel, and it was not available for the Plan B trip. However, we had so enjoyed communicating with Joan, the owner, and she with us, that she encouraged us to contact her while in town. And so we met Joan for a drink late one day, and she brought with her the couple staying in her airbnb - from Happy Valley, Oregon (next to Portland)! Mark and Rhonda are community college teachers, and, of course, we played Oregon people geography and found a few people in common. We had a terrific time together, sharing stories, laughing, learning about each other. Joan is a lovely woman and, even though we didn't stay with her, we know she is the perfect airbnb hostess. And this is one of the reasons we travel, to meet wonderful people. 

Laundry - we dropped our dirty clothes at the laundromat, and Simon had it washed and dried 1.5 hours later. Thanks Simon! 

The small theatre company in St. Ives was doing a production of "Avenue Q" for which we bought tickets. We kind-of rushed through dinner at the Indian restaurant Rajpoot and hurried to the theatre, only to discover that it was cancelled because one of the actors was ill. Dang. 

Beach time. We walked on the beach, in the warmish water and sun. We sat on the soft sand. I collected samples for the Mueum of Sand, of course. One day, after lunch at The Tearoom, Sherry walked back to the hotel along the Wharf Road, I walked back on the sand at low tide. During high tides, the coast of St. Ives is a series of coves separated by rocky headlands. During low tide, however, all the coves are connected and one can walk on the sand the entire way. The boats anchored in the harbour are all lying on the sand during low tide, an interesting thing to walk through! 

One of my favorite aspects of being in a seaside town, especially staying next to the water, is falling into the tidal rhythm of the place. In our room, we could tell the tidal period by the sound; crashing waves on rock during the high, softer swooshing waves on sand during the low. And having views of the harbour gave us a sense of the rhythms of the commercial maritime activities. I like this kind of life. 

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed being in St. Ives, and recommend it highly. 

The photo album:  https://www.flickr.com/gp/95157126@N03/1oMu2V

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SKYLINE, LONDON

My photographic theme for London was Skyline. All of these shots are from the area around the Tate Modern Museum in Bankside, along the River Thames. What a fascinating skyline in this city! 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/95157126@N03/RT11C8

ROCK, WATER, ROCK AND WATER

One goal I set for this trip was a photography goal. Instead of snapping hundreds of photos of landscapes and buildings and tourist attractions, maybe I could set some themes for the trip. 

While in Sicily, I thought about photographic themes and settled on a theme involving rock, water and the combination of the two. These elements of nature dominate the Sicilian coastal landscape, and even the cities seem to be centered on them. So here is a link to a flickr album, Rock, Water, Rock and Water. 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/95157126@N03/242fW4

EUROPE 2016, PLAN B: THE CITY OF BILBAO, SPAIN

August 31, 2016.   The crowd noise below us on Calle Licenciado Poza is growing towards it's late-night crescendo as the bars and tapas joints fill with happy people. Counters stacked high with small plates of pintxos (peenchos - small sandwiches), fish, seafood, and meats tempt the cheerful and hungry throngs, and glasses of cerveza and vino are passed to outreached hands. Evening in Bilbao, Spain; delightful. 

It is our last night in Bilbao. We are mostly packed, the dishwasher is loaded and awaiting the final few dishes in the morning, we have checked in for our flight to London tomorrow. We have spent 5 nights here; 2 in Hotel Miro' and 3 in a beautiful, modern apartment rented to us by José. [footnote 1]  The apartment is on the 5th level above ground level, and has an ample deck outside looking down on the busy street. The street noise can be loud, but not  always intrusive or obnoxious; unlike the drunken college-boy yelling at night in our Portland neighborhood! 

We have seen a lot of Bilbao in our 4 full days here. The central city is very walkable, and we found that most things we wanted to see or visit were within a 30 minute walk, or a short ride on the marvelous subway. We understand that Bilbao didn't used to be this way, that it was a gritty industrial town until the shipping and steel businesses died off. The city reinvented itself as a cultural and tourism mecca. with perhaps the most famous attraction the odd and wonderful Guggenheim Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry and his team (and their computers). 

   above: the Guggenheim Museum, from the river, and the La Salve bridge.

In the few days we were here, we have: enjoyed the Guggenheim and Fine Arts museums, taken the 1-hour boat tour of the city on the Nervion River, walked along the riverfront public space, walked in the old city, Casco Viejo, gone to a small live theater performance in the hotel library, enjoyed the numerous public plazas, eaten tapas, paella, wonderful seafood, quaffed local vino blanco, vino rosso and beer, walked and viewed the many bridges over the river, enjoyed the mixture of architectural styles of this European city, wandered through the Mercado de la Ribera, a huge market building filled with vendors of fish and seafood, meats, fruits and vegetables, baked goods, met friendly people, and more. 

We also took advantage of the very well supplied kitchen in the apartment to make some meals. Based on Sherry's culinary genius, we enjoyed mostly simple but tasty breakfasts, snacks and dinners. Of memorable note is the Spanish tortilla made with potatoes, onions, garlic and eggs. We also had a salad that had incredible home-grown tomatoes from the paella restaurant La Barraca, and a dressing Sherry made. Cheese, olives and wine were everyday staples. 

Our conclusion is that Bilbao is a wonderful city to visit, and probably to live in. It caters to tourism without being overwhelming about it. There is a lot to do; we barely scratched the surface. One aspect we didn't explore is the Basque culture, as Bilbao is in Basque country. The Basque language is spoken here, as well as Spanish, and many signs and information placards are in Basque, Spanish and English. Traditional Basque foods, clothing and culture are interwoven into Bilbao life. Next time we visit, we will specifically explore these aspects of the city and it's surroundings. 

So let's get to some photos of Bilbao. This link is to a Flickr album of curated pix from Bilbao. Unfortunately, the iPad version of the Flickr app doesn't have the tools for aranging the order of the photos - something to do with Apple and Flash. Feel free to browse around in the album. 

https://www.flickr.com/gp/95157126@N03/49WgF6

Footnote 1. José, I have to mention, is the first person I have met who spent a career as a ship's captain on oil tankers. He is also a very friendly man, with a great sense of humor, and is a terrific rental host. If you ever visit Bilbao, check out www.homeaway.com rental number 6791713 (the apartment we were in) and rental number 1974807.  He and his wife have three rental apartments in Bilbao. 

EUROPE 2016, PLAN B: THE VILLA IN SICILIA

In Sicilia it's all about famiglia. And being the family-oriented kid he is, son Eric rented a seaside villa to celebrate his 50th birthday (how did that happen so soon?) and let the family know where and when. 

We are a truly global family, centered in Portland, Oregon, USA. At Villa di Nomadi, the Portland family included our hosts Eric, Rebecca, Max and Sophie (the FriedFish); Sherry and I; and neice Naomi and her husband Ken. Grandson Jake from Washington, D.C. was part of the FriedFish entourage. Nephew Pete and Amanda flew in from Amsterdam, where they now live and work. And our global-wandering neice Erin flew in from Istanbul, where she works and lives. (Assignment: find all of these cities on a world map.)

This is the only group photo I managed to capture during the week at the villa. I will say that we would travel with this crowd any time, anywhere. We had so much fun being together, sharing the beauty of the Mediterranean seaside, the small town nearby, good food and drink. We laughed a lot. We had passionate political discourse - and arguments - every day. We swam, lounged, played games, napped, lounged, ate, drank, lounged...you get the idea. Oh, and did I mention, we all had a lot of screen time? 

  

Here are a few pictures of the 5-bedroom, 3 bathroom villa. 

   

above: Sherry looking at the pool and beach from the roof. An outdoor spiral staircase goes to the roof, where there is a table and chairs and sun umbrella.

    above: also from the roof, the decked patio with shade trees, garden furnoture, and where we set up for dinners al fresco.

    above: the back gate to the beach, including shower and hose. 

   above: the cabana, just off the covered rear veranda. 

   above: the wood pizza oven, with Chef Eric pizzas baking. This is part of an outdoor oven, grill, sink facility that we used for a few meals. 

Yes, the outside was the best part of the villa. Some of us spent time indoors with the AC on when we got too hot outside, but the pool, beach, cabana, decks.....well, outside was terrific. 

The beach is smooth cobbles and stones (see below), with a few small patches of sand. Many people from the other beach houses, and probably other places, arrived in the early morning to stake out their space on the cobble beach, and lounged in the sun and under umbrellas most of the day. We soft Americans only walked across the stones to get to the water, and then lounged around our pool and on the back deck. Ah yes, the priveleged life. 

Now, if you know me at all, you've been waiting for the underwater photos. Well, no worries, here they are! (Some of these were taken by Max and Eric with my camera.)

My left leg in the above photo is the injured appendage. By the time we arrived in Sicily, it was better enough to walk and swim, both of which seemed to help the healing. And I have to say that the 11 other people in the group made every effort to make me comfortable, not let me carry things, and etc. Thanks all. The result was a slug-like state - see below.

 

EUROPE 2016 PLAN B

This is me waiting for our flight to Europe. We were supposed to leave 12 days ago, but I fell on my knee a week before and was unable to travel. So we cancelled everything and waited. Nurse Sherry did an excellent job of, well, nursing me, and thanks to her, we are re-starting our trip. 

And so, off we go on another adventure, and once again we will try to blog while we are in transit. We hope you enjoy swimming with the Fishes. 

Today our travels will be from Portland to Boston to London to Rome. After a night in a Rome hotel, we'll hop over to Palermo, Sicily, where we will meet up with 10 family members at a sea-side villa near Cefalu for a week. We can both use a week of lounging around by the pool, time on the beach, cool drinks and terrific home-made food. And of course, kids, grandkids neices and nephews. 

Here we go! ✈️

LISBON: THE BEAUTY AND THE PAIN

Lisbon: my (Sherry's) thoughts: 

From our views in our very pretty apartment we view red-tiled houses, painted in various colors, deep red, pastels, stucco in decay, a spread of buildings which cover the hills. Below us is the main plaza in the Rossio.

The pavement of black and white cobbles is designed to have a bas-relief effect of waves. There are matching fountains either side of the plaza. Along the side leading into the former old Jewish neighborhood, the Alfama, is a wall of tolerance. Nearby is a monument memorializing the genocide, forced conversion, and expulsion of several thousand Jews in the 16th century. http://www.the-jewish-story.org/lisbon.html.

Paul has taken photos of the monument. the Inquisition occuppied  the white building in the photo above (now known as the National Theater). There is a Wall of Tolerance along one border of the plaza with messages of tolerance in many languages. An olive tree is also near the small monument memorializing the slaughter of several thousand Jews, during the time of King Manuel, he wanted them to stay, but had no power against a raging mob incited by a priest. 

Under that tree water was shot from a canon at the Jews to forcibly convert them. Christians with their useful skills of craftsmanship, and wealth could serve King Manuel.

The benches along the Wall of Tolerance, the ancient memorial olive tree where the slaugrhter took place, and the monument to the Jews of Portugal killed, forcibly converted and slaughtered in the time of the Inquisition are all now used as a place to camp, sell things, and have a "home" by African refugees. It is so sad that the need for refuge continues, and also sad to me that these monuments in the Rossio are not protected as what they are meant to be.