Florence
Florence is a very lovely city. Our bus driver, who had never been to Florence, insisted that our hotel was just a block to the south. Dr. Kingsely who had been there several times tried to tell him it was the other direction. We walked 3 blocks to our hotel and then in shifts we packed the tiny lift with our luggage and carried it up to the third floor.
We ventured out with several students to “Tratoria Za-Za” for dinner. It was a Rick Steves recommended place and was very nice with good food.
The next day we sat out to explore the city of Florence. The area that we wanted to see (the older part of town) is very compact and not too far to walk. We made our way to the Duomo which is the central cathedral of Florence. During the time Florence was at its peak politically and monetarily they did not do anything in a small way. The buildings are “ornate.” The multicolored marble is very eye catching.
The Cathedral Museum was a great time. The church was remodeled inside and out several hundred years ago. However, they were foresighted enough to create a museum of some of the great works of art from the old church by some great artists including Michelangelo and Donatello. Many of the art works were once niche statues that were on the front of the Church. They were in most cases very high up and thus if they were still there you would not be able to see them well. Now you can look at them closely.
The other things that were abundant in the museum were relics of lots of long dead people.
Later that afternoon we went to the Science museum. That was way cool. We saw Galileo’s original telescopes. One was made of paper and the other was leather. What I found interesting was that these telescopes were made either by him or to order and they are very ornate. I guess they had more time back then.
One of the other pieces of Galileo’s equipment was a piece of experimental apparatus that he used to test and demonstrate that falling bodies accelerate as they fall. The piece of equipment consisted of a wooden incline to roll balls down. Bells were spaced at greater distances as it is farther from top. The bells ring at steady time spaces. Thus, falling bodies accelerate.
Also in the museum is Galileo’s middle finger in a glass jar display case. It was removed after his death. I think this was when he was reburied when the church finally forgave him for saying that the earth revolves around the sun.
A good day.
Friday, December 14, 2007
35 Arriverderci Roma
Arriverderci Roma
Blue skies to begin the day but alas, when it came time to load the bus, it was raining. However, I get ahead of the story.
Although we had seen the Pantheon on Friday night, it was very late and the church was closed. We set out on the now open metro to see this ancient building.
The Pantheon was built by the Romans and used as a church to all the gods. After the fall of Rome, the building became a Catholic (a real rarity here in Rome) church dedicated to martyrs.
When we arrived the choir was practicing. About 10 people filled the circular and domed building with music. The bronze doors are original. Much of the building has been rebuilt over the years. This is obvious from the outside as you can see the old and new materials blending together.
Another thing made clear is that over the centuries the city has been built higher and higher by building the new city on the ashes of the old. There is a10 foot (I am guessing here and could be off by30 feet or so) trench dug down to the bottom of the wall. There were evidently more stairs leading up to the main floor entrance than there are now.
The dome is wider than the one in St Peter’s designed by Michaelangelo. During the Renaissance, they marveled at the Pantheon dome and cut into the dome (leaving a square hole) to see what it was made of. It turns out it is thinner and lighter as it gets higher with the top part made of volcanic pumice.
We stopped again at the Trevi fountain. I forgot to tell you that the other night when we were at the Trevi a young man in running shoes came and asked if we would like for him to take a picture of Penny and I using my $900 camera. I am sure that would have been the last I would have seen of my camera. I did not fall for that one.
Today there were two police watching the crowd. Their main job seems to have been to talk on the cell phone and chat with the lady with the broom. Occasionally they would blow a whistle in my ear and say in Italian "everybody out of the pool!" and pointing at the kids venturing out on to the rocks leading toward the giant figure of Ocean standing in the midst of the water gushing from 24 spouts. This fountain and virtually all other Rome fountains are supplied with water from the aqueducts bringing an abundant supply of water from the surrounding hills to the city. These aqueducts have been repaired but are still the original system that gave Rome its power. Roads and water is what made Rome. Well, roads, water and over whelming military power is what made Rome. OK, it was roads, water, over whelming military power, and Gina Gina Lollobrigida that made Rome.
Speaking of police, I must say they are snappy dressers here in Italy. I wonder about their efficiency. We walked by a car accident that the police were investigating and an hour later they were still investigating.
Other things that make me question the competence of the Italian security system or people: At passport control, the person stamped passports without checking anything including checking to see if I was the guy in the passport photo.
The Vatican Museum and St Peters Church made people stand in a long line and send their bags and coats though an x-ray machine. While on the surface this sounds like good security system, but I am pretty sure this only is a deterrent if the operators of the machines actually look at the monitors. These guys were chatting and visiting and not looking at the screen. In one case he had his back to the screen.
We also visited 3 churches:
1. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome. (Twenty bonus points to the person who explains the difference between Gothic and Baroque style in 50 words or less.) The highlight of the church is a Michelangelo's statue of "Christ carrying the cross”. Mike was a great sculptor. I was told or read that Michelangelo was the only great sculptor who did not make plaster models of a sculpture before sculpting in stone. His answer to "how do you sculpt a statue of Moses?" Answer:"get a big block of marble and chip away everything that doesn’t look like Moses."
2. Church of St. Ignazio. This church epitomizes the Baroque solution to the problem of how to build a beautiful dome into a church with a flat roof. The solution is to place a masterful fresco (paint mixed with plaster and then "painted" on the surface so that the color is part of the wall or ceiling and does not peel off or fade for at least several hundred years) on the ceiling so that you swear that you are looking at a three dimensional domed roof.
3. Gesu Church is another very ornate baroque church which is also the headquarters of the Jesuits in Rome. So we sat quietly in the back and did not disturb anyone (aren't the Jesuits the really strict ones?)
We said Arriverderci Roma and pulled out in the rain and headed for Florence. The scenery on the trip was largely obscured by the haze from the rain and clouds, that and the fact that at 4:45 it is nearly dark.
We did stop at a rest stop and there we learned the Italian recipe for hot chocolate:
3 Hershey milk chocolate bars melted
2 teaspoons of warm milk
stir all ingredients together and pour in a cup. (If it is still too thick to pour, add a few more drops of milk.)
It was very thick.
Observations in Rome:
1. Italian men do talk with their hands.
2. Italian men do talk: on the streets, in restaurants, and in shops.
3. Italian women talk just as much as men but use their hands less. This is mainly because if they are less than 25 it is required that young women lock arms as they walk. The reasons may be social but I strongly suspect that it is a blocking strategy so they can walk down the narrow sidewalks made even narrower by the omnipresent street venders with their wares spread on blankets and folding display stands.
4. The reason for this method of display is the necessity to periodically grab the corners of the blanket and run. This dash happens when they spot (easily spotted) a police officer coming. This is just a game with well-choreographed dance steps. If the police were serious about stopping this merchandizing practice they could easily hire a few undercover cops and issue them street maps and cameras so they blend in seamlessly to the throngs of tourist. They could bust them all in a matter of minutes. I am also convinced that the Mafia is behind these street venders. There are always a line of people along the sidewalk by every place tourist go. Each has one item to sell but the pattern repeats as you go down the street: purses, watches, pens, scarves, camera tripods, and then the pattern repeats. There are identical items from each watch seller and each pen seller, etc. I imagine Marlin Brando sending these folks out with orders to not return until they have ripped off at least 20 tourists. Oh, I forgot. It doesn't rain cats and dogs in Rome. When it starts to sprinkle umbrella venders magically appear everywhere. This was handy for me as on Saturday as we left the hotel I found my umbrella had broken. It was sprinkling. Before going three blocks there was a guy selling umbrellas. I bought one just like (although not broken) the one i had for €5.00 or $7.50. Penny said I should have bargained but I figured the godfather might put a horse head in this poor guy's bed if he did not come back with enough money at the end of his shift.
5. Everyone over the age of 12 in Italy smokes. I suspect that the tobacco company's lobbied to pass the law that all tobacco shops (one per block) must sell bus/metro tickets. The system requires that 90% of the population visit a tobacco store on at least a weekly basis.
6. Pizza is the national food. Most of the take away fast food pizza is not round but the shape of a football field track. All the pizza I saw was thin crust. They cut you off a chunk starting at the 20 yard line, fold it in half and wrap it in paper: off you go with a relatively drip free lunch.
7. Sunday morning is take-your-kids-on-a-walk day. I did not notice until today how few kids I had seen. Today the stroller brigade was out in force. The strollers here, as in the rest of Europe, have many more models than we do. Some are plain, most are convertible models with clear plastic covers so that rain does not slow them down. I confess that every time I saw one of these plastic bubbles I felt the urge to warn then about the dangers of asphyxiation. Evidently, they have enough ventilation, as I did not see any parent administering CPR.
Blue skies to begin the day but alas, when it came time to load the bus, it was raining. However, I get ahead of the story.
Although we had seen the Pantheon on Friday night, it was very late and the church was closed. We set out on the now open metro to see this ancient building.
The Pantheon was built by the Romans and used as a church to all the gods. After the fall of Rome, the building became a Catholic (a real rarity here in Rome) church dedicated to martyrs.
When we arrived the choir was practicing. About 10 people filled the circular and domed building with music. The bronze doors are original. Much of the building has been rebuilt over the years. This is obvious from the outside as you can see the old and new materials blending together.
Another thing made clear is that over the centuries the city has been built higher and higher by building the new city on the ashes of the old. There is a10 foot (I am guessing here and could be off by30 feet or so) trench dug down to the bottom of the wall. There were evidently more stairs leading up to the main floor entrance than there are now.
The dome is wider than the one in St Peter’s designed by Michaelangelo. During the Renaissance, they marveled at the Pantheon dome and cut into the dome (leaving a square hole) to see what it was made of. It turns out it is thinner and lighter as it gets higher with the top part made of volcanic pumice.
We stopped again at the Trevi fountain. I forgot to tell you that the other night when we were at the Trevi a young man in running shoes came and asked if we would like for him to take a picture of Penny and I using my $900 camera. I am sure that would have been the last I would have seen of my camera. I did not fall for that one.
Today there were two police watching the crowd. Their main job seems to have been to talk on the cell phone and chat with the lady with the broom. Occasionally they would blow a whistle in my ear and say in Italian "everybody out of the pool!" and pointing at the kids venturing out on to the rocks leading toward the giant figure of Ocean standing in the midst of the water gushing from 24 spouts. This fountain and virtually all other Rome fountains are supplied with water from the aqueducts bringing an abundant supply of water from the surrounding hills to the city. These aqueducts have been repaired but are still the original system that gave Rome its power. Roads and water is what made Rome. Well, roads, water and over whelming military power is what made Rome. OK, it was roads, water, over whelming military power, and Gina Gina Lollobrigida that made Rome.
Speaking of police, I must say they are snappy dressers here in Italy. I wonder about their efficiency. We walked by a car accident that the police were investigating and an hour later they were still investigating.
Other things that make me question the competence of the Italian security system or people: At passport control, the person stamped passports without checking anything including checking to see if I was the guy in the passport photo.
The Vatican Museum and St Peters Church made people stand in a long line and send their bags and coats though an x-ray machine. While on the surface this sounds like good security system, but I am pretty sure this only is a deterrent if the operators of the machines actually look at the monitors. These guys were chatting and visiting and not looking at the screen. In one case he had his back to the screen.
We also visited 3 churches:
1. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome. (Twenty bonus points to the person who explains the difference between Gothic and Baroque style in 50 words or less.) The highlight of the church is a Michelangelo's statue of "Christ carrying the cross”. Mike was a great sculptor. I was told or read that Michelangelo was the only great sculptor who did not make plaster models of a sculpture before sculpting in stone. His answer to "how do you sculpt a statue of Moses?" Answer:"get a big block of marble and chip away everything that doesn’t look like Moses."
2. Church of St. Ignazio. This church epitomizes the Baroque solution to the problem of how to build a beautiful dome into a church with a flat roof. The solution is to place a masterful fresco (paint mixed with plaster and then "painted" on the surface so that the color is part of the wall or ceiling and does not peel off or fade for at least several hundred years) on the ceiling so that you swear that you are looking at a three dimensional domed roof.
3. Gesu Church is another very ornate baroque church which is also the headquarters of the Jesuits in Rome. So we sat quietly in the back and did not disturb anyone (aren't the Jesuits the really strict ones?)
We said Arriverderci Roma and pulled out in the rain and headed for Florence. The scenery on the trip was largely obscured by the haze from the rain and clouds, that and the fact that at 4:45 it is nearly dark.
We did stop at a rest stop and there we learned the Italian recipe for hot chocolate:
3 Hershey milk chocolate bars melted
2 teaspoons of warm milk
stir all ingredients together and pour in a cup. (If it is still too thick to pour, add a few more drops of milk.)
It was very thick.
Observations in Rome:
1. Italian men do talk with their hands.
2. Italian men do talk: on the streets, in restaurants, and in shops.
3. Italian women talk just as much as men but use their hands less. This is mainly because if they are less than 25 it is required that young women lock arms as they walk. The reasons may be social but I strongly suspect that it is a blocking strategy so they can walk down the narrow sidewalks made even narrower by the omnipresent street venders with their wares spread on blankets and folding display stands.
4. The reason for this method of display is the necessity to periodically grab the corners of the blanket and run. This dash happens when they spot (easily spotted) a police officer coming. This is just a game with well-choreographed dance steps. If the police were serious about stopping this merchandizing practice they could easily hire a few undercover cops and issue them street maps and cameras so they blend in seamlessly to the throngs of tourist. They could bust them all in a matter of minutes. I am also convinced that the Mafia is behind these street venders. There are always a line of people along the sidewalk by every place tourist go. Each has one item to sell but the pattern repeats as you go down the street: purses, watches, pens, scarves, camera tripods, and then the pattern repeats. There are identical items from each watch seller and each pen seller, etc. I imagine Marlin Brando sending these folks out with orders to not return until they have ripped off at least 20 tourists. Oh, I forgot. It doesn't rain cats and dogs in Rome. When it starts to sprinkle umbrella venders magically appear everywhere. This was handy for me as on Saturday as we left the hotel I found my umbrella had broken. It was sprinkling. Before going three blocks there was a guy selling umbrellas. I bought one just like (although not broken) the one i had for €5.00 or $7.50. Penny said I should have bargained but I figured the godfather might put a horse head in this poor guy's bed if he did not come back with enough money at the end of his shift.
5. Everyone over the age of 12 in Italy smokes. I suspect that the tobacco company's lobbied to pass the law that all tobacco shops (one per block) must sell bus/metro tickets. The system requires that 90% of the population visit a tobacco store on at least a weekly basis.
6. Pizza is the national food. Most of the take away fast food pizza is not round but the shape of a football field track. All the pizza I saw was thin crust. They cut you off a chunk starting at the 20 yard line, fold it in half and wrap it in paper: off you go with a relatively drip free lunch.
7. Sunday morning is take-your-kids-on-a-walk day. I did not notice until today how few kids I had seen. Today the stroller brigade was out in force. The strollers here, as in the rest of Europe, have many more models than we do. Some are plain, most are convertible models with clear plastic covers so that rain does not slow them down. I confess that every time I saw one of these plastic bubbles I felt the urge to warn then about the dangers of asphyxiation. Evidently, they have enough ventilation, as I did not see any parent administering CPR.
34 Rome Day 2
Day 2 in Roma
The breakfast in the hotel with students was very nice. We had red orange juice, bread, cereal, cheese and coffee.
Today the Vatican museum was open but not tomorrow, as it is the religious holiday called the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, we put a trip to the museum on our agenda for today. We got to the museum about 8:30 for an 8:45 opening. The line was 26 miles long (OK, it was a good 3 city blocks). The line did not move until after 10:00 and then it went very quickly. That gave me an opportunity to take some pictures of the tourists and the Romans as they passed by our non-progressing line. By the time the line started to move the line behind us was at least 3 more blocks. It went around a corner and I could not see the end.
We rented audio guides. The content of the museum is pretty much the history of the world. There are on display (like the Smithsonian the majority of the museum’s collection is not on public display) many statues (from all over the world), ancient maps, Egyptian mummies (at least one was a daddy), and of course paintings.
Interestingly, or perhaps not, due to the changing mores about nudity in art over the centuries most of the male statues either have the penis broken off (don’t ask me by whom, but I suspect some 14 year old Roman from the 3rd century) or they have had a stone fig leave glued over the private parts.
The tour through the Vatican museum is a forced one-way route that winds up in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo. The room is not small but it was packed and people were literally standing shoulder to shoulder. Men stood at the font yelling “NO PHOTOs” in several languages at all the people who ignored them and snapped pictures. They also kept yelling “silence” and “SHHHHHHHH.” With 1000+ people in this room, these instructions were ignored.
We then went back to hotel for a nap. After regaining our strength, we sat out on Rick Steve’s night walk across Rome. The starting point was a long walk across the river and by the castle where I took pictures of a nice family of Italian tourists.
We ate at 7:00 (too early for Italian folks) at a nice restaurant over an ancient theatre. We had the restaurant to ourselves until 8:00 then the crowds came pouring in and the place got very noisy in a friendly family way. We ordered fish for our main course. The waiter took me to the display case with ice at the front door and there we picked our sea bass. The fish and the waiter emerged from the kitchen a bit later with the fish, head and all, on a lovely platter. He showed it to us and after we approved he took it to a table and filleted it. I am a great picker outer of dead fish because it was delicious.
We then walked to St Peters, The Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish Steps. All of this was very nice at night when there were almost no tourists around.
Our trip to the Spanish Steps was by a circuitous route but we made it. The Spanish Steps were less than impressive with an orange construction barrier at the bottom and a giant car ad at the top.
Then our mandatory daily transportation fiasco began. We found the Metro but could not read all the signs. We walked in a tunnel thinking we were going to the train. It was a long walk. We got to the end and found no train. After wondering around a bit (OK a lot) we asked someone and found that the trains were not running and that there was a replacement bus service. A very nice man helped us find the bus stop and he told us the number of the bus but the bus did not, would not stop for us. We waited and asked another bus driver and were told a bus number to take but that bus never came. We took a taxi.
Back at the hotel, it is midnight and I am going to bed.
The breakfast in the hotel with students was very nice. We had red orange juice, bread, cereal, cheese and coffee.
Today the Vatican museum was open but not tomorrow, as it is the religious holiday called the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, we put a trip to the museum on our agenda for today. We got to the museum about 8:30 for an 8:45 opening. The line was 26 miles long (OK, it was a good 3 city blocks). The line did not move until after 10:00 and then it went very quickly. That gave me an opportunity to take some pictures of the tourists and the Romans as they passed by our non-progressing line. By the time the line started to move the line behind us was at least 3 more blocks. It went around a corner and I could not see the end.
We rented audio guides. The content of the museum is pretty much the history of the world. There are on display (like the Smithsonian the majority of the museum’s collection is not on public display) many statues (from all over the world), ancient maps, Egyptian mummies (at least one was a daddy), and of course paintings.
Interestingly, or perhaps not, due to the changing mores about nudity in art over the centuries most of the male statues either have the penis broken off (don’t ask me by whom, but I suspect some 14 year old Roman from the 3rd century) or they have had a stone fig leave glued over the private parts.
The tour through the Vatican museum is a forced one-way route that winds up in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo. The room is not small but it was packed and people were literally standing shoulder to shoulder. Men stood at the font yelling “NO PHOTOs” in several languages at all the people who ignored them and snapped pictures. They also kept yelling “silence” and “SHHHHHHHH.” With 1000+ people in this room, these instructions were ignored.
We then went back to hotel for a nap. After regaining our strength, we sat out on Rick Steve’s night walk across Rome. The starting point was a long walk across the river and by the castle where I took pictures of a nice family of Italian tourists.
We ate at 7:00 (too early for Italian folks) at a nice restaurant over an ancient theatre. We had the restaurant to ourselves until 8:00 then the crowds came pouring in and the place got very noisy in a friendly family way. We ordered fish for our main course. The waiter took me to the display case with ice at the front door and there we picked our sea bass. The fish and the waiter emerged from the kitchen a bit later with the fish, head and all, on a lovely platter. He showed it to us and after we approved he took it to a table and filleted it. I am a great picker outer of dead fish because it was delicious.
We then walked to St Peters, The Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish Steps. All of this was very nice at night when there were almost no tourists around.
Our trip to the Spanish Steps was by a circuitous route but we made it. The Spanish Steps were less than impressive with an orange construction barrier at the bottom and a giant car ad at the top.
Then our mandatory daily transportation fiasco began. We found the Metro but could not read all the signs. We walked in a tunnel thinking we were going to the train. It was a long walk. We got to the end and found no train. After wondering around a bit (OK a lot) we asked someone and found that the trains were not running and that there was a replacement bus service. A very nice man helped us find the bus stop and he told us the number of the bus but the bus did not, would not stop for us. We waited and asked another bus driver and were told a bus number to take but that bus never came. We took a taxi.
Back at the hotel, it is midnight and I am going to bed.
33 Rome Day 1
Leaving Harlaxton:
The Coach taking folks who were heading directly back to the US left at 12:30 PM. Some of those folk had a considerable wait at the airports. But for the 64 of us going on the Italy trip we left at 2:30 AM. Our flight for Rome left about 7:30 so we did not wait very long.
I was able to sleep some on the way to the airport. However, it was fitful. Our driver had a few idiosyncrasies. The trip was like riding with a 16-year-old learning to drive a stick shift. There were a lot of sudden stops and quick starts. The flight to Roma was a bit rough but still much smoother than the bus ride.
Dr. Kingsley went ahead of our group when we left the luggage pickup and he found the bus that would take us to the hotel. When our group all had their luggage, we headed out to the arrival hall and there was Dr Kingsley standing in the midst of a sea of limo and bus drivers holding large signs with the names of the people and groups they were meeting. Dr. Kingsley was holding up a business card with the word “Harlaxton” printed in tiny letters across the back.
The double-decker bus that had been sent did not have quite enough room for all the luggage that we Americans had brought. It did fit in the storage area and in the floor at the back of the bus.
Hotel Pacifica is OK. We have a room with a balcony facing the busy street. The streets of Roma are not quiet until at least 1:00 AM and then the solitude is frequently interrupted by honking and sirens. Rome drivers do not toot their horns they hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk their horns.
Our room’s radiator was stuck on and it was very warm. We resorted to opening and closing the window to regulate the temperature. Of course, when the window was open the noise was exacerbated.
In the afternoon of the first day we walked (25 minutes) to St. Peters in the Vatican. We had been there before and I recognized and remembered most of the stuff but it is still so very impressive.
The walls have huge reproductions of some of the great painting in the word. They appear to be paintings until you look very closely and you see they are mosaics.
The audio guide was a treatise on catholic doctrine. St. Peter supposedly is buried in the church – can’t see his grave.
For dinner we had pizza take away that you buy by the gram. You tell them how big a piece you want and they weigh it.
We were in bed by 8:00 and slept until 7:00
The Coach taking folks who were heading directly back to the US left at 12:30 PM. Some of those folk had a considerable wait at the airports. But for the 64 of us going on the Italy trip we left at 2:30 AM. Our flight for Rome left about 7:30 so we did not wait very long.
I was able to sleep some on the way to the airport. However, it was fitful. Our driver had a few idiosyncrasies. The trip was like riding with a 16-year-old learning to drive a stick shift. There were a lot of sudden stops and quick starts. The flight to Roma was a bit rough but still much smoother than the bus ride.
Dr. Kingsley went ahead of our group when we left the luggage pickup and he found the bus that would take us to the hotel. When our group all had their luggage, we headed out to the arrival hall and there was Dr Kingsley standing in the midst of a sea of limo and bus drivers holding large signs with the names of the people and groups they were meeting. Dr. Kingsley was holding up a business card with the word “Harlaxton” printed in tiny letters across the back.
The double-decker bus that had been sent did not have quite enough room for all the luggage that we Americans had brought. It did fit in the storage area and in the floor at the back of the bus.
Hotel Pacifica is OK. We have a room with a balcony facing the busy street. The streets of Roma are not quiet until at least 1:00 AM and then the solitude is frequently interrupted by honking and sirens. Rome drivers do not toot their horns they hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk their horns.
Our room’s radiator was stuck on and it was very warm. We resorted to opening and closing the window to regulate the temperature. Of course, when the window was open the noise was exacerbated.
In the afternoon of the first day we walked (25 minutes) to St. Peters in the Vatican. We had been there before and I recognized and remembered most of the stuff but it is still so very impressive.
The walls have huge reproductions of some of the great painting in the word. They appear to be paintings until you look very closely and you see they are mosaics.
The audio guide was a treatise on catholic doctrine. St. Peter supposedly is buried in the church – can’t see his grave.
For dinner we had pizza take away that you buy by the gram. You tell them how big a piece you want and they weigh it.
We were in bed by 8:00 and slept until 7:00
32 Last days at Harlaxton
Thanksgiving dinner was a delight. They served turkey, mashed potatoes (real ones not the instant kind they normally serve), candied yams (freshly made), stuffing and the ubiquitous gravy. The students all had a great time in the Long Gallery. It was a delightful evening that generally made up for the fact that we had classes during the day. Thanksgiving, after all, is an American celebration (and Canada – but on a different day).
The week after Thanksgiving the Harlaxton Players, a student group, presented a delightful evening of Shakespeare vignettes and one play about Shakespeare. These students were for the most part in Dr. Snow’s Shakespeare class. They did a marvelous job. They were very talented and very professional. My favorite snippet was from The Bard’s Gildencranse and Rosenstern. I had not seen the play nor I fear had I read the play. It very well may have been assigned to me in a class at some point but….
Christmas dinner was the next big affair. The students who participated in the “Meet a family” program invited their families to come. Dinner was a long buffet filled with meats, breads, cheeses, desserts and sundry other items to explore. Tables were set up all over the public rooms of the Manor and it each place setting was a British Christmas tradition called a “Popper”. This is a tube (smaller and wider than a paper towel tube) that is wrapped in Christmas paper with both ends twisted (imagine a giant tootsie roll. Two people grab the ends firmly and pull. The center has a tiny firework that makes a pop similar to one of the old “Cap Guns.” The paper tears away and inside is a tiny little plastic toy (usually an animal that if you use your imagination you can figure out the species), a paper crown type hat that many people wore the rest of the evening, and a small piece of paper with a very corny riddle or joke.
Q. “How do you get down from an elephant?”
A. “You don’t. You get down from a duck.”
The week after Thanksgiving the Harlaxton Players, a student group, presented a delightful evening of Shakespeare vignettes and one play about Shakespeare. These students were for the most part in Dr. Snow’s Shakespeare class. They did a marvelous job. They were very talented and very professional. My favorite snippet was from The Bard’s Gildencranse and Rosenstern. I had not seen the play nor I fear had I read the play. It very well may have been assigned to me in a class at some point but….
Christmas dinner was the next big affair. The students who participated in the “Meet a family” program invited their families to come. Dinner was a long buffet filled with meats, breads, cheeses, desserts and sundry other items to explore. Tables were set up all over the public rooms of the Manor and it each place setting was a British Christmas tradition called a “Popper”. This is a tube (smaller and wider than a paper towel tube) that is wrapped in Christmas paper with both ends twisted (imagine a giant tootsie roll. Two people grab the ends firmly and pull. The center has a tiny firework that makes a pop similar to one of the old “Cap Guns.” The paper tears away and inside is a tiny little plastic toy (usually an animal that if you use your imagination you can figure out the species), a paper crown type hat that many people wore the rest of the evening, and a small piece of paper with a very corny riddle or joke.
Q. “How do you get down from an elephant?”
A. “You don’t. You get down from a duck.”
Sunday, November 11, 2007
31 Prague AKA Praha Czech Republic
In St. Vitus Cathedral in the Castle
A statue of Good King Wenceslas in the large square by the same name. It is interesting to note that the four men surrounding the king are also Czech patron saints They are holding books and other things of learning. The small country with little military power chose to venerate men of learning rather than war. Cool!
The castle at night from the Charles Bridge.
This is the main square area in the old town at night. The clock to the left is an astronomical clock that has no hands. So you can tell what phase the moon is in but who know what time it is.
On Saturday we walked. We went to Wenceslas square which is where the Velvet Revolution happened in 1989. The people (thousands) met peacefully in the large square to ask for a change of government. This was not long after a similar incident in Tiananmen Square in China. Whereas the Chinese government decided to crush that rally with tanks, the Soviet government in its wisdom decided not to bring in the tanks. Within a few days the Czech republic was born.
We also walked to an amazing piece of modern architecture called the Dancing House. It looks like the house is dancing. It is built on curved stilts that are reminiscent of legs. There is not a straight line in the exterior of the building. It is pretty cool looking.
We then decided to go back to the Jewish quarter to check in a shop that Penny saw something in on Thursday. Being Penny she had to mull this purchase over for a few days before deciding. We wound up at a small shop with a woman and her 6 year old daughter who had a scooter and was skating around the inside of the store. This was not a pillow store. It was a crystal store. The shelves were lined with very fragile crystal with signs that said do not touch. I guess do not crash into is a different story. But although there was one crash it resulted in no broken limbs or crystal. We purchased one item and then went for lunch while Penny mulled over the purchase. As we were walking around the area we began to hear sirens and then noticed police gathering on the street corners. I thought there was a parade. But the police just kept coming. Then there were the armored personnel carriers that showed up and we could hear helicopters. We went back to the crystal shop and the owner told us what we confirmed a bit later. A couple of months ago a small group 25 of neo-Nazis had filed for a permit to parade through the Jewish streets on Nov 10 to “protest the war” in Iraq which is being waged by the US and Israel. The 10th of November just happened to be the anniversary of the night of broken glass when the Jews were rounded up and taken to the detention centers. The Jewish watch groups reported this to the courts and the permits were not granted and the group was banned from marching. Indeed the leader is being prosecuted for crimes related to his anti-Semitic activities. The group said they were going to march anyway. The police were there to see that they did not and to see that any counter rally did not get out of hand. We managed to get back to our hotel before it started. But later that evening when we went out to eat we got to the end of the street and a whole throng of very peaceful and orderly people were walking from the Jewish quarter past our hotel to Wenceslas Square (where the Velvet Revolution had occurred. We opted to eat at the restaurant right across from out hotel. We ate there the first night and we thought it was good. We had shish kabob although they were called needles. I had the variety meat and it was all good. So other than about making the CNN world news section, we had a rather uneventful weekend.
This is the main square area in the old town at night. The clock to the left is an astronomical clock that has no hands. So you can tell what phase the moon is in but who know what time it is.
This is in the castle church. In some war long ago they shot cannon balls at the church. So they turned them into church wall decorations.
I have had a bit of blog block lately. Just could not manage to make myself find the time to sit and write. In my defense every time I have had a moment or two I have managed to sleep. I caught the Harlaxton Plague about 4 weeks ago and have spent the time since then trying to cough up a lung. The first week or so I did not have the energy to eat. I am feeling pretty good now but the cough has persisted but only really wants to come out and play at night when I lay down. I think the cough wants to keep Penny awake. This way it can incapacitate two people at the same time.
I did not go to the doctor until after I was pretty much over it but wanted to see if there was anything she might do for the cough. Her advice was to go away and die quietly. I told her that was the problem, the quietly part. It did not work. Well enough about my bout with viruses of the EU.
This weekend, starting on Wednesday morning, was our second and last “long weekend” of the semester. We will make up the Thursday class day next week. Penny and I had opted to go to Prague or as the locals spell it Paraha. I still do not understand the worlds insistence on changing the names of all the cities in the world. Paris is Pari, Rome is Roma, New Orleans only has two syllables “Nor Lyns.”
We wanted to go some place we had not been and someplace that was not too exotic (read safe). Prague seemed to have fit the bill, but we were having some doubts about the safe part on Saturday. I will get to that in a bit.
Paraha has been an independent country only since 1989. Before that it was part of the Soviet Union since the 1950s. The Czech people, previously the Bohemian people, have a history that goes back to the Roman days. Good King Wenceslas (of the Christmas Carol) was the guy who back in 900 or so helped to align the kingdom of Bohemia with the Holy Roman Empire. This led to King Charles IV becoming the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century and at that time for awhile Prague was the capital of said empire. But the patron saint of Praha is St. Vitus who was a good guy but got killed by his brother I think.
We spent Thursday touring the Jewish quarter. We got an audio guide that was very informative. I wish I had a photographic ear. The Jewish museum is really a series of places all within a few blocks of each other in the area that historically was where the Jews were forced to live. The Jewish people are and have been a persecuted people. I think the line was in Fiddler on the Roof when Tevia said “I Know we are the chosen people, but maybe you could bless someone else for awhile.” I probably have the wrong quote from the wrong play but that was certainly the thought I had as we learned the history. One of the buildings was a former synagogue that they have written the names and dates of birth and the date they were last seen alive of the thousands of Jews who were taken by the Hitler regime to be killed. Prague was chosen by Hitler to be the repository of all of the Jewish property, books, ritual implements. Hitler had a plan to set up a Museum to an extinct people. The names on the walls were a stark reminder for those who were never seen again. No burial because there was no body. A second museum held children’s art work from kids who were in the concentration camps. Some were recalling days prior to their imprisonment. Other pictures were stark images from a child’s eyes of what life in a detention center was like. When the children left the detention camp they were on their way to death. NO CHILDREN survived the death camps. No one under about 16 survived. Children were not capable of work and thus were not an asset and were killed.
I did not go to the doctor until after I was pretty much over it but wanted to see if there was anything she might do for the cough. Her advice was to go away and die quietly. I told her that was the problem, the quietly part. It did not work. Well enough about my bout with viruses of the EU.
This weekend, starting on Wednesday morning, was our second and last “long weekend” of the semester. We will make up the Thursday class day next week. Penny and I had opted to go to Prague or as the locals spell it Paraha. I still do not understand the worlds insistence on changing the names of all the cities in the world. Paris is Pari, Rome is Roma, New Orleans only has two syllables “Nor Lyns.”
We wanted to go some place we had not been and someplace that was not too exotic (read safe). Prague seemed to have fit the bill, but we were having some doubts about the safe part on Saturday. I will get to that in a bit.
Paraha has been an independent country only since 1989. Before that it was part of the Soviet Union since the 1950s. The Czech people, previously the Bohemian people, have a history that goes back to the Roman days. Good King Wenceslas (of the Christmas Carol) was the guy who back in 900 or so helped to align the kingdom of Bohemia with the Holy Roman Empire. This led to King Charles IV becoming the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century and at that time for awhile Prague was the capital of said empire. But the patron saint of Praha is St. Vitus who was a good guy but got killed by his brother I think.
We spent Thursday touring the Jewish quarter. We got an audio guide that was very informative. I wish I had a photographic ear. The Jewish museum is really a series of places all within a few blocks of each other in the area that historically was where the Jews were forced to live. The Jewish people are and have been a persecuted people. I think the line was in Fiddler on the Roof when Tevia said “I Know we are the chosen people, but maybe you could bless someone else for awhile.” I probably have the wrong quote from the wrong play but that was certainly the thought I had as we learned the history. One of the buildings was a former synagogue that they have written the names and dates of birth and the date they were last seen alive of the thousands of Jews who were taken by the Hitler regime to be killed. Prague was chosen by Hitler to be the repository of all of the Jewish property, books, ritual implements. Hitler had a plan to set up a Museum to an extinct people. The names on the walls were a stark reminder for those who were never seen again. No burial because there was no body. A second museum held children’s art work from kids who were in the concentration camps. Some were recalling days prior to their imprisonment. Other pictures were stark images from a child’s eyes of what life in a detention center was like. When the children left the detention camp they were on their way to death. NO CHILDREN survived the death camps. No one under about 16 survived. Children were not capable of work and thus were not an asset and were killed.
The Jewish cemetery was a stark reminder of the persecution they have endured. For centuries, the Jews have been allowed to bury their people only in a small plot of land. The Jewish tradition forbids them from moving bodies once they were buried. So when the grave yard filled up they would bring in more dirt and bury people on top. They then had two head stones for the grave. Then 3 and so on. The result is a jumble of very old stones. In a very crowded graveyard.
There were more uplifting aspects to the museum. It did mark the contributions of some of the more notable Jewish people who lived in the Czech Republic. This includes Sigismund Freud and Franz Kafka and others whom I do not recall.
On Thursday night we were going to go to the singing waters (a fountain show with music). Penny figured out how to get us by tram to the stop we needed but then I got us really confused. The area was dark and although there were people around I did not feel comfortable walking around without knowing where we were going. I convinced Penny we were lost and we got back on the tram and went back to the hotel. After looking at Google Earth I had us going in the wrong direction. I have a hearing next week with the IBNCP (International Board of Navigationally Challenged People) to determine if my license is being revoked.
On Friday we went to the Praha castle and Cathedral. The Cathedral was started in 1000 something and wasn’t finished until 1900 something. For centuries they had one wall blocked in where they were going to finish later. It was interesting to see and read about all of the relics. I don’t know if it is just Catholics but they sure have a thing for old bones and various other body parts that once belonged to this or that saint which makes the churches seem like a mausoleum of sorts rather than a house of worship. The crown jewels are those belonging to King Wenceslas. They are kept in his tomb and when a new king (of course they don’t have kings anymore) is crowned then they borrow them for a few hours and then return them to Wenceslas. He evidently was a very good King.
On Thursday night we were going to go to the singing waters (a fountain show with music). Penny figured out how to get us by tram to the stop we needed but then I got us really confused. The area was dark and although there were people around I did not feel comfortable walking around without knowing where we were going. I convinced Penny we were lost and we got back on the tram and went back to the hotel. After looking at Google Earth I had us going in the wrong direction. I have a hearing next week with the IBNCP (International Board of Navigationally Challenged People) to determine if my license is being revoked.
On Friday we went to the Praha castle and Cathedral. The Cathedral was started in 1000 something and wasn’t finished until 1900 something. For centuries they had one wall blocked in where they were going to finish later. It was interesting to see and read about all of the relics. I don’t know if it is just Catholics but they sure have a thing for old bones and various other body parts that once belonged to this or that saint which makes the churches seem like a mausoleum of sorts rather than a house of worship. The crown jewels are those belonging to King Wenceslas. They are kept in his tomb and when a new king (of course they don’t have kings anymore) is crowned then they borrow them for a few hours and then return them to Wenceslas. He evidently was a very good King.
On Friday night we had dinner at Buffalo Bill’s restaurant. Our lovely daughter Amy, who visited Prague while in High School, told us about this place. It was very nice. It is in the basement of a building but is decorated with lots of American Southwest artifacts (they could be fake but what do I know). The food was Mexican and for the most part it was very good. Europeans have to add something to the food that makes it just a bit different. Bill put olives in the tacos. I don’t recall other Mexican food with olives in the tacos. But it was still very good. The chips were very authentic. The salsa was OK but was just a bit off, but still very good.
On Saturday we walked. We went to Wenceslas square which is where the Velvet Revolution happened in 1989. The people (thousands) met peacefully in the large square to ask for a change of government. This was not long after a similar incident in Tiananmen Square in China. Whereas the Chinese government decided to crush that rally with tanks, the Soviet government in its wisdom decided not to bring in the tanks. Within a few days the Czech republic was born.
We also walked to an amazing piece of modern architecture called the Dancing House. It looks like the house is dancing. It is built on curved stilts that are reminiscent of legs. There is not a straight line in the exterior of the building. It is pretty cool looking.
We then decided to go back to the Jewish quarter to check in a shop that Penny saw something in on Thursday. Being Penny she had to mull this purchase over for a few days before deciding. We wound up at a small shop with a woman and her 6 year old daughter who had a scooter and was skating around the inside of the store. This was not a pillow store. It was a crystal store. The shelves were lined with very fragile crystal with signs that said do not touch. I guess do not crash into is a different story. But although there was one crash it resulted in no broken limbs or crystal. We purchased one item and then went for lunch while Penny mulled over the purchase. As we were walking around the area we began to hear sirens and then noticed police gathering on the street corners. I thought there was a parade. But the police just kept coming. Then there were the armored personnel carriers that showed up and we could hear helicopters. We went back to the crystal shop and the owner told us what we confirmed a bit later. A couple of months ago a small group 25 of neo-Nazis had filed for a permit to parade through the Jewish streets on Nov 10 to “protest the war” in Iraq which is being waged by the US and Israel. The 10th of November just happened to be the anniversary of the night of broken glass when the Jews were rounded up and taken to the detention centers. The Jewish watch groups reported this to the courts and the permits were not granted and the group was banned from marching. Indeed the leader is being prosecuted for crimes related to his anti-Semitic activities. The group said they were going to march anyway. The police were there to see that they did not and to see that any counter rally did not get out of hand. We managed to get back to our hotel before it started. But later that evening when we went out to eat we got to the end of the street and a whole throng of very peaceful and orderly people were walking from the Jewish quarter past our hotel to Wenceslas Square (where the Velvet Revolution had occurred. We opted to eat at the restaurant right across from out hotel. We ate there the first night and we thought it was good. We had shish kabob although they were called needles. I had the variety meat and it was all good. So other than about making the CNN world news section, we had a rather uneventful weekend.
On Sunday we went to the Communist Museum. It was stark and was a lot of reading of the history of how the soviets had come to power and about how democracy finally won. It was I think very truthful and very anticommunist. It described how the potato famine back in the 70s brought a lot of hunger to the people of Czechoslovakia and how the Soviet propaganda machine had blamed the bugs on a US air drop. The information painted it as propaganda. I hope it was.
We made it back to the airport on the shuttle which worked out great. It left from a hotel just a block from ours. It was a good trip. I took a ton of pictures.
Ray
Some of the ubiquitous graffiti.
We made it back to the airport on the shuttle which worked out great. It left from a hotel just a block from ours. It was a good trip. I took a ton of pictures.
Ray
30 Rent a car: yell at your wife
I confess. Not very loud and I think only once but I did speak a bit sharply with Penny, the driver, as I navigated our route across the north of England two weekends ago. However, it was not my fault nor was it Penny’s. It is the British highway department. Do you want to know why we won the war for independence? It is because the British are evidently incapable of using a compass. They have these roundabouts everywhere. If you have been to Lowes in Liberty you have seen one. Now imagine that roundabout on steroids. They have 3 to 4 roads intersecting at a big circle so there are 6 to 8 options as you go around the circle (sometimes more than once although that is not supposed to happen). This is not a particular problem if you are aware of which route you wish to take. Indeed, it is a very efficient way to keep traffic moving at intersections. The problem comes in when you have to figure out, from reading the signs, which route you want to take. Now in the compass literate USA the sign would say I-35 North or I-35 South or I-70 East or I-70 West. But without resorting to that simple logic we are forced to name a town that is somewhere between 3 and 200 miles down that road: A-1 – Doncaster or A-1 Peterbourgh. Now from where I am on the A-1 how am I supposed to know which option to take!!! You cannot always just use a compass and take the northern route because if it happens to be a dual carriage way and you don’t recall that you are driving on the left you will wind up turning north and going south. BUT I AM NOT BITTER!!! It was in that context that I may have stressed a bit too strongly to my lovely wife: “TURN HERE!”
We did rent a car and we did manage to get around to some places we wanted to go and we had a good time.
But before we get to the weekend let me share with you some of the activities of last week. On Monday we were entertained by the “Nottingham Foresters Morris and Sword Dancers” and the “Greenwood Step Clog Dancers.” It was quite the evening. This was a group of men (doctors, lawyers, and such) who get together and dance. The dancing involves wearing bells on your legs and waving scarves and jumping a great deal. It also involves laughing.
Then there was a dance that involved sticks and banging them together and then on someone else’s stick.
The woman’s group was much more relaxed with tap dance moves wearing clogs (wooden sole shoes). We were told that the wooden soles were made because they were more durable and water resistant that leather soles. They were worn by poor folks who would entertain themselves at a factory by dancing without moving from their place at the factory (keeping time with the machines).
Then the men came back and performed a sword dance with a sword that looked like a very small two man cross cut saw that lumberjacks might use. These were held between a circle of people (each holding one end between people on both sides of the dancer). Then they proceeded to twist in and out and between each other without letting go. Fun to watch.
The last event was a Plough Play. A short and funny play that had something to do with marriage and the devil. (I am not making this up.) The costumes were a bit outrageous.
The house is located out in the country with very little around it. That is quite different from many of the stately homes where the towns and cities have grown up all around them.
The Duke’s duck was present.
The house is surrounded by incredible gardens including a very nice maze where we encountered some very giggly tourists from Norway. We started in but got lost right away and made our exit as soon as possible.
The next day we traveled to Samford which is just a ways from Grantham and went to another stately home. It was nice as well. But after touring Devenshire it was a bit of a step backwards. It was a bit nicer than the Owens estate in the US but only received a 8 on the 10 point wow-factor scale. The Owens place gets a -4 on the scale.
The following weekend we went on a school field trip to London and were given a great tour of St. Peter’s Cathedral in London. Which is (in my opinion) not really a church but a monument to the British nation. Nothing wrong with that if you don’t call it a church. All the British war heros are buried there and have monuments. We learned that Lord Nelson (Naval Hero who won the battle of Trafalgar) died some years later and was on ship in some place far away. In order to preserve his body to be buried back in jolly ole England they put the Admiral in a vat of wine where on the journey home he soaked up so much wine that when they got him home he was so bloated that they had to cut him up to bury him.
We also saw Wicked on Saturday night. That was a lot of fun. The music and voices were great and the plot was very entertaining. It is the story of the witches of Oz before Dorothy arrived. The wicked witch of the west was not always wicked and was highly misunderstood. Glenda was a ditzy lady.
Ray
We did rent a car and we did manage to get around to some places we wanted to go and we had a good time.
But before we get to the weekend let me share with you some of the activities of last week. On Monday we were entertained by the “Nottingham Foresters Morris and Sword Dancers” and the “Greenwood Step Clog Dancers.” It was quite the evening. This was a group of men (doctors, lawyers, and such) who get together and dance. The dancing involves wearing bells on your legs and waving scarves and jumping a great deal. It also involves laughing.
Then there was a dance that involved sticks and banging them together and then on someone else’s stick.
The woman’s group was much more relaxed with tap dance moves wearing clogs (wooden sole shoes). We were told that the wooden soles were made because they were more durable and water resistant that leather soles. They were worn by poor folks who would entertain themselves at a factory by dancing without moving from their place at the factory (keeping time with the machines).
Then the men came back and performed a sword dance with a sword that looked like a very small two man cross cut saw that lumberjacks might use. These were held between a circle of people (each holding one end between people on both sides of the dancer). Then they proceeded to twist in and out and between each other without letting go. Fun to watch.
The last event was a Plough Play. A short and funny play that had something to do with marriage and the devil. (I am not making this up.) The costumes were a bit outrageous.
On Wednesday night we had the talent show. The students did a great job. There were dancers and singers and poems and comedy. One quartet of guys did a fabulous job of singing “kiss the girl” from the Little Mermaid. Then a great rendition of a song called “The Girl in 14G” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRNRbq76Bxw which I was not familiar with but which was very cute and Amanda has a great voice. A good time was had by all
The Road Trip
On Friday October 19 we drove to the Peak District which is about 2 hours north and west of Grantham. We decided to visit Chatsworth House which is the home of the 12 Duke of Devonshire whose name is Peregrine Cavendish. The house has a long history starting in the 16th century. There is a nice history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatsworth_House.
Let me show you a few pictures:
The house is located out in the country with very little around it. That is quite different from many of the stately homes where the towns and cities have grown up all around them.
The Duke’s duck was present.
The house is surrounded by incredible gardens including a very nice maze where we encountered some very giggly tourists from Norway. We started in but got lost right away and made our exit as soon as possible.
The next day we traveled to Samford which is just a ways from Grantham and went to another stately home. It was nice as well. But after touring Devenshire it was a bit of a step backwards. It was a bit nicer than the Owens estate in the US but only received a 8 on the 10 point wow-factor scale. The Owens place gets a -4 on the scale.
The following weekend we went on a school field trip to London and were given a great tour of St. Peter’s Cathedral in London. Which is (in my opinion) not really a church but a monument to the British nation. Nothing wrong with that if you don’t call it a church. All the British war heros are buried there and have monuments. We learned that Lord Nelson (Naval Hero who won the battle of Trafalgar) died some years later and was on ship in some place far away. In order to preserve his body to be buried back in jolly ole England they put the Admiral in a vat of wine where on the journey home he soaked up so much wine that when they got him home he was so bloated that they had to cut him up to bury him.
We also saw Wicked on Saturday night. That was a lot of fun. The music and voices were great and the plot was very entertaining. It is the story of the witches of Oz before Dorothy arrived. The wicked witch of the west was not always wicked and was highly misunderstood. Glenda was a ditzy lady.
Ray
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